David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more
Whether you’re talking cars, computer modification, or restoring old toys, the subject of self-etching primer is bound to come up. You’ve probably seen it in the paint aisles with other spray paints and noticed it costs a little more than regular primer. But what is self-etching primer, and when should you use it? And where’s the best place to buy it?
A good trick for the busy system administrator is knowing how to reboot Windows from a command line. For example, I used to push patches on Thursday and Friday, suppress the reboots, then reboot my servers from a batch file starting on Monday. Rebooting from a command line rather than using the Start menu and selecting shutdown or restart saved me countless hours.
As a security professional, I know when systems need to reboot based on seeing Tenable plugin 34543 or Qualys QID 90126 in my scan results.
I probably get more questions about Qualys asset tracking than I get about anything else in regards to Qualys. Many people misunderstand Qualys asset tracking. It’s really easy to mess it up, and things can go horribly wrong if you do.
By default, Qualys tracks assets by IP address. It can also track by NetBIOS name or DNS name. If your authentication is really solid and you enable Agentless Tracking, the Dissolvable Agent, and Unified View, you can also in effect force Qualys to track by a system-generated UUID as well.
In the course of fixing up houses, I’ve seen a lot of wiring mistakes. Common mistakes like reverse polarity or a missing ground will cause the house to not pass inspection, but a bootleg ground is a bigger problem. It’s dangerous, and many building inspectors won’t catch it.
Here’s what a bootleg ground is, why it’s dangerous and you shouldn’t do it, and what you should do instead.
Never buy a house. Some people say that’s the best advice they’ve ever received. Depending on your personality type, or where you are in life, I get that. So let’s take a look at the pros and cons of not owning your own home.
For St. Louisans of a certain age, Stan Musial was almost as famous for his restaurant as he was for what he could do with a baseball bat. Musial and his business partner, Julius “Biggie” Garagnani operated a steakhouse near Musial’s residence. In 1949 Musial bought a half share of Biggie’s Steak House and they changed the name to Stan Musial and Biggie’s.
Stan Musial had a storied career in St. Louis. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969, and spent his whole career with the Cardinals. In 1947 he even played with a failing appendix. He lived a very public life both during and after his baseball career. His various businesses contributed to that public life, but they also made him wealthy.
How far can you run an Ethernet cable? The limit is around 90-100 meters. You can generally push that limit harder with CAT6 than with CAT5e, and there are ways you can cheat. Here’s how.
You may be able to buy an Ethernet cable longer than 100 meters, but don’t assume that just because you can buy one that it will work.
The distinction of O scale vs O gauge can be confusing for some people, especially newcomers to model railroading. Some people can get uptight about the difference, so here’s how to distinguish the two so you can avoid offending someone.
Can you put peel and stick tile over ceramic tile? You certainly can, but there’s a right and a wrong way to do it. Do it without prep time, and you’ll end up with a floor that looks bad and doesn’t last as long as it could. Prep carefully though, and no one will ever know.
Here’s how to put peel and stick tile over ceramic tile and not regret the results. I’ve seen it done the wrong way, and I’ve done it both the right way and the wrong way myself.
Media mail is just about the least expensive shipping method the US Postal Service offers. But many people abuse it, sometimes intentionally, and sometimes unintentionally. So how do you get media mail rates, and more importantly, what qualifies as media mail? What is considered media mail by the USPS?
Generally speaking, for things to qualify as media mail, remember two rules. If you wouldn’t find it in a public library or university library, it probably doesn’t qualify. And if it contains advertising, even very old ads that are no longer valid, it almost certainly doesn’t qualify. If it’s a book or a sound recording with only incidental announcements, it’s OK. Anything beyond that is only OK if it meets very specific criteria.