Author: Dave Farquhar

Floppy cable doesn’t fit? Here’s the fix.

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
Floppy cable doesn’t fit? Here’s the fix.

If you go to change or add drives in a vintage PC and your floppy cable doesn’t fit, there could be several reasons for it. Here’s what to do about it when this happens.

PC floppy cables are all 34 pins, but they can have several different ways of keying so you don’t plug them in wrong. This can cause physical compatibility issues that may require modifying the cable so it will plug into your motherboard.

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Buying tools at estate sales

Dave Farquhar DIY, Saving money
Buying tools at estate sales

While there are some potential pitfalls, you can do very well buying tools at estate sales. Probably 1/3 of my hand tools came from estate sales, and so did my most expensive corded power tools. Here’s how to find the best tools and the best deals.

The key is knowing what you’re looking for and what the tools you’re after are worth. Whether you’re buying tools to use or tools to collect, you don’t want to overpay. After all, you’re investing a lot of time, gas, and mileage. Factor that in.

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What to do with old Qualys zero-day vulnerabilities

Dave Farquhar security
What to do with old Qualys zero-day vulnerabilities

When you work with Qualys long enough, it’s inevitable that you’ll eventually find them: Zero-day vulnerabilities in software that’s several years old, with no patch available. There’s no easy answer about what to do with them, but here’s some advice for old Qualys zero-day vulnerabilities.

Zero-day vulnerabilities by definition have no vendor-supplied patch. Typically a vendor issues a patch a few days or weeks after a zero-day comes out, but there are a few zero-days from the 2007 timeframe that never got patches released, and those vulnerabilities require another type of mitigation.

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How do Lionel trains work?

Dave Farquhar Toy trains
How do Lionel trains work?

Lionel trains entertained kids for generations, and inspired some to become engineers. And not just train engineers. Sometimes it inspired them to electrical or mechanical engineering. But how do Lionel trains work? Let’s step through it.

A Lionel train is just a flow of electrons. The hot wire from your electrical box goes through a transformer to the center rail, then through the motor and out to the wheels, through the outer rails and back to the transformer and finally, back to the outlet and out of your house back through the panel.

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Yoast internal linking not working? Try this simple trick.

Dave Farquhar Wordpress
Yoast internal linking not working? Try this simple trick.

One of the main reasons I bought the Yoast SEO plugin was for its internal linking suggestions. It automatically flags similar content that you can link while writing or revising posts. But it didn’t work on my site. Here’s what finally fixed it for me, and might work for you if you find Yoast internal linking not working.

Yoast’s knowledge base has a number of suggestions, including looking for errors, disabling plugins, or switching to a stock theme. If none of those suggestions helps, you might have too many tags.

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Search by MAC address in Qualys

Dave Farquhar security
Search by MAC address in Qualys

Qualys Assetview is the vendor-preferred way to search in Qualys. Admittedly, its Elasticsearch interface is slick. But Assetview doesn’t usually let you search by MAC address even though the field exists. So here’s how to search by MAC address in Qualys using other functionality in the tool.

Qualys Asset Search has the ability to search based on the presence of a QID and its results. So you can search on QID 43007 containing the results of the MAC address you want. If Qualys finds a match, it pulls up the machine you are looking for.

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Northern Tool vs Harbor Freight

Dave Farquhar DIY
Northern Tool vs Harbor Freight

When a Northern Tool opened up near me, I assumed it was something like Harbor Freight. So did everyone else, it seemed. But there are significant differences between the two stores. Both have a reputation for being stores that sell cheap Chinese tools. When it comes to Northern Tool, that’s an oversimplification. Northern Tool vs Harbor Freight isn’t necessarily an obvious comparison, it turns out.

Both Northern Tool and Harbor Freight sell things you won’t find at your local home center. But while Harbor Freight devotes most of its store to cheap tools made mostly in China, Northern Tool also sells costlier brand-name tools. Each store also sells things the other doesn’t. If you want a big tool chest, go to Harbor Freight. If you want a lawn mower, go to Northern Tool.

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Fix a Craftsman table saw that won’t turn on

Dave Farquhar DIY
Fix a Craftsman table saw that won’t turn on

My Craftsman table saw broke the third time I used it. That was nice of it. Fortunately there isn’t a lot that goes wrong with these, so they’re easy to fix. Here’s how to fix a Craftsman table saw that won’t turn on.

There are two or three things to try. Unplug the saw, then first, just clean out the sawdust from the underside with your vacuum cleaner. Second, look for a red reset switch on the motor. Press it if yours has one. Third, take off the power switch, check its connections and clean it.

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Marx Commodore Vanderbilt train engine

Dave Farquhar Toy trains
Marx Commodore Vanderbilt train engine

The Marx Commodore Vanderbilt train engine was one of Marx’s most enduring and beloved locomotives, produced from 1934-1942 and again from 1946-1952. It remains popular with collectors and operators today.

Based loosely on the New York Central’s streamlined Art Deco-style Hudson locomotive introduced in late 1934, Marx typically packed the Commodore Vanderbilt into sets with its six-inch cars and a loop of O27 track. The sets were available anywhere toys were sold, and came in windup and electric versions.

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Stream from Windows Media Player to Roku

Dave Farquhar Windows
Stream from Windows Media Player to Roku

I wanted to be able to stream from Windows Media Player to Roku. I have lots of media stored on my Windows computers, but what’s the point of connecting a computer to my TV if I already have a Roku on it? Fortunately it’s not hard to get Roku and Windows talking.

People of a certain age probably have a lot of media loaded on their PCs, whether it’s MP3s ripped from CDs or vinyl, home movies, or digital video obtained from other sources. Needless to say, a lot of that stuff isn’t on streaming services and never will be. But that doesn’t mean you don’t want to watch it.

Windows Media Player can stream between multiple PCs, but it can also stream to devices like Roku, which, in many cases, is even more convenient.

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