January 14, 2020

Kyocera Dura-Force Pro2

Over Christmas, the battery life on my Blackberry Classic became untenable, the camera stopped working and aMac update meant that it would no longer talk to my desktop. Thus began the phone hunt, which was completed by Janury 4th.

It's been 10 days now, so here's a preliminary review.

Kyocera Dura-Force Pro2 is advertised as rugged and water resistant, the later is pretty impressive for a smartphone that still sports a USB-C as well as a headphone jack. This is accomplished by having plastic covers with rubber-like gaskets over these and the SIM card and memory card slots. The phone itself seems durable and the sapphire screen endured a recent mishap involving the phone falling 6 feet face down onto gravel without a scratch. Indeed, the phone is remarkably overbuilt for my needs, being rated for explosive atmospheres if sealed up and it is safe around blasting operations in airplane mode. If I were still in the Coast Guard I could take this on a boarding and inspection of a tanker.

The waterproof/gastight covers, while themselves solid, are secured by plastic tabs that seem both fiddly and flimsy and invite great care when opening and closing them. They do not look like they could be easily replaced, and the associated IFIXIT page does not have a repair/replacement guide for them. 

That being said, over the last 10 days there have been no issues and once closed, the covers are firm, flush and seem to be securely immobile. The gaskets themselves seem to be about a millimeter in diameter.

One reason I went with this rather than just getting a burner phone or something is that, quite unusually for a device sold through Verizon, this phone came unlocked, meaning it will be little problem to switch to another service provider like KDDI or NTT DoCoMo should that become advisable later this year.

Regarding the interface, I do not have any real experience with modern smartphones and after 12 years of the straightforward (but long dead) Blackberry OS I found the Android operating system to be somewhat non-intuitive. It also comes with an  selection of aggressive apps designed to not be easily dismissed and when one tries to dismiss them they often activate or try to extort money from you. Annoyingly, none of the mail applications will talk to my Earthlink E-mail account, though as one might expect G-Mail is a breeze. It also interfaces seamlessly with Outlook, Hotmail, EXchange and something called Yandex and there is a separate AOL app on the log in screen.


It does have exterior volume buttons which is a very nice thing. However, there are only 2 programmable exterior buttons, one of which is by default the camera button. Given that most phones don't even have that, this is, on balance, a huge plus. However, it does mean that one must look at one's phone to do most things with it. In this the phone is vastly better than most others, especially the i-Phones and as a complaint is admittedly boomerism on my part, but I don't like having to actually look at the thing for anything other than reading texts or looking at vidya. 
Excuse me.
I have to go yell at a cloud.



I'm back.

Holo and Grea don't get along very well, only exchanging the most perfunctory formalities. That is, unlike the old Blackberry, this android phone will not sync with my new iMac, though they will exchange files via blue tooth. In fairness, the fact that I own an iMac is not the phone's fault.

A note of caution regarding water. In contrast to a watch, where "water resistant" means usable to 150 feet,  the phone's warranty bottoms out at 6.5 feet (roughly 2 meters) which makes the inclusion of a underwater mode for the camera an interesting design choice, and potentially misleading.

That aside, just splash proofing is a very useful and desireable trait. This phone has survived one major drop and 10 days of rough use with nary a scratch.  In contrast to those wafer thin, bony foo-foo iPhone models, Greya's thicc....over half an inch thick (.53in)  which (in theory) makes for a much tougher phone and probably contributes to a battery capacity which is advertised as 21 hours talking on the phone and 13 days on standby. I can't talk for 21 hours but I got 4 days of intermittent use that included internet, listening to music and watching videos  without a charge before it got below 20%. 

Aside from the quirks of android, and a lot of aparrently non-deleteable apps I don't want, this seems to be a very solid phone. There is one other aspect to this piece of kit that is of note. Despite being water and gas tight, the IFIXIT page linked above notes that it is moderately easy to repair/replace speakers, cameras, batteries and buttons. While not unheard of, this design choice is certainly bucking some unwelcome trends and is to be lauded, especially given the robust nature of the phone. (Note that aftermarket parts will void the explosive atmosphere and blasting certification...if that's an issue for you.)


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March 10, 2019

Well, There's a Bad Side to Everything

*UPDATE: Welcome Dustbury readers!*

One of the Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Science Babes reports on the evolving opinions among the intelligentsia regarding the merits of distributing our metaphorical 'eggs' among interplanetary baskets, as well as freedom and individuality in general.



"Gimme a minute. I need more coffee and a couple of BCs after watching that."

Well, while she's composing herself, let's check her open tabs and hop right into this interview of Phil Torres, by the Publisher of Universe Today, astronomy podcaster Fraiser Cain.



OK. Now MY head hurts.

Phil Torres is an expert in 'existential risk assessment' (which sounds like a potentially depressing job) and in the interview, he and Mr. Cain discuss and speculate upon various, mostly man made total catastrophe scenarios until about 35 minutes in when Cain brings up the importance of human space settlement as a potential hedge against omnicical unpleasantness.

Torres is strongly opposed to this. He believes that space settlement greatly increases the possibility of the total extinction of all life. Among his reasons is the notion that low probabilities given enough time eventually approach a value of 1. Many omnicidal scenarios involving a disgruntled knave or careless researcher with access to a lot of technology unleashing something unpleasant (like a super-flu or grey goo). Thus increasing the technology level as well as number of people exponentially (as is likely with a Dyson Swarm) will increase the odds that someone will somehow kill everyone and everything. Furthermore, he postulates that  in an age of extremely powerful technologies, game theory dictates that these societies would have to kill each other at the first opportunity.
...
...
He goes a bit further and states that the biggest problem is the impracticality of having an effective system wide government with light hour, minute, day, year lags. There will be so many different groups that they won't be controllable, thus chaos will reign and, again, game theory will dictate that they all have to kill each other, for some reason.


While this odd conclusion serves on the one hand to reinforce my preconceived misgivings about certain strict secularists who seek to use game theory as a stand in for moralitya , as someone who doesn't pretend to be particularly expert on the topic, I strongly suspect that torres doesn't quite grok Game Theory, (you know, the thought processes that got us through the Cold War without a human extinction event).

Torres does offer some solutions to his postulated problem, between 49:50 and 52:08. They mainly involve not letting people colonize space and being ruled by what sure sounds like a global totalitarian surveillance state. But it's OK because Professor Existential Risk Assessor suggests that it be run by an A.I. (!) He also suggests modifying people through drugs and gene therapy to be more compliant, peaceful and docile.


"Golly! That doesn't seem dystopian at all; She says with bitter sarcasm before getting more coffee."


 This is the kind of stuff that you hear from some tipsy caller on late night AM radio right before they cut to an interview with Richard C. Hoaglandb.

But this isn't some secondhand report of what some shadowy figure at a conference allegedly said. This is a fellow who seems to be at least respectable. And he is openly advocating crazy horrible stuff.  

Alright, so a professor at a think tank is strong with the Cray-Cray. Honestly, this wouldn't warrant so many keystrokes were it not for the fact that this fellow is getting a lot of coverage right now, with this article being reprinted in a number of places.

And he's not actually alone in this view.

Daniel Deudney, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins has, for several years, been making the rounds with a similar message that space travel beyond LEO for earth observation is a waste, potentially dangerous to humanity as a whole and, indeed, immoral.

As I tend to avoid the sorts of totalitarians that to my dismay apparently inhabit college philosophy departments, encountering this anti-humanist claptrap was disheartening. However it was not as surprising as it might be in a sane, well adjusted world. You see, similar opinions albeit with different rationale have been percolating with increasing frequency for some years as the possibility of space settlement has become more plausible.

Some of this criticism is based on pessimistic (albeit science based) assessments of the practicality of, say, a Mars colony, but there's a certain 'crab bucket' dynamic in some of the pieces expressing skepticism of the whole enterprise.  Now, the proper response to these notions has been that if one doesn't approve or think it's safe, then one is free not to go.

However, the fatuous ivory tower arguments noted at the beginning are particularly troubling as they give those opposed to the expansion of humanity beyond this pale blue dot an argument based not upon bitter resentments, but upon the notion that men of letters say other people going forth to settle the void are a threat to Earth .

The arguments by Torres and Deudeny seem to me to be dubious at best. Even assuming that their notion that existence of people are a threat to peoples existence(!) and that more people represent a bigger threat, then you still have the the fact that the threat will never be zero until people don't exist. Presumably one wants to keep that variable at a nonzero value. As Torres himself points out, the probability of a catastrophe increases with time, so you're probably best advised to disperse targets, since something bad is going to happen eventually.

The notion that game theory requires a polity to destroy its enemies preemptively says rather more about the character of America's university philosophy departments than it does any prospective espatiers. Space is big enough that if two groups are culturally incompatible, they ought to be able to live apartc.

Of course the merits of the theory are beside the point. This is indicated by the ear to ear grin Professor Torres has on his face as he explains how "sub-optimal" it is that we need to restrict people's freedom, but that it's OK because the brilliant minds proposing this are "progressives'. Once again, we have a problem, a crisis, an existential threat, and like all such solutions for every other crisis real or imagined, the academy have decided that the solution is reduced personal autonomy, increased government power and re-education. And above all, this crisis requires that those who dare to dream and have the courage to try and wrest a living from a hostiled frontier never be allowed to escape.

Be aware as well, that those who demand we put all our metaphorical eggs in one basket, have a poor record of egg stewardship. For they have a tendency to embezzle those eggs to make omelets that never materialize.



a:The crazy, evil ones mostly

b: Seriously! Can you people please come up with a plan that does not sound like two dimensional villain in a grim-dark young adult novel. This would strain credulity as a parody. Hell, Prof. Deudney is literally advocating in one of the linked papers for one world government ASAP. Giving Alex Jones credibility helps no one except those who build water purifiers.

c: OTOH if the Westborro Church and Gay Aryan Thrust set up their O'Neal Cylinders next to each other, well that's their problem and if they kill each other then it's to our benefit aside from any need to clean up the debris field.
 
d:A lot of space enthusiasts do underestimate just HOW hostile space is. It's dry, radioactive, has no food and ventilation is charitably described as "poor".This doesn't mean that it's unlikely to be settled or undesireable to do so. Just that some paint too rosy a picture.

***************
"Science Babe" is actually Misaka Mikoto (or her 'sister') from A Certain Scientific
Railgun.
*******************
UPDATE: Edited particularly egregious run-on sentence. Replaced closing sentence that I'd managed to delete when I added the footnotes.

*******************


 

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November 22, 2018

On Giving Thanks



Art by Garibo

I hope that those of you in the States and Territories of the United States have a Happy Thanksgiving holiday and that everyone else has a pleasant day.  Remember, that today is not just about the turkey, it's also about perspective. Whatever curve-balls life throws at us there is still much to be thankful for. 

We live in an age of wonders. Most of us can reach into our pockets and pull out a device the size of a cigarette pack that will allow us to watch films that haven't haven't been screened in over a century, answer important questions, and communicate with people on other continents via a network that allows us access to nearly the sum of human knowledge.. We have medical capabilities that would have seemed to be sorcery a century ago. Most of us have access to luxuries such as refrigeration and a variety of food that a Chinese or Roman emperor would have envied. We have have largely cast off the odious shackles of racism, at least to the point that we can benefit from the glorious virtues of hybrid vigor and we stand on the cusp of becoming an interplanetary species. Despite the best efforts of censorious jerks, most of us still have the ability to communicate and speak our minds. There are, to be sure threats to all of these wonders and those who would intentionally or not bring them all down. To be sure we are not in "The best of all possible worlds" and there are very real challanges that face us, but we have so very much it is important to take a moment and give thanks for the wonders that we have.

Even though it might sometimes be hard to remember that. 
 
...as it surely was for those who had the misfortune to be present at the Pinedale Shopping Mall 40 years ago.


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August 18, 2016

Historical Perspective

The U.S. shows up at 14:25. 



Note that during the time represented by nearly 15 minutes of this 15:56 minute video (which slows down a bit at the end), slavery was an ubiquitous institution except in isolated locations for fleeting seconds. The fruits of the enlightenment are an aberration in history that have survived as of now for a far shorter time than the vast majority of nations. This is far from mankind's natural state and we desperately need to grasp how precious and fragile this anomalous blossoming of knowledge and human rights is. 

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September 08, 2013

This...Ummm...No






UPDATE: Come to think of it, I've SEEN this movie.


UPDATE 2: Time actually named this one of the 50 best inventions of 2010. Inexplicably, 3 years on, there seems to be no implementation of this amazing idea.
I should also belatedly mention that I got this via Brian Wang,.

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October 19, 2012

Oh My! This is a Thing of Beauty!







The desmugification process will take years...So it's heartening to finally see someone take the first step.

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January 10, 2008

Volkwagen 21

A people's car designed under a rather more benign regime than the most famous one....It's nearly as cute and given its price it may well be as successful.

Of course there is another "peoples car" that it might also emulate.

Time will tell.

I'm rooting for the Tata's.
Wait...that's not what I meant!..er..to say out loud.

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November 17, 2007

Up Ship!

    Airship Ventures is planning to begin operating a small Zeppelin out of Moffet Field for tours of San Fransisco Bay.

    The Zeppelin NT airships have had a superb saftey record thus far and are quite fuel efficient. 

They are also fricking Zeppelins...which makes them trancendentally cool.

    This type of Zeppelin is interesting because it generally operates slightly heavier than air. It gains the few hundred pounds of lift it needs from its fins or its vectorable propellors, though by dropping ballast it can float like a balloon if necessary. The design allows for far better foul weather performance and, as a bonus, a ground crew of as few as 3 which is a huge improvement over previous designs. Because of their rigid construction and compartmentation, Zeppelins are more robust than Blimps (which have no internal bracing).  

    If approved by the San Fransisco city council, this will be the first rigid airship to be based in the US since the decomissioning of USS Los Angeles (ZR3), and the first to be comercially operated.

    Besides the retrocool cool factor, Airships, because of their fuel efficiency have a lot of undevelloped potential for ultra low pollution comercial air travel, although they are slower than planes (about 120 kts max). They can also cary fairly heavy loads to remote areas and so have some potential as freightliners.

    On the military side, airships have great potential for Search and Rescue, Airborne Early Warning, Antisubmarine and mine clearance both at sea and, interestingly, over land using a big ground penetrating radar and other sophisticated sensors. The mines could be destroyed with cannon or if detected near a civillian dwelling a BD team could be landed. I read recently that one company (Airship Industries of the UK I think) did some considerable work in this arera but there were no takers. This last option gives the potential to clear large areas of  landmines quite efficiently.

Pic via Modern Airships which has scads of links concerning...well...modern airships.

 

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October 24, 2007

Wolfpackzapgun!

Chizumatic links to this important development in super science.

more...

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July 31, 2007

i-Debt

Wow...

Don't go roaming with the i-Phone.

I'm glad I'm not rich...or I'd be broke.

HT: Jerry Pournelle

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Advertisements of Yesteryear

The sort of ads we never see anymore....

...probably because most of them just creeped people out.


HT: Rand Simberg

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July 17, 2007

My First Blogad??

No not really, but Lynn over at A Sweet Familiar Dissonance has stumbled on to a  seriously cool online store.

With a name like United Nuclear you know its gotta be good!

Europium paint!
Cloud chambers!
Aerogels!
Radioactive decontamination spray (?!)
FREAKING TESLA COILS!!!!*



And thanks to Don for pointing out her blog!

*tesla coils do not actually freak

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June 27, 2007

Microsoft Table

Via Twentysided:

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June 24, 2007

Wallpapers Of Futures Past

Over at Paleofuture Matt has posted 3 retro-riffic screen savers!

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June 17, 2007

Jets are not Rockets...but Both are Cool.

Rand Simberg takes this Popular Mechanics article to task for calling the rocket pack being marketed by Go Fast International a jet pack.

In fairness this is the name they give their product.

It is true that the terms were clarified in the 50s or thereabouts to refer to jets as air-breathers, and rockets as those that carry their own oxidants, the terms were once interchangeable  and  the propulsion  (as opposed to fuel details) are pretty much identical (turbofans notwithstanding). However the capabilities of the systems are vastly different. Rand is absolutely right that a real jet pack would be much cooler than this as it would have orders of magnitude more range.

I want one!


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June 13, 2007

Law of the Sea Treaty....Moon Treaty

Rand Simberg has thoughts on both.

He is not enthused.

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The Great Ones Pass

Mr Wizard has died.

HT: Jerry Pournelle

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May 15, 2007

The Future's Gonna Suck!!...Mabey!!

Via Instapundit comes this interesting take by SciFi author Charlie Stross on the what the future has to offer....or not.

One important point he makes, that many predictors overlook, is the track record of past predictions...which, as the absence of a jet pack in my closet and a flying car in my driveway attest...is spotty at best.

The privacy implications are troubling as is the prospect of disastrous single-point failures if things like driverless cars really are mandated, but read the whole thing.

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