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Commodore 128, top-12 dud? By what measure?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing August 17, 2011September 15, 20251980s, amiga, apple, apple ii, Apple Macintosh, atari, atari 2600, atari st, commodore, commodore 128, commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, IBM, ibm pcjr, macintosh, motorola, NES, nintendo, nintendo nes, pc magazine, video game

PC Magazine presented a list of 12 computer duds, and while I agree with most of them, my old friend the Commodore 128 makes an appearance. Commodore released several duds over the years, but calling the 128 one of them doesn’t seem fair.
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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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Google drops a bombshell, buys Motorola

Dave Farquhar Hardware August 15, 2011August 15, 2011android, apple, hp, motorola, oracle, Texas Instruments, TI, web os

I was shocked to read today that Google went out and plunked down $12.5 billion for Motorola. I’m sure that other Android phone makers aren’t exactly happy about it–it means Google is going to be competing with them, unless Google just bought Motorola for patents–but I don’t really see how Google had much choice.

Google risks alienating its partners, but…. More on that in a minute.
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Dave Farquhar

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Happy birthday, IBM PC!

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Retro Computing August 12, 2011December 24, 20251980s, 1990s, amd, apple, apple ii, commodore, commodore 64, compaq, dell, Gary Kildall, hp, IBM, intel, lenovo, macintosh, Maxtor, pc magazine, Personal Computer, radio shack

The IBM PC 5150 turns 30 today.

IBM didn’t invent the personal computer, but if your computer has an Intel or AMD CPU in it, it’s the direct descendant of the beige box IBM unleashed on the world on August 12, 1981. Without a huge amount of effort, it’s even possible to run most of that old software on your shiny new PC. You probably wouldn’t want to, except out of curiosity, but you can do it.

I wasn’t one of the people who rushed out and got one. At the time, I was still watching Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers. I had my first experience with a computer–a Radio Shack TRS-80–in 1982, and the first computer my family bought was a Commodore 64 in 1984. Even in 1984, there were still plenty of people who questioned why anyone needed a computer in their home. My introduction to the IBM PC and PC-DOS didn’t happen until 1987.
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Dave Farquhar

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Help someone plug a computer into a TV, become a criminal

Dave Farquhar Hardware July 14, 2011July 16, 20111980s, apple, Apple Computer, DisplayPort, garage sale, hp, radio shack, RCA, sony, VCR

Digital video is confusing. You get some clear advantages, since signal degradation becomes a thing of the past, but if you’re not someone who works in video for a living, it’s difficult to keep it all straight. And standards are a problem. You can’t just assume that two devices will work together because they’re both “digital.”

One of the problems is physical incompatibility. Some devices have Displayport ports. Some of them have HDMI ports. The solution is easy: get a cable with an HDMI connector on one end and a Displayport connector on the other. Problem solved.

And now the guy who sold it to you is a criminal. (You aren’t necessarily. Possession isn’t illegal, just sale or manufacture. So don’t sell it at your garage sale in 2019.)
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Dave Farquhar

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Microsoft sold 400 million Windows 7 licenses; what does it mean?

Dave Farquhar Software, Windows July 13, 2011March 25, 2025android, apple, apple ii, IOS, os x, piracy, proprietary unix, Steve Ballmer, unix, vista, windows 2000, windows 7, windows 8, windows 98, windows me, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Steve Ballmer announced today that Microsoft has sold 400 million Windows 7 licenses, but anywhere from half to two-thirds of PCs are still running Windows XP and need to get with the program.

He also continues to insist Windows 8 will ship in 2012, which really makes me wonder why those XP users need to switch now. December 2012 is 17 short months away, and XP support runs until 2014. I see little need to rush out now and buy Windows 7, use it for 18-24 months, and then turn around and buy Windows 8. If XP is fulfilling users’ needs, what’s the hurry? Unless Windows 8 is going to be late, as bad as Vista, or both. But none of that can happen, right? (Note: It’s not 2014 anymore, so if you haven’t upgraded from XP, you need to.)

I’m sure the Windows 8 Police will be along to haul me away shortly for insinuating such things. But until that happens, that 400 million figure lets us do some other interesting extrapolation. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Upgrade diary: Compaq Presario C552US

Dave Farquhar Hardware July 9, 2011July 9, 2011apple, compaq, intel, spartan, toshiba, vista, Western Digital, windows 7, Windows Vista

The Presario C552US shipped from the factory with a 1.6 GHz Celeron M single-core CPU, 512MB of RAM, and Windows Vista Home Basic.

It’s the most miserable computing experience I’ve seen in a very long time, if ever. I don’t know how they ever sold a single one of these machines, performing like that.

Fortunately, there’s room to improve it.

Dave Farquhar

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A snapshot in history of Gates and Microsoft, 1992

Dave Farquhar Software July 5, 2011March 25, 20251990s, altair, Andy Grove, apple, Apple Macintosh, Bill Gates, DEC, Digital Research, IBM, intel, macintosh, Microsoft Office, Paul Allen, Steve Ballmer, windows me, Windows XP

Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire is a 1992 autobiography of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. It’s old. But it’s a compelling snapshot of what the industry thought of Gates and Microsoft before Windows 95, before Microsoft Office, and before Internet Explorer. Indeed, it gives an early glimpse into the struggle to bring Windows to market, some of the bad bets Microsoft cast on its early productivity software, and just how close Microsoft came to betting the company on the success of the Apple Macintosh.

If Microsoft’s history were written today, many of these stories would probably be forgotten.

Dave Farquhar

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How to clean an MBR and recover drive partitions

Dave Farquhar security July 4, 2011July 17, 2017antivirus, apple, Apple Macintosh, Bit Defender, intel, macintosh, malware, Maxtor, MBR, Parted Magic, Standalone System Sweeper, unix, vista

Sometimes it’s necessary to recover drive partitions because you accidentally repartitioned a drive you didn’t mean to, or because your MBR got infected or otherwise trashed. Here’s how to recover them, for free.

Infecting MBRs with malware is popular with virus writers again. And I fully expect chaos to ensue, because that’s what happened the last time there was more than one virus floating around that infected MBRs. They quit doing it for a good reason.

So here’s how to clean up the mess when an MBR gets infected, or when multiple infections blitzes the MBR and the hard drive loses the ability to boot, just displaying a message like Missing Operating System or Operating System Not Found.

We’ll be using the Gparted Live CD. Many Linux live CDs have the proper tools, but GParted works well and it’s a small download. You can try to use another Linux live CD, and it will work fine, but the icons might not all be where I say they are.

Dave Farquhar

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First impressions: Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper

Dave Farquhar security, Windows June 22, 2011antivirus, AOL, apple, Bit Defender, malware, PE, Standalone System Sweeper, Windows XP

Microsoft has released an antivirus/antispyware live CD that runs in the Windows PE environment called Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper. I wouldn’t use it as a full replacement for a Linux-based live CD from an antivirus vendor such as Bit Defender, which I’ve written about before. It is, however, a good supplement–a second opinion. Nothing catches everything, after all.

The idea behind all of these is to boot into a sterile environment to scan a dormant hard drive for things that evade or disable your normal antivirus software. The need for this grows just about every day, as there’s a lot of really nasty stuff out there these days. It’s not a substitute for normal antivirus software–it’s what you call on if and when normal antivirus software fails and a malware infestation prevents normal use of the computer.

Dave Farquhar

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Floppy disks for Commodore and other vintage computers

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing June 12, 2011September 9, 20181541, 1571, 1980s, apple, atari, commodore, IBM, vintage computer

It’s been many years since 5.25-inch floppy disks suitable for Commodore, Apple, Atari, and other vintage 8-bit computers (not to mention IBM PCs and PC/XTs) have been something you can buy at the store down the street. I found some 360K DS/DD disks on Amazon, but they aren’t available in huge quantities.

Dave Farquhar

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