Tech stuff you thought was magic

fizzypish

I work in a pretty technical field and despite this I'm a modern day luddite. Through out my education I came across ideas and principals that before I bothered my hole figuring out I just mentally labeled as "magic". To name a few:

Cloud computing: I initially thought this was some very clever method of bouncing information around the atmosphere as a method of storing data. (I know, I ****ing know. I'm a dumbass!!!!!)

Torrenting: Thought it was the name of a site. Looked it up and its a much more economic method of sharing data over the internet.

Also some terms used in industry to sell **** piss me off:
Labeling a new phone 3G or 4G or 5G.... This term has to do with a governing body of technology drawing a line in the sand regarding speed of transmission, security and a whole heap of other criteria but companies use it as a selling point because 4G is a bigger number than 3G. Show me the spec sheet where you meet every one of these criteria before using it as a selling point!

So AH have you any irritating sales terms that piss you off or general terminology that you thought was black magic but is actually a very simple concept? Don't limit your response to the genre of my examples.

whiskeyman

You've just woken up on a Monday morning, and you've just realised you've a college assignment due today on this boring topic, don't you?

uck51js9zml2yt

I thought there were little men inside coffee machines grinding the coffee for my cuppa.

I was wrong..... Its little women.

Señor Fancy Pants

People selling cars with phrases like "one lady owner, well looked after"

Sure ye could say that about a baby!

Anything with "Bluetooth" / "wireless" / "HD ready" can fcuk right off.

fizzypish

whiskeyman wrote: »

You've just woken up on a Monday morning, and you've just realised you've a college assignment due today on this boring topic, don't you?

Thank the imaginary gods that I am no longer in higher education and fingers crossed I never need to return.

WeHaveToGoBack

A 1.3 megapixel camera used to seem magical to me; now anything under 38MP seems poor.

Uncle Ruckus

DVD was a fantastic leap over VHS. Blu-ray seemed very meh. Same with the last generation of consoles (PS4/Xbox 360), HD graphics, online gaming and downloading classic games were a huge leap over what had came before but the PS4/ XboxOne seem to be just an improvement rather than a leap. I'm sure the same will apply to H.D. and 4K t.v.

fizzypish

Truffle Pig wrote: »

People selling cars with phrases like "one lady owner, well looked after"

Sure ye could say that about a baby!

Anything with "Bluetooth" / "wireless" / "HD ready" can fcuk right off.

Brilliant. My sister was a lady, owned a car and drove the absolute ring out of it.

I used to have a dirt bike and it was a common mis conception when selling to write "Never raced" on the add. Raced bikes had to be well looked after or you never won/ finished the race so provided it isn't on fire and passes some basic checks raced bikes were the ones to go for.

GoldenTickets

Magnets. How do they work?

gaz wac

xbmc....how did we live without it !

The Peanut

I'm a scientist. I've learnt to never trust atoms......they make up everything.

kneemos

GoldenTickets wrote: »

Magnets. How do they work?

Only magicians know how to use magnets,and twins.

Tombi!

I'm always amazed at the sheer amount of data that can fit on something so small. For example, books. You could fit thousands of decent novels on a memory card or your phone. It's incredible to me.

fizzypish

It actually annoys me a little when amazing discoveries or technologies are taken as common place. I was discussing bikes with an old lecturer and I said I thought the 2 stroke engine in general was amazing piece of technology. He scoffed at me because its simple (and not very economic) in comparison with other designs. I know its simple but its still a ****ing wonder of technology. The idea is simple but day 1 designer still had to make it work.

syklops

fizzypish wrote: »

I work in a pretty technical field and despite this I'm a modern day luddite. Through out my education I came across ideas and principals that before I bothered my hole figuring out I just mentally labeled as "magic". To name a few:

Cloud computing: I initially thought this was some very clever method of bouncing information around the atmosphere as a method of storing data. (I know, I ****ing know. I'm a dumbass!!!!!)

Torrenting: Thought it was the name of a site. Looked it up and its a much more economic method of sharing data over the internet.

Also some terms used in industry to sell **** piss me off:
Labeling a new phone 3G or 4G or 5G.... This term has to do with a governing body of technology drawing a line in the sand regarding speed of transmission, security and a whole heap of other criteria but companies use it as a selling point because 4G is a bigger number than 3G. Show me the spec sheet where you meet every one of these criteria before using it as a selling point!

So AH have you any irritating sales terms that piss you off or general terminology that you thought was black magic but is actually a very simple concept? Don't limit your response to the genre of my examples.

Surely this is two seperate threads? Technology we thought was magical and sales terms that turn out to be BS.

Whats your issue with 3G/4G? If the phone supports 4G then it supports 4G. If it doesn't, then you have a reason for a complaint.

The first time I saw a CD I thought it could play music, but not play lyrics because how could a CD play Lyrics?!? I was 6 at the time so be nice to me.

I thought mini discs were a bitter disappointment. You couldn't buy music on them, you had to buy a CD and record it on the mini disc, and the first mini disc player I got first lacked a record function. It was a beautiful device. Brushed aluminium. And I really liked the concept, but in the end it just disappointed.

wilhelm roentgen

The Peanut wrote: »

I'm a scientist. I've learnt to never trust atoms......they make up everything.

You just have to keep an ion them

eamonnq

gaz wac wrote: »

xbmc....how did we live without it !

Kodi...........get with the times!!

Amazing what you can do with it.

Savage Tyrant

eamonnq wrote: »

Kodi...........get with the times!!

Amazing what you can do with it.

Haha... I have it... Can't for the life of me figure out how to actually use it.

gaz wac

eamonnq wrote: »

Kodi...........get with the times!!
.

Funny you should say that, bro does all my tech stuff for me , updated xbmc last week, the word Kodi defo came up...I dunno...he told me to press the Genises app...that's all I know ha ha

syklops

gaz wac wrote: »

Funny you should say that, bro does all my tech stuff for me , updated xbmc last week, the word Kodi defo came up...I dunno...he told me to press the Genises app...that's all I know ha ha

Why is being this ignorant funny?

Dravokivich

Savage Tyrant wrote: »

Haha... I have it... Can't for the life of me figure out how to actually use it.

Took me a very long time to get around it as well. Documentation on it is a bit woefull. It's all setup like a geeky enthusiast type of thing. It's also hard to find out what it does, or can do, or even what's on the development roadmap.

gaz wac

syklops wrote: »

Why is being this ignorant funny?

why should you care?

syklops

gaz wac wrote: »

why should you care?

Because Im wondering why its ok to feign stupidity.

fizzypish

syklops wrote: »

Surely this is two seperate threads?

Whats your issue with 3G/4G? If the phone supports 4G then it supports 4G. If it doesn't, then you have a reason for a complaint.

Your right on both point really. The 3G/4G thing just annoys me as its usually a major selling point with out any explanation that its generally related to transmission "stuff". I feel like there's a room of marketeer sitting in a room with a white board with 3G < 4G written on it and clapping. I don't know why this bothers me.....

I was buying a tv once and a big selling point was that the screen refreshes at 200hz (I think). I didn't know the benefits of a higher refresh rate at the time (Games and sports its better to a point) so I asked. Sales guy just shrugged his shoulders. I then mentioned that the human eye can only sample at 60Hz so over half of these refreshes would be missed. I can see the benefit of it now (to a point) but at the time it looked like some guy saying X > Y so lets sell it on that. Once again, I don't know why it bothers me. I think I feel like I'm being fooled.

gaz wac

syklops wrote: »

Because Im wondering why its ok to feign stupidity.

ok, wonder away.... leave ya to it!

jimgoose

I got a Sony Blu-Ray player for Christmas a couple of years ago, and only lately fired it up having acquired a new electrical telly-box with the HDMI in it. According to Sony's blurb, this thing is "WiFi Ready!", which as it transpires means that as well as an Ethernet port it has a USB port that can accommodate Sony's proprietary WiFi adapter that can be had for the thick-end of €200. Obviously I bridged the network with a cheap little TP-Link box and thus ran an Ethernet drop to TV/AV Corner in the living-room. But I would just like to nominate Sony for this weeks "Big Fat Fcuk You!!" award.

syklops

fizzypish wrote: »

Your right on both point really. The 3G/4G thing just annoys me as its usually a major selling point with out any explanation that its generally related to transmission "stuff". I feel like there's a room of marketeer sitting in a room with a white board with 3G < 4G written on it and clapping. I don't know why this bothers me.....

I was buying a tv once and a big selling point was that the screen refreshes at 200hz (I think). I didn't know the benefits of a higher refresh rate at the time (Games and sports its better to a point) so I asked. Sales guy just shrugged his shoulders. I then mentioned that the human eye can only sample at 60Hz so over half of these refreshes would be missed. I can see the benefit of it now (to a point) but at the time it looked like some guy saying X > Y so lets sell it on that. Once again, I don't know why it bothers me. I think I feel like I'm being fooled.

A sales rep called to my parents door a while back, selling this water purifier that used ELECTRODES! and she showed them a test done with a sample of purified water and tap water and she inserted two SENSORS! which tested the water purification level. Surprise surprise, the tap water failed the test. Unfortunately for her my dad is an organic chemist and gave her some distiled water to test, which also failed the test. So my dad got out a multimeter and checked the current on the test ELECTRODE! There was no current going through it. Then he started quizzing her. She practically ran from the place.

jimgoose

fizzypish wrote: »

Your right on both point really. The 3G/4G thing just annoys me as its usually a major selling point with out any explanation that its generally related to transmission "stuff". I feel like there's a room of marketeer sitting in a room with a white board with 3G < 4G written on it and clapping. I don't know why this bothers me...

I was an infrastructure engineer at Motorola for seven years. A favourite passtime of mine is going into mobile-phone shops and sending the trendy young Beard behind the counter into a gibbering wreck. :pac:

ED E

The odd time I'm in PC world or DID I love to do similar to their salespeople.


SSDs. Magic. Or heroine for nerds. Either way, once you convert you're never going back.

jimgoose

ED E wrote: »

...SSDs. Magic. Or heroine for nerds. Either way, once you convert you're never going back.

Mmm. Maybe so, but it's hard to beat the therapeutic value of listening to twelve spindles in a RAID-10 going hell-for-leather while a couple of gig or so of RDBMS crap is being faulted into core. :cool:

syklops

ED E wrote: »

The odd time I'm in PC world or DID I love to do similar to their salespeople.


SSDs. Magic. Or heroine for nerds. Either way, once you convert you're never going back.

You miss the whirr though. I love the Pi but it'd be more impressive if it whirred.

jimgoose

syklops wrote: »

You miss the whirr though. I love the Pi but it'd be more impressive if it whirred.

Anyone remember the old Sun E15K? All you had to do was drop the console to send the fans "high" and the thing would roar like a dragster and frighten the bejaybers out of anyone near it. :pac::pac::pac:

rob316

Playstation One was a giant leap from Sega Mega Drive and Super Nintendo. Really thought that was great at the time.

nelly17

These guys talking spec back in 2000 & 2001 seems rediculous now

libelula

Deleting info off phones and computers. Where does it go
And how come someone could still find it if they really want to. Cos it's only kinda deleted. So it's not really gona anywhere.
(Not that it's a problem, just makes my brain hurt!)

syklops

libelula wrote: »

Deleting info off phones and computers. Where does it go
And how come someone could still find it if they really want to. Cos it's only kinda deleted. So it's not really gona anywhere.
(Not that it's a problem, just makes my brain hurt!)

Theres an index of files, kind of like a phonebook. When you delete a file, the computer removes the file from the index. If you scan the hard drive for files you might be able to find the file again.

Imagine you tip ex out your name in the phonebook. Does that disconnect your phone? No. Someone dialling sequential phone numbers in your area will eventually find you. Same thing.

diomed

When I first saw a spreadsheet on a PC in 1983.

Son Of A Vidic

rob316 wrote: »

Playstation One was a giant leap from Sega Mega Drive and Super Nintendo. Really thought that was great at the time.

No console, PC or game ever had the same impact for me, as playing Tomb Raider 1 on the PS1.

libelula

syklops wrote: »

Theres an index of files, kind of like a phonebook. When you delete a file, the computer removes the file from the index. If you scan the hard drive for files you might be able to find the file again.

Imagine you tip ex out your name in the phonebook. Does that disconnect your phone? No. Someone dialling sequential phone numbers in your area will eventually find you. Same thing.

That's the best way anyone's ever explained that to me. You've made a non-techhy woman very happy this morning

syklops

libelula wrote: »

That's the best way anyone's ever explained that to me. You've made a non-techhy woman very happy this morning

You're welcome. What else you got?

jimgoose

OSI wrote: »

Awwhh man, you mean the guy paid minimum wage with no training doesn't have the same level of knowledge as an experienced engineer in the field?

Um, no - that's the whole point. They're there to sell and generate revenue, regardless of people's needs or requirements. This is, as far as I'm concerned, an act of war!

L1m1tless

I always thought these were magic

eamonnq

OSI wrote: »

Awwhh man, you mean the guy paid minimum wage with no training doesn't have the same level of knowledge as an experienced engineer in the field?

Imagine if they employed "experienced engineers in the field" to sell phones!!

Senna

My first usb drive in college was 16mb, which was amazing compared to floppy disks, wishing I would afford the 128mb when it came out. I figured I could never fill 128mb it was SO BIG.

Internet speed took huge jumps too, 30 minutes to down load a 4mb song from Napster on dial-up and you could see people with T3 lines that would had the song down in seconds, I assumed they worked for NASA or something at the time.

useless

I remember someone giving me a 16MB USB memory stick in early 2003 & thinking this thing was magic. Up to then I'd been using 3.5" floppies. I know, I'm easily impressed:-)

syklops

useless wrote: »

I remember someone giving me a 16MB USB memory stick in early 2003 & thinking this thing was magic. Up to then I'd been using 3.5" floppies. I know, I'm easily impressed:-)

And then you plugged it in and Windows crashed and you were like "Its too much for my system to handle!"

AndyBoBandy

I bought in America in 2005 16MB & 32MB flash drives, they were the bees knees at the time (I thought), I actually still have them (I'm a hoarder), as I know i'll find a use for them some day.

Same with SD cards, had a 128MB card for my digital camera back in 2003, and felt like a rock star!! last week I bought a 64GB microSD card!!

oh the times, they have a changed.

sheesh

Magic? I'll give you magic email is pure witchcraft you can send a message to a person at the other side of the world and it will arrive that day and you don't have to pay. My mother's first cousin was living in Hong kong in the late ninties she was facinated by the fact that you could communicate with them so quickly before this it was actual letters phone calls were too expensive.

syklops

sheesh wrote: »

Magic? I'll give you magic email is pure witchcraft you can send a message to a person at the other side of the world and it will arrive that day and you don't have to pay. My mother's first cousin was living in Hong kong in the late ninties she was facinated by the fact that you could communicate with them so quickly before this it was actual letters phone calls were too expensive.

And its free! Its amazing Microsoft or someone didnt come up with a penny per kilobyte billing scheme.

Edit: Yet.

redfacedbear

I stuck with Nokia waaaay too long. I even bought an N97!
It was a dog of a phone - the Symbian OS wasn't up to the job and it had already been left behind by Apple & Android before it was sold.

I didn't realise this though until I bought my first Android a couple of years later. Simple things like being able to continue browsing web pages as the phone moved from Wifi to data and back (on the N97 the phone would have a mickey fit and you'd have to relaunch the browser if it couldn't find the same wifi connection that it had last time) were a joy and so easy. It was some revelation.

muppetkiller

Playing DOOM for the first time and thinking how realistic the graphics were and that amazing 3D effect. :eek: