A Mythbuster's Biggest Tech Headaches (and Solutions) 395
An anonymous reader writes "The Mythbusters' Jamie Hyneman shares his top tech annoyances. Hyneman runs down the little things that bug him about everything from tools (exotic chargers) to cars (useless features). He also notes that there's a lot of room for improvement on PC desktops: 'In addition to being buggy ... extra features tend to bog down your system by demanding more processing power and memory. Computer-makers: Don't load up operating systems with features and then make us sweat to figure out how to get rid of the fat ... There's another solution available to consumers: Switch to a Linux-based OS such as Ubuntu. Since most Linux OSs are free, there's no business reason to bloat up the system with feature frills.'"
Re:No offence, (Score:2, Interesting)
Things will be getting simpler, and are already. (Score:5, Interesting)
In my car I tossed the 12V "cigarette lighter" from the dash to the truck. I also increased its power from a small 5A fuse to a 10A fuse, so I can run a reasonably sized 120V inverter (also in the trunk) to power a few devices on-the-go.
In the place of the dash 12V adapter, I installed a nice custom panel with 3 USB ports. They're high power ports, so I can charge a phone, a GPS receiver, and a plethora of other devices that use USB to charge. In the future I'd like to connect one port to a radio so I can play music on-the-go without my iPod.
In the past, I've had relatively complicated small PCs to run my music system, but I'm seeing more and more options for in-vehicle PCs running Linux. Eventually I think we'll see a system that works well and is cheap. Since we only buy used cars, tossing the radio is one of the first things we do, and it's at most a loss of maybe $25 worth of electronics.
There are many things I wish were modernized, standardized, and more open. First, vehicle information is very proprietary. Why is it that cars can't report status information via a simple USB connection? All the information is either there, or could be generated VERY cheaply. I ran out of wiper fluid two days ago (lots of snow in Chicago lately), and I sat there thinking how lame it is that the wiper fluid reservoir doesn't have a simple sensor to detect low fluid (it's a 2001 vehicle, not THAT old). Even that could be transported across a USB chain with regular updates. Heck, a $2 sensor could even sense fluid at 3 levels. Simple enough.
At home, we have a DC run throughout the house wherever we upgraded our power, and I'm seriously thinking of changing it to USB charging. AC in the home is useful, but so many devices use DC (and the dreaded overheating wall-warts!) that I'm shocked that more devices aren't standardizing on DC. 18V, 5A+, not a big deal -- but so many devices could use it (charging tools, video games, cell phones, even some computer monitors). Simple, without needed ANOTHER heat-generating and wasting transformer. My laptop is DC, too, yet I need the darned transformer throughout the house.
But I still see more and more devices standardizing in many ways. Over time, manufacturers are seeing that power is a commodity, not a profit maker. I tell my friends and family to stop buying products that use proprietary charging hardware. With tools, the battery situation is frustrating, but I think we'll see some changes there. I like the idea of having a standard 6V pack, and just adding more if you need 12V or 18V. Even better would be a "serial/parallel" switch so you could go from 6V 1A to 6V 2A or 12V 1A with the flip of a switch. Ahh, to dream.
Re:No offence, (Score:5, Interesting)
Also, it's kind of nice to get support for this kind of view from a celebrity. It's like "no, you're not crazy. Jamie Hyneman Agrees!!".
I am in total agreement with his stance on Vista for example. (I find it almost hilarious that MS now includes a movie editor, MSN, media this and media that, but still doesn't provide a decent text editor.)
Car locks (Score:3, Interesting)
Tool Batteries (Score:3, Interesting)
Half the time, I don't even need the power of the 18V drill, I just need a bit of Juice to turn a bunch of screws. Wouldn't it be slick to pop in 3 6v Batteries, and be able to toggle a switch to choose between connecting them in serial or parallel? IE, more power, or longer lasting battery?
Re:Geekgasm (Score:5, Interesting)
Still, going from the choice of the not computer literate to talking about Linux as a desktop OS, in a non-computer tech magazine...that's a sign of progress. Is that another crack I hear forming in MS's empire?
Re:Obligatory... (Score:1, Interesting)
Some guys prefer blondes, some prefer redheads, some prefer brunettes. Some guys don't really care about the hair color so much as the hair length, style, and texture. Some guys prefer blue eyes, some green, and some plain ol' big (or small) brown eyes. Some guys prefer tall and skinny, some short and curvy, some even obese or manly-type muscular.
That's just the external. There are many factors which guys are attracted to which aren't necessarily skin deep. Maybe Kari's intelligence plays a factor in the GP's definition as to why she's hot?
Point is, beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder. A girl that may just be average or unattractive to you, or to the editors of Maxim, or Playboy, or Perfect 10 or whatever outfit relies on pictures of attractive women to sell their magazines or media, may be another person's girl of his/her dreams. No point in trying to criticize someone else's taste in women.
Re:Geekgasm (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:No offence, (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:No offence, (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:You've missed the point (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:No offence, (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Ubuntu no better (Score:4, Interesting)
ATi, however, crapped out drivers that don't work for years. Unfortunately, the answer is that you're SOL. I battled with a 9800 all in wonder pro for close to a month under gentoo then ubuntu before I just dropped back and made that machine into a server. So yes, the answer if you would like to use your machine with Ubuntu is to get a better video card. Sorry you had it put to you so rudely before, but that's what open development on one side and closed on the other gets you: winners and losers. If only they were all open.
Re:No offence, (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:No offence, (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:No offence, (Score:3, Interesting)
What I don't want is my phone to attempt to be a PDA. A phone's screen is not big enough to handle the amount of information I want on the screen (and me able to see it clearly.) But a PDA's screen is easily large enough to handle phone functions and has a processor fast enough to handle voice recognition calling.
River, changed (Score:3, Interesting)
I disagree. And I pine for the Firefly that could have been.
Check her out for her last 10 seconds on-screen in Serenity. For a season of episodes and 99% of the movie, she was a tortured, often dysfunctional character because of what was in her head. At the end of the movie, though, she had fulfilled her destiny (well, at least the short-term one) and all her demons were excised from her. She was now free to be the genius little girl we had seen in flashbacks, only all grown up. Just her expressions and the way she launched that ship let you know this was now someone reaching for the full flower of her existence.
And her brother was getting laid.
And tragedy had left another potential couple in the offing.
Hell, man, if there were another season of Firefly, *all* the characters would have been very different and I think Summer Glau would have done wonderful things with River. She gave us such a tantalizing glimpse.
We'll never know for sure, I guess. Phooey, phooey, phooey!
Re:No offence, (Score:3, Interesting)
I love Jamie and Adam, but he needs to realize that engineering!=profits
Since when? Nothing alone = profits. But in general, better products at lower profits = profits. (Try to remember Jamie has run quite a successful FX business for a number of years, so I'd say he knows at least something about business)
With standard batteries, tool makers could focus on making tools, rather than another rev of a battery for toolx. Let the battery guys figure out the batteries. The reason it doesn't happen isn't profits, it's just that makers of most products have a poor history of co-operating with each other. If they actually DID co-operate and settle on a few standard battery sizes, they'd likely make MORE profits as costs would go down, and sales might even go UP (do to people not having to worry about all the damn batteries they have to keep around and functional).
Re:Shame he didn't... (Score:2, Interesting)
Rather impressive to watch actually. One drive actually blew the door off the front of the case it was in.