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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

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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And now Intel’s teamed up with Sandforce

Dave Farquhar Hardware February 7, 2012April 3, 20251990s, anandtech, apple, intel, kingston, micron, ocz, samsung

Intel’s new SSD 520 uses a Sandforce controller. Very interesting. Both Tom’s Hardware and Anandtech have reviews posted.

So you’ll have Sandforce performance, hopefully coupled with Intel reliability. That’s the theory. They aren’t shipping yet, and you’ll pay a premium for the Intel name.
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Dave Farquhar

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Apple and China, or Why the U.S. Middle Class is Shrinking

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized January 22, 20121950s, 1980s, apple, Apple Computer, New York, new york times

“Companies once felt an obligation to support American workers, even when it wasn’t the best financial choice,” said Betsey Stevenson, the chief economist at the Labor Department until last September. “That’s disappeared. Profits and efficiency have trumped generosity.”

Apple Computer, currently the highest-valued company in the country, at its peak employs 1/10 the number of Americans as General Motors did in the 1950s. Apple is an easy target because it’s big, but the problem isn’t unique to Apple. Technology companies as a whole employ fewer people than the heavyweights of ages past like General Motors and General Electric. It’s the nature of the work.

Dave Farquhar

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UEFI on ARM illustrates why we still have to watch Microsoft

Dave Farquhar security, Software January 14, 2012March 25, 2025android, apple, Bill Gates, cisco, IOS, Steve Ballmer, UEFI

UEFI is a technology that forces a computer to only load a digitally signed operating system. This has some security benefits, as it makes parts of the operating system unbootable if they become infected, since the viruses won’t be digitally signed by a reputable vendor.

Great idea, right? From a security perspective, absolutely. The more attack vectors for viruses we can eliminate, the better off we’ll be. But Microsoft’s policy on ARM systems shows how it can be abused.

Dave Farquhar

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Happy 30th birthday, Commodore 64

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing January 6, 2012July 15, 20171980s, 1990s, apple, CES, commodore, commodore 64, Dave Haynie, emachine, IBM

The C-64 sort of turns 30 this week. It was introduced 30 years ago this week, though it wasn’t until August or so that you could actually buy one. It took that long for memory prices to come down to reach the target price, and if memory serves, the machine they displayed at CES in January wasn’t quite production-ready anyway.

I remember the machine well. It was my first computer. It seems like just yesterday the thing turned 25. And not all that long ago that I still used one on a regular basis.

Dave Farquhar

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I think this is the secret of Amazon’s success

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized December 19, 2011April 15, 20251980s, 1990s, apple, compaq, IBM, intel, Jeff Bezos, Personal Computer

When talking about e-books Friday, I mentioned that Amazon is making deals with authors directly, cutting traditional publishers out of the loop. And then my wife asked a good question: How does Amazon think of stuff like that?

I think it’s because Amazon isn’t hung up about last year. Let me explain.
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Dave Farquhar

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HP open-sourcing Web OS is a gutsy move

Dave Farquhar Software December 13, 2011November 19, 2018android, apple, firefox, hp, mysql, oracle, SQL, web os

HP announced this week that it’s not going to sell Web OS–the operating system it bought the remnants of Palm to get–and plans to open-source the platform, as well as re-introduce tablets based on it sometime in the distant future.

The move isn’t guaranteed to work, but I think it’s a shrewd move.

Dave Farquhar

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Don’t write Android’s obit yet

Dave Farquhar Software December 1, 2011November 30, 2011android, apple, compaq, cyanogenmod, IBM, Ice Cream Sandwich, iphone, kindle, Kindle Fire, nexus, Packard Bell, pc magazine, samsung

PC Magazine’s Tim Bajarin seems ready to write the obituary for Android for tablets which, to me, seems extremely premature.
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Dave Farquhar

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I’ve been reading up about tablets

Dave Farquhar Hardware November 24, 2011November 22, 2011apple, AT&T, ipad, kindle, Kindle Fire

I’ve been reading about the Kindle Fire and the Nook Tablet. And not surprisingly, the reviews are generally saying there’s not a lot of difference between the two.

Dave Farquhar

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Steve Jobs and the Commodore PET

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing November 5, 2011October 11, 20171980s, 1990s, 6502, amiga, amiga os, apple, apple ii, Chuck Peddle, commodore, commodore 64, intel, irving gould, jack tramiel, KIM, macintosh, Mehdi Ali, MOS, motorola, pixar, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, tape drive, Texas Instruments

There’s a nasty rumor floating around that in Walter Isaacson’s bestselling biography, Steve Jobs, Jobs alleges that Commodore copied the Apple II when making its first computer, 1977’s PET. Here’s the story of Steve Jobs and the Commodore PET.

The book doesn’t come right out and say it, but it insinuates it. I know how the PET came to be, and the PET would have happened whether the Apple II ever existed or not.
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Dave Farquhar

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