Chutzpah: n. (Slang) — 1892, from Yiddish khutspe “impudence, gall” from Heb. hutspah. The classic definition is that given by Leo Rosten: “that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.”

You would be hard-pressed to find a corporation that [more...]

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...]

Regular readers of this Journal know that I’ve been using personal computers since 1979, and I’ve been using Linux full-time instead of Linux since July of 2006.

Having been a DOS and Windows power user and support person since the early days, I’m really grateful that [more...]

I’ll bet that every single Linux user has run into this problem — probably numerous times.

I’ve run into it several times with my DSL provider.

But there’s really nothing I can do about it.

Except try to be patient. [more...]

Two days ago, I installed Debian Squeeze onto my new 64-bit PC, using ext4 partitions, KDE4 and grub2.

Two nights ago, I was up until 3:00 AM, thanks to Debian Squeeze’s version of KDE4.

My experience may surprise you. It certainly surprised me. [more...]

This short announcement is to let you know that I plan to replace this announcement with today’s Journal post some time this evening, after I’ve taken a little nap.

Yesterday, I installed Debian Squeeze onto my new PC, using ext4 partitions, KDE4 and grub2.

Last night, I was up until 3:00 AM, thanks to [more...]

I’ve told you about several of my Craigslist deals, but it’s been almost 4 months since I found my last one — a network laser printer that I’m still really happy about.

Since then, I’ve looked for a third computer to add to my network, to serve as an NFS file server for my wife’s and my computers.

Judging by the normal prices I’ve seen on Craigslist for the past several weeks, I figured that it was going to cost me around [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...]

According to the organizations that track such things, approximately 95% of all email messages these days are spam.

Where does all that spam come from?

Well, we know that an awful lot of it comes from [more...]

I’ve discussed it several times, so regular readers of this Journal know that I’ve never had much good to say about “cloud computing.” In fact, I’ve always expressed serious concerns that computer users seem to be unwisely eager to trade their private data’s security, access, privacy and control for a little convenience.

And I’m even more strongly against the idea of [more...]