The Clinton-era Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has turned the Information Technology (I.T.) departments of America’s colleges and universities into vigilante lynch mobs working for Hollywood. Criminalizing certain behaviors and technologies, the DMCA was...
I regret to report that computer security and the security of personal and private information has not significantly improved since I wrote an article on the subject (“Private data loss recipe for disaster,” 6-25-06) over a year ago. Perhaps you remember hearing last...
If you can’t trust your computer repairperson, then whom can you trust? Your car mechanic? A bank teller? A waiter who disappears into the back of a restaurant with your credit card, only to reappear five minutes later with a smile on his face, because you gave him a...
I don’t use my cell phone’s text messaging function. I don’t need it, I don’t have time to fiddle with it and I wish that it would go away. However, text messaging is all the rage with the younger generations. You see text messagers everywhere, “thumbing” furiously...
One of the most common complaints that I hear from computer users goes something like this: “Dave, I can’t get my Internet.” Upon arrival at their home or office, I usually discover that there’s more going on than not being able to “get the Internet.” In fact, I don’t...