Author: Dave Farquhar

Marx train set #26259 from Montgomery Ward

Dave Farquhar Toy trains
Marx train set #26259 from Montgomery Ward

Marx train set #26259 is a somewhat unusual set, dating to the mid 1950s. Marx sold it through Montgomery Ward, and it is something of a transition set. The cars didn’t exactly match the locomotive and tender.

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Fast Copy: Best and fastest copier for Windows?

Dave Farquhar Windows
Fast Copy: Best and fastest copier for Windows?

People sure have strong feelings on their Windows copy utilities. Each of the command line utilities has their own strengths and weaknesses. But when it comes to copying with the GUI, a lot of times we just settle for Windows Explorer. Fast Copy is a utility that provides GUI ease of use with the power of the command line utilities. I think it might be the best file copier for Windows.

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Atari Jaguar won’t power on? Try this

Dave Farquhar Retro Gaming
Atari Jaguar won’t power on? Try this

The most common problem with an Atari Jaguar is not being able to power it on. Usually this is due to user error rather than a hardware fault, so here’s how to quickly fix the problem.

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FreeDOS on physical hardware

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
FreeDOS on physical hardware

Vintage computing has gotten expensive. One way to enjoy the vintage computing experience on a budget is to install FreeDOS on aging physical hardware that isn’t quite old enough to be collectible, building what some people call a time machine. I had someone ask me on Mastodon to walk them through the process.

The goal was to walk someone through a project that would be affordable and not require someone to have a storage unit full of hardware already. If you’re ready to graduate from DOSBox or FreeDOS on VirtualBox and onto bare metal, this project is for you.

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Marx 556 caboose

Dave Farquhar Toy trains
Marx 556 caboose

The Marx 556 caboose was a staple of Marx’s 6-inch line, running from 1937 to 1952. All the variants are minor and only the lighted version is rare or valuable. The 556 is a good car for toy train operators, and also makes a nice Christmas train or display piece because of its color choices. Read more

Fixing a sticky Teac 5.25 inch floppy drive

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
Fixing a sticky Teac 5.25 inch floppy drive

I have a Teac FD-55BV 5.25″ 360K floppy drive for my Tandy 1000EX. Teac drives tend to be very reliable, but this one had one problem. The spindle clamp would stick when I opened the lever and tried to remove the disk. Here’s how I fix a sticky floppy drive, and you can too.

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What manual testing is in security

Dave Farquhar security
What manual testing is in security

The SANS vulnerability management maturity model has an entire section on manual testing. That may not be a phrase you hear very often because there are several types of manual tests. So what is manual testing in security?

Manual testing is a form of security testing, namely, looking for security vulnerabilities in a non-automated or semi-automated fashion at most. It is not the same as vulnerability scanning like one does with tools like Nessus or Qualys.

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WordPress Jetpack stats won’t load? Try this

Dave Farquhar Wordpress

With much fanfare, Automattic released a new version of Jetpack Stats for WordPress in March 2023. And sometimes the page doesn’t load, giving the spinny ring of death. Wait all day if you want, you’ll just get the ring. Hitting F5 to reload the page will almost always cause this to happen, as will your computer going to sleep while the page is open. But sometimes I’ve seen it happen on its own as well.

The fix is easy but non-obvious.

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Marx 400 locomotive

Dave Farquhar Toy trains
Marx 400 locomotive

The Marx 400 locomotive was Marx’s entry level plastic locomotive that it sold in inexpensive electric sets.

Introduced in 1952 as a windup and in an electric version in 1953, the 400 was an 0-4-0 steam locomotive made of plastic. Initially, it supplemented pressed tin engines, although plastic eventually overtook metal in the most inexpensive sets. But in 1953, plastic was still somewhat new and novel. So a set with a plastic engine and tender could actually sell at retail for about 10% more than an all metal set.

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Is a smartphone a computer?

Dave Farquhar Hardware
Is a smartphone a computer?

Is a smartphone a computer? The short answer is yes. The reason why I answer that way is a little bit more complicated, but a smartphone meets every definition of a computer.

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