On Saturday morning, my wife went out for a few hours to run errands and left me home with the boys. And when she came home, I was on the living room floor building a garage out of Mega Bloks (an oversized Lego knockoff for toddlers) with them. My oldest is really, really into Cars [...]
All posts for the month July, 2011
Creative play with boys
Posted by Dave Farquhar on July 31, 2011
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2011/07/creative-play-with-boys/
Secure that public wi-fi with a low-tier, no-cost home VPN
If you spend any time at all using unencrypted wi-fi networks at hotels and coffee shops, you need a VPN. Public connections are fine for reading news headlines and checking sports scores, but cannot be considered safe for e-mail, online banking, making purchases, or anything that involves a username and a password. A VPN, which [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on July 31, 2011
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2011/07/secure-that-public-wi-fi-with-a-low-tier-no-cost-home-vpn/
Why you should align your SSD
Aligning an SSD is the process of ensuring that your filesystem’s logical blocks begin and end on the same memory boundaries as the SSD’s memory blocks. Doing this improves speed and longevity. Not doing it can roughly halve your drive’s life expectancy. It’s not as mysterious or weird as it may seem. I’ll try to [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on July 30, 2011
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2011/07/why-you-should-align-your-ssd/
How to tame e-books
I haven’t exactly been rushing out to buy an e-reader, for at least a couple of reasons. The practical reason is that I’m afraid of being locked in to a single vendor. Amazon is the market leader and the most likely to still be around for the long term, but they’re the worst about locking [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on July 29, 2011
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2011/07/how-to-tame-e-books/
I’m back.
Four words: Worst. Business trip. Ever. I’ll give some more details later, after the airline decides what they’re going to do to make things righter (they can’t make it right). They managed not to crash the plane. Which is less of an achievement than me managing to drive to the airport without crashing my car. [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on July 29, 2011
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2011/07/im-back-9/
The Dell Inspiron E1505 and its weird memory message
I added some memory to a Dell Inspiron E1505., an aging but serviceable Core 2 Duo-based laptop. And it greeted me with this: THE AMOUNT OF SYSTEM MEMORY HAS CHANGED . IF YOU DID NOT CHANGE MEMORY TO RESOLVE ISSUE RESEAT MEMORY.. And then it appeared to freeze. The problem is, I did change the [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on July 26, 2011
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2011/07/the-dell-inspiron-e1505-and-its-weird-memory-message/
Be careful when buying previous-generation hardware
So I was hoping I could score a bargain on some older Socket 775 hardware, being previous generation and all. And sometimes you can. But sometimes you can just think you’re getting a bargain. Here’s an example.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on July 25, 2011
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2011/07/be-careful-when-buying-previous-generation-hardware/
Synthetic oil + Marvel Mystery Oil = happy lawn mower
Someone requested a lawnmower update, so I’ll oblige. That’s easy enough to write up. And I’m happy to report I feel like I discovered one of the secrets of the universe. A new air filter and an oil change did wonders. But not just any oil change.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on July 24, 2011
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2011/07/synthetic-oil-marvel-mystery-oil-happy-lawn-mower/
Don’t fall for the new Facebook stalker scam
According to trusted antivirus vendor Sophos, there’s a rogue Facebook application, posing as an app that claims to reveal a way to see who’s been secretly viewing your profile. It’s a scam. And it’s spreading rapidly. It posts messages on your wall and tries to get you to visit a spam site. Don’t fall for [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on July 22, 2011
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2011/07/dont-fall-for-the-new-facebook-stalker-scam/
Approaches for home network storage
I put together a plan to update my home computer setup over the course of the next 12-18 months. You don’t want to know what I’m using as my primary desktop right now. You just don’t. One of the things on my to-do list is centralized storage. As the kids get older, I’m pretty sure [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on July 22, 2011
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2011/07/approaches-for-home-network-storage/