Author: Dave Farquhar

Notes on the Compaq Presario SR2011WM

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , , , , , ,

I’ve been working on a Compaq Presario SR2011WM. It’s a basic, low-end, single-core Celeron D system from 2006 or so. It can take up to 2 GB of RAM, runs Windows XP adequately, and has SATA ports, so you can put an SSD in it if you want. But don’t be fooled by the name–the Celeron in this machine is single core, and has a Prescott-era Pentium 4 core in it at that, not a low-TDP, Pentium D-style core.

In case you’re wondering, the easiest way to get it to boot from USB is to plug in a USB drive, hit ESC as the system runs POST, then select your USB drive from the menu.

Now let’s talk about options for upgrades. Read more

Two simple ways to increase your credit score

Dave Farquhar Saving money , , , ,
Two simple ways to increase your credit score

I have a friend who makes more money than me, has no debt except for a small mortgage, and his credit score is 150 points lower than mine. By becoming more like me, you can increase your credit score.

The key difference between us is that he puts a couple thousand into a checking account at the first of every month and pays for everything with a debit card. I do the same thing, but use a credit card, and pay the credit card off at the end of the month.

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The NSA’s guide to finding things on the Internet is available now

Dave Farquhar security ,

A wonderful NSA document called Untangling the Web, thanks to a FOIA request, is now available and free for all to download and use. Although dated, the book will prove highly useful. If you company or client is exposing data that it shouldn’t to the public Internet, this book will help you find it, so you can correct it.

The copy isn’t perfect. It’s a bit dated, and it’s a straight scan to PDF, so it isn’t searchable, and it’s not the clearest, cleanest copy. I’m cleaning up a copy for my own use right now. I expect to use it, and often. It isn’t a document I’ve been privileged to see before, so I’m excited to have a chance now to study it and learn its techniques. Read more

“Computer Maintenance Department” called me again from India

Dave Farquhar scams, security , , , , , , ,

So, “Peggy” from “Computer Maintenance Department” called me again last night. This time I decided to mess with him a bit more. This is the second time.

(No, “Peggy” wasn’t his real name, nor did he identify himself as “Peggy,” but that’s the name I’ll use, thanks to that old Discover commercial.)

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It’s time to strike down the red-light cameras

Dave Farquhar St. Louis , , ,

I saw some abuses of the red-light cameras on the news at noon. In one case, the car next to the one that ran the light got the ticket. In another, the owner wasn’t driving the car. The reporter asked the mayor of Florissant, Thomas Schneider, if that was fair.

“It’s safe,” he said. And he said the same thing to every other question the reporter asked.

That’s debatable. But guess what? Josef Stalin’s regime was very safe. Do what Stalin said, and you were safe. That doesn’t make Stalin fair, right, or ethical. It doesn’t make Schneider fair, right, or ethical either.

It’s not safe, either.

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Linux admins beware, there’s a web server exploit in the wild

Dave Farquhar security ,

No OS is 100% secure if there’s enough desire to get in. There’s a web server exploit targeting Apache, Nginx, and Lighttpd running on Linux–a first of its kind, in at least one regard.

According to this page, if you execute this command:

strings /usr/bin/apache2 | egrep opentty

you’re clean if nothing comes up, and your infected if you see one or more matches. If your system stores its httpd elsewhere, change the first parameter to match.

B&N just made its Nook tablets much more compelling

Dave Farquhar Android , , ,

This past week, Barnes and Noble put the Google Play store on its Nook HD and Nook HD+ tablets. So while they’re still running a forked Android, they’ll run most Android apps without you having to do anything special. That, plus the high-resolution screen, the low price, plus the ability to plug microSD cards into it, plus the ready availability at major retailers makes for a much more compelling tablet.

Sales have been abysmal lately, but I expect this to change that pretty quickly. Now the Nook tablets have three things the Kindle Fires lack: a better screen, greater openness, and expandability. Now they look like a very good general purpose tablet, to my eye.

How to build bootable Debian installation USB media from Windows

Dave Farquhar Linux, Windows , , , , ,
How to build bootable Debian installation USB media from Windows

Debian 7.0 (Wheezy) came out this weekend, and I want to mess with it. Here’s how I wrote the installation media to a USB thumb drive for it using a Windows box. Because sometimes that’s all you have available to work with. If you prefer another Linux distribution, like Ubuntu or CentOS or Fedora, the same trick will work for them too.

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No, investors aren’t ruining the housing market

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized

MSN asks if investors are ruining the housing market. I say no–around me, if it weren’t for the investors, there would be no housing market to speak of.

Let me tell you a story.

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How the IBM PC became the de facto standard for desktop computers

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
How the IBM PC became the de facto standard for desktop computers

I saw a question on a vintage computing forum this week: How did the IBM PC become the de facto standard for PCs, and the only desktop computer architecture from the 1980s to survive until today?

It’s a very good question, and I think there were several reasons for it. I also think without all of the reasons, the IBM PC wouldn’t have necessarily won. In some regards, of course, it was a hollow victory. IBM has been out of the PC business for a decade now. Its partners Intel and Microsoft, however, reaped the benefits time and again.

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