The Power of an Icon

It's very common these days for buttons to have icons on them instead of or in addition to text. And I'm not just talking about buttons on computer programs but buttons of physical devices as well. Take the following icon (and the slight variation) for example:



This icon represent the power button. In addition to computers you might have seen this icon on a radio, microwave, washer and dryer, etc. Although most people have seen this icon, I think few people know why it represents power.

The answer is so obvious you probably missed it. If you look closer at the icon you can see the icon is the number 0 and the number 1. One and zero, as in binary, on and off. So this icon represents power (on/off) because some "nerd" (and I use the term affectionately) decided to use binary as an icon to represent power.

So the next time you see this icon it might make a little more sense.

Nintendo, are you kidding me?

So last week we bought a Nintendo Wii, the first new video game console I've purchased in over 20 years. I knew beforehand that the Wii does not have HDMI since the Wii doesn't even have HD graphics. But what shocked the heck out of me was the fact that the Wii comes standard with a composite video connector. Are you joking Nintendo!?! Manufactures want their console to look the best right, so why use such an old outdated connector?

Let me put this into perspective. In 1985 here in the US (1983 in Japan) the Nintendo Entertainment System was released, and that system used composite video. A full 27 years later the Nintendo Wii still uses the same composite video. Seriously, is Nintendo aware that technology has progressed in that time? I've already purchased a component video cable and the difference is very noticeable. Nintendo should include the component cable standard and anyone with an old TV should have to buy the composite cable.

Nintendo, let me make this real easy for you:

SOPA and PIPA suck!

If you haven't already noticed, many websites are using today to raise awareness of SOPA and PIPA, two very poorly designed bills currently in the US Senate and House. So I wanted to take a quick moment and voice my opinion about these bills.

THEY SUCK!

Let me put it in very simple terms. The idea behind these bills is simple, to reduce piracy. Whereas this is a good thing, these bills are the WRONG way to do it. Let's say someone uploads a video to youtube, and in the background of that video is a song playing. Someone like the RIAA could decide that this is violating their rights as the owner of that song and use these bills to take action. That action being to completely and totally block EVERYONE from any access to youtube. Instead of removing that one video, they now block the entire site. This is the same level of control used by the governments of China, Iran, and North Korea. Is that what we in the US have come to?

If these bills pass, websites will have no choice but to severely limit access to what people can post or say. Is this the level of censorship you want to see on the Internet? This is wrong and must be stopped.

Repairing a Sega MK-4122

Recently I was working on a project that I needed a 9V power supply for. In my infinite wisdom stupidity I decided to use a Sega model MK-4122 power supply. This particular power supply is for the extremely rare Sega CDX. Well wouldn't you know it that the device I plugged into had a short in it and it toasted the power supply. After plugging it in the power supply was producing 0 volts.

I could just buy a new power supply, although replacing it with the OEM part would be very expensive. Another option is to just buy a similar spec'ed power supply and use that. But I decided to try and repair it first.

Unlike newer power supplies, this one actually has screws to open it up. Therein lies the first and greatest problem. It's a small hex head screw, but it's recessed down in a hole and none of my sockets fit down in there. I ended up buying a 4mm nut driver to be able to remove the screws.



Once open you can see just how simple the power supply is. A transformer, two diodes, a capacitor, a resistor, and a fuse. The problem was the fuse. The replacement fuse cost .97 cents. After soldering it back in the power supply works like new again.



Oh, for anyone who might need it, here's the exact specs on the MK-4122.
Input: 120V AV, 60hz 23W
Output: 9.5V DC 1.5A
Center positive.

Also, the supply is unregulated so if you use a volt meter to test the output without a load connected the output is close to 12.5V.

Faxes are dying, get with the times!

Several times recently I've needed to submit some paperwork to a bank or other business. They told me I could mail it in or fax it to them. I asked them if they would take an email with the scanned document in it. They said no, it had to be mail or fax.

What!?! Seriously, get with the times. No one uses the post office, and fax machines are old too. What's so special about a fax over a emailed digital copy anyway? Faxes are just as easy to fake as a digital copy. Heck, I would argue since the resolution on faxes is so low that digital copies are far superior.

There are definitely areas of society that are doing a poor job of adapting to all this new technology.

Auto Updating Software

A lot of software these days automatically updates itself by downloading and installing updates. Whereas this can be convenient and helpful, I've learned it can also be a bad thing.

I think I dislike auto-updating software because of bad experiences in the past. I don't have a problem when the update is a fix to a problem. But often times software developers use this auto-updating mechanism to new or unwanted software. Microsoft's Windows Update has been guilty of this, I suddenly find software on my system that I didn't want. This is frustrating for someone who likes to maintain control over their computer.

Adobe is another gross violator. Adobe products like Reader and Flash are constantly updating and reinstalling crappy Adobe software like Adobe Air. It's to the point where I won't install anything Adobe on my system.

This problem is not isolated to computers either. The other day my Internet-enabled TV automatically downloaded and installed a new firmware update. After the install the volume was greatly increased, about 3 times it's previous level. I think Vizio realized they screwed up because the next day it downloaded another update, now the volume is only about twice as loud as before.

Again, my complaint isn't with making fixes available. It's with the unilateral way in which these fixes are applied. Please, offer us the consumer a way to select the updates, update manually, or even opt out completely. Put the control in our hands.

Chrome is #2 browser

This week various tech news sites reported that Google's Chrome is now the second most used browser, behind Microsoft's IE and overtaking Mozilla's Firefox. For me this is kind of bittersweet. Don't get me wrong, I like Chrome and I despise IE. But I personally feel like Firefox is a better browser. I feel that Firefox has:

1. A better UI. I've never been a fan of skinned applications.
   
2. A larger better selection of extensions/add-ons.
   
3. More control to customize the browser just the way you want.
   

On top of all this, I would say that Firefox is just as fast and uses memory just as efficiently as Chrome.

Again, don't get me wrong. I'm pleased to see IE use is declining! I have never liked IE, any browser is better than IE. I just hope Firefox continues to gain in popularity just as fast as Chrome.

My kind of neighborhood

Check out this image of a neighborhood using Google maps:


Noticing anything about the street names? Picard Court, Ryker Court, Picard Lane, Crusher Avenue, and (to top it all off) Warp Drive. I'm thinking the developer who built this neighborhood was a Star Trek TNG fan. :)

This is located in Turlock CA. Thanks to my friend Azeem for sharing this with me.