Author: Dave Farquhar

How blogging helps my professional career

Dave Farquhar Writing

My boss’ boss (I think we’re just two levels of management removed now) spent half the day composing a long e-mail message containing a large number of questions. He sent it to my boss, who forwarded it to us. I read the 10 or so questions that pertain to me.

Then I took a walk. Walking to the bathroom and using the facilities always seems like a good idea before I start writing. Read more

Cleaning USB drives with Linux

Dave Farquhar security , , ,

A longtime reader sent me a really good question today. If I had a USB flash drive and I didn’t know where it’s been or what it’s done, how would I clean it to make it safe to use? He said using Linux was fair game, so that made the answer a lot easier.

Note that as of 2015, a knowledgeable attacker can make a USB drive that will survive this cleaning method, so I only recommend this 90% of the time, and the problem is, it’s impossible to know which 90%.

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School administrators need to focus on their hallways, not Facebook

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized

In the St. Louis suburb of Clayton, a high school principal is resigning amid allegations that she posed as a student and friended 300 students on Facebook.  School administrators seem to be obsessed with what goes on on Facebook.

I suggest they should be paying more attention to what goes on in their own hallways.
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A reasonable explanation for why religious sites are more likely to be infected with malware

Dave Farquhar security ,

Last week, Symantec issued a surprising report stating that religious web sites are more likely to harbor malware than sites that offer dirty pictures and videos.

I’m pretty sure there’s a reasonable explanation. Read more

Dredging up some old Commodore trivia

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing , , , ,

I’ve seen a couple of Commodore-related search queries hit lately, so I’m going to take a stroll down memory lane with two questions:

Can you connect two computers to one single 1541 or 1571 disk drive?

And what was the fastest Commodore modem? Read more

Farewell, Crestwood Plaza

Dave Farquhar Retail, St. Louis , , , , ,
Farewell, Crestwood Plaza

The Sears anchor store at Crestwood Plaza near St. Louis closed in May 2012. It was a long, slow decline, and nobody knew what was next. More than five years later, there’s still nobody who knows what’s next.

I went there a couple of weeks before it closed, and I bought a multimeter at a heavy discount, but most of the kinds of things I would have been interested in buying were long gone. The rest of the old mall was mostly empty. The last of the smaller tenants left in 2013. Read more

Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson needed to explain himself

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized , , , , , , , , ,

I understand Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson’s predicament. I don’t agree with how he handled it.

You see, both Scott Thompson and I work in the technical industry, and neither of us have a degree in computer science, computer engineering, some other kind of engineering, high mathematics, or another socially accepted relevant-to-the-industry field. Read more

Speed up Windows XP, Vista, and 7

Dave Farquhar Windows , , , , ,

I was looking for something else entirely when I found this PC World article: Speed Up Windows by Stripping it Down.

That’s a familiar concept. It includes several tips that apply to XP, Vista, and 7.
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Income inequality now equals debt inequality

Dave Farquhar Saving money

There aren’t a lot of surprises in this CNN/Money article about debt. On the surface, it shows that wealthy people borrow less money than non-wealthy people. I don’t think that’s news to many people. I also don’t think it’s news that wealthy people’s incomes are growing faster than non-wealthy people.

What I found very surprising, though, is that the non-wealthy used to borrow less money than the wealthy did.
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The new Nook partnership is a strange alliance

Dave Farquhar Hardware ,

Barnes & Noble is creating a subsidiary to handle its Nook business. And Microsoft is sinking $300 million into it, making it a joint venture.

Remember, last year, Microsoft sued B&N over its Android-based devices. And B&N put up more of a fight than anyone expected. Read more