Dave F
@siliconundergro.bsky.social
He/him. INTJ. I blog 4-5 times a week about vintage and retro computers. Day job in information security, specifically vulnerability management. Based in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. You can find my blog, The Silicon Underground, at https://dfarq.homeip.net
I snapped this pic a couple of years ago. The difference is ridiculous. Also, I've driven a '91 Dodge pickup similar to the one in the pic. The visibility out of that wasn't great, so I'm not willing to drive the modern monstrosities. I'd be afraid I'd kill someone.
November 9, 2025 at 5:35 PM
I snapped this pic a couple of years ago. The difference is ridiculous. Also, I've driven a '91 Dodge pickup similar to the one in the pic. The visibility out of that wasn't great, so I'm not willing to drive the modern monstrosities. I'd be afraid I'd kill someone.
Found this on Reddit. No idea who took the photo of Bo Bichette's home run, but what a photo.
November 2, 2025 at 2:21 AM
Found this on Reddit. No idea who took the photo of Bo Bichette's home run, but what a photo.
Goth belongs in schools!
September 21, 2025 at 12:41 AM
Goth belongs in schools!
...and then we can all wear one of these.
September 20, 2025 at 1:08 PM
...and then we can all wear one of these.
Yes, the 3.5-inch variety is still floppy. The disk inside is still very much floppy. We still called them floppies in the 80s and 90s too. Here's one of the disk drives, with the label clearly reading "floppy."
September 16, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Yes, the 3.5-inch variety is still floppy. The disk inside is still very much floppy. We still called them floppies in the 80s and 90s too. Here's one of the disk drives, with the label clearly reading "floppy."
Somehow this DIY Cybertruck knockoff looks less ridiculous than the real thing.
September 13, 2025 at 3:15 AM
Somehow this DIY Cybertruck knockoff looks less ridiculous than the real thing.
Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, or Alice in Chains. Alright, interjecting some editorialism here. This is a fantastic album from the former Guadalcanal Diary frontman and only a few thousand people ever heard it.
September 8, 2025 at 1:58 AM
Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, or Alice in Chains. Alright, interjecting some editorialism here. This is a fantastic album from the former Guadalcanal Diary frontman and only a few thousand people ever heard it.
I just went and bought a digital album and one of the formats I can download it in is AIFF. So if I ever want to listen to it on an Amiga, I'm covered! (I went for FLAC.)
August 5, 2025 at 1:14 AM
I just went and bought a digital album and one of the formats I can download it in is AIFF. So if I ever want to listen to it on an Amiga, I'm covered! (I went for FLAC.)
On July 23, Commodore introduced its Amiga 1000 computer featuring pre-emptive multitasking, high-color graphics, stereo sound, and a graphical user interface. What year? 1985. Yes, 40 years ago. It was a decade ahead of its time. #retrocomputing #commodore #amiga dfarq.homeip.net/amiga-1000-t...
July 23, 2025 at 12:18 PM
On July 23, Commodore introduced its Amiga 1000 computer featuring pre-emptive multitasking, high-color graphics, stereo sound, and a graphical user interface. What year? 1985. Yes, 40 years ago. It was a decade ahead of its time. #retrocomputing #commodore #amiga dfarq.homeip.net/amiga-1000-t...
50 years ago, on July 22, 1975, MITS licensed Altair Basic from Microsoft, leading to the first Microsoft product coming to market. It sold $16K worth in the first year. #retrocomputing dfarq.homeip.net/the-first-mi...
July 22, 2025 at 12:02 PM
50 years ago, on July 22, 1975, MITS licensed Altair Basic from Microsoft, leading to the first Microsoft product coming to market. It sold $16K worth in the first year. #retrocomputing dfarq.homeip.net/the-first-mi...
On July 21, 2002, MCI Worldcom went bankrupt. Although it's been eclipsed since, at the time it was the largest corporate bankruptcy ever and the corruption that led to it became a scandal. It was a stunning fall for a company that was supposed to rival AT&T. dfarq.homeip.net/the-mci-worl...
July 21, 2025 at 12:02 PM
On July 21, 2002, MCI Worldcom went bankrupt. Although it's been eclipsed since, at the time it was the largest corporate bankruptcy ever and the corruption that led to it became a scandal. It was a stunning fall for a company that was supposed to rival AT&T. dfarq.homeip.net/the-mci-worl...
I bought this "untested" IBM 5170 motherboard four years ago. Didn't work. A diag ROM pointed to bad RAM. I had to pry off and inspect every RAM chip on the motherboard. I found exactly one bent pin. I straightened the pin, put it back on the board, and this was the first boot. #retrocomputing
July 8, 2025 at 11:38 PM
I bought this "untested" IBM 5170 motherboard four years ago. Didn't work. A diag ROM pointed to bad RAM. I had to pry off and inspect every RAM chip on the motherboard. I found exactly one bent pin. I straightened the pin, put it back on the board, and this was the first boot. #retrocomputing
I have one. It looks fantastic next to a mid-80s PC. But it's mostly a prop, nothing about it is nice to use.
July 8, 2025 at 11:29 PM
I have one. It looks fantastic next to a mid-80s PC. But it's mostly a prop, nothing about it is nice to use.
Someone asked me today if I still use Yahoo. I do, come to think of it.
May 25, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Someone asked me today if I still use Yahoo. I do, come to think of it.
There's a fairly large following for retro computers that have floppy drives in them. Here's one of mine, with dual 5 1/4-inch floppy drives.
April 12, 2025 at 4:01 AM
There's a fairly large following for retro computers that have floppy drives in them. Here's one of mine, with dual 5 1/4-inch floppy drives.
I found this earlier today. A couple songs on here I forgot about that I'm glad to have rediscovered. "Push th' Little Daisies" wasn't one of them, I had well and truly repressed that one. There was some really good music in 1993 but not all of it was.
April 8, 2025 at 12:30 AM
I found this earlier today. A couple songs on here I forgot about that I'm glad to have rediscovered. "Push th' Little Daisies" wasn't one of them, I had well and truly repressed that one. There was some really good music in 1993 but not all of it was.
Here's one that lives in my basement. It has two 5.25 floppy drives, one is high density and the other is double density.
March 18, 2025 at 10:21 PM
Here's one that lives in my basement. It has two 5.25 floppy drives, one is high density and the other is double density.
First computer I used was a Commodore VIC-20. A coworker of my dad's got one and invited us over. His son showed me the ropes. Mostly we played Choplifter, so this must have been in 1982.
February 16, 2025 at 10:07 PM
First computer I used was a Commodore VIC-20. A coworker of my dad's got one and invited us over. His son showed me the ropes. Mostly we played Choplifter, so this must have been in 1982.
I'm working on a blog post about the early days of the Web. Which sent me looking to see if any screenshots of NCSA Mosaic exist. Fortunately they do. The first time I used the Internet, it was entirely text based. The first time I used the Web, it looked like this:
December 14, 2024 at 4:01 AM
I'm working on a blog post about the early days of the Web. Which sent me looking to see if any screenshots of NCSA Mosaic exist. Fortunately they do. The first time I used the Internet, it was entirely text based. The first time I used the Web, it looked like this:
