Author: Dave Farquhar

M.U.L.E.: 1983’s best video game

Dave Farquhar Retro Gaming
M.U.L.E.: 1983’s best video game

Game designer Danielle Bunten Berry was born February 19, 1949. Her best game was called M.U.L.E., a multiplayer turn-based strategy game in a sci-fi setting originally developed on the Atari 800 and then ported to other systems like the Commodore 64, MSX 2, IBM PC, and, eventually, the Nintendo NES. It was one of Electronic Arts‘ debut five titles.

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Should you use a face scan, fingerprint, or passkey?

Dave Farquhar security
Should you use a face scan, fingerprint, or passkey?

What’s better, biometrics like a fingerprint or face recognition, a pass key, or old fashioned passwords? A couple of different conversations I had recently spurred this question, and I think it’s worth exploring.

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Google Fiber announced February 10, 2010

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
Google Fiber announced February 10, 2010

It was 15 years ago today, on February 10, 2010, that Google announced Google Fiber. This was the first truly high speed Internet service in a modern sense in the United States.

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Advantages and disadvantages of Lotus 1-2-3

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
Advantages and disadvantages of Lotus 1-2-3

Lotus 1-2-3 was the killer app that made the IBM PC the standard for computers.  It wasn’t the first spreadsheet, making its debut January 26, 1983, but it ran on a computer that could easily address more than 64K of memory, it was fast, and relatively bug free. So it was super successful. Today we know it as the thing people used before Excel. So what were the advantages and disadvantages of Lotus 1-2-3?

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NCSA Mosaic: The mother of all web browsers

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
NCSA Mosaic: The mother of all web browsers

The title dates itself. On January 23, 1993, more people would have caught the reference. January 23, 1993 was the day the first cross-platform Web browser emerged from the NCSA, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, a computing research partnership at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, in the middle of the cornfields of Illinois.

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IBM’s big black and blue 1992

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
IBM’s big black and blue 1992

On January 19, 1993, IBM announced a stunning $5 billion loss for fiscal year 1992, earning the unfortunate nickname of “Big Black and Blue” until its turnaround later in the decade.

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RUN: The magazine for Commodore 64, 128 and VIC-20 owners

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
RUN: The magazine for Commodore 64, 128 and VIC-20 owners

It was 41 years ago this month, in January 1984, that RUN magazine made its debut. With RUN, Wayne Green applied the formula he used for 80 Micro to the hot-selling Commodore 8-bit home computers. While it was no longer an original idea, RUN arguably was even more successful than 80 Micro had been.

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VIA Cyrix III and C3 CPUs

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
VIA Cyrix III and C3 CPUs

The VIA Cyrix III was a short-lived Socket 370 CPU produced by VIA using technology it acquired from Cyrix and Centaur, two makers of Socket 7 CPUs. VIA first introduced the Cyrix III on January 5, 2001.

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What was the Y2K problem and what was the solution?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
What was the Y2K problem and what was the solution?

Hang around enough people like me who’ve been in IT for decades and eventually the Y2K problem comes up. But what was the Y2K problem? What was the solution? And was the problem overblown? As Y2K’s 25th anniversary approaches, this is a great time to look back on the problem.

I was in an odd position. I argued in 1999 and 2000 that any problems we had would be relatively minor. But I don’t think the efforts to fix Y2K were overblown. I may be in the minority opinion on that but I’ll explain.

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If Irvin Mainway made computer accessories, he’d make this

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
If Irvin Mainway made computer accessories, he’d make this

In Saturday Night Live’s second, third, and fourth seasons, Dan Aykroyd played a recurring character named Irvin Mainway who sold dangerous toys to kids, like a space helmet that was just a clear plastic bag and a rubber band to affix it, and a bag of broken glass. Hey, it was the 70s. Lawn darts were still legal and seatbelts weren’t mandatory. Seeing this 1984 ad from Langley-St. Clair made me immediately think of Irvin Mainway.

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