AM/FM Radio is a safety issue

[AZFox]

 

[AZFox]

Now entire websites are built by "prompt engineers" using AI.

Worse yet than that.

Now the prompts themselves are being engineered by agents (OpenClaw, etc.).

What could go wrong?! 🤔

 

[Susan]

I taught myself how to use WordPress, and know just enough CSS and HTML to fill in the gaps. I don't use plugins or AI. My site may be ugly, but it's my ugly.
</rant>

I love websites that don't look like every other website out there!

Yet another thing I like about the Slate. Their website has information about the truck, in an easily accessible format. It's not full of pictures of cars zooming around on empty roads or open spaces. Btw, where are all these open roads? The ones I drive are usually full of cars. Even the mountain roads, I have to pull over all the time to let faster cars pass me.

I was trying to get info about the Rivian R2 and the new electric Subaru. I wanted to scream. Too much animation, and not enough information. Were they trying to hide something? Because the info I wanted took a long time to find.

 

[Susan]

And btw, I've visited your website. I think it's beautfiul and I'm looking forward to reading your book too! I love sci-fi.

 

[bloo]

And btw, I've visited your website. I think it's beautfiul and I'm looking forward to reading your book too! I love sci-fi.

Thankssomuch, Susan! It's a first-contact novel with aliens (blue ones) and a believable romantic subplot. I wrote a thousand words this morning while my car got new tires/balancing/alignment and an oil change. 27,500 words now, so I'm getting closer.

Anyhoo... I've just decided my MMC will drive a Slate. Both he and I will install an AM/FM stereo to avoid a potential "safety issue." The antenna will be installed on the passenger-side front fender where God intended. We'll use aluminum "speed tape" on the back side for a ground plane.

 

[Susan]

Anyhoo... I've just decided my MMC will drive a Slate. Both he and I will install an AM/FM stereo to avoid a potential "safety issue." The antenna will be installed on the passenger-side front fender where God intended. We'll use aluminum "speed tape" on the back side for a ground plane.

I love it! And hey, maybe you can get a slatelet made of your MMC! Good call on the radio too! 😉

 

[Tom Sawyer]

We'll use aluminum "speed tape" on the back side for a ground plane.

Why would you need tape to make a ground plane for reception? Portable AM/FM radios don’t have one, do they? Anyway, wouldn’t the Slate frame serve as a suitable ground plane? Just wondering out loud.

 

[bloo]

Why would you need tape to make a ground plane for reception? Portable AM/FM radios don’t have one, do they? Anyway, wouldn’t the Slate frame serve as a suitable ground plane? Just wondering out loud.

Those portable radios actually don't have very good reception. A car radio will outperform them every time.

Both AM and FM benefit from a ground plane. AM would benefit also from the electrical noise suppression a ground plane provides.

Speed tape allows a ground plane with a standard fender antenna more easily than most schemes. Tape the back side of the fender; drill a hole through the fender; fix the antenna mount through the hole. It will have a ground plane because of the tape around the mounting point.

I could run a tinned copper braded strap between the antenna mount and the frame. I'd have to adapt the braid to work with the antenna and an electrically-conductive point on the frame. Then I'd have to be sure any unpainted metal gets repainted or covered with putty to prevent corrosion. It's more involved, but might work better.

I grounded the hood on my '88 Colt Vista to the frame using a braid with solid lug holes on both ends. Engine electrical noise pretty much wiped out AM before that. Some designer thought it was a good idea to keep the hood electrically "floating." It wasn't.

 

[atx_ev]

Vibe coding... ugh. It's pretty much taken over website develpment on the hobbyist and small business side. I could see the direction we were headed as I built my first-ever website last year. I've only ever coded in C and some ASM, so any sort of web dev was new to me.

Even before AI, many others were already using plugins for the simplest things. There's one for adding social-media links and icons to the page footer, another to add banner images to the header. The functionality is right there in WordPress, FFS.

Then they started vibe coding the plugins.

Now entire websites are built by "prompt engineers" using AI.

I taught myself how to use WordPress, and know just enough CSS and HTML to fill in the gaps. I don't use plugins or AI. My site may be ugly, but it's my ugly.

</rant>

I mean you literally use wordpress. An entire bloated system for displaying web pages.

Back in the day people were upset that developers were using libraries with hashtables instead of making it themselves.

I have built web pages from scratch using web servers to abstract the application layer. I have built webservers from scratch using sockets that abstract the TCP/IP protocol. I have built TCP/IP protocol handlers (in school).

Ultimately we are all using an operating system and arent rolling our own.

Every level builds on the last to make it faster to build things. There is no "honor" in doing things a harder way.

I am right now wiring up AI to be able to access every function in one my applications. In the future we will use natural language and wont need buttons, sliders etc. to run a UI.

 

[IamSpotted]

And who thought it was a good idea to replace the search bar on mobile sites and apps with a stupid big button in the lower right corner? It obscures other elements on the page even when you're not searching for anything.

Of course there are forum apps that no londer support pagination (I'm looking at you, Discourse). Have fun looking for an old post in a thread with a thousand comments.

Did I mention the dearly-departed browser forward button? I am now.

Whoops. I guess my rant wasn't over

The forward button does exist though. On Android you tap the three dots and iOS is in the bottom left corner.

 

[Luxrage]

I mean you literally use wordpress. An entire bloated system for displaying web pages.

Back in the day people were upset that developers were using libraries with hashtables instead of making it themselves.

I remember helping build webpages in MacroMedia DreamWeaver. Hell, one of them is still up.

I'd like to think / hope that the frame the body panels are all mounted to will give us enough metal for a good antenna ground. I'll absolutely do a motorized one or a big whip.

I really hope at some point in the future Slate will allow 24 hour test drives for certain locations... mostly so I can take it home and do a bunch of tests like that with a car stereo and an antenna before taking it back 🤫

 

[Susan]

There is no "honor" in doing things a harder way.

Nobody was talking about honor. We were talking about bad user interfaces.

It's harder to learn how to do something than to get an AI to do it for you too. But learning how to do it is often more satisfying. It's part of being human.

I don't have the same objections that many people do about AI. It's a tool. And it can be used for good or used for evil or used for things that nobody needs.

I'd like AI to be used by doctors to deliver personal treatments for dread diseases. Or to solve problems related to health and the environment. Or big problems.

I also don't care if script kiddies create AI cat memes. I've been enjoying the AI kung fu cat videos lately.

But I do object to humans berating other humans who are creatives, about their choice of tools.

 

[atx_ev]

Nobody was talking about honor. We were talking about bad user interfaces.

The OP wrote this:

I taught myself how to use WordPress, and know just enough CSS and HTML to fill in the gaps. I don't use plugins or AI. My site may be ugly, but it's my ugly.

This is the "honor" of doing things a harder way, even if it results in a poorer outcome.

My point is they are already using wordpress which is a huge platform that already does a ton of things. Using wordpress but not plugins/AI is some artificial line that isnt logical.

 

[cadblu]

I remember helping build webpages in MacroMedia DreamWeaver. Hell, one of them is still up.

I'd like to think / hope that the frame the body panels are all mounted to will give us enough metal for a good antenna ground. I'll absolutely do a motorized one or a big whip.

It's been mentioned that the Slate access points with threaded connections all tie back to the structural frame for rigidity. That should be fine for a good antenna ground.

 

[bloo]

This is the "honor" of doing things a harder way, even if it results in a poorer outcome.

I didn't mean a poorer outcume. I was contrasting my ugly to AI ugly. And yes, AI can produce some really ugly webpages. They may look nice until you interact. That's Susan's point.

I'm a writer who hopes to be an author. So yeah... I'm gonna' be biased against AI. But I've also seen author AI websites that border on unusable. Hero images you have to scroll and scroll and scroll past to get to what readers really want to know about - the books. So many images and elements, anything short of a desktop PC can't cope. There's one site where the blurb is color-matched to the background of a moving metronome. Try reading that. Well... I did read it and the blurb was god-awful generic AI. I didn't buy the book.

I understand there aren't points for effort. But some effort is required. You should at least have an idea of how websites work and how people use them.

My point is they are already using wordpress which is a huge platform that already does a ton of things. Using wordpress but not plugins/AI is some artificial line that isnt logical.

As the WordPress user, the line is pretty clear to me. All of my content was written, drawn, photographed, and arranged by a human. Yes... I used a few public-domain images subsequently modified to fit what I'm trying to do. Yet each one was human created and each tells a story.

I hand-drew most icons and used a non-AI face builder for the character images. I edited the faces in MS Paint to get what I wanted.

With exception to quotes and citation, the words are all mine.

But we're talking about UI, so here goes. I want my site to be simple to navigate. There are no hidden menus or silly drop downs. Icons and links are clear. There are no inefficient elements or textures to slow loading. Page banners show the site name and where you are. Each is consistant in size and formatting (except for the 404 page - that one's special).

With all that, I don't want my site to be boring. I tried like hell to make it intuitive and discoverable, too. Things are easy to find, but there are still surprises if you dig just a bit (the 404 page, for example). Turns out you can do something with a broken necklace.

Most companies who use AI don't care about the user experience. It's all about cheap and fast. And that's the difference between my ugly website and theirs - I care.