ExtremeTech.com has a great article delving into Windows Vista and explaining, in plain English, how it will improve your experience with your computer. Why Windows Vista Won’t Suck is long but well worth skimming.

We’re here to pull it all together and tell you why we’re excited about Vista. Here’s a list of [...]

If you are considering starting your own blog, WordPress is excellent software with which to do it. Installation is trivial. Once installed, WordPress pretty much gets out of your way and simply allows you to write. The software handles the grungy details of making your web site look nice without distracting you from [...]

Yesterday, I upgraded the software which runs the Cheerful Curmudgeon site to the latest version, WordPress 2.0. Unfortunately, this seems to have made some articles reappear as new for some of you. My apologies if you are seeing the same articles again.

Other than that hitch, the upgrade to WordPress 2.0 seems to [...]

In case you are not aware, Sony BMG recently released over 50 music titles with some anti-piracy software on the CDs. The software, dubbed XCP, silently installs a "root kit" on a Windows computer, opening up some nasty security risks. The only difference between XCP and the stuff the you buy McAfee VirusScan [...]

eWeek writes, MySQL 5 Arrives

Three years in the making, MySQL 5.0 was finally released on Monday. MySQL AB delivers new, and long-awaited, ANSI SQL features in this latest version of the popular open-source DBMS.

These new features include both read-only and updated views, stored procedures row-level triggers, both read-only and non-scrolling [...]

The long anticipated version 2.0 of OpenOffice.org (the $free Microsoft Office "replacement") was released yesterday. OpenOffice.org 2.0 is the equivalent of Microsoft Office Professional: Access, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint plus a drawing program which Office does not have. Additionally, OOo can create Adobe Acrobat files, which Office cannot. Did I mention that OOo costs nothing? [...]

MySQL 5.0 

Database software, such as Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server, can be tremendously expensive, often costing more than the rest of the entire computing system (hardware, operating system, and application software). It looks like this equation may be changing.

The Register reports in, MySQL destined for ‘majority’ market share

We have all heard of open source software. Many of us have even seen it in action (e.g., the Firefox web browser or the Thunderbird email program). One nagging concern still blocks many people from actually using open source software: how do you get technical support?

Certainly paid support is the easy-to-find option [...]