Ramblings of an old Doc
DrJBHL's Articles » Page 24
August 8, 2015 by DrJBHL
  A bit in the future just yet, but mark your calendars you shutterbugs! creativeLive is a great website to learn all sorts of stuff…I learned my Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and what very little I know about photography there. The instructors are world class…the lessons are free…even the rebroadcasts are. If you see something particularly helpful or suited to your needs, you can purchase the class, its materials and have all time access to it forever. What&rs...
August 2, 2015 by DrJBHL
  The first and worst? From MS’s Privacy Policy Statement: “We will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to […] protect our customers or enforce the terms governing the use of the services.” This (to me) says my computer now belongs to them. Sorry, this is completely unacceptable. ...
August 1, 2015 by DrJBHL
  Not long ago I was cruising, looking for something to bring you folks. What with the release of W10 to a bunch of tech maniacs, I don’t think this post stands much of a chance of being noticed…but, if you’re in the market to learns something new, it might be something to look at. So, I found this and I’m only adding one site to the list: FutureLearn . I think it’s a pretty good list since my fave site is on the list ( CreativeLive , since you asked). If you guys have a ...
July 31, 2015 by DrJBHL
  This is really a corker. What? Does MS think it’s SETI now? So, according to Neowin, W10 response has been huge…more than 16 upgrades per second. So, they knew ahead of time this would happen, or at least hoped it would and MS prepped by acquiring 40Tbps with all the major CDNs. BUT (you’re gonna love it): In order to ease the load on their servers and allow users to upgrade faster therey invented Windows Update Delivery Optimization . This works like a torrent hosting ins...
July 30, 2015 by DrJBHL
  Jorge has released the new version! He has fixed some sticky issues such as: “…Winstep Xtreme hanging for a couple of minutes when running for the first time and the Windows Start Menu button being disabled when showing the Windows taskbar…” – Winstep and, “…v15.7 also adds support for Windows Apps and the new Windows 10 Virtual Desktop Manager.” – ibid Also: “To make up for the fact that there were...
July 28, 2015 by DrJBHL
  “Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 10 users will be able to block or undo some updates to the system. It's a minor exception to the recently-instated policy that all updates are mandatory. In previous editions of Windows, users have always had the choice of whether or not to download a new feature or security update, including whether or not it was installed automatically, or manually.” – infopackets Also, new features will be released sooner than on a fixed schedule…...
July 27, 2015 by DrJBHL
  No sooner did we all say that this would be a bad idea, then MS shows us why we were right! “If you run the latest insider build 10240 of Windows 10 you may have already received update KB3074681 which is a cumulative security update for Windows 10 that Microsoft released on July 25. The update installs fine on machines running the operating system but seems to introduce several Explorer related bugs at the same time which users may notice when executing different a...
July 26, 2015 by DrJBHL
  Martin Brinkmann has come up with an excellent series of recommendations…lacking only Stardock’s products, but I don’t believe he customizes. There really isn’t a single second guess (from me, at least). Anyway…I recommend adding ODNT to W10, and not worrying in the meantime, because you KNOW it’ll be just fine. Take a look at the list here: http://www.ghacks.net/2015/07/26/essential-software-for-windows-10/?_m=3n%2e0038%2e1680%2ehj0ao01hy5%2e1que And don’t miss thes...
July 26, 2015 by DrJBHL
  Saw this (take a look at the 8 slides in the show)…as well as a notice about a 50 mile wide swarm of grasshoppers over Texas…and figured this might be the right time to say, “It’s been great! Fanx for the fish!”, if these events are a portent of something awful to come… http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/mayfly-hatch-overwhelms-minnesota-wisconsin/1/ http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/23/us/feat-weather-radar-bugs-texas/index.html
July 25, 2015 by DrJBHL
  An Exabyte of data is 1000 6 bytes of data (EB), or in binary (exbibyte) 1024 6 kibibytes (KB). Another way of looking at it is 1 EB = 1000 6 bytes = 10 18 bytes = 1000000000000000000B = 1000 petabytes =1million terabytes = 1billion gigabytes. That’s a good deal of data. Using the base pairs A-T and G-C as 0s and 1s, one gram of DNA can store approximately 450 Exabyte of data. That would be equal to roughly some billion gigabytes. Theoretically, in a shielded and sterile...
July 23, 2015 by DrJBHL
  WiFi Sense is meant to be a quick and convenient way to connect to “Crowd sourced” WiFi networks…which might or might not be so good since “secure” rarely means the same as “quick and convenient”. Crowd sourced? Well, MS has a huge database of open hotspots, about a million, from consenting MS users as they logged onto these hotspots. “When Wi-Fi Sense is enabled, it searches for open hotspots. Upon finding one, Wi-Fi Sense will check the hotspot's beacon information ag...
July 21, 2015 by DrJBHL
  Some time back, WebGizmos posted about the real time Norse cyber attack map, which looks like something out of Missile Command. There are more cool time wasters for you! 1. Norse: http://map.norsecorp.com/ 2. Google and Arbor Networks DDoS map: http://www.digitalattackmap.com/#anim=1&color=0&country=ALL&list=0&time=16636&view=map 3. Kaspersky Cyberthreat Real-Time Map: http://cybermap.kaspersky.com/ 4. FireEye Cyber Threat Map (not real-time): ...
July 20, 2015 by DrJBHL
  Look for and make sure you update your Windows when you get this emergency patch to an exploit allowing remote code execution. The flaw was discovered when a horde of emails leaked after a breach of an Italian surveillance vendor Hacking Team…which is less than above board: “The Milan-based vendor sells surveillance software to governments and corporations, and markets zero-day vulnerabilities that its clients can use to silently infect targets with the firm's softw...
July 19, 2015 by DrJBHL
  If you remember, I brought this subject up when it was just rumors regarding different update channels for W10 users, and the ability to delay updating only being allowed for premium and business users. If you take the time to review the EULA for W10 build 10240, you’ll find: “The Software periodically checks for system and app updates, and downloads and installs them for you. You may obtain updates only from Microsoft or authorized sources, and Microsoft may nee...
July 18, 2015 by DrJBHL
  We are social animals. We interact with devices and anthropormorphize them…after all, it’s not a big step since we name birds, cats and dogs and act towards them as if in some way they can understand and converse us. I suppose it all stems from the same need not to be alone. Anyway, clever people note this and devise the Siris, Cortanas and now, Alexa. Yes, you have the choice of addressing the ‘Echo’ as 'Alexa' or 'Amazon'. 'Hal' or ...