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How Bill Gates became rich

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing February 14, 2022February 3, 2026

There are a lot of misconceptions and, shall we say, incomplete information about how Bill Gates became rich. But it’s an interesting and important story, so let’s cut through some of the misconceptions and the conspiracy theorizing of Gates and his early years.

Bill Gates made his money through software, first programming languages, and then operating systems. By getting into position to sell one or both products to virtually every computer manufacturer, Gates became a millionaire by age 23 and a billionaire by age 31.

Marx Standard Gauge – believe it!

Dave Farquhar Toy trains February 10, 2022March 3, 2022

Marx Standard Gauge? Surely there’s no such thing. Marx was the king of cheap trains, and Standard Gauge trains were the big, over-the-top trains for the wealthy. But near the end of the Standard Gauge era, Marx did made a Standard Gauge train, sort of.

Save as in Office 365

Dave Farquhar Office February 9, 2022September 28, 2022

I was working on some documents in Word and Excel last week and needed to know where the files were. Figuring that out used to be easy: Just use Save As. But that looks really different in Office 365. Here’s what happened to save as in Office 365, and where to find the old one.

The key to not getting frustrated with Microsoft is knowing that when useful functionality goes missing, they usually didn’t get rid of it entirely. They hid it, and in this case, it’s hiding behind the Browse button.

Why the hard drive is called C

Dave Farquhar Hardware February 8, 2022January 29, 2022

The hard drive or solid state drive on your PC is called drive c, which implies the existence of a drive A and B. So what are drives A and B? What does the C drive stand for? Why is the hard drive called C?

Drive letters are a holdover from early microcomputers. The letters A and B went to floppy drives, so if you had a hard drive, it went to the earliest available drive letter, which was C.

Radio Shack fire chief’s helmet: a passive aggressive gift

Dave Farquhar Toys February 7, 2022April 4, 2026

One of my friends asked me about a toy space pistol his son found at a comic book shop that originally came from Radio Shack. I told him what I was able to figure out, and he said it made a pretty annoying noise. And that reminded me of my favorite toy when I was five. It was a Radio Shack fire chief’s helmet with a real working light and real annoying siren.

The Radio Shack electronic fire chief’s helmet boasted of a real rotating light and loud siren. Unfortunately, they forgot to recommend playing with it outside rather than indoors, which is probably why so many of them fell victim to sabotage and are scarce in working condition today.

Bing: Masters of Nuremberg lithography

Dave Farquhar Toy trains February 3, 2022March 28, 2022

Bing was a long running German manufacturer of inexpensive tin toys. Like many of its competitors, they were based in Nuremberg, Germany. Founded by two brothers, Adolf and Ignaz Bing, they remained a family owned company from 1863 until their demise in 1933. Originally a maker of kitchen utensils, Bing became a pioneer in what we today call model railroading, creating the standards we today call O gauge and OO scale.

What does Unix like mean?

Dave Farquhar Linux February 2, 2022January 28, 2025

I used the phrase Unix like operating system in a discussion the other day and quickly realized and not everyone knew what I meant. So what does Unix like mean?

Line count in Notepad

Dave Farquhar Windows February 1, 2022February 1, 2022

Sometimes you need to count the number of lines in a plain text file. And sometimes notepad is all you have. Here’s how to do a line count in notepad.

Dorfan: Bleeding edge electric trains

Dave Farquhar Toy trains January 27, 2022March 31, 2022

Dorfan Manufacturing Company was a pioneering toy company specializing in electric and clockwork-powered toy trains. Diecast trains at that, which was state of the art when the company started in 1924.

Dorfan was an offshoot of the German toy company Fandor, founded by German immigrants Milton and Julius Forcheimer. They named the company after their mother and their aunt and were headquartered on Jackson Street in Newark, New Jersey, and operated from 1924 to around 1938.

Cyber Kill Chain vs Mitre ATT&CK

Dave Farquhar security January 26, 2022January 26, 2022

The Cyber Kill Chain, developed by Lockheed Martin, and Mitre ATT&CK (pronounced “attack”), are frequently compared, for obvious reasons. Both of them describe how adversaries attack computer networks. So when it comes to Cyber Kill Chain vs Mitre ATT&CK, which is better? It depends who’s asking.