The Home Computer Hybrids: Atari, TI, and the FCC (opens in new tab)

It's a good thing that the FCC clamped down on RF emissions. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to run computers near each other. A TRS-80 and a Milton Bradley Big Trak (a programmable toy tank) would, if near each other, both crash from RF interference.

RFI incompatibility is almost forgotten as a problem now. That did not happen by accident.

> Very small hobby-entrepreneur computer makers were also losers; the new testing and certification requirements to show compliance with the standard posed a fixed cost on every computer model released, regardless of how many were sold, favoring economies of scale.

Although things turned out well for Apple (and for IBM, Commodore, and Radio Shack, for a while at least), it probably narrowed the playing field and made the industry less interesting.

CP/M probably suffered as well as a platform: although it could technically run (with appropriate hardware and software kits) on Apple, Commodore, Radio Shack and (for CP/M-86) IBM PCs, it was not the primary platform for any of them. DOS, generally MS-DOS, took its place on PC until it was replaced/obsoleted (including DR DOS etc.) by Microsoft Windows.

I used all of these as a kid, and they were the precursor to my C64 and C128. The TI 99/4A was the first real computer I ever used - real in the sense that it had a keyboard!

Dull title, but this is from the "Creatures of Thought" blog, which has constantly been really good.

(Also a bunch of stuff about steam engines, the industrial revolution, etc.)