Scratchy the Micron

Scratchy the Micron

Have you heard of Crusty the Mac, the indestructable Macintosh SE? Let me tell you the story of Scratchy the Micron. Scratchy was a Micron Transport Trek 2 laptop, one of the best laptops money could buy in 1998. And you needed a lot of money to buy one. It cost $2,999 when it was new in 1998, the equivalent of $5,600 in today’s money.

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Why Gateway computers failed in the enterprise

Why Gateway computers failed in the enterprise

YouTuber Mike Tech was attempting to refurbish a couple of Gateway 2000 desktops recently, and he observed that one of them had features you normally only see in business class PCs. And he expressed surprise, because Gateway is a brand we typically associate with consumer PCs. But I can confirm Gateway did attempt to compete in the business/enterprise PC market. Here’s why that didn’t go so well for them.

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Commodore 8050 disk drive

Commodore 8050 disk drive

The Commodore 8050 disk drive was the second-highest capacity floppy drive Commodore made for its 8-bit computers. It was a dual drive unit that connected to the IEEE-488 bus used on the PET and CBM line of computers. Each drive stored half a megabyte of data on 5.25 inch single sided quad density disks. When you listed the directory on a Commodore equipped with an 8050, the disk read 2102 blocks free. They were marketed for educational and business use.

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Does finished software really exist?

Does finished software really exist?

A blog post titled “The beauty of finished software” went viral a week or two ago, and it puzzled me a bit. The blog post wasn’t terribly long. It was just a few paragraphs extolling the virtue of something it called finished software. And then it lumped two very different things into the category of finished software. In this blog post, I will explore the concept and explain why being finished software isn’t always a good thing.

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DEC Rainbow 100

DEC Rainbow 100

The DEC Rainbow 100 was an early MS-DOS computer that wasn’t 100% IBM compatible. In retrospect, this seems like an obvious mistake. But they took a different strategy, betting that they could win by providing a degree of compatibility, but that the market would choose their solution if they provided some amount of technical superiority. In this blog post, I’ll explore what DEC tried, and why it ultimately failed.

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The best type-in I ever typed in: Crossroads, by Steve Harter

The best type-in I ever typed in: Crossroads, by Steve Harter

A question has been going around on social media about the best type-in you ever typed in. I remember it like it was yesterday. Crossroads, from the December 1987 issue of Compute!’s Gazette. Second place wasn’t close. Crossroads was an arcade-style game for the Commodore 64 that I think of as a sort of top-down 2-dimensional Doom-like game.

Yes, I am aware there was a sequel, Crossroads II, published a year later. I didn’t type that one in. I bought the disk. So while Crossroads II was better, I can’t call it the best type-in I ever typed in myself.

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Commodore 8250 disk drive

Commodore 8250 disk drive

The Commodore 8250 disk drive was the highest capacity floppy drive Commodore made for its 8-bit computers. It was a dual drive unit the connected to the IEEE-488 bus used on the PET and CBM line of computers. Each drive stored one megabyte of data on 5.25 inch double sided quad density disks. When you listed the directory on a Commodore equipped with an 8250, the disk read 4133 blocks free.

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Panasonic Business Partner 1650: Tandy in disguise

Panasonic Business Partner 1650: Tandy in disguise

The Panasonic Business Partner 1650, also known as the FX 1650, is a PC clone from 1989. Everyone was making 286 based PC clones in 1989, but this Panasonic is a little bit different. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing depends on when you bought it. The label on the back provides a clue.

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Intel 80186 CPU: So misunderstood

Intel 80186 CPU: So misunderstood

Back when a 386 or 486 PC was hot stuff, I remember a common insult for a slow PC being, “What is that thing, a 186?” But no one we knew had a 186 PC, and no one really knew why either. In this blog, post, we will explore the Intel 80186, the CPU the PC industry forgot, why a misconception exists that it was a failure, and how both things can be true at the same time.

Although the 80186 powered two infamous PC-compatible flops in the early 1980s, a company founded by two Californians in a garage did use a 186-compatible CPU in a pioneering handheld computer about a decade later. Additionally, the 186 saw use in other embedded applications.

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What happened to Adaptec?

What happened to Adaptec?

For about 20 years, Adaptec was synonymous with SCSI controllers for PCs. Their controllers were frequently imitated, and its competitors undercut them in price. But the reliability, performance, and compatibility of Adaptec products was tough to beat. So if you wanted the very best, you bought Adaptec. In this blog post, I’ll uncover what happened to Adaptec. Hint: they didn’t go out of business.

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