April 2012

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How I decide whether it’s time to stay or go

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized April 17, 2012

Some of my coworkers and I are dealing with a crossroads in our respective careers. It’s caused us to have some conversations. And since I’ve moved around a lot more than anyone else in my office–I work with a lot of people who’ve spent their entire adult lives working for two or fewer employers–I’ve taken some questions.

I’ve never really had to think about whether it’s time to move on. I just seem to know. But I think now I realize how I know. Read more

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

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Intel enters the budget Sandforce market

Dave Farquhar Hardware April 16, 2012data compression, intel, ocz, ramdisk

Intel announced a new low-end SSD today, the 330, based on a Sandforce 2281 controller. The popular 120 GB capacity will retail for $149. While not as cheap as OCZ’s entry-level SSDs, it’s within striking distance. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Is landlording profitable?

Dave Farquhar Landlording, Saving money April 16, 2012November 27, 20181940s, 1950s, being a landlord, index fund, real estate, William Nickerson

Last Updated on November 27, 2018 by Dave Farquhar

Is landlording profitable? The answer is yes. Where people disagree, I think, is on the timing, and perhaps to a lesser degree, on the strategy.

My wife read an article yesterday on real estate investing that made her mad. I’d link to it, but I can’t find it today–maybe it was pulled. But the premise was that you shouldn’t invest in real estate, because being a landlord isn’t a quick way to get rich.

I agree with the second part. But the first part doesn’t logically follow. In fact, I don’t care who you are, probably the best thing you can do for yourself is forget about trying to get rich quickly. I speak from experience. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Happy late birthday, OS/2

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 15, 2012June 7, 20171990s, compaq, IBM, Missouri, New York, New York City, university of missouri, vista, windows 2000, windows 7, windows nt, Windows Server, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Last Updated on June 7, 2017 by Dave Farquhar

Twenty-five years ago this month, on April 2, IBM announced its new PS/2 computers and a new multitasking operating system to run on (most of) them–OS/2. They even lured a bunch of the actors from M*A*S*H to do an ad campaign for them.

It didn’t seem like it at the time, but that was the beginning of the end of IBM’s PC business.
Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Let Eric Hosmer hit second

Dave Farquhar Baseball April 14, 2012Billy Butler, cleveland indians, Jarrod Dyson, Kansas City, kansas city royals, Lorenzo Cain, Ned Yost, Oakland Athletics, walter johnson

Yesterday, the Cleveland Indians humiliated the Kansas City Royals 8-3 in what really looked like a showdown between two bad teams. Neither team played especially well, but the Indians were less bad. And in any given game, less bad is all it takes to win.

The Royals fielded poorly in the first inning and that made the difference, but the makeshift lineup the Royals fielded made it difficult for them to catch up. And catching up wasn’t out of the question. The Indians didn’t have Cy Young or Walter Johnson out there; it was the aging Derek Lowe. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Easier deep Firefox SQL optimization

Dave Farquhar Software April 14, 2012chrome, firefox, mac os x, os x, profiles, ramdisk, speedup, SQL, sqlite

Last year I examined ways to optimize Firefox’s SQLite databases. I’ve since found I like it better when I just put the Firefox profile in a ramdisk, but that may not be an option in all cases.

If you don’t want to go the latter route and would like to avoid the command line jockeying, give Speedyfox a look. And even if you’ve put Firefox in a ramdisk, this program can be useful. You won’t notice any speedup inside a ramdisk, but SQL optimization saves storage space, which is always at a premium inside ramdisks. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Security+ test taking tips

Dave Farquhar security April 13, 2012November 20, 2016passwords, spam, Windows XP

Last Updated on November 20, 2016 by Dave Farquhar

One of my coworkers is being required to get a Security+ certification, and asked me for advice. She’s gone to class, read some books, and she’s going to another class on TCP/IP, but she’s just not comfortable yet. I gave her some Security+ test taking tips.

Since other people might be in her situation, I figure it’s worth writing about. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Review: First Alert PIR725 motion sensing socket

Dave Farquhar Saving money April 11, 2012August 10, 2016CFL, cfls, incandescent bulbs

Last Updated on August 10, 2016 by Dave Farquhar

I bought a First Alert PIR725 motion sensing socket, which has the distinction of working with CFLs, as well as incandescent bulbs. The premise is simple. Screw it into a bulb socket, screw the bulb into the socket, and it turns the light on when it sees you, then after it senses there’s no one in the room, it waits four minutes and turns the light off.

Dave Farquhar

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