BlueLightning

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BlueLightning
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  • Woman accidentally discovers swallowed AirPods are acid resistant for nine hours

    BlueLightningBlueLightning
    This article (and the prior one) is a good reason only to wear $10 headphones when you are likely to fall asleep.  Picked up a few wired $7 Koss units and $10 Sony units on sale at Amazon two years ago.  Not sure how you'd swallow AirPods in your sleep.  An alternative would be to wear a mask like the guy on Silence of the Lambs!  Wonder if an insurance company would try to weasel out of covering incident.  Deductible and copay fees could be rather high.  
    watto_cobra

  • UGreen 300W GaN Charger review: Fast-charging with lots of high-power USB-C

    BlueLightningBlueLightning
    I'd want either a UL or Canadian Standards Association certification.  Probably some other certification agencies outside of North America...  

    Fast charging shortens the life of batteries, so it should only be used where REALLY needed (not for overnight charging).  I have a fast charger for use from a battery powered UPS (to charge cell phone during prolonged power outages of more than a day).  Probably should buy one to fit the cigarette lighter outlet in the car as well.  

    Should be able to hold off buying any new Apple products until 2027.  Good chance solid state batteries will be available before then.  Solid state batteries should be half the price, half the weight, half the size, and much less flammable.  VW plans to have them on their EV cars by 2026.  
    FileMakerFellerwatto_cobra

  • Apple TV+ first look deals suspended as Hollywood strikes continue

    BlueLightningBlueLightning
    Unsure about Apple TV+, but expect over the air network TV may be full of British and European productions (maybe with subtitles or dubbing in English, where needed).  Would expect the same on some cable channels.  We may also be given classic movies and old series episodes as replacements.  I've assembled a large list of old movies (some from the 1920s) on my bucket list of films to watch as time allows.  
    watto_cobra

  • Thunderbolt 5 launches with twice the speed of Thunderbolt 4

    BlueLightningBlueLightning
    mattinoz said:
    "Thunderbolt is the brand name of a hardware interface for the connection of external peripherals to a computer. It has been developed by Intel, in collaboration with Apple.[7][8] It was initially marketed under the name Light Peak, and first sold as part of an end-user product on 24 February 2011."  (Already 12+ years old.)  
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)  

    TB was originally intended to be an optical-based interface (thus the original name "Light Peak").  

    "On 24 May 2017, Intel announced that Thunderbolt 3 would become a royalty-free standard to OEMs and chip manufacturers in 2018, as part of an effort to boost the adoption of the protocol.[132] The Thunderbolt 3 specification was later released to the USB-IF on 4 March 2019, making it royalty-free, to be used to form USB4.[103][133][134] Intel says it will retain control over certification of all Thunderbolt 3 devices.[135] Intel also states it employs "mandatory certification for all Thunderbolt products".[136]"  
    (same link as initial wiki)  
    I think this is slightly incorrect as Lightpeak was never a commercial product it only ever made it as a tech demo so was it really Marketed under that name?
    Thunderbolt may have come from the project but was an entirely different sales pitch and an actual shipping product. 
    Found a blog discussion on Light Peak from about 12 years ago.  Never used it, but have used and/or heard of other optical protocols on Audio Visual, networking or telecom equipment, as well as on minicomputers and mainframes.  Other optical protocols are used on high end networking backbones at the carrier level (AT&T/Verizon/etc.).    
    https://www.computerworld.com/article/2470650/light-peak-is-dead--long-live-thunderbolt.html  

    Could have a miraculous rebirth at some time in the future.  Some of the high end TB cables (for longer lengths) have optical drivers and converters from copper to optical and back to copper.  Part of the reason the cables are so pricey.  Multiple types of fiber as well.  For the telecoms, and high end (none-TB) applications, multiple colors of lasers have been tried (used at the same time) to increase bandwidth (have not spent time to see if that is out of lab testing, but it has been patented).  Here is a 25 meter TB-3 optical cable from Corning (about $410).  
    https://www.amazon.com/Corning-Meter-Thunderbolt-USB-C-Optical/dp/B08CK31Z88/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=optical+thunderbolt+cables+by+Corning&qid=1694606373&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1&smid=A3JC02LVN0LU5G

    watto_cobra

  • US accuses Google of 'knowingly' breaking antitrust laws

    BlueLightningBlueLightning
    Doubt there is a mega cap US company that does not have something like an antitrust or restraint of trade proceeding in either the US, UK or EU (not to mention China).  About 20 years ago, it was MSFT in the US.  A decade or two before that, it was IBM.  About 100 years ago, it was NCR (and Standard Oil was somewhere in that general time frame).  A fair number of countries (or blocks of countries) have litigation against MSFT, GOOG and a bunch more over privacy or unfair competition.  
    beowulfschmidtwatto_cobra