Computer

Why Zip Drives Dominated the 90s, Then Vanished Almost Overnight

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Zip drives revolutionized portable storage in the 1990s by offering significantly higher capacity (starting at 100MB) and faster speeds than traditional floppy disks, becoming popular with users and PC manufacturers like Dell and Apple. However, reliability issues known as the “click of death,” combined with the rise of cheaper and more versatile formats like CDs and USB flash drives, led to the rapid decline and eventual disappearance of Zip drives from the market by the early 2000s.

https://www.xda-developers.com/zip-drives-dominated-90s-vanished-almost-overnight/

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Amiga Graphics Archive

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The Amiga Graphics Archive is a dedicated website showcasing the remarkable graphics created with or for the Commodore Amiga, a home computer launched in 1985 known for its advanced graphics capabilities. The site features a rich collection of images, articles, and updates highlighting the art, games, applications, and artists associated with the Amiga platform, preserving the legacy of its unique custom chip technology and its impact on digital art and gaming.

https://amiga.lychesis.net/

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Franklin’s Bad Ads for Apple ][ Clones and the Beloved Impersonator They Relied On

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Franklin Computer Corporation built Apple ][ clones in the early 1980s, notably the ACE 100 series, which closely copied Apple’s designs including BIOS code, leading to legal battles. Their marketing featured the beloved Benjamin Franklin impersonator Ralph Archbold, whose image became closely tied to Franklin’s trademark despite the company’s controversial cloning practices. Though Franklin’s products were popular for their affordability and durability, the company eventually shifted away from desktop computers to handheld devices by the late 1980s.

https://buttondown.com/suchbadtechads/archive/franklin-ace-1000/

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Large Scale Systems Museum / Museum of Applied Computer Technology

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The Large Scale Systems Museum (LSSM) in New Kensington, PA, celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2025 as a public museum dedicated to the history of computing, focusing on minicomputers, mainframes, and supercomputers from the 1950s onward. As a physical, living museum, it features fully restored and operational computer systems maintained by experienced volunteers for demonstrations, education, and research, highlighting computing’s profound impact on modern life.

https://www.mact.io/start

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Original Apollo 11 Code Open-Sourced by NASA — Original Command Module and Lunar Module Code Repos Are Now Public Domain Resources

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The article reports that NASA has made the original Apollo 11 guidance computer software publicly available, including separate codebases for the Command Module and Lunar Module. The release allows people to study and run the historic assembly-language programs that helped guide the first Moon landing under extremely limited computing resources. The main point is that opening this code preserves an important part of computing history and highlights the efficiency and engineering required for early space missions.

https://www.tomshardware.com/software/original-apollo-11-code-open-sourced-by-nasa-original-command-module-and-lunar-module-code-repos-are-now-public-domain-resources

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50 Years of Apple Innovation

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The Apple Museum in Utrecht, Netherlands, showcases 50 years of Apple’s innovation through a curated collection that traces the company’s history from the original Apple I computer to modern devices like the Apple Watch. Opened in 2026, the museum offers visitors an immersive experience highlighting key moments and iconic products that have shaped personal computing and technology.

https://applemuseum.nl/

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Every GPU That Mattered

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The article presents a comprehensive timeline and comparison of 49 significant consumer GPUs launched over 30 years, from 1996 to 2025, highlighting key technical specifications, defining games, and market impacts of each generation. It showcases the evolution of GPU technology from the pioneering 3D accelerators like the 3dfx Voodoo Graphics to modern high-performance models such as NVIDIA’s RTX 5090, revealing trends in transistor count, memory, power consumption, and pricing, while also reflecting on user adoption through Steam Hardware Survey data.

https://sheets.works/data-viz/every-gpu

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After Fighting Malware for Decades, This Cybersecurity Veteran Is Now Hacking Drones

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Mikko Hyppönen, a renowned cybersecurity expert with over 35 years of experience fighting malware, has shifted his focus to defending against drones, particularly in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine where unmanned aerial attacks have become deadly. Now serving as chief research officer at Sensofusion, a Finnish company developing anti-drone systems, Hyppönen applies his expertise in malware detection to identify and counter drone threats by analyzing their communication protocols and disrupting their controls.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/04/after-fighting-malware-for-decades-this-cybersecurity-veteran-is-now-hacking-drones/

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The Mad Dash to Build the Future of Multimedia

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In 1989, Apple engineers developed QuickTime, a revolutionary software-based multimedia platform that enabled Macs to play and edit video and audio without specialized hardware, changing the future of digital media. Despite initial skepticism and limited resources, the team’s innovative approach to software codecs and media synchronization resulted in a 1991 launch that opened up creative possibilities and set a standard for multimedia on computers.

https://www.theverge.com/tech/902721/quicktime-history-apple?view_token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpZCI6IkcybHEzWGhZTVciLCJwIjoiL3RlY2gvOTAyNzIxL3F1aWNrdGltZS1oaXN0b3J5LWFwcGxlIiwiZXhwIjoxNzc1NTkyNzA0LCJpYXQiOjE3NzUxNjA3MDR9.p4nbje9XKl05Ybv3q31CyAQULuqAB-H9b8qfftSz12k

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