Showing 1 - 10 of 14
Caveat emptor is undefeated in online shopping
Life, James Hein, Published on 11/03/2026
» It is becoming more common to buy things online. The majority of my shopping, not counting groceries, is now done that way. In the past I've warned about prices that are too good to be true, like a 4TB thumb drive for a few dollars from sites like Temu and AliExpress. There is now a kind of middle ground where the price could be correct and it's coming from, say, Amazon. Recently, even though I had some doubts, I bought a 5TB SSD drive from Amazon for around half of what I'd expect it to be. I did this knowing I can easily send things back to Amazon.
Microsoft gets more invasive
Life, James Hein, Published on 05/06/2024
» Microsoft Windows has added a new feature that will record everything you have ever done on your computer. It does this through a new AI feature called Recall for Copilot+ that allows Windows 11 to take screen snapshots every few seconds. Allegedly these are encrypted and saved to your hard drive (filling it up?). No, this is not a new episode of Black Mirror, but a disturbing change in Microsoft's attempt to track everything you do and fill up your hard drives. It may do this for your Zoom calls and meetings (it will record other people on the other end of a call without their permission). This may also include capturing the data you enter into secure forms, including passwords.
The new normal of AI fakes
Life, James Hein, Published on 11/10/2023
» Following on from my last article, consider the following scenario. You've grabbed enough clear speech of someone to make a good AI model of them. You write up some text, pass it through the model and verify that the result sounds exactly the same as that individual. This is a little different from the previous example because it's a text to speech model, but essentially the same as using one voice to change to another. You now take a speech or interview from that person, change one word that will essentially change the context, and process this.
7 levels of AI await humanity
Life, James Hein, Published on 02/08/2023
» This week is AI week, both to date and going forward. Some don't understand the difference between AI and AGI, the latter being artificial general intelligence, denoting a system that behaves like a human being in capabilities. So, for your amusement I've put together, with credit to the YouTube channel AI Uncovered, a description of the seven levels of AI.
Microsoft stock booming on AI run
Life, James Hein, Published on 07/06/2023
» It's not a good time to be working for Microsoft, but it is a good time to be a shareholder or executive. Stock is up over 30%, net income is up and the CEO Satya Nadella got a nice 10% raise. Regular workers received no pay rise, or effectively a 5% pay cut due to inflation. Microsoft has rationalised it as pat and generic reasons like a "competitive environment" and the "global macroeconomic uncertainties". In reality, Microsoft is using the money to jump into the AI wave through a multibillion-dollar partnership with OpenAI.
Samsung again pushing foldables
Life, James Hein, Published on 18/08/2021
» Samsung is betting on foldables. The new Galaxy Z Fold 3 will come with IPX8 water resistance, support for the S-pen and an under-display selfie camera. It will be interesting to see how they solved the clarity issue Apple faced with that last one. The front screen will be an adaptive 7.6-inch 120Hz.
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.
Redefining your normal and other tech predictions
Life, James Hein, Published on 06/01/2021
» Thank goodness 2020 is finished. Hopefully 2021 will be better and that in this case not all of my predictions will come true.
Big firms fuzzy on their AI thinking
Life, James Hein, Published on 28/10/2020
» Everything you see these days is AI enabled in some way, or according to the marketing they must be. Software, fridges, cancer detection and lots of other examples are all based on some kind of AI implementation. Google, Microsoft and all the big players are heavily invested in at least the buzzword, but the proof of delivery as promised is elusive.
Covid computing
Life, James Hein, Published on 06/05/2020
» - Things are quiet on the IT front. Well, that's not necessarily true, as many are trying to come to grips with the whole working-from-home existence. Many, including myself, are spending a lot of time in front of a screen. Instead of getting up and conferring with a colleague at their desk, it is a Skype chat.