David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more
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.
If you’re looking for the least popular people in any given company, the people who push patches probably rank high on that list. I pushed patches for a living for nearly a decade, so I know. I was good at it though. Let’s talk about patch management best practices.
The computer my sons use sometimes became unreliable a few weeks ago. It would work normally for a while, but rarely could make it through a full day without locking up hard. Here’s how I fixed the Windows 10 random lockups.
Getting a spam phone call, robocall, or scam call every 10 minutes makes you a prisoner in your own home. Blocking those calls would be a real quality of life improvement. Phone companies aren’t terribly interested in helping you, though. But you have options. Here’s how to block robocalls on a landline phone.
Arguably, you have more options with your cell phone. But you can still make your landline more peaceful.
Television standards have changed in a few ways since 1977, when Atari released the Atari 2600. Even if you have a CRT from the 1990s, it might not have an obvious place to hook it up. But it’s possible to connect the Atari Video Computer System to modern TV sets. Here’s how.
It’s possible to connect an Atari 2600 to a modern-ish TV using an RCA to F connector to plug straight into the antenna jack, assuming the TV is old enough to have an antenna input. Getting composite or HDMI is trickier but still doable, requiring additional equipment or modification.
Last week I traded some tips with a neighbor who signed up for AT&T Gigabit on my recommendation. His speeds just weren’t as fast as mine. Is your AT&T Gigabit not fast? Here’s some advice that may help.
I’m able to consistently get speeds in both directions above 900 megabits on my AT&T gigabit connection, at least on my best hardware. Some of my older hardware lags behind that a bit, but still does much better than 500 megabits. So I’ll share my secrets.
I saw an interesting question the other day. A sysadmin had a department asking for more computers, and he suspected the department wasn’t using the machines they have. His IT department didn’t want to go to the trouble and expense to provide more computers to a department that didn’t need them. So here’s how to check computer usage.
There are several reasons to use hanging indents when writing. Proper use of hanging indents include numbered or bulleted lists, citations, and dialogue lines in scripts. Here’s how to make a hanging indent in Word.
This works in Word 2013, Word 2016, and virtually any other version of Word you’re likely to be using.
If you’re shopping for a smart TV, you might find the word WebOS and perhaps a version number listed in the features. That raises a question. What is WebOS on a TV, and should you care? Possibly.
Commodore made the C-64 for about 11 years, so it’s probably no surprise they went through several Commodore 64 motherboard revisions during that time. Collectors enjoy the challenge of trying to get a machine with each type and revision of board, and knowing the characteristics of each board can help someone puzzle out the history of a machine, such as whether it had been repaired in the past.
Commodore made a lot of changes to the 64’s outward appearance over the years, but they made a lot of changes internally as well. This helped them drive the price down from $595 to $149 over the course of about three years.