Last Viewed Technology Blogs (217)

On April 10, 1790 the federal government of the United States enacted the fist patent statute. It was a concise law defining the subject matter of a U.S. patent as "any useful art, manufacture, engine, machine, or device, or any improvement there on not known or used. It granted the applicant 'sole and exclusive right and liberty of making, constructing and vending to others to be used' of his inventions.
Simply put... if you invented something unique and had it patented, no one could legally copy, sell or infringe on your patent rights.

History records inventor Thomas A. Edison had a few thousand patents to his credit. You can also find that many claim some of his patents were stolen from his workers and colleagues. That's the case with many scientists and engineers who work for large corporations and are required to sign contracts, especially ones with non-compete agreements.

I met a man who claimed to have been working for General Electric and invented the rheostat... it's common name was a light dimmer. They got the patent, he got a paycheck.

Someone told me a story of the the guy who invented the intermittent windshield wiper control. He went around to a few car manufacturers looking for someone to buy his idea. He couldn't afford the patent. None of them showed any interest and a few months later, one manufacturer had a similar yet improved device was added to their newest model.

Jonas Salk was a medical researcher who discovered and developed one of the first successful polio vaccines in 1953. He never patented his discovery believing, like the sun, a vaccine for polio belonged to the people.

Some 200 years of patents and long ago it was recorded by one of the clerks in the patent office, that everything that could be patented already was!

I could see he was a man of vision... less than two feet from his nose.

I've always been impressed with some of the more simple inventions...
Amazed how the 2 liter bottle that Coke-a-Cola is made and more impressed who designed the slots on the threads so a pressurized cap doesn't harm someone when when unscrew it!

Why hasn't shoe laces been done away with yet?......................

....links and nodes... Sure, concepts such as like sorts with like (homophily), contagion and resilience, she who has tends to beget more, falsehoods spread faster than truths, etc., are with us. But here's the surprise, they have always been. They underlie everything from Martin Luther's anti Pope reformation, to the fake news on the internet. And, the early idealists of the latter foresaw a totally decentralized non commercial world wide web. How'd that turn out, folks? Our dad's were glued at day's end to every word and page of the local fish wrap. Our kids can't sit for a family meal without phone in hand. Who could dream this stuff up, peebles?

Two hundred dollar cheapskate HP PC was on the Fritz. Windows 10. Luckily had time left on Walmart 2 year extended warrantee. Sent it in and hoping they can't effect repair so I'll get a check, like the one I got recently from homeowners' for a free new roof on the Aa Ponderosa mansion after tree paid us a close visit. May then buy new one. But this machine was hanging around---twins won it guessing jelly beans number in jar at orthodontist. So dad gets to use it for a while. Spoiled rug rats got brand new wicked costly Apple LP's. Had forgotten how nice Apple platforms are. But old dinosaurs die hard. Aa.

This morning the light bulb at the entrance to my apt was out of service. I decided to modernize and instead of a plain incandescent bulb, I bought a LED type one. The former would cost me around a hundred yen which is around a dollar. In the name of modernization, I paid around 1,500 yen. Not sure if I'm going to save on electricity or it would last longer than 2 yrs. But I like the brightness it gives to the entrance. Anew kind of brightness for the coming New Year. A prosperous New Year to everyone!! Another advanced greetings!!

As followup to my 'Watch' this blog, about the number of people wearing watches that connect to their cellphones, I decided to buy a low-end 'fitness' watch just to check it's operation. I'm highly skeptical these devices could be accurate, at least in the ones that are inexpensive, but I'm giving it a try.

First step with any of these watches is charge the device. That gives you time to read the instructions and download the app that connects it to your smartphone. Allow time to be familiar with the settings for both the phone and watch. It defaults to metric, so I changed things to Imperial, including Fahrenheit for temperature. Only my doctors record my weight in kilos.

Since I wear no jewelry and haven't for years, I found it annoying to have this fitness watch attached to my wrist. It's already hitting the countertop, edge of doorways and anything I come in close proximity to. I expect lots of scratches on the bezel within the first week. That makes me wonder about all the people wearing diamond studded watches the size of a Frisbee!
That would equate to the women wearing 'inch-long' fake eyelashes. If you do it long enough, it becomes part of you. Kinda like Paul Stanley (KISS guitarist) wearing six-inch high platform shoes on stage must have required weeks of practice elsewhere.

Okay, I've had the watch on for 12 hours and it's reporting to my phone some statistics. Blood pressure at it's highest 127/64 and 81 beats per minute, currently 53bpm. Temperature 98.0 F, blood oxygen at 98% and I burned 11 calories.


I'm most curious about the sleep status. The first night shows 3 hours and 50 minutes with 1 hour and 30 minutes being in deep sleep.

Although the device is water resistant enough for swimming, I'll remove it for my morning shower.

Later today, I'll compare the blood pressure and beats with my stand-alone blood pressure monitor.

I recently closed my Plentyoffish account. I notice the other day when I was on that site; my computer warm me about potential virus on that site. Has this ever happen to any of you out there?

A number of technological traits will drive smart-domestic generation well past what’s available on keep cabinets nowadays. innovations in synthetic intelligence, as an example, stand to upend almost the whole thing in our lives, inclusive of our houses. you would possibly already be the use of some sort of AI-powered voice-assistant device to get the modern news or weather forecast every morning. however inside the smart home of the future, the ones AI structures ought to function the mind for whole homes, getting to know about citizens and coordinating and automating all in their various smart gadgets. IoT employer Crestron, as an instance, is operating on software that tracks someone’s habits, like which tune they need to listen inside the morning or which lights they want to be on at a certain time of day. Then, as soon as it gets the hold of a user’s preferences, it automatically plays simply the right playlists or dims the lighting fixtures before bedtime. “That’s sincerely the following evolutionary step in proper automation,” says John Clancy, head of Crestron’s residential commercial enterprise.

I got a call this afternoon informing me there was an attack on a gas pipeline creating a shortage. My response was: "I didn't know we were pumping gasoline through pipelines"
Checking online there is conflicting information but Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergence following a temporary shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline - a major US fuel pipeline operator.

One news story stated it was a cyber attack that forced Colonial to shut down operations.
It also reports this is affecting the Northern part of Florida... 8 hours drive from here.

Gas is available in South Florida but panic buying has already this area and people are hoarding gasoline creating a shortage. Some stations being reported for gouging where average prices were $2.85 now jumping over $4 a gallon.

I'm headed to Miami on appointment Wednesday morning and filled my tank before sundown Tuesday. That should get me nearly 300 miles and get me into the weekend.

Cyber attack? Obviously, Colonial got short-changed on internet security.

Four years ago, I went shopping for a Smart TV. The salesman explained (at the time) the current Smart models had a processor/engine that was slower than some models that weren't Smart. I asked if I buy a non-Smart TV, how do connect it to the internet and his reply was with an add-on device called CHROMECAST.

His whole focus was, I should get a TV with a faster engine. The analogy was watching a golfing event and the ball streaking across the screen. Did I want to see the ball clearly or or a with a tail like a comet? The slower engine has limitations on fast moving objects.

So, I bought the TV with a faster engine and a Chromecast. It was great. Easy hookup and I was able to 'cast' YouTube videos to the TV from my desktop computer!

My son-in-law complained that he had to rent another 'box' from the cable company so he could watch Netflix on the TV in the bedroom. I bought him a Chromecast for Christmas and he said it was the BEST gift he ever received.

He preferred to control it via his cellphone. iPhone to be exact.

It's been months since I moved and we hooked up the 4 year old TV via the cable box as part of my HOA package, but... I didn't get around to connecting the Chromecast.

Last week, we purchased a new TV for the living room... yeah, Smart TV. This time, we had the option of one with a faster engine, much better than the older models. It's not that I wanted to watch golf balls streaking across the screen, I wanted something new. So far, I only hooked up the cable box and bypassed the setup routine.

The old TV got moved to the bedroom and this weekend, I got around to connecting the Chromecast on it. What a pain. Google Chrome for desktop no longer supports Chromecast. I've got to link everything to a phone (or tablet) to make things work now. That involves logging in to create an account as the new app that connects to Chromecast is Google Home, as 'we' now have to power to connect any smart device to other smart devices via this app. I say, f'king great...

Third time's a charm... Chromecast was willing but Google Home failed. It's amazing how I b*tch and send out service tickets and 'right after' it miraculously works!
Anyway, I have it connected to an old phone using Wi-Fi. What I didn't experience on my desktop is advertisements. I'm unable to play YouTube videos in Chrome, it routes to the YouTube app that not only plays commercials before each video, it's got them jumping up around the selections. One wouldn't go away until I made a selection.


Next time around I'll be looking to download ad blockers for YouTube and Chrome.