35 years ago, a young system administrator named Cliff Stoll shared a story on Nova, a PBS documentary program. Stoll introduced his audience to a brave and unfamiliar world of computers, networks, and hackers. Movies about computers and hackers were The post When Nova introduced hacking to the mainstream appeared first on The Silicon Underground.| The Silicon Underground
Activision was the first independent third-party publisher of console video games, founded October 1, 1979 by a group of former Atari developers. Activision proved successful, becoming the largest and most enduring publisher of video games for both game consoles and The post What happened to Activision appeared first on The Silicon Underground.| The Silicon Underground
October 1, 2006 was a good day. It was the day that the last of the patents covering the GIF file format finally expired and GIF became free to use. Today GIF is a staple of social media, but it The post The day GIF became free to use, forever appeared first on The Silicon Underground.| The Silicon Underground
The IBM PS/2 line, released April 2, 1987, was IBM’s attempt to reinvigorate its aging personal computer line and fight off cloning. The line sold better than we remember. On September 30, 1988, IBM announced it had sold its 3 The post IBM PS/2 series appeared first on The Silicon Underground.| The Silicon Underground
It was on September 28, 1998 that Internet Explorer passed Netscape in market share for the first time. It took just under three years for it to go from an afterthought in the Microsoft Plus pack to the dominant browser. The post When Internet Explorer passed Netscape for the first time appeared first on The Silicon Underground.| The Silicon Underground
Irving Gould, born September 26, 1919, was a Canadian financier and chairman of Commodore International. Although it’s an oversimplification, journalist Robert X. Cringely dismissed the once high-flying computer company, which had 60% of the market in 1984, as Irving Gould’s The post Irving Gould and Commodore appeared first on The Silicon Underground.| The Silicon Underground
On September 25, 1928, Motorola was founded. Retro computer enthusiasts think of Motorola as a CPU manufacturer, and to a lesser degree, perhaps as a computer manufacturer. But its primary line of business for the majority of its existence was The post Motorola born on this day in 1928 appeared first on The Silicon Underground.| The Silicon Underground
On September 24, 1998, Ebay held its IPO at $18 per share, reaching $53 per share in its first day, making founder Pierre Omidyar and president Jeffrey Skoll instant billionaires. Ebay’s first annual report listed the company’s dependence on the The post Ebay’s IPO: The rare dotcom survivor appeared first on The Silicon Underground.| The Silicon Underground
22 years ago, on September 23, 2003, AMD changed the game for x86 once and for all. They released the Athlon 64 CPU, a chip that did something Intel didn’t want. Intel didn’t want to extend x86 to 64 bits. The post Athlon 64: How AMD turned the tables on Intel appeared first on The Silicon Underground.| The Silicon Underground
The NEC V20 was an Intel 8088-compatible CPU that ran slightly faster. It was a niche CPU in the 1980s and 1990s but had a following as a cheap upgrade for power users, especially in instances where motherboard swaps were The post NEC V20 CPU: A bit of pep for an XT appeared first on The Silicon Underground.| The Silicon Underground
Better 32-bit performance was worth trading some 64-bit performance to get| The Silicon Underground
David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more| The Silicon Underground
Building a computer in the 90s was almost always harder than it needed to be. Let's step through one build that stood out above the rest for me.| The Silicon Underground
Altavista was the first great search engine. It started out as a marketing gimmick and became a brief sensation. Here's what happened to Altavista and why.| The Silicon Underground
The DEC Rainbow 100 from 1982 was an early challenger to the IBM PC. In this blog post, I explore why it failed in spite of being better.| The Silicon Underground
I’m reading a book called Trade-Off, by former USA Today technology columnist Kevin Maney. It’s primarily a marketing book. Maney argues that all products are a balance of fidelity and convenience, and highly favor one or the other. He additionally| The Silicon Underground
This computer was so good and so far out there, we didn't know what we had.| The Silicon Underground
Images he created when demonstrating an Amiga in 1985 surfaced in 2024| The Silicon Underground
The Gotek floppy emulator is a must-have for retro PCs. Here's why, along with instructions to help you get your vintage PC up and running with one.| The Silicon Underground
SD to IDE adapters provide a convenient way to provide storage to systems that can't use serial ATA. But how's the performance? Let's dig in to find out.| The Silicon Underground
