The old domain, Zylblog.info, will no longer be active

Zylblog.info is set to expire in just a few days. The primary domain will now be the new domain, Zylblog.com

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Robert Hope-Jones, a shrot story about his death.

The inventor of the theater organ, Robert Hope-Jones, had an interesting death. Being an

Robert Hope-Jones

Robert Hope-Jones Image via Wikipedia

inventor, he was quite clever and innovative. On September 13, 1914, he decided to commit suicide due to frustration with the Wurlitzer company who was now in control of his patents (at that time, they were paying him $50 a week to stay out of the factory).
Originally, Hope-Jones planned to commit suicide in a Universalist church using gas from a lamp behind the organ console of the church, but he arrived to find that the church had switched to electric light. He rented an apartment nearby and preformed the deed

there. He used a T connector attached to a rubber tube, and lit one end to hide the smell of the gas.
Some people go as far as saying that he also built a machine to turn off the gas and open a window to prevent anyone else from being harmed, but this is unclear at this point in time due to lost history and rumor.
Hope-Jones was the first organ builder to introduce an electric key action and a relay system for selecting registrations and much more.

Sources:
http://www.esm.rochester.edu/organ/PDF/Resonance5.pdf

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Spam goes up, real human visitors goes down — how does this really work?

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What is the pipe organ?

Anyone who has met me would know in a very short amount of time that I am very passionate about the pipe organ. Why? It’s my instrument, and my world. (Might as well just say it as it is..)
I bring a FAQ regarding the pipe organ and common misconceptions.
How do pipe organs sound at different pitches?
The length of pipes causes sounds to either be lower or higher. In pipe that use reeds, the length has less to do with it, and more to do with the tuning position of the reed.

Are organ pipes always vertical?
No. Pipes can be mounted just about any way imaginable, except for the heaviest of pipes which will not support themselves easily (pipes are made out of a tin and lead alloy, which is very heavy). A feature often found is for trumpet pipes to be mounted horizontally at the front or back of a room. Of course, most pipes in an organ will be vertically placed. Continue reading

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New Changes to Zylblog

Hello Everyone,

Over the past few years since the beginnings of Zylstrablog on Blogger.com, and later private IP-based hosting through a free domain redirect (anyone remember zylstrablog.co.nr ? Still works…), and then zylblog.info and now zylblog.com, my interests in computers has faded now to the point where I only find about one new article I am interested in about every 1.5-2 months.

I have decided to no longer specifically target computer or technology related articles. Indeed, I’ll no longer have a real focus, and Zylblog will be much more “blog-like”. I will no longer maintain a separate music blog (which I didn’t like maintaining separately anyways). Read on for what my site stats are (as I’ve always kept those secret). Continue reading

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Adblock Plus: Morally right?

Many people believe that using ad blocking software like Adblock Plus is morally wrong.

Logo of Adblock plus

Image via Wikipedia

But is it? Can using Adblock Plus on a website that operates off ads be considered stealing or of poor moral fiber?
I’m not so sure.

Consider this: I am the network administrator of Zylblog and all of its sister sites and services. The sites use Google Ads in-post relevant to the content. In essence, if I really made much money off automated ads, I would be loosing a lot of money. I don’t make a lot of money on ads since I target computer people who all use Adblock Plus (ABP) anyways.

So, do I mind that people block ads? Certainly not! Sure, it’d be nice if I made more off of effortless automated ads from Google, but I know that consumers should be able to be selective. Heck, as a college student, if I see a single advertisement for a business on a bulletin board, you can be assured that I will rip it down. Commercials make me turn the TV off.

Not only are ads annoying, they aren’t good for many reasons. They take longer to load, especially when they have images. Image ads are often inappropriate on sketchy sites (like Gamecopyworld, a good example of very bad ads). They take up space, which is especially annoying for sidebar ads when a user has a low screen resolution.

Most important in defense of software like ABP, ads are often extremely dangerous.  Have you ever seen “Slow computer? Does it take more than 10 seconds to load your email? Is your Internet slow? Click here to download a program to clean up your PC.” Adware, spyware, and even viruses often follow these ads that sound so desirable. Ads lack moderation by humans and whats worse is that they target computer novices who are very likely to fall in. Ads also are created to blend into websites and look like legitimate links.

In all, Adblock Plus and other ad-blocking software are fine.

What can be done about ads?
Web designers, you can write your own ads for companies. There are tons of websites on the Internet that can connect you with businesses that want to advertise and protect you with free speech of opinion in the matter. As many of you remember, I wrote many ads for a while and I was very selective about what I accepted. I didn’t write ads that were not relevant to my users, and I always did a check on each service I would advertise to make sure they were legitimate.

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Instructables: Wallet made from a Keyboard

Fun from the Past, originally from Jan 22, 2010:

Wallet made from a Computer Keyboard

I ran into this fun, relatively easy and geeky project and thought it would be worth sharing.

Check it out!

This project is easy to complete, and it gets rid of those old keyboards kicking around in your basement. This meets my personal requirements for an instructable: All done with parts around the house, hardly costs anything, doesn’t require you to buy any additional parts (tape excluded), cool, and the most important: Has practical use.

This image is from the original instructable -- check out the website with the link above!

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A Shorter Film about the SAGE Computer

A SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment) ter...

Image via Wikipedia

For those of you who do not care to watch the 20 minute documentary about the SAGE computer mentioned in our last article, check this one out from the 1960’s: (2:49)

(Still has all the CRT‘s, styluses/light-guns, projectors, and crazy-cool vintage computers)

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Zylblog is now IPv6 compatible

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Man and Computer; SAGE

A SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment) ter...

Image via Wikipedia

Computer CRT monitors, printing, computer projectors, styluses, and networks — often, we think these things were invented towards the later half of our computer history, but in fact they have been around for a long time.

Built in the 1950’s, SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment system) was using these things. SAGE was the first computer to use many of these things, and the first computer to use a screen. Why? Nuclear bomber

Sage Control Room

Sage Control Room (Via Wikipedia)

aircraft threats were such a major concern during the cold war, we built a computer system to help us track radar data all over the US to determine if traffic is friendly or not. Continue reading

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