The Silicon Underground

Home » Page 240

Replacing a Memopad HD7 screen

Dave Farquhar Android, Hardware August 20, 2015December 2, 2015asus, Asus Memopad, isopropyl alcohol

It probably was just a matter of time, but one of my sons dropped his Asus Memopad HD 7 and cracked the digitizer assembly. What we usually call the screen actually sits behind the breakable piece of glass, and more often than not, it’s the glass digitizer that breaks. I left it that way for a while, but once the screen cracks, the cracks tend to spread, and eventually the tablet will get to a point where it’s unresponsive.

Replacement digitizers are available on Ebay. Note the exact model number of your tablet (my kids have ME173Xs, so here’s an ME173X screen) because they aren’t all interchangeable. The part costs around $20. It took me about three hours to replace because it was my first one. If I did this every day I could probably do it in 30 minutes, and I’m guessing if I have to do another–ideally I won’t–it will take an hour or so.

The Bobj rugged case for tablets is a good buy

Dave Farquhar Android August 19, 2015July 30, 2015christmas, Memo Pad

I picked up a pair of Bobj rugged cases for the two hurricanes I spawned, or, more precisely, for the tablets my two hurricanes got for Christmas a couple of years back.

I sure wish these had been available then, because there’s a lot to like about these protective cases.

Why Johnny can’t patch

Dave Farquhar security, Uncategorized August 18, 2015August 16, 2015Internet Storm Center

I’ve spent nearly 2/3 of my career dealing with Microsoft patches at one level or another, so when it comes to excuses, I think I’ve probably heard them all.

This diary entry from the Internet Storm Center has good answers to the most common objections. I think a two-day patch cycle may be overly aggressive, and I know it drives infrastructure folks nuts when CISOs read stuff like this and then say, “Patch my stuff in two days like this guy,” but most organizations can take his advice, and even if they slow it down to 30 days instead of two, they’ll still be in a better place than they are today.

Don’t patch your workstations last

Dave Farquhar security August 17, 2015August 16, 2015VLAN

Last week, I heard a webcast in which the presenter repeated some advice from 2004: Patch things like your financial systems first, and your workstations last.

Workstations need to be first. Read more

Will ARM overtake x86?

Dave Farquhar Hardware August 14, 2015June 9, 2024amd, android, apple, intel, mac os x, os x, x86

Here’s an interesting question I got recently: Will ARM overtake x86?

I think the answer depends on how you define “overtake.”

Upgrading a Compaq Evo D510 for Windows 10 and beyond

Dave Farquhar Hardware August 13, 2015December 10, 2015compaq, compaq evo d510, IBM, intel, Intel Core, model m, pcie, Windows 10, Windows XP

I had an old Compaq Evo D510 full-size tower/desktop convertible PC, from the Pentium 4/Windows XP era, that I wanted to upgrade. The machine long ago outlived its usefulness–its Pentium 4 CPU is less powerful than the average smartphone CPU while consuming enough power to be a space heater–but the case is rugged, professional looking, and long since paid for. So I thought it was worth dropping something more modern into it.

I chose the Asrock Q1800, which sports a quad-core Celeron that uses less than 10 watts of power and runs so cool it doesn’t need a fan. It’s on par with an early Intel Core 2 Duo when it comes to speed, which won’t turn any heads but is plenty fast to be useful, and the board can take up to 16 GB of DDR3 RAM and it’s cheap. I put 16 GB in this one of course. I loves me some memory, and DDR3 is cheap right now.

I miss the sound of a modem carrier

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing, War Stories August 12, 2015June 17, 2024amiga, AOL, bbs, bulletin board, commodore, lionel

“I know this will sound crazy,” my boss said. “But I miss the sound of a modem connecting.”

I don’t think it’s crazy at all. That chirping was the sound of a hard-won victory, at least if you’re of a certain age.

The best e-book site I’ve found

Dave Farquhar Copyright, Design, e-readers August 11, 2015October 11, 2019Australia, kindle, public domain

The best ebooks site I’ve found, by far, is the archive at the University of Adelaide in Australia. The selection is outstanding, but the presentation is even better.

Steve Thomas, the curator, takes tremendous care to ensure Adelaide’s e-books display their best on any device. Most e-books, even commercial books, pay little to no attention to formatting, and the result all too often is books that are difficult to read.

Building DOS gaming PCs

Dave Farquhar DOS, Retro Computing August 10, 2015May 1, 20251980s, 1990s, amiga, atari, atari st, compaq, IBM, intel, macintosh, micron, Packard Bell, Tandy, tandy 1000, VGA, XT

The ultimate DOS gaming PC is a topic that I’ve seen come up in forums frequently, and that I’ve been asked directly a number of times. I guess since I published advice on running DOS games on Windows PCs on two continents, people figured I knew something about that. I guess I fooled them!

The trouble is that no single PC can really be the “ultimate” DOS game machine. Well, not if your goal is to be able to optimally run everything from early 1980s titles designed for the original IBM PC up to the last DOS version of Quake. I learned that the hard way in 1995 or 1996, even before Quake existed. Read more

What you can learn about corporate networks from the Jeep hack

Dave Farquhar security August 8, 2015August 1, 2015Charlie Miller, firewall, Jeep

I’ve talked before about the infamous Jeep hack, but there’s more to learn from it than just that cars are vulnerable. The way Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek hacked the Jeep has implications for any computer network.