piracy Archives - The Silicon Underground

What it was like owning a Commodore in the 1980s

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 11:00:57 +0000

Since questions occasionally come up, and I remember well what it was like owning a Commodore in the 1980s in the United States, I’ll share my recollections of it. It was very different from computing today. It was still interesting,

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The problem with dictionary passwords

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 10:00:19 +0000

Consulting firm Deloitte is warning that 8-character passwords will be obsolete this year. Sound familiar? Of course, the Slashdot crowd blamed it as security “experts” (their words) creating hype to make money. Well, I’m a certified security professional who doesn’t

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Digital distribution, not SOPA and PIPA, is the best long-term solution for the MPAA

Dave Farquhar — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 18:42:30 +0000

Fightforthefuture.org declared victory yesterday, saying that SOPA and PIPA have been dropped. Their e-mail said some other important and interesting things, but most importantly, it made some references to China. Communist China. Totalitarian Communist China. The distinction is important. One

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The difference between piracy and linking

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:39:40 +0000

Rupert Murdoch doesn’t understand the difference between piracy and linking. So I’ll explain it in terms any middle-school-aged kid should be able to understand. Linking is what Google does. Do a Google search for my name, my blog name, or

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What the Founding Fathers intended to be in the public domain today

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:17:23 +0000

If Copyright law was still the way the Founding Fathers intended, anything copyrighted before 1955 would be in the public domain today. A number of noteworthy things came into being in 1955. But like Duke University’s Center of Public Domain

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Microsoft sold 400 million Windows 7 licenses; what does it mean?

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 11:00:32 +0000

Steve Ballmer announced today that Microsoft has sold 400 million Windows 7 licenses, but anywhere from half to two-thirds of PCs are still running Windows XP and need to get with the program. He also continues to insist Windows 8

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Should journalists hack?

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 23:52:07 +0000

I experienced an interesting collection of contrasts going to journalism school in the mid 1990s. Inside the same building, we had investigative journalists who specialized in advanced use of databases and stodgy editors who missed the days of manual typewriters

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How the Republican Party is losing me

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:24:15 +0000

I tend to lean to the right. For as long as I understood what it meant to be conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat, I called myself a conservative Republican. In college, I wrote a newspaper column for 3 1/2 years brashly titled "No Left Turns."

In last year's primary, I voted for Ron Paul for a couple of reasons. One, a lot of things he said made sense. Two, at least he sincerely believed in the things he said that didn't make sense. And three, he's a doctor. When Ron Paul predictably didn't get the nomination, I voted against John McCain and for a Democrat, Barack Obama. The main reason was health care.

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Why piracy matters

Dave Farquhar — Sun, 24 May 2009 14:58:14 +0000

Rob O'Hara offers an interesting perspective on piracy.

I agree with him. 20 years ago, copyrighted material offered presence. It was something special.

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Self-Perpetuating Depression

Dave Farquhar — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 02:20:23 +0000

My longtime friend Steve brought up a good point as we discussed our job situations. He said he read that some companies may be using the current DEPRESSION (I hate that r-word, let's call things what they are) as an excuse to lay people off that they've been putting off because it would hurt morale.

The idea makes a lot of sense.

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