Author: Dave Farquhar

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

How to rent a house without getting your identity stolen

Dave Farquhar scams, security ,

I know a family that’s trying to rent a house. All they really want is something that’s a reasonable commute from work, in a safe area, with a fenced yard for their young son to play in, a basement to take cover in during severe storms, and a little bit of room for storage–in a decent school district.

That’s not as easy to find as it used to be. He’s actually finding more scams than houses that fit his criteria. As a full-time security professional and a part-time landlord, here’s what I want you to know about renting a house.

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Cleaning up a venerable and battle-worn IBM Model M keyboard

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Retro Computing , , , ,

I scored an IBM Model M keyboard recently. Usually when you find 30 year old keyboards, they’re pretty dirty. Here’s how I clean an IBM Model M keyboard.

I’m notoriously picky about keyboards. My weapon of choice is an IBM Model M, also known as the battleship or by its model number 1391401, which went out of fashion sometime in the mid-1990s. You either love them or hate them, and I love them.

People keep trying to tell me that I won’t be able to use them with new computers, but USB adapters from Belkin and Adesso cure that. I’ve used Belkin adapters and can vouch for them, but the Adesso adapters are cheaper and some Amazon reviewers say they work better.

I’m moonlighting writing a contract proposal, and one of the terms of my agreement is that I can use whatever keyboard I want. So I brought in a spare Model M. But it was filthy, so I spent some time this weekend cleaning it up. Now the prince of keyboards is ready to party like it’s 1989.

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