Computers are supposed to make life easier, or, so I’ve been told. Perhaps special emphasis should to placed on the words “supposed to.” Whether we like it or not, our society is now totally computer-dependant, leaving us in a strange, “can’t live with them, can’t...

With its stature as the world's largest computer software company, you would think that Microsoft could make an operating system that would be compatible with the hardware and software currently being used with its other operating systems, such as Windows XP. It's...

Although this column has been preaching about the subject for well over a year, some readers told me that they were truly shocked by last week's column titled "How computer malware works." The war against malware (short for "malicious software") like viruses, spyware...

All savvy computer users know that viruses, spyware, bots, worms and Trojan Horses (collectively known as "malicious software," or "malware") are bad, and that they need special programs to deal with these problems. What's not commonly known, or even taught by major...

Sometimes it seems that every invention of man is subject to some sort of foul-up, but Daylight Savings Time? Yes, even love-it-or-hate-it Daylight Savings Time (DST) may be causing computer problems in the next few weeks, due to a law that Congress passed in 2005....

The marketing propaganda touting Microsoft's new Vista operating system as "the most secure version of Windows yet" has done nothing to stop both white and blackhat hackers from discovering Vista vulnerabilities. Unless you simply enjoy acting as an experimental...

The open nature of the Internet enables freedom of speech at a global level previously unknown in human history. The fact that the Internet is not controlled by any single government body means that individual countries are censoring the Internet at whatever level...

Hidden away in the flood of bills recently introduced in the Oklahoma legislature are some remarkably good looking measures pertaining to technology, computers and the Internet. As is my habit, I have read every word of these bills and hereby offer the following...

A fellow columnist recently sought my advice, feeling the need to buy a new computer after milking the old one for all that it was worth. My standards for replacing old computers are simple: (1) will the old computer have good performance running a valid, modern...

After viewing the article that I wrote titled “Are you obeying new e-records rules?”, a faithful reader suggested that I write an article about how to backup ones computer files. Even though I wrote an article last July titled “Back it up before it breaks,” the...

Take words like blogs, wikis, folksonomies, RSS feeds, client-side, web-based, server-side, social network, SaaS, rich Internet, podcasting, P2P, MySpace, open source, mashup, YouTube and a boatload of other recently-invented acronyms and buzzwords, stir them together...

Most New Year's resolutions are about as long-lived as a Windows 98 network at a hacker's convention.  That is to say, New Year's resolutions are made, broken and forgotten faster than you can say "jack be nimble."  Why do we even bother making resolutions?  I suppose...

All American businesses, regardless of size, that could ever be involved in federal court litigation or agency inquiries are now required to store and be able to retrieve electronic records, according to new rules that quietly took effect on December 1. If your...

Email, surfing the Internet and typing letters: that's what about 90% of average, non-corporate computer users do with their expensive machines.  Throw in looking at photos from Grandma's digital camera, viewing a few DVDs, playing some games and listening to music,...

I sometimes wonder if folks reading my column think that I'm just a crusty, cranky curmudgeon who can't see the good in anything.  It seems that if I'm not railing against Microsoft for being a bunch of Internet racketeers, then I'm ranting about viruses, spyware,...

I wrote an article last year called Computer Forensics 101, which described the virtual impossibility (outside of physically destroying the hard drive) of truly deleting a file from your computer.  With that in mind, you still need to "sanitize" an old computer before...

By in large, our government systems and agencies do a fairly good job.  Services and protections are provided, and things generally flow in a positive way.  If they didn't, our country would be in total chaos. Nevertheless, sometimes an idea comes along that is so...

Without much general media fanfare, Microsoft is finally releasing version 7 of its Internet Explorer (IE) Web browsing program.  Pardon me if I'm less than excited. After grinding competitor Netscape into dust during the infamous "browser wars" of the late 1990s,...

I recently received a nice letter from my bank explaining that I was going to have to get used to a new way of conducting online banking.  It seems that a group of regulators called the Federal Financial Institutions Examinations Council is requiring that banking...

"Well, a screen came up saying something about my antivirus program expiring, but, I didn't know what it meant, so, I forgot about it.  That was about 6 months ago." I've heard this story too many times lately, as an explanation as to why a client's almost-new...