Kenneth Hess

When it comes to operating systems, are you tired of taking what’s thrown at you? It’s funny how operating system vendors believe that “one size fits all.” Wouldn’t you rather do it your way? Now you can. Building your own custom Linux distribution (distro) is easy, quick and free. What more could you ask for […]

Did you ever notice how computer geeks always have the coolest gadgets, leading-edge electronics and mini data centers in their basements? Do you wonder where all that money comes from to buy that stuff? Well, they aren’t withdrawing their 401k funds to do it. They know where and how to shop. Learn how to shop […]

When perusing my local dead tree Sunday newspaper’s Business section, I came across the headline, Frugality pays off: Avoiding debt looks smart for area firms and thought, “Hey, this looks like something that my readers would enjoy.” They’ve done exactly what I’ve said that companies should do: Be frugal during the good times and the […]

Do you have several employees with salaries approaching or breaching the six-figure mark and carry service contracts on your hardware assets? Consider stepping-up those service contracts to full 24×7, 2-hour response, on-site versions and dumping some of those chatty, annoying, vacation-taking, sick day scamming, office supply stealing leeches from your budget. Yes, I remember what […]

Ah yes, there’s that all too familiar sound of tightening budgets and the tossing aside of those things perceived as non-essential. Training’s death knell reverberates in my head like the sound of an ill-tuned vesper bell. Your dilemma is that you need to learn Linux but you have no money to buy training — what […]

You’re probably in that middle ground somewhere between needing to save money on your in-house IT services and outsourcing the whole thing to an external vendor. However, you can’t quite see yourself giving up any convenience or control just to cut those costs. It’s hard to give up control of your local computing assets and […]

You’ve quietly rocked along with Windows XP for a few years and now you feel compelled to upgrade to Vista or the upcoming Windows 7. You’ve heard bad things about Vista or experienced them first-hand, and you’ve heard that Windows 7 is a promising replacement for XP. Which is it? Do you trade in your […]

No, this isn’t another rant about how you should convert to Linux because it’s free, although it is free. Free is a four-letter word among those who scoff at the mere mention of Linux. Yes, Linux is free, but that doesn’t give it an unfair advantage on the desktop because most computers arrive preloaded with […]

Nickelback lyrics notwithstanding, many see Linux as the hero that can save us — save us from continuous hardware upgrades with each major software revision, confusing licensing programs, hidden costs and fees and vendor lock-in. With that said, is Linux our hero? The obvious answer is yes, but is it a true hero or just […]

When you were working on that project that uses open source code, did you download code written by BeanieBoy01? BeanieBoy01 is a known hacker who’s part of a larger group of black hat computer terrorists who’ve stolen more than 30 million credit card numbers and PINs in the past two years. No, wait, I’m sorry, […]