Korkstand

re: Will "Learn to Weld" become the new "Learn to Code" with AI coming for the coding jobs?

Posted by Korkstand on 12/22/25 at 11:46 am to jdd48

quote:
Why shouldn't I? It's got all the usual hallmarks of one. Superficial hype driven appeal, high investment without clear types of return, surrounded by buzzwords and lofty promises and not many practical use cases, etc. If you want to say I am in denial, then so be it, but I still stand by my opinion. I've been in the tech field far too long to see execs fall for this exact same type of sales pitch time and time again.

You are 100% in denial. How can you say there are not many practical use cases? AI can be applied to all knowledge work. It can be applied to all creative work. That covers probably 2/3 of US workers.

You can argue that it is presently not being applied well, but it's really hard to argue that it's not useful. Maybe we don't know how the economics will play out or how the industry will look tomorrow (much less in a year or 5), but it's absolutely not a "fad".

ChatGPT has replaced Google search for me. If that's all it ever does, that's not a fad.

re: Will "Learn to Weld" become the new "Learn to Code" with AI coming for the coding jobs?

Posted by Korkstand on 12/22/25 at 11:27 am to jdd48

quote:
No - most of us have just been in this industry long enough to know the latest tech fad when we see it. Usually what happens is there is some change from the new tech, but not anywhere even close to the initial promises and predictions.

We might be in a bubble, but what shakes out in the end will probably be as impactful and pervasive as the internet.

re: Movie Love vs. Real Life

Posted by Korkstand on 12/22/25 at 10:44 am to Loup

quote:
I made my wife check the crack of doom for any and she screamed "why is it winking at me????!!!!"

The sphinc wink!

re: Any update on using AI for traffic light management?

Posted by Korkstand on 12/22/25 at 10:42 am to Kingpenm3

quote:
The answer will probably be Starlink. But not until they can get the cost of both the transponders and service down to almost nothing.

Starlink is absolutely not required nor will it ever be. Any place that needs this level of traffic management has been saturated with terrestrial connectivity options for decades.

If any company is positioned to handle traffic management, it's Google. They already mitigate traffic to an extent by routing Maps users around congested areas. Applying their data to traffic light control would work wonders. Any system that reacts to what's happening at an intersection *right now* is already too late. An optimal system would know not only where every driver is but where they will be, and when.

quote:
Another one of those 'just a matter of time' where AI is the answer, but not yet.

When "AI" is the answer, it will be driving the cars, not just working the traffic lights. Lights won't be needed anymore.

re: Domain and Website Hosting/Builder

Posted by Korkstand on 12/17/25 at 10:06 am to jmorr34

If you will only be managing one or a few domains, I'd just pick the cheapest registrar. More than a handful and I'd say the management tools start to matter more. And if you are getting something other than a generic TLD your choice of registrar may become limited.

I guess most hosts these days offer "site builder" features, and a lot also offer domain registry too. One domain, simple site with nothing fancy, I'd pick the cheapest all-in-one host/registrar with site builder like wix/squarespace/bluehost/whatever.

I can't comment on or compare the site builder tools.

re: New router/modem and connecting devices

Posted by Korkstand on 12/17/25 at 8:38 am to FieldEngineer

quote:
Seems like creating a new network with the same SSID/PW shouldn't work. Otherwise, devices are very open to MITM attacks.

It works because that's how PSK is defined. And yes the evil twin AP is an obvious attack vector and that's why protocols treat wifi as hostile transport.

re: New router/modem and connecting devices

Posted by Korkstand on 12/17/25 at 8:31 am to FieldEngineer

quote:
That may have worked at one time, but it really doesn’t anymore. I tried the same thing recently and every device on my network wasn’t fooled. They knew it was a different network, despite all the settings being identical.

It still works every time I do it, whether I use Ubiquiti gear or something else, and it doesn't matter which way I'm swapping.

re: Better buy your IP cameras now, FCC going all out war on Dahua and Hik

Posted by Korkstand on 12/15/25 at 11:03 am to Dallaswho

quote:
I didn’t realize how big of a deal this was before getting my hands on my first decent Dahua gear last week. Holy crap it is nearly infinitely better than anything I’ve seen. Full control over every little detail possible down to the curves, shutter speed curves, every stream imaginable, layered streaming, clean API, any bitrate you want, frame rates in increments of 1.. Icing on the cake is that you can turn off all “chatter.”

Ubiquiti doesn't expose these "nitty gritty" settings, hiding most of it behind friendlier settings, but you can still tune for most environments. The biggest knocks on Ubiquiti have been price/performance and the lack of ONVIF compliance. They have recently allowed ONVIF cams into their system with some caveats, but it doesn't go the other way and you still can't use their cams with an ONVIF system. But they do have a powerful alarm system with an API so you can integrate that way if necessary. And now it looks like suddenly Ubiquiti might be the best bang for the buck. They have started adding a 7% tariff charge on most of their camera gear, and I appreciate that they itemize that.

re: Better buy your IP cameras now, FCC going all out war on Dahua and Hik

Posted by Korkstand on 12/15/25 at 10:52 am to Dallaswho

Uniview (UNV) is I think the third largest white label Chinese camera manufacturer, and they avoided most of the trouble longer than dahua and hik. Are they getting tangled up in it as well?

quote:
I’m guessing Annke and Amcrest will just source elsewhere.

From who? Hanwha? Vivotek? I think any way we slice it price/performance is going to 2-3X.

re: Why doesn’t TD host its own image uploads?

Posted by Korkstand on 11/26/25 at 8:19 am to Meauxjeaux

quote:
A terabyte of images is $6 per month.

To store it, yes. But then it's $10 to download that same terabyte. One time.

re: Apple gives up on home grown Siri; will be powered by Google's Gemini starting next year

Posted by Korkstand on 11/4/25 at 10:03 pm to prplhze2000

quote:
The smartphone world has moved on to ecosystems. Now you have to offer an ecosystem if you want to keep your customers.

I want out.

re: Extending Mesh Network to building 50-60 feet away

Posted by Korkstand on 11/4/25 at 12:06 pm to Earnest_P

quote:
I have a regular Deco mesh system. I stuck one of the nodes out in my metal shop, 45’ from the other node. It works fine.

Both are interior, but it is a wood framed house.

I was going to run a wire, glad I tried this instead.

It's inside the metal shop? Surprised it works alright if so, though 45' is not all that far.

Honestly if all you're doing on the far end is streaming TV or browsing the web occasionally, which probably covers a big majority of cases, a wireless mesh will be good enough most of the time. If you want to do something demanding or end up wanting cameras at the far end, you might run into bandwidth or latency issues.

re: I’ve always been an iPhone snob

Posted by Korkstand on 10/30/25 at 12:31 pm to AlxTgr

quote:
frustrated and curious as to how so many people put up with that crap

Same. Like you still can't adjust media volume *before* playing media? At least not simply?

re: I’ve always been an iPhone snob

Posted by Korkstand on 10/30/25 at 6:03 am to TigerGman

quote:
The reality is most people no longer give a shite about tech, nor do they much need to these days anyway

They'd better start giving a shite because if we end up with machines writing all the code and nobody knows what's going on we're fricked.

re: Home NAS, Immich photos, Plex, Torrents, etc (help)

Posted by Korkstand on 10/27/25 at 3:04 pm to Dallaswho

quote:
You’ll need to set up a domain and an access method. You don’t need to make it complicated. NPM docker can get you https access in minutes but you need to harden your LAN if you have opened it up in the past. No more windows sharing or anything like that. Need all PCs on “public network” mode and never direct NPM to a service that doesn’t have authentication enabled. Don’t expose anything you can’t lose or share with world.

Tailscale is free and pretty easy and avoids the security issues of poking holes in the firewall.

re: Home NAS, Immich photos, Plex, Torrents, etc (help)

Posted by Korkstand on 10/27/25 at 11:29 am to bluebarracuda

I don't use Synology either, just figured it was the easy/safe choice for someone starting out.

I'm not about to recommend/explain the path I chose. :lol:

re: Home NAS, Immich photos, Plex, Torrents, etc (help)

Posted by Korkstand on 10/27/25 at 11:10 am to bluebarracuda

I think OP is looking for something simpler. Doesn't Synology have a docker container manager that might make it pretty simple?

re: Looking to replace my Samsung SmartThings Mesh Routers

Posted by Korkstand on 10/22/25 at 11:08 am to Crow Pie

I would replace stuff every 5-6 years anyway just due to technology advances, but as for degrading it's really hard to say what's happening.

It could be environmental as pointed out.

It could be software issues, either bugginess where your specific setup wasn't tested well or digital "cruft" accumulating that a factory reset might remedy.

It could be hardware issues. Consumer networking gear is expected to be silent thus usually have no fans, so they rely on heat sinks attached with thermal paste/adhesive which doesn't last forever. It eventually degrades and chips begin to throttle to manage heat which reduces performance, if they don't fail altogether.

re: Looking to replace my Samsung SmartThings Mesh Routers

Posted by Korkstand on 10/21/25 at 1:03 pm to Lonnie Utah

quote:
You your neighbor got a new router/network and the wifi channels changed to what yours are, it could totally be inference.

The first thing I'd do is download a free wifi analyzer/diagnostic app to see what wifi channels are in use by you and your neighbors...

That's a good test but won't tell you the whole story since it only looks for wifi signals. Interference can also come from recent changes to a nearby comms tower like what happened in my neighborhood. I bought a cheap spectrum analyzer and it revealed a lot. There are a couple of hot spots in my 'hood where signals from the tower completely drown out several frequency bands. There is at least one house where wifi barely works at all inside the house and outside is hopeless.

re: Looking to replace my Samsung SmartThings Mesh Routers

Posted by Korkstand on 10/21/25 at 11:18 am to notsince98

quote:
are you sure you have equipment issues and not interference issues? If it is interference, new equipment will have the same problem.

I'm leaning toward equipment issues, but interference is definitely a possibility. And not only from your neighbors' wifi, but also nearby comms towers can cause major issues.