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Apple-Intel ARM partnership makes sense

Dave Farquhar Hardware May 6, 2011December 5, 20151990s, apple, DEC, intel, ipod, macintosh, marvell, samsung, x86

Rumor is that Apple is shopping around for a new manufacturer for the SoCs that power its mobile devices. And that Intel is interested in the business. I think it makes a ton of sense.
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Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.

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Samsung, Samsung, and more Samsung

Dave Farquhar Hardware April 19, 2011apple, samsung, toshiba, Western Digital

Well, that certainly didn’t take long. Yesterday Samsung announced its hard disk business was for sale. Today it announced Seagate was buying it for $1.375 billion in cash and stock, a slight discount from the asking price.

So after the deals finish shaking down, Seagate and Western Digital will each have somewhere between 40 and 50 percent of the market, and Toshiba around 10 percent.
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Dave Farquhar

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And then there were three

Dave Farquhar Hardware April 18, 2011April 18, 2011IBM, intel, samsung, survivors, toshiba, Western Digital

I see reports today that Samsung is looking to sell its hard drive business. Samsung is one of four companies left that manufacture computer hard drives, the others being Seagate, Western Digital, and Toshiba.

Hard drives aren’t a growth market any more, so the most likely suitors are one of the remaining three. Since Western Digital just bought Hitachi’s drive business, it probably won’t be them. They may not have the cashflow, and they probably don’t want the regulatory scrutiny that would go along with two acquisitions in rapid succession that make them suddenly nearly twice the size of Seagate. It’s more likely to be Seagate or Toshiba. I’d expect Seagate.
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Dave Farquhar

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Android-ified.

Dave Farquhar Hardware April 12, 2011amiga, amiga os, android, Angry Birds, AT&T, dell, hp, samsung, verizon, VOIP, wi-fi

After agonizing for a few weeks, I bought an Android phone. Specifically, a Samsung Galaxy S 4G. Being a T-Mobile phone, it’s a potential dead end, but I opted to do it for a few reasons.

Why? I’m sick of not being able to play Angry Birds. Not really, but I like seeing people’s reaction when I say that.

Dave Farquhar

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SSDs and pricing

Dave Farquhar Hardware March 10, 2011Ars Technica, Jerry Pournelle, jmicron, samsung, windows 7

Mainstream SSDs cost around $2 per GB to buy right now. I was curious, so I decided to try to relate historical SSD pricing to the historical pricing of conventional hard drives.

It didn’t take long for me to find a correlation.
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Dave Farquhar

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They still make hard drives?

Dave Farquhar Hardware March 8, 2011samsung, toshiba, Western Digital

I try not to pay much attention to hard drives these days, but sometimes I just can’t help myself. And two things have happened this week on that front.
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Dave Farquhar

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Ways to speed up an aging laptop

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Software, Windows January 8, 2011December 19, 2015antivirus, bitdefender, ccleaner, firefox, intel, lifehacker, malware, McAfee, Microsoft Security Essentials, optimizing windows, samsung, symantec, visual effects, Western Digital

Yesterday Lifehacker did a feature on laptop tweaks and upgrades, that basically came down to reinstalling the OS, adding memory, and upgrading to an SSD. All of those are good things to do of course, but there’s more you can do. I posted a response there; I’ll elaborate a bit here, where I have more room to do so.

There are tons of links here to previous content I’ve written; optimizing aging machines is a recurring theme for me. I’ve been writing on that topic for 11 years now.

Dave Farquhar

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It’s been 15 years, and computer stores haven’t changed much

Dave Farquhar Hardware November 3, 2010July 15, 20171990s, amd, antec, apple, asus, hp, IBM, overclocking, raid 1, samsung, seasonic, Western Digital

In the early 1990s, I learned how to fix computers because I got tired of long waits and shoddy repairs from computer stores.

Last month I took a friend to go buy a computer. I didn’t want her to get stuck with retail junk, so I took her to a computer store that I knew sold quality parts. Plus I know the owner. He wrote an O’Reilly book too. I figured it would be a smooth experience, since I knew exactly what to ask for. The salesperson said he’d get back to me within two days with a quote, then it would take about a week to build the system after we gave the OK. Seems pretty smooth and reasonable.

It turned into a nightmare. Or at least a mess. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Buying a new TV that won’t kill your electric bill

Dave Farquhar Saving money October 31, 2010April 15, 2017black friday, christmas, excel, excel spreadsheet, KW, panasonic, philips, power savings, samsung, sony

As television technology improves, they become more energy efficient. Generally speaking, at least. The CRT TV ranging in size from 26-32 inches that was common in living rooms for most of my lifetime used around 130 watts. But some of the monster TVs people are buying these days use more power than the fridge. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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SSD myths

Dave Farquhar Hardware October 12, 2010August 4, 20171980s, 1990s, disruptive technology, IBM, intel, jmicron, netbooks, new hardware, ocz, raid array, randomness, samsung, vista, Western Digital, windows 7, Windows XP, XT

SSDs, like most disruptive technologies, face some questions and resistance. People will grasp at any straw to avoid adopting them. Thanks to this resistance, a number of SSD myths arose. Here are the myths I see repeated over and over again, and the truth, based on my experience actually using the things.

Note: I originally wrote this way back in 2010. The drive technologies I speak of as state of the art are rather aged now. But the principles still hold today, and will continue to do so. Hard drives have gotten better, but SSD have gotten better at a more rapid pace.

Dave Farquhar

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