Author: Dave Farquhar

Why Fernando Valenzuela isn’t in the Hall of Fame

Dave Farquhar Baseball
Why Fernando Valenzuela isn’t in the Hall of Fame

In February 2023, the Los Angeles Dodgers announced they were going to retire Fernando Valenzuela’s uniform number 34. Unofficially, the number has been retired since 1990, because they never issued it to anyone else. But they never made it official, because he wasn’t in Baseball’s Hall of Fame. Here is why Fernando Valenzuela isn’t in the Hall of Fame.

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Marx 41850 train set: The Mohawk

Dave Farquhar Toy trains ,
Marx 41850 train set: The Mohawk

In 1974, Marx introduced a diesel freight train set it called The Mohawk, catalog #41850, that ran on AC electric power and sold through catalog retailers. If you have a Marx 41850 train set today, it’s worth considerably more than its original retail price, even adjusted for inflation.

Marx’s Mohawk train set was part of the Great American Railroads series. It had catalog number 41850 and was manufactured only in 1974. Today it is one of the most valuable Marx train sets ever made.

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Atari 400 vs Commodore VIC-20

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
Atari 400 vs Commodore VIC-20

When we think of Atari versus Commodore, the Commodore 64 generally comes to mind. But there is an argument that the Commodore VIC-20 did as much damage to Atari as the Commodore 64 did, and possibly more. Let’s compare and contrast the Atari 400 vs Commodore VIC-20, which is a classic case of winning the battle but losing the war.

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Soup up your Tandy 3-in-1 with a V20

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
Soup up your Tandy 3-in-1 with a V20

I’ve written before about my Tandy 1000EX with a Tandy 3-in-1 expansion to add memory, a serial port, and compact flash. And I’ve written before about the NEC V20 CPU. But did you know you can use them together to nearly double your compact flash storage’s throughput? Here’s how.

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Marx Eagle Express Diesel Freight train set 7360

Dave Farquhar Toy trains ,
Marx Eagle Express Diesel Freight train set 7360

In 1974, Marx introduced a diesel freight set it called the Eagle Express, catalog #7360, that ran on AC electric power and sold through catalog retailers. If you have one today, it’s worth considerably more than its original retail price, even adjusted for inflation.

The Marx Eagle Express train set was part of the Great American Railroads series. It had catalog number 7360 and was manufactured only in 1974, though the inventory lasted years longer.

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Is Ryobi a Home Depot brand? It depends

Dave Farquhar DIY
Is Ryobi a Home Depot brand? It depends

Is Ryobi a Home Depot brand? Not exactly. Does Home Depot own Ryobi? No. Ryobi is a Japanese manufacturing conglomerate. They introduced a line of power tools in 1968. In 2000, Ryobi sold their international tool operations to Techtronic Industries (TTI) and licensed their name to them. They retained the rights to make and sell Ryobi tools in Japan. They sold the Japanese tool business to Kyocera in 2018.

In North America, Home Depot and TTI have an exclusive agreement to sell Ryobi branded tools at retail only at Home Depot. The situation is different in other parts of the world.

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What dot pitch is on a monitor or graphics

Dave Farquhar Hardware
What dot pitch is on a monitor or graphics

For a few years in the ’90s, dot pitch was a really big deal. It was one of the standard ways people compared computer monitors. Lower dot pitch was better, and worth paying a premium to get. But what is dot pitch in computer graphics? What is dot pitch in a computer monitor? Let’s dig in and find out.

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Wolfenstein 3D for CGA and Tandy

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
Wolfenstein 3D for CGA and Tandy

On Friday, January 20, 2021, a new version of Wolfenstein 3D was released for really old hardware. Indie developer James Howard revised the 30-year-old id Software title to function on CGA and Tandy graphics and an 8088 CPU. So now Wolfenstein 3D joins the ranks of about 900 known titles to use Tandy graphics and/or sound.

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Marx 553 tank car

Dave Farquhar Toy trains
Marx 553 tank car

The Marx 553 tanker was Marx’s longest running 6-inch tank car, running from way back in 1935 to 1956. It came in three major variants, one on each side of World War II, and one spanning the two eras by a few years. Read more

Does the ground go up or down on an outlet?

Dave Farquhar DIY
Does the ground go up or down on an outlet?

Why are some electrical outlets upside down? The direction of an electrical outlet doesn’t matter to the electrons. Electricity will flow regardless of the way you mount the outlet on the wall, whether it looks upside down, right side up, or sideways. So whether the ground prong should be up or down is simply a matter of practicality.

Legally, nothing says which side of an outlet is up. But there is a practical safety argument for the ground going on top on an electrical outlet, and sometimes the direction of the outlet means a light switch controls it.

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