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Troubleshooting long scan times in Tenable Security Center

Dave Farquhar security March 23, 2025March 23, 2025

I can never find this when I need it, so I am going to write up how I troubleshoot long scan times in Tenable Security Center. And if it helps you too, so be it. Usually when a Security Center scan takes forever, it’s because one or two hosts is responding much more slowly than the rest, holding up the entire scan. The scan won’t complete until every system finishes. Finding the slow hosts so you can troubleshoot them, or at least move them to their own scan, can help you keep the scan from dragging on forever.

Why we call software updates patches

Dave Farquhar security March 11, 2025March 3, 2025

It’s Patch Tuesday, the day Microsoft and Adobe grace us with new software updates to track, argue about, and maybe someday deploy to our computer systems. But have you ever wondered why we call software updates “patches?” What’s the meaning of the word patch?

What happened to CompUSA?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing February 27, 2025February 22, 2026

Readers of a certain age will remember CompUSA, a defunct big-box computer retailer. What happened to CompUSA? It went out of business, then came back as an undead brand, then went away again.

In some ways, CompUSA was the epitome of 1990s computer retail. It had huge big box stores with aisles of software and upgrades. It sold desktop computers, including its own house brand, Compudyne, manufactured for CompUSA by Acer. But the business model didn’t work as well in the 21st century.

Andy Warhol died February 22, 1987

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing February 21, 2025January 5, 2025

On February 22, 1987, American pop artist Andy Warhol died at the age of 58 in New York City of irregular heartbeat following gallbladder surgery.

M.U.L.E.: 1983’s best video game

Dave Farquhar Retro Gaming February 19, 2025May 29, 2025

Game designer Danielle Bunten Berry was born February 19, 1949. Her best game was called M.U.L.E., a multiplayer turn-based strategy game in a sci-fi setting originally developed on the Atari 800 and then ported to other systems like the Commodore 64, MSX 2, IBM PC, and, eventually, the Nintendo NES. It was one of Electronic Arts‘ debut five titles.

Should you use a face scan, fingerprint, or passkey?

Dave Farquhar security February 11, 2025February 10, 2025

What’s better, biometrics like a fingerprint or face recognition, a pass key, or old fashioned passwords? A couple of different conversations I had recently spurred this question, and I think it’s worth exploring.

Google Fiber announced February 10, 2010

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing February 10, 2025February 10, 2025

It was 15 years ago today, on February 10, 2010, that Google announced Google Fiber. This was the first truly high speed Internet service in a modern sense in the United States.

Advantages and disadvantages of Lotus 1-2-3

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing January 27, 2025July 21, 2025

Lotus 1-2-3 was the killer app that made the IBM PC the standard for computers. It wasn’t the first spreadsheet, making its debut January 26, 1983, but it ran on a computer that could easily address more than 64K of memory, it was fast, and relatively bug free. So it was super successful. Today we know it as the thing people used before Excel. So what were the advantages and disadvantages of Lotus 1-2-3?

NCSA Mosaic: The mother of all web browsers

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing January 24, 2025March 12, 2025

The title dates itself. On January 23, 1993, more people would have caught the reference. January 23, 1993 was the day the first cross-platform Web browser emerged from the NCSA, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, a computing research partnership at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, in the middle of the cornfields of Illinois.

IBM’s big black and blue 1992

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing January 21, 2025January 28, 2025

On January 19, 1993, IBM announced a stunning $5 billion loss for fiscal year 1992, earning the unfortunate nickname of “Big Black and Blue” until its turnaround later in the decade.