Windows | The Matrix Data Bank

The History of Microsoft’s MS-DOS

Jul 282011

MS-DOS is 30 years old today. Well, kind of. On 27 July 1981, Microsoft gave the name MS-DOS to the disk operating system it acquired on that day from Seattle Computer Products (SCP), a hardware company owned and run by a fellow called Rod Brock.

SCP developed what it at various times called QDOS and 86-DOS to run on a CPU card it had built based on Intel’s 8086 processor.

The company had planned to use Digital Research’s CP/M-86 operating system, then still in development. But, having released the card in November 1979 – it shipped with an 8086-compatible version Microsoft’s Basic language interpreter-cum-operating system – and reached April 1980 without CP/M-86 becoming available to bundle, SCP decided it had to create its own OS for the card.

Enter, in August 1980, QDOS. It really did stand for Quick and Dirty Operating System. That’s actually what it was: a basic but serviceable OS good for coding and running programs written in 8086 assembly language – the x86 instruction set. It was written by SCP’s Tim Paterson, who had joined the company as a programmer a couple of years previously and began work on it in April 1980.

Read the rest of the History of MS-Dos at Microsoft’s MS-DOS is 30 today.

What Microsoft Can Learn From Mac OS X Lion

Computers, Education, Macintosh, Windows No Responses »

Feb 282011

Amazingly enough, Paul Thurrott’s supersite for Windows, actually has a positive piece about Apple…

I’ve harped on this a lot in the past, but in a bid to maximize profits, Microsoft has littered the market with far too many Windows product versions, or what the company calls SKUs (for “stock keeping unit,” retailing term). And while we can try to dumb down the conversation by explaining how, in any given market, customers only have two or three or four choices, or whatever, the fact remains: One version is not just enough, it’s optimal from the customer point of view. Just ask Apple: It offers just one version of Mac OS X. It’s called Mac OS X. Not Mac OS X Media Center Edition or Mac OS X Arbitrarily Limited Edition. Just Mac OS X.

And more. Overall, he points out quite a few places where Microsoft should power up those XEROX machines and start copying… (Yes, I know, photocopier machines… But dang it, Xerox-ing it gives me some satisfaction… )

Half a Million Space Battles! Congrats!

Computers, Games, Macintosh, Networking, Recreation, Windows No Responses »

Feb 042011

According to Cliffski, the author of Gratuitous Space Battles, the GSB server has served over half a million battles for network games… (Over 501,934 battles at the time of posting)

See here:

Here’s a chirpy statistic. At the time of writing, the total number of online ‘challenge’ games of Gratuitous Space Battles that have been played is…
501,934
Or in other words…
HALF A MILLION GAMES OF GRATUITOUS SPACE BATTLES.
That’s just online challenges, meaning player A trying to beat player B’s fleet, whether it’s on Mac or PC, direct or through steam. It’s all handled by my server. The number of offline, single player games against the pre-shipping AI fleets is likely to be a lot higher. That’s pretty scary. Also, lets not dismiss over 40,000 uploaded player challenges (actually many more, older unplayed ones get deleted) and over 100,000 campaign battles already.

I actually own two copies, and it’s a great game… If you haven’t taken a look, then you should…

And his work-in-progress “Game 4″, his aptly code named new game, has the potential to be nice follow up… Whatever the game ends up being, if we listen to his blog… |-)

Handbrake v0.95 has been released…

Computers, Macintosh, Recreation, Software, Television, Windows No Responses »

Jan 042011

HandBrake v0.9.5 has now been released.

There are a ton of changes in this release, and you can get into the details in the change release notes. For the Mac version of the software, the biggest news is that PowerPC is no longer supported. If you’re still holding on to an older Mac, it’s time to either consider a hardware upgrade or you’ll be using HandBrake 0.9.4 for the rest of eternity.

Other Mac changes include VLC detection in both the /Applications and ~/Applications directories, a new Audio Panel supporting more than four audio tracks and support for multiple instances running simultaneously.

The update wasn’t accessible through the “Check for Updates” feature in version 0.9.4, so you’ll probably want to go to the HandBrake website and just download the installer in order to update.

Apple Releases iPhone Configuration Utility 3.2

Computers, iphone, Macintosh, Windows No Responses »

Dec 222010

About iPhone Configuration Utility 3.2

iPhone Configuration Utility lets you easily create, maintain, encrypt, and install configuration profiles, track and install provisioning profiles and authorized applications, and capture device information including console logs.

Configuration profiles are XML files that contain device security policies, VPN configuration information, Wi-Fi settings, APN settings, Exchange account settings, mail settings, and certificates that permit iPhone and iPod touch to work with your enterprise systems.

Available for Macintosh & Windows…

Registry Repair Toolkit (Bestregistrycare.com)…Hmrph.

Computers, Hardware, Macintosh, Virus Related, Windows No Responses »

Dec 122010

Funny how Windows Registry errors can be caused by a Macintosh software package…. I was doing a google search for information on a macintosh product, and funny how their site reports:

What is Mac2TiVo (Mac).exe error?
Mac2TiVo (Mac).exe error is one of the most common system errors that many PC users will come across when while using the computer. Mac2TiVo (Mac).exe error always happens when the related Mac2TiVo (Mac).exe file in the operating system is deleted, corrupted or infected by virus. When you try to open files or applications which are related to Mac2TiVo (Mac).exe file, you will be likely to receive the pop-up Mac2TiVo (Mac).exe error. Mac2TiVo (Mac).exeerror will stop some certain programs in your comouter from correctly running as well as slow down the entire system performance. So to it is necessary for you to thoroughly scan your computer and get rid of the annoying Mac2TiVo (Mac).exe error as soon as possible.

Funny how a Macintosh product can cause Windows registry problems…

I tried a simple substitute in the URL, and I was not able to force a substitution, but it certainly looks like a fake report to me.

Automatic Login for Windows XP & Mac OS X

Computers, Macintosh, Tech Support, Windows No Responses »

Nov 162010

This feature allows other users to start your computer and use the account that you establish to automatically log on. Enabling auto logon makes your computer more convenient to use, but can pose a security risk since anyone can just turn the machine on and access your files.

Mac OS X

This may vary slightly depending on the Version of Mac OS X you are running on. The steps should be the same, but the positioning of the buttons / prompts can be different…

Open System Preferences
Choose Accounts
Click on Login Options
Unlock System Preferences (if Necessary)
Click on Automatic Login, and choose from the pop up the account you wish to use. Verify the password.

Windows XP

You can configure Windows XP to automate the logon process if your computer is not part of a domain. Computers configured in a business environment generally have a domain and for those machines the option “Users must enter a username” is not necessary since password has to be used when accessing the local area network or domain.

Click Start, click Run, and type control userpasswords2. This is a shortcut instead of having to click on Start -> Control Panel -> User Accounts.
Uncheck the “Users must enter a username and password to use this computer” check box.
Click Apply.
Enter the user name and password you wish to automatically log on with, and then click OK.
Click OK again and you’re all done.

How to speed up Firefox bookmarks?

Macintosh, Tech Support, Windows No Responses »

Oct 262010

My bookmarks.html file is 40 MB in size. Anytime I edit a bookmark in Bookmark Manager (Firefox), I find myself waiting 5-10 seconds for the operation to complete. (If I open up Activity Monitor, I can see there is a lot of disk activity).
Q: How can I tell my OS to specifically cache the file “bookmarks.html” (so that read/write operations on that file are fast) ?

This really is not an OS X issue…

To my knowledge there is no way to tell any mainstream OS to specifically Cache a file. That is done automatically by the OS. The OS detects the reading or writing to the file, and automatically stores the contents in a memory buffer for some period of time, especially if it detects frequent access to the file. (Yes, I’m simplifying, but the core concept is valid).

Now, I’m more concerned with the fact that your bookmarks file is 40 MB in size… Are you sure of this? Unless you have tens of thousands of booksmarks, I wouldn’t expect you to be anywhere near 40 MB.

And if it, then I would suggest validity your bookmarks, and making sure that you don’t have bad links in there… Here’s one plugin for Firefox that does this…

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The Matrix Data Bank

The History of Microsoft’s MS-DOS

What Microsoft Can Learn From Mac OS X Lion

Half a Million Space Battles! Congrats!

501,934

HALF A MILLION GAMES OF GRATUITOUS SPACE BATTLES.