That's a reasonably good representation of me above, a grumpy programmer type, courtesy of the South Park Character Generator. You've had the misfortune of stumbling upon a web page devoted to my technical advice and links to software I like to use. These links are mostly for my own use but if someone else finds them interesting, so much the better.

You may notice the Macintosh in the picture above. I'm a convert to the cult of the Apple. After 25+ years of working with all types of computers, I prefer a stable system which is easy to use and has lots of off-the-shelf software available but which still gives me access to a powerful Unix command line interface. What can I say? It just works!

This web page is implemented mainly as one long file since I'm too lazy to maintain lots of HTML files. Live with it!

My Other Pages

Links Page- links to miscellaneous information.


Security Tips

After working with computers for so long, people assume I have opinions about any topic which is computer related.  Well, they're right.

I'd avoid Vista like the plague.  The constant barrage of pop-up messages asking permission would be enough on its own to drive me away had I not abandoned Windows at home for a saner computing platform.  But Vista users are also limited to only running Microsoft security software thanks to a lack of API (application programming interface) calls necessary for aftermarket firewall, anti-spyware, and anti-virus software to do their job.  Call me paranoid, but I wouldn't feel safe being stuck with a single source for security software. 

These days it pays to be paranoid when venturing onto the Internet. If you're running Windows, you're both cursed and blessed to be running the most popular software platform around. That makes you a much bigger target for the people who write malicious software since they tend to aim for the largest audience so it's that much more important that you take steps to secure your system. 

The list below is the bare minimum you'll need in order to surf the Internet with some degree of confidence.

  • Run some sort of firewall. A firewall prevents malicious software and people on the Internet from connecting to your computer and using it for their own nefarious purposes. Whenever possible, I recommend running both a hardware firewall (which is built into many wireless or wired routers) as well a software firewall. For Windows PCs, I recommend replacing the XP software firewall with ZoneAlarm (see link below). If you're running an older version of Windows, that's all the more reason to use ZoneAlarm though I'd encourage you to upgrade to a supported OS. In many cases, it's cheaper to buy a new faster PC which comes with XP than it is to purchase the upgrade and the memory which may be required. Macs come with a built-in software firewall.
  • Run an antivirus program. For Windows I recommend GriSoft's AVG antivirus. For Macs, I like ClamXAV (see links below). Make sure that this software is either set up to scan all email attachments or get in the habit of saving attachments and scanning them manually before opening them.
  • If you're running Windows, spyware is a huge problem. I recommend you download AdAware (see link below) and run a full scan periodically.
  • To minimize the risks, I recommend you use a browser other than Internet Explorer so it won't be so tightly coupled with the OS. Firefox is my browser of choice for both PCs and Macs. With the extensions shown below, this already secure browser can be made very secure indeed.
  • For the same reason you should also replace your email software. Outlook and Outlook Express are the frequent targets of security exploits. Part of the reason is that Microsoft went to great lengths to make them easy to use. Simple features like the preview window, while convenient, also can also allow malicious software to install itself without the user taking any action to read an unknown email message. For PCs, I recommend using Thunderbird. The nice thing about switching is that Thunderbird has outstanding spam filters built in so you can increase your efficiency at weeding through the mountains of email most of us receive. Macs come with the Apple mail.app which I find to be more than adequate for home use.
  • Don't run AOL Instant Messenger since it's the most popular IM client around. Switch to Trillian or GAIM (links to both shown below). You'll be happier with either package than the less featured AIM client. Being able to override the hideous font choices that some people use in IM is reason enough to switch. Macs come with iChat which is better than any of the PC IM clients I've seen.
  • Disable ad-hoc wireless networking.  I shouldn't have to explain why it's a bad idea to have your laptop connect to any wireless device it happens to discover nearby.

Just running the software listed above isn't enough to keep your computer safe. You need to be careful what you do. There is sometimes a delay between the the date new security holes are identified and the date when the security software publishers and OS (Operating System) publishers finally release their fixes. In the best case, the security flaw won't be publicized until a fix is available. But the developers of malicious software (viruses, spyware, Trojan horse software, etc) have become remarkably efficient at exploiting these flaws before people download the fixes. There have been several zero day exploits (where exploits were released the day the flaw is first publicized). In this case, you're only protected if you happen to download and apply the fixes as soon as they're released. Most people (myself included) aren't quite that vigilant so we all need be very careful to prevent new exploits from corrupting our computers.

  • Don't ever run attachments from an e-mail or from an Instant Message without making doubly certain that the sender did intend for you to receive the attachment and that they've checked it out themselves first. Even then you should be very cautious because most people sending you emails aren't technically astute enough to realize that the attachment they've forwarded contains a virus. Also, there are plenty of malicious programs which spread by sending copies of themselves to the people in your contact list without the sender's knowledge. Think of the embarrassment you'll feel if you infect friends and family with malicious software because you weren't careful.
  • No matter how tempting it may be, don't ever click on links from an e-mail or from an Instant Message. Most phishing scams work by sending bogus links which appear to be valid. Even though an email may appear to come from your bank, a government agency, or one of your friends, don't trust it. Double check with friends to make sure they intentionally sent you the link. Make sure that they have visited the link and that you know what to expect. Run the Firefox extension NoScript below to prevent scripts from being able to automatically run software on your computer.  When dealing with emails from a company with whom you have an account, connect to their web site via a bookmark you maintain instead of clicking on a link.
  • If your email client supports it, set it so it doesn't retrieve images by default. Only retrieve images for messages you're sure come from a trusted source. The mere act of retrieving images to view can prove to a spammer that your email address is valid.
  • If possible, set your email client to read messages in plain text instead of HTML. HTML messages can be used to install malicious software on your computer.
  • Scripting is a huge security risk.  Many of these tips are designed to keep malicious scripts from inadvertently being run on your computer. 

 

Software I use frequently


Having been employed in various aspects of the computer industry for so long, people assume that I have opinions about all types of software and that's true for the most part. Here are links to some of my favorite software packages for PCs and Macs. You'll note that much of this software is free for personal use. Exceptions to this are marked below with a $$$.  I prefer free software because I'm cheap. Saving money on software gives me that much more to spend on gadgets.

Security software


ZoneAlarm - Zone Labs is the publisher of a great little software firewall called ZoneAlarm. Best of all, it's free for personal use. (Windows)

GriSoft - GriSoft publishes a nice antivirus package called AVG for those of us too cheap to pay for an antivirus subscription at home. Use it to scan email attachments and any files you download before you run them. (Windows)

ClamXAV - A free antivirus program for Macs. I know there isn't the same number of viruses plaguing the Mac users that Windows users have to contend with but that's no reason to let down our guard. We can still be caught by some of the Office Macro viruses that plague PCs. (Mac)

AdAware - One of the better free spyware detectors. Run full system scans periodically. (Windows)

Internet/Communications software

Firefox and Thunderbird - Firefox is a much better browser than Internet Explorer and Thunderbird is a better email client than Outlook Express. Both feature fewer security problems than their Microsoft equivalents since they're not as tightly integrated with the OS. While Thunderbird is available for the Mac, I still use mail.app which come bundled with the Mac OS X because of its excellent spam filtering. (Windows, Linux, Mac, and more)

Trillian Basic - A great Instant Messenger client which can connect to multiple IM services (AIM, MSN, Yahoo, etc.). (Windows)

GAIM - Another Instant Messenger client which can connect to multiple IM services (AIM, MSN, Yahoo, etc.). While this is available for the Mac, I still use iChat which come bundled with the Mac OS X because of its superior audio and video chat capabilities. (Windows, Linux, Mac, and more)

NetNewsWire - A great RSS reader for Macs. Has the capability to synchronize your RSS feeds via a .Mac account. RSS allows you to monitor lots of web pages (blogs as well as more traditional style web pages) and to see only notifications of new or updated articles on those web pages. This is a huge timesaver if you have lots of web pages you like to read regularly. Many RSS readers can be configured to automatically download new attachments such as podcasts from your favorite web pages. A word of caution is in order. I don't think it's wise to use the "Merge my list with the list on the server" setting. This setting will probably work correctly if you do mostly simple changes to your RSS feeds such as adds and deletes. If you tend to organize your RSS feeds into folders and occasionally rearrange those folders as I do, this can confuse the merge function and you'll end up with duplicate copies of changed RSS feeds. (Mac)

Awasu - A great RSS reader for PCs. (Windows)

 

Firefox extensions

Generally speaking, you should try to keep the number of extensions you install in Firefox down to a minimum. That's because it's possible for extensions to have unexpected side effects which can prevent one or more of your other extensions from working properly. These interactions are difficult to predict and to test for so it's best just to run extensions which give a very definite benefit for the user. The three shown below are the only extensions I run.

 

Firefox extensions which are essential for security

NoScript - scripting control - Most of the browser related security exploits take advantage of the the power inherent in the browser's scripting capabilities (Flash, Javascript, and Java). This extension allows you to maintain per web site settings for enabling scripting. By default it disallows scripting on all but a small list of preconfigured sites (Google, Yahoo, etc) and you must add new web sites to the list of those approved to run scripts.

 

Nice to have Firefox extensions

Google Browser Sync- This is a great extension for keeping your bookmarks and browser settings synchronized between multiple computers.

Long Titles- an extension which prevents long tooltips (small tips which appear when you hover over web page elements) from being truncated.

 

Firefox configuration

Here are pointers to a few sites which explain configuration changes (mostly using the about:config page) which may improve your experience with Firefox. As with anything, record your old settings before tweaking any values.

Tweaking Firefox for better performance - If this link goes away do a Googlesearch for "Firefox performance tweak about:config".

Fixing perceived the Firefox 'memory leak' - If this link goes away and you're experiencing high memory utilization by Firefox, one thing which may help is to reduce the browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers setting on the about:config page. This controls the number of cached copies of a rendered document for use if the user hits the 'back' button.


Multimedia software

IrfanView - Free software to manipulate or convert graphics files. It's one of the fastest programs out there for this task. Now it they'd only release a Mac version *sigh*. (Windows)

Xee- Free software to view graphics files. It's the closest thing I've found to IrfanView for the Mac but it isn't nearly as strong at image manipulation. (Mac)

Picasa - Free software to edit, organize, and share pictures. From the fine folks at Google. (Windows)

GIMP - Free software to create or edit graphics files. (Mac, Windows, and Linux)

Audacity - Free software to create or edit audio files. (Mac, Windows, and Linux)

Flip4Mac - Free software to play Windows Media files in Quicktime. Necessary because Microsoft has dropped support for Windows Media Player for the Mac (gee thanks guys!) (Mac)

 

Programming Software

Vim - Vim (Vi IMproved) is my favorite text/programmer's editor. It's available for all the platforms I use or might conceivably ever want to use) and it features full VI compatibility plus incredibly useful extensions. (Windows, Linux, Mac, and more)

CygWin - CygWin is a port of most of the more common Unix utilities for Windows. Without Unix utilities, I don't know how anyone gets anything done. The basic Windows command line utilities are sadly lacking in power. (Windows)

Source Navigator - A great tool for making sense of unfamiliar source code. (Windows, Linux, Mac, and more)

WinMerge - A nice tool for examining differences between different versions of source code. (Windows)

Eclipse - The default Java development IDE these days. With the many extensions available, it can be made to do much more than just basic Java development. (Windows, Linux, Mac, and more)

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Last updated 07-07-2007.