What are some "no brainer" inventions or features that just haven't made it to the consumer yet?

TehBamski@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 191 points –
262

Hearing aids that don’t auto connect to whatever my neighbors are playing on Bluetooth. Also hearing aids with a Bluetooth block list

Seriously I’m fucking losing my mind over this. 3 times in under 10 minutes last night my hearing aids stopped playing the tv I was listening to to play the Bluetooth that my neighbors or their kids were listening to. Suddenly mid conversation with my wife about it, bam, music.

If you live in the US that sounds like something the FDA should be notified about. It's probably not legal to sell a hearing aid that can so easily be hijacked by another party, or if it is, it really shouldn't be. Either way, FDA regulates hearing aids so they are the ones to complain to.

The problem is inherent to Bluetooth, The only way to make it not be like this would be to make things dramatically more difficult to connect to things over Bluetooth.

??

I'm no expert on the technical side of the protocol, but my BT devices only ever connect to sources they've been paired with.

Why would this be more difficult for hearing aids than for headphones?

Not at all, those ones are permanently in pairing mode with no interaction required and instead it should require manual pairing

That's horrible!

Do you have a tv connector for your hearing aides to connect to or is it connecting straight to the television?

Work in retirement home where lots of people use hearing aides with their televisions. Have not come across this issue.

Most connect via an external device paired to their hearing aide specifically.

I have a tv beam device

You don't mean the "As Seen on TV" device do you?

No, my audiologist gave it to me. And it’s not like my neighbors are using one. It switches to Bluetooth streaming for their stuff according to my hearing aid app

It's just weird that it switches to someone's Bluetooth. Usually there is some sort of combination of basic authentication required and confirmation. Have you tried something like a "factory reset" on the device?

Yes. I would expect the Bluetooth receiving device to have to be paired with the transmitter

As someone who works in live entertainment, Bluetooth is the bane of my existence. Every single show, I get multiple people asking if they can connect their hearing aids to my system via Bluetooth. The issue is that this question comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of how Bluetooth works.

Hearing Assist Systems have a variety of methods. All have their benefits and drawbacks. But notably, the requirement for HAS is that they provide an identical experience to the user as someone who isn’t hard of hearing. And that’s one of the big drawbacks of Bluetooth. Bluetooth introduces lag. HAS typically works either via radio, infrared light, EM loop, or wifi. And only the first three are acceptable for live events, while wifi is more popular for gyms.

The first three HAS all send an audio signal to the user without lag. Radio is a good example because most people understand how they work. The venue has a low power radio broadcaster (because FCC limits how powerful your radio broadcasts can be without an extremely expensive license) in the room, then each user can dial a receiver to that specific band. Then they’re able to plug headphones or a neck loop into the receiver. And boom, you have a distributed HAS with very little effort. Infrared does the same basic thing, with a light transponder instead of a radio antenna. The receivers watch for that light, and send the signal to the headphones. Lastly, EM coil. Many hearing aids have the ability to listen for EM broadcasts. The venue can install a loop around the room, which acts as a giant electromagnet. The hearing aid user switches to that EM mode, and they can pick up that magnetic signal. This is particularly popular in schools, where radio would have a lot of interference from rooms being so close together; The hearing aid user only hears the signal when they’re inside of the loop.

But all three of these have one thing in common: They have zero latency. The hardware to take an analog audio signal, convert it to radio/infrared/EM, and broadcast it, is faster than the time it takes for the audio signal to move from a singer’s mouth to the microphone. It’s nearly instant, because it’s all analog. There is no digitization that needs to take place; Ir’s just converting one type of energy (electrical energy from the audio signal) into other types of energy. And that is easy and cheap to do.

WiFi is popular for gyms, because it introduces a delay in the audio signal. WiFi requires packets, which requires a digital conversion. And that packetization takes time. It’s a processor calculating 1’s and 0’s. But it’s acceptable for gyms, where you’re only listening to a TV mounted on the wall. They can delay the video signal by the same amount, and you’re golden. Now the delayed video signal and the delayed wifi audio are arriving at the same time, so the experience is identical regardless of how you’re listening. But you can’t delay a live event. Shit on stage happens in real time. So WiFi isn’t an acceptable medium for live events.

And Bluetooth is even worse than wifi, because it requires pairing. The Bluetooth protocol requires a handshake between the broadcaster and the receiver, which means it can’t be scaled to larger crowds. Even with the issues of wifi, you can at least broadcast it to an entire room. But for Bluetooth, you would need an individual broadcaster for every single person who wants to connect. It doesn’t scale. It would be like needing to install a new radio antenna for every single person who wants to listen to the radio broadcast. It simply isn’t scalable.

Plus there’s the fact that Bluetooth is a digital system that requires packets just like wifi, which introduces that latency. Even the best Bluetooth systems designed for specific brands (like AirPods being designed specifically for iPhones) have latency. And that’s under ideal conditions. A potential bluetooth system meant for hearing aids wouldn’t be operating under ideal conditions; It would be designed to be compatible with as many different devices as possible, which means you can’t use bespoke programming to reduce latency. And in a venue where you’re hearing both the room noise and the hearing aid, any amount of latency will cause an “echo” effect that makes it completely unusable.

But none of that matters, because I still get annoyed Karens going “but I can connect to my phone, so why can’t I connect to your system?” And even if I bothered explaining all of this, the most I’d get is an entitled scoff.

Yeah that’s terrible. I mentioned elsewhere that my tv uses a different system and it’s actually what they should be hoping you have available. My audiologist said it’s an evolution of the old inductive loops (ah back in the day I almost got one of those designed for personal headphone use). I can’t confirm it is because I’m not taking it apart while trying to remember how the fuck electromagnetic communication works.

Also depending on the performance I’m amazed that people can hook it up. I still turn mine off for concerts, though that may be more the music I like is the sort to make me go deafer than my genes.

Why are medical devices operating on the same band as consumer devices??

Because hearing impaired people want to connect it to their normal devices, like TVs and Phones?

Bluetooth connectivity is a feature. And tbh I love it, it’s headphones specifically set to compensate for my hearing loss, that I can connect to my phone and theoretically my computer. I can listen to audiobooks without taking out my hearing aids (though switching to dome molds means earbuds fit in without taking them out) and I can make phone calls beam into my ears. Even beyond that, it connects to my phone via Bluetooth and gives me the ability to control settings on them. These settings include different sound settings for situations like meetings as well as muting which I need sometimes because of things like loud coworkers and the stress of always hearing.

Until this inconvenience it managed to take an assistive device from “ugh I have to wear these even though they’re uncomfortable (the discomfort isn’t just the fit, it’s also being able to hear everything) to having enough convenient features that I sometimes wear them at home.

And yeah these nice features do matter because one of the most difficult things about hearing aids is getting people to power through the initial discomfort when they first get them. Also there’s just the nice to have factor. Why shouldn’t medical devices have nice features that can be easily implemented. Like transition lenses or putting a cup holder on a wheelchair.

Bluetooth is Bluetooth, no matter the usage. They're only allowed to operate on a specific frequency range.

They have Bluetooth for convenience to help you listen to regular audio sources, but they should definitely have better controls available. Sounds like theirs are permanently in pairing mode

Are these OTC hearing aids? Or prescription ones from a reputable audiologist and brand? Every brand I have worked with require the devices to be in pairing mode to do that (the first 30 to 60 seconds of when the devices turn on)

They’re unitron, and expensive enough they better not be otc, Especially since I got them with a hearing test and everything. And maybe my neighbor accidentally turned their device on as I turned my hearing aids on. I do give them and myself a little break when I get home from work many days

I have a Bluetooth speaker that I use for both my phone and wired via an aux/3.5mm cable to my PC. When hard wired the PC's sound takes preference, which is what I want but it still connects via Bluetooth to my phone every damn time and mutes all the audio coming from my phone!

Batteries inside of stove/microwave/coffee machine/etc. with the sole purpose of keeping the time from resetting when it loses power.

You don’t even need that. My microwave is wifi connected but still can’t keep time. Instead of using NTP like any appliances or industrial control system in the last decade+, it syncs to your phone time though an app.

Wtf.

my microwave doesnt need wifi its a fucking microwave

A rather neat feature is scanning the barcode of an item with the phone app and the heating program is set automatically.

But setting the time automatically using ntp would have been enough for me.

I'm guessing that the way it works is it's sending the barcode number to the microwave supplier, the supplier sends it to 5738 vendors who have legitimate interest in updating the profile they already have on you, then the heating programme is sent back to you. The same heating programme is described on the package you already hold in your hands. Fingers crossed that your microwave is getting security updates, if not, someone could be downloading all data from your laptop because they got into your network using a microwave. That is the reality of IoT.

How many screen taps does it take to scan your food and send it to the microwave vs typing in the time like normal?

"Smart" microwave might be generally helpful, but a lot of them aren't for some reason, they went the first step of connecting to wifi and stopped there. Getting notification when ready or setting specific time and program via google voice instead of fiddling with controls is genuinely useful stuff that I would love to have

I'm so tired of everything being wifi connected

Nothing in my house is WiFi connected, other than computers and phones. It’s staying that way forever.

How about a custom OpenBSD router which allows only whitelisted traffic through, with a custom DNS server and comprehensive network monitoring, for aren't we paranoid?

Orrrrrr

Only computers and phones

Life is easy

Four desktop

Two rPi

Two ifone

One iPad

All we need

Life is good

If you have wifi you need to store it's credentials somewhere, and you run into same issue.

Actually automatic way would be to just take GPS signals clock time.

RCC has been available since the 80s. Much of the wold has been covered by radio time broadcasts that would be used by devices to set their own time but somehow it didn't start to become really commonplace until wifi allowed for 2-way communications 🤔

I've conditioned myself fully by this point to only use the clock on the stove as an indicator of whether my power has or has not gone out

How often does your power go out? Why can't you be bothered to set the time every ~10 years that probably happens?

Personally, where I live now, my power has gone out in the last five years more often than the rest of my life combined. I’m in my mid 30s.

That's crazy! Where do you live?

I live in a rented house, it’s a double bungalow style with a lovely family attached. During COVID our power was out for three days straight. It was wild. Luckily I have a car that I can waste tons of gas to charge my things with (also luckily it has like seven USB ports), and also some battery packs that can charge things.

Went out and got tons of ice to put in the refrigerator and freezer and cooler.

Set up our iPad connected to our phone as a hot spot and watched YMS play Jump King for all three days. It was wonderful. I miss being NEETs.

I guess you haven't cleaned your microwave in 10 years or had to do any electrical maintenance in the kitchen.

My microwave does not have a digital timer. And yes, over the ~9 years I am living in my current flat, I did not have to do any electrical maintenance. Do you have to do that regularly?

I'll have momentary power losses probably once or twice per quarter, depending on bad thunderstorms or nearby construction, things that happen worldwide and affect power grids indiscriminately.

I do set my stove clock, I just ironically find it more useful to not improve it in this ridiculously simple way because it's a good indicator of whether my home has had a power outage. Lol

Even just a capacitor to keep the time for 10 minutes or so. That would cover 99% of the power outages in my home

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Any maps app that, when you set a route, lets you decide "don't give me any directions until I get to X step" and/or "don't give any directions after X step". I dont like hearing the navigation when I don't need it, and that would save me from having to open or close the navigation while I'm still driving.

Hijacking this with my mini rant: GOOGLE if you provide me with three possible routes to my destination and I specifically select one... DON'T FUCKING CHANGE IT MID-DRIVE GODDAMMIT!

I feel this has become so much worse the past couple months. "There's an accident ahead reported 8 hours ago, I'm gonna reroute to the highway you asked me to avoid, you have 5 seconds to decline :) ". Cool, guess I'll need to pull over and fix it, again.

As implemented, it's beyond terrible. The only way I know of to disable it is to turn off mobile data (or disable mobile data for google services / maps). Maybe that's changed semi-recently, I dunno.

I can understand the utility of a feature that can dynamically adjust your directions so that you're always on the fastest route, but what Google has implemented has serious and dangerous flaws. The fact that the change in route is automatic and without my consent unless I interact with my phone in a set interval of time WHILE DRIVING is ridiculous, and once it switches over, there's no quick and easy way to undo that.

Additionally, it doesn't seem to understand that I don't care if the toll road will save me 3 minutes on this trip, I don't want to pay a toll or deal with the inevitable billing screw up. I don't care if making a dozen turns through unfamiliar urban/suburban side streets will questionably save me 5 minutes, I'd prefer the relative safety and predictability of a straight path down the interstate. I also don't want to drive down a winding, unlit rural highway after dark during deer season just because it's a few minutes faster than if I stayed on the well-lit road with a lot more vehicle activity.

And, that's just the start of my Google Maps rant.

I agree with you but there is a setting to turn off tolls and faries, etc.

Those work at the beginning, when you first set your route, but I don't think they necessarily work when the app re-routes you. At least, the no toll option doesn't seem to work around here in the past. Hopefully it's fixed now. I'm all for that.

Might have been a bug. I've set it to never take me through either and it never has. Might also be area dependant.

Or stop zooming in to the max, leaving me with zero information! The only choice left is to blindly drive into the river when instructed to do so.

I think this is a brilliant feature. I've never thought of it, but this would totally solve the issue I have with being told basically 15 times some version of "don't get off the highway at the junction" which is really annoying so I end up muting the directions the majority of the time, and that backfires pretty consequentially on occasion.

I get it but there is an easy toggle from spoken directions to alerts which I find easy to toggle.

At least on Apple and Google maps

Well yes we all know that, but the idea of the feature is that it saves you from messing up if you aren't focused on your technology at a critical moment.

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Warm white LEDs inside of coloured glass bulbs to make LED Christmas lights that don't look like gamer vomit.

Nice try but I'm keeping my even more instant instant noodles to myself.

I'll give you a hint though, the secret is in being ok with pumping boiling water into your stomach.

This sounds like a Florida man headline waiting to happen

A better voicemail.

I just re-watched the introduction of the first iPhone, and one thing that stood out to me was this "visual voicemail" thing they showed. To this day I still just get an SMS if someone leaves a message, and then have to call my voicemail and listen to recordings one by one. That's still the norm for standard phone contracts here afaik, it's ridiculous!

I didn’t know that was even still a thing. For years now on my iPhone I’ve just looked at the text transcriptions of my voicemail in my phone app.

This has been a standard android feature on the phones I've owned for the last... I wanna say 10 years.

I'm sure it could be comfortable in an English speaking country.

Now my iPhone, actually transcribes my voicemail live and gives me the opportunity to pick up during them leaving the voicemail. Like old-school answering machines used to do.

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That's odd, Android transcribes my messages by default

Seems to heavily depend on your provider. Some work with the standard phone apps, some have their own apps, but most don't seem to offer it at all here in Germany. One even sends you an audio MMS instead and just calls that "Visual Mailbox". It's crazy to me that such a basic and useful feature still isn't just a standard thing on all phones.

My husband and I have the same provider but different brands of phone. I have visual voicemail, he doesn't and my phone is the older one. It seems like Samsung and Apple are the only ones to even offer the app so far.

It depends on your service provider. In Canada they charge for it. Last time I checked it was around $7/month.

How do you make it do that mine's not doing that. And I'm on the latest version of Android.

Using the Google phone app, one of the tabs is voicemail and it automatically converts it to text.

Mine also allows you to see each voicemail in your acct inbox and play/delete/call back each one like a song on a media player.

There's still the cell providers limit on how many voicemails are allowed though. Better to use Google voice and have unlimited voice mail

I've had my google voice account handle voicemails for like 15 years and it did that for me. Well, now I don't have to, but it's been great.

I generally love T-Mobile, but it's obnoxious that they charge an extra monthly fee if you want visual voicemail.

I have a Samsung S20 and it has visual voicemail, haven't dialed my voicemail in years. I assumed most phones from the past couple years had it, but my husband's Google pixel doesn't,.

I agree, this needs to be a standard.

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Why the fuck don’t receipts just show up in my bank / credit card statements?

Do you want your bank to see everything you've purchased?

Even banks don’t want to see everything you’ve purchased. That opens them up to a whole new avenue of subpoenas from police trying to prove crimes. They already have entire legal compliance departments dedicated to fulfilling subpoenas for financial crimes. They don’t want even more responsibility.

No, but I want to see what I’ve purchased T_T. While we’re at it I’d like public key cryptography to see more use, haha.

Umm... If you're using their cars they definitely do... That's how this works..

I guess you mean their cards.

And they should only see the amount and counterparty, not your entire invoice.

buys a single item from Bad Dragon

They know where I spent how much money; probably wouldn't take much to figure out what I could have bought in a situation like that where every individual product is slightly cheaper or more expensive than the last.

They'd have to want to do that math, though.

Apart from David's paws they also have sweaters and shirts

RISUG is cheap, permanent, safe, reversible male birth control.

It was invented in 1979, and has not yet come to market.

It's also completely undetectable to a reproductively abusive partner (clinical term for baby trapping). This allows the person to get their ducks in a row to leave the abusive relationship safely and for good, without alerting the abusive partner OR being trapped into being in some kind of contact for 18 years. By contrast, the closest women have is the depo-provera shot which only lasts 3 months and is arguably the harshest of all hormonal birth control options. RISUG is one of if not the best birth control method we've invented to-date, and we're sleeping on it.

Thanks, i never heard of this. Now ill never get to play my favorite boardgame:

Phone assistants responding to you in the same volume of voice you used to address them.

This would require a way of judging the distance you're speaking from. Calling out from another room might get a whispered response, and vice versa.

This seems solvable. There are differences in pitch between a nearby whisper and a distant shout.

I agree, but I wouldn't call it a "no-brainer."

Maybe not. I've heard of apps that can detect mood and I imagine being able to tell that someone is sad from the tone of their voice should be more challenging than picking up the relative difference in inflection, quality of overtone saturation, application of the built in compressor, etc.

Nested Tags for contacts. Ability to add sub tags like Friends/BowlingGroup or Acquaintance/LocalChurchContact

I seriously don’t understand what’s difficult to tag contacts like this and ability to use them to message a group. It’s a serious no-brainer feature but not to be found anywhere.

Wasn't this the central premise of Google Plus?

I guess strict nesting wasn't possible, but strictly enforcing nesting would be problematic: the bowling group might have acquaintances, friends, and your actual brother.

I miss Google Plus for this exact reason! I really wish they wouldn't have given up on it and just stuck to their guns. Kept it long enough for people to give it more of a try.

True I miss this feature from Google Plus. But I want this more for my local contact app more than social media. And good point on whether needing nesting strictly but given it is known to me that I can only filter in nested tags, I would create a new tag and add all there instead of making it a sub tag.

As a software engineer I'm interested in the value that would add over simply having combinations of the tags as is possible now

I think the question boils down to something like “For this data set, is there information captured by a tree representation that’s not captured by a list of categories?” Trees, or graphs in general, can capture path-based relationships. Categories are based of course on set theory.

I think both have their place, and like anything within mathematics or programming it comes down to which metaphor more naturally and easily expresses what you’re trying to do. I find trees and graphs easy to think about and represent visually, but it all depends on the problem space and the approach.

Note: This is assuming the kind of “tree” we implement permits multiple inheritance if needed.

Hierarchical tags is also possible. In fact Gmail has it, so you can for example create a work tag and then subtags for each company you worked at, and do similar things with hobby tags, and apply multiple tags

I have a bachelor's degree in maths so I get where you're coming from. I'm asking, what specific functionality would nested tags provide that unnested tags do not. What is the return on investment for implementing this feature? Describe how this might improve your user experience with collections of objects? What actions in a user interface could you perform or would be made easier with nested tags that are not possible or are more cumbersome using only unnested tags?

Check this use case I mentioned here: https://lemmy.world/comment/6114731

Mostly when you have multiple events where you could have made few tags and sub tags to capture the data instead now you have make multiple tags with parent and children as a tag

Consider a data set that is naturally hierarchical and path related relationships are the central purpose of the data. Let’s say a genealogical database like some services run.

I can see a way of doing it with tags but mostly what I’m picturing has to add additional metadata to the tags that essentially represents the graph and has to add extra logic for resolving all of it.

If stored as nodes and edges you also have the capacity to add additional features to the relationships easily and naturally. That allows you do induce various subnetworks by edge flavor pretty easily. Network metrics such as centrality and clustering also fall out naturally.

Again, you can do it in tags because you can represent the network data as a table, which would in turn be translatable into possibly some long and complex tags. Or maybe there’s a more natural way, but for me the graph is easier to think about and write interesting algorithms for.

These kind of tags are supported in all kinds of note taking apps. I don’t think it would be an Hercularian task to achieve it.

Don't underestimate the legacy code. There's a reason we avoid it.

I’m not sure how much legacy code is written for contact apps in smartphones. But given the amount of tweaks and changes apple and Google make in each of their releases I would expect they wouldn’t have any problem integrating this feature.

Also you mentioned legacy code, but why T9 dialing isn’t a thing anymore coz that would be available if they were simply extending from legacy codebase.

I was just making a joke. Hopefully, those apps are not like the hardcoded messes that I've had to deal with before.

You're right, it's almost trivial.

But as someone who designs software I don't immediately see any additional functionality. I'd like to understand the benefit to see if I want to incorporate the feature sometime

Alright I’ll provide a use case scenario. I wanted to this functionality when I was in uni where a lot of my contacts had more than one role to play and I had trouble remembering all the roles my contact would have. Let’s say one of my contact was my coursemate but also worked in organizing committee of an event. I knew other members of the organizing comittee as well. So in the event that I needed to share an information with the entire organizing committee, I needed to remember committee list members instead of software helping me. And what about another contact who also part of the event but was on a different team like Public Relations. You could say just another tag would suffice no need for nested ones. But this kind of events happens multiple times and I would have to create multiple tags for multiple events (instead of nesting) and it becomes cumbersome managing the list.

That's awesome. I'd like to investigate it more...

You have the following contacts:

  • coursemate

  • commiteemember1

  • commiteemember2

  • commiteemember3

  • prguy

How would you like to tag them?

Let’s say I have 4 contacts A,B,C&D

A is both a course x mate and committee member for event 1 So tags for A are /batch20xx/course_x/ /event1/OC/

B is senior of course x and also a committee member so tags for B are /batch20xy/course_x/ /event1/OC/

C is a batch mate but on a different course y and also part of committee member and tags are /batch20xx/course_y/ /event1/OC/

D is also a batch mate and course mate but is in PR So their tags are /batch20xx/course_x/ /event1/PR/

I hope this helps.

Contact attached to a knowledge graph seems useful to me :)

Can you give more context or an example. Is it like sort of Obsidian graph but the nodes are all contacts or something?

As an example: https://linkedpeople.net/person/Q358587

But admittedly, I've just watched two videos on using Knowledge graphs with WikiData and Obsidian to make a personalized attempt at exobrains with AI, so I am biased to think it's a good idea in general right now. I really like the idea of not just sorting by tag, but being able to get complex relations out of my personal data, so I can stop having to remember things like "ok so who all is a dev working on this project that would know something about the backend to the search function" and instead use data both available and inputed to get a list of contacts to review. It just gets to be a mess when teams get too large or too many interworking teams! You could extrapolate it to other interpersonal planning and coordination things too like "who would like to play a dungeon crawl for the next few weekends?", grabbing both calander data where we can, maybe personal notes about whether they can make it to things regularly or be upcoming things for them, and whether they like those kinds of games. Not everything would be known of course, still gotta actually ask people, make a plan, etc, but make it easier you know?

Some sort of device to remove the heads from the ruling class

Trebuchets are relatively easy to assemble, made of readily available wood, and more than capable of yeeting the fattest of fat cats. They are also legal to own and require no permits.

#YeetTheRich

Personally, I’d love to turn it into a sort of Punkin’ Chunkin’ type event. Have different categories for accuracy and distance, then a separate division for non-traditional “cannon” type launchers.

Lastly, separate the launchers based on how the launcher is powered; Cannons may be pneumatic, but there should be a separate category for human powered launchers. Just like in Punkin Chunkin, the person has a limited amount of time to “charge” the launcher, via some mechanical means. Treadmill, hamster wheel, rowing, etc are all acceptable, as long as the launcher is entirely powered by the one person.

And just like in Punkin Chunkin, the shots only count if the billionaire is intact after launching; If they’re completely turned to mush while in the air, the shot is disqualified. Bonus points for keeping them conscious and screaming/flailing in the air.

The up coming weight loss drugs. I'm moderately over weight and been fighting it 20 years.

Having some help there would be a god send for a lot of people and I'm slightly optimistic on this round of drugs.

Yeah, companies starting an obesity epidemic by pumping us full of government subsidized corn syrup, only to solve that by getting us reliant on an exorbitantly expensive drug that you have to inject every day. How I love capitalism.

God fucking forbid we take any self responsibility.

I eat pretty much zero processed food and it's incredibly easy and inexpensive.

I'm fat because I eat and snack too much and it's 100% my fault.

I'm fat because I eat and snack too much and it's 100% my fault.

I eat too much junk, too, but I am in pretty good shape.

I also know quite a few people who just don't have the urge to eat a lot. They tend to eat small amounts, don't finish their meals, sometimes forget to eat a meal when they're busy. It is completely not relatable for someone like me.

Between the fact that people can eat a lot without getting fat, and that people don't all have the same baseline urge to eat, I'd recommend you go a bit easier on yourself.

There are medical issues that cause weight gain fyi. Not everyone that is overweight can control it.

That's fine, I completely agree. That has nothing to do with bullshit corps forced shitty food down my throat I was responding to.

Saying that out loud nowadays makes you a public enemy in quite a few circles, sadly enough.

pumping us full of government subsidized corn syrup [...] I love capitalism.

You realize that subsidies break market incentives, right? That's more like a planned economy, not capitalism.

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What are these drugs?

We’ve literally wasted decades because we’ve treated obesity as a personal failing rather than researching the problem.

Perhaps I'm ignorant, but obesity is largely a personal problem, no? The core issue is consuming more calories than the body is expensing, so how is that anyone else's' problem?

Do you think people magically started overeating just recently? There have there been changes in our food, changes in how we digest and our gut microbiome, pollutants like microplastics and forever chemicals, or other factors could have an influence on why we are getting fatter.

We created narcan and methadone even though that is at least as much a personal failing.

Do you think people magically started overeating just recently?

Poor people? Absolutely. They couldn't afford enough calories to get fat.

There have always been fat rich people.

Food has been cheap and plentiful since the 50s. Obesity started decades later.

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useful implementation of AI silo'd to the applicable function.

some examples:

  • "rename these images with X pattern, add their description to the meta data"

  • "correctly capitalize all the names in my address book and tag them by how i know them"

  • "show me how much i spent on fast food last month"

  • actually good and useful autocorrect / spell check

  • find all the emails about Jane's wedding next year and let me know where we are with the planning

  • find me an app for windows desktop that does XYZ

edit to clarify: I know there are algos and LLMs that do this, but I don't want a "machine" that does all of them, I want a machine that only does each one really well.

LLMs would do all of those incorrectly with 100% confidence.

Mainstream motherboards supported by Coreboot/more libre UEFI systems. Fuck AMI

Really hoping AMD makes it easy to backport their OneSil efforts to current APUs.

Insyde has been pretty great on the Framework but their feedback loop is far too slow and has a bunch of Windows ACPI quirks holding it back.

Microwaves that use directed or reflected waves and to better direct or target energy to specific spots in food. Thermal vision in microwaves and more automated time/power controls.

Why are we still just blasting waves on a spinning dish as high as we can? Like we can pinpoint microwaves for devices with our routers, but we can do it for inside a controlled environment in a box?!

This is my evidence if someone tries to patent this and lock people out of making cool products that I said it here first!

Cost-benefit is not there. You can buy fancy ones that do some such things, but they are expensive.

Do you have any models in particular you are thinking of? I was in the market a few years ago when I thought of this, but couldn't find anything. So far I've found one's with weight, and ambient temp sensors, and a heating element and fan combination for roasting and convection, but nothing like what I've described.

Nah, sry. I just heard/read about them. One thing is using an inverter to control power instead of on/off timing. Other is using a bunch of sensors, that i remember as an idea many years ago.

https://shop.panasonic.com/products/homechef-4-in-1-multi-oven-1-2-cu-ft-1000w

Seems to have both (i just googled "fancy microwave" and it was the first result :)).

For my needs just a timer dial is enough.

No worries! Yeah, the inverter control is definitely a step in the right direction, though!

| For my needs, just a timer dial is enough. Most of the time it ain't that deep, so time + power level really is enough. It's just I think the microwave could be a much more versatile cooking appliance!

If you don't want multiple magnetrons (which would work too as a standard antenna in the wireless model of MIMO) you could use a electromechanical system, ie point magnetrons at reflective plates and move and adjust them to least direct the waves to a given point. Multi antennas I think would give a better granularity (because you can control the wave as well as direction and be able to time the peaks to hit inside a target vs just aiming the beams to a given spot). You may be able to get that with an electromechanical system, but it's not something I know of a lot of public info on, but if you could get a time division demux device for high power microwave that directs the different peaks to specific reflectors, you'd be good too.

Any openhard ware folks, please take this if you are interested!!!

In lighting effects an analogue could be a 'scanner', it reflects a stationary beam with a motorized mirror. Or you could mount the whole magnetron on a moving head!

Why don't we have microwave coolers yet?!?

I can only find papers talking about using microwaves at near the 0 K scales for that (and admittedly I definitely don't enough quantum mechanics to even hazard a guess as that works from reading the summaries!!!), so I am not sure about it at higher heats (like around 300K).

Routers? Do you mean Wi-Fi routers? Because they certainly don't pinpoint waves for each device, they send all traffic out in all directions.

Why 'correct' someone when their knowledge of a topic so clearly outstrips your own?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beamforming

I'm happy to accept that I was wrong, in fact this is a very interesting bit of technology! I didn't intend to be rude, unlike you, clearly.

I'd also like to add that beamforming, despite the name, does not actually involve creating a directed beam. As I described the antenna still sends a signal out in all directions - multiple antennae work together to create an interference pattern with a stronger signal where a device is located. While I wasn't aware of this technology, it is not as "directed" as the name implies and wouldn't necessarily have applications inside a microwave oven, especially since the wavelengths used are pretty long, so I don't think they would not have much flexibility to create the kind of precise pattern that cooking something while skipping the empty space would require.

While the total length of the average Microwave's wave is about 4.7 - 4.9 inches (12.5 CM) you can further pinpoint the phase of the wave as well both by frequency (playing with that .2 inches in the bandwidth) and phase modulation. This could be further tuned if needed by allowing Microwave ovens to operate in the other ISM band of 5.7 GHZ allowing for 2 inch waves (5.3 CM) or even the 61.25 GHZ band (0.19 inches). Though, as you move up in frequency, you see less penetration as the power is lost faster on the surface of the objects.

Would any of that really make it heat more efficiently though? You'd need at least two magnetrons, some sort of computer vision system, and a computer to do the necessary calculations. Even if you could practically produce an interference pattern that's better than a single standing wave, I suspect you'd lose more energy than you save.

It might be more efficient though honestly that wouldn't be MY goal. The main thing would be improving the quality of cooking provided by microwave ovens, less cold centers, burnt outsides, uneven heatings, etc.

Five minute abs

If your ABS takes 5 minutes to react there may be an issue with your car.

No! 7's the key number here. Think about it. 7-Elevens. 7 dwarves. 7, man, that's the number. 7 chipmunks twirlin' on a branch, eatin' lots of sunflowers on my uncle's ranch. You know that old children's tale from the sea. It's like you're dreamin' about Gorgonzola cheese when it's clearly Brie time, baby.

Step into my office.

Strong Bad was ahead of his time when he made the Ab-Abber 2000. Abs in minutes - nay, seconds!

I figured I didn't need it since I don't have to fight Trogdor the Burninator, but I was wrong 😢

Being able to get pinged for a new message in a group chat bit mute the consecutive messages from that chat until you check it.

I like to be part of multiple chats like for my game server if there is an issue I want to be alerted from my guardians. Usually the channel is quite for days and days until someone says something then it's pings after pings as people reply while I'm commuting home and it interrupts my music

I want an app that echos the pings back to the sender. Teach those cunts that use "send" as a full stop a lesson

I don't need six notifications for one paragraph, Jonny

Add a bot to your server that reacts to every single message on a ~10 minute delay. Long enough for them to close the app and forget about the messages, then the reactions start rolling in. And the reaction notifications only get sent to the original sender.

You have to.

None of those apps allow you to properly use new lines for basic readability.

Non rebellious printer

Baby wristlet with heartbeat sensor (this one will make you go proper crazy)

Car that breaks down as soon as you buy it

'cause fuck cars.

Car that breaks down as soon as you buy it

BMWs are already pretty mainstream

It's 2023, BMW is upper middle off the pack reliability wise. If you are going to make fun of Germans it's Merc you are looking for.

Yep, Mercedes is NOTHING what it used to be... they put in Peugeot engines in new models 🤦... which is not bad, but at the price these cars sell, excuse me, but I want a Mercedes engine in there.

Interestingly, some hdi Peugeot engines can go on forever

Some... all Merc engines go on forever. You bought a Merc, first 500.000km you're basically warming up the engine. People bought second hand Mercs with 400.000km on them, not a single doubt that it might fail.

Non rebellious printer

They exist they're called LED Printers, you have to do a bit of searching for them though because they're often mislabeled as Laser Jet. If you go on Amazon for example and look for laserjet printers in the type box right at the bottom they'll tell you if it's really a laser jet or is actually a LED printer. Get an LED printer, Brother makes some good ones.

They are lightning fast even for color printing. They use toner like laser jet (which I guess is where the confusion comes from) but they work in a different way.

How different? They still use light for drum polarization, right?

Yes but LEDs are smaller and more powerful than a laser assembly so the whole process is faster.

In the time it takes to energise the drum with a laser, the LED panel can do all 4 inks.

In contrast to LED printers, laser printers require combinations of rotating mirrors and lenses that must remain in alignment throughout their use. The LED print head has no moving parts, and the individual assemblies tend to be more compact.

Yeah, thought as much. LEDs are cheaper than lasers, so stack a bunch of them in a line, polarise the drum, bam, you have an image.

Basically, this is the only advantage. And laser heads break very very rarely. You litelarly have to drop the printer from a considerable height in order to break the laser head mechanism.

But, I can see the appeal. Laser heads and mechanisms are more expensive to manufacture.

Baby wristlet with heartbeat sensor (this one will make you go proper crazy)

They have socks that do this. Bluetooth app connection to your phone.

🤘 fuck cars

There's a community for that if you aren't subscribed already.

Those baby ekg socks and bracelets are crazy. My wife bought one and it just made her crazy. And then even the dumb thing moves you get everyone jumping to alerts and beeps and are stuck with a baby who isn't going to sleep anytime soon.

I remember helping a friend apply eardrops to his ears due to earwax buildup and thinking "man if these vials had long bendy straw-like tubes then he wouldn't need someone to lean over his ear applying drops like someone applying cookie flavoring to a cookie."

Do you actually need someone to help with that?

I just apply ear drops myself, are you sure they didn’t involve you in some kind of ear drop kink 🤔

Not the person you replied to, and not a kink, but:

I would absolutely be more willing to clean my ears if I had this straw-like mechanism. I still do it, but it feels like a huge effort. I also end up with drops all over me.

I can't really explain why.

The problem isn’t the drops not going into your ear, it’s the fact they specifically instruct you to put in two drops, no more and no less, and it’s hard to see how many drops you’re putting in when the vial’s method of secreting the drops is squeezing the container.

How would a long bendy applicator help with this?

It can loop up and around and into your ear as you're laying down and you'll be able to see how many drops go in as the vial can be right in front of you but the drops can be transported into your ear.

You literally turn your head to the side and drop the drops in your ear. You don't need a second person.

A long bendy straw would require you to squeeze the liquid from the bottle all the way along the straw until the end point. That would mean a larger bottle with a larger amount of liquid for you to be able to squeeze it along the whole length.

The problem isn't the drops not going into your ear, it's the fact they specifically instruct you to put in two drops, no more and no less, and it's hard to see how many drops you're putting in when the vial's method of secreting the drops is squeezing the container.

Audinell ear spray. It will change your friends life. And only $15 a bottle.

Where would we find something like that? That sounds like something I'd see in Walmart and buy in an instant if I saw it.

Drunk mode for phone. It holds all purchases in a limbo state and pops up with a list to approve or deny at noon the next day.

It also redirects any communication with your ex to an AI bot for the evening.

You could probably setup a "drunk mode" on Android to do all that.

I thought a very low and compact version of a bench to do floor presses would exist but I have never found one, maybe I'm not using the right keywords. Just a short, narrow sturdy piece of equipment to lay on to get my back off the floor just enough to get some range of motion.

not using the right keywords

Have you tried Kagi search? Millions of "sEO eXPeRtS" have totally fucked Google and made it almost useless

I love floor presses. Never saw some sort of Bench for it. The only way i do them is in a Rack. I guess you to

East to setup Voice driven home automation systems.

Sure we have homeseer and home automation, both good tools, and sure we have plug-ins with Alexa, but none of these tools sell their own Alexa like device so I can be cloud free.

Nobody wants to sell cloud-free devices. Think of the ongoing revenue!!