They’ve been on the market for years, but my wife and I still don’t own a digital LCD TV.

All of our TVs are the old, analog, CRT models, and they all still work just fine.

Two of our TVs have only a coaxial (cable TV) jack.

While the one in our living room has both a coaxial jack and composite video and audio jacks.

No DVI. No HDMI. Not even [more...]

I’ve always known and taught that the biggest security threat to any organization’s network is the organization’s own employees.

Not because they intentionally sabotage the network’s security.

But because they have easy access to the network — and many of them are ignorant of even the most simple safe-computing practices.

So they unintentionally do unsafe things that end up [more...]

I’ve only taken an IQ test once in my life — back in fourth or fifth grade.

I remember what my score was, and, looking back, I know that it qualified me to join Mensa.

But, with a tip o’ the hat to Groucho Marx, “I would not join any club that would have someone like me for a member.”

And besides, the fact that I was the [more...]

“To err is human — to really mess things up requires a computer.”

That’s a popular old saying.

But it’s usually not a computer’s fault when something gets really messed up.

It’s almost always the fault of a computer programmer or computer user.

Because, computers are [more...]

Several years ago, I set up my home network’s router so that my wife and I could each access the Internet from our own desktop computers at the same time.

Then I figured out how to share my computer’s USB laser printer with my wife’s computer.

Then I bought a networked laser printer, so that we could both [more...]

By day, he’s a mild-mannered broadband installer.

By night, he’s a husband and the father of two small girls.

But, once each year, he takes a week off from work.

That’s the week that he installs his house’s annual Halloween light show.

This year, he used the [more...]

It’s been more than twenty years since I chose to leave my doctoral program in Curriculum and Instructional Systems as an ABD instead of a PhD.

Back then, the University of Minnesota would have allowed me to go back and finish my dissertation without having to retake any of my coursework for up until ten years after I had first begun my coursework.

In other words, they gave me a total of ten years to complete my doctorate — if I had needed more time than that, I would have [more...]

Regular readers of this Journal know that I’ve wanted to know how things work ever since I was a little kid.

And that I’ve worked on just about everything I’ve ever owned.

So I’ve got a lot of experience troubleshooting all kinds of technological systems, including electrical, computer, plumbing, automotive, HVAC, small appliances, [more...]