I saw a question on a vintage computing forum this week: How did the IBM PC become the de facto standard for PCs, and the only desktop computer architecture from the 1980s to survive until today? It’s a very good question, and I think there were several reasons for it. I also think without all [...]
All posts tagged 1980s
How the IBM PC became the de facto standard for desktop computers
Posted by Dave Farquhar on May 4, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/05/how-the-ibm-pc-became-the-de-facto-standard-for-desktop-computers/
The Card wasn’t real!
Somehow I missed this a couple of weeks ago, but the former owner of the most valuable baseball card ever, a 1909 tobacco card picturing Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame shortstop Honus Wagner, admitted to altering it sometime before he sold it. This card, sometimes called The Card, was owned by hockey great Wayne Gretzky [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on April 27, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/04/the-card-wasnt-real/
Don’t read too much into the PC sales drop just yet
If you’ve been paying any attention at all, you probably know that new PC sales are in the toilet–out of the five biggest vendors, the only one whose sales managed to hold steady in Q1 2013 was Lenovo, while the other four saw a sales decline. So now Slashdot linked to a ZDNet piece stating [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on April 17, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/04/dont-read-too-much-into-the-pc-sales-drop-just-yet/
Rob O’Hara on phreaking
Rob O’Hara posted a podcast about phreaking today. He explains in layperson’s terms how the phone system was controlled by tones, cites it as an example of security through obscurity, and he talks about his own first-person experience subverting the phone system.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on April 14, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/04/rob-ohara-on-phreaking/
The re-segregation of baseball
The Kansas City Star had a piece today about the sharp decline in the number of African-Americans playing baseball. Of course, when I grew up, the Royals relied heavily on African-Americans. George Brett was the star, but without Willie Wilson and Frank White hitting ahead of him and Hal McRae and Willie Aikens or John [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on April 13, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/04/the-re-segregation-of-baseball/
Welcome, Tony’s Kansas City readers
Thanks to Tony’s Kansas City for the link this morning. Tony noted that “Security dude reminds us that Google Fiber could kill the software industry.” That’s an interesting spin. I do think it will affect the software industry–but so long as Kansas City stays at the forefront and the rest of the country is content [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on March 24, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/03/welcome-tonys-kansas-city-readers/
New media in Cuba
I read an ingenious article this week on Slashdot, talking about how Cubans evade Internet censorship (not to mention lack of access) by passing contraband material around on flash drives. It’s so old school, but brilliant. Sure, it’s less efficient and less elegant than using the Internet, but unlike the Internet, it’s nearly impossible to [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on March 21, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/03/new-media-in-cuba/
Commodore was more than a stock scam
From time to time, I see the phrase “Commodore stock scam” or something similar come up in my search engine logs. Commodore, in case you don’t know, was a high-flying computer company in the 1980s that was literally making computers as quickly as they could sell them while Apple struggled for its survival, and was [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on March 15, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/03/commodore-was-more-than-a-stock-scam/
A not-quite-heir to the Model M
So today I came across the story of a new Cooler Master keyboard, which claims to be very IBM Model M-like, but with modern styling and conveniences. The verdict is that this keyboard is even stiffer than the Model M, which raises a question that not many are asking. Maybe I’m showing my age and [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on March 8, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/03/a-not-quite-heir-to-the-model-m/
Ode to…. the Spartan
The Spartan was an elusive bit of C-64 hardware that made it Apple II+ compatible. Its makers took out full-page ads in all of the Commodore magazines, starting in 1984, if not earlier. The biggest problem with it was that you couldn’t buy one. They finally appeared in 1986, and at that point, no one [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on March 3, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/03/ode-to-the-spartan/