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Do as we say, not as we did: Microsoft and standards

Dave Farquhar Software November 18, 2012November 3, 20251990s, apple, AT&T, irony, nausea, tomato, unix

Microsoft is sniveling that mobile web sites are written with Webkit browsers in mind, because Webkit has 90% market share on tablets and phones.

For those who are over 30, the irony is nauseating. Read more

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

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How abandonware gets abandoned

Dave Farquhar Copyright, Retro Computing, Software November 1, 2012January 19, 20261980s, 1990s, Ars Technica, commodore, commodore 64, public domain, Star Wars

From time to time on classic computing and/or videogaming forums, the question of how to track down the current copyright holder to a particular given title comes up. Sometimes someone knows the answer. Frequently they don’t.

This week, when George Lucas announced he’d sold Lucasfilm to Disney, illustrated precisely how this kind of thing happens.

Dave Farquhar

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Happy 35th birthday, Atari 2600

Dave Farquhar Retro Gaming October 15, 2012June 20, 20251980s, 1990s, amiga, atari, atari 2600, Big Lots, compaq, Jay Miner, nintendo, VCR, video game

The venerable Atari 2600 turned 35 this past weekend. People of a certain age remember it as the device that ushered in home video games. I know I spent a lot of afternoons after school playing blocky, chirpy video games on them in the early 1980s.

The 2600 wasn’t the first cartridge-based console, but it was the first widely successful one. It even spawned clones, the private-label Sears Video Arcade and the Coleco Gemini.

Dave Farquhar

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Windows 8 won’t fail just because nobody likes Windows upgrades

Dave Farquhar Windows October 4, 2012October 4, 20121990s, apple, john c dvorak, vista, windows 2000, windows 7, windows 8, windows 98, windows me, windows nt, Windows XP

John C Dvorak wrote today about the great upgrade upheaval, and argued that Windows 8 is doomed to fail because it’s just going to be too hard to upgrade, and nobody likes Windows upgrades anyway.

I agree on the first point but not the second.

Dave Farquhar

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Why your write blocker doesn’t work with the IDE cable backwards

Dave Farquhar security September 1, 2012April 24, 20171990s

I’m reviewing and revising policies and practices at work, including data forensics, the unfortunate necessity caused by employees misusing their company-issued machines.

Early in my career, I had to make the phone call to HR on occasion when I discovered something on an employer-owned PC that shouldn’t be there. I even did forensics once, guided by a lawyer. I had a sector editor and knew how to use it; the lawyer knew what she was looking for. That wasn’t the right way to do it, but this place wasn’t willing to go to the expense required to do it right.

But now I work someplace that is. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Busted at the Safeway for phone phreaking

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing, security August 11, 2012January 9, 20251980s, 1990s, bbs, certifications, commodore, juvenile detention, phone phreaking, phone service, shrewsbury, watson, watson road

Software developer, author, and blogger Jeff Atwood wrote his confessions of the 1980s this week. As a teenager and not-quite-adult, he was a phone phreaker.

More of this went on than anyone wants to admit. Rob O’Hara has podcasted about it. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Happy 30th birthday, C-64

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing August 2, 20121980s, 1990s, commodore, commodore 64, New Year, pc world, RF

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Commodore 64’s release, PC World–a magazine published by the same company that once published RUN, a magazine dedicated to the C-64 and other Commodore 8-bit computers–had someone try to use a 64 for a week.

Not surprisingly, they found the 30-year-old computer not up to 2012’s demands.
Read more

Dave Farquhar

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There’s plenty of credit for the Internet to go around

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized July 25, 2012April 27, 20261980s, 1990s, 3com, AT&T, IBM, IRC, Missouri, networking equipment, university of missouri, unix

There’s a crazy rumor going around saying that the government didn’t do much of anything to create the Internet, and that private industry did it all.

I remember the Internet before the private sector got involved in it. I was there.
Read more

Dave Farquhar

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I hope BYOD 2.0 goes better than BYOD 1.0 did

Dave Farquhar Hardware June 26, 20121990s, android, best buy, dell, IBM, malware, micron, Spare Parts, trenches

BYOD is “bring your own device.” It’s the hot new trend in IT, except it’s nothing new. But it was bound to happen, I guess. Companies are tired of buying computer equipment, so they want employees to provide it. And counterculture, nonconformist workers are (I guess) tired of using boring corporate computer equipment. (And here I am, a strong advocate of buying off-lease corporate computers for home use.)

So, since companies don’t want to buy computers, and employees don’t want to use company computers, what’s the problem?

How’s about I tell you a story? Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Confessions of a hacker for hire

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized June 13, 2012December 5, 20151990s, command prompt, excel, PHP, troubleshooting

A story on Slashdot yesterday encouraged IT departments to hire a hacker, in spite of the stigma.

I’ve been that guy, and I suspect I’ll be that guy again. I’ve also had to clean up after that guy, so I may be able to add some perspective.
Read more

Dave Farquhar

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