Author: Dave Farquhar

An HO scale Christmas village

Dave Farquhar model railroading , , , , ,
An HO scale Christmas village

Occasionally someone asks me to recommend an HO scale holiday village or HO scale Christmas village. The big-name villages are too big for HO scale trains, generally speaking, so I understand. There’s no big-name HO scale holiday village but there is a very affordable one.

I recommend Cobblestone Corners, available at Dollar Tree. Old stock is easy to find on Ebay as well.

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Is fast food considered retail?

Dave Farquhar Careers ,
Is fast food considered retail?

Is fast food considered retail? Only if you spin it. If you’re asking the question, that’s probably what you need to do. Here’s how to do just that if you’re looking for a change.

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Will baseball cards ever be valuable again?

Dave Farquhar Baseball, Investing
Will baseball cards ever be valuable again?

“Will baseball cards ever be valuable again?” someone asked me recently. The answer is that it depends. Not all cards were valuable in the first place.

Part of the problem is there was a time when 90% of boys collected cards. Now they don’t. Prices dropped due to simple supply and demand.

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Is CISSP worth it?

Dave Farquhar security , ,

Once people finish asking me how hard CISSP is, they often follow up with another question: Is CISSP worth it? As long as you have something to back it up with, I think the answer is a resounding yes.

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How DDoS attacks work

Dave Farquhar security , , , ,

Yesterday, half the Internet was broken. I knew something was wrong when I couldn’t get into Salesforce to check on a support ticket for my biggest customer. Another member of my team sent us a warning that a big DDoS attack was happening, and not to count on being able to issue very many quotes today. So what, exactly, is a DDoS attack and how do DDoS attacks work?

I suppose there’s another question to ask too: What can you do to avoid being part of the problem? We’ll save that for the end.

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Remove paint from metal

Dave Farquhar DIY

A lot of people know you can remove paint from metal with oven cleaner. What you may not know is that there’s a cheaper way that works just as well.

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An LCD monitor for retro computing

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing , , , , , ,
An LCD monitor for retro computing

Purists prefer CRT monitors for a more authentic experience, but if you don’t mind an LCD, here’s a good LCD monitor for retro computing. Look for a Dell 2001fp manufactured in June 2005 or before. For bonus points, try to find one with a soundbar.

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How hard is CISSP?

Dave Farquhar security , ,

CISSP difficulty is one of the most frequent questions I get once someone finds out I have it. “How hard is CISSP?” or “Could you pass CISSP again?” are two questions I get a lot.

They’re fair questions, and the answer is, it depends. But I can help you figure out the answer for yourself.

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Cordless phone frequencies

Dave Farquhar security
Cordless phone frequencies

If you are wondering about cordless phone frequencies, there are seven bands that have been in use since the 1980s. You can still buy phones for four of those frequencies.

There are two reasons to be concerned about a cordless phone’s frequency. The first is interference. Some phones interfere with other devices, such as wi-fi. The other reason is security.

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Wire a ceiling fan with light to one switch

Dave Farquhar DIY, Landlording , , ,
Wire a ceiling fan with light to one switch

People frequently wire a ceiling fan with a light to two light switches. That way they can control the fan with one switch and the light with the other. But what if the room has only one switch and you have to wire a ceiling fan with light to one switch? You can still do it. You just have to know what to do with the fan’s red or blue wire.

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