David L. Farquhar

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Gaslight Square, St. Louis

Dave Farquhar St. Louis January 12, 2021August 23, 2022

Gaslight Square was a popular arts and entertainment district in the St. Louis Central West End neighborhood whose heyday ran from the mid 1950s to the mid 1960s. It was a three-block area near the intersection of Olive and Boyle, a mile or so north of what’s now the Cortex District. Today, suburban-style housing stands where the clubs and shops once stood. One business with a Gaslight Square connection remains, operating nearly three miles away.

Gaslight Square was a phenomenon, a widely cited example of urban redevelopment, born of a tornado, and extinguished by a highly publicized murder. Despite its best efforts, St. Louis has never replicated it.

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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30-30-30 reset

Dave Farquhar Hardware January 11, 2021May 14, 2023

If you’re messing around with routers, you’re going to come across the phrase 30-30-30 reset. Often without explanation. Here’s what this reset is and why it works.

A 30-30-30 reset is the technique of holding the reset button on a router for 30 seconds, unplugging the power at the 30 second mark while continuing to hold the button down, then plugging the power back in while holding the button an additional 30 seconds before releasing. It’s helpful on older routers, but on AC routers and newer, it’s not recommended.

Dave Farquhar

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Mito tin trains: Postwar Japanese tin

Dave Farquhar Toy trains January 8, 2021August 27, 2022

The topic of Mito tin trains comes up periodically among Marx train collectors. These Japanese trains are about the size of Marx, and sometimes get mixed in with Marx. But they’re clearly something different. They are a bit obscure, so here’s what I know about them.

Dave Farquhar

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Early majority in marketing

Dave Farquhar Investing January 7, 2021May 9, 2025

The early majority is an important concept in marketing and business. I’ll provide you the definition, an example and how to recognize it, and what comes after it. I’ll also share a cautionary tale of why not recognizing an early majority can be a costly mistake.

Dave Farquhar

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How to hook up a Sega Genesis to a TV

Dave Farquhar Retro Gaming January 6, 2021January 22, 2025

The Sega Genesis connects to a TV in much the same way as other consoles of similar vintage. But there are some dangers unique to the Genesis that give you an opportunity to damage either the console or your TV. We certainly don’t want that. Here’s how to hook up a Sega Genesis to a modern TV without damaging either.

Some Sega Genesis parts are interchangeable with other systems, but not universally. That means it’s very important to verify the AC adapter you plan to use, as well as the AV cable you want to use, to avoid damage to your console, your TV, or both.

Dave Farquhar

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Homer G. Phillips Hospital, St. Louis

Dave Farquhar St. Louis January 5, 2021January 23, 2022

Homer G. Phillips hospital in St. Louis was a public hospital owned and operated by the city of St. Louis from 1937 to 1979. Between 1937 and 1955, when its hospitals were segregated, it was the only hospital for Blacks in St. Louis. It holds the distinction of being the first teaching hospital to serve Blacks west of the Mississippi River.

Homer G. Phillips hospital was named for a prominent lawyer who recognized the inadequacy of the existing Black hospital in St. Louis and led a campaign for a larger facility. It had 685 beds, stands at 2601 N. Whittier Street, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The building was largely vacant for 23 years but reopened as senior living apartments in 2003.

Dave Farquhar

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Dell Optiplex case swap: A How-to guide

Dave Farquhar Hardware January 4, 2021March 11, 2024

Rebuilding old Dell Optiplexes for home use is common, because Dell Optiplexes are so easy to get and cheap. But there’s a problem if you want to put an Optiplex board in a standard ATX case, whether it’s to make the computer look less corporate, or because you got the board really inexpensively without a Dell case. Dell uses proprietary connectors. Not only that, the connectors aren’t even consistent across different models, even in the same generation. Here’s how to deal with that so you can do a Dell Optiplex case swap, and put a Dell motherboard in a new ATX case.

While Dell uses the standard ATX mounting holes in its minitowers and even its desktops, the front panel connectors are completely nonstandard, and sometimes the power supply connectors are too. Fortunately you can get adapters.

Dave Farquhar

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Qualys vs Rapid7

Dave Farquhar security December 31, 2020December 30, 2020

Where they rank any given year may vary, but there’s no doubt Qualys and Rapid7 are two of the big three in vulnerability scanning tools. Both tools have their pros and cons. Let’s look at Qualys vs Rapid7 so you can figure out which one is right for you.

Dave Farquhar

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Is the Commodore 128 power supply safe to use?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing December 30, 2020January 6, 2026

Commodore 64 power supplies are notoriously unsafe to use. As a result, all Commodore power supplies have a bad reputation. I won’t say it’s unfair. But it means questions about the Commodore 128 power supply come up frequently on vintage computer discussion groups. Is the Commodore 128 power supply safe to use? The short answer is yes. Here’s why.

Dave Farquhar

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