Author: Dave Farquhar

Beware of unexpected links in e-mail messages

Dave Farquhar security , ,

Hackers are stealing Yahoo accounts by sending messages containing malicious web page links.

The message looks like a link to a web page on MSNBC. But if an unsuspecting user clicks on it, it redirects to another page that steals the e-mail account, allowing the hacker to use the account to send spam, or grab the account’s contact list.

The gory details are here.
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HP Elitebook won’t turn on? Fix it in a minute flat

Dave Farquhar Hardware
HP Elitebook won’t turn on? Fix it in a minute flat

If your HP Elitebook or other HP laptop won’t turn on, I have an easy fix. We used them at a previous job and I taught this trick to all of my coworkers who had difficulty getting their laptops to power up in the morning. It’s easy, and takes less time than calling the helpdesk, and less time than going direct to desktop support too.

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The Debt Tsunami is a gimmick, but it probably doesn’t matter

Dave Farquhar Saving money , , , , ,

I saw some people passionately advocating both for and against a new method of paying off debt: The “Debt Tsumani,” which focuses on paying off debt in the order of its emotional impact on you.

As someone who paid off more than $150,000 worth of debt over the course of about four years in the last decade, maybe what I have to say about that matters to you. Read more

Tag your imported WordPress content with Simple Tags

Dave Farquhar Apache , ,

Unlike many bloggers, I blogged for a decade before moving to WordPress. That meant I had a pile of old posts with no tags on them. One of the nice things about WordPress is that you can use the tags in conjunction with a plugin like Similar Posts to display links to related content at the end of each post. And trust me, when you blog for a decade, a lot of your stuff is related.

It’s also sad how much of that old content becomes obsolete, but the 2% that stands the test of time and continues to get readers year over year is satisfying, too.

Here’s how to tag your old content–wherever it came from–quickly and easily.

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Go-Bots vs Transformers: My small-town perspective

Dave Farquhar 1980s , , , , ,

Internet pal Rob O’Hara posted a photo of a whatzit antique mall find earlier this week. I knew I’d seen it before, and I knew some of my friends had it, but its identity escaped me. The answer got me thinking about Go-Bots vs Transformers.

A commenter identified it as a Go-Bots command center. I seem to recall it doubled as a carrying case as well. Go-Bots, if you missed that particular month of the 1980s, were transforming toys, like Transformers, that transformed from robots to vehicles. I was in third or fourth grade when they arrived in the small town where I was living, an hour south of St. Louis. They were made by Tonka, a mighty toy company, but they were a flash in the pan.

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My phone’s micro SD card made Windows Disk Manager hang, but I fixed it

Dave Farquhar Android, Hardware , , , , ,

The micro SD card in my Android phone (a Samsung Galaxy S 4G, if that helps) quit working suddenly, and I finally got around to investigating it on Friday. I ended up having to solve two problems to do it, though.

Let’s start with Windows 7’s Disk Manager hanging at the message that says “Connecting to Virtual Disk Service.”

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Non-derailing Marx switches

Dave Farquhar Toy trains , , , , , , , , ,

The Marx 1590 is the best O27 switch ever made. It’s durable, works well with all makes of trains (just put a track pin in the center rail where the switch pivots so that Lionel trains can pass), and can run off accessory power without modification.

The only downside is that it (allegedly) can’t be set to automatically switch to a position to accommodate an approaching train like a Lionel 1122, which makes it unusable in a reverse loop. That’s true if you wire them the way Marx said to wire them.

Here’s how I wire them to get that coveted feature.

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Four simple steps to optimize WordPress

Dave Farquhar Apache, Linux , , , , ,

A couple of years ago, I stood up a WordPress server. I made no effort to tune it, let alone turbocharge it, which is a decision I later came to regret. If your site gets more than a few hundred hits per day, you need to tune it. If you want to get more than a few hundred hits per day, you need to tune it because Apache and MySQL’s default settings are by no means one-size-fits-all. And you can never have too much speed. There are two reasons for that: Google favors fast sites over slow sites, and Amazon found that a one-second delay in page load drops traffic by 7 percent.

There’s a lot of advice out there on tuning WordPress, some of which seems to be good, and some of it not so good.

Here are four things that I know work. I run Apache and MySQL under Linux; these tools may run under Windows or OS X too.
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Wi-fi wants to be free… except it’s not 1994 anymore

Dave Farquhar security , , ,

The Open Wi-Fi movement was on the front page of Slashdot yesterday afternoon. Predictably, comment #2 was, “give me immunity from the MPAA and RIAA and I’ll open my Wi-Fi.” Valid point. Very valid point.

Though there are other problems, too.

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The Internet is a 21st century utility–take it seriously

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized , ,

Forbes says we need to take Internet speed more seriously in this country.

My take: I got my first modem in 1986, roughly, and after mapping out my modem purchases over the following decade, I saw that I was upgrading to a faster modem speed roughly every 2 years. My jump from 300 bits per second to 1200 bits per second was my biggest jump, and there was a smaller jump from 9.6 kbps to 14.4 kbps in the early 1990s, but those were the only two exceptions to the rule. Read more