There are many sentimental possessions which must be evaluated after long ownership for either refurbishing or the dreaded "donate to charity." You have an older computer in you room trembling whenever the "donate" word is mentioned and is carefully calculating the tearjerking story of long and faithful service in spite of your foul-ups. We all come to this point and must evaluate objectively: 1. Can the computer be enhanced further by addition of memory or overdrive processors? Carefully ...

Many nasties exist in cyberland just waiting to plant themselves on an unprotected computer. In fact, recent studies have shown 74% of broadband users had spyware or adware on their computers; 67% had no antivirus or had outdated software on their PCs; and nearly 50% do not currently have a firewall. Statistics can be deceiving, but nearly 85% of computer users do not have adequate protection (antivirus, antispyware, firewall) on their systems placing them at risk. This last statistic is simp...

I've been around computers a long time and still find many things to amaze me. Emerging technology makes products obsolete in a matter of weeks just when you get to the point of adjustment thus creating consternation over the amount of money spent. Many of us still have Zip drives whether 100MB or 250MB that are still extremely useful. I don't put as much information on them as before since the CD/DVD burner hold more and thus a better workout. I began thinking about my computing in this vein...

My first computer was a Commodore 64 and what a joy then. The graphics were superb, computing a whiz and hooking up to Q-Link unbelievable. Naturally, a Commodore 128 was the logical next step and my reveling didn't stop. Something happened after that to change my mental health completely: Windows 3.11. Anyone who has been around since the prehistoric days of home computing and the gigantic office IBM 360/40 knows what this is a hint towards-it was revolutionary to comprehend. Finally, a home...

Apple is considering switching chip manufacturing from Motorola to Intel. Seems I recall IBM once had a financial portion of Intel and wonder what the status of that deal is now? Apple and IBM have been negotiating quite a bit and one can only wonder if something is up that will irritate Redmond Bill. Time will tell...... Somewhere, sometime, the President gotta find some speechwriters that make sense. You listen to the guy read the teleprompter (and not that well), but wonder if these spe...

Your computer is a living breathing organism which has brough much joy and also frustration into your life. You must treat your beastie as a member of the family with supportive talk, occasional compliments, stroking, assurance it will always remain in your place and immaculate cleaning inside and out. Now, the first step in approaching your computer is to ascertain where the beastie slept last night. Computers often take the same characterisitcs as cats which means they sleep where they w...

Firefox has gained immensive popularity as both an individual and business internet browser due to its simplicity of operation, speed and security. Installation is simple to say the least, but the real treats were the controls IE initially lacked: popups, spam and effective cookie control. They are relatively easy to set up and then can be with a simple click to identify the culprits. Like many others, I started out initially using the Netscape browser and liked its overall ease of use and...

Just think about your poor innocent desktop, laptop or notebook computers....They serve you well and then placed back into the closet, beside the desk, under the bed and very seldom ask what they want to do. This trauma after being subjected to worms, viruses, phishing, Trojans, spyware and at times, indelicate humans. Now the psychological profession has created criteria to diagnose a new mental affliction: POST TRAUMATIC CYBERNETIC CHALLENGE DISORDER (PTCCD). Its a particular nasty afflict...

A great idea and good style to boot-Knoppix . A friend brought over the latest issue and said give it a try to see what you think. Admittedly, I was accustomed to prior black and white releases until the booting process began and then there it was: COLOR. A fantastic GUI with color; they finally bridged the gap and now have a fully functional color GUI to convince people to use as a weapon against viruses, phish, malware, spyware, etc. Somehow, I like the idea of a sitting computer that e...

Occasionally this dream occurs where a giant computer is visualized controlling the entire planet Earth. The color is vivid, details succinct and Congress doesn't mangle the definition of spam. Its called a Giant Computer, but in reality no bigger than the former Mac Cube. The technology is highly advance to the point where my wandering fingers received a good jolt of joy juice when I attempted to look in. Not ready yet, I guess.......So I will observe and report back: 1. The operating sys...

Listening to the various arguments almost on a daily basis involving Microsoft, Linux and various other operating systems causes a ringing in my ears that very few painkillers alleviate. I am fortunate enough to have many good friends involved in the computer industry at various levels and listen to them attentively picking up interesting bits of information for application applied in my own technical field. They are, however, torn primarily between Linux and Microsoft operating systems; and ...