The Silicon Underground

Run Windows 11 on unsupported hardware

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 11:00:56 +0000

Windows 10 is going end of life in mid October, less than six months from now. It’s not supported on PCs with less than an 8th-generation Core i series processor, which leaves a huge number of systems that run Windows

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Apple IIc: A smaller, sleeker Apple II from 1984

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 11:00:00 +0000

The Apple IIc was the 4th computer in the Apple II line, introduced April 24, 1984. It was a bit of a departure from the earlier Apple II machines. The Apple II, II+, and IIe were strictly desktop computers. The

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The first Youtube video

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 11:00:39 +0000

The first Youtube video went live April 23, 2005. Titled “Me at the zoo”, it shows co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo. You can still view it on the site. The same day, Youtube launched a public beta.

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When Escom bought Commodore

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 11:00:02 +0000

Escom acquired Commodore on April 22, 1995 for $14 million. At the time, it seemed like Commodore’s long nightmare might be over. The Amiga had a new owner. Sadly, it didn’t work out that way. Escom: Well known in Europe,

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Timex Sinclair 1000 computer: The can’t-miss that missed

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 11:00:00 +0000

The Timex Sinclair 1000 was the U.S. version of the Sinclair ZX81. Timex announced it April 20, 1982, and released it in July. It was Timex’s most successful home computer, but its success paled next to its British counterpart. It

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Gordon Moore and Moore’s Law

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 18 Apr 2025 11:00:21 +0000

Gordon Moore (January 3, 1929 – March 24, 2023) was a cofounder of chipmaker Intel Corporation. He proposed Moore’s law which makes the observation that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit, or computer chip, doubles about every two

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MP3 is dead, long live MP3. Oh wait, it’s just the patent

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 11:00:35 +0000

Medieval Europeans believed that the divine right of sovereignty transferred instantly from one monarch to the next upon the death of the previous one. This led to a saying, first used in 1422 in France, that translates to “The king

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Apple II announced April 16, 1977

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 11:00:06 +0000

On April 16, 1977, Apple launched the Apple II, one of the first pre-built desktop computers, although it wouldn’t ship until June of that year. It went on to sell about 6 million units over the course of the next

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Webvan: The too much, too early dotcom

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 11:00:10 +0000

Some dotcom-era startups were just bad ideas, and others were bad timing. I think Webvan was in the bad timing category. Today there is nothing especially odd about the idea of ordering groceries over the Internet. Several successful companies use

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Google’s acquisition of Doubleclick

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 11:00:50 +0000

On April 13, 2007, Google agreed to acquire DoubleClick for US$3.1 billion in cash. Google had already been in the advertising business since 2000, with its Adwords product. Buying Doubleclick further sent Google down the road of funding itself through

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