In my interwebs meanderings I came across this little gem…both for its recommendations and for its links. It’s here: http://lifehacker.com/the-complete-guide-to-avoiding-and-removing-windows-c-1630577558 It’s a handy little reference piece…for all the stuff we’ve discussed in different Forum posts. Also, for those to whom it applies, happy Mothers Day and that means ALL of you! Do not forget to call your mom, or the moms in your life today! Al...
Nothing stays the same. If it did, there’d be no word ‘nostalgia’. So, Terry Myerson (MS’s OS Chief) has just stated, “"We're not going to be delivering all of the updates to all of these consumers on one day of the month," Myerson said of changes to Windows Update under Windows 10.” Excellent for not just the reason of dreading one day per month. Not all patches are equally important, nor rapidly tested. Why should the patches which are ready sit around on the sh...
A truly amazing price, folks…that’s 84% off for a premium-quality VPN”": “Safeguard your Internet privacy, bypass geo-restrictions, and supercharge your connection speed while streaming your favorite flicks, all thanks to ibVPN. Block web surveillance & hackers Choose from 75+ VPN servers in 39 countries, including P2P servers Stream media w/ no speed loss using SmartDNS solution Unblock 165+ TV & radio channels worldwide ...
Lenovo’s certainly having its share of bad luck recently. First the Superfish compromise of digital certificates, and now a patch for “System Update Flaw” which is actually how they update their software, and how that update mechanism had a serious flaw before the patch. It turns out that any hacker could remotely install malware on a Lenovo computer simply by being on the same unsecured wireless network. They’re not the only ones who use unsecured networks for updates, though...
Virus analysts are having a nightmare with this one as it self destructs when it detects efforts at analysis. “Security researchers at Cisco have published new research on a malware, named Rombertik, which will go out of its way to avoid getting analyzed by deleting essential data in the Windows system file called the Master Boot Record (MBR) sending the computer into an endless reboot loop. The malware also attempts to fool the researchers' sandboxing tools by writ...
MS stopped developing WMC back in 2009. Many were hoping for a rebirth/upgrade for Windows 10. “The software giant is planning to kill off Media Center in Windows 10, meaning any PCs upgraded from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 will lose the feature. Microsoft confirmed the plan in a recent interview with ZDNet.”- The Verge It’s kind of sad, because I’ve enjoyed it since 2001, using it on large TVs. I really don’t understand why they’re killing it, either. Oh yes I do: Xb...
Phones are getting larger and larger screens…it’s clear from usage and service stats provided by Flurry (Yahoo owned data analytics firm) that’s what’s happening and has been for years, when you think about it. Flurry tracks 1.6 billion devices (yes, ‘b’ as in billion) focusing on the top 875 devices which account for 87% of the sessions in March 2015 to look at global active device usage by screen size and found that phablets have more than tripled their share of usage sin...
AVG has just launched “Crumble” which is an extension for Chrome that blocks third-party behavior tracking on the web when it is active. As you all know, cookies (hence the name ‘Crumble’) can be good/bad or both. Functionally they can be necessary to enable site functionality…but are often abused to create tracking profiles for your browsing on the net. Some domains can plant hundreds of cookies on your computer just to do that bit of data merchandising. To find out how ma...
Sometimes you’re looking for a better/snazzier/cooler font for a project and *poof* it appears online right in front of you… BUT…what’s its name? How can you search for it without that? A few ways: 1) If you’re using an iOS device, WhatFont can be a huge help… 2) WhatTheFont Mobile app is another. 3) For non-iOS devices, www.whatfontis.com , TypeDNA at http://fontedge.matton.se and the WhatTheFont feature on www.MyFonts.com . Each site exam...
Privacy vs. security…that’s at the core of the newest effort to secure us and US corporations from the cyber criminals/spies/hackers. Supposedly it’s better than CISPA and CISA. It protects your security by enabling corporations to share your data and the government as well. “The Protecting Cyber Networks Act enables private companies to voluntarily share cyber threat indicators with one another and to voluntarily share these indicators with the federal government so lo...
In the world of AV software, there are two varieties: The first, based on signature which can’t hope to keep up with the variants emerging all the time, and the second based on behavior which is supposed to detect/identify any suspicious behavior and quarantine/delete the offending software and notify you to decide what you wish to do. There are other software types (one of which will ship with Windows 10) which will lock down target areas (files, etc.) which viuses/trojans target. ...
So you thought 21 patches were enough? Think again. MS is releasing another 34 later today. The majority of patches apply to Windows 8, Windows RT and Windows Server 2012. In fact, there are only five patches for Windows 7 and four for Windows Server 2008 R2 while the remaining patches are all for Windows 8 or later on the client side and Windows Server 2012 or later on the server side. You can read more here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/894199 All t...
So…while yesterday’s thread was fun, I came across this article . What bothers me about this is that they’re using Numenta’s AI software because it’s closer to human thinking. That alone should scare the crap out of you. Would a non-human like AI algorithm/s be better? Is the devil we [don’t] know better than the devil we know even less? How could one produce a program complex enough to encompass Asimov’s three laws of robotics? A...
Yeah…ok. I’m an older guy. Not old. Older. [Shut up, Smedley] and I worry. About a lot of things but especially about this mad race to develop AI…and just why the hell it’s all necessary. I say love – hate because while I love making Photoshop and Lightroom sit up and wag their tails, I’m scared of AI…and worry about ninja super computers, the internet of things and lazy assed people ending all of us with a misplaced line of code , or som...
1. NASA - http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/ 2. CIA - https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ 3. Library of Congress - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html 4. National Park Service - http://www.nps.gov/pub_aff/imagebase.html%20 5. Life Magazine 1860s – 1970s - http://images.google.com/hosted/life 6. List of resources – U.S. Government Image Portal - http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Graphics.shtml 7. Hubble Telescope ...