Hardware and software can both be frustrating at times but I think software takes the lead in complexity. The primary reason is that software always does exactly what you (or the developer) told it too — not necessarily what you want it to do.
Security
Whether I am at the office, at home, or on the road, I always try to be conscious of security. With thousands of viruses and other malware floating around and with many new ones being written every day, it is really important to take security seriously. I used to use Norton Internet Security but during the summer of 2010, I switched to Apple computers. Not that Apple is perfect. Windows has been the target because they have had more computers out there. Now that the Mac is getting much more popular, they are running into virus and hacker problems too. I feel confident they will do a better job of remaining secure that Windows can do.
Desktop and E-mail
Like most people, I spend most of my desktop time living in email (which I have been using for more than twenty-five years).
Web sites
patrickWeb is built with WordPress and runs on a server running Linux hosted in California by Dreamhost.
Personal productivity Software
Intuit’sQuicken has been a great personal banking, investment, financial planning, and home inventory tool for quite a few years. I use TurboTax at tax time. For keeping track of medical information I use Google Health. I think of it like Quicken for the body.
Utilities
There are many software utilities that make things a bit easier. I’ll comment on some of those later.
This section was last updated on April 25, 2011.
