Author: Dave Farquhar

Security doesn’t have to be intimidating to be effective

Dave Farquhar security ,

I got into a conversation the other day about physical security, basing the physical security of a particular facility. “You have to sign in when you enter. Well laddy da!”

Actually, there are times where that’s completely appropriate. But they actually missed something, too. The facility they were making fun of has a locked door and a log.
Read more

Advice on avoiding college debt–at least for Missouri residents

Dave Farquhar Saving money , , , , ,

The business section of the Post-Dispatch had a good article on avoiding college debt. It’s tricky, as even Mizzou costs $22,000 a year now. I’m pretty sure when I was a Tiger, it was more like $10,000 a year, though I had scholarships that knocked that down even more.

Read more

I may have found a few-compromises 7-inch tablet

Dave Farquhar Android, Hardware , , ,

So I was tempted when I saw a refurbished Acer Iconia 7-inch tablet for $151. Its specs are outmoded but respectable–dual core 1 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 8 GB of storage, and a microSD slot. And Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is available for it.

But there’s something better around the corner. I say few-compromises, because I haven’t seen a no-compromises 7-inch tablet yet. The 7-inch sector is all about value.

Read more

Remembering Rossino’s

Dave Farquhar St. Louis , , , , , ,
Remembering Rossino’s

I thought of Rossino’s, a hideaway Italian restaurant in St. Louis’ Central West End the other day. And then today, I saw the obituary for Nina Lee Russo, one of the owners of the secluded yet popular restaurant.

The obituary mentioned the restaurant closed in 2006, when the second generation wanted to retire. But the obituary mentioned some other facts that explained a few things. Read more

Here’s why I won’t be buying a first-generation Nook Tablet

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , ,

Barnes & Noble just cut its tablet prices to make them more competitive. Now, $199 gets you the 16 GB version, and $179 gets you the 8 GB version. Twice the memory of a Kindle or Nexus, plus the ability to expand with cheap $25 SHDC cards? Why am I sitting at home writing this instead of standing in line?

Simple. Read more

If you needed another reminder to secure your wi-fi…

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized ,

And if you needed another reminder of why you should secure your wi-fi:

“There’s a very common belief that if someone pirates your Wi-Fi connection or uses your computer without your permission, you are responsible for illegal downloads of copyrighted material. That’s not true, says Stoltz; the law is quite clear. However, the lawyers who bring those cases use that misperception to convince innocent people that they had better pay up. Since $3,500 is just a fraction of the money it would take to fight a case in court, most people simply settle.” —Infoworld

Read more

Testing my new Facebook plugin

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized , ,

The plugin I was using, FT Facepress II, decided to quit working, so now I’m trying to get the official Facebook WordPress plugin working.

If it does all it says it does, Facebook comments about blog posts will also show up here (and not just on Facebook), which would be nice.

Update: It appears to have worked, but it also appears to have replaced the comments engine. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. That option is easy enough to disable; I’ll give it a trial period and see. The new engine can authenticate against Facebook, AOL, Yahoo and Hotmail, so it does give some options for those who don’t have Facebook accounts.

The upside is that this may significantly reduce the spam comments. I have a good anti-spam engine, but the comments still clutter up my database.

Windows 8 promises better security–to a point

Dave Farquhar security , ,

At the summer hacker conferences, researchers have been talking up Windows 8 and its improved security. They talk a good game, but here’s the end run around it.

Read more

Busted at the Safeway for phone phreaking

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing, security , , , , , , , , , ,

Software developer, author, and blogger Jeff Atwood wrote his confessions of the 1980s this week. As a teenager and not-quite-adult, he was a phone phreaker.

More of this went on than anyone wants to admit. Rob O’Hara has podcasted about it. Read more

Don’t let what happened to Mat Honan happen to you

Dave Farquhar security , , , , , ,

Technology journalist Mat Honan infamously had his entire digital life hacked and erased this week. Slate published some advice to keep the same from happening to you, and my former classmate and newspaper staff mate Theo Hahn asked me to comment.

Read more