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Irving Gould and Commodore

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing July 28, 2016September 4, 20181980s, 6502, apple, Apple Computer, atari, Canada, commodore, commodore 64, IBM, irving gould, jack tramiel, Mehdi Ali, MOS, stock scam, Texas Instruments, TI

Irving Gould was a Canadian financier and chairman of Commodore International. Although it’s an oversimplification, journalist Robert X. Cringely dismissed the once high-flying computer company, which had 60% of the market in 1984, as Irving Gould’s stock scam.

Gould was a bit of an odd fit to be running a computer company. He knew finance, but admitted in 1988 that he didn’t know how to use a computer.

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.

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Apple and China, or Why the U.S. Middle Class is Shrinking

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized January 22, 20121950s, 1980s, apple, Apple Computer, New York, new york times

“Companies once felt an obligation to support American workers, even when it wasn’t the best financial choice,” said Betsey Stevenson, the chief economist at the Labor Department until last September. “That’s disappeared. Profits and efficiency have trumped generosity.”

Apple Computer, currently the highest-valued company in the country, at its peak employs 1/10 the number of Americans as General Motors did in the 1950s. Apple is an easy target because it’s big, but the problem isn’t unique to Apple. Technology companies as a whole employ fewer people than the heavyweights of ages past like General Motors and General Electric. It’s the nature of the work.

Dave Farquhar

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Help someone plug a computer into a TV, become a criminal

Dave Farquhar Hardware July 14, 2011July 16, 20111980s, apple, Apple Computer, DisplayPort, garage sale, hp, radio shack, RCA, sony, VCR

Digital video is confusing. You get some clear advantages, since signal degradation becomes a thing of the past, but if you’re not someone who works in video for a living, it’s difficult to keep it all straight. And standards are a problem. You can’t just assume that two devices will work together because they’re both “digital.”

One of the problems is physical incompatibility. Some devices have Displayport ports. Some of them have HDMI ports. The solution is easy: get a cable with an HDMI connector on one end and a Displayport connector on the other. Problem solved.

And now the guy who sold it to you is a criminal. (You aren’t necessarily. Possession isn’t illegal, just sale or manufacture. So don’t sell it at your garage sale in 2019.)
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Dave Farquhar

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How IBM and DOS came to dominate the industry

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing February 19, 2003November 28, 20181980s, 1990s, amiga, apple, Apple Computer, apple ii, atari, atari st, commodore, commodore 128, commodore 64, Consumer Reports, Crestwood Plaza, IBM, ibm pcjr, intel, macintosh, Personal Computer, radio shack, Tandy, tandy 1000, vector, XT

Revisionist historians talk about how MS-DOS standardized computer operating systems and changed the industry. That’s very true. But what they’re ignoring is that there were standards before 1981, and the standards established in 1981 took a number of years to take hold.

Dave Farquhar

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