David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more
If your Ego electric mower won’t start, there are several possible reasons for it. Typically the reason is fairly simple and easy to fix. A less typical problem is much harder to fix, but is also preventable. Let’s talk about how to troubleshoot and hopefully get you mowing again.
The Marx Girard station is one of three tinplate train stations Marx produced during the post-war era. They replaced an earlier, smaller, and less ambitious station from the pre-war era, and solved more than one problem for Marx.
The Marx Girard station had a long production run, from around 1950 to 1973. Marx named the station after the town in Pennsylvania where its train factory stood.
The IBM 7496 Executive Workstation is a rare IBM computer from the late 1980s. It gained some measure of fame in the early 2020s, when vintage technology Youtubers got their hands on them and rebuilt them. Their success, or lack thereof in one case, helped elevate this machine in enthusiasts’ minds.
The IBM 7496 Executive Workstation is some kind of a purpose built PC, derived from the PS/2 Model 30. About a dozen examples turned up in the inventory of Computer Reset, a now legendary Dallas-based warehouse of computers dating back to the 1980s that was liquidated from 2019-2022.
Solder mask is a protective polymer coating applied to printed circuit boards that serves multiple purposes. Besides being an aid in the PCB manufacturing process, it also serves a reliability purpose.
Are s traps illegal? Why? You may have heard S traps are illegal, without explanation. Or maybe you’ve wondered why you have to make a P trap under your drain when an S trap would be easier. Here’s why S traps are illegal in drains.
S traps are illegal because they cause a health and a safety hazard. But the conditions under whether you have to replace them do vary.
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Perhaps the most lasting legacy of Model Products Corporation on the history of Lionel trains was its use of a material called Delrin. And their competitors, including Marx and K-Line, quickly started using it too. But what is Delrin, and why was it better than the tried and true stuff Lionel Corporation used?
Delrin is a trademark of DuPont, a type of plastic called Polyoxymethylene POM. You can injection mold parts with it like other plastics such as styrene or ABS, but it is slippery and self-lubricating.
Proponents of electric lawn mowers talk about the sound they make as an advantage. But are electric lawn mowers quiet for real, or is it just marketing talk?
Dogs can learn somewhere between 50 and 250 words or phrases. So that means humans will sometimes speak in code to avoid getting a dog excited. One of the most common forms of code is spelling the words. That works until dogs learn the spelling of those words. Wait. Dogs can spell?
Windows XP is hard to classify. I still remember when it was brand new, and technologically it’s closer to today’s versions of Windows than it is to Windows 98. To my kids, it’s ancient history. But what should we call it? Is Windows XP obsolete? Or is it retrro?
Whatever you call it, it shouldn’t be your everyday operating system anymore. I’ve talked before about what to do if you are still running XP and need something else to migrate to.
How soon is too soon to get another dog? Unfortunately I have experience in this area. But most dog owners do. And the amount of time I’ve waited varied. Here’s why.