Author: Dave Farquhar

Extract a MAC address from Excel data

Dave Farquhar Office, security

A vulnerability scanner like Nessus or Qualys will record the MAC address of every computer it finds. But Qualys doesn’t output the MAC address in a nice column format. It mixes a lot of other data into the cell. So I had to figure out how to extract a MAC address from Excel data to give an infrastructure team an inventory they wanted.

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An announcement regarding Facebook and this blog

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized

Effective Aug 1, I won’t be able to post updates from the blog to my Facebook profile automatically. So if you follow me on Facebook, you won’t see blog posts after Aug 1. I have set up a Facebook page where I will be able to continue to post updates. If you’re interested in following this blog on Facebook, follow this page instead of me. If you want to watch me rant with my journalism school classmates from the 1990s, follow me.

And now I have two days to get posting to that page working. Wish me luck.

AT&T Internet vs Spectrum Internet

Dave Farquhar ISPs, Saving money
AT&T Internet vs Spectrum Internet

I’ve had high speed Internet for about as long as anyone in my ZIP code–as soon as DSL was available, I signed up and paid through the nose for it. It took a while for fiber optics to become an option, but I switched once I did. I’ve been a Southwestern Bell/AT&T customer for a good 20 years. Over the years I weighed AT&T Internet vs Spectrum Internet. And for a while, I switched.

I switched to Spectrum in 2016, then back to AT&T in 2018. There are pros and cons to each of them, so I thought going through them might be helpful. Keep in mind Spectrum encompasses several legacy companies. Charter Communications started re-branding itself as Spectrum soon before it acquired Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. Of the three, only Bright House Networks had a good reputation, but Bright House had low name recognition. Hence the use of the new name.

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Commodore Plus 4 and Commodore 16

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Commodore Plus 4 and Commodore 16

Dan Bowman kindly pointed me to former Commodore engineer Bil Herd’s discussion of the ill-fated Commodore TED machines on Hackaday. Here in the States, few remember the TED specifically, but some people may remember that oddball Commodore Plus 4 that closeout companies sold for $79 in 1985 and 1986. The Commodore Plus 4 was one of those TED machines. So was the Commodore 16.

What went wrong with those machines? Commodore miscalculated what the home computer market was doing. The TED was a solution to too many problems, and ended up not solving any of them all that well. Arguably it’s more popular with vintage computer enthusiasts today than it was in the 1980s. Read more

How to use your own router with AT&T U-verse or AT&T Fiber

Dave Farquhar ISPs
How to use your own router with AT&T U-verse or AT&T Fiber

AT&T provides a residential gateway when you subscribe to U-Verse or AT&T Fiber. It’s pretty easy to use, but lacks a lot of features we expect in routers these days. So you may be wondering: Can I use my own router with AT&T U-Verse? Yes. Yes you can. Here’s how to use your own router with AT&T U-Verse or AT&T Fiber.

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How to change an AT&T U-Verse wifi password

Dave Farquhar ISPs
How to change an AT&T U-Verse wifi password

AT&T’s default wi-fi passwords aren’t the worst I’ve seen, but they aren’t super-secure either. So here’s how to change an AT&T U-Verse wifi password. The same trick works with AT&T Fiber, since it uses the same residential gateways.

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Is there a virus on my phone?

Dave Farquhar Android, security
Is there a virus on my phone?

Is there a virus on my phone? Or your phone? I can’t know for certain, but probably not. Here’s what to do if your phone says it has a virus and wants you to visit a web page or pay someone money.

I’ll tell you what you really need to do, and I’ll even show you a neat trick so you’ll see fewer of these messages. And none of this will cost you anything, either.

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Does retail count as sales experience?

Dave Farquhar Careers
Does retail count as sales experience?

Does retail count as sales experience? I think it depends, but there are certainly ways you can make it count. Here’s how.

It all begins with knowing the products the store sells, and knowing what makes one product different from another.

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Countif example: Data analysis with Excel

Dave Farquhar Office
Countif example: Data analysis with Excel

The lowly Countif function is one of the most useful tools for data analysis you’ll find in Excel and other spreadsheets. It’s also not all that well understood, I find. Knowing how to use it sure has made my job much easier since 2013, so I think there’s a chance it will help you too. Here’s a Countif example to show you how to use it.

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Inherent risk definition

Dave Farquhar security
Inherent risk definition

Sometimes you’ll hear insurance professionals, banking professionals, computer security professionals, and other people who deal with risk talk about inherent risk and its counterpart, residual risk. If these are unclear to you, or you just need a refresher, you came to the right place. Let’s take a look at a simple inherent risk definition and example, as well as residual risk.

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