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Can you set an HP slimline computer on its side?

Dave Farquhar Hardware March 30, 2011March 1, 20221980s, 1990s, hp

Here’s a question that came up the other day. Can you set an HP slimline computer on its side?

Yes.

How anticlimactic of me.

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 CPU multipliers came to be locked

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing March 11, 2011April 15, 20261980s, 1990s, amd, asus, classmate, intel, math coprocessor, overclocking, pentium ii, windows nt

It was 1996. I was a senior in college, and I went to the computer store in the student commons to get a cable or something. I ran into an old classmate working in the store, who went on to work as an engineer for Boeing. We talked for a few minutes, and he told me about a web site that I just had to visit. I still remember the URL for some reason. He grabbed a piece of paper and scrawled “http://sysdoc.pair.com” on it.

It was my introduction to the world of PC hardware enthusiast sites. That mysterious URL was the early address of Tom’s Hardware Guide. The front page mostly consisted of links to articles telling you how to overclock Pentium CPUs using undocumented jumper settings on Asus motherboards, and the ads were largely mail-order houses offering specials on Asus motherboards and low-end Pentium CPUs.
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Dave Farquhar

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Using s-video gear with Commodore monitors

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing March 6, 2011March 6, 20111980s, 1990s, atari, camcorder, chroma, commodore, Dollar Tree, radio shack, RCA, rca jack, rca plugs, video connector

Commodore and Atari used an early implementation of s-video on their home computers in order to show off their computers’ advanced-for-their-time graphics. Many monitors sold for those computers featured compatibility with this feature, which was called “separated” or “y/c” composite or at the time. JVC called the feature “s-video” when they started using it on their SVHS camcorders starting in 1987, and JVC’s name stuck. Other companies followed suit, and s-video and the mini DIN plug became an industry standard.

Commodore and Atari used a different connector than JVC did, but all it takes to use s-video gear with those old monitors is a cable, which you can make with about $10 worth of parts from Radio Shack. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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How to connect an Amiga to a TV

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing March 5, 2011April 16, 20171980s, 1990s, amiga, antenna, Australia, commodore, playstation, RCA, VGA, video connector

Amiga monitors aren’t always the easiest thing to come by. Of course just about every Amiga sold was also sold with a monitor. But sadly, many of the monitors weren’t as reliable as the computer. So being able to connect an Amiga to a TV helps.

There are several options, and while some are far from ideal, most of them are suitable for playing video games. And these days I’m sure you’re a lot more interested in Shadow of the Beast than you are in Amiga Word Perfect 4.1. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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The tyranny of consumerization is real

Dave Farquhar security March 5, 2011December 4, 20181990s, 3com, android, apple, CIO, computerworld, dell, excel, hp, IBM, ipad, mainframe, micron, Packard Bell, RIAA, Token Ring, usb port, windows nt

Computerworld cites the Ipad 2 and increasing demand by end users to use such consumer devices in corporate environments as “The tyranny of consumerization.”

This has happened before. And if history repeats itself, the future will be better than today, but the road there is going to involve some pain.
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Dave Farquhar

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The decline and fall of system administration

Dave Farquhar Servers and Networking March 3, 2011June 20, 20251990s, amiga, Dave Haynie, infoworld, intel, irony, Jay Miner, Linus Torvalds, passwords, unix, windows nt

Infoworld’s Paul Venizia stirred up a controversy, asking what happened to sysadmins who can fix things, as opposed to just rebuilding machines any time something went wrong.

The definition changed, mostly. At least that’s what I think.

Dave Farquhar

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A question for you old-timers

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing January 29, 20111980s, 1990s, bbs, malware, phone phreaking, phone service, Steve Wozniak

Dvorak was in rare form this week, as he writes something that reads more like an e-mail virus alert chain letter. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2376702,00.asp

Read on for the money quote.

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Dave Farquhar

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Just say no to black boxes

Dave Farquhar Hardware January 16, 20111990s, atari, atari 2600, hardware store, nintendo, PVC, sony, video game

When the PS3 was released, one of its advertised features was that you could install Linux on it and use it as a Linux computer. I doubt many people did it, but it was a useful feature for those who did.

Sony later took that ability away in a firmware update. You could choose not to install that later firmware, but then you gave up other capabilities.

Now, some enthusiasts have figured out various ways to get that capability back, and Sony is so thrilled about that, they’re suing.

Sony is in the wrong.
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Dave Farquhar

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If I had to buy an off-the-shelf PC, what would it be?

Dave Farquhar Hardware January 13, 2011May 9, 20251990s, acer, amd, apple, compaq, dell, hp, IBM, lenovo, Packard Bell, toshiba

I got a question today. A someone who knows someone who knows someone kind of thing. Basically, wanting to know what to buy if, you know, they wanted to buy a computer rather than build something.

They’d had bad experience will Dell, so Dell wasn’t on their list. I did not argue.

Here’s an edited version of my response.
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Dave Farquhar

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Thrift-store PCs

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Saving money December 22, 2010October 11, 20191990s, capacitors, dell, estate sales, garage sale, garage sales, IBM, lionel, memory slots, micro atx, recycling, usb port, Windows XP

In the comments of a recent post I did, reader Glaurung Quena brought up a good topic: secondhand PCs, acquired cheaply, strictly as rebuild fodder.

I like the idea, of course, because I’ve been doing it for years. In the 1990s I built a lot of 486s and Pentiums into former IBM PC/ATs, basically until all the board makers relocated the memory slots into a position that wasn’t clear on the original PC/AT due to a beam that supported its drive bays. And of course the adoption of ATX and MicroATX killed that, at least for a while.

But now ATX has been around as long as the old AT architecture had been when ATX came along, and efforts to replace ATX haven’t been successful. So that trick makes more sense again. Buy a secondhand machine cheaply, intending to re-use the case, and regard anything else inside that happens to be reusable strictly as a bonus. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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