Author: Dave Farquhar

Why Don Mattingly isn’t in the Hall of Fame

Dave Farquhar Baseball
Why Don Mattingly isn’t in the Hall of Fame

Don Mattingly had only been a full-time player for five years when people started calling him a future Hall of Famer. He hit like Rod Carew and fielded like Keith Hernandez, except he hit with power. Opposite-field power at that, so he wasn’t just taking advantage of Yankee Stadium’s short porch in right field. So why isn’t Don Mattingly in the Hall of Fame?

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Why did the Atari ST fail?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
Why did the Atari ST fail?

Why did the Atari ST fail? It is hard for me to be objective about the Atari ST, because I was a dyed in the wool Amiga fanboy in the early ’90s. I am not supposed to like the Atari ST. And I’m not sure if that makes it easier or harder for me to see it as a failure, but I don’t see the Atari ST as a failure.

Then again, since you probably are not reading this on an Atari ST, there is an argument that it did fail. So it could be that I am grading on a curve. I expected the machine to be a nothing burger, and it ended up selling 2.1 million units at a time when 2.1 million units shipped still was a pretty impressive number.

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Ego electric mower won’t start? Here’s help.

Dave Farquhar DIY
Ego electric mower won’t start? Here’s help.

If your Ego electric mower won’t start, there are several possible reasons for it. Typically the reason is fairly simple and easy to fix. A less typical problem is much harder to fix, but is also preventable. Let’s talk about how to troubleshoot and hopefully get you mowing again.

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Marx Girard station

Dave Farquhar Toy trains
Marx Girard station

The Marx Girard station is one of three tinplate train stations Marx produced during the post-war era. They replaced an earlier, smaller, and less ambitious station from the pre-war era, and solved more than one problem for Marx.

The Marx Girard station had a long production run, from around 1950 to 1973. Marx named the station after the town in Pennsylvania where its train factory stood.

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IBM 7496 Executive Workstation

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
IBM 7496 Executive Workstation

The IBM 7496 Executive Workstation is a rare IBM computer from the late 1980s. It gained some measure of fame in the early 2020s, when vintage technology Youtubers got their hands on them and rebuilt them. Their success, or lack thereof in one case, helped elevate this machine in enthusiasts’ minds.

The IBM 7496 Executive Workstation is some kind of a purpose built PC, derived from the PS/2 Model 30. About a dozen examples turned up in the inventory of Computer Reset, a now legendary Dallas-based warehouse of computers dating back to the 1980s that was liquidated from 2019-2022.

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What solder mask is

Dave Farquhar Hardware
What solder mask is

Solder mask is a protective polymer coating applied to printed circuit boards that serves multiple purposes. Besides being an aid in the PCB manufacturing process, it also serves a reliability purpose.

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Why S traps are illegal in drains

Dave Farquhar DIY
Why S traps are illegal in drains

Are s traps illegal? Why? You may have heard S traps are illegal, without explanation. Or maybe you’ve wondered why you have to make a P trap under your drain when an S trap would be easier. Here’s why S traps are illegal in drains.

S traps are illegal because they cause a health and a safety hazard. But the conditions under whether you have to replace them do vary.
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What is Delrin?

Dave Farquhar Toy trains
What is Delrin?

Perhaps the most lasting legacy of Model Products Corporation on the history of Lionel trains was its use of a material called Delrin. And their competitors, including Marx and K-Line, quickly started using it too. But what is Delrin, and why was it better than the tried and true stuff Lionel Corporation used?

Delrin is a trademark of DuPont, a type of plastic called Polyoxymethylene POM. You can injection mold parts with it like other plastics such as styrene or ABS, but it is slippery and self-lubricating.

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Are electric lawn mowers quiet?

Dave Farquhar DIY
Are electric lawn mowers quiet?

Proponents of electric lawn mowers talk about the sound they make as an advantage. But are electric lawn mowers quiet for real, or is it just marketing talk?

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Can dogs spell?

Dave Farquhar Dogs
Can dogs spell?

Dogs can learn somewhere between 50 and 250 words or phrases. So that means humans will sometimes speak in code to avoid getting a dog excited. One of the most common forms of code is spelling the words. That works until dogs learn the spelling of those words. Wait. Dogs can spell?

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