The Silicon Underground

Home » Page 154

Texas Instruments Home Computer: TI-99/4A

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing November 15, 2018March 9, 2025

Texas Instruments was supposed to dominate the home computer market in the 1980s. And on paper they had a good product. But things didn’t work out the way they were supposed to for the Texas Instruments home computer, the TI-99/4A. And that’s why you probably don’t hear as much about it as you’d think you would.

TI entered the personal computer market in 1979 and had some success in the early 1980s. But Apple’s former management literally doesn’t remember competing with it. Yet for a couple million people in the late 70s and early 80s, the TI provided their first experience with a home computer, and any home computer, however flawed, was something special then. So it provided some fond memories for people of a certain age.

Upload faster than download? Try this

Dave Farquhar ISPs November 14, 2018November 14, 2018

Is your upload faster than your download with your Internet connection? This is a fairly obscure problem that seems to have started happening again. Here’s how to test to see if you’re actually having a problem, and how to fix it.

If your upload speed is slightly faster than your download speed, it’s not worth worrying about. On a symmetric Internet connection where the two are supposed to be the same, I expect to see them within about 10 percent of one another, and if download slightly outpaces upload, it’s not hurting anything. But if upload is faster when it’s supposed to be slower, something weird is going on.

Can you use Roku without wifi?

Dave Farquhar Video November 12, 2018March 13, 2021

Can you use Roku without wifi? In some cases you can, although depending on the circumstances, a Roku can certainly be less useful without wifi. Here’s what models work without wifi and what they can do for you.

How to restore a Marx 999 locomotive

Dave Farquhar Toy trains November 9, 2018March 12, 2021

How to restore Marx trains varies by model but many of the same principles apply universally. Let’s take a step by step look at how to restore a Marx 999 locomotive.

Was Atari 2600 8-bit? Kind of

Dave Farquhar Retro Gaming November 8, 2018January 19, 2025

I think most people know the Nintendo NES was an 8-bit system. That tends to confuse people when it comes to the previous-generation system, the Atari 2600. Was Atari 2600 8 bit? Or something else?

The answer, of course, is that it depends.

How to stop robocalls on my cell phone

Dave Farquhar scams November 7, 2018February 12, 2019

Spam phone calls, robocalls, or scam calls aren’t quite as common on cell phones as they are on landlines, but they still happen way too often. When I posted advice on blocking robocalls on landlines, immediately people asked me about mobile phones. So here’s how to stop robocalls on my cell phone. And yours.

In May 2018, there were 4.1 billion robocalls in the United States. And it’s not slowing down. Robocallers won’t stop calling you on your own. So here are five things you can do, in order of increasing effectiveness. Many of them don’t cost you anything.

What Roku to buy

Dave Farquhar Video November 6, 2018June 3, 2019

Roku makes seven models of its popular set-top box for streaming video. And that’s if you only count current production and aren’t buying a used model. Here’s how to know what Roku to buy.

You can buy a TV with Roku hardware built in, but I prefer a separate device. Here’s why.

How to report scam phone calls

Dave Farquhar scams November 5, 2018November 4, 2018

We’ve all received more than our fair share of them: Phone calls from financial scams, tech support scams, and other dodgy phone calls trying to rip us off. There are actually several things you can do about them. Here’s how to report scam phone calls, so you and others will get fewer of them.

Common types include fake tech support and financial calls. Tech support calls may solicit payment for questionable computer services via credit card or wire transfer. Some scam phone calls may be more interested in getting personal information from you for the purposes of identity theft than money. But it’s important to stop fraud regardless of the motivation, to protect both ourselves and our neighbors.

Marx train runs slowly? Some troubleshooting tips

Dave Farquhar Toy trains November 2, 2018October 26, 2018

If your Marx train runs slowly, the problem could be a number of things. Fortunately most of them are easy to check and easy to fix yourself.

Super Mario Bros Commodore 64 version

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing November 1, 2018January 13, 2025

For years in the 1980s, there were rumors of a Super Mario Bros Commodore 64 port. Those rumors have persisted to the present day. Not one but two versions of the Nintendo franchise title do indeed exist on the C-64, but both are bootleg in every possible sense of the word.