intel Archives

Home » intel » Page 10

Living with a past-its-prime computer

Dave Farquhar Hardware February 28, 2012July 15, 2017defragmenter, firefox, IBM, intel, Intel Atom, Libre Office, lifehacker, Linux Mint, McAfee, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Security Essentials, model m, oatmeal, office 2007, office 2010, Open Office, optimizing windows, overclocking, ramdisk, symantec, vista, Windows 10, Windows XP

I’m playing catch-up a bit. This weekend, Lifehacker ran a guide about living with a computer that’s past its prime.

I’ve made a career of that. One of my desktop PCs at work (arguably the more important one) is old enough that I ought to be preparing to send it off to second grade. And for a few years I administered a server farm that was in a similar state. They finally started upgrading the hardware as I was walking out the door. (I might have stayed longer if they’d done that sooner.) And at home, I ran with out-of-date computer equipment for about a decade, just this summer buying something current. Buying something current is very nice, but not always practical.

So of course I’ll comment on a few of Lifehacker’s points.

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.

dfarq.homeip.net

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

dfarq.homeip.net

Egg on my face

Dave Farquhar Hardware February 12, 2012antec, corsair, debian, intel, kingston, Micro Center, ocz, samsung, tin

I dragged my computer back over to Micro Center this afternoon. It took three of us, but we got the computer working.

It’s a long story. It would have been a much shorter story if I’d remembered my rule #1. I won’t bore you with the details, except to say the second technician, upon hearing the only thing we hadn’t swapped out was the power supply, dragged a power supply out of the back. We plugged that power supply in, and heard the sweet gimme-some-memory scream from the motherboard failing to POST. Incredible. So we powered down, reinstalled the memory, and watched the system POST.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Socket 775 adventures, Part 2

Dave Farquhar Hardware February 10, 2012amd, asus, IBM, intel, Micro Center, motorola

I closed down Micro Center last night.

I wasn’t having any luck getting my new motherboard working, even after working with Asus and with Micro Center’s online support. Micro Center’s web site said that if you take a system in to their knowledge bar, at the front of the store, someone with an A+ certification will help you. So I took them up on the offer.

A nice, knowledgeable technician named Eric spent two hours working with me.
Read more

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

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.
Read more

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

My Socket 775 adventures, Chapter 1

Dave Farquhar Hardware January 27, 2012January 28, 20211990s, amd, asus, Asus Socket, corsair, hp, intel, kingston, Micro Center, pentium d, power button

So I bought an Intel Socket 775 board to support a crash webserver rebuild project. I present the story in hopes that it might be useful, or entertaining, or both. I don’t know the ultimate outcome of it yet, but all of the decisions made sense at the time.
Read more

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

I knew I should have bought that motherboard…

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized January 23, 2012asus, Asus Socket, intel

My webserver seems to be having a hard time keeping up with demand. It was only a couple of weeks ago that I could have had my preferred low-end motherboard for about $33, but I was able to come up with about 10 reasons not to buy it at that time and tackle the project. I can get an Asus Socket 775 board and a 2-core Intel CPU to put on it locally for around $90-$100 total, which will give me a four-fold increase in available CPU power and RAM, not to mention a newer and better-known chipset to work with. But I had several things come up this weekend that kept me from making that trip. Studying, of course, but also a family matter.

My server managed a not-exactly-heroic uptime of 3 days on this last reboot. If I can swap the board for something better this week, I’ll try. And if it dies again before I’m able to do that, I’ll have to see if I can remember to put some more memory in it. I just found a half-gig PC3200 DIMM that will fit, assuming I have a slot available.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

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.
Read more

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

How to buy a sub-$100 Android tablet and not get burned

Dave Farquhar Hardware November 17, 2011November 16, 2011amd, android, intel, Media Player, overclocking

Last year, a flood of $99 tablets built with extremely low-end hardware running dated versions of Android appeared. This year, slightly better tablets running slightly less dated versions of Android are readily available, sometimes for as little as $60. And I have to admit, these devices got me thinking. I didn’t quite pull the trigger. But here’s what to watch (out) for on the low end.
Read more

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

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.
Read more

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net