Graphene - what next?

[westender]

Amazing new material, it says here...

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9491789.stm

"...Said to be the strongest material ever measured, an improvement upon and a replacement for silicon and the most conductive material known to man, its properties have sent the science world - and subsequently the media - into a spin.

It would take an elephant, balanced on a pencil, to break through a sheet of graphene the thickness of Saran Wrap [cling film]."

And the benefits to both businesses and to the consumer are obvious - faster and cheaper devices which are thinner and flexible.

"....You could theoretically roll up your iPhone and stick it behind your ear like a pencil"
Why would you want to?? What pish.

What next, then, resulting from this? More useless technology and gizmos and "solutions" to problems that don't need fixed - and which don't even exist, if the last 20 years' use of breakthroughs in technology are any guide....



I am heartily sick of modern life. 2 weeks ago I had 3 telly channels and a barely visible Channel 4. No Channel 5 at all. Suited me fine.

Then the Switchover thing happened with the BBC channels. Boyf came along, diddled with a box under the telly, and now I have more channels than I want - and I need to use 2 remotes to get my previous 3 channels and there'll be more apparently after the next stage of the switchover next week...

Boyf has a new smartphone and it keeps switching itself off when he accidentally touches the screen. Since the damn thing is mainly screen, it gets touched accidentally all the time. Other male acquaintances are feckin umbilically attached to the damn things, and to their bloody in car talking map things. Bloody dangerous gizmos. No-one knows how to use a proper map any more. Maps are marvellous, educative things of beauty.

The ink in my fountain pens has turned to jelly, it's been so long since I used them. Shame on me.

I long, I yearn, for simpler days, and for things of true value. I especially yearn for us all to come to our senses and realise that the internet must be switched off for the good of our brains.

[yonzabam]

The modern world has developed a complexity fetish. How many of the buttons on yer telly remote do you actually use? Something needs to be done about it all.

The council recently installed a new central heating/hot water system. It took me a while just to work out how to run a bath. It's got an anti scald feature, which means if you try to run just hot water, it cuts out. You have to run cold first before running the hot. If I hadn't pulled one of the workies to one side and asked him to show me how to get it to work, I'd still be having cold baths. Still haven't worked out how to switch to shower mode. And the instructions for how to set the timer on the central heating are incomprehensible.

3 years ago, I bought my first digital camera on a recommendation from the Betfair chit chat forum. It cost £105 and hasn't been out of the box. The instructions run to 186 pages and I just can't be arsed with it. That's 186 pages in English, not various languages.

I bought a new telly with a built in digital receiver. It disnae work. The aerial in the attic seems to be the main problem. The Darvel transmitter being 10 miles away might be a factor, too. So, I bought a set top box to plug into it, thinking that it would boost the signal, but it disnae work like that, apparently. When the digital switchover happened, I lost BBC2 and still haven't got it back. A neighbour got a telly engineer in to sort everything out for him. £140 for two hour's work, ffs!

Bought my first mobile phone a couple of months ago. Couldnae get it to work, so trailed the 8 miles on a bus back to Argos in East Kilbride. The assistant took the back off, removed the SIMS card and replaced it in the same spot by sliding it under some tiny slivers of metal, when I had it lying over the top of them. There was no explanation in the instructions that there was a tiny space there which the card had to be inserted into, and it was certainly not obvious from looking at it.

Eventually worked out how to download my tenners worth of calls and successfully phoned my land line. However, I can't phone the mobile from my land line. After the first number, I get an 'ynobtainable' message. I've just assumed that the big number I got on three strips of adhesive paper is my mobile number. Again, nothing about my mobile number in the instructions.

I would be delighted if the government were to use some of my tax money to set up a quango with the brief to assign 'simplicity ratings' to new products which had to be clearly displayed on products. Manufacturers would soon get the message from the buying public that they want simplicity. I'd like to see products with instructions that are generic and not specific for that product, so that some of the instructions don't apply to what you've bought, be 'marked down'. Again, manufacturers would soon get the message.

I could go on for another half hour, but I've worked myself into a state recounting my technophobic experiences and need a wee brandy.

[westender]

May 22, 2011 16:13:00 GMT -1 yonzabam said:

The modern world has developed a complexity fetish. How many of the buttons on yer telly remote do you actually use? Something needs to be done about it all.

It sure does.

I've an uffa yen for a windae hingin session. Sigh.

[westender]

May 22, 2011 16:13:00 GMT -1 yonzabam said:

The council recently installed a new central heating/hot water system. It took me a while just to work out how to run a bath. It's got an anti scald feature, which means if you try to run just hot water, it cuts out. You have to run cold first before running the hot. If I hadn't pulled one of the workies to one side and asked him to show me how to get it to work, I'd still be having cold baths. Still haven't worked out how to switch to shower mode. And the instructions for how to set the timer on the central heating are incomprehensible.

Have you spoken to the neebors?

The central heating in my hoose was incomprehensible and the man they sent out to explain it was no wiser than me. I eventually worked it out, and realised in the process that the bliddy system is 1. inefficient
2. ruinously expensive
3. an environmental nightmare

Basically not fit for purpose.

3 years ago, I bought my first digital camera on a recommendation from the Betfair chit chat forum. It cost £105 and hasn't been out of the box. The instructions run to 186 pages and I just can't be arsed with it. That's 186 pages in English, not various languages.

What was said on the forum that recommeded it to you??

That said, I'm no photographer but I am a fan of photies; recording events, places, people, for to look back on when you're old, and weep... Digital photography is one aspect of modern technology that IS, inarguably, a vast improvement on the situation that existed before. You had to buy film. You had one shot at the pic and you'd no idea how is would come out. If light got at the filmstock it was ruined. You had to take it to get developed. The whole rigmarole to get your photies was a faff and a hassle, for something that by its very nature you'd want to be instant. It was also very expensive.

Digital cams do away with all of that. Pics from even even the simplest ones look great and most cams have nice wee clever features that make the whole process enjoyable. I've discovered the Macro feature!! and have really loved some of the images I've now got. It's now an enjoyable hobby that genuinely gives me lots of pleasure.

In saying that; they're hardly solid state. I have 2 digital cams. One gobbles (ruinously expensive) lithium batteries and after 3 years has now unaccountably decided that it won't switch on. The other charges up off the puter (excellent) so I take it most everywhere... but thew other week I was out with the dog and was trrying to cross the river and er, fell in, with both cam and mobile in my back pocket...

Mobile seems to have recovered OK and cam is working, but - damn damn damn - the lens is fogged and there doesn't seem to be anything can be done about it.

Take your camera out the box and give the manual a go. If you concentrate on getting to grips with it for a couple of days, I'm sure you'll end up with something that is much easier to use than you currently think it is. It's springtime; time's a-wasting!

Or pm wir very ain Robot Archie. I'm sure he'd be happy to answer any questions.

Digital cams = A Good Thing. Technology providing an actual satsfactory solution to a valid problem. In the last 20 years, that really hasn't happened very often.

I bought a new telly with a built in digital receiver. It disnae work. The aerial in the attic seems to be the main problem. The Darvel transmitter being 10 miles away might be a factor, too. So, I bought a set top box to plug into it, thinking that it would boost the signal, but it disnae work like that, apparently. When the digital switchover happened, I lost BBC2 and still haven't got it back. A neighbour got a telly engineer in to sort everything out for him. £140 for two hour's work, ffs!

Tho I haven't a clue how it all works, I really don't think it should be that complicated if you've gone out and got the set top box. I lost my Beeb 2 as well on the day of Stage 1 of the switchover - and it was literally the boyf taking approx 10 mins retuning my wee telly once it was connected to the set top box, and that was the two Beebs sorted, and much better signal than before, plus beeb3, beeb 4, beeb news channel and beeb parliamentary channel, none of which I'd had before.

Did you get the switchover information leaflet through the door? Isn't that any help?

Bought my first mobile phone a couple of months ago.

;D O my. You held out this long?? That's true dedication.
What finally persuaded you?

Couldnae get it to work, so trailed the 8 miles on a bus back to Argos in East Kilbride. The assistant took the back off, removed the SIMS card and replaced it in the same spot by sliding it under some tiny slivers of metal, when I had it lying over the top of them. There was no explanation in the instructions that there was a tiny space there which the card had to be inserted into, and it was certainly not obvious from looking at it.

Eventually worked out how to download my tenners worth of calls and successfully phoned my land line. However, I can't phone the mobile from my land line. After the first number, I get an 'ynobtainable' message. I've just assumed that the big number I got on three strips of adhesive paper is my mobile number. Again, nothing about my mobile number in the instructions.

Mobiles and their intricacies have been a major torment of mine. I live in fear of anything going wrong with mine or of losing it, because I really can not face having to enter the minefield of having to get a new one and facing salespeople who can't/ won't comprehend the simplicity of my requirements.

In saying that... the idiot weans and the junkies and the neds and all the other assorted dafties all seeem perfectly able to wrangle this particular technological minefield. So it can't be that complicated...!

I would be delighted if the government were to use some of my tax money to set up a quango with the brief to assign 'simplicity ratings' to new products which had to be clearly displayed on products. Manufacturers would soon get the message from the buying public that they want simplicity. I'd like to see products with instructions that are generic and not specific for that product, so that some of the instructions don't apply to what you've bought, be 'marked down'. Again, manufacturers would soon get the message.

I'd be delighted if they stopped bringing out endless versions of exactly the same thing. Or rather, I'd prefer if the did away altogether with the dafties who queue to get the latest gizmo when they've already got a different version of the same.



I've said it before but nobody had an answer.... I would love to know why ipods and mp3 players have taken off so mightily this time round, when the same concept i.e. the Walkman, lasted only a couple of years as a fashion, the last time they tried it.
I had a walkman, and I loved it, but eventually I worked out that it was dangerous and distracting, and I went right off it.

I could go on for another half hour, but I've worked myself into a state recounting my technophobic experiences and need a wee brandy.

... and have another one, ye've earned it! Once you've had another, go and have a look at your camera and leave the manual in the box. Intuit!

Digital cams and telly remote controls - a boon and a blessing to men. All other popular technological gizmos and widgets of last 20 years - a curse, and all largely unnecessary.

[westender]

.... So anyhoo, what do you make of this graphene stuff, yonza? Have you heard of it?

What are they gonnae use it for inflict on us next, that we don't need?

[notanimby]

Yonza dae yoo not huv any teenage rellies ur naeburs, they will set you right on all of the above

yoo kin always tell teh quality of an item and its instrukshuns when they giv eyou a kwik-start guide plus teh big book wan

[yonzabam]

Nah. It's a lot harder learning from instructions that come with the product, than being shown how to work it from people who already know.

Regarding the camera, it apparently has features which are normally associated with much more expensive kit, like a 10X zoom lens.

[yonzabam]

May 22, 2011 17:23:49 GMT -1 westender said:

.... So anyhoo, what do you make of this graphene stuff, yonza? Have you heard of it?

What are they gonnae use it for inflict on us next, that we don't need?

Graphene? I have to admit, your post was the first I've heard of it, but from the quotes in the article, I think we can take predictions about its future usage with a large pinch of salt.

That said, it may well have totally unanticipated uses which could be very exciting. It's a very interesting field. Just have to wait and see what develops.

[doorstop]

If it takes an elephant balancing on a pencil to puncture it, how are you going to cut it to use it in the first place?

And where can I get one of those pencils? I'm forever breaking mine.

[ozneil]

How the F**** can an elephant balance on a pencil??
I just dont believe it!!!!!!

[celyn]

Has anyone specified the size of the pencil? ;D Of course, elephants more commonly go around in groups of four standing on a turtle, as any fule kno.

As for 'phones, you can still get nice simple mobile 'phones. Also, I think the simple ones go for longer without recharging, 'cos they don't do the all-singing, all-dancing thing. Then simple 'phone owners like me get to feel smug. ;D

[ozneil]

Aug 23, 2011 23:13:07 GMT -1 celyn said:

Has anyone specified the size of the pencil? ;D Of course, elephants more commonly go around in groups of four standing on a turtle, as any fule kno.

Is that the same elephants that paint their toenails pink so they can hide in strawberry patch?

[notanimby]

What type of pencil, HB?