Commodore’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 ArticleAn insider\’s view of the Atari ST
I'm sure pretty much everyone who cares has already seen this on Slashdot or wherever, but I found this blog entry from one of the designers of the Atari ST fascinating.
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 ArticleCommodore 128, top-12 dud? By what measure?
PC Magazine presented a list of 12 computer duds, and while I agree with most of them, my old friend the Commodore 128 makes an appearance. Commodore released several duds over the years, but calling...
View ArticleRIP, Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore
Commodore founder Jack Tramiel, the orchestrator of the first line of affordable personal computers, died this weekend at the age of 83. I don’t know exactly what to think about it, and I’m probably...
View ArticleMicrosoft just priced its Windows 8-based tablets out of the market
Microsoft just priced its Windows 8-based tablets out of the market. Extremetech reports that they expect Windows 8-based tablets to sell for $600-$900. I think Microsoft is forgetting its history....
View ArticleGames would be just what Linux needed
Valve is intending to develop for Linux, as an insurance policy against Windows 8. I think that will lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy. If more games are available for Linux, demand for Linux will...
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 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 ArticleHow the IBM PC became the de facto standard for desktop computers
I saw a question on a vintage computing forum this week: How did the IBM PC become the de facto standard for PCs, and the only desktop computer architecture from the 1980s to survive until today? It’s...
View ArticleThe Asus Memo Pad HD 7 review: It’s a nice inexpensive tablet
I’ve been messing with an Asus Memopad, the 7-inch version. I think it’s a well-built, good-performing tablet for $149, and when you can get it on sale for less than that–and this is the time of year...
View ArticleGetting past your own biases
I read Andy Grove’s Only the Paranoid Survive last week. I always figured it was an autobiography or memoir, not a business book. But it’s a business book. A very good one. I avoided it because I...
View Article1984 called. It wants its surveillance back.
So, the reaction to my story about my coworker’s 10-year-old going all Scooby Doo on the guy who had the nerve to steal his dad’s car was definitely mixed. Most people, of course, lauded the...
View ArticleMy sixth 1935 Goudey: Bill Terry
My sixth ’35 featured four Giants players. I didn’t realize at first what a good card it was, that it featured four All-Stars and not one but two Hall of Famers. Bill Terry was the obvious one, but...
View ArticleCommodore hardware viruses–yes, they were possible
The conventional wisdom is that computer viruses can wipe out your data, but they can’t do physical damage. The exception to that rule was, of course, Commodore, the king of cheap 1980s computers....
View ArticleWe lost a St. Louis original over the weekend
I don’t think any of this will be in the newspapers, but I hope I’m wrong. Probably the most unusual man I will ever meet died over the weekend. His name was Otis Woodard. He ran a women’s shelter and...
View ArticleDave Farquhar, lunch ninja
My boss doesn’t think I’m human. His proof: He asks anyone who knows me if he or she has ever seen me eat. No one has. They’ve seen evidence of me eating. But actually taking a bite? No. Not even the...
View ArticleFare thee well, Radio Shack. Hello, Battery Shack!
The new owners of what’s left of Radio Shack want to specialize in batteries. Although this isn’t a guaranteed survival plan, it makes sense to me. Last week, I went to one of the few remaining Radio...
View ArticleThe first (and maybe cheapest) Amiga product for Amigaholics like me
Before the Amiga was a computer, Amiga was a struggling independent company trying to stay in business so it would get its chance at changing the world. In order to make ends meet while they developed...
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