Author: Dave Farquhar

Expect your HP printer to get 0wnz0r3d shortly

Dave Farquhar security , , ,

Courtesy of Dan Bowman: You may have seen the brief writeup on Slashdot about how to set printers on fire by messing with the fuser, but in Germany next month there’s going to be a security engineer’s nightmare unleashed, courtesy of the HP printer that’s probably sitting a few feet outside your cubicle and mine.

And there’s a whole lot more to it than just messing with the fuser in hopes of killing a printer or (perhaps) starting a fire. There’s a lot more to a printer than toner and a fuser. As the link above says, a printer contains an embedded Linux or Vxworks system that’s trivially easy to install a rootkit on and that nobody’s paying attention to. Seriously, who watches traffic coming from the printer?

The possibilities are endless.
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Smart card problems and other Monday weirdness

Dave Farquhar Hardware ,

My boss’ computer had a bad case of the Mondays this week. It took forever to come out of power saving mode, and then when it finally did, it was mostly unresponsive. He couldn’t log in, and the system didn’t even recognize his smartcard reader. The usual fix for a smartcard reader that won’t read and whose light doesn’t blink or come on is to unplug the card reader, wait a few seconds or a minute, and plug it back in, but even that didn’t help this time. Nor did plugging in a known-working reader.

The machine did respond to ctrl-alt-del, and the shutdown options weren’t disabled. Fortunately. So I did a full shutdown, which it did, under protest.
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Reflections on 10+ years of blogging

Dave Farquhar net.culture , ,

Om Malik shared yesterday what he’s learned in 10 years of blogging.

1. Blogging is communal.
2. Be authentic.
3. When wrong, admit it and listen to those who were right.
4. Be regular.
5. Treat others as you expect yourself to be treated.
6. Respect your readers’ time.
7. Wait 15 minutes before publishing.
8. Write everything as if your mom is reading.
9. It’s not opinion–it’s viewing the world a certain way and sharing that view.
10. A little snark goes a long way.
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Buy toys now, but keep procrastinating on the electronics

Dave Farquhar Saving money , ,

According to The Consumerist, if you’re shopping for Christmas (or Hanukah or Kwanzaa or any other giving occasion) gifts right now, this is a good time to buy toys but not necessarily electronics. The logic makes sense.
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Spending money to save money

Dave Farquhar Saving money , , ,

Last month our budget billing for our electric bill reset, and I got a pleasant surprise. The monthly bill is $7 less than last year. That’s $84 a year, which isn’t huge, but it’s significant–especially considering I never hear anyone say their electric bill went down. Only up. I had an idea in the back of my mind to spend the savings on another energy saving project, to keep the momentum going in the right direction.

Then my wife mentioned she’d like some new blinds. And the timing could scarcely have been better.

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How to solder

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Toy trains , , ,

Soldering is an intimidating skill, but it can be learned. And with some practice, it’s not difficult to learn how to solder.

I’m not a professional. A lot of people are surprised to hear I’ve ever had to solder on anything computer-related, since many people my age haven’t. In spite of the disadvantages, I learned how to do it. If I can solder things that will hold together and conduct electricity, you can too.

Here are some tricks and tips, most of which I’ve learned the hard way. Read more

Smart wiring for the gateman, from the January 2012 Classic Toy Trains

Dave Farquhar Toy trains , , , ,

This week I received an advance copy of the January 2012 Classic Toy Trains. There, on page 42, is my first magazine article in more than a decade: Smart wiring for the gateman.

I’d like to make a couple of clarifications on the article, as space constraints kept me from elaborating quite as much as I did in the original manuscript–a problem I never have online, but almost always seem to have in print. The issue isn’t due on newsstands for another couple of weeks, but I’ll go ahead and post this now.
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The $119 tablet

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , , ,

I broke down today. I’m going to join the tablet game. Barnes & Noble was selling refurbished Nook Color e-readers for $119, so I bought one, intending to load Cyanogenmod on it and turn it into an Android 2.3 tablet.

The resulting tablet is no Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet, but it’s $119.

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Tip: Use a TV stand or cart to hold train transformers

Dave Farquhar Toy trains ,

Once your train layout outgrows a single 80- or 90-watt transformer, finding room for a larger transformer (or bank of transformers) gets difficult.

A TV stand suitable for a CRT television (remember those?) provides a nice solution. I’ve been using my old TV stand for a good 7 years.
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Cyber Monday is a myth

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized

First things first. Have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving. I’m thankful for those of you who’ve stuck with me all these years, and those of you who’ve come back in the past year.

And the times are changing. I think there used to be something to Cyber Monday. But we’re rapidly approaching Cyber Thursday, if we aren’t already there.

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