In its latest public admission that its operating systems are woefully insecure against malicious attacks, Microsoft has issued a new security advisory with a special instruction:

“Microsoft told Windows XP users (yesterday) not to press the F1 key when prompted by a Web site, as part of its reaction to an unpatched vulnerability that hackers could exploit to hijack PCs running Internet Explorer (IE).”

It seems to me that if you’re still using [more...]

It’s been proven over and over again.

Sports fans can’t do it.

Political pundits can’t do it.

Even television meteorologists with college degrees and [more...]

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld has gotten very rich from his brand of observational humor.

Observational humor is when someone finds humor in the mundane things that they observe around them.

Stereotypical Seinfeld jokes often start with the phrases, [more...]

You know those ubiquitous TV commercials for Windows 7?

The ones that feature “regular people” claiming that Windows 7 was their idea?

Well, if Microsoft would actually ask some real “regular people” what they want, they might find out that most people don’t really care about [more...]

He was on the run from the law.

The police showed up at his door.

His acquaintance told the police that he wasn’t there.

But then his best friend [more...]

Easter is still 6 weeks away, despite the fact that all of the early Easter displays in stores make it look like it’s coming next weekend.

For the past week or so, my local stores have been selling Easter baskets, Easter bonnets, Easter greeting cards, and all kinds of Easter candy, including jelly beans (my personal favorite, even though I haven’t eaten them in years) and Cadbury Creme Eggs.

Most of us know exactly what to do [more...]

I’ve seen the old black-and-white photos — I wasn’t a particularly cute baby.

Chances are, you weren’t either.

I think most of us are born with shriveled faces and/or misshapen heads.

But, every once in awhile, [more...]

oo-ee oo-ee ooooh — wa-wah-waa.

I’m sure that fans of classic films instantly recognized that as the opening notes of the theme song from the iconic 1967 Clint Eastwood spaghetti western.

Good luck trying to get it out of your head. It’s still in mine as I write this.

Anyway, here’s some good news about [more...]

About ten years ago, I became so disgusted with Windows’ opaque frailty that I started looking for an alternative. In 2002, I learned some of the main differences between Windows and Linux.

But back then — and on until November, 2005 — I was on a slow dial-up Internet connection that made it nearly impossible to [more...]

It’s been over 15 months since I confessed that my baby boy, Max, often ghost writes these Journal posts.

I was pleasantly surprised a few years ago, when he caught on to using Linux right away. And since then, he’s been very happy that [more...]