World Password Day 2026 World Password Day 2026 We observe World Password Day on the first Thursday of May each year. This year it occurs on May 7th. Each year I use this opportunity to encourage everyone to update his or her passwords. I often repeat various methods of creating secure passwords that are also easy to remember. If you enjoyed some of the methods I have suggested previously, feel free to look at some of my previous columns. This month I will be showing an

Open Source Hardware Last month we talked about the Raspberry Pi. I realized we hadn’t talked about some of the other electronic devices used to build things for over a decade. This month, I will re-introduce some other devices useful for building electronic projects. The Raspberry Pi is open-source software, but the hardware is not open source. Today we will look at open-source hardware. In summary, open-source means that the intellectual property is free and available

Pi-day 2026 Pi-Day, a traditional day to celebrate the number Pi, arrives on March 14th. The date (3-14) corresponds to the first three digits of the number Pi. The number of Pi is an irrational, infinitely non-repeating number, representing the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Pi approximates as 3.14 or better as 355/113 giving us six digits of accuracy as 3.14159. We usually write Pi as the Greek letter Pi π. Type the character Pi on a US Windows keyb

Tech Gift Ideas 2025 Last month’s column focused on gifts to help get along with Microsoft’s cancellation of Windows 10. This month I will go over some other technology gifts. We have seen many of these before. Some have changed, and all are still good suggestions. Simple Photo Cameras I still use my old electronic cameras (mostly from Canon). We also still have several Kodak brand cameras from when Kodak was still a camera company. Yes, I have a good camera on my pho