Dan Farquhar

Wow someone else from St. Louis? Found this blast from the past too: https://dfarq.homeip.net/building-a-computer-in-the-90s/ I only remembered a couple CompUSAs, Circuit City, and Best Buy selling computers growing up. I don't remember visiting any independent computer stores in the mid 90s. But talking to those in my parents' generation, most of them bought their computers from some local small shop (and sometimes went back there for computer training!). I count St. Louis lucky for at least having a Micro Center today, otherwise all my parts would have to come from online stores.

In my opinion, an important detail is missing here. The Amiga 2000 was my first computer, and what made it special was that it had a PC bridgeboard with an 8088 CPU[0]. I remember it never worked properly, but being able to access MS-DOS and program in GW-BASIC was amazing to me. At least I could convice my parents at the time that I would use the computer not only for gaming but for also for school homework ( we had a class for learning programming/informatics ) [0]: https://dfarq.homeip.net/amiga-bridgeboard-the-pc-compatibility-option…

Not disagreeing (completely) with you, but worth pointing out the very next question in the interview I quoted above looks like this: > What about device support? > Chuck: You have a subroutine for each device. That’s a library, not an operating system. Call the ones you need or load the ones you need. ...for sure it's a departure from the common way of doing things, at least. And it's almost impossible to imagine, today's generation would have to look at retro-computing to see something akin to the idea [0] [1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64#BASIC [1] https://dfarq.homeip.net/commodore-64-operating-system/

> Amiga/Commodore had the best engineers Atari had the best business folks. It's debatable as it was different in the 8-bit area. A total of ~2 million Atari 8-bit computers [1] were sold as compared to the 12.5 - 17 million figure for the Commodore 64 [2] only. Arguably Atari 800XL was engineered better [3] (faster, better graphics, worse sound). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_8-bit_family [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64 [3] https://dfarq.homeip.net/atari-800-vs-commodore-64/

For something kept x86 I'd have a tough time resisting something like the classic IBM PS/2 with its giant red flappy power switch out front. Like https://dfarq.homeip.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IBM-PS-2-Model-30.… or if there were tower variants with the same style power switch

I believe those scenes were an amalgamation of Tim Paterson’s clean room implementation of DOS from the CP/M manuals [0] and Compaq’s IBM compatible BIOS implementation[1]. They are a some of my favorites, and are fun to watch. [0] https://dfarq.homeip.net/did-microsoft-steal-dos-from-cpm/ [1] https://dfarq.homeip.net/first-compaq-computer/

I was kind of hoping this was going to be some wonky bootleg, like the original "Super Mario Bros" for the C64, which was actually a resource edited Great Giana Sisters https://dfarq.homeip.net/super-mario-bros-commodore-64-version/

My comment every time someone mentions Intel best year yet: Commodore reported 7-year record revenue with good profit 4 years before going bankrupt. https://dfarq.homeip.net/commodore-financial-history-1978-1994/

> On a C64, you boot into bare basic Come on. I think you're remembering the past with rose colored glasses. I loved my C64 in the 80s but it was not user friendly, compared to say an iPad running playgrounds. This is what is was like when things worked. https://dfarq.homeip.net/load-commodore-64-games/ When things didn't work...

Not bad. I don't like its tone of approval, TBH. I much preferred the « raucous bazaar, teeming with variety. » I hate the way the PC « the IBM PC and its successors paved over all of that » I really did not like... « he strange boxes at the electronics store labeled “Amiga” and “Atari ST” (the last gasps of dying giants) » That is not merely unfair, it's wrong. It's a very American viewpoint. I only discovered in recent years that in the rest of the world, the Amiga and ST did much better than at home. I was a kid when this happened. The Mac launched when I was... 15 I think? To a rounding error, nobody owned PCs in the UK. They were extremely expensive business machines. Nobody owned Apple II either, and Macs were for the seriously rich. We used Sinclair and Oric and Acorn and other brands American writers have never even heard about. We aspired to Camputers and Elan and Memotech. Nobody _wanted_ office equipment. Would you offer a child a stapler to play with? That's how fun the PC was. Amigas were huge and very desirable and seen as a gift from the future -- see this article from 2 days ago: https://dfarq.homeip.net/amiga-1000-ten-years-ahead-of-its-time/ If you couldn't afford an Amiga, then the ST was a worthy competitor. They were not some flop, some footnote of history. You can still buy new Amiga compatibles today from loads of vendors... https://www.apollo-computer.com/v4standalone.php https://www.a1200.com/index.php/the-a1200-ng/ The ST OS…

While not quite as tiny, an nvme enclosure with a real drive is likely going to be more reliable, assuming the USB port it’s connected to can actually supply the power it needs. The enclosures I’m currently fond of are from dockcase, which have a capacitor (PLP meaning power loss protection), so if power is cut, the drive is sent a “oh shit make things safe now” signal and has a few seconds to do so. I use the larger versions, but there’s a 2230 sized one https://www.dockcase.com/products/dockcase-pocket-m2-nvme-smart-2230-s… That said, expect all drives to fail. Some you get a warning, others you don’t, so have multiple backups. I don’t recommend the cheap vendor branded Samsung SSDs on eBay, had too many of those die with the firmware version reporting as “ERRMOD” (error mode). Another good thing to note, is how to power cycle SSDs. Outside of Samsung drives, this has worked on a few drives over the years that decided to suddenly stop working: https://dfarq.homeip.net/fix-dead-ssd/

seems the HTML is showing not the page... adding a ?d to the end shows the formatted page... https://dfarq.homeip.net/gary-kildalls-death-investigation/?d=

They might be thinking of the Bell+Howell clone: https://dfarq.homeip.net/the-bell-and-howell-apple-ii/

Dave's site has an article on Fry's: https://dfarq.homeip.net/what-happened-to-frys-electronics/ They only had one in Illinois, about seven miles or so from Micro Center, and it was one of the earliest to fold. Once upon a time, I had brick-and-mortar Tiger Direct, Micro Center, and Fry's stores all within an hour's drive. Micro Center is the last one standing.

The worst part about the 486 name was all the varieties, an uninformed consumer could get a real lemon. The author links to an example: https://dfarq.homeip.net/ibm-486slc2-cpu-when-a-clone-isnt-a-clone/ You then had the 486 DLCs which were even worse. you'd get companies that sold 386 and even 286 systems with '486' chips, constrained by slow, 16-bit buses, etc.

(2025) Some discussion a year ago: https://dfarq.homeip.net/microsoft-bob-microsofts-biggest-flop-of-the-…

I was curious and wondered if he still practiced medicine. but wikipedia says basically nothing about the (original) site... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom%27s_Hardware Found this site that actually gave a history... https://dfarq.homeip.net/whatever-happened-to-dr-thomas-pabst/

There's also the somewhat odd "XT/286" 5162, which was somewhere in between the two, and closer to the AT than the XT. https://dfarq.homeip.net/ibm-5162-pc-xt-286-the-at-in-xt-clothing/

See also https://dfarq.homeip.net/how-dos-came-to-be-ibms-choice-of-operating-s…

It's even more interesting. Commodore hired a bunch of ex-Atari people for the Amiga while Tramiel was building his cadre for what became the ST. They basically swapped talent. https://dfarq.homeip.net/atari-st-vs-amiga/

Confusing, but 386SX vs 386DX had nothing to do with math coprocessors. That was only on the 486DX which had a math coprocessor vs 486SX which did not. https://dfarq.homeip.net/386sx-vs-386dx-a-misunderstood-difference/

There was a way you could burn out a chip in the C64 with a poke command IIRC. And you could break the tape advance relay in the MSX by switching it on and off rapidly. Edit: Oops it wasn't the 64 but the PET: https://dfarq.homeip.net/the-killer-poke-for-the-commodore-pet/ Also, everyone here will know the phenomenon of bricking. You can damage hardware with software. Luckily it's very rare.

sys_64738 is referring to Commodore running a tradein program for $100 off a C64 with any computer or videogame console. People purchased the Timex Sinclair for $45 solely to trade in (https://dfarq.homeip.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/timex-commodore-ad… supposedly, Commodore used them as doorstops.

Check this out, I hadn't heard about it either but am testing it on a ssd now. https://dfarq.homeip.net/fix-dead-ssd/

An actual Commodore 256 was designed, but never built, thank goodness: https://dfarq.homeip.net/commodore-256-the-8-bit-that-never-was/ But they did release the CBM 256, with an optional 8088 or Z80 daughterboard: http://www.zimmers.net/cbmpics/cb3s.html Oh, to be a fly on the wall at all of those meetings of computer manufacturers where they asked the engineers "why can't we run PC software too?"

Yes, the Tandy 1000, 2000 and their PC-compatible descendants were what Tandy ended up doing, but being PC-compatible they were more of a "surrender and join'em" strategy in the face of the PC juggernaut instead of "beat'em". When I was referring to Tandy I was thinking of their earlier unique non-PC computers like the Model I, II, III, IV (Z-80), Color Computer (6809) and 16 (68000 Unix-based OS), some of which were sold until 1991. If you're interested, this retro site has several articles covering the Tandy PC clones, why they struggled at launch (weren't actually very compatible early on) and how they eventually failed (weren't differentiated or cheaper at the end). https://dfarq.homeip.net/tandy-1000-models/ But Tandy's PC-compatibles sold very well in-between the first and last couple years. More interesting from a retro perspective though, a lot of people don't realize just how dominant Tandy/Radio Shack's unique (non-PC) computers were between 1977 and 1985. They outsold even Apple, Atari and the C64 in many of those years.