Some stories floating around are suggesting that Commodore is still around, and they just released a new, overpriced Amiga. Well, there’s a company slapping “Commodore” and “Amiga” labels on PC cases that look kind of like Apple Mac Mini cases and stuffing off-the-shelf components in them, but they’re Commodore Amigas in name only.
All posts tagged IBM
Umm, no, that’s not Commodore, and that’s not an Amiga
Posted by Dave Farquhar on March 23, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/03/umm-no-thats-not-commodore-and-thats-not-an-amiga/
There’s room for several to gloat over the Britannica
The Encyclopædia Britannica is, after 244 years, calling it quits on its print edition, and I’m sure Wikipedia is gloating, because as I recall, that was one of its goals around a decade ago. Wired argues that Encarta did more to kill Britannica than Wikipedia. I tend to agree.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on March 16, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/03/theres-room-for-several-to-gloat-over-the-britannica/
Remembering Michelangelo
Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the Michelangelo virus. If you don’t remember, on March 6, 1992, Michelangelo was programmed to overwrite the first 100 sectors of a hard drive–not quite as destructive as formatting a drive, but to the average user, the effect is the same. It was a huge scare–John McAfee predicted five [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on March 7, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/03/remembering-michelangelo/
How computer and energy technology don’t relate
Bill Gates says the rapid advance of computers created unreasonable expectations for the advancement of energy technology. The argument makes sense. And while desktop computers did advance very quickly, I think people have a misconception of even how quickly computers developed–which makes it worse, of course. Some people seem to believe the computer was invented [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on March 4, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/03/how-computer-and-energy-technology-dont-relate/
Internet-like technology, circa 1983
IT World profiled Viewtron, AT&T’s implementation of Videotex, as an interesting what-if. Think of it as 1983′s version of WebTV. What if it had caught on? Why didn’t it?
Posted by Dave Farquhar on March 3, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/03/internet-like-technology-circa-1983/
Living with a past-its-prime computer
I’m playing catch-up a bit. This weekend, Lifehacker ran a guide about living with a computer that’s past its prime. I’ve made a career of that. One of my desktop PCs at work (arguably the more important one) is old enough that I ought to be preparing to send it off to second grade. And [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on February 28, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/02/living-with-a-past-its-prime-computer/
SCO v. IBM winds toward resolution
Slashdot reported yesterday that SCO v. IBM is back on. Well, it is, sort of. The case never was fully resolved, due to SCO running out of money and filing for bankruptcy. Groklaw has the details. If this sounds vaguely familiar, I’ll try to refresh your memory.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on February 18, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/02/sco-v-ibm-winds-toward-resolution/
HP has a brilliant idea
After last year’s flip-flopping on getting rid of its not-quite-as-profitable-as-they’d-like PC business, and the resulting self sabotage, HP needed a good idea to try to undo the damage. Their idea is completely unoriginal, but it’s tried and true and more likely to work than anything else they could possibly do: Bundle their premium PCs with [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on February 16, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/02/hp-has-a-brilliant-idea/
My first experience with data recovery
About 15 years ago, I was working my first full-time job, and my phone rang with my first crisis. “What happened to the K drive?” the caller asked. I glanced over at my network drive cheat sheet, which listed all of our shares and what server they were on. In those days, most of our [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on February 2, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/02/my-first-experience-with-data-recovery/
Happy 30th birthday, Commodore 64
The C-64 sort of turns 30 this week. It was introduced 30 years ago this week, though it wasn’t until August or so that you could actually buy one. It took that long for memory prices to come down to reach the target price, and if memory serves, the machine they displayed at CES in [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on January 6, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/01/happy-30th-birthday-commodore-64/