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When were you last truly amazed by technology?


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Old 24-12-2016, 23:24
CravenHaven
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My Sinclair Radionics Project 60 fm radio tuner. Uses phaselock loop circuit, just like spaceships. Put your hand near it, automatically ''locks onto'' a different random radio station. It's things like this, that made Uncle Clive (sinclair) into a ''living legend'' ...........
a legend of British entrepeneurship. After the apocalypse the troglodytes will worship things like this, and wobbly ram-packs.
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Old 24-12-2016, 23:29
Brian The Dog
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I do feel that the word "Hologram" is so getting abused nowadays.

A 2D projection onto anything even if it looks like it's floating in mid air is NOT a Hologram.
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Old 25-12-2016, 00:05
srpsrp
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I've always been interested in using computers for making music.As a kid I had a MSX with a MIDI port and a Sound Machine sampler on my Spectrum. I spent some time learning Logic Pro on the Mac a few years back and it is simply amazing.

The last time I was really overcome with tech geek joy-dome though was when I first played my iPod touch on my Yamaha home cinema amp wirelessly, it made me cry a little ( guess that was before i had a Chromecast !)
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Old 25-12-2016, 01:16
Arcana
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I don't know about 'amazed' but the last time I can remember thinking 'wow, this is cool' is when I realised (belatedly) you could plug a USB drive into your router and instantly network it.

Previously I'd had the drive connected to my desktop and had to wake the desktop every time I wanted to access the USB drive from other gadgets...which didn't work very well.
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Old 25-12-2016, 01:26
Versailles
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When my 16 year old son told me, and then showed me, that he could use his mobile phone as a remote controller on a tv which was placed in the hospital waiting room.

He had hurt his knee in a football match, so we were at the hospital, just waiting to see the doctor. The tv was an ordinary flat screen tv which was situated on the wall, and not a tv that any of us had any connection to.

I was amazed by what the mobile could to. Although, for many/most people that would maybe be common knowledge?

That was the latest, and I very often find myself amazed by technology.
Mankind is just wonderful, in what we can achieve.
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Old 25-12-2016, 01:32
Dix
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For me, Google Earth. I remember when I discovered it, I spent hours on it just traveling around random places around the world and had never experienced anything like it.

In terms of tech I've never personally experienced, a recent item I saw on the news was amazing - radio waves targeted at a specific part of a guys brain in place of invasive surgery fixed his 20 year tremoring hand instantly. Incredible.
..and repairing sight. But can't say the same re my 2 laptops, as that's one technology which needs a huge overhaul, and a re-think, or scrap it altogether!

Last edited by Dix : 25-12-2016 at 01:34. Reason: left out word
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Old 25-12-2016, 01:38
Versailles
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I moved to a new town and the post office miseries told me I couldn't tax my car, I'd have to drive 20 miles. They were lying and very lazy.
I have no idea what taxing a car is, so now I must use google to find out

It's obvioulsy something that we don't have in Norway. Or we have it (paying car tax..? We do have that, once a year, it's 350 pounds), but we do it a different way. A way that don't require a post office

I am dying to find out, so off to google I am!
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Old 25-12-2016, 02:07
Versailles
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When my 16 year old son told me, and then showed me, that he could use his mobile phone as a remote controller on a tv which was placed in the hospital waiting room.

He had hurt his knee in a football match, so we were at the hospital, just waiting to see the doctor. The tv was an ordinary flat screen tv which was situated on the wall, and not a tv that any of us had any connection to.

I was amazed by what the mobile could to. Although, for many/most people that would maybe be common knowledge?

That was the latest, and I very often find myself amazed by technology.
Mankind is just wonderful, in what we can achieve.
On the other hand, I am sometimes underwhelmed by technology.
My brother and his wife recently bought a new car. It is an electric car, with enough space for them and their children.

The price was 23.000 pounds. However, the car has to be charged after just a few miles, and more often when it is cold outside. So when my brother visits our parents, 40 kilometres from his own home, my father has to roll out the long cord, out the window, and charge the car. This will take about 30-40 minutes.

That is just ridiculous, and is one of these things which we will look back at in 10 years time, and say "You remember when people had to charge their car with long cords through the window, and it took for ages to to charge?"

I find the whole electric car (in this form) thing ridiculous. Surely, that is not the future when it comes to cars. It has to be wind or water. Or maybe air (not as in flying)
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Old 25-12-2016, 02:45
RobinOfLoxley
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Norway has been used for over a 100 years for Antarctic Technology testing (with mixed results)

Not sure I would even trust an Electric Car in the South of France.

The batteries aren't sufficiently reliable or convenient yet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Bickerton

Read his "Born Adventurer" if you see it. It's fascinating. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Born-Advent.../dp/0750940123
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Old 25-12-2016, 03:43
Mandark
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Those TV text services in the 80s like Ceefax and Prestel. Was always fascinated to hear the TV sound in the background as you clicked through news and sports headlines. It was like a proto web.

More recently, the first true smartphones like the Nokia N95. It could surf the web and you could buy third party programs (apps as we now call them) for it from different online stores like Handango. You could see the future. No App Store lock ins like today!

Even more recently, Google Streetview. Has transformed the way we work in land use planning.
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Old 25-12-2016, 05:28
SegaGamer
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I do feel that the word "Hologram" is so getting abused nowadays.

A 2D projection onto anything even if it looks like it's floating in mid air is NOT a Hologram.
Exactly. It's like that Hoverboard thing that was bought out a while back. Talk about false advertisement. In no way is that thing a Hoverboard, it's on two bloody wheels!!
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Old 25-12-2016, 05:46
Trulytrue
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Last year I see something where they can manipulate a recording (it might have even been real time , bit early for thinking) of anyone to say anything they want it to say complete with facial expressions.

For the life of me cannot think what it was called but there is a video on it.

The possibilities of this are pretty scary to be honest.
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Old 25-12-2016, 08:44
noise747
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I think that receiving satellite TV is pretty amazing. Basically picking up a signal that's the power of a light bulb from 23,000 miles away with a piece of shaped metal and some electronics, still amazes me!
Certainly now with the size of the dishes, we have Madley satellite station up the road, opened around 1975, the dishes are huge and they needed them that large to pick up the signal and now they have a load of smaller dishes that does the same thing. Just shows how much technology have moved on.
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Old 25-12-2016, 08:48
noise747
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I keep getting amazed by technology, while some people may not think so i am interested in technology, even if some of it seems to be a bit scary, certainly lately with so much of it wanting to know who you are and what you are doing.

The last bit of tech i got was my chomecast and chromecast audio, both amazing really.
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Old 25-12-2016, 09:01
zx50
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I keep getting amazed by technology, while some people may not think so i am interested in technology, even if some of it seems to be a bit scary, certainly lately with so much of it wanting to know who you are and what you are doing.

The last bit of tech i got was my chomecast and chromecast audio, both amazing really.
That's probably just to do with advertising. The internet has become that popular and anything, or some things that connect to it, will be seen as a great way to boost revenue by quite a bit.
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Old 25-12-2016, 09:39
lemoncurd
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My problem is that for the last 20 years, nothing in consumer electronics amazes me any more, because I work in the design of many of the complex chips that goes into the arena. So I already get 2-3 years notice of what's coming up.
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Old 25-12-2016, 10:39
RobinOfLoxley
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As an Electronic Systems and PCB designer, I was somewhat downhearted, many years ago, to find there is an awful lot of noise radiated through the atmosphere and conducted from Switched Mode Power Supplies.

Every single video circuit I was designing needed multiple noise suppression techniques (short tracks and cables, low noise decoupling capacitors and resistors, extra voltage regulators on already supposedly regulated feeds, ferrites, multiple grounding without causing earth loops, steel cases instead of aluminium)

If any one was wrong, the noise was undiminished.

On a particular Fibre Optic project, I could just not get rid of it.

I needed a TV Tuner type can around my receiver. But how to do that when prototyping?

Too expensive, difficult and long lead time to get a sub-contractor to make it and I didn't know what I wanted anyway.

A gut feeling told me that the little Cafe Creme Cigar tins might be useful and I went and bought some with Petty Cash.

Superb. Magnetic and Electrical shielding and I could cut the thin metal easily with shears to any desired shape. I got to smoke the Cigars too

Of course, several return visits for more were needed as I refined my design.

I would have used baked bean cans, but the steel was too thick for easy bodging. Honest Boss!
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Old 25-12-2016, 13:57
welshkid
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The Martian probe that just refuses to stop.

The Opportunity rover landed on Mars in January 2004 with a planned mission of 90 Martian days. 13 years (minus 1 month) later and it's still going.
I am so so happy that someone mentioned this.

It really is amazing. I remember watching live streaming online from Mission Control of it's landing, was so nerve wracking
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Old 25-12-2016, 14:10
eggchen
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On the other hand, I am sometimes underwhelmed by technology.
My brother and his wife recently bought a new car. It is an electric car, with enough space for them and their children.

The price was 23.000 pounds. However, the car has to be charged after just a few miles, and more often when it is cold outside. So when my brother visits our parents, 40 kilometres from his own home, my father has to roll out the long cord, out the window, and charge the car. This will take about 30-40 minutes.

That is just ridiculous, and is one of these things which we will look back at in 10 years time, and say "You remember when people had to charge their car with long cords through the window, and it took for ages to to charge?"

I find the whole electric car (in this form) thing ridiculous. Surely, that is not the future when it comes to cars. It has to be wind or water. Or maybe air (not as in flying)
I was in Oslo recently and saw loads of those Teslas, and that little BMW pocket sized electric car too. The electric car seems to be something Norway has embraced.
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Old 25-12-2016, 14:15
zx50
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I was in Oslo recently and saw loads of those Teslas, and that little BMW pocket sized electric car too. The electric car seems to be something Norway has embraced.
Hopefully the UK will start embracing electric vehicles within the next three years.
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Old 25-12-2016, 21:04
Keyser_Soze1
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Man's red fire.

We have only just discovered it in Hull.
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Old 25-12-2016, 22:46
Brian The Dog
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My problem is that for the last 20 years, nothing in consumer electronics amazes me any more, because I work in the design of many of the complex chips that goes into the arena. So I already get 2-3 years notice of what's coming up.
So the elephant is the room here is...

So what is coming next then?
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Old 25-12-2016, 22:46
JimothyD
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Amazon Go grocery store is a 'wow' thing for me. Theoretically, it isn't a big leap, and it is unusual to see an internet giant wanting to reinvent bricks and mortar stores. The main thing about it is how futuristic it appears to be - walk in to a store, get what you need, walk out and you're billed via your Amazon account. What really amazes me is the tech behind the algorithms that allow it to work - to pick up an item and have it instantly added to your Amazon basket - then putting it back because you've changed your mind, and it immediately updates your basket. It's just ace. I love ideas that seem to be 2 years ahead of their natural development, because it feel futuristic.
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Old 25-12-2016, 22:53
JimothyD
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My problem is that for the last 20 years, nothing in consumer electronics amazes me any more, because I work in the design of many of the complex chips that goes into the arena. So I already get 2-3 years notice of what's coming up.
Well then surely what you apparently get notice of would occasionally impress or excite you?!

I work in automotive technology and am amazed by how connected car traffic management will completely change in the next 5 years. We'll have self-driving cars that can talk to each other, download information about the road they are on and behave in a way that is quite alien to how traffic operates as we know it. In the 2020s, cars will travel in platoons, nose to bumper at high speed like trains to increase efficiency. They'll be constantly talking to each other every millisecond, informing each other about hazards, optimum gear ratios etc...it'all be a complete revolution.
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Old 25-12-2016, 23:23
pericom
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An augmented reality app that can translate Kanji in real-time.
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