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. Read more
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.
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
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.
PC Magazine posted its reader’s choice awards for home networking equipment Monday. PC Magazine‘s reader surveys aren’t gospel, but they’re valuable. They’re a cross-section of the opinions of people who care enough about technology to read the magazine, and as such, I give it more weight than what, say, Consumer Reports says. Read more
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.
A longtime reader asked me today if it’s OK if he links to me from another forum. He happens to know I don’t especially care for that particular forum, or at least haven’t in the past.
I said that linking to content here is always welcome, and for any purpose. Read more
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.
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.
Consumerist asked its readers why they ditched their car repair shops. For me, that’s really easy. They didn’t do the work, and they were jerks. So I got rid of them and figured out how to find a good mechanic.
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.
I’ve been going through A+ training as I have time. Whether I go through with getting the certification will depend on whether my bosses think having someone with an A+ lurking in the corner is useful–by contract I can’t do much more than swap a keyboard or mouse, but in the meantime I’m picking up some stuff I haven’t had to think about in a very long time.
One thing I picked up is the proper use of an ohmmeter or ohm meter.
Here I’m using a multimeter to test a piece of vintage American Flyer electric train track. I should get infinite resistance between the two rails, so this piece shows symptoms of having a short in it. On a good piece of track, my multimeter would read “1.”
Ohm meters measure resistance. Frequently, you’ll have a tool that does several things, so you flip your multimeter over to ohms or resistance to turn it into an ohm meter. Then, if you need to test a cable, put the red lead on one pin, and the black lead on the corresponding pin on the other side. If you get infinite or higher-than-expected resistance, then the cable is bad.
When you’re testing for continuity, you need to do so with the power off. Testing for continuity on a live system will cause the multimeter to malfunction at best, and at worse, blow a fuse. That’s a tricky bit you have to remember if you’re doing component-level testing on a board–something of a lost art these days. You might be testing voltage on a live system, then when you don’t see what you expect, you might want to test resistance. Be sure to remember to shut the system down when you switch from volts to ohms to avoid damaging your multimeter.
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.
Some of my coworkers and I are dealing with a crossroads in our respective careers. It’s caused us to have some conversations. And since I’ve moved around a lot more than anyone else in my office–I work with a lot of people who’ve spent their entire adult lives working for two or fewer employers–I’ve taken some questions.
I’ve never really had to think about whether it’s time to move on. I just seem to know. But I think now I realize how I know. Read more
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.
Google has been recording the names and coordinates of wi-fi networks for several years, which has gotten the company some bad publicity. In fact, a longtime reader asked a question about that just a few days ago. Part of the reason for the objections was because few people understood what they were doing with that data.
This past week, we saw one of the fruits of that endeavor. Read more
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.
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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