technology – Page 2

New old stock

I came across this expression recently, “new old stock”.

Apparently it means that something was made or manufactured some time ago but was never sold and is technically still classed as new.

I found this expression confusing, like an oxymoron. How can something be both new and old? In this particular instance the item was an electronic device that had been manufactured a year ago, placed in storage, and was never sold. So technically it is still new, mint, boxed, etc. However the firmware was out-of-date and needed updating. So if the item is taken out of its box and the firmware is updated, is it still new old stock or is that technically refurbished?

What if some electronic specification or industry standard had changed since the item was manufactured and a part was changed. Is it then still new old stock or is it now reconditioned, or refurbished?

I used to know a freelancer who worked for DELL as a field engineer repairing laptops. DELL would ship a load of parts for laptop models still in warranty so that the engineers always had what they needed in stock. When certain models became out of warranty DELL did not want the spares back so these engineers would sell the parts online for extra cash advertising them as new old stock or like new.

I find it interesting how we define an item’s value in terms of how old it is and how much, if any, use it has had. Bare in mind that something that has been in storage for a long time does not necessarily equate to something that is as good as something manufactured yesterday. I’ve known electronic devices that have been in storage for months and even years to revert back to factory defaults, to have corrupt memory, or for the battery to completely drain, or leak, to the point that it is no longer fit for purpose.

When considering purchasing new old stock it’s worth considering how much time is represented by the “old”. How long has it sat on a shelf? Both new and old are parameters of time. Consider the difference between the new (date of manufacture) and old (today’s date).

When does it get classed as refurbished? When it is taken out of the box and refreshed with new software? Is that classed as still new?

Thoughts on AI music

I experimented with listening to AI music. Some of it was good. But I wanted to remove it from my feeds. I couldn’t. It had worked its way into the algorithm. More and more AI music was being suggested to me. I went out of my way to search and play tracks from known human musicians. It got better at offering me better AI music.

There’s more options, of all genres. The AI music creators can churn out tracks in hours, albums in days. So many in fact that you can spot them a mile away. The better ones are harder to spot. Even the mainstream news is picking up on how good they are getting. Being unable to track down evidence of the artists existence in the real world. The artist and label having no real-world presence.

Does it matter if the music is good and you enjoy it? From a consumer perspective, not so much. But from a musicians perspective? If listener count isn’t increasing but the amount of AI music being played is, that means more payments are going to the creators of AI music and not actual musicians. Plus it takes far less time, a lot less time to create AI music than music that requires real instruments, singers, a recording studio, fuel, food, transportation etc.

And I guess it does affect some consumers. The fans. It’s not as if you can follow an AI artist on Instagram. Can you? You certainly can’t go to their live performances, unless they use holograms and a lot of technology. Would you want their autograph? Hey you write great prompts, I loved the end result. Could you sign my iphone?

What are your thoughts on AI music?

Just ask it

Humans can be lazy. My thinking is that AI is becoming more popular because it helps us find information faster. If we have a question and we search for an answer using a search engine, we then have to browse the links that it offers ourselves. We have to read and digest data and then review what we’ve read and determine if we can answer our question.

With AI it’s as if someone has already done all the hard work for you, the reading, digesting, and analysing. We just have to ask it our question and it will attempt to answer it as best as it can. We then have to trust (but verify) the answer provided and we are done. Much faster. Lazy but efficient.

AI and OSINT

With OSINT a lot of the fun is in uncovering the information, finding connections, uncovering useful data that leads to the next node and so on. Assuming you know where to look, or how to analyse the data in the first place that is.

Using AI in OSINT investigations isn’t cheating if it helps unblock you, or helps you make progress where you were stuck. It may suggest alternative sources, or recommend tools. It can be like having a virtual OSINT investigator with you whenever you need it. You still have to drive, to direct, to be able to think and ask the right questions in order for it to be of use. It’s not cheating if you are learning.

Turning your driveway into a forecourt

I was reading up about a company that wants to turn your domestic EV charger into a business. You sign up, configure your availability periods, and voila! Your charger appears on a map for other customers to see. Let’s say they are in Oxford and they need to charge their EV, they open the app and can see what chargers are available nearby. They can see your charger’s fees, reliability and charging speed.

This got me thinking about the implications of this business model. For one, these chargers were sold as domestic chargers. They are not meant for 24/7/365 use by multiple vehicles. Does the charger manufacturer’s warranty cover such use? Also what about your home insurance? You are technically turning your driveway into a forecourt. And as most domestic chargers charge slowly, the customers will most likely be hanging around for a while. Free parking! But what is your public liability insurance like? What if their car catches fire?

I like the idea of being able to earn some extra cash from your EV charger, especially if the energy is free from solar generation or a special EV tariff. But consideration should be given to all aspects of what essentially is running a business.

Trust but verify

I find myself using AI a lot. Like a lot. It’s slowly replacing Google for me. I use it to answer questions rather than trying keyword combinations first in a search engine. I usually get my answers much faster that way.

I have one rule when using AI: Trust but verify.

I check everything it says or recommends, especially if I intend to act on it in some way. Depending on any associated risks or costs I’ll check that its answer is complete and that it hasn’t missed anything. An alternative option for example.

Trust but verify.

Fast Tech

We are an impatient lot. We love our fast food and our fast tech. The latter, a term used to define cheap electronic gadgets and devices. You can go online and have one delivered to you tomorrow for less than the cost of a meal.

Portable battery chargers, adapters, fans, night lights, wireless doorbells, motion sensors, bag trackers, and just about anything else that you or someone can dream up and develop cheaply and have shipped by slow boat from Asia to your country for you purchase next day delivery.

These gadgets use a lot of rare earth minerals and other materials that are both costly to collect, manufacture, and recycle. The result is that all this fast tech is ending up in landfills and amateur processing plants around the world. Just look on YouTube at the videos of people collecting circuit boards to melt off the precious metals, or others burning the plastics to clear the mountains of e-waste. It is both damaging to the environment and human health. Yet we keep buying more and more of this fast tech because it’s cheap and serves a current need, just like fast food.

Has AI killed SEO?

People use search engines to find answers to questions, and today’s search engines are using AI to answer most of those questions. Gone are the days when the web sites with the strongest keyword match were shown first. Those days are long gone. In the last few years the first four or five links were usually sponsored anyway, so no amount of SEO tricks would get you above them. Now, above the sponsored links is AI, attempting to answer the searcher’s question, pushing your heavily SEO’d content further down the forever scroll.

So has AI killed SEO? Yes and no. Yes if your aim is to get your content on the first page and your end goal is traffic. No if you sell or market the product that is the answer to the question. If someone wants to know what is the best in a certain product category then your aim is not to SEO that you are the best, but get the customer feedback that you are the best. That way AI is more likely to mention your product.

So yes I believe that AI has greatly affected the SEO industry. The game has changed from one where content is king, to positive mentions are king.

Technology of the past

I walked by a public payphone. One of those old red boxes you hardly see anymore. There was a phone inside. Also rare. Not a collection of second hand books or a defibrillator. An actual phone.

It took me back to my University days. I practically lived in those phone boxes. I knew where every one was within walking distance of campus. I didn’t have a mobile phone, yet. I used calling cards to phone friends all over the world. We used messaging services and mailboxes.

I started thinking about all the technology I used to use that my children will never use, or possibly see, outside of a technology museum. My Grandma’s rotary dial telephone. The kitchen phone with its long curled cable so you can hand the phone to someone in the dining room. The VHS player, or VCR. Cassette players, record players, mini disc players, even CD players. Full fat TVs, walkmans, pagers, PDAs, and tiny flip phones. All gone, replaced with the latest technology and digital streams.

There’s still a few public payphones around though. For now.

Refining RSS feeds

I’ve written my own RSS feeds, by hand. A long time ago now. I still like the idea of not having to visit a website to look for articles of interest, to have everything from your favourite sites all in one place, updated in near real time fed straight into my phone.

There can be too much noise though. I find myself refining often, like an OCD minimalist. Sorting, organising, refining. Ensuring that there is less noise and more signal. Until nothing gets through and you miss stuff. So you add it all in again and start refining once again. Repetitive.

Interests change, so you have to cull what was once interesting but is now dull. You add new content. Browse today’s trending topics. Anything worth adding? Adding and refining.

RSS. Refining Signal Streams.