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Don’t use personal information as your wifi network name

Dave Farquhar security December 8, 2014April 23, 2017AES, lifehacker, SSID

This weekend Lifehacker advised against using things like your name and address as your wifi network name or SSID–if you’re targeted for attack, it makes you that much easier to find when your wifi name is your name or address.

When I set up a wifi network, I usually set the name to the time of day. That way the network name ends up just being a meaningless, useless number, with no clues as to who owns it, or who the broadband provider is. Clever names draw attention, and you don’t want to draw attention.

Let’s talk about two other common security measures that you probably shouldn’t do.

Painting model figures in five easy steps

Dave Farquhar Toy trains December 7, 2014December 30, 2020apple, clearcoat, hardware store, Pledge Floor Care, police officer, Purple Power, Stain, toy train, train layout

Painting model figures for train layouts is a task that few toy train hobbyists relish, but we can borrow techniques from other hobbies to solve that problem. The model railroading and toy train hobbies have solved a lot of problems for hobbyists in other fields, and I don’t think we borrow knowledge back from those other hobbies as much as we could.

One problem the miniature wargaming hobby has solved is painting large quantities of figures rapidly while getting acceptable results.

Creative sourcing for O and S scale train layout figures

Dave Farquhar Toy trains December 6, 2014June 6, 20261:64 scale, american flyer, Big Lots, christmas, Cobblestone Corners, CVS, Dollar Tree, HO, ho scale, marx, marx trains, o gauge, o scale, s gauge, s scale, train layout

Hobby shops frequently carry a decent selection of figures for O and S gauge layouts, but if you look at the magazines long enough, you start to see almost all of them have the same figures–and they’re probably the same figures the shop near you sells as well.

There are ways to get a better variety of figures so your layout can have something distinctive about it–and the good news is you can save some money doing it as well.

Viglink: Looking back after 16 months

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized December 5, 2014July 4, 2018Missouri, spam, viglink

As my longtime readers may know, back in the summer of 2013 Amazon cut off its affiliates program in Missouri. I’d been using the Amazon affiliates program for 12 or 13 years at the time. It didn’t make me rich, but it generally did a nice job of covering my day-to-day expenses of running the blog.

I’m going to do something most bloggers won’t do–I’m going to tell you what I make blogging. I don’t know what Amazon affiliates are and aren’t allowed to talk about, but Amazon has no control over me anymore, and Viglink doesn’t expressly prohibit such talk. So I’ll talk. Read more

An insider’s account of the fall of Radio Shack

Dave Farquhar Retail, Retro Computing December 4, 2014February 6, 20221980s, best buy, black friday, Circuit City, radio shack, VCR

When I heard Radio Shack was going to be open on Thanksgiving day, I wondered why they would bother. The few Radio Shack stores near me are deserted on normal days, so I didn’t know why anyone would take time out of Thanksgiving Day to go to Radio Shack.

Based on this sad account from an employee who spent hard time working at Radio Shack, I was probably even more right than I thought. The first story, from Black Friday 2004, tells the tale of a store that, when all was said and done, probably lost money on Black Friday. And this was in an era when tech blogs would say, “Believe it or not, there are worse places to be at 6am on Black Friday than Radio Shack.”

I’m not sure anybody believes it now. Read more

What is Winshock?

Dave Farquhar security, Windows December 3, 2014December 2, 2014antivirus, code execution, excel, IBM, ips, Patch Tuesday, SSL, symantec, TLS, vulnerability, windows 7, windows 8, windows 9x, windows nt, Windows Server, Windows XP

So the other day I got blindsided with a question at work: What are we doing about Winshock. Winshock, I asked? I had to go look it up, and I found that’s what they dubbed what I’ve been calling MS14-066, the vulnerability in Schannel, which is Microsoft’s implementation of SSL/TLS for Windows.

Based on that, I’d argue it has more in common with Heartbleed than Shellshock, but I guess “Winshock” is catchier than “Winbleed.”

Then the lead of another team asked me to brief his team on Winshock. I actually managed to anticipate all but three of the questions they asked, too, which was better than I expected. Some of what I shared with them is probably worth sharing further.

Why accordion-style flexible drain pipe is against code

Dave Farquhar DIY, Landlording December 2, 2014May 17, 2022Louis County, Plumbing, PVC

From time to time I see accordion-style flexible drain pipe (also sometimes called flexible waste pipe) in use, much like the one below. St. Louis County inspectors take an exceptionally dim view of these, and I always wondered what the big deal was, since literally every hardware and home-improvement store in St. Louis County sells them. Why would they sell something if it isn’t okay to use it? Read more

What to look for in a 2014 bargain Android tablet

Dave Farquhar Android December 1, 2014November 29, 2014android, intel, Kit Kat, Play Store, x86

I guess I owe an apology for not writing and posting this last week, when $40 tablets were all the rage as doorbusters. Cheap Android tablets are back again, and people are going to buy them–so it pays to buy one worth having, rather than one that’s going to drive you nuts.

Here’s what I look for, and you should too: Read more

4K displays get affordable for Cyber Monday

Dave Farquhar Hardware November 30, 2014DisplayPort, nvidia, pixels per inch, samsung

I’m not quite ready to upgrade to a 4K (4096×2160 resolution) monitor yet, but if you are, Samsung’s 28″ 4K display is on sale for $400 (down from $700) for Cyber Monday.

At that size and resolution, it works out to 165 pixels per inch, which is very close to what we used to call “near letter quality” in the days of dot matrix printers. To me, this seems more practical than using a 42″ 4K television, and the refresh rate is much better.

Keep in mind you do need Displayport to drive a 4K display. Most video cards costing $100 and up have those these days, but even some Geforce 210 cards have them, like this Jaton.

Tips for using Dept. 56 and Lemax-type buildings with Lionel trains

Dave Farquhar Toy trains November 29, 2014December 10, 20211:64 scale, 1950s, american flyer, christmas, Cobblestone Corners, Dept 56, Dollar Tree, electric trains, estate sales, holiday village, Lemax, lionel, marx, marx trains, s scale

A frequent question I see regards the proper scale of snow village-type buildings, like Department 56 and Lemax, and whether they’re suitable for use with Lionel electric trains.

The answer is that their scale varies, but the buildings work very effectively with traditional Lionel trains, or, for that matter, 1:64 S scale American Flyer trains. Many hobbyists have built elaborate winter-themed layouts using these buildings. Typically the scale runs from anywhere from 1:64 to 1:48, with lots of selective compression to make the buildings fit an approximate footprint. The very same thing is true of the Lionel trains of the 1950s, so, intentional or not, they end up being a pretty good match.

The figures sold with these buildings, on the other hand, tend to be much larger–very close to 1:24 scale. This discrepancy bothers some people more than others. 1:24 figures are better suited for G scale.