Anyone have examples of what you think are bullshit tech that is being promoted right now?

[Gingerbread Demon]

I'm iffy on this one. It was promoted online 3 years back but still on places like instagram there are claims of "hotel in space in 2027" like yeah sure bro. Pull the other one.

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Any other examples of "tech that might be bullshit?"

 

[Owain Taggart]

The ones I'm seeing all over FB these days are all the companies offering red light therapy, usually in the form of a mask that you would wear. It all seems like Pseudo science to me, and they're no doubt very expensive ways to get people to part with their money..

 

[Santaman]

Anything mentioning A.I. it's all bullshit..

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Anything mentioning A.I. it's all bullshit..

That's 99.99% of what's out there.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

The ones I'm seeing all over FB these days are all the companies offering red light therapy, usually in the form of a mask that you would wear. It all seems like Pseudo science to me, and they're no doubt very expensive ways to get people to part with their money..

It is. It's called Quackery... But stick the words health or science in there and people will flock to buy your crappy product that only cost $3.50 to actually make.

There was a local celebrity chef here in Australia called Peter Evans who was flogging a $10,000 fancy flashing LED device that was supposed to cure all kinds of diseases. He made a lot of money flogging this device during the pandemic

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yeah, that's the word. It was on the tip of my tongue. Lots of that being advertised on FB and they're all just chasing trends . Before that it was the white light therapy.

 

[Akiraprise]

Anything mentioning A.I. it's all bullshit..

I'm so tired of seeing the letters A.I. on nearly every single tech app or piece of hardware that's come out within the last year. It's such a vague all encompassing catch all we don't even know what it means or is supposed to do on half of the tech that has the label slapped on it. Quite frankly if I see A.I. on something I'm inclined to steer clear.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I'm so tired of seeing the letters A.I. on nearly every single tech app or piece of hardware that's come out within the last year. It's such a vague all encompassing catch all we don't even know what it means or is supposed to do on half of the tech that has the label slapped on it. Quite frankly if I see A.I. on something I'm inclined to steer clear.

Tech companies have latched onto this one and won't let go, marketing genius lol....... People know no better by large and who is going to fully research what they want to buy?

 

[Owain Taggart]

It's the latest tech buzzword, more or less. The weird thing is that it's such a vague term that everyone wants to slap it on their product, sort of like how the year 2000 at one point was synonymous with the future, only nobody really know what it means since everyone has different ideas of what it really should be. And just like 3D has, it's something that has come and gone over the last several decades, but quite honestly, even now I don't think A.I is all that it's hyped up to be. It's certainly artificial, I'll give it that, but I don't feel it possesses any real intelligence capable of grasping context or making any real decisions on its own. All it ever has at this point is the information we give it and the ability to process that information, and way too prone to misinformation.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

8K TVs. I can perceive a marginal improvement with 4K, largely due to HDR, but 8K? Nope. In any case, there's no content available and 1080p is fine for most things.

As for AI, it's mostly hype, although I have used it to convert a lot of old TV shows to 1080p with usually good results. That application has shown marked improvement over the last few years.

Otherwise, I find I have to spend my time verifying and correcting what LLMs spit out. It's more pattern matching than it is intelligence. Anyone who places blind faith in such output believes that penguins such as those depicted in Madagascar are real.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

It's the latest tech buzzword, more or less. The weird thing is that it's such a vague term that everyone wants to slap it on their product, sort of like how the year 2000 at one point was synonymous with the future, only nobody really know what it means since everyone has different ideas of what it really should be. And just like 3D has, it's something that has come and gone over the last several decades, but quite honestly, even now I don't think A.I is all that it's hyped up to be. It's certainly artificial, I'll give it that, but I don't feel it possesses any real intelligence capable of grasping context or making any real decisions on its own. All it ever has at this point is the information we give it and the ability to process that information, and way too prone to misinformation.

the use of the term AI on products very much reminds me of a few years ago when slapping the word GAMING in all caps on any product, be it a chair, a mouse, or keyboard would almost guarantee you a sale because as soon as people see it's a gaming product with the word GAMING on the box in big capital letters they think they are getting something that performs better even though it is all placebo effect.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

8K TVs. I can perceive a marginal improvement with 4K, largely due to HDR, but 8K? Nope. In any case, there's no content available and 1080p is fine for most things.

The funny thing is that extra resolution & Pixel Density only really make a difference up to a certain point, and it applies more to monitors than traditional TV's where you sit far away.

The closer you are to the display, the more impact Pixel Density plays.

That's why the whole Apple Retina idea became a popular concept, because it mattered based on the platform you were using and how far your eyeballs were away from the display.

After a certain point, there are diminishing returns on making the display more Pixel-Dense.

As for AI, it's mostly hype, although I have used it to convert a lot of old TV shows to 1080p with usually good results. That application has shown marked improvement over the last few years.

Yup, the applications for current AI are far more niche IMO.

Otherwise, I find I have to spend my time verifying and correcting what LLMs spit out. It's more pattern matching than it is intelligence.

Exactly

Anyone who places blind faith in such output believes that penguins such as those depicted in Madagascar are real.

Unfortunately we have too many idiots out there.

 

[Victoria]

I saw an ad for "AI blended" wine. Quite why having a wine blended by something without tastebuds is considered a selling point, I don't know.

I mean, a lot of cheap wine brands don't have much character but you don't need AI for that....

 

[Owain Taggart]

8K TVs. I can perceive a marginal improvement with 4K, largely due to HDR, but 8K? Nope. In any case, there's no content available and 1080p is fine for most things.

In most cases, it's still difficult finding 4K content, because there are only so many content producers able to produce that type of content, so I can only imagine 8K would be even harder to achieve. That's partly why I feel we might be hitting a ceiling with this kind of thing.

Just as an example, I don't know how it is anywhere else, but in Canada it took an enormously long time for some networks to fully migrate everything to 1080p, and our one local station run by Bell still was running on antiquated equipment processing it at 720p, and I think it was only starting in 2018-2019 that we actually got a 1080p broadcast. They were really slow to just get with the program, and by this time everywhere else, there were talks of 4K.

When 3DTV was trending, Canada noped out fairly early on after realizing it just didn't have the resources to creating content, let alone the bandwidth necessary to broadcasting it.

the use of the term AI on products very much reminds me of a few years ago when slapping the word GAMING in all caps on any product, be it a chair, a mouse, or keyboard would almost guarantee you a sale because as soon as people see it's a gaming product with the word GAMING on the box in big capital letters they think they are getting something that performs better even though it is all placebo effect.

Hah yeah, agreed. Although I thank them for making mechanical keyboards more popular, as there's a real benefit to those at least. Before my Corsair keyboard, I had a Logitech G110, and I'd paid quite a lot for it, but I remember being quite disappointed when I took it out of the box and right off the bat the keys were sticking. Back in those days, it wasn't even a mechanical keyboard, but Logitech did lead by making some of the first 'Gamer' products. Sadly, their quality has really gone down the tubes.

 

[Santaman]

And of course that RGB crap, it's still not done, without rainbow farts from about anything PC related YOU CAN'T EXIST!! ITS TEH COOOLEST! and faster of course.. also casings with glass panes everywhere, falls in the gaming this, gaming that category..

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

And of course that RGB crap, it's still not done, without rainbow farts from about anything PC related YOU CAN'T EXIST!! ITS TEH COOOLEST! and faster of course.. also casings with glass panes everywhere, falls in the gaming this, gaming that category..

Quite true and it really can be frustrating at times to try and buy parts that don't have LEDs shoved inside them

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

And of course that RGB crap, it's still not done, without rainbow farts from about anything PC related YOU CAN'T EXIST!! ITS TEH COOOLEST! and faster of course.. also casings with glass panes everywhere, falls in the gaming this, gaming that category..

That's always been the side of the PC Gaming Industry that I detest.

the Super-Ficial side.

 

[Owain Taggart]

And of course that RGB crap, it's still not done, without rainbow farts from about anything PC related YOU CAN'T EXIST!! ITS TEH COOOLEST! and faster of course.. also casings with glass panes everywhere, falls in the gaming this, gaming that category..

Rainbow farts!

Well, I admit to having a lit up keyboard, but it only does red, which I like, because red typically is much easier on the eyes.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Rainbow farts!

Well, I admit to having a lit up keyboard, but it only does red, which I like, because red typically is much easier on the eyes.

I have a Philips Mechanical keyboard that offers colour on the keys but it's not proper RGB rather the colours are fixed like for instance the number pad is different from the main keyboard and the ASDF keys are pink so you can't miss them, but you can turn the LED light off as well. It's one of my favourite keyboards (I have a few now) but it's the noisiest one in my collection.

I also have from 2017 an Azio MK Retro which is a full keyboard but styled like a typewriter... This one. The Azio is noisy too but not as much as the Philips one.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Ok, now I have to admit that makes me a little jealous. What a nice looking keyboard! It kind of has a steampunkish look to it? How do you like the feel of the keys?