David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more
My favorite engine is the Marx #54 tin diesel lettered for Kansas City Southern. Unfortunately it has poor pulling power. Being a hollow tin body, it just doesn’t have much weight to it, making the marginal Marx motor even more marginal. Here’s what to do when a Marx engine can’t pull.
Commodore used two different chips as the Commodore 64 CPU during its long lifetime. Both Commodore 64 CPUs were proprietary derivatives of the venerable MOS 6502, but unlike the 6502, Commodore and its MOS subsidiary never licensed either of them to other sources.
Like the Atari 2600 CPU, the 6510 and 8500 were 6502s with some changes. Unlike the 6507, the 6510/8500 added capability, rather than removing it.
I saw a photo of an old Coast to Coast hardware store damaged in a tornado recently. That got me wondering what happened to Coast to Coast, and what was the Coast to Coast Hardware Stores history?
Let’s play Jeopardy. The answer: This Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop is the subject of the most valuable baseball card ever made, and one of the rarest. The question, of course, is: Who is Honus Wagner?
But there was more to Wagner than just that baseball card, though that baseball card is a story that captivated generations.
Living mortgage free isn’t a pipe dream, and it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to live in a hovel to achieve it. Ordinary people on ordinary incomes in ordinary homes can generally achieve it in less than seven years. I know, because my wife and I did it. Twice.
My wife and I live in a middle-class suburb in a good school district. By some standards our 1,600-sqft house is small, but we can live there comfortably as a family of four. It took sacrifices to pay off, but I wouldn’t call it extraordinary sacrifice.
What scale are Marx trains and accessories? Why, your favorite answer, of course: It depends. The scale of Marx trains and accessories varied, pretty widely. The reasons varied too. Here’s how they ranged, why, and what you can do about it, if indeed you choose to do anything about it at all.
People frequently ask me for advice on how to quit a job, maybe because I’m a writer. But it’s only as hard as you make it. It’s possible to quit a job graciously and not destroy references you might need someday. In this blog post, I’ll explain how to quit a fast food job.
Retail is taking a beating right now, thanks to online sales and an overall economy that’s just acting a bit weird. Best Buy had its struggles in the past, so that leads to a fair question. Can Best Buy survive?
I can see both sides of the argument.
The Apple II was one of the first mass-market computers, one of three announced and released in 1977. It proved successful, and Apple had a hard time following up on it. The Macintosh was the third attempt, and it eventually proved successful. Apple II vs Macintosh ended up not being much of a comparison. But it took a while for the Mac to catch on. Here’s what set the Mac apart from its widely successful predecessor.
The Mac, like most of the computers that followed it in 1985, ushered in a lot of changes from its predecessor. Technologically the Apple II was much closer to its main competitor, the Commodore 64.
The American Flyer 594 animated track gang is an interesting accessory. A.C. Gilbert released it in 1946 and 1947. Lionel reissued it in 2006. Although Gilbert marketed it for its S gauge trains, you can easily use it with 3-rail O gauge track. I’m actually disappointed that Lionel didn’t say how when it reissued this accessory.
What about scale, you ask? The figures are about 1½ inches tall, so they are much closer to O scale than S scale. So there’s no need to worry about that. It looks fine with O gauge trains. For that matter, it looks equally good with prewar or postwar O gauge trains. And it doesn’t look bad with S gauge trains either.