Yearning for the simplicity of a spreadsheet that just does the basics? Think VisiCalc. Before VisiCalc, MBAs couldn’t come up with crazy financial models. People couldn’t balance their checkbooks at home. Instead, people just had to balance that checkbook on the back of their monthly bank statement. And investment bankersMORE HERE

PETERSBURG – It’s the greatest pen sign ever. It’s the Remmie Arnold Pen of Petersburg, Virginia. The company was founded by Remmie Arnold, who ran for governor of Virginia, but lost. He won at the pen game, and for a time Remmie Arnold was one of the world’s largest penMORE HERE

Those of an age to remember Jack Tramiel and his Commodore PET, VIC-20 and Commodore 64 will be heartened to read that there will be a new Commodore computer. This Commodore will be a so-called “netbook” for light use, reports CNET Crave. The Commodore UMMD 8010/F will have a 1.6GHzMORE HERE

Classic pencils are often overlooked. We all remember brands like Venus and Eberhard Faber, and can sense that feeling of a well-sharpened pencil. But many of the brands and individual pencil models have been forgotten; we forgot how the pencils looked. Not only that, but we tend to buy theMORE HERE

Editor’s Note from 2021: The brand was revived in the summer of 2021. More HERE. Apparently, the “bold vivid color” of El Marko (or el Marko) markers, made by Flair, were not long lasting enough. The pens have disappeared, though Flair pens survive, made by Newell Rubbermaid’s Paper Mate division.MORE HERE

What’s next, Lotus 1-2-3? In late September 2007, IBM announced that it would bring back the Lotus Symphony brand. Lotus Symphony was one of the first MS-DOS based office suites. IBM later acquired Lotus. This software, however, runs on open source, the Open Source Sun software called StarOffice. The goodMORE HERE