Author: Dave Farquhar

How to hook up a monitor to a laptop

Dave Farquhar Hardware
How to hook up a monitor to a laptop

It didn’t used to be hard to connect a monitor to a laptop, but the large number of different connectors and seeming lack of standards makes it harder today. Let’s cut through the confusion and figure out how to hook up a monitor to a laptop.

Why is it so hard? Because adapters and cables have higher profit margins than laptops. But don’t worry. We’ll sort out how to make the connection, then how to extend or mirror the built-in display.

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Silicon Power S55 SSD is a hard bargain

Dave Farquhar Hardware
Silicon Power S55 SSD is a hard bargain

The Silicon Power S55 SSD frequently goes on sale and is usually the cheapest SSD you’ll find. But is it a bargain? I dug into it to find out.

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What does BBS mean, or bulletin board system?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
What does BBS mean, or bulletin board system?

What does BBS mean? In the 1980s and early 1990s, before the Internet was available for home use, hobbyists would set up a computer with a modem on a phone line to see who would call in. In some cases, hundreds of people did. Here’s a look back at the days of the BBS, or bulletin board system, and what people did with their modems in days of yore.

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Best certifications to get

Dave Farquhar Careers
Best certifications to get

Some people regard certifications as overrated. But given the number of resumes human resources departments get, having the certifications listed in the job description, even if the description calls them desirable and not required, really helps. You need something to make you stand out, and certifications are an effective way to do that. Here are the 16 best certifications to get, in my 20 years of experience in IT.

If you already have an IT position but don’t have some of these certifications, these certifications can be good goals to put on your annual review. Most of them are attainable within a year, and they increase your value to your present employer, so a good employer is willing to pay for the training and examination fee as long as you agree not to leave within a certain period of time.

Also, there’s no reason to think you need to get all of these. You can have a long and productive career with one or two of them. The key is which two. But you’ll know which ones apply to your situation and which ones don’t. Like a college degree, having certifications opens doors. If you don’t have a degree, certifications can help make up for it.

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How to become a system administrator

Dave Farquhar Careers
How to become a system administrator

No one told me how to become a system administrator. I figured it out eventually, but made some mistakes along the way. So let me tell you what nobody ever told me, and hopefully you can avoid the mistakes I made.

I’ve been an IT professional for more than 20 years now. I was a system administrator for nine of those 20 years. You may find you can do better than being a system administrator forever. But I know system administrators who had long careers and enjoyed it. Regardless, becoming a system administrator is at the very least a great stepping stone to other things. So here’s how to become a system administrator.

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What is a blog used for?

Dave Farquhar Journalism, Wordpress
What is a blog used for?

What is a blog used for? Well, take it from a guy who’s been blogging since 1999. It’s used for a lot of things, depending on who is running the blog. It helps to remember that ultimately, a blog is just a web site. So you can use it for anything you would use any other web page for. But let’s explore it. My motivations for blogging certainly have changed over time.

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How to create a good password

Dave Farquhar security
How to create a good password

Most passwords aren’t good, because humans just aren’t very good at making good ones and computers are much better at guessing them than at telling humans whether they are good. So here’s how to create a good password.

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How good is my password?

Dave Farquhar security
How good is my password?

How good is my password? Chances are, not as good as the web site’s strength-o-meter says it is. That’s assuming the site even has a strength-o-meter. Unfortunately, more goes into the quality of a password than just the things the typical web site strength-o-meter measures. Here’s what you need to know, and what you can do about it.

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What is a reseller?

Dave Farquhar Saving money
What is a reseller?

When you see a for sale ad, you may see phrases like “great for resellers” or “reseller ready” or “resellers welcome.” So what is a reseller? And why does someone selling something want to attract one?

I’ll answer those questions. And if you think you might want to be a reseller but don’t know where to start, I have some tips for that too.

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What is CMOS in a computer?

Dave Farquhar Hardware
What is CMOS in a computer?

From time to time, people may bring up CMOS, which can be a confusing topic because it can actually mean several things. These days it normally means one specific thing though. So let’s explore the question of what is CMOS in a computer.

It’s a tougher question than you might think. It even confuses professionals sometimes. Including published authors.

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