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Lots of info available for computers. That's what the internet runs on! :) Computers make my life easier and harder at the same time.

Here you will find some of the places I visit and some I am just getting to know. Not everything is covered here, but hopefully most of the basics and some of the advanced. As far as operating systems, I have used Linux off-and-on since it was a beta version back in 1993. My son loves Mac OS X. Currently, I am using Microsoft Windows.

There are some things I really can't live without:

• File Manager. I have been using Servant Salamander - File Manager for a long time and it just keeps getting better. It is a dual-pane file manager layout, similar to the old Norton Commander. Too many features to describe them all. It's probably my top pick.
• File Viewer. No question for me; the choice is IrfanView. It can handle nearly any graphic file format, display, print, make thumbnails, and convert to other file formats either a file at a time or in batch mode.
• Password Manager. For security, you really need a different password for everything, and unfortunately many people use the same password everywhere. And of course, the best passwords should be long and hard to guess, but that also makes them hard to remember. That's why I started using Whisper, a free password manager. I only need to remember one password to access all of my passwords. It can generate long passwords for you and you can give it expiration dates on the passwords to remind you to change them occasionally. Whisper is nice, but once it is opened, the program remains unlocked, potentially creating a security risk. In addition, when the passwords are copied for pasting into web pages, the passwords remain in the clipboard: another security risk. So I switched to Password Safe, which auto-locks at a user specified time interval and erases the clipboard when Password Safe is minimized. There is no password expiration date feature like Whisper had, but I prefer the enhanced security features. The need for secure passwords became real to me when I became a victim of attempted identity theft. Fortunately, I quickly changed my login ID and password and notified the credit bureau for a fraud alert on my account.
• Anti-virus software. I use McAfee but there are some good freeware ones too, like Avast (my favorite), AntiVir, or AVG
• Spyware remover. There are several good, free tools for detecting and removing spyware programs that may have invaded your computer. SpywareBlaster, Spybot Search & Destroy, and Ad-Aware are ones I like. I use them periodically. Each has different strengths from the others, so get all three.
• Popup blocker. I use Proxomitron, a very effective and free blocker of pop-up windows and ads. ProxoPatcher is a very nice enhancement to Proxomitron that makes many of the features easier to use.
• HTML Preprocessor. This entire web site is created using the PPWizard preprocessor. It supports powerful macros and the ability to include bits of html code to result in an easily maintained web site. The code for an entire web site can be regenerated in seconds. It runs on any platform through the Regina REXX interpreter.
• Text Editor. I had been using the Vim text editor to create this web site. I have used the graphical version, GVim. It is highly configurable through macro plugins. The syntax color highlighting provides a nice visual structure to the code. No wonder it has been consistently voted the most favorite text editor at Linux Journal. But it can be hard for newcomers to learn. Then there's emacs. Very powerful, but can also be hard for new users to learn. Now I am using TextPad. It is easy to learn, has syntax highlighting, and has many capabilities.