Quiet Computing

Back at the dawn of the personal computer revolution, the most popular personal computers were all quiet. The TRS‑80, the Apple II, and the Commodore PET didn’t have fans, cooling themselves with convection only. I grew to like quiet computing, with only the sound of the keyboard and the floppy drive to interrupt my thoughts.

But after several years, the quiet computing environment became a thing of the past. Newer computer models, especially after the introduction of the IBM PC, came equipped with fans, sometimes multiple fans. These loud fans changed computing from a silent experience to a very noisy one. Computers still had power lights to indicate they were powered on, but, as one reviewer put it, that would only be necessary in a war zone.

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My Disappointing Longwave DXing

Every shortwave radio I have ever owned has offered four bands: FM, AM (or mediumwave), shortwave, and longwave. The FM, AM, and shortwave bands are always filled with stations (although shortwave less so these days) but the longwave band for me has always been empty. In all my years of attempts at longwave DXing, I have only ever picked up two stations. These same two stations are beacons that endlessly repeat two or three characters in Morse code. I can only occasionally receive their faint signals and they are overpowered by normal electrical interference.

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Why Opera Was The Only Browser I Recommended for Dial-up Internet

In a press release innocently titled Opera gears up at 300 million users, Opera Software has confirmed what had been suspected for a while: future versions of the Opera desktop web browser will use WebKit rather than their proprietary Presto rendering engine.

It’s odd how so many people seem to consider the adoption of WebKit to be the end of Opera as a unique web browser. Both Safari and Chrome already use Webkit and no one is likely to confuse the two browsers. They maintain their unique identities and I’m sure that Opera will do the same. The reality is that Opera Software is a business, and undoubtedly has determined that maintaining their own rendering engine is no longer the best use of their resources. Opera has a long history of changing with the times and this is just another example. Opera Version History is an interesting page which details when each Opera feature was introduced and when it was made final.

Opera was my browser of choice back when I used dial-up internet. In fact, I used to recommend Opera as the only usable browser for dial-up users. For those who were lucky enough never to experience dial-up internet, here is the reason why. (If you are viewing this page using dial-up, you have my condolences.)

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How To Write a Telegram circa 1928

At one time, telegrams were the primary means of high-speed, long-distance communications. They were the email of their day and, like any widely used service, customs and rules grew up around them. A 1928 booklet by Nelson E. Ross titled How To Write Telegrams Properly details some of those rules and conventions. Not solely about writing telegrams, it also serves as a historical snapshot of telegraph services in 1928. The many topics covered include:

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Four ways to back up your Gmail

I’ve used Gmail as my primary email provider for several years. In that time, I have had few complaints. It has been reliable and fast, much better than other services that charge service fees.

One criticism of using Gmail is that by keeping all of your email in Gmail, you are putting all of your eggs in a Google basket. If Google were to shut down or delete your Gmail account (either deliberately or by accident) then all of your mail would be lost for good. Although I think it very unlikely that Google will discontinue such a popular service, there are plenty of other ways to lose email. After all, accidents do happen and mistakes can be made, both by Google and you.

If your email is at all important to you, keeping an up-to-date archive only makes sense. Here are four choices I have found for archiving your Gmail:

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The slow decline of AM radio

Ever since car radios became available in the 1930’s, AM radio has been an integral part of the automobile experience. The Porsche 918 Spyder, scheduled for production in September 2013, will be the first production car in the United States not to come with an AM radio. The reason given is that the materials used to manufacture the car diminish AM radio reception. The Porsche 918 is a high-end sports car that will cost $845,000, so it hardly represents the mainstream. But I think it is clear that this is another step on the slide of AM radio into irrelevance in the United States.

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