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I have never really been one of those out-and-out environmentalists; I do my share and never really spread my dogma around. Nor have I ever been paranoid, or been in the habit of getting enraged about every piece of inflammatory news coming my way; but recently, something struck a cord with me. The whole Apple/Foxconn fiasco, though overblown by the likes of Mike Daisey, really incited a few thoughts within me as far as the direction in which we are heading as consumers is concerned.
See, it is no secret that conditions in such factories are horrible. It has almost always been public knowledge, but public knowledge, is in essence, transient. As a race of consumers and tech-geeks, we tend to forget the bigger picture and are highly thrifty with our technological possessions.
I see a culture of indispensability emerging within our society, thinking of all our gadgets as use-and-throw implements, always craving for something better, whilst never thinking about what sort of labour goes into their production. I’ve seen plenty of teenagers, intentionally bashing their six-month old smartphone, just so they can convince their parents to buy a newer model and the rate of innovation such self-generating demand is driving is staggering.
According to Wikipedia, 150 workers threatened to jump off the roof. For a list of foxconn workers suicides, refer here.
From actually keeping and loving our gadgets for a long time, we have been driven to annual or in some cases semi-annual upgrade cycles, where each past generation seems obsolete to us. And the manufacturers are trapping us in, with innovations like sealed-in batteries, which make a phone far harder to repair and make it impossible for a consumer to just get a new battery and put it in after the older one dies out.
While all this accelerating growth and innovation always seemed pretty exciting to me, once I was introduced to the plight of the labourers, I started thinking along a different track. Right now, the world is exploiting the willingness of people in developing countries to work at exorbitantly cheap wages and thus manufacture products at a staggering rate, but this is not a sustainable model.
Imagine a time when even countries like China and our own have developed, who would the world turn to then? Countries even more destitute I imagine. Say this goes on, and at a point (though it seems pretty far off) every country is developed to a large extent, wouldn’t our whole rapid upgrade model bite us right in the derrière? We actually might not even have to worry about that possibility, as our environment itself would not be able to sustain such rapid and pervasive development for long.
Don’t take me wrong here; I’m not against technological innovation. In fact, being a tech-blogger, innovation is pretty much my bread-and-butter. What I am against is non-sustainable innovation, and that is the state of our mobile market right now. There are new SoC’s, new camera modules, new screen technologies coming out of every nook and cranny of the world right now, and we’ve gotten to the point that even a phone from 6 months ago starts looking pretty dated.
We need to remember that this cannot go on forever. We need to remember that there are thousands of people out there, working more than they are paid for, just to make sure enough of us get our spanking new iPhones on time. We direly need more stability in the mobile market, for our sake, and the world’s.
Recently a long overdue debate has started to arise, on how we humans engage with information and communication technologies on a daily basis and how we need to strengthen our basic understanding of how those complex electronic infrastructures around us do actually work.
This is much more urgent after we've seen the incredible expansion of the mobile side of computing, which will bring us quite soon to the astonishing fact that there will be more working telephone lines than people living in the Earth. Moreover, an unstoppably growing portion of those phones are "smartphones" which are computers with more and more functions every year, with the same or more capabilities as the traditional desktop or laptop computer
Every single one of those computers, just like every computer, runs through a certain software. Operative system, applications, low-level programs... And since software is so present in our lives, it's fair to ask who designed it and who it was designed for.
Whatever criteria we use to answer the first question, the answer almost always has a common point: it was made mostly by men, and mostly with men in mind. Whether it's a big software project inside a corporation or a modest project like an Android ROM, it's men who are in charge and who are the target towards which the software is directed.
Is this suboptimal? It certainly is. Developing software has a creative component, not unlike literature and other arts. Until very recent times, women were deemed unsuited to read and write, and only recently (in historical terms) have we seen women count in the literary field. Developing software may very well be the new skill which, like literature in the past, shapes our world. Isn't it high time to engage women so that this new world-shaping takes them into account too, unlike the former ones? And how should we do it?
Swypesation
There are actually a large number of female developers/programmers and it's increasing all the time. I don't think there needs to be a ton of active recruiting.
Logseman said:
How do we engage women in mobile computing?
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Wrap things up in pink ribbons, call it Unicorn instead of Android.
i think woman wil and need to grow with and in to it.
Like my own wife she's a user not a developer.
In our world it is not what a device can do, What can it do more , where is not designed for.
think it will take a lot of years until programming en coding is natural to women.
When they realize what they are missing they will come around.
And then where screwed...........
threads like this should do it.
MissionImprobable said:
There are actually a large number of female developers/programmers and it's increasing all the time. I don't think there needs to be a ton of active recruiting.
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Research shows that only a minority, as in 10% or less of the whole collective, work directly in programming (management and other matters that are related in different degrees with programming are different things). And open source projects have an even lower proportion of women, like less than 2%. Since open source is the most desirable direction in which we want software to get going, it is of the utmost importance that women take their place there, otherwise we'll be replicating the mistakes of the past.
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/pr...der-gap-where-are-the-female-programmers/2386
Curiously enough, in places where computing took off much later, e.g. developing countries like India, the proportion of women in the field is much higher than in the US and Europe.
idk, Most of the programmers and IT professionals I know are women. Maybe it's cause I work in Health care, not sure.
i am 32 and grew up with computers or the things we called it then.
(commodore 64, Atari 1040, Amiga's) i loved it playing with these machines.
My sister didn't even look at it, she like to play a game once in a year thats it.
My two daugthers of nine have way more interest in computers then women my age have.
use of computers/interactive screens by them is natural, give them a device, in five minutes they know what it can do how it works.
there will be more women in the IT-Sector. we just have to wait.
This morning while searching ebay for reasonably priced solid gold toilets (or other things just as frivolous) I happened across a micro USB solar powered cell phone charger. It was priced at around $35, and while I had no real interest in buying something that probably doesn't work, it still made me wonder what if it did?
So lets assume my galaxy s3 is a 2100 MAh 3.8 volt battery, and it instantly charges to full when plugged in. This means it would consume roughly 8 watts every time you charge it from 0% to 100%. Lets not get overly technical and try to factor in the energy used by your charging cord.
Electricity in my state (New Jersey) costs roughly 21 cents per Kilo-Watt Hour (KWH). This basically means for every hour I use 1000 kilowats, I am charged another 21 cents on my electric bill.
This means if I charge my phone from empty to full exactly twice per day, I am roughly spending $1.23 per year to charge my phone. If the cost of electricity stays the same, it would take me 28 and a half years to break even on the cost of the solar charger.
how much would it cost you?
Since most of my charging is done at work.. cost me nothing.. Really though.. you are on to something... if only could mass market that and people would catch on then it would be great..
Well I think they'd have to really improve on solar energy technology before anything like this is realistic....I just saw the product as more of a novelty. Even if it does work its probably going to net you a couple percentage points an hour, nothing practical.
I just posted this on my facebook page and the response I got made me realize the smarter option would be to get solar panels for the house instead!
i think the purpose of a solar powered charger is for camping/hiking trips where electricity is not available and you can charge your ipod or phone
hollywoodo said:
i think the purpose of a solar powered charger is for camping/hiking trips where electricity is not available and you can charge your ipod or phone
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I'm sure it has many prudent real world applications, I was just a little bored and thought this would be something a little fun to keep the juices flowing.
hollywoodo said:
i think the purpose of a solar powered charger is for camping/hiking trips where electricity is not available and you can charge your ipod or phone
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This. Or econuts.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
i should mention that the concept is the same for hybrid cars. you pay a premium for them for gas savings that could take awhile to pay off (not including special maintainence, etc)
but maybe be part of something bigger... be green
You could use your car charger that uses your car battery/alternator to charge your phone if you are worried about using your home electricity! Just like one post said its more geared towards camping/hiking our any outdoor activity where electricity isn't present.
I gave a gift of a radio that takes alkaline batteries, but also has (replaceable) lithium batteries that can be charged via DC adaptor, built-in solar panel or hand crank. The solar panel allows for the radio to have battery power from the rechargeables without having to crank anything, especially if this radio is kept out during the day at a beach or campsite. It has a connector for charging devices such as mobile phones, which would essentially take much of the day for a low charge - but, that is most practical for when other sources of power are not going to be available for awhile.
While shopping for that radio, I came across solar chargers that are dedicated to supplying devices with power and are thin, flat products that often unfold and have greater surface area than a typical device with a (small) integrated solar panel. Some of these are expensive, but your ability to put a more substantial charge into a battery backup (for general use) or directly charging your phone without any sources of grid-based power is the primary purpose, I feel. A Brunton Explorer2 or similar is something I would go for in these cases and the issue is not comparing their economy to grid costs of the current day, but long-term ability to have off-grid or backup sources of charging power when you need it, I figure. Plus, incrementally going green isn't ever a bad idea: if I owned a solar charger, I'd keep my phone off the USB or wall charger most of the time.
- ooofest
hollywoodo said:
i should mention that the concept is the same for hybrid cars. you pay a premium for them for gas savings that could take awhile to pay off (not including special maintainence, etc)
but maybe be part of something bigger... be green
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I did some looking into this. It would take about 19 years for a Honda civic hybrid to pay for itself. Accounting for average miles driven across the US, maintenance of the car, and gas milage. I was bored
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Haro912 said:
I did some looking into this. It would take about 19 years for a Honda civic hybrid to pay for itself. Accounting for average miles driven across the US, maintenance of the car, and gas milage.
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Don't think they're meant to pay for themselves, as they aren't alternative power sources - they are parallel hybrids meant to stretch the use of their gasoline engine.
Something like the Volt is a more serious version of that concept, being a serial hybrid whose wheels run almost exclusively off the electric motor.
Being "green" isn't always immediately the most economical choice in these relatively early days of people realizing it's beyond time to try and minimize the speed of global warming, etc. But, it's meant to be an incremental choice towards more responsible use of the dirty resources we know and love. IMHO.
- ooofest
ooofest said:
Don't think they're meant to pay for themselves, as they aren't alternative power sources - they are parallel hybrids meant to stretch the use of their gasoline engine.
Something like the Volt is a more serious version of that concept, being a serial hybrid whose wheels run almost exclusively off the electric motor.
Being "green" isn't always immediately the most economical choice in these relatively early days of people realizing it's beyond time to try and minimize the speed of global warming, etc. But, it's meant to be an incremental choice towards more responsible use of the dirty resources we know and love. IMHO.
- ooofest
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No no no no no! You're all wrong!. All of my home electronics run off of electricity and theres no smog or global warming in my house!
ooofest said:
Don't think they're meant to pay for themselves, as they aren't alternative power sources - they are parallel hybrids meant to stretch the use of their gasoline engine.
Something like the Volt is a more serious version of that concept, being a serial hybrid whose wheels run almost exclusively off the electric motor.
Being "green" isn't always immediately the most economical choice in these relatively early days of people realizing it's beyond time to try and minimize the speed of global warming, etc. But, it's meant to be an incremental choice towards more responsible use of the dirty resources we know and love. IMHO.
- ooofest
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You have to believe global warming exists in the first place. Just keep in mind there is as much evidence against it as there is for it.
I'm proud to keep my line up of V8 gas guzzlers and always will.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
nosympathy said:
You have to believe global warming exists in the first place. Just keep in mind there is as much evidence against it as there is for it.
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No.
There is no scientific balance of evidence on global warming for/against its reality, and peer-reviewed studies have overwhelmingly shown its existence in a rather cold and analytical manner since at least the 70s.
Sure, businesses that seek to run away from taking responsibilities of their own pollution creation - from manufacturing or as outputs of the products they offer - do fund a number of pseudo-scientific PR studies to attempt offering the appearance of a scientific debate to purposefully keep the public wondering and debating, but no counter-evidence exists on the existence of global warming as a general phenomena in the scientific community. None.
Science is all about testing and retesting, then testing assumptions again - global warming is an easy reality to measure. Causes are still being studies, but the big ones are generally well known, and ways to mitigate are still being researched and even tried.
The business PR effort to offer an appearance of global warming debate in the scientific community utilizes easily debunked, pseudo-science at every turn - usually from privately funded studies, but sometimes they gain like-minded adherents who simply run with the misleading interpretations of highly particular data sets as part of gaining a subculture of defiance against . . . something. The man, government, smart science, whatever your cultural bugaboo might be. This is trap that people such as Michael Crichton have fallen into.
The anti-climate science PR push is equivalent to those many years of tobacco product manufacturing and distribution companies funding misinformation about the effects of cigarette smoke on human health, influencing USA lawmakers and a portion of the public to take sides against rather simple scientific facts . . . until that dangerous farce finally ran its course.
There is no scientific "debate" against the reality of global warming, and your preference for V8s (which I grew out of decades ago) has no impact on climate science - only your perception of such, perhaps.
- ooofest
Spending that much time trying to prove a scientific point about global warming in a phone forum isn't gonna get ya very far surely won't repair the ozone layer.
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unique77 said:
Spending that much time trying to prove a scientific point about global warming in a phone forum isn't gonna get ya very far surely won't repair the ozone layer.
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I spent a couple minutes, because this is easy - mostly time looking up a bookmark.
Wasn't a specific point - it's the whole point about global warming. Which relates to one use of solar chargers that the OP offered, btw. That, and I have a tendency to not let nonsense get a free pass.
Your point?
- ooofest
I didn't mean to start any fighting...this was meant to be a lighthearted thread.
Just remember we're all here to support one another. All our rage should be directed at Verizon.
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ooofest said:
I spent a couple minutes, because this is easy - mostly time looking up a bookmark.
Wasn't a specific point - it's the whole point about global warming. Which relates to one use of solar chargers that the OP offered, btw. That, and I have a tendency to not let nonsense get a free pass.
Your point?
- ooofest
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I just want to let you know that someone I never met on a phone forum isn't going to make me suddenly decide I am wrong.
I just said not everyone agrees with you, and obviously you are insecure enough in your views to have to feel the need to even try and start a debate over it.
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nosympathy said:
I just want to let you know that someone I never met on a phone forum isn't going to make me suddenly decide I am wrong.
I just said not everyone agrees with you, and obviously you are insecure enough in your views to have to feel the need to even try and start a debate over it.
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Right, I'm calling out your anti-science view on a technology forum in a minor manner, which in a grass-is-blue and sky-is-green world makes me insecure, Mr. *hrr-hrr-hrr-I'm-hiding-behind-my-V8-vehicle-engine-purchases*. Lovely projection there, nosympathy - please try again, I'm all for private messages.
I'm not trying to convert you: you're simply wrong, dangerously so. I'd like others to see that your unsupported "opinion" (which is actually willful ignorance - for which you haven't offered a shred of evidence) - seems entirely counter to talking about actual science that can power or be otherwise useful in using our favorite pieces of techology . . . which were created, in essence, by people who studied one or more disciplines of science. Actual science, that is.
- ooofest
Interesting discussion. We can try to be civil to one another though...
That said, my 2 cents:
Recent data does support that global temperature is rising. The question that's hard to answer (and has been unproven to date) is whether this warming is man-made. Could man-made pollution be a factor? I think so. Is it THE factor? That's open for debate.
Hybrid cars: just food for thought - how are we getting rid of all those batteries?? I can't imagine those battery-acids are earth friendly.
....and no one is even discussing about the EMF generated by hybrid cars. EMF is ionizing radiation - ie. it has enough energy to break DNA (cancer risk, people!!). So if you driving a hydrid or a Volt/Leaf, you're sitting inside a pretty high EMF field. Personally, I can't take that chance with my little kids.
Solar panels. I think they're promising. Would love to get solar panels for my house. (1) too expensive. (2) efficiency sucks. Best panel is only about 20% efficient. Hopefully this will get better soon. Sunlight is free. Might as well figure out a way to use it!
Sent from a SYNERGIZED GalaxySIII
Hopefully this is the correct forum for this...
This is right up the XDA alley. Here's a cool new application for innovative developers. It could change the world for consumers, retailers, various industries, police depts, the military... It's a quiet, tiny, robotic dragonfly with HD cameras and numerous sensors. Pretty exciting stuff and has the potential for several new industries and many new jobs.
It can be used for gaming, to guard your home (inside or outside), keep an eye on your crazy neighbor, monitor your child's bike ride to school, real estate agents, auto dealerships, etc. The applications are almost endless. Apparently your android or iphone smartphone controls it.
They're selling various prototypes starting at $119. A software developer kit is available to create your own application. They plan to use the money to make it even better (smaller, lighter, quieter, faster, more efficient). No doubt there will be a huge # of applications in the consumer market in the years to come.
I purchased one and can't wait to start playing with it. Unfortunately there's only a few more remaining...
http://www.indiegogo.com/robotdragonfly
Interesting. Is this legit ?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Yeah, good luck with that. Consider it a tax write-off lmao.
Even to really get one, I'd imagine it wouldn't last long before a bird took it out.....or the gust from a strong fart blew it into the side of the house. You be better off mouthing s tiny camera in a tree somewhere.
If it was easy you'd of hired the guy at Home Depot to to it.
I'm bothered by the idea that it's being promoted as something to invade civilian privacy. Security is one thing, actively going out of your way to invade the privacy and property of others is different.
At 6", I can't believe it's not going to be noticed - wouldn't you notice an unusually large, weird-looking bug ? It's really the size of a bird if you watch it.
I can't imagine people not noticing and not calling the police over it - or simply destroying it if someone decided to use it for that purpose.
Commendable and interesting otherwise, though I also have concerns about flight abilities and stability and such - but would be interested to know more about its capabilities in that regard.
help
Just got the S3, should I have waited for the S4!
Wow that looks so cool but I would love to see it follow me down a downhill track without hitting a tree but still really cool I may think of getting one
skydragon team
i want one
When I want an app to fly I'll make sure to keep this in mind lol
We're planning to add glass-only cracked screen repair capability to our shop. We've got ~$20k to invest in this project, and we'd like to do it properly. What are some good resources to get started? How did you learn to do it? Most importantly, how long did it take to learn?
There're many youtube videos on the topic, but people's methods are inconsistent. Some repair screens in-frame, some take the whole phone apart. Some use freezers for curved screens, some swear by heat + wire.
At the moment, I'm trying to put together a list of machines/gear to get started
Welcome to XDA
I hope you appreciate the difference between science and art.
Example; while modern medicine is based on science, effectively practicing medicine is an art.
You use what works best for each particular case based on your acquired wisdom learned while practicing medicine.
Knowledge plus practice equals wisdom (hopefully).
Hands on is the only way to learn a trade and it's tricks. Learn the assembly technologies and techniques. Use cheap or trash phone to practice on. As you progress if you're persistent eventually you will go from novice to skilled to expert. A novice or skilled practitioner can't do what someone at the expert level can. It takes experience to learn the material properties, signs, variables, techniques and to develop skillset to effectively execute the proper actions.
You have to learn which tools, then brand of tools fit each operation best for yourself. In time you will become quit particular about this if you make to the top. I go for tools with the best ergonomics and usability. The right tools become an extension of yourself, but first you need to have the depth of understanding and skillset to choose and use the tools effectively.
An expert has a whole bag of tricks that they have learned over the years, decades to use for the situations they encounter.
There may be more money in fulfillment work or contact assembly. You're own business is as good as it gets but it's hard at first.
Thanks, for the warm welcome, and for the insightful reply.
Of course it's only possible to learn these things by doing, but, from my experience, you can accelerate the process by having good guidance and quality learning materials. That's what I'm looking for myself and for my technicians.
Do you know of any good courses/classes that one could take to learn about display refurbishment?
rebeltechlabs said:
Thanks, for the warm welcome, and for the insightful reply.
Of course it's only possible to learn these things by doing, but, from my experience, you can accelerate the process by having good guidance and quality learning materials. That's what I'm looking for myself and for my technicians.
Do you know of any good courses/classes that one could take to learn about display refurbishment?
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You're welcome.
Nothing takes the place of experience for doing precision assembly. Looking at Grey's Anatomy isn't the same as doing surgery, it's a beginning.
Some techniques work better than others depending on the situation. You need experience to decide which is best. You learn the feel for it only by doing.
I saw guides and vids of the Note 10+ battery replacement. They intimidated me. Then I watched someone actually do it and quickly realized I could do it better myself
Of course that's not the end to my battery replacement learning curve, but it's a good start.
The biggest concern is breakage and then cosmetics. Doing it professionally means doing it right each time or at least most of the time.
Failures cost you more time and money. As for employees they will be one of or you're biggest headaches. Getting someone to do what you want, even the simplest of tasks can be challenging to say the leas
To access most displays requires a partial/full teardown. This is challenging to do on many phones. You need adapt ESD protocols and get ESD mats, wristbands, hydrometer* and such to avoid damage to the displays and especially the mobos. Out of circuit they become much more susceptible to ESD damage. Many don't do this; not doing so is unprofessional and can get very expensive.
If you find white papers and good documentation on this please share it if you can. This fascinates me.
*Humidity control is essential in dissipating static electricity ie a minimum of 40-60%. I like to see about 47-53% A temp controlled heat pot/fan works well to raise it.
rebeltechlabs said:
We're planning to add glass-only cracked screen repair capability to our shop. We've got ~$20k to invest in this project, and we'd like to do it properly. What are some good resources to get started? How did you learn to do it? Most importantly, how long did it take to learn?
There're many youtube videos on the topic, but people's methods are inconsistent. Some repair screens in-frame, some take the whole phone apart. Some use freezers for curved screens, some swear by heat + wire.
At the moment, I'm trying to put together a list of machines/gear to get started
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I guess you live in America, it's very important for any new shop to understand what is the chance to survive in the first 1-2 year of operations so be ready to invest money even if you don't see that money coming back.
Dealing with mobile phones it's somewhat like dealing with computers, a customer's phone has a broken screen but the phone also doesn't start up so you need to know a bit more than just replacing screens.
Dealing with Apple phones will be more complicated due to the distributor's (in fact Apple don't make phones) tricks like the latest one secret codes stored in the CPU that must match with the replaced part's embed code.
You might want to make a partnership with a specific brand so that you can get better support and deals and even workshop manuals but there are always pro and con because they will want to be the only brand in your shop.
Regarding courses, it depends on where you're (on site courses) and there are online courses like those from Udemy which is a popular site: How to repair mobile cell phones