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David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more

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The Silicon Underground
Text • Dave Farquhar

Why IBM bought Lotus

Why IBM bought Lotus
Why IBM bought Lotus

On July 6, 1995, IBM bought Lotus Development for $3.5 billion. Lotus had once been the second largest software publisher in the world and was worth $5.5 billion at its IPO. Its flagship product, the spreadsheet Lotus 1-2-3, had been

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The Silicon Underground
Text • Dave Farquhar

Compute!’s Gazette magazine, 1983-1995

Compute!’s Gazette magazine, 1983-1995
Compute!’s Gazette magazine, 1983-1995

In July 1983, one of my personal favorite Commodore computer magazines of all time, Compute!’s Gazette, was born. An offshoot of the general computer magazine Compute!, Gazette’s first issue was dated July 1983 and quickly proved successful, closely following the

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The Silicon Underground
Text • Dave Farquhar

Jack Tramiel and Atari

Jack Tramiel and Atari
Jack Tramiel and Atari

On July 2, 1984, Atari got a new owner. After a disastrous 1983, its owner, Warner Communications, wanted out, just a year and a half after Atari had $2 billion in sales. It went from being called the greatest acquisition

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The Silicon Underground
Text • Dave Farquhar

The earliest surviving Tom’s Hardware Guide article

The earliest surviving Tom’s Hardware Guide article
The earliest surviving Tom’s Hardware Guide article

The earliest dated article still active on Tom’s Hardware Guide is dated July 1, 1996. It was an article about CPU softmenus, something we pretty much take for granted today, but at the time was only available on select Abit

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The Silicon Underground
Text • Dave Farquhar

Apricot Computers: An underrated British brand

Apricot Computers: An underrated British brand
Apricot Computers: An underrated British brand

You hear a lot about Sinclair and Amstrad and Acorn computers. But when it comes to British brands, it seems like we don’t hear a lot about Apricot. But thanks to a television program that aired in early 1990, we

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The Silicon Underground
Text • Dave Farquhar

What happened to Altavista

What happened to Altavista
What happened to Altavista

For as long as I can remember, my home page has been about:blank. But for a good chunk of the 1990s, I would have done well to set it to altavista.digital.com. Here’s what happened to Altavista, the search engine that

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The Silicon Underground
Text • Dave Farquhar

Spyglass: A web browsing pioneer’s IPO

Spyglass: A web browsing pioneer’s IPO
Spyglass: A web browsing pioneer’s IPO

Quick: Who was the first browser manufacturer to hold an IPO in the dotcom era? Netscape? WRONG! Its competitor Spyglass beat it out, holding its IPO June 27, 1995. Its IPO did rather well too, issuing two million shares at

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