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--- lb:technology.connections [2026-02-03 10:24:09] – [Personal Evaluation] ninjasr
+++ lb:technology.connections [2026-02-13 17:26:20] (current) – [Technology Connections] ninjasr
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 ====== Technology Connections ======
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+{{tag>creators youtube}}
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 **Technology Connections** is a YouTube channel run by Alec (whose surname I don't know) which started out as an edutainment channel explaining A/V-related technologies (like the [[lb:cd]] or [[lb:VHS]])...but then quickly morphed into a vlogging channel about whatever he found in his house that week.
-{{tag>creators youtube}}
 ===== Personal Evaluation =====
 Technology Connections is a big mixed bag. I think his earlier videos – where he actually explains technologies related to A/V – are his peak. His newer videos (starting around 2020, so it's been a long time now) are much worse. This is due to him prioritizing technologies that he has a “personal connection” to, which means you suddenly get videos about humidifiers.\\
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 As an example, Alec believes that all street light bulbs (like High-Pressure Sodium bulbs)((:fn:>If you don't know what these are, don't worry too much. They're the street lights that glow a very warm orange and, sometimes, maroon.)) should be replaced with LEDs. Specifically, we should go from the warm orange lights to the cold white lights. The reasoning he presents is based on evidence that it increases safety by lighting up more of the road. White lights resemble daylight (in theory), which is why this is much safer overall. Additionally, LEDs come with longer lifespans, lower energy usage and lower maintenance costs. Thus, he concludes, people who oppose the replacement of old HPS lights are simply being dumb.\\
 Except that he leaves out a few very important facts (though he touches on a few of them).\\
-The first major one is that white LEDs tend to interfere with people's sleeping habits. And...this is a guess on my part, because I haven't seen the connection made directly, it also probably interferes with the sleep of animals and insects. So if you've ever heard about that being a problem, just remember that it's white LEDs that are responsible. Note that Alec's solution is to pull up the blinds, which is a laughably terrible ‘solution’.\\
+The first major one is that white LEDs tend to interfere with people's sleeping habits. And...this is a guess on my part, because I haven't seen the connection made directly, it also probably interferes with the sleep of animals and insects. So if you've ever heard about that being a problem, just remember that it's white LEDs that are responsible (probably). Note that Alec's solution is to pull up the blinds, which is a laughably terrible ‘solution’.\\
-The second important fact is related to how the human eye adjusts to light. Typically, when you go from a high-light place to a low-light place, it takes your eyes some time to adjust to the change in brightness. How long this takes varies from person to person, but the more it happens, the more time it takes to adjust (because your eyes get tired). If this happens often enough, you're also gonna start experiencing headaches, among other minor issues. How is this relevant to streetlights? Well, that's because you can’t light the entire road network with streetlights (for various reasons), so there will always be segments of the road where there are no lights...and, thus, there are places where there's a transition to low-light areas. Now...white LEDs are extremely bright...so let's think about this for a second: is it really a smart idea to force drivers’ eyes to adjust to very sudden changes in brightness like this? And to do so in a way that guarantees to tire them out? This issue isn't as prominent as with the old HPS lights because their warm orange glow actually prevents the eye from straining as much when switching to low-light. That's the main advantage.\\
+The second important fact is related to how the human eye adjusts to light. Typically, when you go from a high-light place to a low-light place, it takes your eyes some time to adjust to the change in brightness. How long this takes varies from person to person, but the more it happens, the more time it takes to adjust (because your eyes get tired). If this happens often enough, you're also gonna start experiencing headaches, among other minor issues. How is this relevant to streetlights? Well, that's because you can’t light the entire road network with streetlights (for various reasons), so there will always be segments of the road where there are no lights...and, thus, there are places where there's a transition to low-light areas. Now...white LEDs are extremely bright...so let's think about this for a second: is it really a smart idea to force drivers’ eyes to adjust to very sudden changes in brightness like this? And to do so in a way that guarantees tiring them out? This issue isn't as prominent as with the old HPS lights because their warm orange glow actually prevents the eye from straining as much when switching to low-light. That's the main advantage.\\
-Now, LEDs can be forced to shine at that particular color...but then they apparently use the same amount of power as HPS bulbs and the LEDs also lose their lower power consumption advantage. Plus their lifespans might be lower. Considering that, wouldn't it make a lot of sense to just keep using HPS lights?
+Now, LEDs can be forced to shine at that particular color...but then they apparently use the same amount of power as HPS bulbs and the LEDs also lose their lower power consumption advantage. Plus their lifespans might be lower. Considering that, wouldn't it make a lot of sense to just keep using HPS lights?\\
+Another important question that should be asked is this: HPS bulbs were created specifically to address the high power and maintenance costs of more traditional bulbs in streetlights. And if HPS bulbs solved this problem so well that they were used when the grid was much more primitive and incapable of handling as much as we throw at it now...and, of course, they were good enough to be the standard for literal decades...is it really smart to move away from them?
 Alec’s videos have a lot of these kinds of errors and mistakes, which go generally unnoticed by the majority population because they simply don't know as much as he does.