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Cable connections are the last thing most people check…

Dave Farquhar Hardware November 4, 2012January 10, 2025apple, capitalization, cat5, hp, Jerry Pournelle, jetdirect card, job duties, laserjet, network cables, red hat, windows 7

Fed up with trying to host a network printer on a Windows 7 box on a mixed network, I broke down and bought a Jetdirect card for my aged HP Laserjet 4100. Don’t worry–used Jetdirect cards are cheap these days. I paid $7 for mine.

Of course I made installing it harder than I needed to. I’m a professional. Don’t try this at home. Read more

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

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Don’t look for me waiting in line to buy Windows 8 at midnight

Dave Farquhar Windows October 25, 2012June 19, 2025android, apple, vista, windows 7, windows 8, Windows XP

Windows 8 is out. Yawn. I won’t be standing in line. I wait a minimum of a year to install new versions of Windows anyway, a practice that’s been serving me well since 1994, and I skipped Vista altogether at home. I had it at work, so I know I didn’t miss anything. If Windows 8 is worth having, I’ll know about it by this time next year.

Dave Farquhar

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Windows 8 won’t fail just because nobody likes Windows upgrades

Dave Farquhar Windows October 4, 2012October 4, 20121990s, apple, john c dvorak, vista, windows 2000, windows 7, windows 8, windows 98, windows me, windows nt, Windows XP

John C Dvorak wrote today about the great upgrade upheaval, and argued that Windows 8 is doomed to fail because it’s just going to be too hard to upgrade, and nobody likes Windows upgrades anyway.

I agree on the first point but not the second.

Dave Farquhar

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Barnes & Noble punches back

Dave Farquhar Hardware September 26, 2012android, apple, HO, Media Player, PPI

Slashdot accuses the new Nook HD and HD+ of punching above their weight.

Now, granted, B&N has an uphill fight. But to me, there are several compelling things about these new devices. Maybe these devices don’t have what that particular contributor seeks, but to date, there’s still no one-size-fits-all tablet.

Dave Farquhar

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The good (or at least decent) $89 tablet

Dave Farquhar Hardware September 18, 2012January 31, 2022android, apple, commodore, ipad, kindle, Kindle Fire, Media Player, tinkerer, XT

Right around a year ago, I wrote about the difficulties of making a good $100 tablet. But then, today, I read on Slashdot about someone finding a nice $45 Android tablet in a Chinese bazaar, then finding a similar unit at Fry’s back home in the States, priced at $89.

That raised a couple of questions. First of all, what’s the tablet?

Dave Farquhar

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How to be an Apple Genius

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized August 30, 2012apple, BSD, compaq, intel, macintosh, motorola, unix

Gizmodo got its grubby little hands on a training manual allegedly used in Apple Stores. It looks credible, and answers some questions.

Dave Farquhar

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Games would be just what Linux needed

Dave Farquhar Linux July 27, 2012Ad Lib, amiga, apple, apple ii, atari, commodore, commodore 64, IBM, macintosh, Steve Wozniak, VGA, vista, windows 8

Valve is intending to develop for Linux, as an insurance policy against Windows 8. I think that will lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy. If more games are available for Linux, demand for Linux will increase, along with market share.

There’s historical precedence for this. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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This Linux Mint box looks really nice, except for the price

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Linux June 27, 2012June 25, 2012android, apple, dell, hp, Linux Mint, ubuntu

Linux Mint (a close cousin of Ubuntu) now comes bundled on a nice-looking small form factor PC–a small metal box, comparable in size to a home router, ideal for connecting to a television to use as an HTPC and/or as a secondary PC.
Read more

Dave Farquhar

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For 3/8 of a million dollars, I think I’d rather have a replica Apple I instead

Dave Farquhar Hardware June 16, 2012November 3, 2025apple, apple ii, commodore, Steve Wozniak

A working Apple I motherboard with manuals sold this week for $374,500. Not bad for something that originally sold for $666.66. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Things I wish everyone knew about home Mac security

Dave Farquhar Macintosh, security May 18, 2012antivirus, apple, avast, computer security, cybersecurity, firewall, mac os x, Microsoft Office, os x, passwords

On Wednesday evening, I wrote about basic computer security from a Windows-centric perspective. I knew some people who needed help in a hurry, and given there was a 90% or so chance they were running Windows, I took that route.

Some of my buddies who use Macs passed it along. And much of what I said then does apply, but I’d like to clarify a few of those points.
Read more

Dave Farquhar

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