Last Commented 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!

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.

I remember the old style pay phones and maybe you do too.
They had a coin slot at the top and it was ten cents to make a local call.
This was more than 40 years before they invented caller ID.
Doing so, made it easy to be in informant of illegal activity and not having the call traced.
A simple call to the Police to let them know of some suspicious activity and hang up.
That's where the term 'Drop a Dime' came from.

Pay phones have become a thing of the past.
Hopefully, no one reading my blog has money in a pay phone company.
I knew of a guy was was on the front technology for phone cards that offered low cost long distance service. That lasted a generation and all the competition made rich men poor men if they didn't get out when 'everyone and their grandmother' was selling phone cards.

Soon after, low price cellphone plans put the 'kibosh' on calling cards.



I still see pay phones everywhere I go.
Unfortunately, if I didn't have a cellphone, it would be a long walk to find a pay phone that actually worked!

Here are two recently true stories involving human and technology and it not ending well for a human.

First story has to do with 2 people...a son and a father with two different first names and both of them have cable tv from the same provider. The employees plug in the payment received data in the wrong account where the son for a period of time is being credited with his father's payments until the father begins getting bills in amounts that are double the usual.

The father calls the cable company and they spot the error and it is quickly fixed for the father. However, the cable company's computer system that generates the billing statements does not provide the son who has been incorrectly being credited with his monthly bill for two months. The son being a busy guy only recognizes he never got a bill for one month and figures he will pay next month when the current bill comes in. It does not work that way. By the time the next month rolls around, the son's cable has been turned off by the the cable company's computer system. In addition, his account has been hammered with late fees and rehook-up fees. A bill that was suppose to be a little over $200 is now nearly $600 and if he wants his tv back on, he is to pay that amount. The son paid that and now his tv only works half of the time. Now that the son understands what is going on...he is in the process of getting things straightened out. He has been on the phone for hours and all of the cable company's employees are not sure how to fix the problem yet. Who knows how it will all end...but nearly a week without tv and possibly out about $350.

Second story. A huge online company allows people to sell on their venue. Everything that happens on their site is part of a computer system. In this case, a recent seller was penalized an increase in seller fees of 40% that could lead to expenses for the seller raising over $10,000 per year. This selling venue allows returns to be freely done and unquestioned. In many cases, the seller that would get a refund would relist the item exactly as previously described and as pictured...nothing changed. The new buyer would leave a positive feedback and very pleased with the purchase. However, the selling venue's computer system only weighs in on the fact the item was returned for a refund. When the seller contacts the venue and asks the question...who is right here...the first buyer returning it for a refund and blaming it on the seller for them returning it....or the second buyer who buys it exactly as it was sold the first time around and is very satisfied with their purchase. No real answer becomes of that question. Because...there is nothing they can do, the computer system recognizes what is was designed to do. The seller is left with an increased expense of $10,000.

A friend once said....sometimes you can be the dolphin that gets caught in the tuna net.

...lets hope as we become more and more technology dependent and driven...not too many dolphins get caught in the net.

I have an e-cigarette and it’s doing my head in. I am constantly having to fill the damned thing with liquid. This is because there is an EU ruling that e-cigarettes must not have a tank capacity of more than 2ml, which is a minuscule amount.

As e-cigarette manufacturers also sell their products outside of the EU, they make them with tanks of a higher capacity than 2 measly ml. So, in order to be able to sell inside the EU, they modify them. This typically involves incorporating a volume restricting object into the tank, usually a cylindrical insert pressed onto the central column going up through it.

It occurred to me that this cylindrical, capacity reducing object should not be too difficult to remove, or at least tamper with. I do have a predisposition to tamper with things. My first idea was to drill holes in it, assuming that it would be hollow and the holes would allow the liquid to occupy the inside of the cylindrical, capacity reducing object, thus giving me increased capacity.

I tried six different drill bits on that bastard and even broke one in the process, but made no more than a tiny indentation in the surface. What that Mother Kisser (self censorship) is made of I don’t know, but I’m sure it doesn’t need to be that tough.

Next thought: angle grinder. I had an angle grinder, and I can think of no reason why I wouldn’t have brought it with me when I moved into this place, yet find it can I not. It’s almost enough to make me believe in God, and fancy he is having fun at my expense.

Am I the only person living in the EU who cannot -nay, will not- accept a paltry 2ml restriction on the capacity of my e-cigarette?

I recently heard that one day it will be available for everyone to see, review, read...or whatever...all your activity you have ever done on the internet.

I am not sure how true that is....but what is to stop whoever from doing so?

How would you feel if everything you have ever done online is shared?

I think I would be okay with it. After all, it was well known that everything that is done on the internet was/is not entirely private in the first place.

It would be a great way of identifying who many people really are.

If you wanna be a power user, you shouldn't deny the usefulness of hotkeys. They improve your everyday work and give an absolute boost in your productivity. These hotkey combinations will certainly come in handy for every Windows and OS X user!

Create a virtual desktop 0:46
Switch between virtual desktops 1:24
Return to the desktop from apps 2:15
Open an app from the taskbar 3:04
Split-screen between two apps 3:50
Switch apps 4:24
Program management and troubleshooting 5:27
Open File Explorer 6:17
Use the Magnifier 6:48
Take screenshots 7:41
Use Action Center 8:24
Access the Settings 9:02
Talk to Cortana or Siri 9:22
Use the Windows Game Bar 10:02
Lock down your PC 11:20

For years, I had a personal website that I used to display photos and drawings of my work. They raised the price a few times while other sites were lowering theirs. For years I put this off. It's time... more than. I switched to another hosting company last night and by paying for 3 years, I was able to do it for around 75% less than my yearly rate with the other host.
I backed up the menu, data and HTML codes, unlocked the site to capture a code needed by the new host so they can transfer the domain name.
Tech support said to check back in a few days to confirm the transfer went through so I can upload my website at a new host.
The entire event should take an hour here and an hour there and maybe a few more hours to add some updated photos.

Like most hosts, they have 'site builder' software that should make the job go quicker. It's been years since I built a website.

Houston, we've got a problem. Could be a glitch. I'm working from my cellphone right now and parts of the website aren't working correctly.

.....they highlight in unusual colors, but won't open. Rest of CS seems OK. Must be what the CS big house looks like. Well, who deserves it more than I? I'll be careful never to bend over to pick up soap in the open pod showers. Adios, friends.