David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more
The Diamond Stars baseball cards set is one of my favorite baseball card sets of all time. At first glance it looks like a Goudey copycat, but it’s a good set in its own right. And it’s a pre-war set that’s just a bit off the beaten path.
The 1934-36 Diamond Stars was a set of 108 baseball cards issued by National Chicle, of Cambridge, Mass. Jefferson Burdick gave it the designation of R327.
If you’re shopping around for mechanical keyboards, you’ve undoubtedly heard a lot of weird brand names and, of all things, colors. It can get confusing. One popular choice is the Cherry MX Red switch. So what are Cherry Red switches? Are Cherry Red switches loud? Are Cherry Red switches quiet? And are Cherry Red switches good for typing? I’ve been using them for more than three years, so let’s dive into these questions and more.
I recently needed a new power supply for an Apple IIc to replace a missing one. It’s easy to adapt a modern laptop power brick to work with an Apple IIc. All you need is a pinout. Here’s an Apple IIc power supply pinout.
It’s probably not news to you that the hot trend in computing in 2021 is moving from on-premise computing to cloud computing. And that’s been a hot trend for several years. But what comes after cloud? What will replace cloud? It’s possible to predict what it will look like–just not the specifics.
My friend was building a new system. And like many new builds when you haven’t done one in a while, not everything went as smoothly as it could have. Here’s how he solved a phantom CPU fan error.
I frequently get data in CSV or Excel format, which I then have to use to deploy a vulnerability management solution like Tenable or Qualys. I use Pandas to process this data, which usually involves iterating each row of the dataframe in Pandas. It abuses Pandas. But it works. Yes, it’s a hack. I don’t care.
Sometimes we end up with deep scratches and gouges in wood that we need to repair. The solution is wood putty, but what if the wood putty doesn’t match? Here’s how to make color match wood putty, and/or make wood putty match stain.
One of my most frequent topics of discussion in my time as a vulnerability management architect was the question of a Qualys vulnerability vs discovery scan. It’s especially confusing because Qualys is completely silent on the topic. There’s a reason for that. Let’s talk about the types of Qualys scans and what they can do for you.
Officially, Qualys discovery scans don’t exist. That said, you can implement something very close to what Qualys’ competitors call a discovery scan, and reap numerous benefits from it.
A former colleague contacted me some time ago with an interesting conundrum. I thought his problem in the solution would be worth sharing, because it’s not at all uncommon. He manages a network of, let’s say, 22,000 computers. But he has licenses to scan 8,800 of them. The question is, what can he do?
What happened to Southwestern Bell? The once prominent name disappeared, but the company itself still exists.
Southwestern Bell didn’t go out of business, it’s just changed its name twice since 1995. In its current incarnation, it’s worth $229 billion.