Boredom-bred Tech Ideas

I have been hearing people discrediting open source software many times over the last few months. And I just don't like the way they are putting it, especially people who are selling products. When comparing their products with open source software, they need to stop using the excuse "it's insecure because it's open source", or "it's not as good a product because it's open source", or "because there is no support it is not a good choice", also "because anyone can submit code to be included in the software there might be malicious code". These are some of the weakest arguments I have ever heard -- they could have compared features, how their product is better, how having a support for the software can help them, and more. These arguments are much better and hold much more water. But they choose to discredit open source software so that the clients will buy their products. Firstly, open source projects *can* be more...

Phones are getting higher in price year by year, in the name of "better performances" or "better features". Are they really worth the premium? Are they worth the ever- hiking price tags? I mean personally, I won't spend my money on a S$2000 phone. I would already be complaining if the phone is exceeding the S$600 mark. But still, don't get me wrong - these phones are not bad per say, but for the price, they are not amazingly good either. Are they usable? Definitely. Are they going to knock my socks off? ... No. The last time a phone knocked my socks off was when I got myself a VKWorld T2 (a 3G Android Flip phone) back in 2016, but my socks were put back on quickly (ha!) When the phone broke down within months of me using it. Then again, considering its price of SG$150, nothing of value was lost. Nowadays, when I shop for phones, I keep my budget to SG$200. Xiaomi proved to be the reliable brand in this price range. Their phones are low in price, but are ...

I have never enabled any of the voice assistants in any of the device I own/owned, nor have I owned any voice assistant devices. " WHATTTTTTT??? " Yes. I have never liked the idea of a company being able to use my voice to allow them to earn money. Don't believe me? Use your personal assistant and ask it to search for something. The next time you visit any webpages that serves advertisements, keep an eye out for advertisements that was tailored to the search term you used. While I understand that these companies need to keep our voices to improve their speech to text services, I am not comfortable with the fact that our voices can be used to serve us advertisements. Thus effectively earning money out of our voices. Also, I agree that such devices are out there to make our lives easier, lazier, and cozier (in a good way). And they are versatile too! You can connect these devices to make your home a smart home. It still does not change the fact that our voices are used to g...

Ah the new Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+. The next in line of fresh new Raspberry Pis. But in my honest opinion, I find the RPis... More to be desired . Don't get me wrong, the RPis are great for what they can be used for. But there is a strong emphasis (at least in my experience with the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B) on *light* . On the RPi 2B, I have had troubles with the UI working not smoothly, especially when the web browser is opened. And these are on a Quad-Core SoC on the RPi, effectively affecting the ability to even multitask. A few issues I can see are stemming from the hardware to begin with... The RAM is LPDDR2. I could see that sticking to LPDDR2 is a cost saving measure to keep the prices of RPis low (I'd say RPi's price is quite low for a product of it's calibre). However there are boards out there that come with LPDDR3 or even LPDDR4 RAMs that can provide higher clock speeds (but with these come a higher price point). The Storage is Running off microSD W...