• Category Archives Computers

  • Imagine a life with no computers……ahhhh……bliss…..

  • The world’s best or most honest job description?

    Posted on by beno Comment

    Leave it to the Australians?
    I had to smile for several different reasons when I read this one.

    http://www.cnet.com/news/the-worlds-worst-it-job-ad/#ftag=CAD590a51e

    Posted on the job-hunting website Seek, the ad from recruiters Just Digital People refuses to gild the lily on the lack of glamour that the role holds, instead asking for some who can “grease the wheels of capitalism with your tears, secure in the knowledge that we will pay you handsomely for your soul”.
    In addition to seeking a candidate who can “top every development horror story at LAN parties”, the job description also requires proficiency in languages such as .NET, JavaScript, VBScript, COBOL, Managed COBOL. Oh, and “a numbness to the absence of excellence”.

    Wow, there are some really sweet quotes in that block…. ‘grease the wheels of capitalism with your tears’, ‘pay you handsomely for your sole’….. ‘a numbness to the absence of excellence’…. what a cracker of a job.
    I think you would at least have a clue what you are walking into with this one.

    The thing is though, even with all that, would you still know what you are getting into? Really? I think while a job can be like the list of code they list, very hard and fast, the reality is it is always more complex than just a list of requirements.
    Quick example, I joined up at Opto and started in sales. Pretty much on the phone and handling emails. Ok, so that’s the description, I check all those boxes, no biggie right?
    I went from a basement on my own to a cubicle farm with a bunch of happy bubbly chatty co-workers…. Yeah, so…I mean, even if you had told me that up front, I would have shrugged my shoulders and moved the conversation on. Big mistake. This aspect turned out to be one of the hardest parts of the job.
    Another tough one was also unexpected… the diversity of accents in this country is astounding. Every time the phone rang I shuddered, not knowing if I was going to simply struggle to understand the caller, or really struggle to understand them.

    Anyway, long waffle is long. My point is, I had to smile at their honesty, but I wonder if they were honest enough?


    Computers

  • You idiot

    Posted on by beno Comment

    I don’t think Australians are losing their sense of humour, I think this guy crossed a line….

    http://www.cnet.com/news/qantas-flight-passenger-names-his-wi-fi-hotspot-mobile-detonation-device-grounds-plane/#ftag=CAD590a51e

    A flight headed to Perth, Australia from Melbourne was grounded for two hours on Saturday after a flier caused a scare by naming his personal Wi-Fi hotspot “mobile detonation device”.

    You can of course name your wifi hotspot just about anything – blog coming up about just that – and it is nice when people get cute – I have some examples I intend to share – but seriously? Naming your wifi access point something like that while on a plane? That’s just dumb…..
    On the other hand… Really? You can’t think for one moment that someone is having a joke? What sort of person that goes to the effort to build a device that might do some damage to a plane would a) use wifi and b) name it something so obvious??

    Eh. I can not understand ‘people’ sometimes ever (and yes, I am a people).


    Computers 📎and tagged

  • Smart clothes peg

    Posted on by beno Comment

    We interrupt this series of very important vodka and movie blog posts to throw this bit of tech news at you…. Yes, it’s an IoT thing. Again.

    This just cracked me up in all sorts of ways.

    http://www.engadget.com/2016/04/19/peggy-smart-clothes-peg/

    The latest attempt to make a household object smarter is Peggy, a connected clothes peg by Australian detergent company OMO. A few basic components sit inside its orange shell, including a thermometer, UV sensor and humidity detector. These track the weather outside and, in the case of impending rain, trigger timely alerts to your phone over WiFi. So if the clouds roll in and you’re busy with something else — maybe you’re out of the house, but someone else is indoors — you won’t be left with soggy washing.

    I love it. Totally nuts, and the cool thing is, because its Australian, they know it’s silly and they don’t care. No fragile egos here Chopper.

    Even the video caused a huge smile over me ugly mug.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhC4xxGKQfg

    A smart clothes peg to get your kids down the beach or playing cricket!
    It clearly is one of those things that you never knew you needed, but can’t live without….. Seriously though, it looks like a nice UI on the smartphone side of things and they add value with the estimated drying time.

    No word on the battery life. If they made it just a little bigger on the top and shoved a solar panel on there, they might not have had to worry about that aspect of it, but then again, that would put the price up (no word on that either).

    Also loving the fact that the temperature is in celsius.

    Why so funny for me? Because clothes lines (here in SolCal, in most HOA’s) are illegal. Thats right, you are not allowed to hang your clothes out to dry in the convertible capital of the world. Mild temperatures and low humidity all day, every day, all year around, and no, don’t be using the sun to get that beautiful fresh dry clothes… Nope, shove it in the gas/electric tumble dryer, run up your power bill and beat the crap out of your clothes is the only way over yonder pond.

    Smart clothes peg? Shut up and take my money!


    Computers 📎and tagged

  • Building a machine for fun in VR

    Posted on by beno Comment

    I have a few VR blog topics in mind, but am lacking any clear thought train on it, so we are going to just jump around a bit and blurt them out… ADD? Me?

    This video is newish and interesting in that it (tries to) give both the view of a person sitting on a couch looking at someone using VR and the view of the person in VR (but the angle for them looks off to me).
    It’s only 23 seconds, so its not too much to check out;

    The point I want to make is that things are really hotting up in this space. Late last month both big contenders for our money were released, Facebook with their Oculus and HTC with the Vibe. They are both a fist full of money, so are not on my list, nor on Terrys… Let me explain that one for just a sec….

    Terry is what we would call ‘the target audience’ for one of these. Last semester he got a job teaching programming, so has some expendable income. His goal for said money. VR/AR. That is what he was saving for. The Oculus was announced, he could afford it, but did not go for it. Why? Because Facebook.
    They seem to be locking down the system and keeping true to a proprietary protocol for their system. Terry is not interested in that approach. It has to work with all games, or its a no show.
    HTC was making all the right noises, open, developer friendly and a really nice system using a front facing camera…. The big day came and the price was announced. Some 300 bucks more than the Oculus. That killed it dead for him.
    So, we have 20 something, ‘hard core’ gamer, working and saving hard to get into the space, and they each killed it for him.

    Me? It is a solution looking for a problem. I will keep messing about with my frankenstein (future blog post) mashup and see what I can see… In VR of course….


    Computers 📎and tagged