David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more
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.
Baseball card sizes varied over the years, but if you’re asking how big are baseball cards, you’re probably thinking of the most common size. The most common size for baseball cards is 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches, the same size as a wallet-size photograph.
Computers in 1980 were rather different from computers of today. They could do the fundamental things a computer of today can do, but by modern standards, they were much smaller and less powerful. In the mid 1980s, Commodore Grace Hopper said we had the Model T, computing-wise. In 1980, we weren’t quite at the Model T yet.
Still, computers in 1980 were interesting. We’d never seen anything like them.
The IBM PC and Commodore 64 were introduced about a year apart. The PC came out in 1981. The 64 followed in 1982. They were two of the most important machines of the 1980s, and both have long legacies. Here’s the story of the Commodore 64 vs IBM PC.
Although the two machines share a legacy, for the most part they existed in different worlds.
People frequently ask me how long to study for CISSP. Unfortunately it’s hard to give a set answer for that, but I can tell you how to figure out how long you need to study for it. That’s almost as good.
Don’t believe anyone who tells you they can get you ready in x number of days or weeks or even months. No one can know where you are relative to what you need to know to pass that test.
What does IBM do now? Does IBM still make computers? If not, what does IBM make now? IBM’s days as the dominant maker of personal computers ended long ago, but IBM is still #32 on the Fortune 500 list.
How does IBM make money without selling anything to consumers anymore?