Everyday Tech Myths: Free For All!

[Guest]

Tech myths of the week: Can you squeeze ink out of a dead printer cartridge? Can gaming make kids violent? Can geeks gone wild get by on solar power?

Everyday Tech Myths: Free For All! : Read more

 

[cangelini]

Team American taught me that freedom isn't free.

 

[cangelini]

That's Team America

 

[anamaniac]

Nice article.

The ink one didn't catch my eye (because I'm not the one who pays for the ink).
For the solar bit, I have studied a bit into the topic, and I personally believe that we still need massive amounts of R&D into it. Sure clean nuclear fusion is a great goal, and eventual clean matter/antimatter (and hopefully something better eventually), but solar power mades a great step infront. It is also a great way to invest into nano technology. I'm going to stop now... so.. much... to....say...

The violence discussion is the one tht really lured me.
The biggest issues I find is:
a) How impressionable is the child? This is likely thebiggest point. If you tell your kid to kill someone, does he?
b) The addiction of some video games.
I personally a) doesn't affect me (black baby killing games? bring it on... but make it zombie baby's so I don't get sued... oh wait, scratch that apparantly). I'm a non-violent person. If I was raised the classic Christain way my mother tried, I certainly would have. Video games actually saved me from that (or so I believe).
However b) is a major topic with me. Like any substance, some people can control it, and some can't. I can't. I had a brother doing heroin, cocaine, and meth casually and easily got away from it, but any MMORPG is absolutely life draining for me. I always need my next fix. I try to play duller games just to avoid that.

One advantage to teaching kids violence however...
Teaching someone to stop being a wuss.
A non violent person is MUCH easier to take advantage of.
I've used violence before, but always with reason. It was that ~or~ be completely screwed. Don't have long enough to call the cops, and parents/teachers won't do anything? Take care of your own business any way you know how.

I certainly don't advocate violence at all, but sadly enough, sometimes IT IS the best immediate option.
E.g. Bullys. All I see is people saying "tell somebody" etc...
Guess what, that doesn't always work. Sometimes bullyingy can get horrid, such as my best friend being forced to call the cops and eventually getting a restraining order just so he could feel safe.
I had some bullying issues, and they could have escaladed that far, had I not finally told them off... with force.

Sorry for the rant. But I honestly believe violence does have its place even among modern society. Self preservation being key.

 

[quantumrand]

For those interested in utilizing solar power for their back country LAN parties or whatnot, you can make the setup much more practical by sacrificing a bit of mobility.

Using a 12V battery (ie a car battery), a solar panel charging solution (capable of charging the battery of course, like 18V output), and a power inverter, you can get quite an extended use out of the setup.

With a decent battery alone, usage will be extended considerably. Adding a decent solar charger can give you a 30%-50% increase in usage duration.

 

[knutjb]

I have been through a lot of printers. I thought the HP cartridges were a scam, not that all the competition was incredibly better. When I printed a lot of pictures I moved to an Epson medium size 13X19 print and the cartridge life was good, not great since they leave a fair amount inside so the printer head won't dry out. I went to an Archival grade ink and the quality was better than Epson's and cheaper if I filled them. The down side was that if I didn't use the printer a couple times a week I would have to spend time cleaning the heads, something not really needed with the factory carts. So it depends on how much you use it. If you print a large number of photos there are a lot of options that will provide better than factory results at a much lower cost. I have had great service from http/www.inksupply.com/ but shopped around for paper, I really like Epson's matte for it's price/performance, glossy doesn't live as long as matte.

 

[gcolefla]

just did a bing search (lol I googled), and I found people that hit 4ghz from 1.1 to 1.2v, I believe stock is 1.325. Undervolting tests would be great because (under)volting is typically ignored when trying to reach a high clocked and efficient system.

 

[gcolefla]

sorry that comment above was for a different article.

 

[Marcus52]

William Van Winkle: "Within most myths, there’s at least a shred of truth."

See, here's where you're wrong. People DO make things up out of nothing more than a desire to be seen as 'right' (correct). Myths very often have nothing to do with anything and are total flights of fancy.

 

[Honis]

I'm glad to see a parent who knows they are responsible and know learning with kids starts with the parents, and later in life is reinforced by the parents.

I play violent video games now, but under my Dads roof (its still a rule when I visit :-/) no game depicting the killing of people or contained cursing and blood. We managed to skirt the rule a bit for Tomb Raider and similar games since the games weren't about killing people. I'm curious to know what my Dad would think about Mirrors Edge, but he doesn't own a system it was released on.

I'm liking these articles keep it up! Just don't take it into Myth-busters failure where you actually think your results are scientific and indisputable ;-)

Myth suggestion: A windowed or all acrylic case releases harmful electromagnetic discharges (radiation, magnetic fields, etc.) I heard this one about 3 years ago. I know the computer parts emit some kind of magnetic field and metal cages (boxes) block/absorb them but I have no means to measure the output from my windowed case verse my all metal case (swapping the hardware from case to case to keep the parts consistent would be a pain too).

 

[williamvw]

Marcus52,

Not to diverge off onto a total tangent, but I'd argue that both of us are abusing the word "myth." I did a lot of primitive religion and mythology studies years ago -- Jospeh Campbell material and all that. We often use the word myth as a synonym for "a lie," which is totally wrong...or at least as wrong as something can be that's fallen into popular usage. So if we're going to take this modern misuse of the word "myth" as meaning "straight-up falsehood," then yes, you're right.

But if we take the actual meaning, then we get a different picture. Webster's gives four definitions (http/www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/myth), and I gravitate toward the first: "a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon." Myths are stories that reflect the foundational beliefs of a culture. Read up on Joseph Campbell and you'll see how he shows Star Wars (IV through VI, not the prequel tripe) reflecting the age-old myth of the hero's father-quest. Is Star Wars just a bunch of made up fiction? Of course. Do the movies' themes speak to some very deep-seated cultural values within us and express them in a modern way? Yes. That's the truth within the myth.

So I misuse the word "myth" here for the sake of convention. Not many people want to wander off on these academic, philosophical meanderings. When I call the idea of "violent games beget violent kids" a myth, I'm speaking out of convention, not strict accuracy. And yet...through the media we get these stories (school shootings, etc.) in which violent kids are blamed on violent games, and perhaps the underlying force at work there is a deep-seated fear of unknown technology. The grown-ups are searching for answers, some sort of meaning to help make sense of the chaos and violence before them. Our ancestors blamed the unknowable gods for chaos and pain and made stories about them. Some of us blame unknowable technology and create stories through the media. Are these stories factually and causally accurate? Not always. Do they spring from underlying cultural fears and realities? Quite possibly. So is the violent video game thing a myth? You decide.

And on that note, I think I'll go play some LEGO Star Wars. ;-)

 

[williamvw]

Honis,

GREAT suggestion! I'll try to hunt that one down for the next installment. Maybe the Intel people will give me access to some help.

 

[quantumrand]

[citation][nom]Honis[/nom]Myth suggestion: A windowed or all acrylic case releases harmful electromagnetic discharges (radiation, magnetic fields, etc.) I heard this one about 3 years ago. I know the computer parts emit some kind of magnetic field and metal cages (boxes) block/absorb them but I have no means to measure the output from my windowed case verse my all metal case (swapping the hardware from case to case to keep the parts consistent would be a pain too).[/citation]

I think that myth probably has to do with the fact that acrylic cases will store static electricity due to the fact that they provide no form of grounding. This static charge could be construed as an electric field (often confused by the layman as a magnetic field).

 

[erigolhuhu]

Great great great artile ...

 

[theuerkorn]

In general I agree that a healthy mind in a decent environment won't turn to the dark side just because he/she played video games. HOWEVER, change the conditions and the human mind becomes much more susceptible to the rules of the artificial reality in games. Take a depressed individual who withdraws into a world where solving conflicts consists of killing, and the consequences are nothing more than a respawn. The problem with the latest games is that they're able to picture it very realistically and the mind is not necessarily able to always understand it's not real. That's something that's easily overlooked when making references to older games. Overall it sometimes isn't such a big step anymore to take the solution into the real world -- it basically looks the same and acts the same with the exception that death is real. That's a fact that may not become obvious until it's actually there.

It's also a matter of how the game sells death or violence. Is it something gruesome and with consequences to the story, or is a joking matter with cool comments (Bad Company) and glorified graphics?

 

[mrmessma]

I would just like to say that nuclear power (referring to fission) is pretty essential seeing as how roughly 60 million americans get their electricity from it. Other than that, good article, and though it might have an inkling of contribution, I think violent children have bigger problems than violent games.

 

[mrmessma]

I would just like to say in reference to the 2nd sentence of the second paragraph, that nuclear power (referring to fission) is pretty essential seeing as how roughly 60 million americans get their electricity from it... Other than that, good article, and though it might have an inkling of contribution, I think violent children have bigger problems than violent games.

 

[old_fart_again]

I hope the writer knows more about the technologies discussed than they do about geography - The Cascade Mountains are NOT halfway between Portland and the Beach - they are East of Portland.

The mountains "half-way" between Portland and the beach are called "The Coast Range" in Oregon.

 

[DarkMantle]

Great article.

 

[Guest]

how do you make solar panels
wow... found it interesting... hope it'll be beneficial for me and my friends...