Tuesday, 22 October 2024

TV Solutions with Smarthings

I remember when we just had BBC1 and ITV. We were used to just that, until a thing called Sky dish and cable TV came around. Then we had internet. No one thought that internet was going to take over. We just sent messages and looked up stuff using Netscape. The physical world ruled. We all got the new films from Blockbuster VHS tapes. I loved going to Blockbuster, to decide what we were going to have. Then came CD's. 



A revolution took place. CD's were taking over. Lovefilm said just order it and we will send the CD it to you. Suddenly CNN and MTV hit us with cable TV. It was a tsunami. BBC and ITV were seriously hit. That's what we defeated. No more news manipulation by these two juggernauts. Internet and Cable TV and Satellite TV was our world. Now it's 2024 and all of that has disappeared. It's all streaming to you. I decided to get a Samsung 27" monitor with Bluetooth. I got my old Samsung Note backup phone to get all the apps and sites with great TV. Boom I got away from the old TV systems. No more anything to do with TV apps and connections. Just get a cheap Samsung TV with Smarthings and you are done. I have an old phone that is now a controller and connector to allow the apps and websites and extra tools that give me the stuff I need. 

Those extra tools are things that are not allowed on TV internet connections. For example there are special browsers, that connect you to special sites and block unwanted things. I am not going to go into details. If you use them on your mobile, or on your laptop, then you know what I mean. The great thing is that you can clean your mobile and be updated. You are free from the TV operating system. 

Friday, 16 February 2024

Dumb AI

Dumb AI: Guess what, AI is not that intelligent after all. How dumb can you get for goodness sake? You would think fighting cybercrime would be the first thing AI would be used for. Apparently not. They are "selling defensive tools for a problem they are helping to create".


I began selling IT as a simple salesman at Currys. We were told to sell antivirus software, or else our jobs were on the line. You would have the typical scenario, where a person would come to the store and look at the cheapest laptop. I would approach them, and ask whether they could tell the difference between the different ones. They would look at one good specification in one, and see another different good specification in another. They would get more and more confused. Choice was not helping them. I then would tell them that the cheapest one, would not be able to run the best antivirus software. Would they like to see a demo of that? There was this awesome video, of how long it would take for someone to take over your computer, if it had no or poor protection. At that point they would immediately know what feature was the most important, and would buy the most expensive one with the full blown top antivirus software.

So many people buy Apple just for this reason alone. This is the best commentary in Apple's defense. But you can't clean the files yourself and see exactly what the change is in your Apple device. You never know when it was cleaned. It's like having a professional cleaning service come around and you always think to yourself, "did they really clean that part of the room?". So I roll up my sleeves and get it done with a specialist tool. You have to learn to maintain your device. No one can wash your hands for you. Simple.

One thing that really gets me on Apple software, is that you can't shut down all the windows in one go. Also Apple will always remember where you were last. Well I don't want it to know where I was last. As convenient that may seem, it is actually a privacy issue. So be careful when you are using an Apple. I always reboot my iPad after I have used it to watch Apple TV. 

Apple TV is actually really useful for exactly the same reason. It remembers what I had glanced at. Which is great if you want to backtrack, or be told that there is a new episode. That's why it's becoming the streaming consolidator's choice. As time goes by Apple TV will be the best one stop shop. But, and there is always a "but", it doesn't keep Netflix shows in its watched list. You need Google TV for that. But then it doesn't keep tabs on everything else that well. So the war is on between the streaming and TV consolidators. What you are looking at is what they want to know about. 

I find that telling Netflix or Prime or Sky how much I liked something, really helps in getting the system to recommend entertainment. I do the same with Facebook. I click on stuff that I want it to send ads to me for. Use Duckduckgo browser, unless you want Facebook to find products for you and place ads in your feed. So the bottom line is, get the cyberspace snooper work for you.