[FRIAM] For Steve Smith eta all re gadgets reviewing

[Steve Smith]

Gil -

congrats on your upgraded palmtop, external keyboard, trackball and 
all!   When I saw the name (Note10) I thought maybe it was technically a 
Phablet (is that even a contemporary term?  how big does a phone (or 
small a tablet) have to be to be a phablet?) I'd probably go for a 
phablet if I had bigger pockets... maybe if I took up wearing nothing 
but bib overalls (as too many of my relatives do... not even a t-shirt 
in the summer) it would be "just right" (big chest-pocket).

Sorry you didn't find a physical-keyboard model to acquire... REC's 
links were surprising, I thought they were totally deprecated!

<self-indulgent tangential rant> I share your preference for 
used/refurbed even though I know that stream tends to be a *fraction* of 
the *new* stream size...   one upcycle/recycle loop in the stream is at 
least a nudge in the right direction.   It is a little like my 
philosophy on picking up hitchhikers.   Not only do I give someone in 
need a ride somewhere, I also lower the anxiety of the next 10-100 folks 
driving by who might "worry" either that they 
shoulda-but-didn't-pick-them-up or 
that-person-is-crazy-dangerous-and-I-hate-the-world.   I'm now on the 
back end of this process now, carefully seeking new (probably final) 
homes for old tech that I rescued a decade or two ago, got good use 
from, and am now ready to "share forward" one more time... like the 
three LCD monitors I unloaded on you recently!

But fusion energy will "fix all that", we can just dump our old tech 
into the tiny-suns at the hearts of each building/community (heck in the 
chest of your suit of flying armour, tony stark style!).  It wasn't that 
long ago that every commercial building (Industry or apartments) had 
their own incenerator in the basement where *everything* was flash-fried 
and the results belched into the (already murky?) air over the 
cityscape.   Good for human-remains disposal too?

I'm not doing it myself, but I did discover that along with better and 
better methods for turning PET/HDPE? plastic bottles into 3D printer 
filament, that in the Himalayan highlands, they are building rocket-mass 
heaters capable of consuming (most of) the toxic emissions when plastic 
waste is burned (too often burned open-pit there).  The very high 
combustion temperatures in the throat of the (very low-tech) rocket 
stove are enough to break down *most* of the noxious bits and then the 
rapid condensation when the "jet" hits the "bell" of the stove  means 
that most of the toxic by-products end up on the inner surfaces of the 
bell and the exhaust is mostly just above-ambient temperature CO2/H2O.  
The hydrocarbon chains are also dense fuel compared to cellulose, so the 
desired high combustion temperatures are easier to obtain and maintain. 
   I do let the plastic-window-bits of my junk-mail go into mine but no 
juice bottles or cello wrapping for me...   I mostly stick to aluminum 
and glass which is either well worth the effort to recycle or mostly 
inert.  My rocket-mass stove is pretty happy eating typical yard-waste, 
I don't want to spoil it with high-test plastic!

On my trip to EU I upgraded the fairly lame solar-rechargeable 6500 mAh  
battery packs to 30k versions suitable for multiple phone recharges and 
even driving a heated travel blanket.   I have been handing out $5 
bills, chocolate bars, and hand-toe warmers to folks flying signs on the 
street and I *hope* one of them can make good use of on of these (now 
10+ year old) power banks even though they A) barely top up a half-empty 
contemporary cell phone, and B) take several days of full sun to 
recharge without plugging into a USB source.   I do have an older 
Android whose, battery is only good for an hour or two I suppose I could 
pair with one of these...  I haven't been able to get the 2 hand-me-down 
iPads I have updated well enough to do *anything*...   first significant 
"planned obselescence" I've seen in Apple Products... or I'd pass those 
along as well.

I just reconnected with the SF MakerSpace (you should check them out if 
you don't know them) and I'm hoping they can absorb some of my 
duplicate/triplicate shop/hand tools that several dead/retiring men left 
to me over the last decade or two.   The coming population collapse 
(next pandemic, next assault-rifle-armed-MAGA temper tantrum, next rogue 
authoritarion with nuclear codes?) will leave us (or not) all with way 
more gak than we know what to do with... time to start being clever 
upcyclers!

</rant>

- Steve


On 12/20/22 12:12 PM, Gillian Densmore wrote:
> First up is samsungs note 10. In a nutshell fun af, and complete, It's 
> old phone that feals modern af. love the option to use a stylus for 
> notes. It's a chonker of a phone. This one was refurbed*. It came from 
> amazon and it's good as new. fantastic reception. and yeah just a cool 
> phone. android
>
> A external keyboard: (don't have a link atm): Omg what a difference 
> for quick texts when going to googles messages from the web is 
> overkill. The one I have Is more meant for inplace typing. and meant 
> to be used with a case and I think on a desktop or something. Sigh 
> RIPish phones with keyboards.
>
> Elecom Deft: 
> <https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GQZVH78?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1>       
> (arg gmails weird way to format!!): at any rate: in short? love it. 
> It's trackball. I had one  like it for a few years before it broke.  I 
> got it on impulse because I got frustrated with the small mousing area 
> of my desk. It pleasantly surprised me how fast I adjusted. This one 
> is wireless which is fantastic when you have a small space. I have no 
> clue about the mechanical side. Just after a week and change of use 
> it's  my favorite mouse so far. I've tried one with a bajillion dpi 
> and polling rates and blah blah. but this relatively simple guy is 
> just...fun? to use. I haven't tried it with games yet. if it's like 
> the other trackball I suspect i'll be good. Has function buttons, I 
> think those are for macros. All in all just  great. uses 2.4 ghtz usb 
> dongle to connect and a AA battery.
> *I've gotten to prefer used gizmos because of being very concerned 
> about the environment.
> Back to our regularly scheduled geek out about Ai.
>
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