David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more
It was 22 years ago this week, on Semptember 8, 2003, that the Recording Industry Association of America started suing individuals for pirating MP3 files. One of the people caught up in a lawsuit was a 12-year-old honors student who lived in public housing.
On September 6, 2001, HP announced its intention to acquire Compaq for $25 billion. It was a stunning end for what still seemed to be one of the rising stars of the PC industry. I also think it proved that bigger isn’t always better. The HP-Compaq merger arguably made sense at the time, but both companies had alternatives that would have suited them better. On May 23, 2012, HP announced the end of the Compaq brand, a stunning end for what had been the largest technology merger in history.
On September 4th, 1998, Google incorporated in California. Even if you are not a fan, and make no mistake, I am not, you have to admit Google left its mark on the Internet. It fundamentally changed the Internet in numerous ways, some of them bad, but some of them very good.
Google’s highly anticipated 2004 IPO valued the company at over $23 billion and it marked the beginning of the recovery from the dotcom bust.
Computer journalism pioneer Wayne Green was born 103 years ago on this day, September 3, 1922. Green founded several different magazines, computer and otherwise, some of which ended up competing with each other.
On Sep 2, 2008, Google launched its first beta version of the Chrome Web browser. For better and for worse, this was transformational both for Google and the web. While this was the browser that finally freed us from the tyranny of Microsoft Internet Explorer, it effectively transferred power from one monopolist to another.
What did the original Amiga design team do after the Amiga went to market and Commodore wasted the opportunity? Jay Miner went back to designing medical devices, but three other members of the team designed the first color handheld game console, which, ironically, became the Atari Lynx. The Lynx reached the market September 1, 1989.
At the end of August 2024, Anandtech shut down rather suddenly and unexpectedly, ending a run that dated back to April 3, 1997. I thought about writing something at the time, but really needed longer to collect my thoughts. Now that a year has passed, I think it’s time.
On August 29, 1953, the Tokyo Television Acoustic Company was founded. Later in the decade it merged with the Tokyo Electro-Acoustic Company, and the combined company took the name TEAC. The combined company specialized in designing and manufacturing tape recorders. But retro computer enthusiasts know TEAC for its awesome floppy disk drives.
Digg was a high flying news aggregation site from the early web 2.0 era that still exists today, but really in name only. It serves as a cautionary too for why high profile websites tend not to make major changes overnight. A major update, Digg v4, introduced August 25, 2010, caused the site to implode over the course of about 6 weeks during the late summer of 2010. Contemporary tech CEOs would do well to read up on it lest they repeat history.
Digg went from concept to being worth $200 million in about three years and was more popular than Reddit, which is now a $15 billion company. One ill fated change wiped out 90% of its value and its user base in a matter of six weeks.
On August 24, 1998, Intel introduced its Celeron 300A processor. It wasn’t the first Celeron, but depending on who you ask, it was the first one worth having. The Celeron was a cut-down Pentium II, designed in response to pricing pressures from AMD. But it turned out not just to be a budget CPU. It drew a surprising response from enthusiasts.