I’ve got not one, but two articles in the April issue of PC World. For a feature story on Internet security, I wrote six how-to sidebars detailing important security patches for Windows, various applications, email programs, and browsers. It’s a veritable compendium of tips on how to fortify your system’s security. Naturally, information like this ages fast — Microsoft alone releases dozens, if not hundreds, of patches per year -=- so read it and act on it soon.

I also wrote a new story about the music industry’s increasingly heavy-handed tactics in protecting their copyrights. The big story now: the RIAA’s attempts to get Verizon to turn over the name of a user suspected of downloading more than 600 copyrighted songs. (I never could get the RIAA to explain how they knew which songs were being stolen — I guess we have to take their word on it for now.) That action is still tied up in the courts. But this story gives a taste of what’s to come.