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How long do roofs last on houses?

Dave Farquhar DIY, Landlording May 24, 2017March 17, 2018extra money

How long do roofs last on houses? That’s an important question to ask when you’re buying a house, and an important thing to keep in mind if you own your home. A safe assumption is 20 years, though it varies depending on the roof type.

Your roof, air conditioner, and furnace are the big three expenses for a home. The roof lasts the longest of the three, but is also the most expensive.

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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HP Compaq 6910p upgrades

Dave Farquhar Hardware December 28, 2015August 3, 2017black friday, compaq, extra money, hp, intel, kingston, prime95, samsung, Windows 10, windows 7

I spent some time exploring HP Compaq 6910p upgrades because used HP Compaq 6910p laptops are dirt cheap these days. I picked one up for $75 as an alternative to a Black Friday cheapie.

If you look for one yourself, either look for one with a valid Windows 7 or Windows 10 license on it, or get one at a deep enough discount to make it worth your while.

Here’s what I did to turn an outmoded laptop from 2008 into something better than what I could have bought on Black Friday.

Dave Farquhar

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The freedom to fix our stuff

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized September 11, 2015July 15, 2017capacitor, capacitors, commodore, extra money, samsung, Wall Street Journal, yahoo

This week the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial about the right to fix our gadgets. It was surprisingly pro-consumer. The author wrote about a friend whose Samsung TV broke due to $12 worth of capacitors and how he fixed the TV, with no experience, in a couple of hours. I can relate, though I took the easy way out.

He lamented the throwaway of gadgets being unethical on several levels, and I agree. I also remember a time when it wasn’t this way.

Dave Farquhar

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My favorite LED bulbs for 2014

Dave Farquhar Saving money September 28, 2014February 21, 2015CFL, extra money, home depot, led bulbs, occupancy sensor, philips

After talking about LEDs last week, a friend asked what my favorite LED bulbs today are. I’m not sure I would say I dislike any of the bulbs that are widely available today, but I do have two favorites.

Dave Farquhar

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Tips on buying used stuff

Dave Farquhar Saving money June 5, 2014August 30, 20171980s, Consumer Reports, estate sales, extra money, garage sales, hardware store, lcd monitors, lifehacker, Marvel Mystery Oil, playstation, Spark plug, whirlpool

I just found a Lifehacker piece on buying used stuff without getting ripped off. I have plenty of experience in this area.

The key, I think, is to deal in person, and test as much functionality as you can before handing over the cash. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Linksys isn’t the only company building insecure routers

Dave Farquhar security April 18, 2013April 17, 2013dd wrt, extra money, linksys, markup, passwords, tomato

I warned a few days ago about Linksys routers being trivially easy to hack; unfortunately many other popular routers have security vulnerabilities too.

The experts cited in the article have a few recommendations, which I will repeat and elaborate on. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Only eleven percent of used hard drives contain recoverable data?

Dave Farquhar Hardware, security May 29, 2012cissp, extra money, PII

I read the shocking news that 11% of used hard drives in the UK contain recoverable personal data.

The news is shocking, of course, that it isn’t much higher. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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10 worst ways to make extra money

Dave Farquhar Saving money May 20, 2012October 31, 2020extra money, real estate, recycling

Wise Bread gives the 10 worst ways to make extra money. The scary thing is, I’ve actually looked into most of these, and tried some. And they’re mostly right. Most of them are just a waste of time. Here’s what’s wrong with them, and the caveats with the ones that are halfway useful, for a limited time.
Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Don’t let debt cripple you

Dave Farquhar Saving money October 18, 2011December 5, 2015car payment, debts, extra money, minimum payment, mortgage, paying off debt, student loans, windfall

Sometimes people ask me for help with their finances. And I’ve seen the effects that debt can have on people. I believe having no debt is best. Having debt that you’re paying off is second-best. Festering debt, however, is crippling. That’s what you want to avoid, before it catches up with you. Not only can bad debts keep you from borrowing more money, it can also make it more difficult to sign a lease or get a job.

Here’s how to make a plan to pay off that debt and improve your credit score.

Dave Farquhar

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Don’t use software firewalls: Good advice or bad?

Dave Farquhar security October 10, 2011October 9, 2011amd, extra money, firewall, intel, linksys, malware, netgear, prison, vista, vulnerability, Windows XP, x86

A common piece of good-meaning advice you’ll hear is that you should never use software firewalls. But is that good advice, or bad?

On the surface, it’s good advice. It’s much better to use the firewall built into a cable/DSL router. But the software firewall built into Windows XP, Vista, 7, and (presumably) 8 makes for a good second line of defense, so I don’t recommend disabling it.

I’ll explain further.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

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