site banner
naraburns  nihil supernum  2yr ago (text post)   Edited 2yr ago   5649 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 13, 2022

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

4
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Bluetooth Headphones: Threat or Menace?

I love my Jabra bluetooth headphones both on the go and sitting at my desk; not having cables wrapped around your neck is incredible. But I've wasted hours with the common "paired but won't connect" error after the PC wakes from sleep (often having to pop the case and un/plug the usb header on the bluetooth module to get it working). It works pretty reliably on my android potato. Did I just buy a shitty wifi+bluetooth card, or is there some better alternative entirely?

I'm nervous of USB dongles, because I've had really awful static interference from them before, albeit on an old case with badly shielded headphone jacks next to the ports.

@FiveHourMarathon @aqouta Sorry for the ping, but this is basically a reply to both your comments about earbuds in the thread below.

Bluetooth chips are famously shitty. I specifically looked for a mobo with an Intel chip when I was assembling a new PC last year, and I still ended up with a few outages that could only be solved by unplugging the PSU from the mains and letting the charge dissipate.

I have Jabras, but I use them 99+% with my phone, rarely with my laptop or tablet. Seldom enough that immediately after using it with something else I go into settings and forget them from my laptop so I don't have to listen to that lady go "connected" over and over as I walk around. No connection issues when not confusing the phone or headphones with multiple connections.

One thing I'll note, though, I dislike about them that over a multi year timeframe they're disposable. There's no real way to repair them, when they're done they're done, and they wear out. I've had the Jabras for probably 4 years now, and they're starting to wear down on battery from hard use. I also have some old airpods I got out of lost and found sale and my wife used for a few years, they're so quiet now they're useless for anything other than listening to Ovid in bed when I'm stoned. Before the Jabras I had cheapies that went bad after a year.

So it might just be something wearing out?

Thanks! I should buy some earbuds and see if the PC has the same problem with them. That Jabra voice does get on your nerves, doesn't it! Especially the "battery low" that kicks in starting at 50% charge(!) on the Moves. Luckily there's a button combo to disable the voice entirely, or I'd have binned them by now.

I've had mine for... a good 7-8 years? Had to replace the pads once, and the battery needs daily charging now, but they've held up remarkably well considering the abuse they've gone through.

I mainly use Sennheiser brand ear buds and headsets. They can sometimes have had the problem where the connect but then don't actually take over the audio for desktop but not phone. I suspect it's frequently caused by the fight my phone and desktop get into over who gets to control the headset. I've found turning my phone bluetooth off when using my desktop bluetooth helps. as for dongle I had used a cheaper desktop one for a while but have switched to this one which gives me much better range through multiple walls allowing me to continue, with some slight quality loss, listening to my basement desktop from the second story of my house. One strange thing that tends to cause me audio problems is the spotify desktop app sometimes spins up a bunch of weird process that need to be killed and those processes seem to hold the audio hostage or something.

Thanks, that dongle's cheap enough that it's worth a try just to ditch this awful PCI card.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats