Author: Dave Farquhar

The Card wasn’t real!

Dave Farquhar Baseball , , , , , ,

Somehow I missed this a couple of weeks ago, but the former owner of the most valuable baseball card ever, a 1909 tobacco card picturing Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame shortstop Honus Wagner, admitted to altering it sometime before he sold it. This card, sometimes called The Card, was owned by hockey great Wayne Gretzky for a time in the 1990s, so The Card is sometimes also called the Gretzky Wagner.

The story of the T206–T206 being the designation that the founder of baseball card collecting, Jefferson Burdick, assigned to that particular set–Wagner is shrouded in mystery anyway, and the Gretzky Wagner, even more so. The Gretzky Wagner was even the subject of a book published in 2008, appropriately titled The Card. Read more

Google’s plan for fiber seems to be working

Dave Farquhar ISPs ,

I saw this on Slashdot today: In Lawrence, Kan., about 40 miles west of Kansas City, Kan., a local ISP is building an affordable fiber network. Pricing is a little higher than Google Fiber, at $70/month for 100 megabit and $100/month for gigabit, but that’s still better than what you typically see from the local cable/phone duopoly.

The cable/phone duopoly won’t build this, so it’s going to have to be upstarts who do it.  Meet the new revolution: Same as the old revolution. Read more

“They were bored and wished they had a job.”

Dave Farquhar security , , , , , , ,

I was catching up on security podcasts this week, and a brief statement in one of them really grabbed me. The panel was talking about people who steal online gaming accounts, I think. The exact content isn’t terribly important–what’s very important is what this person found in the forums where the people who perform this nefarious activity hang out. What she found was that there was one common sentiment that almost everyone there expressed, frequently.

They were bored, and they wished they had a job.

There was about a 30-second exchange after that, but I don’t think it’s enough. Read more

When your CISSP isn’t enough

Dave Farquhar security , , ,

I had a job interview Monday. I have at least one observation from it–the things on my resume that impress recruiters don’t necessarily impress a good hiring manager. Not on their own, at least.

Let’s do some post-mortem.

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Value Village and Affton could be very good for one another

Dave Farquhar St. Louis , , , , , ,

There’s a Value Village thrift store in Shrewsbury that’s being displaced because the plaza it’s in–the same place I used to go to buy Commodore gear–is going to be demolished to make way for a Wal-Mart Supercenter. Whether Shrewsbury needs a Wal-Mart Supercenter when there’s one six miles away is another question for another day.

Value Village needs someplace to go, and Affton has an available retail space that’s been empty since the hardware store previously occupying it went out of business more than a year ago. County councilman Steve Stenger (D-Affton) wants to block the move, essentially saying that Affton is too good for a place like Value Village. Read more

PC Magazine’s tips for buying your own cable modem

Dave Farquhar Hardware

PC Magazine published a few tips for people looking to buy their own cable modems and ditch the monthly rental fee It’s also helpful if your existing modem quit working and you need a new one. Modems don’t last forever. It also contains a reminder: Make sure you know whether your modem is just a modem, or a combination device that routes as well.

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Lenovo’s phone is ringing again. And it’s IBM. Again.

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , , ,

When IBM sold its desktop and laptop PC business to Lenovo nine years ago, it held on to its x86-based server business. But now, IBM doesn’t see the x86 server business as a growth area anymore, and now they’re interested in selling that to Lenovo, too. Read more

Questions to ask before taking a job

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized , ,

I found this infographic from Avidcareerist via Lifehacker that lists 12 questions to ask before accepting a job offer. There is good information on it, though I have mixed feelings on some of them.

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The ACLU has a point about smartphone security

Dave Farquhar Android, security , , , , , , , , , ,

The ACLU complained to the FTC that carriers aren’t patching vulnerable Android phones. They have a point.

Phones are profitable, and the carriers are trying to have it both ways. Read more

Linksys isn’t the only company building insecure routers

Dave Farquhar security , , , , ,

I warned a few days ago about Linksys routers being trivially easy to hack; unfortunately many other popular routers have security vulnerabilities too.

The experts cited in the article have a few recommendations, which I will repeat and elaborate on. Read more