Open sourcing code doesn\’t necessarily mean people will rush to it
John C. Dvorak wrote a nice layman's introduction to open source this week on PCMag.com. But he makes at least one big false assumption. Dvorak says he'd love to see old code open sourced. Some...
View ArticleThe almost-was Bill Gates
Finally, a little bit more detail on the haziest (to me) story in my controversial Why I Dislike Microsoft has appeared: Gary Kildall's side of the CP/M-QDOS-PC DOS 1.0 story. The story corroborates...
View ArticleHow to build and paint miniature buildings (and make kids have fun with what...
I found this tutorial on building a miniature building and a companion article on painting. The intended audience is wargaming, but the same tricks work for buildings for train layouts, or for kids to...
View ArticleThe Calvin and Hobbes search engine
Sometimes a real gem turns up on Digg. Like the Calvin and Hobbes search engine. Remember the punch line from a priceless strip, but don't remember much else? Key it in, and it'll find the strip for...
View ArticleCommodore’s founder comes out of hiding
It's been said that Ed Roberts of Altair fame was the last person to get the better of Bill Gates in a business deal. But I'll say it was Jack Tramiel.
View ArticleWindows, ARM, emulation, misconceptions and misremembered history
I keep reading stuff about Windows and ARM and, well, I think people just aren’t remembering history. I’m not saying that Windows 8 on ARM will save the world, or even change it substantially. It...
View ArticleWhatever happened to GEM?
GEM was an early GUI for the IBM PC and compatibles and, later, the Atari ST, developed by Digital Research, the developers of CP/M and, later, DR-DOS. It was very similar to the Apple Lisa, and Apple...
View ArticleHow to block annoying posts on Facebook
Lifehacker came through with a gem this morning: How to block annoying political posts on Facebook. Though it’s really about filtering, so you can filter on pretty much anything with it, not just the...
View ArticleNo, this doesn’t mean Ubuntu and Linux are giving up
This week, Mark Shuttleworth closed the longstanding Ubuntu bug #1, which simply read, “Microsoft has majority market share.” Because Microsoft didn’t lose its market share lead to Ubuntu, or Red Hat,...
View ArticleWhere Microsoft lost its way
John C. Dvorak wrote an analysis of how Microsoft lost its way with Windows 8 this week. All in all it sounds reasonable to me. His recollection of DOS and some DOS version 8 confused me at first, but...
View ArticleGary Kildall and what might have been
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...
View ArticleBeware “graded value” baseball cards on Ebay
There are a few hucksters on Ebay, whom I don’t care to give free advertising by mentioning by name, who hawk “graded” cards on Ebay and claim them to be especially valuable. One even puts supposed...
View ArticleWhy Jack Tramiel left Commodore
Retro computing fans, especially Commodore and Atari enthusiasts, all know the story. Jack Tramiel left Commodore, the company he founded, in early 1984 at the height of its success. Then, within a few...
View ArticleWhat happened to Digital Equipment Corporation?
Digital Equipment Corporation was perhaps the second most important computer company in history, behind IBM. Its minicomputers challenged IBM, and, indeed, Unix first ran on a DEC PDP-7. DEC’s Alpha...
View ArticleComputers in 1985: It was a very good year
In some ways, 1985 was a really pivotal year for computing. The industry was changing fast, but in 1985, many relics from the past were still present even as we had an eye for the future. Here’s a look...
View ArticleWhere to buy vintage computers
Collecting vintage computers can be fun. I also personally think it’s great that people are interested in preserving that history. Where to buy vintage computers hasn’t changed much over the years. It...
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