Commodore could have owned AOL

Commodore could have owned AOL

30 years ago today, on November 1, 1994, AOL pulled the plug on Quantum Link. Quantum Link was a Commodore-oriented online service that was the direct ancestor of AOL. That makes today as good of a time as any to explore a tantalizing historical missed opportunity. Commodore could have owned AOL, a company that at its peak had a $200 billion valuation. Commodore, meanwhile, famously never reached its stated goal of $1 billion in annual sales.

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Ghislaine Maxwell’s connection to the dotcom boom

Ghislaine Maxwell’s connection to the dotcom boom

In October 2024, Jay Dyer appeared on a podcast called Attwood Unleashed, in episode 178. He made some serious allegations tying Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein, and potentially even Sean Combs, back to the dotcom boom. Perhaps back to the very beginning of the dotcom boom. But some of his statements are problematic.

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How to choose a VPN service

How to choose a VPN service

A few years back, an acquaintance asked me if I could recommend a VPN. And I’m afraid I didn’t give the best advice, so I want to recant and remedy that now. I think there are some misconceptions about what a VPN can and can’t do for you, so you may decide you don’t actually need one. But if you do need one, there is one and only one specific VPN I recommend. In this blog post, I’ll tell you how I came to choose this specific VPN service.

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David Bunnell, vintage computer magazine publisher

David Bunnell, vintage computer magazine publisher

David Bunnell was the founder of three of the most successful computer magazines of all time. He even edited two of them simultaneously, straddling two very different worlds.

He was not only a pioneer of tech journalism, he is one of the all-time greats. Bunnell wasn’t just a great tech journalist. He would have been great in any specialty. I am sad to say they don’t make them like him anymore.

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Nvidia’s first GPU: GeForce 256

Nvidia’s first GPU: GeForce 256

The GPU turns 25 today. 25 years ago, on October 11, 1999, Nvidia released its GeForce 256, its first product that it described as a GPU.

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MS-DOS 4.0: A closer look

MS-DOS 4.0: A closer look

Released October 6, 1988, MS-DOS 4.0 is the forgotten DOS. As such, modern hobbyists are often curious about it. Why did so few people use it?

It was eagerly anticipated and was years in the making, so it’s fair to say DOS 4 was a letdown. It’s a misnomer to say no one shipped PCs with it and no one used it, just like it’s a misnomer to say no one used Windows Vista. But it’s very apt to compare DOS 4.0 with Windows Vista and there were very valid reasons to avoid it in the 1988-90 timeframe. It’s also fair to be curious about it.

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Overcoming learned helplessness in security

Overcoming learned helplessness in security

Today I want to talk about a concept called learned helplessness, something that was widely studied and taught in the 1980s, but seems to have fallen by the wayside a bit today, although I certainly see it happening today. Computer security, especially the fields of vulnerability management and patch management, are very prone to learned helplessness. The good news is, it’s possible to overcome.

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Max Toy, embattled Commodore president

Max Toy, embattled Commodore president

Commodore went through a revolving door of executives after Jack Tramiel resigned due to conflicts with Irving Gould. On October 6, 1987, it was Max Toy’s turn. On that day, Commodore hired him. And for a while, it seemed like Max Toy might be the one to turn the company around. In this blog post, we’ll explore what was different, and what wasn’t so different about him.

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Creative Computing launched October 1974

Creative Computing launched October 1974

It was 50 years ago this month, in October 1974, that Creative Computing, one of the greatest computer magazines of the 1970s and 1980s, made its debut.

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Configure mystery jumperless NE2000 cards

Configure mystery jumperless NE2000 cards

It was 44 years ago this week that the Ethernet standard was first proposed. That makes today a good day to talk about what I do to bring mystery jumperless plug and play ISA Ethernet cards back from the dead.

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