gabrielblack (u/gabrielblack)

gabrielblack commented on Two Years of Life with PinePhone linmob.net/two-years-of-o... · Posted by u/ollieparanoid

xnorswap · 4 years ago

> I would bear in mind, that they are not professionals for handling consumer cases

If they take your money for a product, then they are professionals for handling consumer cases, they are obliged to be.

They might not want to be, in which case they should hire people who do want to be.

Moreover, if you are producing a device for open source developers, people working for free , giving their free time to contribute to create a valid product, you can't spit on them when they have problem with the hardware they are contributing to develop, IMHO. At the end, I paid the phone, the shipment, custom duties, VAT, the shipment costs back in USA (why USA ???), a lot of my time, for nothing. So I felt was better to stop, spending my time elsewhere.

gabrielblack commented on Two Years of Life with PinePhone linmob.net/two-years-of-o... · Posted by u/ollieparanoid

hutzlibu · 4 years ago

Your story sounds bad, but I would bear in mind, that they are not professionals for handling consumer cases.

They are mainly linux smartphone hackers. If I would buy a device, I would consider it a donation if something goes wrong and not expect something to be able to work with. But that part should probably be made clearer. I also cannot say they are fully to blame, I found their website clear enough that there is no real quality control or support. But if I would have believed certain internet enthusiasts, I would be sad because of broken promises regarding stability. At least basic working functionality by now would have been nice.

Still, things are maybe getting there.

"It's incredible... how much the PinePhone experience improved in the meantime"

gabrielblack · 4 years ago

I'm an hacker and I gave up with that platform after that experience because if you can't guarantee reasonable assistance quality , a basic replacement service if the device is defective and a procedure for RMAs in reasonable times, I feel is better to employ my time elsewhere. Two months asking a replacement and obtaining nothing, two months : we aren't talking about a service from hacker to hackers as it should be. > I would consider it a donation I'm also donating my time, for that reason I don't feel their behavior is justifiable.

gabrielblack commented on Two Years of Life with PinePhone linmob.net/two-years-of-o... · Posted by u/ollieparanoid

3np · 4 years ago

On the initial response, in case it's the Pro that can be explained by a known hardware issue that manifests as an apparently bricked device if the battery gets drained and regardless of charger it takes several hours to bring it back to life[0].

Even so, that does not excuse the rest of the story and hopefully they can improve. A friend of mine also had some frustration with communicating with their customer service (which appeared outsourced or incompetent).

[0]: https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_Pro#Troubleshooting

gabrielblack · 4 years ago

Hi, I'm am a pro. I have laboratory equipment and I did the needed checks before opening the RMA. As explained to the service the problem was elsewhere. It's exactly the opposite, IMHO, they treat me as an idiot consumer that wasn't able to recharge a phone. I think they don't realize that this kind of device often is purchased by people different from the average consumer, so yes, I had same impression of your friend. Moreover, I tried to access their on-line form to request the RMA: the only browser at time able to access and send properly the request was Opera. I tested, Safari, Firefox, Chromium: only Opera was able to do the job.

gabrielblack commented on Two Years of Life with PinePhone linmob.net/two-years-of-o... · Posted by u/ollieparanoid

gabrielblack · 4 years ago

I had one device who died after a couple of weeks: suddenly it refused to switch on. So I found the real source of pain from Pinephone project: the assistance. I sent a detailed report about the hardware failure and they sent me a message about how properly recharge the phone , something like : "you need the power supply, insert the plug in the 220V socket, insert the USB-c cable, etc", demonstrating that they didn't read my message at all. After some further rounds of nonsense instructions, that , anyway, I followed giving them feedback about the results, I asked for a replacement. At that point, they started to waste time, another department apparently stepped in. After my complaints, they asked me to send the device back without acknowledgment of receipt, via ordinary post service, in the USA (I'm in Europe and I received the phone from Asia), sending to an anonymous p.o. box. I told them that it was unacceptable because in that way I took all the shipment risks not having any proof that I sent the device nor that the parcel in case of problems. Luckily, I found a post service with proof of shipment, so I had at least a receipt proving I sent the device back. At the end, they refused to send me a replacement, starting to negotiate the amount of the refund, because they wasted so many time I risked to not be able to ask Paypal intervention, I asked Paypal to step in receiving a full refund.

gabrielblack commented on A true random number generator based on bananas radioactive decay valerionappi.it/brng-en/... · Posted by u/whispering

whispering · 4 years ago

Nice! Are you the author?

Looks very similar to mine in the principles of operation! I wonder if the author got some inspiration from my work, that would be amazing!

gabrielblack · 4 years ago

No he's a friend of mine, I also have my nuclear RNG based on different vintage counter. I think his project is older. I like your project too! This is him: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30252171

gabrielblack commented on A true random number generator based on bananas radioactive decay valerionappi.it/brng-en/... · Posted by u/whispering

gabrielblack · 4 years ago

Another one: https://github.com/gbonacini/nuclear_random_number_generator

gabrielblack commented on Useless Use of "dd" (2015) vidarholen.net/contents/b... · Posted by u/RaoulP

gabrielblack · 4 years ago

I don't think so, this command could be significantly slow:

    cp myfile.iso /dev/sdb

compared with this one:

    dd if=myfile.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=32M

because implementation of cp have a fixed buffer, so if the amount of data is big and the disks fast, using cp you are calling more read() and write() syscalls than necessary, slowing down the copy process.

gabrielblack commented on Low-cost, battery-like device absorbs CO2 emissions while it charges techxplore.com/news/2022-... · Posted by u/PaulHoule

PaulHoule · 4 years ago

The best developed method of removing CO2 from waste gas streams is:

https://www.sulzer.com/en/shared/applications/amine-treater-...

In that case you are heating and cooling a liquid in which the CO2 dissolves and then goes out of solution. In one phase you are removing CO2 from the waste gas stream, in the other one you are producing a stream of pure CO2.

That device works basically the same but with electricity rather than heat.

gabrielblack · 4 years ago

Ok, but, if I've understood correctly , at the end of article they suggest that the CO2 captured while the battery was in recharging state is released when the same battery is in use. In other words the battery doesn't capture permanently the CO2 as the gas stream method you just mentioned: the battery isn't like a black hole for CO2, it simply "breath" releasing the CO2 when it's discharging. So in what way that should be a solution for the global warming ? If they want capture the CO2 in discharging phase, they need to store a big number of coin size batteries in an industrial facility that needs batteries for some reason, plus you are using electricity that likely was produced burning fossil combustibles to remove CO2 from air. So no laptop or cellphone removing CO2 from our atmosphere.

gabrielblack commented on The Verge is so bad they have me defending Apple [video] youtube.com/watch?v=9vhCa... · Posted by u/mikece

gabrielblack · 4 years ago

I totally agree with Rossmann: the more important thing is that you can lease the equipment from Apple but there is no obligation. The equipment is intended to do a job compliant with Apple standard but, if you don't care to replace the water proof sealant, etc, you can use tools you already have or more cheap from your regular sources ( hardware stores, ebay, etc). The right to repair is a serious matter, without activist like Rossmann, who spent his time to speak to the US Congress, we wouldn't even have the spare parts from Apple: this is the real vantage, not the possibility to lease the tools.