Maybe this is the sales tactic computer stores use these days

So, Dr. A’s computer is going to get the full Farquhar treatment. I told him I’m pretty confident I can get it running better than it ever has.

He said one of the salesmen told him it’s overdue for a crash, because it’s a Dell.

I really don’t like that kind of a generalization. I told him yes, all other things being equal, I think HP has better engineers than Dell. But would I discard an old machine just because it’s a Dell? Well, I ran this web site on an old Dell computer from about 2003 until October 2010. Actions speak louder than words. But there are a lot more problems with that argument. So I think it’s a sales tactic. I think if he’d come in and said he had an HP and he thinks it’s due, the salesman would have said, “Oh, it’s overdue for a crash because it’s an HP. Here, let me show you this Dell….”

Here’s why.

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Another (unwanted) lawnmower adventure

So the Toro died Sunday, with maybe 100-150 square feet of unmowed lawn left. I coaxed it into running again by adding oil–it looked low–and that was enough to mow what was left. The gray smoke bellowing out the side, the horrible noise, and the vibrating as if it would fall apart just added character. Yeah, character.

Against my better judgment, I finished cutting the lawn, then killed the engine and dragged the beast back into the garage. Then I got on the Internet to weigh my options.

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Putting blog updates on Facebook

Some unknown percentage of my Facebook friends are interested in my blog posts. And some other unknown percentage of them would be if they knew what I was posting. There are several ways to get WordPress to put blog post links on Facebook, but some work better than others. I’d like to thank Rob O’Hara for doing 90% of the R&D for me on that, by telling the world about FT Facepress II.

There was just one problem for me: My web server can’t send e-mail.

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How and why to fix your Facebook privacy settings

Right now, by default, when your friends upload photos to Facebook and they start tagging people, the software will recognize you and suggest, “Hey, that looks like Dave! Do you want to tag him?”

That may or may not be desirable behavior. Here’s how to turn it off.

And here’s why I think you might want to turn it off.
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Linguistic analysis isn’t hooey

For the second time in two months, I’ve seen a case where a linguist analyzed writing and tried to conclude whether someone was or wasn’t the author of a suspicious e-mail message. The first was a threatening letter purportedly sent to Christopher Coleman, who was convicted last month of murdering his family, and the other was Paul Ceglia’s attempt to prove he owns a substantial share of Facebook.

The inevitable flood of comments calling such analysis “black magic” followed. But as an author, I have to give validity to it.

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Punishing heat.

Yesterday it was a record-setting 98 degrees officially, with heat index well over 100. According to some weather stations near me, the temperature topped out at 102. Honestly, I don’t think a couple of degrees one way or the other makes much difference at that temperature.

This morning it was a comparatively brisk 82 degrees out, so I mowed the lawn. I lowered the mower as far as I could without the mower stalling, because 90-plus degrees is probably going to be the norm until August or September. Shorter grass will be easier to mow, and if it turns brown on me, then it’s easier still.

In defense of college and 4-year degrees

College is a waste of time?

I disagree with Mr. Stephens’ statement that college is a waste of time. I don’t know what college he went to, or what he studied there, but I certainly didn’t spend four years at the University of Missouri copying my professors’ thoughts.

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Boom! Poof! Silence.

We had a power outage tonight. There was a boom, then a poof, then silence as everything in the house shut down. Maybe a nearby transformer couldn’t handle everyone running their air conditioners to escape the 95-plus degree heat. Maybe a squirrel got somewhere it shouldn’t have. I didn’t bug the service guys to find out.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some stuff. I’m too tired now to post anything else for the day. On the plus side, I got the excuse I needed to move my web server to the place where it belongs, rather than the “temporary” area where I staged it and it’s been sitting since, oh, September. It was already down, so taking an extra 10 minutes to move it didn’t hurt anything.

Marketing or Engineering?

The topic of marketing and engineering came up today. I won’t go into details. I’ll just share what I said about the two, by throwing out a few company names and just a little snippet about each company.

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Random thoughts from the day after bin Laden died

It was 9:15. I was tired. I’d been reading, then I went to my computer to check baseball scores. I saw that the president had called a press conference for 9:30 CST, with no indication what it was about. 9:30 PM on a Sunday night isn’t when you usually call press conferences, and there’s usually some indication what the subject will be. I was curious enough to click around to see what was going on, but when I didn’t find anything right away, I went to bed.

This morning I woke up, went straight to the Kansas City Star’s baseball page to get an account of last night’s Royals-Twins game, and out of the corner of my eye, spotted the last headline I ever expected to read: “The Raid that Killed bin Laden.” What? Beneath it was a similar headline. I clicked, read the first two sentences to make sure I was reading the right thing, then raced into the bedroom, where my wife was getting our two sons dressed.

“They got bin Laden,” I said. And she did the same double-take that I did, and made me say it again.

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