Benefits of a Beer or Two

October 2016 – Yes, in moderation, beer is good for you. It can help you sleep better, increase bone density, help prevent kidney stones, and help you avoid diabetes and dementia, among other health benefits.

Apple’s Flaming PowerBook Fiasco

If you’ve been following the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 nightmare, you know it’s given Samsung a serious black eye. Kudos to Samsung for doing the right thing and recalling the entire production just weeks after its introduction.

Apple vs. Samsung

Apple and Samsung have had an interesting relationship over the years. On the one hand, Apple buys a lot of components from Samsung Electronics. On the other, Samsung is a leading competitor in the mobile market. Some might call them frenemies, others see it as a symbiotic relationship.

CPUs: Motorola 6800 and 6809

The personal computing revolution started in 1974 with the 2 MHz Intel 8080, Intel’s first 8-bit CPU capable of addressing 64 KB of memory. (The earlier 8008 from 1972 could only address 16 KB.) But there was a parallel path, a new CPU family that Motorola launched in 1974.

Word Processing and Personal Computers

Believe it or not, word processing predated the personal computer revolution by over a decade. In 1964, IBM combined its Selectric typewriter (1961) with a magnetic tape drive in the IBM MT/ST, making it possible for the first time to edit text without having to retype everything.

The Serker Files

The following collection of articles is adapted from postings by Scott L. Barber, an all around Mac geek, on our Quadlist email list circa 1998. Although a few of these are specific to 68040-based Macs, most have much wider application (or, at times, much narrower), and in some cases these look at technologies long since […]

macOS Sierra on Low End Macs

With macOS Sierra, Apple has once again raised the bar on which Macs can install and run the newest version of the Mac OS. But as sometimes has happened in the past, there are workarounds that make it possible to install Sierra on some unsupported Macs.

macOS Sierra

For the first time since Apple released OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion in July 2012, Apple has dropped support for a number of older Macs that had supported OS X 10.8 through 10.11 El Capitan. No MacBook and iMac models prior to Late 2009 and no MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and Mac Pro […]

9-11: The Day the World Stopped

Until 2001, September 11 was just another day on the calendar. The unexpected terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center shocked us and had us glued to the news throughout the day. Except for the heroes and newscasters, almost all of us stopped what we were doing, watching in shock and horror and […]

The Macintosh Clone Era

There are three different business models in the PC, smartphone, and tablet industries. The most widely used model is for one company to make the operating system and license it to a host of hardware manufacturers. This has given us the Windows market where no matter how badly PC makers do, Microsoft remains profitable.

iPhone 7

The big stuff first: The iPhone 7 is waterproof, no longer comes with a built-in headphone jack, and adds Jet Black to its color lineup. It’s the same size as the iPhone 6 and 6S, and there is no longer a 16 GB model – choices are 32 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB, but […]

The Duo Dock Tick of Death

There are several kinds of Duo Docks of two main types: The full docks, such as the Apple Duo Dock, take the Duo inside much like a tape into a VCR; full docks provide ADB for keyboard and mouse, video, floppy, SCSI chain, two NuBus card slots, and two serial ports.

PowerPC Upgrades for 68040 Macs with LC PDS

The Apple Power Mac Processor Upgrade (APMPU) is a PowerPC 601 upgrade for 68040-based Macs that have a 32-bit LC processor direct slot (PDS) – the Quadra 605/LC 475/Performa 475-476, LC 575/Performa 575-578, LC 580/Performa 580-588, and Quadra 630/LC 630/Performa 630 series.