David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more
Modern versions of Windows collect a huge amount of telemetry on you. But running older versions of Windows puts you at greater security risk, and running another OS may or may not always be feasible. So for those instances, it’s possible to use a hosts file to stop Windows from spying on you.
The Jetway 386WB was an inexpensive clone motherboard with an Opti chipset available in the 1989 /1990 time frame.
I’m familiar with the Jetway board because I own one, but many manufacturers in Taiwan produced boards based on the same Opti reference design. Essentially, Opti did the engineering work, and the Taiwan-based manufacturers handled production. The result was an unassuming board that provided good value for money.
Marx train set 9605 was an electric train set Marx that Sears sold in 1955. But you may also hear collectors refer to it as Happi-Time train set 9605, because that’s what Marx printed on the box.
Back when I was getting started in Linux, the network card to get was anything based on the DEC Tulip chipset. DEC sold them themselves for a short time, but so did Netgear, Linksys, and probably others. Unlike DEC ISA cards, which were junk, the Tulip chipset was great. At least in Linux and Windows. DOS? I never had reason to check. Here’s how (and why) I set up DEC Tulip packet drivers for DOS.
I recently came across a couple of old DEC Tulip cards in my parts stash, and I decided to try to get them working in DOS. I’ve had mixed success with PCI cards and DOS, so if I could get those old Tulip cards working, it could make life easier for me when I run DOS on that type of machine. Here’s how I did it.
Spray foam cans are expensive, and if you’re like me, they almost always clog up or dry out before you get a chance to use the whole can. In this blog post, I’ll tell you how to fix a clogged, dried out can of spray foam so you can use more of it and save time and money.
A common objection I hear to scanning systems with credentials is the fear of that account getting compromised. In this blog post, I will talk about ways to mitigate that risk using defense in depth. I will also explain why scanning with credentials is itself a vital component of defense in depth.
Marx thrived for years selling low budget electric trains with an inexpensive locomotive pulling 4-wheel cars made of plastic. The Rambler train set, part of its Great American Railroads series, carried catalog number 4336 and was the last of that breed.
The Marx Rambler train, set number 4336, was part of the Great American Railroads series. It had two variants sold by discount retailers, but only in 1974.
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of information out there about how to fix 3.5-inch floppy drives, especially the 1.44 megabyte format that was a fixture in PCs for nearly 20 years. Maybe everyone knows how to do it, but that won’t be true forever. In this blog post, I’ll record the secrets of fixing this enduring storage format, before they get lost to time.
If you are tired of getting phone calls and postcards from randos who want to buy your house or sell you stuff you don’t want, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is they are probably getting your phone number and home address just by searching Google. The good news is, there is a process to get your personal contact information removed from Google. In this blog post, I will walk you through the process.
W.T. Grant was once one of the largest retailers in the United States, operating for 70 years, from 1906 to 1976. Its decline was rapid and catastrophic, and had lasting implications we still feel decades later. When your favorite company’s stock drops after announcing quarterly results in spite of turning a profit, just because its sales didn’t grow as much as the previous quarter, you’re feeling the after-effects of W.T. Grant.