How to help the tornado-struck community of Moore, Okla.

I’ll put what I was going to write about this morning on hold for a few days. I was writing about something that disappoints me, but it’s nothing compared to a mile-wide tornado hitting the town you live in, which is what happened to 55,000 residents of Moore, Oklahoma yesterday.

Now, aside from a year or so in Ohio as a toddler, I’ve spent my entire life in Tornado Alley. There are seven states that get more tornadoes than Missouri, but only seven. Oklahoma gets more than any state other than Texas. I know the drill, and even my three-year-old knows it. When the sirens blare, everyone goes to the basement, and I turn on one of the weather channels to see what’s going on. I even have a battery-operated TV that I can use if the power goes out. It happens several times a year, and we’re used to it.

What we’re not used to is the bad stuff happening. That happens every year too, somewhere, but you never really get used to that. Read the full post »

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by on May 21, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Dave Farquhar on May 21, 2013

http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/05/how-to-help-the-tornado-struck-community-of-moore-okla/

How I accidentally found a way to mess with “Peggy”

“Peggy” from “Computer Support Department” just won’t give up. He called me again at about 8 PM this evening. This time, I played along. I had a thrift-store junker PC for him to infect with his malware. The only problem was, the hard drive wasn’t connected and neither was the power cord. So I quickly hooked all that up, booted up, and then played along.

“I want you to click on Internet Explorer.”

“OK.”

“What do you see?”

“Page cannot be found.”

Thus I learned that Peggy isn’t very good at troubleshooting network issues. Read the full post »

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by on May 20, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Dave Farquhar on May 20, 2013

http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/05/how-i-accidentally-found-a-way-to-mess-with-peggy/

An upgrade. And an upsell.

I bought a new radio for my venerable 2002 Honda Civic this weekend. I want to be able to listen to security podcasts on my commute, which wasn’t practical with my factory radio. So, off to the nearest car audio shop (Custom Sounds) I went. I looked at a couple of $119 decks, then the salesman mentioned an Alpine HD radio deck for $129, and a Sony deck with Bluetooth for $149. Bluetooth didn’t really interest me much, but HD radio seemed worth the extra $10. To me, the secondary HD stations seem more interesting than the primary ones. Then again, I’m the guy who skips right past the hits on U2′s The Joshua Tree and cues up “Red Hill Mining Town.” The stuff I really like generally doesn’t do all that well on mainstream radio.

But my main motivation was to get a radio with a USB port, so I can snarf down a few hours’ worth of podcasts every week to a USB thumb drive, plug it in, and stay in touch with the security world. Total overkill for an Alpine, but like the salesman said, Alpines aren’t crazy expensive anymore like I remember them being in the early 1990s. Read the full post »

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by on May 20, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Dave Farquhar on May 20, 2013

http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/05/an-upgrade-and-an-upsell/

There are several things to like about the Television Consumer Freedom Act of 2013

The Television Consumer Freedom Act of 2013 is coming soon to a Senate near you, and there are several things in it worth paying attention to.

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by on May 17, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Dave Farquhar on May 17, 2013

http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/05/there-are-several-things-to-like-about-the-television-consumer-freedom-act-of-2013/

Blame IT.

Earlier this month, Cringely blamed Best Buy’s IT for the company’s woes. His observations make sense. I can only add two things.

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by on May 16, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Dave Farquhar on May 16, 2013

http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/05/blame-it/

“It’s your happy place.”

Someone told me today that she didn’t quite get the appeal of model railroading, that it must be a male thing. And that’s fair: Model railroads were first invented by a dollhouse maker so they would have something to market to boys. That company still markets trains, but no longer markets dollhouses, so I guess you could say it was successful.

Here’s how I summed up the appeal.

Read the full post »

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by on May 15, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in model railroading, Toy trains
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Posted by Dave Farquhar on May 15, 2013

http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/05/its-your-happy-place/

Antivirus progress

When Microsoft Security Essentials first came out, it was an improvement in antivirus performance. Now, it’s middle of the pack, according to PC Magazine. That’s great. Vendors are finally taking performance seriously.

What that means is that by replacing MSE with F-Secure Anti-Virus 2013, Kaspersky Anti-Virus (2013), Sophos Anti-Virus 10.2, ESET NOD32 Antivirus 6, Norton Antivirus (2013), Avast Free Antivirus 8, or Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2013, you can speed up your computer. Considering Norton Antivirus was once bottom-of-the-barrel in the performance arena, I see this as a good thing.

Of the bunch, Avast is the only freebie. Though if your ISP offers one of the others as part of your subscription, or you don’t mind paying for antivirus, the others are an option. But maybe, just maybe, if I replace Microsoft Security Essentials with Avast, Peggy will quit calling me at dinnertime and telling me my computer is slow. But I doubt it. Read the full post »

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by on May 14, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Dave Farquhar on May 14, 2013

http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/05/antivirus-progress/

The explanation about Windows vs. Linux kernel performance makes sense

An anonymous Microsoft developer spilled some juicy opinions about why Windows kernel performance isn’t all it could be. Although he has recanted much of what he said, some of his insights make a ton of sense.

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by on May 13, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Linux, Windows
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Posted by Dave Farquhar on May 13, 2013

http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/05/the-explanation-about-windows-vs-linux-kernel-performance-makes-sense/

Notes on the Compaq Presario SR2011WM

I’ve been working on a Presario SR2011WM. It’s a basic, low-end, single-core Celeron D system from 2006 or so. It can take up to 2 GB of RAM, runs Windows XP adequately, and has SATA ports, so you can put an SSD in it if you want. But don’t be fooled by the name–the Celeron in this machine is single core, and has a Prescott-era Pentium 4 core in it at that, not a low-TDP, Pentium D-style core.

In case you’re wondering, the easiest way to get it to boot from USB is to plug in a USB drive, hit ESC as the system runs POST, then select your USB drive from the menu.

Now let’s talk about options for upgrades. Read the full post »

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by on May 12, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Dave Farquhar on May 12, 2013

http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/05/notes-on-the-compaq-presario-sr2011wm/

Two simple ways to increase your credit score

I have a friend who makes more money than me, has no debt except for a small mortgage, and his credit score is 150 points lower than mine.

The key difference between us is that he puts a couple thousand into a checking account at the first of every month and pays for everything with a debit card. I do the same thing, but use a credit card, and pay the credit card off at the end of the month.

Read the full post »

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by on May 11, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Saving money
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Posted by Dave Farquhar on May 11, 2013

http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/05/two-simple-ways-to-increase-your-credit-score/

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