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garius

HN member
Joined
Mon, Dec 02, 2019, 5:58 PM UTC
HN karma
131
Public activity
18 items

About garius

Historian and tech strategist.

Recent public activity

  1. comment
    Comment #40601080

    Yup. I'll be covering OS/2 when I look at operating systems in this period. The level of foot-shooting by IBM on that one was ridiculous.

  2. comment
    Comment #40600865

    keyboard wasn't great either, to begin with!

  3. comment
    Comment #40599649

    I did try and find out if it was. Sadly couldn't find anything to confirm it!

  4. comment
    Comment #39981142

    Yup. Downside of how much tech has changed is stuff gets missed in a copy edit because the numbers sound so silly (to modern ears) they assume I haven't screwed up a typo or find/r…

  5. comment
    Comment #39981120

    You have a 4?! I'm jealous! Yeah, I think like everything their issue (with hindsight) was mostly that they needed to be faster on the changes across the board to survive. I don't …

  6. comment
    Comment #39973061

    Something I didn't have space to mention in the piece was that during the recession of the early eighties, Vector went out of their way to support their dealer network. They offere…

  7. comment
    Comment #39972657

    Rest assured Steve is very much on my long-list! If Every commission 'season two' of this series, then I'll likely focus on figures from the software side of Silicon Valley. Steve …

  8. comment
    Comment #39972645

    Reading that back in the day was one of the reasons she was on my list for this series to write about. Was the first time I'd heard of her! (Love your ongoing blog and output)

  9. comment
    Comment #39972631

    Yeah - one thing that didn't make the edit unfortunately was a few paragraphs on this. They'll make the book chapter though, when I write that. It was one reason I wanted to tackle…

  10. comment
    Comment #39601132

    I only mention it briefly in the piece, but Osborne were already working on an IBM compatible machine (codenamed the 'Wayne') when the company went under. It wasn't one of the thin…

  11. comment
    Comment #39597118

    It's really complex. I get into it as much as I can at the end, but the Osborne Effect absolutely plays a part. It's just not in the way that got press at the time (i.e. the Execut…

  12. comment
    Comment #39596975

    I mean, I'm LITERALLY here. And I wrote it. I talk about sources in the piece. I own Osborne's books. The only picture in it is one that's credited to me, a photo of my personal co…

  13. comment
    Comment #39596850

    Yes. As I cover in the piece, it's Felsenstein he singled out to physically design it. The two men knew each other from Homebrew and Osborne collared him at the West Coast Computer…

  14. comment
    Comment #39596840

    So at this time, Gates actually has a DOS deal in place with Lore Harp over at Vector Graphic - one he'll renege on when IBM come knocking. That'll come up in the next piece, as I'…

  15. comment
    Comment #39596806

    I write this column and I'm not a robot. Although I'll admit I haven't Voight-Kampff tested myself recently.

  16. comment
    Comment #39596793

    Oh don't worry. I'll get to Commodore (and Tramiel) later in the article series. I just wanted to tackle Adam first as he had a more personal relationship with Jobs.

  17. comment
    Comment #21691043

    Sure - if someone pays me to! I do this mostly for fun. So tbh the alternative here was "not tell people something interesting at all" rather than "write a longform piece about the…

  18. comment
    Comment #21684988

    Twitter thread author here! Because, as others have said, you go where the people are, otherwise you're just howling into the void, and what's the point of doing it? If I only wrot…