Author: Dave Farquhar

ISA vs EISA vs VLB

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
ISA vs EISA vs VLB

Another vintage computer enthusiast was showing me some interesting items when the topic of expansion slot buses came up. If you think PCI is confusing, wait until you hear about the things that came before PCI. Let’s dive into the slow and confusing world of ISA vs EISA vs VLB.

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486DX-50 versus DX2

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
486DX-50 versus DX2

The Intel 486DX-50 is a chip that puzzles many people when they encounter it. Intel released the chip at the end of June 1991, as its top of the line CPU. It wasn’t one of their success stories. Within 6 months, Intel followed up with its 486DX2 chips. The DX2 chips are extremely common today, because they were phenomenally successful. So let’s look at the 486DX-50 versus DX2, and why the DX50 failed.

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Disk cache vs memory cache

Dave Farquhar Hardware
Disk cache vs memory cache

It’s understandable if the concept of disk cache vs memory cache is confusing. They have distinct similarities though they are not interchangeable with one another. But let’s talk about the concept and how it works.

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IBM 486SLC2 CPU: When a clone isn’t a clone

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
IBM 486SLC2 CPU: When a clone isn’t a clone

The 486 SLC2 is an oddball 486 chip made by IBM. It isn’t something anyone seems to talk about much, maybe because I’m the only one who finds its story ironic. It’s the story of a proprietary upgrade that found second life on clone motherboards. Except the clone motherboards were made by IBM themselves. If IBM made it, is it still a clone?

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How to glue a crack in wood

Dave Farquhar DIY
How to glue a crack in wood

When wood breaks, gluing it is easy enough. But what if the wood is only cracked? How do you get the glue into the crack so you can make it hold and prevent further breakage? There are a couple of tricks that let you glue a crack in wood, even if you need to get the wood glue into small cracks.

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How plastic can rust, sort of

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
How plastic can rust, sort of

Strictly speaking, plastic can’t rust. By definition, rust is iron oxide, the combination of iron and oxygen. But plastic can combine with oxygen and oxidize. It’s not rust by stretch definition, but it’s the same concept. Here’s why it can happen, and what you can do about it.

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Best retro network card

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
Best retro network card

What is the best retro network card? I will nominate the Intel 8/16 LAN Adapter. Depending on exactly what you need, there are other cards that can be just as good. And there are certainly faster cards. But the Intel 8/16 LAN Adapter is the most versatile. And it’s not terribly expensive.

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What is ASM in security?

Dave Farquhar security
What is ASM in security?

What is ASM in security? ASM stands for attack surface management. It solves a real security problem. But it may not be the security problem that you think it solves, and it also doesn’t solve it as completely as it sounds like it may. Let’s talk about what ASM does and whether you might want it.

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How to get rid of the small keyboard on Android

Dave Farquhar Android
How to get rid of the small keyboard on Android

I was minding my own business, dictating a blog post into my phone while I took my evening walk. At some point I brushed against the screen with my sweaty hand, and next thing I knew, this sidebar showed up on my keyboard, shrinking the already small keys. I didn’t ask for a shrunken Android keyboard with a sidebar. So here’s how to get rid of the small keyboard on Android.

The small keyboard on Android is called one handed mode. To disable one handed mode in Android, tap the three dots and toggle one-handed mode. Or tap the gear, select Preferences, and toggle one-handed mode.
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A personal announcement regarding the blog

Dave Farquhar Personal

A rather large backlog of comments is requiring me to make an announcement and make some changes. Since early this summer I have been dealing with a recurrence of my carpal tunnel syndrome, and that has forced a number of changes in the way I have to blog.

For the past several months, I have been using voice recognition to produce my content. This is working much better than it did the last time I tried to use it, but we are talking c+ quality as opposed to d minus quality. There is a significant uptick in the number of mistakes, there are large numbers of words it doesn’t understand, and hyperlinks are difficult. For the majority of my audience, I hope it is better than not posting at all.

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