David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more
The CPM operating system (or CP/M operating system) was the first popular operating system for personal computers. Its rise and fall has been fairly well documented, if not well understood, and its author, Gary Kildall, is a tragic hero in the early history of computers.
A multimeter is an inexpensive tool that has several great uses in model railroading, especially if you deal with used or vintage trains a lot. Knowing how to use one will save you a lot of time and frustration.
How secure is Chrome? While IT professionals may be divided on it, most security professionals I know prefer and recommend it. There are a number of good reasons for that.
Many people don’t realize it, but we are living in a golden age of low cost computers right now. A veritable flood of off-lease computers is driving down prices for quality, good-performance equipment. These are ideal for low income individuals or others on tight budgets. They’re PCs for people–ordinary people.
I have mixed feelings about Wikipedia. Maybe that makes me unique, as it seems most people think either too highly of it, or give it zero respect. In its early days, I was a top-1,000 contributor. But I have serious problems with the site. So why is Wikipedia not a reliable source? Let’s dig into the problems.
The problems are serious enough that you’ll never see it cited directly in an academic journal, or in most good research papers. But it can still be useful. You just need to know how to use it with caution.
The Commodore 1541 disk drive was the most common Commodore 64 floppy drive. Commodore fans from the 1980s loved to hate it. It was the first disk drive priced low enough to gain mainstream acceptance. But it was slow and loud and unreliable.
We put up with it anyway. A home computer was a luxury in those days and most of us had some idea how lucky we were to live through that time and experience it firsthand.
Streaming content is great for watching movies and TV shows. It almost makes it unnecessary to keep a DVD player around, except for home movies. What’s the modern solution for those? Actually there is one, and it’s likely to have better longevity than recorded DVDs or VHS tapes as long as you’re careful. Here’s how to watch home movies on Roku.
The Atari heavy sixer, also sometimes called the Atari 2600 heavy sixer, is the earliest version of the popular 1970s and 1980s game console. While not super rare or valuable, it is more valuable than most of the later versions of the Atari Video Computer System. You can think of it as the original original Atari 2600.
The earliest Atari 2600, released September 11, 1977 and nicknamed the heavy sixer, has six switches on the top, distinct from later units that had four. It weighs 1.2 pounds more than later six-switch models.
What is an information technology professional? What does an IT professional do? It seems like a lot of people don’t understand that. For that matter, I have close friends and relatives who have no idea what I do for a living. So let’s explore it a bit.
Sometimes a dead electrical outlet means you need to call an electrician–but not always. Here’s how to troubleshoot a dead electrical outlet and solve the problem yourself, ranging from easiest to hardest, so you can decide when to stop and hire an electrician.