Syntaur Doing It Right

I have an Ensoniq KS-32 keyboard that was released 20 years ago.  I think that mine is only 17 years old, though (I'm the third owner, but I have owned it since 1998).  Anyway, it's a great board, and it has treated me very well for a very long time. There had been a low battery warning for, probably the last 10 years or so.  My response was to just never turn it off, which worked until I had to turn it off for a while....

13 Oct 2012 · 2 min · Gary Allen Vollink

I Did NOT Subscribe, and Why

Dear magazine publisher. I was thinking that it would be awesome to sign up for your magazine for a year, try it out.  So, I went to your site, and started to fill out the information that you asked.  When it came to pay you, though, you have told me that by signing up now, I agree that you'll AUTOMATICALLY bill me again, every year, from now until I actually remember to go out of my way to cancel....

30 Apr 2012 · 2 min · Gary Allen Vollink

SOPA/PIPA (Protect IP)

I am your constituent and I never miss a vote.  I want to make clear, that there are already laws and international treaties in place to protect from online piracy.  If those are not working, using Chinese style censorship methods to block foreign sites makes me wonder what happened to freedom, and I will remember those in congress who agreed with a minority of struggling entertainment concerns that Chinese style internet totalitarianism is the best answer....

18 Jan 2012 · 1 min · Gary Allen Vollink

[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