For the past many years, I used Google’s Webmaster Tools to help me optimize my various Web sites for Google’s search engine, and help me administer Google’s spidering of my sites.

In that same time frame, I’ve also sent automated nightly sitemaps of my sites to Google, to ensure that it would be aware of each day’s updates.

Over the years, I’ve also used four different Google GMail accounts as anonymous proxies, to protect my online privacy when corresponding with possibly dubious strangers — being careful not to [more...]

Over the years, I’ve used several methods to do my yearly income taxes.

When I was young, my tax returns were so simple that I could easily do them on paper.

But, by the time I had a home computer, I was happy to be able to pay $30 or $40 each year for TurboTax software, to help me do my increasingly complicated Federal income taxes. And I think I had to pay an additional fee to electronically file (e-file) my completed tax return.

Then, nearly six years ago, [more...]

Over the years, I’ve probably received tens of thousands of emailed spam messages — for awhile, I was getting more than 300 every day.

And thousands of pieces of snail-mailed spam, in the form of unwanted advertisements.

Along with hundreds of unwanted telephone sales calls.

But, over the years, I learned some tricks to reduce those unwanted contacts.

So, nowadays, I receive less than [more...]

Ever since shortly after the Wordwide Web was invented, Windows users have had to deal with countless vulnerabilities in their operating systems’ swiss cheese-like security.

In fact, my disgust at that endless stream of Windows security vulnerabilities was one of the main reasons why I finally switched to Linux and stopped using Windows on my home computers almost 6 years ago.

I’m fortunate. Many millions of people around the world [more...]

I’ll bet that most of my readers use Google’s search engine.

And that many of them also watch videos on YouTube.

And use Gmail.

And Google Maps.

And maybe even Google Calendar.

They might even own [more...]

Where I live, the ground under our feet is not dirt — it’s sand.

And the ground water is just a few feet below the surface.

So you probably won’t find any homes that have a basement.

And very few homes that are more than one-story tall.

Except, a few years ago, about a mile from our house, someone [more...]

The U.S. Congress has been deliberating two new “Internet anti-piracy” bills.

Proponents say that the bills will protect intellectual property and enforce copyright laws.

But critics say that the U.S copyright law is broken, and the bills are overreaching efforts that would result in the end of free speech online.

Many major media providers have [more...]

Regular readers know that I’ve always been a technophile.

I’ve always loved to know how everything works, and to learn about new technologies, even though I have very little need to own most of them.

Smartphones? Cool, but I don’t need one.

Giant-screen LCD TV? Cool, but my three, old, 27-inch analog TVs still work just fine. [more...]