Anyone who’s used one knows that USB flash drives are fast, ultra-portable, hold an incredible amount of data, and are very convenient to use.

For the past few months, I’ve carried a 4GB one that holds all of the data, tools and documents that I need and want to be able to access while I’m at work. When I was doing more tech support, I carried a [more...]

Regular readers of this Journal have seen me rant about it many times: The fact that nearly all of the viruses and other malware that you ever read or hear about affects only Windows users; yet the news coverage of all of those types of malware rarely mentions that fact.

They may call it “PC viruses and malware” — but really, it’s Windows viruses and malware.

All of that junk doesn’t affect [more...]

One of the main reasons that, around the year 2000, I started looking for an operating system that could replace Windows on my PCs — and I began using Linux full-time instead of Windows in 2006 — was that I was sick and tired of Windows’ swiss cheese-like security and the constant need to learn about and deal with all of its security vulnerabilities.

Now here we are, ten years after I started looking [more...]

Many years ago, every new Windows computer came with a Certificate of Authenticity and either a CD of Windows itself — to allow you to reinstall Windows from scratch if you had to (everyone had to at one point or another); or a recovery CD that could automatically reconfigure your computer back to exactly the way it was when it was brand new — with Windows and all of the software that had originally come with the computer. [more...]

When I think of the word, “appliance,” I imagine refrigerators and washing machines and toasters.

Not computers.

But some people argue that computers have become so [more...]