If you’re a Windows user, have you gotten sick of having to worry about your computer’s security?

Or having to spend your time or pay someone else to repeatedly disinfect if from all of the bad stuff that keeps infecting it?

Windows’ swiss cheese-like security was one of the main reasons that I started looking for an alternative about 11 years ago, and [more...]

Regular readers of this Journal already know how I feel about “the cloud.”

How I think it is a throwback to the bad-old-days of mainframes and dumb terminals, when just a few hands had complete control over everyone’s data and all of the available computing power.

How I think that it takes incalculable risks with [more...]

Keith’s girlfriend called me last night.

Her Windows laptop computer was having serious problems again.

It started when she received an email from a Web site that she visits.

And she clicked on a hyperlink that was in that email message.

A whole bunch of [more...]

Regular readers of this Journal know that I am a pretty vocal opponent of “the cloud.”

To me, “the cloud” is just a higher-tech throwback to the days of mainframe computers and dumb terminals.

If you’re not old enough to remember them, then you’d be wise to do a little research about what they were and how they worked together to [more...]

Early last year, I gave you a little behind-the-scenes look at how I administer this Web site.

Specifically, I told you that I configured this Journal to require me to personally approve every comment that anyone submits before it can appear at the end of one my Journal posts.

I go to all that trouble because almost every single comment [more...]

Regular readers of this Journal know that I’m not a fan of “cloud-based” services.

As the evidence has clearly and repeatedly shown, sites like Facebook make billions of dollars every year by not sufficiently protecting their users’ security, and by exploiting their users’ supposedly “private” data.

So I believe that, if you use a site like Facebook, you’re [more...]

Wow, just when I was beginning to wonder what else companies could possibly do to invade their customers’ privacy, I stumbled upon the following:

“‘You didn’t pay your bill. We need our computer back. And here’s a picture of you typing away on it,’ the computer rental company told a client as it tried to repossess the machine.”

I don’t know all of the legal details of the case, but, [more...]

About fifteen years ago, I made the mistake of posting an anti-software-piracy post on a Microsoft newsgroup — from my email account.

My email account that automatically added my email signature to my post.

With my real name.

And my home address. [more...]