Month: March 2012

Apply your monthly patches just as soon as you can

Dave Farquhar security, Windows , , , , , ,

There are only six patches in this month’s edition of Patch Tuesday, and only one of them is critical, but it’s a big one.

The critical patch fixes a flaw in Remote Desktop Protocol, something typically only present in the business-oriented flavors of Windows. But if you don’t know whether you’re affected, it behooves you to let Windows update whatever it wants to update. Read more

Quit sniveling about a tech skills gap and train your workers

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized , , ,

Infoworld tells employers to quit sniveling about their workers not having enough skills and train them.

Sounds good. It worked in the organization where I work.

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The stupid juice–it burns

Dave Farquhar Society , , ,

John Dominik has been on a tear lately. Yesterday he wrote twice; the latter piece, The Stupid Juice–it Burns, shows an attitude that’s far too rare these days and frankly is one of the best pieces I’ve read in a very long time, anywhere. He laments people’s tendency to act as if those who disagree with them are subhuman and have no right to exist.

If you haven’t read it, I strongly suggest you do.
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How to make persistent headers in Excel

Dave Farquhar Office, Software ,

Last Updated on May 17, 2017 by Dave Farquhar

My boss and I are compiling a huge Excel spreadsheet that summarizes everything our organization has ever done. It’s as big of a pain as it sounds. What makes it worse is having to scroll all the way back to the beginning to view the headers. The solution: make persistent headers in Excel.

The trick to making a persistent header that shows all the time, even after scrolling, hides in the View tab in Excel 2007.
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Unix-to-Windows copies with PSCP

Dave Farquhar Linux, security, Windows , , , , ,

I’ve been moving files between Linux servers, and to and from Windows boxes, as part of my server migration. I started to write about how I’ve been doing it, but it seemed oddly familiar.

Yep, I’ve written about SCP and its Windows port, PSCP, before. Do this long enough and you find yourself repeating yourself.

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A free tool keeps Windows from hibernating during long downloads

Dave Farquhar Windows

So you’re downloading a large ISO image like a Linux distribution, or Windows with an integrated service pack. You get the download going, then go to work, and come home expecting to find a it waiting for you, only to find your computer went to sleep after just an hour. It makes your day, doesn’t it?

A free, portable program called Coffee–I guess it’s named that way because it keeps Windows from going to sleep–can fix that for you without you having to diddle with power settings and then having to remember to change them back.

Marx trains and Lionel 1121 switches

Dave Farquhar Toy trains , , , , , ,

Last Updated on November 22, 2016 by Dave Farquhar

There is some unfortunate misinformation circulating on various train forums. I first read this misinformation in the outstanding book by Peter Riddle, Trains from Grandfather’s Attic, published in 1991. As Classic Toy Trains editor Bob Keller noted while we were finishing up my article late last year, incorrect information in print lasts a long time. A very long time, sometimes. Lionel 1121 switches and Marx trains are rumored to get along famously. I am sad to report they do not.
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Is TRIM better than Native Command Queuing?

Dave Farquhar Hardware , ,

Last Updated on November 30, 2015 by Dave Farquhar

Another question from the big bag ‘o search queries: When you’re shopping for an SSD, is TRIM better than Native Command Queuing?

It’s an interesting question, and my first inclination is to say no, because TRIM and NCQ solve two similar but distinctly different problems. But the more I think about it, the more I understand why it’s possible to confuse the two.

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The old days of viruses

Dave Farquhar security, Viruses , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Last Updated on August 12, 2018 by Dave Farquhar

Blogging pioneer John Dominik, inspired by my Michelangelo memories, wrote about his memories of viruses later in the decade. So now I’ll take inspiration of him and share my memories of some of those viruses. I searched my archives, and at the time it was going on, I didn’t write a lot. I was tired and angry, as you can tell from the terse posts I did write.

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Remembering Michelangelo

Dave Farquhar security , , , , , , , ,

Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the Michelangelo virus. If you don’t remember, on March 6, 1992, Michelangelo was programmed to overwrite the first 100 sectors of a hard drive–not quite as destructive as formatting a drive, but to the average user, the effect is the same. It was a huge scare–John McAfee predicted five million computers would be affected–but largely was a non-event.

Those of you studying for security certifications would do well to remember that Michelangelo is a prime example of a virus and a logic bomb. Viruses replicate; logic bombs do something when an event triggers. Malware doesn’t always fit neatly into specific categories–crossovers are common.
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