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...]

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...]

“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...]

Regular readers of this Journal know that — despite this self-named Web site, and the fact that I love to learn about all kinds of new technologies — I actually own very few pieces of technology.

No smart phone.

Not even a cell phone.

No X-Box. [more...]

A few days ago, Microsoft announced a new standard for booting Windows 8 computers in the future.

The UEFI standard would be built into the BIOS of new computers that run Windows 8, allowing them to boot very quickly, while protecting them from rootkits and other malware that attempts to corrupt the boot process.

In theory, that sounds like [more...]

Last night, my replacement Western Digital 500GB hard drive arrived by 2-day UPS.

Within a few minutes, I hooked it up to my computer, booted from my PartedMagic USB flash drive, and used GParted to create my required Linux partitions on it.

Then I left it connected, shut down my computer, reconnected my older hard drive (the one that already has Linux installed on it), [more...]

A couple of weeks ago, an old friend and I began to discuss bootable Linux USB flash drives — as opposed to bootable Linux LiveCDs.

I was motivated by the fact that I’m down to my last few writable CDs.

Plus, I have a 256MB USB flash drive that is too small to use for much of anything else.

But, in the past, every time I’ve [more...]

Windows users are extremely familiar with certain computer terms.

Malware, spyware, rootkits, spyware, and viruses.

The ways that they spread, and the ways that they affect computers, are often very similar to the ways that biological “malware” spreads and affects human beings.

So one writer recommends that we [more...]