Floppy disks for Commodore and other vintage computers
It’s been many years since 5.25-inch floppy disks suitable for Commodore, Apple, Atari, and other vintage 8-bit computers (not to mention IBM PCs and PC/XTs) have been something you can buy at the...
View ArticleDon’t take free software from a stranger
And there’s this. Some people are taking popular free, open-source software, planting malware in it, and distributing it to unsuspecting people. A couple of suggestions immediately come to mind. One is...
View ArticleWikipedia’s losing contributors? Dip me in axle grease and call me slick!
So, Wikipedia is losing contributors. Cnet says so. People like me already knew it. I left the place years ago. Last summer I went back. I chose a subject I had a moderate interest in, but that wasn’t...
View ArticleMilestone! I’ve been pirated!
In searching for the abstract of my book, I found more than I expected: What appeared to be a pirated PDF copy of the book in its entirety. What’s worse is that it appeared #1 in Google’s search....
View ArticleTest-taking strategies for CISSP
The CISSP is a 250-question, multiple-choice test. You have six hours to complete it. It’s not like any college final I ever took, though cramming all of finals week into a six-hour session is almost a...
View ArticleThere’s room for several to gloat over the Britannica
The Encyclopædia Britannica is, after 244 years, calling it quits on its print edition, and I’m sure Wikipedia is gloating, because as I recall, that was one of its goals around a decade ago. Wired...
View ArticleHow to encrypt PDF files for free
Yesterday I wrote about the importance of encrypting documents before you send them via e-mail. But what if you don’t have a PDF creator, other than Microsoft Office or Open/Libre Office? It turns out...
View ArticleThis “Computer Maintenance Department” sure doesn’t know much about computer...
“Peggy” from “Computer Maintenance Department” (1-645-781-2458 on my caller ID) called again. Lots of people are aware of these phone calls. They call, make vague claims about receiving a report that...
View ArticleWhat keeps a good security guy from turning to the dark side
I’m reading the excellent Blackhatonomics right now. And one thing I read in it reminded me of a question that someone asked me last year. I was probably the third or fourth guy with an advanced...
View ArticleA non-revisionist take on Ctrl-Alt-Del
Bill Gates said last week that he regrets the use of Ctrl-Alt-Del as a logon sequence, while David Bradley, the IBM PC engineer who built that feature into the first IBM PC, says he doesn’t know why...
View ArticleReplacing bad capacitors in failed electronics
If you’ve had a piece of electronic gear fail in the last few years, there’s a good chance it’s due to one or more bad capacitors inside. The problem most infamously reared its ugly head on...
View ArticleCheck your smoke detectors, please. And make sure you have more than one.
Early Monday morning, a fire broke out a couple of streets over from me. Sadly, there was one casualty, a seven-year-old second grader who attends the same school as my oldest son. His older sister...
View ArticleWomen in tech: The forgotten story of Vector Graphic
I frequently hear lamentations about the number of women in the technology field–or the lack of them. Although there have been a number of successful women in the field, such as Meg Whitman, CEO of HP...
View ArticleHow to pass CISSP: Test taking strategies
The CISSP is a 250-question, multiple-choice test. You have six hours to complete it. It’s not like any college final I ever took, though cramming all of finals week into a six-hour session is almost a...
View ArticleThere’s room for several to gloat over the Britannica
The Encyclopædia Britannica is, after 244 years, calling it quits on its print edition, and I’m sure Wikipedia is gloating, because as I recall, that was one of its goals around a decade ago. Wired...
View ArticleReplacing bad capacitors in failed electronics
If you’ve had a piece of electronic gear fail in the last few years, there’s a good chance it’s due to one or more bad capacitors inside. The problem most infamously reared its ugly head on...
View ArticleHow to encrypt PDF files for free
Yesterday I wrote about the importance of encrypting documents before you send them via e-mail. But what if you don’t have a PDF creator, other than Microsoft Office or Open/Libre Office? It turns out...
View ArticleThis “Computer Maintenance Department” sure doesn’t know much about computer...
“Peggy” from “Computer Maintenance Department” (1-645-781-2458 on my caller ID) called again. Lots of people are aware of these phone calls. They call, make vague claims about receiving a report that...
View ArticleWhat keeps a good security guy from turning to the dark side
I’m reading the excellent Blackhatonomics right now. And one thing I read in it reminded me of a question that someone asked me last year. I was probably the third or fourth guy with an advanced...
View ArticleCtrl-Alt-Del history: non revisionist edition
When it comes to Ctrl-Alt-Del history, there’s a lot of selective memory going on. Bill Gates said last week that he regrets the use of Ctrl-Alt-Del as a logon sequence, while David Bradley, the IBM PC...
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