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And another nail in Crestwood Plaza’s coffin

Dave Farquhar St. Louis June 3, 2012October 19, 20171990s, best buy, Crestwood Plaza, kmart, sears, watson, watson road

The old 10-screen Crestwood Plaza AMC theater closed last month. It took two weeks for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to notice, and probably for many others.

As a sign that I’m getting older, the theater’s obituary called it “dated.” And I thought to myself that it wasn’t long ago that they built it.

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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Cleaning up a venerable and battle-worn IBM Model M keyboard

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Retro Computing May 27, 2012August 19, 20161990s, belkin, dish detergent, IBM, model m

I scored an IBM Model M keyboard recently. Usually when you find 30 year old keyboards, they’re pretty dirty. Here’s how I clean an IBM Model M keyboard.

I’m notoriously picky about keyboards. My weapon of choice is an IBM Model M, also known as the battleship or by its model number 1391401, which went out of fashion sometime in the mid-1990s. You either love them or hate them, and I love them.

People keep trying to tell me that I won’t be able to use them with new computers, but USB adapters from Belkin and Adesso cure that. I’ve used Belkin adapters and can vouch for them, but the Adesso adapters are cheaper and some Amazon reviewers say they work better.

I’m moonlighting writing a contract proposal, and one of the terms of my agreement is that I can use whatever keyboard I want. So I brought in a spare Model M. But it was filthy, so I spent some time this weekend cleaning it up. Now the prince of keyboards is ready to party like it’s 1989.

Dave Farquhar

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Happy late birthday, OS/2

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 15, 2012June 7, 20171990s, compaq, IBM, Missouri, New York, New York City, university of missouri, vista, windows 2000, windows 7, windows nt, Windows Server, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Twenty-five years ago this month, on April 2, IBM announced its new PS/2 computers and a new multitasking operating system to run on (most of) them–OS/2. They even lured a bunch of the actors from M*A*S*H to do an ad campaign for them.

It didn’t seem like it at the time, but that was the beginning of the end of IBM’s PC business.
Read more

Dave Farquhar

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The web reacts to Jack Tramiel’s death

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 10, 2012August 1, 20171980s, 1990s, apple, CBM, commodore, IBM, jack tramiel

Numerous tributes appeared today as word of Commodore founder Jack Tramiel’s death spread. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Remember Plextor? Now they’re making SSDs.

Dave Farquhar Hardware April 9, 2012April 3, 20251990s, anandtech, apple, intel, kingston, kodak, marvell, micron, ocz, plextor, samsung, Taiyo Yuden, toshiba

Those of you who’ve been around as long as I have–which is probably most of you–will remember Plextor as the maker of the very best SCSI CD-ROM drives back when there was a market for SCSI CD-ROM drives. I had one, and I haven’t used it in years, but I relied on it, especially when I was doing A/V work. And it never, ever let me down. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Best Buy needs to clone Micro Center, not Radio Shack

Dave Farquhar Retail April 1, 2012April 22, 20181990s, best buy, computer software, IRS, Micro Center, radio shack

So Best Buy is planning to close 50 big-box stores, downsize others, and try to focus its efforts on selling cell phones, tablets, and e-readers.

Sounds to me like they’re trying to become Radio Shack. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Securing wi-fi isn’t about price gouging

Dave Farquhar security March 28, 2012October 11, 20191990s, firewall, john c dvorak, Love Letter, malware, Missouri, New Madrid Fault, spam, WEP, wi-fi

The so-called wi-fi golden era is over, and apparently being glad about it makes me an absolutist.

But John C. Dvorak is wrong. This isn’t about making people pay for Internet access. It’s pure security. Toilets and drinking fountains are free because the majority of people don’t abuse them. The Internet can’t be wide open and free like a public restroom because when it was totally wide open and free in the 1990s, too many people abused it. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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SCO v. IBM winds toward resolution

Dave Farquhar Linux, Retro Computing February 18, 2012October 30, 20181990s, AIX, AT&T, BSD, Digital Research, Gary Kildall, IBM, intel, SCO, unix, x86

Slashdot reported yesterday that SCO v. IBM is back on. Well, it is, sort of. The case never was fully resolved, due to SCO running out of money and filing for bankruptcy. Groklaw has the details.

If this sounds vaguely familiar, I’ll try to refresh your memory.

Dave Farquhar

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HP has a brilliant idea

Dave Farquhar Hardware February 16, 20121990s, acer, apple, asus, corsair, dell, hp, IBM, Micro Center, pc magazine, pc world, Super Bowl

After last year’s flip-flopping on getting rid of its not-quite-as-profitable-as-they’d-like PC business, and the resulting self sabotage, HP needed a good idea to try to undo the damage.

Their idea is completely unoriginal, but it’s tried and true and more likely to work than anything else they could possibly do: Bundle their premium PCs with premium-level customer service and charge a little more.

Dave Farquhar

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New Order, Joy Division, surviving and moving on

Dave Farquhar Music February 15, 2012March 6, 20251990s, computer security

I couldn’t tell you the last time I thought about Joy Division, and then one of my college classmates posted a story about a stash of Joy Division and early New Order master tapes showing up in the basement of a former bank, along with guns and gold (but presumably, no butter). Yes, the jokes write themselves.

Instead of talking about the contents of the tapes, the story talked about New Order going on tour. I was vaguely aware that Peter Hook quit the band, and another story on the site discussed that: New Order is back together without Peter Hook, and Peter Hook is planning on touring as himself and playing Joy Division songs. And he’s writing a book about his time in Joy Division.

As a guy who spent way too much time listening to Joy Division in college, and who for a time ran the largest Joy Division tribute site on the Web, yeah, I have some opinions on all that.

Dave Farquhar

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