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Happy birthday, IBM PC!

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Retro Computing August 12, 2011December 24, 20251980s, 1990s, amd, apple, apple ii, commodore, commodore 64, compaq, dell, Gary Kildall, hp, IBM, intel, lenovo, macintosh, Maxtor, pc magazine, Personal Computer, radio shack

The IBM PC 5150 turns 30 today.

IBM didn’t invent the personal computer, but if your computer has an Intel or AMD CPU in it, it’s the direct descendant of the beige box IBM unleashed on the world on August 12, 1981. Without a huge amount of effort, it’s even possible to run most of that old software on your shiny new PC. You probably wouldn’t want to, except out of curiosity, but you can do it.

I wasn’t one of the people who rushed out and got one. At the time, I was still watching Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers. I had my first experience with a computer–a Radio Shack TRS-80–in 1982, and the first computer my family bought was a Commodore 64 in 1984. Even in 1984, there were still plenty of people who questioned why anyone needed a computer in their home. My introduction to the IBM PC and PC-DOS didn’t happen until 1987.
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Is someone trying to hack Facebook? Maybe.

Dave Farquhar security August 11, 2011August 11, 2011passwords

From the big bag o’ Google search queries: Is someone trying to hack Facebook?

Possibly. An announcement came out this week that Anonymous and Lulzsec, the groups behind some of the more notorious hacks this year, plan to try to take down Facebook on November 5. There’s some debate whether they can do it, even within the groups, it seems. Some even believe the announcement was a hoax. But these are the same groups that hacked virtually every cell phone at the hacker conventions in Las Vegas last week, so it has to be perceived as a threat.

What should you do?

Tom’s Hardware asks: Is an SSD the best upgrade for a slightly old PC?

Dave Farquhar Hardware August 11, 2011July 15, 20171990s, building a pc, excel, jmicron, windows 7

Not surprisingly, they find the answer is yes. Specifically, that a PC equipped with an SSD gets about a 30% across-the-board performance increase.

I don’t agree with everything Tom’s Hardware say in the conclusion, namely, that it’s pointless to put an SSD in a netbook. Indeed, when you put an SSD in a netbook, you get several benefits: improved latency, improved battery life, and much faster boot/resume times, all of which are useful.
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And no, don’t bother trying to time the market

Dave Farquhar Saving money August 10, 2011buying stock

I’m not hearing as much rumbling in the hallways about pulling out of stocks, but I’m hearing a lot of rumbling about waiting until the market bottoms out before putting anything in.

Here’s the problem: What if it bottomed out today? I’m not saying it did. But it’s possible. Nobody knows.
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I hope this new recordable DVD format catches on

Dave Farquhar Video August 10, 20111950s, computerworld, kodak, LG, VHS

In October, LG and its startup partner Millenniata plan to release a new type of DVD, which they claim will last forever. The Navy doesn’t come right out and say it lasts forever, but it does say in its tests that these discs, called M-Discs, do last considerably longer than the traditional DVD-R and DVD+R discs on the market today.

I hope this catches on, but it’s possible it won’t. Why? Cost.

Two reasons you should use something other than your local ISP’s DNS

Dave Farquhar security August 9, 2011November 3, 2025

There’s some bad behavior going on with DNS right now. In Washington and at local ISPs.

Oh. And don’t go panic and sell all your stocks.

Dave Farquhar Saving money August 8, 2011February 25, 2020bond fund, index fund

The Googles have spoken, and people don’t come here for financial advice, but I’ll say this anyway. The markets have been going bonkers for the last week, but don’t panic. Don’t go dumping your stocks and bonds. Seriously.

Just look at what happened in 2008.

A simple security enhancement you can and should do now

Dave Farquhar security, Servers and Networking August 8, 2011firefox, SSL, wi-fi

HTTPS Everywhere is a free Firefox extension–the EFF would like to do it for other browsers but says it’s not possible without source code–that forces the browser to use HTTPS (SSL-encrypted) connections whenever possible. This isn’t foolproof security–HTTPS is vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks–but it forces an attacker to do more work in order to snoop on your web traffic.

If you spend a lot of time on public wi-fi networks, this is the bare minimum you should do to protect yourself.

I need to remember to write up an explanation later this week of how SSL is vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks. But it’s better than nothing, and there’s nothing wrong with using it as additional protection even when you’re on a safe network.

Maybe this is the sales tactic computer stores use these days

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized August 8, 2011August 8, 2011asus, dell, hp, intel, pentium ii, samsung, Western Digital

So, Dr. A’s computer is going to get the full Farquhar treatment. I told him I’m pretty confident I can get it running better than it ever has.

He said one of the salesmen told him it’s overdue for a crash, because it’s a Dell.

I really don’t like that kind of a generalization. I told him yes, all other things being equal, I think HP has better engineers than Dell. But would I discard an old machine just because it’s a Dell? Well, I ran this web site on an old Dell computer from about 2003 until October 2010. Actions speak louder than words. But there are a lot more problems with that argument. So I think it’s a sales tactic. I think if he’d come in and said he had an HP and he thinks it’s due, the salesman would have said, “Oh, it’s overdue for a crash because it’s an HP. Here, let me show you this Dell….”

Here’s why.

Used dual-cores are coming! Used dual-cores are coming!

Dave Farquhar Hardware August 7, 2011October 4, 2018amd, atx power supply, COA, excel, intel, overclocking, windows 7, Windows XP

All this talk about new computers got me looking to see what’s out there in the channel. And it looks like the glut of Pentium 4s is finally clearing, making way for the 2-core revolution. Prices are low–I’m seeing dual-core systems, both Intel and AMD, with Windows licenses, for anywhere from $180 to $280 depending on configuration and some other factors that aren’t exactly clear to me.

Sound good? Here’s what to look for in an off-lease/refurbished computer.
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