I explored the hierarchy of the PC industry through a look at 64-bit processors. Seeing Microsoft atop Intel, HP, and Dell provides a useful framework for predicting how the market and hardware standards will evolve over time.
Article on 64-bit processors. Interesting description of the PC industry pecking order: Microsoft > Intel > HP / Dell. Keeping that in mind does help predict a lot of the PC’s future. via RobotWisdom
I'm observing a significant crash in PC hardware prices. Open source hardware initiatives could potentially accelerate this market shift, leading to much cheaper components and a more accessible computing landscape for everyone.
I built a 30-line Python scraper using ScraperWiki to extract detailed laptop specifications from Flipkart after finding that no Indian retail sites allowed filtering by hardware details like hard disk RPM.
I've highlighted how Microsoft’s Mac-to-PC 'switcher' ad was a fraud. The featured person actually worked for a PR firm hired by Microsoft, showing the testimonial was a staged corporate response to Apple's campaign.
Distributed.net cracked the RC5-64 encryption algorithm after four years, proving it's unsuitable for long-term security. The project demonstrates the massive potential of distributed computing for solving computationally expensive cryptographic challenges.
I highlighted several standout sites from PC World’s 2001 best-of list, including Safeweb for privacy, Betanews for software updates, and ArtistDirect for music. These resources represent some of the most useful tools available on the early internet.