[FRIAM] For Steve Smith eta all re gadgets reviewing

Wed Dec 21 13:45:15 EST 2022

You nailed it that the note 10 is basically a phablet.  lol I am probably
the wrong person to ask about modern terms. FWIW I don't think reviewers
use that. But ya know what? I know what you mean and that's what counts.
and yeah man sharing it forward is one of the things that's becoming a lost
art. Man back in the day me and my buds exchanged games and gizmos a ton.
lol sure their was some (a lot ) of the dubious sneaker netting with games
or whatever being burned to CD. But their was some amount of: "Oh hey dude
this monitor/keyboard/computer part isn't for me- you can have it for that
other thing you don't want/like/need" I think in school I had a ton of
random keyboards, coax wires and what not from that. A lot of time it was
also at LAN parties "you can borrow (or bumb*) my thingy if I can have a
extra stick of ram of yours to play (game here)"
Their is a small but vocal and growing contingent codre of people demanding
keyboards on phones again. So I am holding out a lot of hope they'll
comeback.  A huge part of the issue is momentum, companies charging a
bajillion dollars for cameras and "influencers" drooling on just that.
Meenwhile regular reviewers going: the UI/UX is fudge awful but made better
an external KB sony, apple, samsung someone? make that so!.

And also yeah: on the side note: Bingo. I meen, I figure the odd times I
need (or want?) a QOL thing, and is possible I'll do refurbed on GP. A
fraction of the cost. and I feel better for it to do my bit to buy the
environment time from ewaste.
*Now I wonder where the slang: Bumb something off of someone comes from.
Like bumb a ride, or bumb a few bucks from someone for a snack.

On Tue, Dec 20, 2022 at 4:22 PM Steve Smith <sasmyth at swcp.com> wrote:

> 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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