Nuker AK's Mind

An old hacker's story

Mice

Thursday, July 23, 2020, 10:19 am

Most people don't spend much time thinking of their mouse. It's a really useful tool, but most people don't care.

But I always did.

There's the cable. They used to have really long, kinda heavy serial cables, which would pull the mouse off your hand. Or get entangled with whatever was on your desktop and prevent you from moving freely. USB cables were kinda better, but still would get tangled. Then there's the wireless mouse, which can have range issues, or work erratically when you turn on the microwave.

Then there's the wheel. Did you realise that most mouse wheels are garbage? I had a very nice mouse back in 2002, I think it was a Logitech, it had a very nice wheel which would never skip. When the left click switch died I remapped it to middle click. Then the rollers for the ball died, and I had to let it go. My current mouse is a Logitech, and its wheel is absolute rubbish, I can barely middle-click without it jumping around.

Then I have another Logitech mouse with a very nice wheel. But on that mouse the clicker switches died. They're rusty. I have to open it, clean them, close it back to make it work for a couple of months. Or days. I think it won't work anymore.

Trackpads are nicer now. Well, Apple trackpads have been great since the first MacBook; other brands... well, not really.

I think the best mouse I've ever bought is a $2 dollar Fantech gaming mouse from ebay. It's wireless, with three levels of sensitivity, the wheel doesn't skip and it's got two extra buttons.

Wheels used to be optical, using a rotary encoder much like the ones used for the ball rollers. But now they are mechanical. That's a regression. The only problem with optical encoders was dust; mechanical switches die after a few thousand clicks, which means they are bound to die much faster than the main buttons, as you usually scroll several lines before clicking on anything.

Nuker

Automating

Thursday, June 25, 2020, 3:16 pm

Of course I don't like to type HTML. Don't get me wrong, I like HTML.

Back in the day, I learned all about HTML from... well, from wherever I could. Since every browser did different things, you really had to have a favorite. Now it's WebKit everywhere. Don't get me wrong, I hated it. I didn't really have Internet access at home... but I already had a spot in GeoCities.

So there I was, coding some good ol' HTML in MS-DOS's editor, or in Windows 3.11's Notepad.

I like to type HTML but only once, so I'm already using a tool to generate this site. That means I'm much more likely to keep it updated.

If it works. Let's see if it does.

And if I write. Let's see if I do...

Nuker

Starting up

Tuesday, June 16, 2020, 4:42 pm

Of course you don't know me. Or maybe you did, a long time ago, for I've been gone for quite a while now. Who am I? Well, just Nuker, I guess.

I'm a hacker from the good old times. What times? Some 20 years ago or so. Back when GeoCities did exist. Everything was new back then. Neocities is a sign.

Of course I came by because of IPFS. That's about the coolest thing I've heard about this year. I need to be there. Or I'll just get lost, just like my mates from old.

So here we go... I'll be sharing with you some decontextualized pieces of my mind... hopefully enough to make myself known. See ya in a few weeks.

Nuker