Technology catch-all thread

[RockRaines]

Yep, that's the easiest way. And get one of these: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Klein-Tools-Dep...56005/100660167 It'll save you a ton of time/frustration.

Excuse my ignorance, what does that thing do? And how would I use it?

 

 

Also for you experts. I've found out I have pre-wired speakers in my living room/deck. But how do I find the wires?

[StrangeSox]

That's fish tape. It's for pulling wires through conduits/walls. It's a long, flexible plastic rod.

 

No idea how you'd find the pre-wired speakers if they didn't terminate them at a panel or left them in an outlet box.

[RockRaines]

That's fish tape. It's for pulling wires through conduits/walls. It's a long, flexible plastic rod.

 

No idea how you'd find the pre-wired speakers if they didn't terminate them at a panel or left them in an outlet box.

Can find a main box either. I've found the two back wires and the front right one. No idea where they go.

[Jenksismyhero]

That's fish tape. It's for pulling wires through conduits/walls. It's a long, flexible plastic rod.

 

No idea how you'd find the pre-wired speakers if they didn't terminate them at a panel or left them in an outlet box.

 

It's actually a rigid, but bendable metal (if they make plastic ones and I linked to it by mistake, don't get it). I've used mine countless times trying to fish wires between two walls without having to open them up. Because the metal is rigid and workable, you can push it through the space of two joists or down the backside of drywall or whatever to the hole you're aiming at. For example I was refinishing my basement and installed speaker wires. I used this to fish 20 feet of wire between the joists in the already drywalled ceiling (going from the unfinished side of my basement to the finished wall on the other end). With some work, it went over the ceiling, down the wall and near enough to the cut out I made for me to grab it. Then you duct tape your speaker wire to the end of the fish tape, reel the fish tape in and you've just run the wire. I also used it to run electrical wire when I was installing my recessed lighting.

 

If any of that makes sense.

[StrangeSox]

There's plastic, metal and fiberglass. The plastic ones work fine. You can also get stiffer fiberglass rods and long, flexible drill bits for when you're drilling up a floor.

[chw42]

Complete Nexus 5 specs leaked last night. 8 MP OIS camera, 16 and 32 GB storage options on top of everything else that was known (Snapdragon 800, 2 GB DDR3 RAM, 5 inch 1080P IPS display, 2300 mAH battery). At a possible

Edited October 6, 2013 by chw42

[Jake]

Complete Nexus 5 specs leaked last night. 8 MP OIS camera, 16 and 32 GB storage options on top of everything else that was known (Snapdragon 800, 2 GB DDR3 RAM, 5 inch 1080P IPS display, 2300 mAH battery). At a possible >$400 price point for the 32 GB model, this is a must buy for me.

 

While those very well may be the specs, it is somewhat possible that it is some kind of hoax and, at the least, is tentative as the manual had several contradictions about the phone

[chw42]

While those very well may be the specs, it is somewhat possible that it is some kind of hoax and, at the least, is tentative as the manual had several contradictions about the phone

 

It's a service manual, I didn't understand 60% of the stuff that was in there.

 

It could also be that it's not for an American variant of the phone.

[Big Hurtin]

4K touch Mac display?

 

http://9to5mac.com/2013/10/07/will-the-mac...mac-looks-like/

 

It looks pretty cool, but I don't see the practical use that would justify the (probably high) cost.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

4K touch Mac display?

 

http://9to5mac.com/2013/10/07/will-the-mac...mac-looks-like/

 

It looks pretty cool, but I don't see the practical use that would justify the (probably high) cost.

 

But if they do make the touch screen computer, people will credit them for inventing it and praise Steve Jobs for some reason.

[Y2HH]

But if they do make the touch screen computer, people will credit them for inventing it and praise Steve Jobs for some reason.

 

That's not why people praise Apple.

 

Nobody credits for Apple inventing smartphones or tablets, or even all-in-one desktop PCs.

 

They praise them because they take something others are already doing, but make it really GOOD and practical/usable. Apple didn't invent smartphones. Microsoft had them for eons, and I owned multiple versions of WM4.x to 6.x phones from Samsung ... and if you've ever used one, you'd know how bad they were. Apple took the smartphone and made it a device people wanted to use. Tablets were much the same, existed for years will full on desktop OS's clogging them up, and Apple took the idea and made it a device people would WANT to use.

 

Others have then taken Apple's design cues, and practicality, and arguably made even better devices than they did, too.

 

People credit Apple for great design, because they actually have great design.

[Jenksismyhero]

Apple dumbs down products and then adds the hipster element for marketing.

 

 

Edited October 8, 2013 by Jenksismybitch

[RockRaines]

Apple dumbs down products and then adds the hipster element for marketing.

Good thing they dumbed down the touchscreen phone then. Otherwise we would still be using these:

 

 

[Jenksismyhero]

To be honest, I miss the hard keyboard on my phone. I despise the touchscreen and swipe nonsense.

[Y2HH]

To be honest, I miss the hard keyboard on my phone. I despise the touchscreen and swipe nonsense.

 

You'd say that unless you had to go back and actually use one.

 

I still have my BlackBerry Bold from work, with it's physical keyboard...it's only advantage is that it has tactile response for doing something you shouldn't be doing in the first place, texting or emailing while driving.

 

But when I'm sitting still and able to actually type...I can type WAY faster on a virtual keyboard.

[Jenksismyhero]

I'm the opposite for some reason, and maybe it's just my phone sucks (original Droid Razr) and/or I have fat fingers. I'm CONSTANTLY hitting the key to the left or right of they key I'm intending to hit. I probably write three lines of text for each one i'm trying to send.

[StrangeSox]

you can calibrate that usually

[RockRaines]

To be honest, I miss the hard keyboard on my phone. I despise the touchscreen and swipe nonsense.

You probably miss the stylus too, and generally non-functional touch screens.

[Jenksismyhero]

You probably miss the stylus too, and generally non-functional touch screens.

 

Nah, stylus was useless. This was my favorite phone for texting/emailing. If they could incorporate a thin slide keyboard to a phone today i'd buy it.

 

[Y2HH]

Nah, stylus was useless. This was my favorite phone for texting/emailing. If they could incorporate a thin slide keyboard to a phone today i'd buy it.

 

 

[iamshack]

4K touch Mac display?

 

http://9to5mac.com/2013/10/07/will-the-mac...mac-looks-like/

 

It looks pretty cool, but I don't see the practical use that would justify the (probably high) cost.

Yeah, I don't see them going to touchscreen on a desktop. They've pointed out (quite correctly) that it is not particularly ergonomic to hold your arms up vertically for long periods of time.

[bmags]

One thing I genuinely miss - memorizing the buttons to click to open up a text, using alpha to write in my text, and sending. Not even having to look at the screen.

[StrangeSox]

One thing I genuinely miss - memorizing the buttons to click to open up a text, using alpha to write in my text, and sending. Not even having to look at the screen.

I don't have to look at my screen using swype

[bmags]

I don't have to look at my screen using swype

 

You are crazy. I have swype and there's no way I could open up messaging and then swype accurately enough to write coherently. Maybe "I here"

[Texsox]

Good thing they dumbed down the touchscreen phone then. Otherwise we would still be using these:

 

 

 

Dumb down is a poor choice of words, the marketing people at Apple prefer things like "making it more accessible" or "user friendly" possibly even "intuitive".