David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more
It sometimes surprises people that you can wash a toothbrush in a dishwasher. But there’s no reason why you can’t, to prolong their useful life. And the toothbrush in dishwasher trick is a good way to stay healthier in the winter.
Is oil conductive? It’s a frequent point of debate among model railroaders. But generally speaking, oil isn’t a very good conductor. That said, oil can be a good conductivity enhancer, even though it’s not a very good conductor on its own.
Here’s how to use oil to improve conductivity in electrical applications. This can work whether you’re talking household current, or low-voltage applications like you find in model railroading.
Intel and Intel-compatible x86 CPUs are everywhere around us. It’s been a long time since you could buy a desktop or laptop computer with anything but an x86 CPU in it. Even Apple, a longtime anything-but-Intel stalwart, started using x86 CPUs more than a decade ago. That raises a fair question: Why is x86 so popular?
So you buy a tube of Liquid Nails or another construction adhesive and you end up only using a little. What do you do? Here’s how to store Liquid Nails once opened.
This is one of those cheap and simple life hacks that can end up saving you a fair bit of money. Enough to be worthwhile, at least.
Sometimes you want to lock a Marx motor in one direction. Some of them have a switch for doing so but many do not. Here’s how to find the switch, and what to do if yours doesn’t have one and you don’t want to modify it.
Computers in the 1990s, especially at the dawn of the 1990s, were very different from today. Looking back now, it’s easy to see how the 1990s were a pivotal decade for computing. And since GenXers like me live under the delusion that the 1990s just happened, I still remember it well.
Perhaps the most important thing to remember about computers in the 1990s is the number of things that didn’t exist prior to 1990. In other cases, they existed, but were terrible, so nobody used them.
So, if you haven’t heard about Spectre and Meltdown, you can read my analysis over at my employer’s blog. I won’t compete with them. Let’s talk about the heat Intel is taking over this, and why I think it’s at least slightly unfair.
My Windows 10 sound stopped working suddenly. One day it worked, the next day, it quit. Nothing else changed–I hadn’t even rebooted. If, like me, you experience Windows 10 sound not working, here’s a quick fix to try that should take you less than a minute.
My symptoms were simple. My web browser quit playing audio. Muting and unmuting didn’t help. Changing the volume didn’t help. I tried a different browser and it wouldn’t play audio either. Then I fired up Windows Media Player and tried to play a song. I got silence. Then I got a red X next to the song that didn’t play. If this sounds familiar, keep reading. I can probably help you.
The Commodore 64 and Nintendo 64 have similar names, but they aren’t related. The number “64” was significant enough that both companies wanted to brag about it. But in the case of the Commodore 64 vs Nintendo 64, the number meant two completely different things. Here’s why that number keeps coming up.
Toys R Us filed for bankruptcy in late 2017, stoking concerns about its future going forward before closing in the summer of 2018. The venerable retailer outlasted a large number of defunct toy store chains, but toy stores have been in sharp decline for decades. Here are some names of old toy stores that went out of business, and what happened to those old toy store chains.