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The old days of viruses

Dave Farquhar security, Viruses March 8, 2012March 26, 2025antivirus, CIO, CISM, cissp, computer security, firewall, intel, John Dominik, journalism, Love Letter, malware, Missouri, public internet, spam, symantec, university of missouri, VBS

Blogging pioneer John Dominik, inspired by my Michelangelo memories, wrote about his memories of viruses later in the decade. So now I’ll take inspiration of him and share my memories of some of those viruses. I searched my archives, and at the time it was going on, I didn’t write a lot. I was tired and angry, as you can tell from the terse posts I did write.

I have a server… and about four years’ worth of content

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized March 6, 2012apache, firewall, SQL

My new server is up and running, and let me tell you, it’s spectacular.

And if you’re reading this on 6 March 2012, you’re probably wondering what I’m talking about, because everything looks just as slow as usual. That’s because the new server is still behind my firewall because I’m struggling to get my content all moved to it.

Customize Firefox before it hits the ground on a new PC

Dave Farquhar Software March 5, 2012firefox, Keep Firefox, malware, Malware Domains, ramdisk, Vacuum Places

Here’s a nifty-looking program: Firefox Addon Maker, which allows you to create customized Firefox installer packages.

This is helpful if you install Firefox a lot, whether in corporate or home settings.
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How to start over with MySQL in Debian

Dave Farquhar Linux March 4, 2012apache, APC, DBA, debian, mysql, PHP, ubuntu

I got my new 64-bit web server up and running today. Now the main task that remains is to get my data moved over to it. I talked myself into going with an Apache setup, since one program I want to run (Webtrees) is designed for Apache and its search engine optimization seems to work better under Apache than Nginx. It’s fast anyway; displaying the 17-person family of Andrew Davis McQueen of Leesville, Mo., briefly consumes 2% of the available CPU time in Webtrees with the APC PHP cache installed and enabled. And that should get better, seeing as newer, faster, better versions of both Apache and PHP were released in the last month.

As I built my new 64-bit web server, I messed up MySQL a couple of times. When you break MySQL beyond repair, here’s how to start over with a fresh MySQL install and a fresh /var/lib/mysql without doing a Windows-like reformat and reinstall of the entire operating system:
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How computer and energy technology don’t relate

Dave Farquhar Saving money March 4, 20121940s, Bill Gates, CFL, IBM, led bulbs, lumens, occupancy sensor, philips

Bill Gates says the rapid advance of computers created unreasonable expectations for the advancement of energy technology. The argument makes sense. And while desktop computers did advance very quickly, I think people have a misconception of even how quickly computers developed–which makes it worse, of course. Some people seem to believe the computer was invented by IBM and Microsoft in 1981. Far be it from Gates to lead people to believe otherwise, but the direct ancestors of modern desktop computing date to the early 1970s, and the groundwork for even that dates to the 1940s, at the very latest.
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Tips for connecting traditional tubular track

Dave Farquhar Toy trains March 3, 2012November 29, 2015conductivity, lionel, marx, o27, tubular track

I saw a question earlier this week about working with Lionel tubular track. It doesn’t snap together quite as easily as modern Fastrack does, but it’s a lot cheaper, especially if you already have a bunch of it on hand.

I probably have 100 linear feet of tubular O27 track (Lionel, Marx, and K-Line) on my layout, so I’ll give some tips for working with it.

Viewtron and Videotex: Internet-like technology, circa 1983

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing March 3, 2012September 13, 2024

IT World profiled Viewtron, AT&T’s implementation of Videotex, as an interesting what-if. Think of it as 1983’s version of WebTV. What if it had caught on? Why didn’t it?
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Don’t use Password1 as your password

Dave Farquhar security March 2, 2012passwords, Two-factor authentication

CNN reported yesterday that Password1 is the most common password in business environments. It’s the simplest password that meets common “complexity” requirements. It illustrates the problem with complexity requirements–a password can meet those requirements while still being extremely predictable.

As such, those passwords can be easy to guess, and they cast doubt on the entire idea of complexity.

Yesterday was Windows 8 day, but I found this e-reader hack more interesting

Dave Farquhar Hardware March 1, 2012android, Angry Birds, Nook Color, Nook Simple Touch, windows 8

Yesterday, the consumer preview of Windows 8 hit the streets. I haven’t downloaded it. I’m mildly curious, but have a number of things higher on my priority list. Being a late adopter of Windows versions serves me well more often than not anyway.

I found something else yesterday that I find a lot more interesting: An e-ink Android tablet. Humor me.

A cloud computing-related Security+ question

Dave Farquhar security February 29, 2012August 12, 2018CISM, cissp, datacenter, DBA, SSCP

Someone tossed a Security+ study question my way this week. This is an example of Security+ trying to be CISSP Lite, but it’s still a valid question–probably for either test, and for SSCP and CISM too.

A small not-for-profit organization needs to invest in a new expensive database. There is no budget for additional servers or personnel. Which of the following solutions would allow it to save money by avoiding hiring additional personnel and minimize the footprint in their current datacenter?
A. Linux
B. Software as a Service (SaaS)
C. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
D. Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Let’s take it one at a time.