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1500 questions
18
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3 answers
Which OS first implemented hibernation?
According to the relevant Wikipedia article, [h]ibernation was first implemented in 1992 and patented by Compaq Computer Corporation in Houston, Texas. This appears to refer specifically to hardware- and/or firmware-assisted hibernation — indeed,…
Leo B.
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18
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Which computers had features added purely for tax reasons?
I was recently reading about the Amstrad CPC 472, which was a CPC 464 with an extra, unusable 8KB of RAM added to avoid Spanish import fees on computers with 64KB or less.
Did any other computers have features added solely to exploit loopholes in…
user3570736
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18
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4 answers
Commodore 64 - any way to safely plug in a cartridge when the power is on?
Back in the early 1980s when my friends and I all had Commodore 64s, we all knew never to plug a cartridge in with the power on.
I once got a tape from someone with lots of utility programmes, one of which was supposedly a cartridge to tape dumper.…
Alan B
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Why didn't Microsoft use a well-known encryption algorithm like RSA for telephone activation?
After 20 years the telephone activation algorithm of Windows XP has been cracked.
Please understand the algorithm itself has been cracked and not the activation program.
Microsoft had designed its own algorithm which is based on a lot of math.
When…
zomega
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18
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3 answers
How did the original Apple Macintosh and Atari ST use protected mode?
The Macintosh, ST, and Amiga were all 68000 CPU systems released in 1984-85, along with their respective new Operating Systems. While this was 5 years before protected mode became commonplace on Intel PC (80286/80386) OS's, the 68000 had a protected…
Brian H
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18
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2 answers
Which computer language was the first with two forward slashes ("//") for comments?
Apparently COMAL created around 1975 had 'em. Anything earlier?
(This Q&A over at the langdev stack doesn't answer this question.)
davidbak
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18
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5 answers
When did wear leveling in flash storage come up?
I think most modern flash drives (from SATA disks to USB drives) have some kind of wear leveling.
Normally a block (small amount of bytes) in a flash chip cannot be erased and programed an unlimited number of times. That is why there is wear…
zomega
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18
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2 answers
Did the Z8000 ever hit the home computer market?
The Z80 had a massive presence in the 8-bit revolution, but I can’t remember any system with a Z8000. Did it ever hit this market?
ABM K
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18
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5 answers
What is the most accurate way to map 6-bit VGA palette to 8-bit?
AFAIK VGA mode 13h palette has only 64 possible colors (6-bit) per channel.
One obvious way to map those 64 colors to 256 colors is to multiply them by 4 (since 4 * 64 = 256):
8_bit = 6_bit * 4;
This is however not accurate since biggest value is…
tigrou
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18
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Denys Fisher, of Spirograph fame, using a computer late 1976, early 1977
Denys Fisher, the creator of Spirograph, sold his company, bought an estate in Scotland and started working on his next creations, or at least so is narrated in a BBC's documentary, broadcast as part of "Tomorrow's World" in May 1977. I know because…
gboffi
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18
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1 answer
What did it cost the 8086 to support unaligned access?
The Intel 8086 supported unaligned loads and stores of 16-bit data, e.g. mov ax, foo was guaranteed to work even if foo was odd.
What did this cost, in terms of performance and chip area, compared to an alternative architecture that would have been…
rwallace
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18
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2 answers
What does 'try again' mean in Unix v6?
I am running a stripped down version of BSD Unix V6, bkunix on my Elektronika BK 0010-01. It has a very limited range of Unix commands. The contents of /bin…
harlandski
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What is most appropriate choice for DOS for a 1990 80386 PC?
I plan to install Windows 3.0 and PC/GEOS on top of DOS. Plus I will install numerous games from the 1984-1992 timeframe. Some of the later games will require >640K RAM and make use of an EMM driver.
I am mainly debating between using MS-DOS v5 or…
Brian H
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2 answers
What was 'Maclogal'?
While reading about the ATOLL Checkout Language in the April 1965 issue of DATAMATION (pp 33-35), I came across one letter to the editor (pg 12), discussing the volume required to house the ~1QB memory belonging to an (I can only assume theoretical)…
Infinite_Maelstrom
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18
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7 answers
What led to the fall of shell accounts?
In the early days of the internet, shell accounts were commonly used for Internet access. After the early 2000's, it seems like shell accounts all but disappeared, and after searching, I can't really find why.
Were they not user friendly enough? Did…
Saustin
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