public domain Archives - The Silicon Underground

Commodore 64 models

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 12 Jun 2017 11:00:43 +0000

Over the course of its 12 years on the market, Commodore released a number of Commodore 64 models. The computer’s capability changed very little over time, but the technology did. The world changed a lot between 1982 and 1994, and

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Commodore 64 vs VIC-20

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 11:00:27 +0000

The C-64 and VIC-20 look a lot alike, and shared some of the same designers, but there are a number of differences between these two vintage computers.

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The best e-book site I’ve found

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 11:00:53 +0000

The best ebooks site I’ve found, by far, is the archive at the University of Adelaide in Australia. The selection is outstanding, but the presentation is even better. Steve Thomas, the curator, takes tremendous care to ensure Adelaide’s e-books display

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What it was like owning a Commodore in the 1980s

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 11:00:57 +0000

Since questions occasionally come up, and I remember well what it was like owning a Commodore in the 1980s in the United States, I’ll share my recollections of it. It was very different from computing today. It was still interesting,

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Need public domain content? Check out dp.la

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 11:00:37 +0000

The Digital Public Library of America celebrated its first birthday this year. Their archive boasts more than 7 million public domain works. In this era of over-extended copyrights, it’s good to see a massive collection that demonstrates the value of

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Calibre turns 1.0

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 11:00:34 +0000

Calibre, the free e-book management software, hit the magic version 1.0 this past week. That’s not to say the previous versions were unstable, because they weren’t. In the world of open-source software, frequently software doesn’t hit version 1.o until the

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Barnes & Noble’s fate is just more evidence that being better isn’t enough on its own

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 23:15:44 +0000

There’s news today that B&N’s founder is looking to buy the store’s retail and web business, but not the Nook business, and the Nook business could be spun off or even discontinued, but whatever happens, it’s likely to be de-emphasized.

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How abandonware gets abandoned

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 01:14:54 +0000

From time to time on classic computing and/or videogaming forums, the question of how to track down the current copyright holder to a particular given title comes up. Sometimes someone knows the answer. Frequently they don’t. This week, when George

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If you need a deal on a Nook Simple Touch, they’re on sale

Dave Farquhar — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 18:10:59 +0000

Sears has the Nook Simple Touch on sale for $70. That’s about a 30% discount. (Thanks Dealnews!) I guess I’ve had mine for about six weeks, and I like it. It’s the #2 e-reader, and I’ve run into problems in

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Gary Kildall and what might have been

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 00:24:34 +0000

I didn’t have time to write everything I wanted to write yesterday, so I’m going to revisit Bill Gates and Gary Kildall today. Bill Gates’ side of the DOS story is relatively well documented in his biographies: Gates referred IBM

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