Top all-time · #1032
David L. Farquhar
Personal blog · dfarq.homeip.nethardwarehistory
David L. Farquhar writes The Silicon Underground, a personal blog at dfarq.homeip.net about hardware and history. Since 2018, 64 different Hacker News readers have linked it 246 times, most often “Cashing in on GIF by Charging Royalties”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-01, and you can follow it by feed.
Rarely recommended · 1 of 38 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link David Farquhar's blog for its history of early personal computers, including DOS, IBM PC clones, Commodore financial history, and Atari versus Amiga. Commenters also cite its hardware repair posts, such as fixing dead SSDs.
- Recommended for · 1 comments
- Recommended as a fix for a dead SSD (power cycling it); one commenter said they were testing it.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 38 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more
Most-linked posts?
- Cashing in on GIF by Charging Royalties3 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2024-12-24
- The First Pirated MP33 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2025-08-11
- Monorail: Pioneering $999 PCs from 19963 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-07-09
- What Happened to Procomm Plus3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-04-02
- NEC V20 CPU: A bit of pep for an XT3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-09-22
- /fix-dead-ssd/2 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2020-11-20
- Eagle Computer: The rise and fall of an early PC clone2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-06-09
- First DVD player announced Sept 26, 19962 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-09-26
- Why Atari Failed2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-08-25
- eBay's 1995 Debut2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-08-05
What Hacker News says?
There was a way you could burn out a chip in the C64 with a poke command IIRC. And you could break the tape advance relay in the MSX by switching it on and off rapidly. Edit: Oops it wasn't the 64 but the PET: https://dfarq.homeip.net/the-killer-poke-for-the-commodore-p... Also, everyone here will know the phenomenon of bricking. You can damage hardware with software. Luckily it's very rare.
Comment linking /the-killer-poke-for-the-commodore-pet/
on “Sir Clive Sinclair has died”Submitted Andy Warhol's lost Amiga art found as a story · 496 points
HN discussionI believe those scenes were an amalgamation of Tim Paterson’s clean room implementation of DOS from the CP/M manuals [0] and Compaq’s IBM compatible BIOS implementation[1]. They are a some of my favorites, and are fun to watch. [0] https://dfarq.homeip.net/did-microsoft-steal-dos-from-cpm/ [1] https://dfarq.homeip.net/first-compaq-computer/
Comment linking /first-compaq-computer/
on “Show HN: Bionic Reading – Formats text to make it faster to read”Submitted Commodore 64 released September 1, 1982 as a story · 359 points
HN discussionSee also https://dfarq.homeip.net/how-dos-came-to-be-ibms-choice-of-o...
Comment linking /how-dos-came-to-be-ibms-choice-of-operating-system-2/
on “CP/M is really open-source now”Submitted Athlon 64: How AMD turned the tables on Intel as a story · 331 points
HN discussionCheck this out, I hadn't heard about it either but am testing it on a ssd now. https://dfarq.homeip.net/fix-dead-ssd/
Comment linking /fix-dead-ssd/
on “I've now played with a Raspberry Pi 400 for a week and here are my conclusions”Submitted When the Dotcom Bubble Burst as a story · 302 points
HN discussionCommodore reported 7-year record revenue/profit 4 years before going bankrupt. https://dfarq.homeip.net/commodore-financial-history-1978-19...
Comment linking /commodore-financial-history-1978-1994/
on “Japan Captures TOP500 Crown with Arm-Powered Supercomputer”Submitted The biggest CRT ever made: Sony's PVM-4300 as a story · 278 points
HN discussionMy comment every time someone mentions Intel best year yet: Commodore reported 7-year record revenue with good profit 4 years before going bankrupt. https://dfarq.homeip.net/commodore-financial-history-1978-19...
Comment linking /commodore-financial-history-1978-1994/
on “The Apple M1 compiles Linux 30% faster than my Intel i9”Submitted What went wrong for Yahoo as a story · 255 points
HN discussionYou can use Rufus to install 10/11 on a usb SATA/NVMe drive enclosure as “Windows To Go”. In practice it works out pretty decently in my experience using it with windows 10 daily for a while, with a few caveats: 1. You need a stable usb connection 2. You need a usb drive enclosure with a controller chip that is stable/doesn’t overheat 3. Your drive should be powerless resistant. Unfortunately there’s no resource I k…
Comment linking /fix-dead-ssd/
on “WinBtrfs – an open-source btrfs driver for Windows”Submitted What happened to Transmeta, the last big dotcom IPO as a story · 235 points
HN discussionIt's even more interesting. Commodore hired a bunch of ex-Atari people for the Amiga while Tramiel was building his cadre for what became the ST. They basically swapped talent. https://dfarq.homeip.net/atari-st-vs-amiga/
Comment linking /atari-st-vs-amiga/
on “Atari asks for help finding developer of 2600 game Aquaventure”Submitted The biggest CRT ever made: Sony's PVM-4300 as a story · 235 points
HN discussionCommodore was still making good revenue up to 1993 despite peddling 7 year old designs. Firing all good engineers, cutting costs to the bone and selling outdated, but cheap to manufacture technology was a fantastic short term strategy. Surprisingly 1991 was the second best year by revenue, Commodore was already a walking corpse by then. https://dfarq.homeip.net/commodore-financial-history-1978-19...
Comment linking /commodore-financial-history-1978-1994/
on “We Made Amiga, They Fucked It Up (2015)”Submitted Amiga 600: From the Amiga No One Wanted to Retro Favorite as a story · 162 points
HN discussionCommodore reported 7-year record revenue&profit 4 years before going bankrupt. https://dfarq.homeip.net/commodore-financial-history-1978-19...
Comment linking /commodore-financial-history-1978-1994/
on “Intel grew revenues in Q2 2020, but key manufacturing upgrade delayed”Submitted 286 vs. 386SX as a story · 156 points
HN discussionsys_64738 is referring to Commodore running a tradein program for $100 off a C64 with any computer or videogame console. People purchased the Timex Sinclair for $45 solely to trade in ( https://dfarq.homeip.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/timex-co... supposedly, Commodore used them as doorstops.
Comment linking /wp-content/uploads/2020/08/timex-commodore-ad.jpg);
on “The ZX81 Turns 40”Submitted Windows 95 released August 24, 1995 as a story · 132 points
HN discussionConfusing, but 386SX vs 386DX had nothing to do with math coprocessors. That was only on the 486DX which had a math coprocessor vs 486SX which did not. https://dfarq.homeip.net/386sx-vs-386dx-a-misunderstood-diff...
Comment linking /386sx-vs-386dx-a-misunderstood-difference/
on “Pentium on a 386 Motherboard”Submitted What was a Token Ring network? as a story · 130 points
HN discussionThere's also the somewhat odd "XT/286" 5162, which was somewhere in between the two, and closer to the AT than the XT. https://dfarq.homeip.net/ibm-5162-pc-xt-286-the-at-in-xt-clo...
Comment linking /ibm-5162-pc-xt-286-the-at-in-xt-clothing/
on “80286 ATX mainboard based on the IBM 5170 AT PC”Submitted What happened to Tandy computers as a story · 120 points
HN discussion> On a C64, you boot into bare basic Come on. I think you're remembering the past with rose colored glasses. I loved my C64 in the 80s but it was not user friendly, compared to say an iPad running playgrounds. This is what is was like when things worked. https://dfarq.homeip.net/load-commodore-64-games/ When things didn't work...
Comment linking /load-commodore-64-games/
on “Bring back the ease of 80s and 90s personal computing”Submitted Microsoft's 1986 IPO as a story · 119 points
HN discussionFYI, if your SSD suddenly stops showing up (especially after a power off event), then the first thing to try is power cycling it: https://dfarq.homeip.net/fix-dead-ssd/
Comment linking /fix-dead-ssd/
on “GRC SpinRite”Submitted How much did VHS tapes cost in the 80s? as a story · 93 points
HN discussion
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