Author: Dave Farquhar

How to move a train table on an unfinished, concrete basement floor

Dave Farquhar model railroading, Toy trains

I had to move my train table recently. No, I didn’t have the foresight to put wheels on it. So I had to resort to using furniture movers.

After putting the fuzzy protectors on them, they glide fine on the concrete, without fear of damaging the plastic sliding surface. They might slide alone on concrete too, but I don’t want to scratch the movers up, because I intend to use them elsewhere too. Some online reviewers reported that scratched movers scratch wood floors.

I just lifted each leg of the table, kicked a mover under it, then went around to the next leg. A pair of 4×8 tables is still awkward for one person to move, but if you’re not moving too far, you can do it. If you have help, you can get more ambitious.

How to save money on tech

Dave Farquhar Saving money , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

CNN offered up some good tips on saving money on tech. But of course I want to analyze and comment on it myself. Anything else would be out of character. Here’s how I save money on tech.

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A minor (but vital) Apache performance tweak

Dave Farquhar Apache, Linux , , , , ,

My problems seem to have become more rare since I started blocking spambots and tuned PHP and Apache but last night my server ran out of memory again and started timing out.

It turns out I still had a critical problem, but one that’s easy to fix with a relatively simple Perl script.

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How the previous week’s headlines flow together

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , , , , , , , , ,

Here are some headlines I read this past week: Dell is trying to take itself private. Microsoft is investing in Dell. Intel is pulling out of the motherboard market. AMD is considering ARM CPUs. And the PC is dead.

It’s all related.
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Windows Medkit cleans up the damage after removing malware infestations

Dave Farquhar security , ,

I’ve written before about cleaning up Windows boxes using a Bitdefender Live CD, but the live CDs often don’t clean up all of the collateral damage that the malware does to try to keep you from uninstalling them.

That’s where Windows Medkit can come in.

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The lines between white hat/gray hat/black hat hacking and moral laws

Dave Farquhar security , , , , , ,

Longtime reader/commenter Joseph asked two questions yesterday: What’s the boundary between gray and black-hat hacking, and is it moral to pick and choose between moral and immoral laws?

The first question is easier than the second. So I’ll tackle that one first. Read more

University computer science programs need to teach security, not demonize it

Dave Farquhar security , , , ,

I saw this on Slashdot today: A computer science student was expelled from a Canadian university for practicing what most people would call white-hat hacking.

Their reasoning: “Schools are supposed to teach best practice, which includes ethics and adherence to reasonable laws.” But there is such thing as ethical hacking. Read more

A good reviewer doesn’t seek out special treatment

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized ,

The Consumerist asks whether flashing a “reviewer” ID card in search of special treatment makes you savvy, or makes you a jerk.

Let me think for 1/1000000000000000 of a second. It makes you a jerk. Read more

Stopping spambots cold with Botblocker

Dave Farquhar Spam

I’ve been absolutely getting pounded lately with spam comments from spambots–to the tune of one spam comment per minute. That’s filling up and slowing down my database and consuming CPU resources that I want for human readers.

So I resorted to installing Botblocker. All I can report right now is that it seems to be working–no spam comments for several hours.

I can’t guarantee it will work forever, and I’ve got Akismet to hide whatever spam gets through, but so far my server seems less busy and more happy, which is good. Things had gotten so bad for a while that I was getting timeouts when trying to post, which is ridiculous.

What I did since I (temporarily) need Java

Dave Farquhar security ,

I’ve been seeing the same question over and over in my search logs lately: Is Java safe to run in 2013?

Generally speaking, the answer is no.

I have little choice but to run Java right now, though. I’m studying for a certification exam, and the best quiz program that I know of is written in Java. Its user interface is in Polish, a language I don’t speak, but that bothers me less than it being written in Java. Google Translate can help me with the Polish, but it can’t make Java safe. That’s up to me.

So here’s what I did.
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