Posts Tagged: ‘Miscellaneous’

Tiny Inventions – Originally Published June 2013

August 21, 2014 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Lately, I’ve been thinking about Google Glass.  It seems to be all the rage these days.  Almost all of the tech blog sites are writing about it.  Videos are starting to show up all over the internet.  There are many concerns about personal privacy.  People with Glass can take your photo without you even knowing about it.  There are still many questions about what the future will be.  Only two things are known for sure: 1) They look pretty ugly; and 2) the cost is $1500.

Those thoughts stimulated me to put on my inventor hat.  I think the world might be ready for the Tiny Monocle.  I would market it as the Tonocle.  The Tonocle would have many of the same functions as Glass, but would be easier to use.  You could easily put it in your eye using only the thumb and forefinger.  If you wore prescription lenses it would be easy to insert behind your eyeglasses.

An ordinary monocle uses a cord to attach it to a vest or shirt button to prevent it falling on the floor if it pops out of your eye.  The Tonocle would replace the cord with a USB cable.  It could be plugged into your phone and prevent bluetooth from broadcasting to the world.  It also could be plugged into a charging battery which is hidden in a pocket.  There would be no reason to remove the Tonocle every three hours for a recharge.  To increase profitability, I am definitely going to make the USB plugs non-standard.

While I’m inventing wearable computing stuff, I think I’ll design a Tiny belt.  The T-Belt could be fashionably worn with any style of shirt than can be tucked in.  The reason the shirt couldn’t be un-tucked is because the belt would have several sensors and cameras.  With a camera on every side of your body, you would never miss being able to record a viral video.  All of the standard sensors would be installed on the belt.  You would always have access to GPS, temperature, humidity, etc.  Similar to a money belt, the T-Belt would have storage pockets for memory cards, USB cables, etc.  The T-Belt buckle would be a case for a large battery that could be used to recharge your phone or other mobile device.

I think I’ll also invent a special flash drive.  Like the Tonocle, this would just be an improvement on existing technology.  The drive would have a small LCD screen on the outside.  The user could program a short message which would flash across the screen marquee style.  I think a flash drive with a changeable label might be a good seller.  I’m going to call it the CORdrive.

Another great invention is going to be the Tongle.  The Tongle is a specialized dongle that starts flashing whenever the boss, the wife or anyone else you designate comes within eight feet of your computer.  This would give you plenty of time to make sure there is appropriate content displayed on your monitor.  I haven’t yet figured out how to make this work, but I’m sure I can do something with RFID technology.

I could take all of the profits from the Monocle and the Tongle and invest in my anti‑theft phone case.  Whenever you go anywhere that it is possible someone would steal your phone, you would simply arm your case with a private pin number.  In the event your phone was stolen, sensors would sound a shrill alarm when the case was nine feet away from you.  Additionally, four double edged razor blades would pop out of each side of the case.  The thief would likely feel some instant pain and immediately drop the stolen phone.

I had better quit writing now and go fill out my Kickstarter applications.  I’m certain that my great ideas will have no problem raising millions of dollars in donations.  After all, the Oculus Rift Twisted did!

Thanks for reading.

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Funny Stuff On The Internet – Originally Published May 2013

August 16, 2014 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

My grandson twisted my arm last month and forced me to take him to CyPhaCon.  When I was younger, I went to a lot of science fiction conventions.  Back then it was mostly Star Trek conventions.  Now that I’m older, I have a hard time remembering if I’m a “Trekkie” or a “Trekker”.  SciFi conventions are a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, they can be pretty dangerous too.  That is why you always see uniformed police officers on duty.  About the only thing that is really safe is the healthy food you can buy.

The internet is a lot like a SciFi convention.  There are so many things to see and do.  You can even read stupid articles written by old men that ramble on about gatherings of SciFi people.  Everyone also knows about the dangers and we all keep our antivirus programs updated. I know that all of the SWLAPCUG club members have recently checked their router firmware for updates and have their firewalls activated to keep the bad guys away.  Since everyone is so safe, I thought that this month I’d talk about some of the fun things to do on the internet.

There’s about 161,000,000 of them.  I know that everyone doesn’t have the same idea of what’s fun, but maybe if I tell you about my favorite sites, you might find something entertaining.

One of the things you can find a lot of on the internet are free games to play.  If you’re looking for games, a good place to start is the Freeware Genius lists of top games.  My personal favorite online game is Texas Hold’em Poker.  There are a lot of places to play, but you’ll usually find me at World Series Poker at games.com.  If you like to play hearts, I recommend you try Bicycle Hearts at the Microsoft Gaming Zone.  The Gaming Zone has been around for quite a while and they have lots of games.

I’ve never been much of a television or movie watcher, but I love to listen to the old time radio shows.  Most evenings I’m listening to The Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke, Jack Benny, or my personal favorite, Fibber McGee & Molly.  My hard drive has about 21 GB of radio program files.  One of the best places to find them is at The Internet Radio Archive.

In December 1995, Bill Watterson retired from cartooning and I lost my daily dose of one of the funniest cartoons ever.  Now, thanks to the internet, I can still read Calvin & Hobbes everyday.  You can probably find a daily comic you’ll like at GOCOMICS, AZ Central, or ArcaMax Publishing.  None of the comics sites require registration.  Make sure you check out Pickles, another one of my favorites.

“The Alphabet has been Updated with 15 Exciting New Letters” is only one of the funny satires you’ll find in The Onion.  The fictional paper was started in 1988.  They have been around more that twenty years, so they must be doing something right.  Their fictionalized news seems so genuine that it has occasionally been cited as real news.  I’ve got to warn you though.  There is often adult language used in the paper.  Another funny satire site is the Bongo News.

Another web site that never fails to make me laugh is Geezer Planet, a senior citizen humor site.  If you like senior citizen humor, you also might like to check out Geezer Guff.

The Darwin Awards is a chronicle of enterprising demises honoring those who improve the species…by accidentally removing themselves from it!

Maybe I shouldn’t admit it, but I think some of the videos on You Tube are extremely funny.  I also visit the College Humor website almost every day.

Sometimes when I’m really bored, I click the Random Link Generator 40 or 50 times and end up finding an interesting web site to browse.

As you might or might not know, I’m a transplanted Northerner.  When I talk with my brother and sisters on Facebook, I usually translate into Southern for them.  Everybody gets a few laughs.  Translating into a dialect is easy when you use The Dialectizer.  As I write this you can convert into eight different dialects.  It hardly ever fails to make me laugh.

Here is a sample:
As y’all might o’ might not know, I’m a transplanted No’therner.  When ah talk wif mah brother an’ sisters on Facebook, ah usually translate into Southern fo’ them, dawgone it.  Ev’rybody gits a few laughs.  Translatin’ into a dialeck is easy when yo’ use Th’ Dialeckizer.  As ah write this hyar yo’ kin cornvaht into eight diffrunt dialecks.  It hardly evah fails t’make me laugh.

That’s just a few of the things I like to do on the internet for fun.  I hope you enjoyed them too and maybe found a new site you’ll visit often.  Do you have a favorite place you think everyone should know about?  Why not take a minute right now and go to the club website.  Log in, go to the forums and post the link so we can all check it out.

Oh, by the way, the grandson is already making plans for a costume for next years CyPhaCon.  I suspect it might be one that is also suitable for Contraband Days.

Thanks for reading.

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Spring Cleaning – Originally Published April 2013

August 15, 2014 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

It’s that time of year again.  Time to do that spring cleaning.  Luckily, I don’t have either a garage or an attic, so you would assume there is no need for me to do any of that mundane cleansing stuff.  What I have to spring clean every year is the closet in my computer room where all of my excess electronic stuff ends up.  Just last month a lot of people told me “thank you” for bringing in something for the give away table that they could really use.  I’ll have to tell the truth.  I wasn’t really spring cleaning.  My wife had the house re‑carpeted and I had to move all of that stuff out.  It was easier to put it in the pickup than back in the closet.

Talking about spring cleaning, this is a good time to do some computer cleaning.  If you’ve got a desktop computer, it is a good idea to shut it down, unplug the power cord, open the case and blow out all of those dust bunnies that have accumulated inside.  A can of compressed air doesn’t cost much.  Make sure you blow out all of the ventilation ducts and in the corners and underneath all of the components.  This is also a good time to check that all of your power cables, memory chips, etc. are firmly seated.  Over time they sometimes wiggle loose and cause aggravating problems.

Your keyboard can also probably use a good cleaning.  Disconnect it, turn it over and give it a good shake to get rid of the accumulated crumbs and other gunk.  You could also vacuum it with a brush attachment.  A squirt or two of your canned air will also help.  If you haven’t got rid of all the keyboard muck, a cotton swab dipped in isopropyl alcohol can be rubbed between the keys to clean them.  Just make sure that the swabs aren’t dripping wet.

Next, it’s time to clean your monitor(s).  Use your compressed air to blow the dust out of the corners.  You’ve probably got a few dust bunnies over or under the stand as well.  You can make a screen cleaner from several recipes found on the internet.  Personally, I spend a few dollars and buy one of the commercial products.  Either way, don’t directly spray the screen.  Just moisten a micro-fiber cloth and then rub the screen clean.  Wipe it dry with another cloth.

Now that you’ve got a sparkling computer, it is a good time to clean your hard drive(s).  Download a copy of Belarc Advisor.  The Advisor is a program that scans all the hardware and software on your PC.  One of the sections in the report lists all of the software installed on your machine.  It also tells you the version number, date installed, usage data and much more.  Look at the section that tells you when you last opened each program.  I’ll bet you find some that haven’t been used in more than a year.  Might be good time to get rid of them and free some space on your hard drive.

Cleaning those old programs off of your hard drive is easily done with Revo Uninstaller.  Revo uses the Windows operating system uninstaller to remove the program.  Then it checks your hard drive and registry for leftover remnants and deletes them.

After deleting all of those programs, your recycle bin is probably getting pretty full.  With CCleaner  you can easily do that  At the same time you should delete old log files and old temporary files.  As an added bonus, you can clean all of your browsers temporary files, history, cookies, download history, etc.

Now that you’ve got a clean house, a sparkling garage, a spotless attic and a smooth running, junk-less computer, you’ve got time to have a cold beverage.  Maybe you could even play some clean games.

Thanks for reading.

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Cruise Ship Technology – Originally Published March 2013

August 6, 2014 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I’ve been cruising!  You may or may not know that I’ve been busy relaxing with the Mrs. on one of our cruise vacations.  This is our eighth time.  When other passengers ask if we like it, I usually tell them “No, but we’re going to keep trying until they get it right.  By the way, I’m writing this article on the ship.

I thought I’d take a few minutes and talk about the technology that I’ve noticed aboard the ship.  The first thing I that was new was the ship wide WIFI at a decent 54 mps.  The internet junkies can get their fix for a mere $0.75 per minute.  Of course, you could always sign up for the 480 minute plan and pay only 33 cents per minute.  I found it amusing that there was also a $3.95 sign up fee the first time you used the service.  Personally, I’m just fine with waiting until we enter port.  I’ve always been able to go ashore and find free WIFI somewhere.  That gives me a chance to check my email and do a little browsing.  It’s not a big thing.  After all, I am on vacation.

One of the things I’ve done differently this time is that I didn’t bring my laptop.  I’m writing this article on my Nexus 7 tablet with my bluetooth keyboard.  Several people (both passengers and crew members) have stopped to talk to me and ask about my setup.  I think I may have converted some people from their iPad and Kindle products.  They are mostly impressed when they see everything the Google machine can do.  By the way, this months Mind Bender was done completely on my Samsung Galaxy Note II.  One of the things you find on every cruise is trivia contests.  I just recorded the Q & A and later transcribed them into the puzzle.  It was easy to do with split screen multitasking on my Pocket PC.

Walking around the ship, I’ve noticed that hardly anyone is reading a book anymore.  There are a lot of tablets and e-book readers in sight though.  The problem is that not many of them can read in the bright sunlight.  Good thing there are a lot of shady spots on this ship.  It probably won’t be too long before you hear me say, “A book?  How quaint!.”

The shops, bars, internet cafe, coffee bars, etc. do not take cash aboard the ship.  Your room key not only electronically unlocks the door, but it is also your on board credit card.  It only takes a matter of seconds before your purchase is charged to your account.  Interestingly, the casino takes either cash or your key card.  If you use the card, there is a 3% service charge.  Go figure!

The key card is also used as a passkey to get off the ship in port.  At the start of the cruise, a web cam is used to take each passengers picture.  When going ashore, you just stick you card into a machine that looks like an ATM.  It beeps and you get off.  Coming back aboard is the same process, except for a Security Office checks your face against the picture on the file.  I was thinking that it would be fun to shave my beard while I’m ashore and see what happens.

We took the ships “Behind the Scenes” tour.  This was a guided four hour journey through various crew only areas of the ship.  Technology was in abundant use throughout.

We didn’t get to see the engine room, but we got to walk through the Engineering Control Center.  It was about the size of our meeting area at Village Green.  Two officers are on watch at all times.  In addition to the engines, all of the ship’s auxiliary systems such as the water distillers, sanitary disposal tanks, fuel tanks, electricity generators, etc. are monitored and controlled from this station.  They kept a close watch on me as I studied the setup.

In the galley (kitchen), there was a monitor at nearly every piece of cooking equipment.  The displays had instructions for the cooks telling them what to cook and when to cook it.  A computer in the head chef’s office allowed him to input his instructions into the system.  He was also able to order supplies from the storage areas.

The crews living areas had berthing, recreation and galley facilities.  They had their own cooks that used the same system as the passenger areas.  There was a large room with two or three dozen internet capable computers for crew use.  Many crew members had their own computers which they could also use.  Another thing that was available for the crew is college credit courses via the internet.  I don’t know if there was a fee or not.

By far, the most technology was visible on the bridge.  The first thing you see is a huge monitor displaying radar for several miles.  The ship’s location is accurately displayed with GPS coordinates.  Another screen displays up to date weather data and the forecast.  Several other stations had monitors with vital ships information.  Almost all of the sailing is done by auto pilot.  The Captain gives his orders and the crew enters the data into the computer.  About the only time it is done manually is for practice in case the systems go down.

Almost all of the technology I saw had a backup system that was the exact same as the original.  It was interesting to see two computers with the same data on the screen.  Now that I think about it, there was one system that didn’t have a backup.  I guess we can only hope that the windshield wipers on the bridge don’t fail.

Thanks for reading.

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Selling It Emails – Originally Published February 2013

August 6, 2014 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Would you believe that it has taken me a whole year to write this column?  That may sound like braggadocio, but it’s almost true.  I’ve spent the whole year of 2012 gathering data for this article.

As you may or may not know, one of the reasons I’ve kept my internet domain name is so that I can have a whole lot of email addresses.  I usually use one email address for each site that requires registration.  If I start getting a lot of spam, I can easily tell who probably sold my address.  If I would start getting spam on my club email, I could assume that one of our members may have gotten hacked.

During the holidays of 2011, I noticed that emails from sites trying to sell me stuff seemed to increase.  I got curious and on January 1, 2012, I changed my e-mail filters to automatically forward sales mail to a special folder.  For an entire year, I saved the e-mails from the following sites:

AARP
Amazon
Best Buy
Books A Million
HP
Zinio

The only e-mails I saved were the ones that I didn’t expect.  For instance mail confirming purchases went into their normal folders.  Mail from Amazon asking me to rate products were not saved.

Which site do you think was the worst mailer?  You may be surprised.  I was.

I received 268 unrequested communications from Books A Million.  In fairness, I must tell you that a portion of them were due to an error by me.  I originally signed up with the company when I purchased a discount membership card at the local store.  In October, I made an online purchase and accidentally used the wrong mail address (books instead of book).  You guessed it.  I started getting email from them two at a time.  I used their unsubscribe link on one address, but it didn’t work.  These days, Books A Million is getting a return to sender error message.

The 111 emails I got from AARP didn’t really surprise me.  After all, their monthly magazine usually has about 30 advertising inserts.  These emails are all definitely from sales of my address.  I’ve changed my filter.  If AARP ever sends me something important, I won’t see it because it goes right to the deleted folder.

The 100 emails from Amazon were suggestions of products that I might like.  I’ll never know if I like any of them, because I didn’t read any.

I was surprised that Best Buy only sent me 30 emails.  That was even less that the 65 sent by HP.  Go figure!

Zinio is a magazine subscription service that tried 27 times to sell me a new magazine subscription.  I don’t spend nearly that much time in the bathroom.

I didn’t check monthly totals, but I noticed a marked increase between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I wonder why?  If you do a lot of online buying, consider your email setup, there are several places on the internet where you can get a free email address.  Don’t clutter your inbox with mail you don’t really want.

That’s all for this month.  Thanks for reading.

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The End of the World – Originally Published January 2013

August 4, 2014 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Can you believe it?  It’s January already (I’m assuming that the Mayans were incorrect).  Another New Year is underway.  I had thought about waiting until December 21 to start this article, but decided to stick with my normal schedule.

I’m thinking that way back then the Mayan king probably had a warped sense of humor and told his calendar maker to end it all on December 21, 2012.  He probably said something like, “That will scare the heck out of everyone in the future.”  It could also have been an honest mistake.  Maybe there was a transcription error and we have to worry in 2102 instead of 2012.

There have been so many other calender “end of the world” scares.  Remember Y2K?  That didn’t happen either.  I can tell you now that it was me that saved the world.  I changed the clock on my network time so that all of my electronics never did change to the year 2000.  After two years, when the scare was over,  I finally allowed my clocks to update.

June 6, 2006 was another one of those days that the world was supposed to end.  When you write the date as 6/6/06, it supposedly was the mark of the Devil and he was coming to destroy us all.  I’m guessing he probably had a bad satellite signal and his GPS wasn’t working.  That minor electronic problem probably caused him to get stuck in traffic.

The decade of the 1980’s was going to be the end of the world several times.  It seems like everyone from Pat Robertson to the Jehovah’s Witnesses had proof positive that the “rapture” would be here soon.  Is it a coincidence that is the same era that personal computers started to become popular?  I can’t remember what George Orwell thought about it.

Google search has informed me that in the next hundred years, the world will end at least 42 different times.  It appears that computers have been pretty useful in analyzing data and helping the predictors predict the inevitable.

Now for the good news.  You don’t have to worry about the end of the world for a while yet.  Nostradamus made a detailed list of future predictions.  His prophecies end abruptly in the year 3797.  That’s when I’m going to worry.

That’s all for this month.  Thanks for reading.

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Bah! Humbug! – Originally Published December 2012

August 4, 2014 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Bah!  Humbug!
It’s that time of the year again.  The retailers want us to spend all of our hard earned nickels on lots of things that we don’t really need.  My daughter always tells me that it is hard to buy me a Christmas present because I don’t need anything.  I tell her that makes it easier.  Don’t buy me anything.  It never works that way though, but it’s alright.  I can always use socks and t‑shirts (if they’ve got a pocket).

Bah!  Humbug!
About the only difference in the holiday season every year is that it usually seems to start earlier and earlier.  This year, I saw my first Christmas display on labor day.  Newegg started advertising Black Friday deals sometime during the first part of November.  Black Friday is now Black Thursday.  You’d at least think they could change it to Fifty Shades of Grey Thursday.  I’m expecting the 2013 season to start around the Fourth of July.

Bah!  Humbug!
During the holiday season, I spend a lot more time online getting my news.  I refuse to pay extra for a newspaper on Thanksgiving Day.  Do they really expect me to pay more for extra advertising?  I can look at all the same ads online for free.  It’s better to wait until January and get the leftover prices.  Retailers don’t want unsold merchandise taking up shelf space.

Bah!  Humbug!
Every year, I’ve got to listen to some novelty song about five zillion times.  I’m just happy that Grandma doesn’t get run over by a reindeer as often as she used to.

Bah!  Humbug!
It’s that time of year when we get to watch all of those TV specials and rerun movies that are better off forgotten.  It was a Wonderful Life when it was a movie, but 9000 times as a TV special leaves something to be desired.  Did you know that Jimmy Stewart has been dead for fifteen years?  The only good thing you can say is that during the holidays, we don’t have to watch the regular lousy television programming.  Don’t get me started on Chirstmas commercials.

Oh well.  Time for me to stop bah humbugging and write some club related stuff.  I’d like to remind everyone that club dues are due this month.  Two dollars a month is a small price to pay for the benefits of club member ship.  Not only are meetings informative, buy you get access to the club website with a large number of links to “How To” sites, free software downloads, back newsletters, and much more.  I urge you to renew your membership and to tell your friends about the club.  Bring them to a meeting.  The more members we have the more knowledge there is to share.  After all, we are “ Users Helping Users”.

Bah!  Humbug!  My wife just told me to put my shoes on because she wants me to go and help pick out the daughters’ Christmas present.  I know what she really means is that I’ll have to carry something.

Thanks for reading.

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Holiday Ranting & Raving – Originally Published November 2012

August 4, 2014 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Here they come again!  This is the time of the year when the Holiday idiots show their true colors to the rest of the world.  So many people at this time of year forget to stop and think.  Others remember to stop, but forget to think.

I’m writing this article in October, but I’ll bet I can predict the news reports we’ll get on November 1.  Some poor kid will get either razor blades or poison in their candy.  Dentist’s will buy Halloween candy by the pound.  Convenience stores will get robbed by people in their Halloween costumes.  Someone will get run over by a drunken driver.

October and November is also when tech companies make all their new product announcements.  Do you think it has anything to do with the upcoming Christmas season?  So far, this years announcements have been more ironic than usual.  Apple announced a seven inch iPad.  Makes me wonder if Steve Jobs was wrong on any other predictions?  Microsoft is making a foray into the hardware business.  Google is increasing the pressure on both software and hardware rivals.  The only thing I can’t figure out is why,  If they can afford to sue each other for billions of dollars, can’t they lower their prices a little.

Halloween is followed by an even scarier holiday – Thanksgiving.  If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, your spouse has never taken you out for Black Friday Shopping.  I’m a fan of good shopping deals, but not if they come at the risk of life and limb.  The Thanksgiving news stories are also the same every year.  There will be at least one customer trampled to death when the doors are opened on Friday.  Isn’t it strange that it usually happens at a Walmart?  Is it because they are the biggest retailer?  Do they have the best deals?  Could it be that their customers are less intelligent?

Other news stories for this holiday will include the celebrities that are working in the soup lines.  Is it a publicity stunt, or do they do it year round without making headlines?  My personal favorites are the people that have to do community service for drunken driving and then get the free publicity.  Lets not forget about all of the Turkey jokes we’ll see on the internet.  For some reason, I think a lot of them this year will have Sesame Streets Big Bird in the punch line.

After we struggle through the Thanksgiving holiday, we can look forward to being bombarded with advertising for all kinds of technology to put under the Christmas tree.  It’s a shame that most of it is so overpriced.  Do you suppose that might account for the increasing crime rate that seems to occur around the end of the year?

Once again, we get to read about the celebrities feeding the downtrodden.  At Christmas time, we seem to get more politicians manning the ladles.  I can never figure out why that is.  The elections are over for the year.  The only thing I really like about this holiday is the after holiday sales.

When I was younger, I used to really worry about meeting a drunken driver on the highway.  The holidays were a reason for extra anxiety, but thanks to technology, we don’t have to worry about getting killed by a drunk.  If you get in an accident, it will most surely be due to someone sending a text on their telephone.

I suppose by now you’re getting tired of my ranting and raving about the holidays.  I’d continue on and tell you about New Years Day, but I’ll save that for next year.

Thanks for reading.

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Companies I Dislike a Lot – Originally Published October 2012

August 4, 2014 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Earlier this month, when I was adding the “differences” to the Commodore 64 picture, I started to realize what a loyal consumer I am.  Until they went bankrupt, all except one of the computers I owned were manufactured by Commodore.  The lone exception was a Heathkit Zenith computer kit that I built.

Back in the early 1980’s the VIC 20 was a great first computer.  Later, it was a real joy to own the Commodore 64.  I think anyone that ever owned one will tell you how much they loved it.  The Commodore 128 was a great upgrade.  After all, it had a 64 mode which made it the best of both worlds.  For some reason, the Amiga didn’t impress me all that much.  It was a Commodore though.

I think most people are like me.  I’ve always had good luck with Netgear products, so I tend to buy their stuff when it is a viable choice.  Same way with computers.  Four of the five machines in my house were manufactured by HP.  Brand loyalty is a big thing to most companies.  That’s why they sue all trademark infringements.

Brand loyalty also works in reverse.  Years ago, I was a fan of Sony products (even the Betamax).  I owned the Sony Walkman, a Sony TV, and of course a Sony Discman.  Do you remember the Sony Trinitron microwave?  I think you could say that I was a loyal Sony customer.

That all changed for me when Sony did evil.  In 2005, they put root kits on their music CDs.  It was supposed to be a copyright scheme.  It later turned out that they illegally violated the license agreement for the LAME codec and the VLC Media Player.  That made me so mad that I refused to spend any of my money on Sony products again.  Over the years, it seems that I made a good decision.  Sony has often been in the news since then for various nefarious reasons.

Another company that I refuse to enrich is Electronic Arts.  I dislike them so much that since October of 2000, I’ve slammed them on my personal web site.  Once again, my instincts were proven to be good.  Over the years, Electronic Arts has spent a lot of time in court defending themselves against various lawsuits.

Then there is another of my favorite companies to dislike: Symantec.  Way back in the 1980’s, a great utility named PC Tools was created by Central Point Software.  I was a faithful customer until they were acquired by Symantec for a whole bunch of money.  Like many others, I shifted to the Norton suite because PC Tools was incorporated in it.  Unfortunately, it was never the same program again.  Norton turned out to be bloated software that actually slowed down your computer.  The company received so many complaints ranging from poor customer service to fraudulently putting charges on customer’s credit cards.  They only got away with charging me one time.  They have supposedly gotten better since then, but I’ve never purchased any of their products again.

I guess I’ve done enough ranting and raving for this month.  Please feel free to join me in not supporting Sony, Electronic Arts and Symantec.  When it comes to the computing picture, I can tell you that there aren’t any “differences” in them.

Thanks for reading.

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Web Design Reminiscing – Originally Published June 2012

July 31, 2014 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I was browsing the internet the other day when I stumbled across the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.  Of course, I couldn’t resist typing in my web address and looking back at what I used to have published online.  They had a snapshot of my web site as far back as 2001.  That would have been right after I bought my domain name and moved it from the web hosting at AOL.  Back then, if you paid AOL a bunch of money each month, you could get “free” web space.  I started my web site in 1995.  At one time, I had two web sites and averaged about 200 visitors a day.

Things have changed a lot since then.  Flash was still in its infancy and many internet surfers refused to visit sites that used flash.  Of course, this was before it was Adobe Flash.  Originally, it was Future Flash and then became Macromedia Flash.  I blocked Flash way back then.  Today, I use the flash blocker plug in and don’t often let flash run in my browser.

Web sites didn’t have many graphics in those day.  Broadband had yet to be invented.  It could take several minutes to download a simple picture.  Internet surfers didn’t waste their time looking at a cute picture of a dog.  If you did include a media file on your site, it was good manners to let visitors know the file size before they downloaded it.  I remember the first time I uploaded my BS to the internet.  It took almost two hours for a relatively small site.

Another thing I remember is that almost all sites had a guest book.  Visitors would fill in what information they wanted to disclose and click the submit button.  Anybody else that visited the site could view all the guest book entries.  The Netscape browser introduced us to cookies.  The original “magic cookie” just checked to see if it was your first visit to the web site.

I remember when I made my first foray onto the internet.  The first decision was what browser to buy.  I decided to use the Netscape Navigator because they had a free trial period.  Almost the whole web was nothing but text.

I can’t tell you that Google was the greatest search engine in those days.  Google hadn’t been invented then.  There wasn’t a real index of internet web sites.  The first attempt to index FTP sites was called Archie.  Gopher was one of the first “point and click” search engines and was created by students at the University of Minnesota.

Twenty years ago, if you wanted a web site you had to at least learn the basics of HTML coding.  In the modern world, there are hundreds of programs you can use to create a website for free.  All you really need to know how to do is enter your content.

That’s enough reminiscing.  Personal websites are both easy and cheap.  Why don’t you make one for your family and friends?

Thanks for reading.

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