I mentioned this last year, but I figure more people are using Twitter now. So if you want to Twitterize together, feel free to folllow @benjedwards. Help me build a massive, influential Twitter army through which I can disseminate my august opinions on technology, vintage computing, and Burt Reynolds. (Or at least help me eclipse 100 followers — that’s right, I said oooone hundred!) With numbers like that, we could organize some crazy flash mobs.

Why borrow the family car when you can borrow the family PC?

Discussion Topic of the Week: What’s the oldest IBM brand computer you’ve ever used? Mainframes count.

Super Mario Bros. Crossover is, in my opinion, the only Flash game worth playing. The Internet-keen amongst you may have run across this already on other blogs, but I thought it was worth repeating here.

In SMBC, author Jay Pavlina masterfully recreates Super Mario Bros. in Flash with a surprising bonus: five additional playable characters pulled straight from iconic NES games. There’s Link from The Legend of Zelda, Samus from Metroid, Mega Man from his self-titled game, Simon Belmont from Castlevania, and Bill R. from Contra.

Each character retains certain abilities from his respective game, and the SMB power-ups provide each with character-appropriate upgrades. It’s an exhilarating feeling to destroy every brick you can find with Bill R’s spread shot, or to blow up goombas by laying bombs with Samus. If you’ve ever wanted to gun down Bowser, here’s your chance.

I don’t want to spoil all the surprises. Play the game and find out more.

Technologizer just published the first photograph of Mario Segale to ever grace the intricate tubes of the Internet. And it happened in an article written by yours truly. It’s titled “The True Face of Mario.”

Who’s Mario Segale, you ask? He’s the man that inspired Mario’s name and Italian heritage. To see the photo and to read more about how Nintendo’s famous plumber got his name, mosey on over to the Technologizer and check it out.

P.S. If you like it, please digg it and spread the word.

P.P.S. I thought I had this post up publicly yesterday, but just realized I didn’t. Oops.

Twenty-five years ago this spring, Apple released the LaserWriter, its first laser printer. Few today remember that Apple’s hefty printing machine had as much of an impact on the way the world uses computers as the Macintosh itself. In conjunction with Apple’s famous PC, the LaserWriter pushed the personal computer into the worlds of graphic design and publishing.

So begins my latest piece over at Macworld.com, which examines four reasons why we should care about the historical legacy of Apple’s first laser printer. It also touches on the early Apple-Adobe relationship, which began with the LaserWriter. That relationship has come under closer scrutiny recently thanks to the nasty iPhone-iPad /Adobe Flash feud.

If you’re interested in more Apple printer information, check out this article I did for Macworld last year. It lists “Apple’s Five Most Important Printers.” Supposedly.

Our hero stands alone in a dungeon, screaming profanities at the ceiling.

You might remember our intrepid hero, a loincloth-bedecked body builder, from last year’s VC&G Halloween Costume Ideas. This beefcakey portrayal of Solstice’s main character is as amusing now as it was then, so I figured it deserved its own RSOTW.

The character’s name is actually Shadax, if you’re interested. If you’re not, I don’t blame you. He’s not normally like this, I swear. Shadax wears a modest, body-enveloping robe throughout the entire game. He only gets naked when he’s had too much of the ‘ole Green Fairy.

Discussion Topic of the Week: What’s your favorite NES puzzle game? For bonus points: what’s the most obscure NES puzzle game you can name?

Overcome one of the Internet’s least annoying problems.

Ever since Microsoft introduced its first mouse with a scroll wheel, the IntelliPoint Explorer, in 1996, mouse designers have been tripping over themselves to solve the non-problem of how to allow a user to scroll a document horizontally as well as vertically. Along the way, we’ve seen solutions like the IBM TrackPoint (above), Microsoft’s own “tilt wheel” mice, and more recently the “scroll ball” on Apple’s Mighty Mouse. In the case of the ScrollPoint mouse seen above, it looks like IBM simply took its TrackPoint pointing device and stuck it on a mouse where a scroll wheel should be.

It’s all been for naught, though, because 99% of mouse users don’t care about scrolling horizontally. In fact, if you have to scroll horizontally to view a website — the task most often enhanced by a scroll wheel — the website has been terribly designed. As a result, I suspect that horizontal scrolling apparatus tend to annoy users more than help them. I’m sure someone out there will read this and swear by their horizontal scrolling mouse, but I’m also fairly certain that person is in the minority.

For more on mouse history, check out this nifty article I did for Macworld a few years ago. It includes a handy mouse technology timeline.

Discussion Topic of the Week: Does your mouse provide the means to scroll horizontally as well as vertically? How do you feel about it?

Nose Not Required

From a kinder, gentler time when computer-rendered 3D logos were mandatory.

Discussion Topic of the Week: What’s your favorite entry in the Harvest Moon game series? Has Natsume made too many of them?

“Is your personal computer TOO personal?”

Facetious 1980s computer manual quote: “Never operate a computer with the monitor sitting directly in front of you. Neck torsion increases muscle tone and blood flow to the brain, resulting in higher computing performance.”

Discussion Topic of the Week: Have you ever been forced to share a PC with someone else? Tell us about it.

In Memoriam: Ed Roberts (1941-2010), creator of the Altair 8800.