The Independent Kixmiller Pigeon MrkII

  The Apple II Redefines Micro-computing! The Apple IIe, an updated follow-up to the II+, was released on January 1983. The IIe became the most well-known and iconic computer in the II series. There was a flood of games, productivity programs, and educational titles that populated the platform. The "e" in the IIe stands for enhanced. The IIe was a updated version of the Apple II+ that had a reduced chip count to make the computer cheaper to manufacturer. One of the big features of the IIe was the incorporation of the 80-column text mode as standard. On the II+, 80-column text mode was an optional feature that was added via a peripheral card that plugged into one of the expansion slots. However, it was incorporated in the IIe itself without needed that extra adapter, thus freeing up an extra expansion slot in the process. The IIe supported more memory than the II+. On that system, memory tapped out at 64KB, even though more could be technically...

I Don't Have Time For Family Drama There's this saying that you shouldn't go to bed angry because when you wake up in the morning, you're going to be in a foul mood. Well, this morning, I'm still somewhat in that fuming state-of-mind. One would think that after the last article "Things I Need To Get Of My Chest", I would have felt better. However, that lingering feeling of bitterness and disappointment hovers over me. It's that feeling of disappointment where one who should just accept who you are instead holds your views against you.  Before anyone calls me a hypocrite, there's been many of times (the vast majority actually), where I never said a word during conversations as many said things that I disagreed with, but kept my silence out of a sign of respect. Also, visitation to my blog is completely optional . Their are no guilt trips here. When I share a link on my Facebook Timeline, it usually just shows the title anyway, so one can skip it ...

  This post has been a long time in the making. Updates on my blog have been far and few. I've taken a break from it because supporting this blog has been draining on me emotionally. What started as a recreational time killer to release steam has involved into a labor of love that has been exhausting to maintain at times. This has especially been true during the outbreak. The migration of the blog from Duda to Blogspot has also been very taxing as well (moving some 200 post isn't fun). Thus, after the migration, I haven't really been that keen on updating the blog. I've been busy with many real-life commitments that have also been all-consuming. To unwind, I’ve mostly been playing video games and working on my YouTube channel. The introvert part of me takes over on my off-time. However, don't get the impression that I've forgotten about this blog. Their is a lot of content that I want to post. However, given that my blog is on a new platform, an opportunity ha...

If the history of Palm could be likened to that of The Rise And Fall Of The Roman Empire , then this would be the part of the story where the Roman Empire split itself into two. Palm splitting itself ranks among the dumbest things that the company could do to itself. Others describe it as the moment that killed Palm. Personally, I would agree. The company could have survived it as long as the split was better handled, and continued to have hit products while fixing their OS. Palm could have created something that would have caused corporate users to salivate over. However, this is Palm where talking about. This kind of luck wasn't in their cards. As such, the company split was essentially the beginning of the end. The company was split among its hardware and software division. The hardware company became PalmOne while the software company became PalmSource. For the hardware company, I'm still going to refer to it as Palm proper though. Anyway, the hardware team nee...

  Apple Drops The Ball Apple was ridding high from the success of the Apple II Plus. A successful computer needs a successful follow-up...right? Apple had their sights on their next goal; the corporate market. Their was a lot riding on Apple. While they've been successful conquering the the small business and education markets, they had no experience reaching out to corporate users. Microcomputers weren't a thing within the corporate realm. Corporate computing was very different in the 70's compared to today. The ubiquitous PC was nowhere to be found. The office was dominated by various electric typewriters made by manufactures like Smith-Corona and IBM. For those who did interact with a computer, it was typically a mainframe that was accessed via a dumb terminal, which was basically a monitor with a network connector. Apple saw a huge potential in the corporate market. However, they would need a computer to meet the needs of the office minions. The n...

  The Nokia S60 Platform Continues To Evolve By the middle 2000's, the Symbian-powered handhelds made by Nokia dominated the marketplace once held by Palm. The PDA was evolving into the smartphone, and Nokia was in the middle of transformation. Symbian was rapidly evolving to meet the needs of these new users. The smartphone continued to get bigger screens, along with full physical keyboards. The user interface of Symbian was revamped to accommodate these changes. However, their really isn't much to say about the base OS. The applications included were very basic and standard. The bigger-screen devices featured bigger icons, just like PalmOS. The launcher could have different themes. Their was a multimedia viewer that supported both JPG and GIF icons. Again, by 2006-2007, this was the norm. When it came to multimedia, their were limitations within the Nokia SDK Emulator. MP3 Playback didn't work. The codec wasn't incl...

  The Apple II Redefines Micro-computing! Apple was about to grow at an explosive rate. The grassroots team of free-spirited engineers that operated out of an home garage in Cupertino, California attracted the attention of venture capitalist Mark Macula. With him and others, the band of engineers got a massive cash infusion that led to the quick development of the Apple II. Primary designed by Steve Wozniak, the Apple II became one of his milestone accomplishments. Success quickly followed. The computer appealed to both hobbyist and new buyers alike. Promoted at the Western Computer Faire, the computer quickly got the attention of various parties. The computer case was designed by Jobs. He studied industrial design and knew how to design a case that would appeal to these new buyers. The computing press and industry pundits was equally enthused by the appearance of the new computer. Why wouldn't they be. The Apple II sported a 6502 CPU running at 1M...

 I recently browsing my Facebook feed when I've encountered the following meme: Now a meme of this type demands examination. It has to be noted that the claim propelled by this meme is technically true, both in the specifics to Wounded Knee and in the general treatment of Native Americans by our government. The U.S. government carried out the forced removal of the Native Americans throughout the history of the country. The Native Americans lost their land and countless thousands were killed in the process.  However , this meme leaves out a very important detail: the reason why our government carried out their actions was because they had popular support from the general population. Did one selectively forgot Lincoln's Gettysburg quote "and that government of the people , by the people , for the people , shall not perish from the earth.". In a democracy, the government is essentially the collective representation of the general population that formed it. Where did th...