[Geek] The Ubiquitous Computer Mouse

Xerox Alto Mouse (1973) The computer mouse has been a basic part of computing for about 20 years now (25 if you were a Mac early-adopter, and even longer if you are a Xerox Alto power-user).  Up until recently, innovations with mouses have been about adding more buttons, and scroll wheels.  Now, with Smart-Phones becoming more and more popular, things like multi-touch and gestures are being added too....

17 Sep 2011 · 2 min · Gary Allen Vollink

[Geek] Attack Vectors and Twitter

I wrote a script some time ago, that basically parsed the auth logs on my web server looking for IP addresses that try, and fail, to log in, multiple times.  Over the years, I've continued to expand what it does, and what it could do. At first, it would note something, and send me an e-mail, and I'd get to it, and it would continue to e-mail me once every hour until I did....

17 Sep 2011 · 2 min · Gary Allen Vollink

Apple Admits iPhone Can't Compete, Targets Android with Patent Suits

Admitting that the iPhone can no longer feature compete with the fast moving open source platform, Android, Apple Inc dusts off some patents that could be stretched to cover some Android features and starts filing lawsuits. Gone are the days when Apple could just tell people to use their phone and the difference in quality would be obvious.  These days, even the new Windows phones are better than iPhones, so to try to save it's market share, Apple has decided to sue instead of compete....

3 Jan 2011 · 1 min · Gary Allen Vollink

Getting Rid Of Old Technology

Today, I gave away a second phonograph player that I own.  I've owned two phonograph players for at least 15 years.  Neither of them are "DJ units", just standard home units manufactured in '87 and '91.  The one I gave away isn't as good as the other one, but I had bought it myself.  The better one, that I still use, was given to me.  But one day, maybe I would need the other unit....

10 Sep 2010 · 3 min · Gary Allen Vollink