IBM PS/2 vs PC

IBM PS/2 vs PC

The IBM PS/2 line was a fairly radical departure from the older IBM PC line. This was deliberate, as IBM wanted to disrupt the clone industry, which it saw as a threat to its business. Here’s a look back at the IBM PS/2 vs PC, the line it replaced.

IBM succeeded with the PC because it created an ecosystem, not just a PC. IBM’s misstep was creating an open architecture and then trying to close it back up after the fact with the PS/2. In IBM’s defense, it’s not clear whether they knew this at the time. If nothing else, in the case of the IBM PS/2 vs PC, IBM created a classic case study of open architecture vs closed.

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The Atari 2600 CPU: The MOS 6507

The Atari 2600 CPU: The MOS 6507

The Atari 2600 CPU was a nondescript MOS 6507 chip. Neither Intel nor Motorola had a CPU chip in the early 1970s that could meet Atari’s price point. MOS Technology didn’t have one either, but they asked Atari what they could afford. Then they made one.

The 6507 is so nondescript, some of them don’t even have the number “6507” anywhere on them.

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Radio Shack computers

Radio Shack computers

Radio Shack released one of the first home computers, the TRS-80 Model I, in 1977. Between 1977 and 1979, it sold 100,000 units. Radio Shack sold them just as quickly as Tandy could make them. You can count Radio Shack and its parent company Tandy among computer companies that failed, but they enjoyed a good run. For a time, Radio Shack computers, later marketed as Tandy computers, were very popular.

Radio Shack and Tandy computers included the TRS-80 Model I from the inaugural class of 1977, the pioneering Model 100 portable, and the Tandy 1000 series, which helped bring PC clones into homes.

There were several reasons why Radio Shack computers were hard to compete with in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s.

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Advantages and disadvantages of Windows NT 3.1

Advantages and disadvantages of Windows NT 3.1

I’ve talked a lot about the advantages and disadvantages of old milestone operating systems. But what were the advantages and disadvantages of Windows NT 3.1? That’s a fair question.

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How does MAC address filtering help to secure a wireless network?

Someone asked me the other day how does MAC address filtering help to secure a wireless network? If you’re in a position where it would help, I argue there are other things you need to do. But I’ll explain how it works, then what I’d rather you do instead.

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Skycure: a review

Skycure helps keep your Android devices secure. A coworker who came up through the mobile space recommended I check out Skycure. I liked it right away. This is my Skycure review for Android.

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How safe is my computer from hackers?

On Monday, March 13 at approximately 10:30 AM CST, I will be appearing on KFUO Radio’s Faith and Family program to discuss home computer security with host Andy Bates. One of the questions he’s planning to ask: How can I know how secure my home computer is? Or, to put his question another way, how safe is my computer from hackers?

I’m going to use this space to elaborate ahead of time on some of the things we are going to talk about. We could talk for an hour on any of the questions he’s going to ask, and he gave me three questions and 25 minutes. This is my workaround.

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What can I do to improve the security of my digital information?

On Monday, March 13 at approximately 10:30 AM CST, I will be appearing on KFUO Radio’s Faith and Family program to discuss home computer security with host Andy Bates. One of the questions he’s planning to ask: “What can I do to improve the security of my digital information?”

This, fortunately, may be the easiest question to answer and the easiest step to implement.

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Tablet battery replacement

Tablet battery replacement

Can you replace a battery in a tablet? That’s a good question. It’s almost always possible. The question is whether tablet battery replacement is practical. Some companies make it really easy to replace a battery, and some make it really hard.

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MAC address filtering in DD-WRT

MAC address filtering in DD-WRT

I don’t recommend MAC address filtering–it stands for Media Access Control and has nothing to do with Apple computers–as a security measure. It’s too easy to bypass it. But if you want or need to do MAC address filtering in DD-WRT it’s easy to do.

And admittedly, even though MAC filtering won’t help your security, DD-WRT’s implementation of it lets you do some neat tricks that an off-the-shelf router can’t do–like forcing a device to use 5 GHz even if it wants to use 2.4 GHz.

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