Showing 1 - 10 of 18
How YouTube fails its creators
Life, James Hein, Published on 08/04/2026
» YouTube is failing in customer protection, especially in certain categories. As a case study, consider YouTuber Davie504. Unless you are a bass player or interested in bass lines, you probably haven't heard of him. He spends time practising and demonstrating bass playing in a proficient and sometimes amusing fashion. He is unassuming and obviously works hard to present good content. In general, if you are playing any musical selection in a teaching presentation, particularly if you are playing it yourself, or if the section is short and not the full song, then this should be all covered by "fair use". Enter the music industry. When you think about overbearing corporate control, this is the perfect example. Within this, some artists are worse than others, with the absolute worst being whomever represents The Eagles.
What is an AI PC?
Life, James Hein, Published on 19/06/2024
» Last week I suggested that you would need something like a PC to run deep AI on your device. At Taiwan's recent Computex, there was the claim that they will sell tens of millions of "AI PCs". The problem is that the definition of an AI PC and what specs it needs is still vague.
Headlines are disappointing
Life, James Hein, Published on 22/11/2023
» If you have been in any way involved in social media over the past few years, there will be words that immediately have you wondering if the headline is in any way real. My favourite recently was "SpaceX Launched REAL UFO In ISRAEL! HAMAS And Iran Shocked!" on YouTube.
Metals and energy shortage is a looming threat
Life, James Hein, Published on 20/07/2022
» I know the word rare gives it away but the world is facing a rare earth metals shortage. The Chinese are currently the largest producers of this resource and they recently cut their production by half. Turkey is another potential source but that region has been unstable for centuries. Most modern technology cannot expand further without these resources and the whole idea of ramping up renewables requires lots of them. Elon Musk has said we don't have enough in the world for all the plans of our governments and other experts agree.
Got them new phone blues
Life, James Hein, Published on 30/03/2022
» It has been 3 years and I have a new phone. Thanks to a very generous rebate from Vodaphone I have the latest flagship in my hands. It feels nice and solid but I immediately put it in a Spigen Neo case, rated as one of the best by some reviewers. I have been happy with the Spigen range over the years. I watched some drop tests and prefer the phone to stay in good shape so I'm also considering a decent screen protector.
Don't get caught out on camera
Life, James Hein, Published on 21/07/2021
» - In the new Covid world, office workers are now regularly in meetings from home. Many of these meetings these days now also include a video feed. The first thing others in the call do when someone pops up, is to check the background and immediately zoom in, mentally or physically, on anything that seems out of place in the background. Last night's dishes, haphazardly discarded clothing and even a pot plant seemingly out of place will be the object of interest. Some use a green screen behind them and have an image placed on that by software.
The cloud calls, banks don't hear
Life, James Hein, Published on 07/07/2021
» Is the industry rushing too quickly into the clouds? Cloud computing has been expanding steadily over the past few years and is starting to dominate as the primary platform for many organisations. Providers love it because it allows them to charge a service-based fee instead of a once-off payment for a product. There are rumours that Microsoft through Windows 11 will push to have a similar approach for their next version.
Samsung's future flex
Life, James Hein, Published on 26/05/2021
» So whatever happened to the rollable displays we were promised some time back? Turns out companies like Samsung have been working on them, presenting a few at the recent Society for Information Display (SID) annual exhibition. The key to this technology is the OLED (organic light-emitting diode) display because it doesn't need a backlight. This allows for paper thin, flexible displays. In keeping with their usual nomenclature, Samsung calls their first device the S-foldable. Their range starts at phone size and unfolds twice to a 7.2-inch screen. They also presented a slidable screen that pulls out to give a wider view. Then came the 17-inch foldable screen that starts as a tablet that can be used as a small monitor tagged as the "Carrying Small Seeing Big". For now, these are concept devices that we should see in the wild next year. Not to be outdone, LG demoed a 65-inch rollable OLED TV along with a 12.8-inch rollable device. China is also in the mix with Visionox showing their rollable OLEDs.
Good things come in small packages
Life, James Hein, Published on 25/11/2020
» - I received a tiny Windows 10 based computer I had supported a while back on the Indiegogo site called the GMK NucBox 4K. Not having looked too closely at the specs apart from the ports and memory, the first thing I noticed about it was the tiny size about 2 inches by 2 inches and 1-and-a-bit inches tall. Literally pocket sized.
A tablet of note
Life, James Hein, Published on 11/11/2020
» I have used my new Onyx Boox Note Air for a couple of weeks now and I like it. Having a user manual in English would be very useful but I finally found the setting to enable the auto rotate feature.