David L. Farquhar, computer security professional, train hobbyist, and landlord
American Flyer produced track in a variety of gauges and radii, but if you’re asking about American Flyer track radius, you probably mean its S gauge track.
The standard radius for American Flyer S gauge track, produced from 1946 to 1967, was 20 inches. Other radii were also available from other manufacturers.
My Amana dishwasher stopped washing dishes well. If you Amana or other related make (Whirlpool, Kenmore, Maytag) isn’t cleaning well, maybe this will help.
The term root cause is used in engineering and related disciplines. It simply means identifying the source of a bigger issue. Finding the root cause helps to keep the problem from happening again.
What is dollar cost averaging? Think of it as a way to spread out risk when investing in stocks, bonds, or other equities. It keeps you from paying too much at any given time.
The way you make money in investments is by buying low and selling high, but you never know what the high and low points of the market will be. Dollar cost averaging helps you to avoid the highs.
I read a tweet this weekend from a prominent political commentator disparaging doctors of osteopathy, DOs for short. He said only MDs are legitimate doctors. That’s not at all true. Let’s take a look at a DO vs an MD. There’s a difference, but it doesn’t at all mean DOs are less competent.
DOs are recognized by all 50 states and are licensed to prescribe drugs, administer vaccines, and perform surgery just like an MD. Web sites that suggest a DO is basically a chiropractor are using outdated and incomplete information. While some people consider osteopathy a form of alternative medicine, that’s an incomplete perspective. The majority of what DOs practice is completely mainstream medicine.
The Marx 333 and 1829 were the largest O gauge steam locomotives Marx produced. But even though Marx’s competitors would sometimes make both a diecast and plastic version of the same engine, that’s not what Marx did here. Let’s take a look at the Marx 1829 vs 333.
The 1829 wasn’t just a plastic Marx 333. The design of the casting differs from the diecast 333, and it used a different trailing truck, since the 333 was a 4-6-2 Pacific and the 1829 was a Hudson. The motor was similar, and like the 333, it came in both smoking and non-smoking versions.
The NEC V20 was an Intel 8088 compatible CPU that ran slightly faster. It was a niche CPU in the 1980s and 1990s but was a popular cheap upgrade for power users, especially in instances where motherboard swaps were impractical. It retains a following with retro computing enthusiasts today.
The NEC V20 was pin-compatible with the Intel 8088 but included some unique forward and backward compatibility features. It included the 80186 instruction set and could also emulate the Intel 8080, in addition to being faster than the 8088.
The Timex Sinclair 2068 was the US version of the much more popular Sinclair ZX Spectrum, one of the most successful home computers of the 1980s in the UK. The 2068 unfortunately didn’t match its British brother’s success.
Timex withrew from the US computer market in February 1984, soon after the release of the Timex Sinclair 2068, one of the early casualties of the home computer wars. The 2068 proved to be the last of Timex’s home computers.
I spent years racing Hot Wheels cars in the basement with my cousin. As kids, we didn’t necessarily know why this was, but some Hot Wheels cars were definitely faster than others, even if you compared two examples of the same car. But once you understand why, it’s possible to make a car fast. Here’s how to make Hot Wheels go faster.
The keys to speed generally are reducing friction and increasing weight. Some of these modifications are reversible and others aren’t, but they provide a number of options for increasing the speed of a Hot Wheels car.
What is a phreaker in hacking or IT terms? Phreaking is largely obsolete and doesn’t happen much anymore, but it’s an important historical concept in computer security. While phreaking wasn’t the first form of hacking, it’s probably the first example of hacking in a modern sense.
Phreaking was hacking the phone system, usually to make long distance calls for free. Some people phreaked for the thrill of it, but many of them did it because they made more long distance calls than they could afford. Two famous phreakers from the 1970s were Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, the co-founders of Apple.