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Happy 30th birthday, Commodore 64

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing January 6, 2012July 15, 20171980s, 1990s, apple, CES, commodore, commodore 64, Dave Haynie, emachine, IBM

The C-64 sort of turns 30 this week. It was introduced 30 years ago this week, though it wasn’t until August or so that you could actually buy one. It took that long for memory prices to come down to reach the target price, and if memory serves, the machine they displayed at CES in January wasn’t quite production-ready anyway.

I remember the machine well. It was my first computer. It seems like just yesterday the thing turned 25. And not all that long ago that I still used one on a regular basis.

Message digests for forensic purposes

Dave Farquhar security January 5, 2012

I found a question in my studies whose answer I didn’t like. So I’ll repeat the question and the choices, and state what I think the answer should be and why I think that way. Any experts out there who might be reading can feel free to chime in.

Which of the following is a potential problem when creating a message digest for forensic purposes?

A. It’s an extremely slow process
B. The message digest is almost as long as the data
C. The last access time of the file is changed
D. One-way hashing technology invalidates message digest processing Read more

The LG 593260 LED bulb from Costco

Dave Farquhar Saving money January 4, 2012costco, home depot, led bulbs, LG, lumens

I bought a 2-pack of LG LED bulbs from Costco for $16. They aren’t as good as the bulbs I bought at Home Depot in 2010 or the ones I bought at Lowe’s last year, but for the price difference, they’re probably worth it at least in some cases. The Home Depot bulb sells for 25% more and uses 1.1 watts more energy; the Lowe’s bulb sells for 50% more.

And now, Excel 2007 has a few nasty surprises

Dave Farquhar Office, Software January 3, 2012August 14, 2016excel, Microsoft Office

I ran into something maddening today. I have a large number of self-study questions in plaintext format that I’ve been using to prepare for my upcoming test. To weed out the large number of duplicates, I massaged the file into a tab-separated format so I could load it into Excel and alphabetize it by the question wording. It worked nicely, especially in Excel 2003.

I got a nasty surprise when I loaded the same file on an Excel 2007-equipped machine.
Read more

Bruce Sutter vs Lee Smith makes sense to me

Dave Farquhar Baseball January 3, 2012May 16, 20171980s, Bo Jackson, Bruce Sutter, cardinals, National League

ESPN’s David Schoenfield writes, regarding Hall of Fame votes, and Bruce Sutter vs Lee Smith specifically:

Why does [Bruce] Sutter start at 23.9 percent [of the vote] and later gain momentum and enshrinement after 13 years on the ballot, but Lee Smith start at 42.3 percent and after nine years remain at 45.3 percent?
It doesn’t make sense.

As someone who grew up in St. Louis watching both pitchers, it makes sense to me. Sutter and Smith look similar by some mathematical models, but the people who watched them remember them differently. And memory is everything when it comes to close-call Hall of Fame candidates.

What the Founding Fathers intended to be in the public domain today

Dave Farquhar Copyright January 2, 2012piracy, public domain, Walt Disney

If Copyright law was still the way the Founding Fathers intended, anything copyrighted before 1955 would be in the public domain today. A number of noteworthy things came into being in 1955.

But like Duke University’s Center of Public Domain Studies, I’m a bit more concerned about the stuff that isn’t as noteworthy.

Do insulated vinyl blinds work?

Dave Farquhar Saving money January 1, 2012February 3, 20221980s, curtains

Back in November, I bought a bunch of insulated vinyl blinds on sale. Installing them took about a week–I had to replace all the hardware, which involves drilling, so I had to be careful what I did and when so as to not wake the kids–but they’ve all been up almost a month now, and it didn’t take long for them to leave an impression. I know you’re asking, “Do insulated vinyl blinds work?” I have to say yes.

Making this WPS vulnerability even worse

Dave Farquhar security December 31, 2011dd wrt, tomato, vulnerability

If the vulnerability in WPS that I linked and talked about this week wasn’t bad enough, some of the commenters at the always excellent Hackaday found something terrible.

Many vendors use a predictable number as the WPS PIN, and don’t even bother to make it unique on a router-by-router basis. So much for it taking a couple of hours to get into a network. Since some vendors set the PIN to something like 123456789 or 123456780 (how clever), the vulnerability may not even be necessary to get in. Just try some of the known numbers, and chances are you can be on somebody’s network in a matter of minutes.

Is that file safe?

Dave Farquhar security December 30, 2011antivirus, McAfee, symantec

So you’ve downloaded this great new piece of free software, but you’re not sure if it’s safe to install. Your antivirus software says it’s not infected, so you can assume it’s safe, right?

Not so fast. Nothing detects everything. Using multiple virus scanners dramatically decreases the chances of something getting through.

I’m doing my homework

Dave Farquhar Personal December 29, 2011cissp

As I continue studying for my CISSP, I’m rebalancing things a little bit. I plan to still post most days (probably weekdays), but until I pass the test, I’m probably going to be posting shorter pieces than I usually do. I don’t know exactly how much time I spend writing every day, but it would be prudent for me to limit myself to 30 minutes or less until I reach my goal. I write fast, but I know I can’t write 1,000 words worth reading in 30 minutes.

Once my life returns to normal, I expect the length and content mix will also.