Author: Dave Farquhar

Change your Linkedin password now

Dave Farquhar security , ,

If you use the professional social networking site Linkedin–which I recommend, albeit now with caveats–you need to be aware that someone stole at least part of its passwords database and leaked it onto the Web. You should assume your password is among the stolen passwords and change it.
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Don’t overthink writing

Dave Farquhar Writing

A longtime reader asked me a few weeks ago about my writing process. Today I’ll finally address the question. He asked me whether I correct as I go, or whether I write as fast as I can and correct later. But my experience over the last few weeks makes me think there’s something a lot more important for me to say.

Do what works, and don’t overthink it.
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Short takes, 5 Jun 2012

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized , , , ,

I’m positively uninspired this morning, trying to recover from a weekend of the most boring writing I’ve ever done in my life–something that, mercifully, only a small handful of tortured souls will ever have to see and read–so I’ll do some short takes.

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How to calculate savings from reduced cooling costs when considering energy-saving improvements

Dave Farquhar Saving money , , , ,

I learned something incredibly useful this week: For every 3 watts of energy consumption you save, you save an additional watt of power in cooling costs during the cooling season.

I bought my first CFL bulb a little over 9 years ago. I knew this was helping my AC costs too, but now I know how much.
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And another nail in Crestwood Plaza’s coffin

Dave Farquhar St. Louis , , , , , ,

The old 10-screen Crestwood Plaza AMC theater closed last month. It took two weeks for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to notice, and probably for many others.

As a sign that I’m getting older, the theater’s obituary called it “dated.” And I thought to myself that it wasn’t long ago that they built it.

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My favorite Phillipe Kahn story

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing , , ,

I just saw Phillipe Kahn (not Khan) in a Best Bait-n-Switch commercial, introducing himself as the inventor of the camera phone.

But that’s not my favorite Phillipe Kahn story.

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I’m not sure Google was the good guy, but I’m glad Oracle lost

Dave Farquhar Copyright , , , , , ,

I’m not sure that either Google or Oracle was the good guy in the Java patent/copyright case. But Google was less bad. And it’s hard for me to see how ruling in favor of Oracle could have done anything good for the industry.
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How to not let your writing get in the way of your message

Dave Farquhar Writing

My boss told me to write something on the third-grade level yesterday. Curious what level I normally write on, I found this readability index tool.

Depending on whose algorithm you use, I typically write on the 5th-7th grade level.
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Don’t post Facebook photos of yourself with large sums of money

Dave Farquhar security

If you needed another warning to be careful what you’re posting on Facebook, there’s this: Seven hours after a 17-year-old Australian posted a picture of herself counting a large sum of money belonging to her grandmother, two armed robbers showed up at her house.

In their media release detailing the robbery, the New South Wales police closed with this statement: “The incident has prompted police to remind users of social media to take extreme caution when posting photographs and personal information.”
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Only eleven percent of used hard drives contain recoverable data?

Dave Farquhar Hardware, security , ,

I read the shocking news that 11% of used hard drives in the UK contain recoverable personal data.

The news is shocking, of course, that it isn’t much higher. Read more