David L. Farquhar

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A bargain SSD for the masses

Dave Farquhar Hardware August 29, 2011April 3, 2025

I spotted a bargain SSD: The Kingston SSDNow V+100 96 GB is available at Amazon for $130. (It’s available other places for about the same price, but with Amazon’s free shipping, it’s probably cheaper there.) It uses a Toshiba controller that (by some accounts) lacks NCQ, but other than that, it’s a modern controller, and it has a good track record, having been the controller Apple used in its Macbook Air.
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Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

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My first really bad day in IT

Dave Farquhar security, War Stories August 29, 2011January 23, 2022command prompt, IBM, journalism, macintosh, Missouri, passwords, university of missouri, windows nt

Next weekend is Labor Day weekend. I can’t remember if it was one Thursday or two Thursdays before Labor Day weekend in 1997, but one of those two days happened to be the beginning of the first crisis of my career.

Whichever Thursday it was, it was getting close to midnight when my phone rang. It was Max. The print server wasn’t working. That happened a lot. That server had IBM’s Services for Macintosh on it, which never worked all that well, and, worse, tended to make the rest of the server act up a lot. That in and of itself shouldn’t have been a crisis. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
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Dave Farquhar

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A tip for selling something: Stage another interested buyer

Dave Farquhar Landlording August 28, 2011September 1, 2014landlords

I stumbled into something today that I’m sure I’ve read elsewhere and had forgotten about.

We’re trying to rent this house out, you see. And so far, everyone I’ve showed it to has jerked me around about it. And most people don’t want to rent it. They want to buy it for nothing. It’s a little irritating, but I try to stay cheerful. I have to.

Today, I showed the house to a guy who kept going on and on about how it’s not very much house for what I’m asking–I’m asking what an experienced and successful realtor who knows the area says to ask–and finding tons of nitpicky things to dislike about it.

And then another car drove up.

Dave Farquhar

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Maybe this is how Apple does it

Dave Farquhar Macintosh August 27, 2011April 17, 20171980s, apple, journalism, motorola, Paris, Steve Ballmer, Steve Jobs, verizon, whirlpool

Sitting in the stands at a baseball game the day after Steve Jobs’ surprise resignation from Apple, of course the subject came up.

“I wish I knew how Apple does it,” I said.

“I have an idea,” my friend Tom Gatermann said.
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Dave Farquhar

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Watch out for this Apache bug

Dave Farquhar Apache, security August 26, 2011apache, vulnerability

There is a nasty Apache exploit going around right now that exploits a vulnerability in versions 1.3.x, 2.0.x and 2.2.x. Basically, it allows the process to exhaust all available memory and crash by sending GET requests with overlapping byte ranges. The methodology seems to borrow a page from the teardrop attack. Yes, I’ve been studying for a security certification….

Dave Farquhar

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And now it’s Apple’s turn

Dave Farquhar Macintosh August 25, 2011January 3, 20251980s, 1990s, Andy Grove, apple, Bill Gates, erector, intel, mac os x, macintosh, os x, pixar, Steve Jobs, Walt Disney

It’s been a weird month for technology. And as always, Apple had a way to get people to stop talking about anything else, though it’s not the news Apple wanted do deliver this week. I can only think of one bit of news Apple would want to deliver less.

Steve Jobs is stepping down as CEO. He’s becoming chairman, but perception is everything. Especially with Apple. I don’t think any company in recent memory has leveraged perception the way Apple has.

Dave Farquhar

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Lessons of the HP Touchpad

Dave Farquhar Hardware August 24, 2011October 16, 20181980s, android, apple, Apple Ipad, AT&T, hp, IBM, ipad, kindle, nintendo, pc world, playstation, web os, xbox

At full price ($499 for the 16 GB model and $599 for the 32 GB model) the HP Touchpad was a colossal flop. Like AT&T’s first PC clones of the mid 1980s, it was a me-too product at a me-too price that wasn’t quite as good as the product it was imitating. So, basically, there was no reason to buy it.

At closeout prices, it became an Internet sensation. The few web sites that have it in stock can’t handle the traffic they’re getting. At $99 and $149, it’s selling like the Nintendo Wii in its glory days.

And I think there’s a significant parallel there that highlights the missed opportunity.
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Dave Farquhar

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Oracle’s bombshell: We might buy HP

Dave Farquhar Hardware August 23, 2011acer, dell, hp, mark hurd, oracle, unix

And if the HP situation couldn’t get any weirder, Forbes speculates that Larry Ellison and Mark Hurd might attempt a takeover of HP if its share price drops far enough. HP and Oracle once were close partners, but now they hate each other.

I think it might be a little more complicated.

Dave Farquhar

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