David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more
Some VCRs won’t accept dates after the year 2000. Some old computers won’t either. But there is a creative solution so your old device knows what day of the week it is on a given date, even if it can’t handle a year after 2000.
Battery wet dry vacuums certainly have appeal, if only due to convenience. Frequently the places where you need to use them may not have a convenient outlet, or the outlet may not be safe to use because of the standing water. But does that mean they’re good? They certainly have trade-offs. Here’s how to figure out if they are right for you.
The Lionel 116 station is a popular if impractical centerpiece for pre-war tinplate layouts. Also known as the double station, it is an enlarged version of the Lionel 115 station and shares many of its characteristics. While best suited for standard gauge trains, its design does lend itself to o gauge. It’s a majestic station for large layouts, but it’s easier to squeeze the smaller 115 station into a typical layout.
The Lionel 116 is the largest station Lionel produced, eclipsing the similar 115 station. Its design was inspired by New York city’s Grand Central station, but it used selective compression to give the impression of a big city station without taking the space that would be required of a true scale model.
This month, YouTuber Casual Retro Gamer rebuilt a 286 clone from the late 1980s. After his restoration work was done, he did what any of us would have done. He started upgrading it, because a handsomely restored retro PC is less fun than a souped up handsomely restored retro PC. And that’s where he ran into the oddities of 286 memory optimization. When he was done, he had 585 kilobytes of conventional memory available, and he speculated that might not be quite enough. Here’s how to get more.
RAID, in case you are not aware, is an acronym for redundant array of inexpensive disks. It serves two purposes in computing, using multiple disk drives as a single logical drive for the purpose of improving performance, improving reliability, or both. There are different flavors of RAID, depending on the capability. Frequently, the most common types of RAID are RAID 0, 1, or 5. You can also combine them for extremely high performance applications, which usually are called RAID 5 + 1. Anymore, this is frequently handled and software. So what is the purpose of RAID adapters?
Disassembling a Lionel 1110 or similar Scout 2-4-2 or 4-2-2 locomotive isn’t too difficult. The biggest problem is knowing where the three screws are that you have to remove.
These particular locomotives weren’t really designed to be repaired, but there’s some basic work you can do on them with household tools. You can also replace dead motors with motors from certain other locomotives to get these trains running again if they have sentimental value to you. My 1110, which was my Dad’s first train, falls into that category for me, so I understand.
When troubleshooting a Windows 95 build, I came across an interesting question: can you use Windows 95 in 2022? And a related question: is Windows 95 safe to use? As a retro computer enthusiast and a computer security professional, and one who specializes in software life cycle management at that, I take a special interest in questions like this.
When you’re comparing electric lawn mowers, you may find two comparable mowers at widely different price points. The reason for that, if you read the fine print, is frequently the battery type. The cheaper ones use lead acid batteries and the more expensive ones use lithium. So what’s the difference? Let’s compare lead acid vs lithium batteries.
My wife took a broken smartphone in for repair this week and the person at the repair store tried to talk her out of getting it fixed. That raises some interesting questions. Is a smartphone worth fixing? And why would a repair shop suggest a phone wasn’t worth fixing?
What’s the best postwar Lionel transformer? Arguably there might be two contenders. But the Lionel KW and ZW definitely stand above the rest. Here are their advantages and disadvantages.
Arguably the best Lionel postwar transformer is the one you have. But if you’re looking for an upgrade, there are two worth considering above all the others: the Lionel KW and ZW.