Draino for gutters!
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!
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?
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.
You have a point! Did you know about inverter microwaves? now you have 2 options, full blast, and less full blast! https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/85575 this cool person found out about this in 1991, and now my microwave has it. Welcome to the future :D
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).
Just make your own!
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!
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.
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.
I’m sure it could be comfortable in an English speaking country.
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I set mine up in 2009 and it is shocking to me how this is not the standard
I generally love T-Mobile, but it’s obnoxious that they charge an extra monthly fee if you want visual voicemail.
Wait what, when did that happen
I’ve had them for years and it’s always been that way
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.
That’s odd, Android transcribes my messages by default
It depends on your service provider. In Canada they charge for it. Last time I checked it was around $7/month.
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.
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 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.
Huh on iPhone in the UK. I get a transcript of any left messages.
A printer that works
Brother laser printers.
Stop wasting money on inkjet printers if you don’t print regularly
Mine was brilliant and now it’s sad and none of the troubleshooting steps for the symptoms I’m getting actually work. I suspect the room it’s in is too cold and humid and that’s making the toner clump, but I’m not keen on replacing mostly-full cartridges as the price has more than doubled since I got the printer.
Try putting the cartridges in a dehumidifier or wrapping them in paper and placing them on top of your radiators for a few hours, just be careful that they don’t get too hot (more than 50°C could be problematic)
A bicycle that is as reliable as a car.
I bought a top of the line cargo ebike from a German manufacturer that cost half as much as a cheap new car. It needs scheduled maintenance every 2000km. After 5000km the entire drivetrain needed to be replaced, the front brake completely failed when temperatures dropped below freezing, the motor sometimes cut out due to a firmware bug in the controller and the suspension seatpost broke when I rode down a curb.
Imagine any car having safety-critical faults like that after 5000km.My e-bike (Onyx RCR, basically a motorcycle) hasn’t needed anything of the sort. So it might be either a specific manufacturer thing and/or a cargo bike thing. I can imagine them using regular bike parts even though it’s taking way more weight/stress.
For pedal bikes, they can be that reliable if you want to pay for it:
- hub gearbox (a rohloff gets 100,000km minimum)
- decent belt drive (30,000km)
- solid tires get 5,000km. Not as good as car tires but there’s a reason; any additional durability will add noticeable drag/weight. Super thick e-bike tires could probably get 70,000km like a car
Due to the nature of bikes there’s probably a ton of weight saving that’s going on, which is why stuff breaks so easy. With cars they’re so over engineered that they weigh a (few) ton(s) and are generally over built for their expected stress levels.
Because bikes are so small they’re harder to add in that element of over building.
Oh, and the manufacturers are greedy and want the largest profit margin
For normal bikes I agree. Ebikes and especially cargo Ebikes suffer from lack of specialized parts. All the parts are the same as on a 10kg mountainbike. My bike with me and a load on it weighs 170kg. Make it 3kg heavier, triple the beefiness of all components.
And I don’t need 11 sprockets that are millimeter-thin when I only use 3 gears (for flat ground, uphill, and an emergency bailout for when the battery dies).
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?
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.
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.
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
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Signal offers E2E voice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_(software)#Features
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Five minute abs
If your ABS takes 5 minutes to react there may be an issue with your car.
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 😢
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.
It’s been almost 27 years since the first Austin Powers movie and the world still doesn’t have any sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads.
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Frick! You’re right!
This
Would you settle for ill tempered sea bass?
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.
🤘 fuck cars
There’s a community for that if you aren’t subscribed already.
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.
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.
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.
More €€€ and we could start talking :)
More €€€ and I’d get a Hummer.
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?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LED_printer
Fewer parts.
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.
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.
Cool, that seems like a new take on things 👍.
Batteries inside of stove/microwave/coffee machine/etc. with the sole purpose of keeping the time from resetting when it loses power.
At this point I believe there is a conspiracy behind it
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That’s most likely what they’re referring to: batteries for the RTC.
Just connect an overpriced UPS to every device ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
As a bonus, you can still make coffee in a power cut.
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
Even just a capacitor to keep the time for 10 minutes or so. That would cover 99% of the power outages in my home
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.
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 🤔
Fuck IoT
All my homies hate IoT
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.
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
my microwave doesnt need wifi its a fucking microwave
“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
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.
I just wish my microwave could have a Facebook login.
How many screen taps does it take to scan your food and send it to the microwave vs typing in the time like normal?
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.
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This generally does happen on iphone maps. At least when I have two back to back things I need to do it’s normally phrased like “do this, and then shortly after do that”
Adding on. An option to set complicated maneuver(s) up ahead voice notification and a prep notification for said complicated maneuver. The latter gives you an end goal statement. Such as, ‘Be in the left turn lane on the ramp up ahead.’ Then if you desire to enable it in the settings, hear what step-by-step actions need to be taken.
Tomtom made the first steps with this almost 20 years ago, it could show a second quick instruction in a smaller box, and it only showed it like that if it was in quick succession. Kind of crazy that a gazillion dollar company somehow can’t pin it down
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
You can set the voiced directions in Google maps to mute
But he wants voiced directions.
Just only when they’re actually useful.
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 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
Like one of those things that people work under vehicles with? https://www.harborfreight.com/300-lb-capacity-low-profile-creeper-gray-63371.html
They have wheels, but it kinda fits your description.
I was in the middle of replying how that would be perfect “if only it were more narrow like a balance beam.” Looked up floor balance beams and they exist. Thanks for the assist.
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
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City buses in my town have specific horns for pedestrians, much quieter than those for cars
Flash of high beams do work in some cases, but require that they are in front of you
Ah so we need rear high beams
Few taps on break lights is actually similar signal backwards than high beams forward.
I have like a Pavlovian response to immediately feather my own breaks and check my rearview if I see any red in front of me though lol
I’ve always wanted car to car commutation not through horns but radios or loudspeakers.
You thought internet trolls were a nuance… Just wait till they can bother you while driving.
This. I’d only accept this if everyone, and then I mean EVERYONE on the road has the patience of a saint and the radio discipline of an airline pilot at all times. I’d be fine if the most threatening you could ever expect is a “four six golf victor delta niner, your blinker is still live and your tail light is out, be advised, over” but you just KNOW there’s gonna be someone who’ll go “HEY YOU removed IN A WHITE VAN! STAY OUT OF MY FUCKING LANE OR I’LL END YOU AND YOUR MOTHER!”
Thank you Lemmy for censoring my comment. And I guess we lost exactly zero energy with the profanity removed 😅
I remember reading on that other site at some point about airline pilots and the ‘guard’ channel which is supposedly used for shitposts. Any pilot on here that can confirm? This about the discipline of airline pilots.
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Like the Chevy Volt? (No, not my video. I don’t condone the filming while driving but it’s the best demo I could find.)
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Just to add a bit: in my country blinking your emergency lights (when all of your turn signals are going) for 2-3 times as a thank you is very common. It’s even considered rude not to use them e.g. after you were let in.
I don’t know if that is something in other countries. I live in Hungary.
I found the drivers in Hungary very considerate and polite in general.
We do that in the UK. I wouldn’t say it’s universal but it’s pretty common.
I learned that this is a common practice in Japan, from a Youtube video I watched years ago. I adopted it after watching it. I live in the US.
I do it on occasion, I’m in the US.
blinking your emergency lights
In the US, truck drivers sometimes do this as a “thank you” if you flash your brights to them to let them know they can safely change lanes to the right after they’ve passed you (which is a nice thing to do for them since they can’t really see shit behind on their right).
As a truck driver, it pisses me off when truckers don’t gimme the blinkies.
It’s not exactly universal. In Germany, this can be interpreted as you warning of a pending emergency and trigger slowdown; they’d do thanks by signalling left-right-left-right rapidly.
Wtf this is like dark souls pantomime shit. You drivers really need a better way to communicate
Oh, yeah, we use that too. It’s absolutely contextual, on the highway we use it for what you described.
A friendly meep meep and a hoooooonk would be nice.
More complicated extension to this. I want a collection of standard of messages that I can send to other drivers while driving (like 6 buttons max). Some standard low distance wireless (probably based on or just Bluetooth)
Like:
- “Hey check your car its got something wrong with it”
- “Hey you’re in my lane”
- “Hey slow down it’s dangerous here”
- “Hey watch out road hazard ahead”
- “Go ahead”
- “I’m going now”
- etc
Just flashing lights, horns, hand gestures, and yelling out my window is a freaking game of charades man!
Basically, I like the idea of a quieter horn, and a regular horn. But we need like driving emotes, rather than the tea bagging hello equivalent
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.
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