“The Best of The Best” of CES 2015 is Sling TV. O.K….so what’s that? You want to cut the cable but still want to watch TV shows? “Sling TV is the first non-traditional alternative that looks like it could really work -- and it's coming this month. Not only does it bring an interest-grabbing slate of content right off the bat (ESPN), but also the entire interface and system brings TV into the internet era. Even the price is on target, starting at $20 with no contracts i...
I love Adobe Ps. I make no bones about it. Many more folks would try their hand at it if they learned it from fundamentals…not just memorizing how to do something, but understanding the theory and then going about solving a problem…that’s the real fun. Anyway, Bryan O’Neil Hughes (Senior Photoshop Product Manager) has put together a bunch of tutorials on ways to do things…it’s excellent, so I thought I’d take some and pass the plate ar...
I think I’ve scooped the web on this one. Updated BitDefender Internet Security (I have that set on manual update) on one computer and when navigating to Outlook.com I get the error message: “Error code: ERR_CONNECTION_RESET” I’ve reported it to them. We’ll see how long it takes to get it fixed. Haven’t updated the other computer and I can navigate and logon just fine. Sooo: If you’re using BitDefender on more that one machine and have an Outlook account, pleas...
Miss Baton Rouge and Miss Louisiana of 1957, and the really pretty young woman who prtrayed Elly May Clampett (Beverly Hillbillies) has passed away at age 81. Beyond that, she sued Mattel, Inc. for making a likeness without her permission…she never landed any other roles, though.
Rumor is rife…MS abandoning the venerable IE? Untinkable? Not so much. Mary Jo Foley…a very well respected author and reporter reported yesterday in her blog at zdnet that “big changes” are coming for IE. In fact, it appears that while the search engine itself will remain, it will be lighter, faster (as in ‘dekluged’) and be far more like Chrome and Firefox. In fact, MS is building a new browser…called “Spartan” (good choice of name!). The brand name of IE is being ditched ...
As the product site says: “recALL allows you to quickly recover passwords from more than 200 programs (mail, web browsers, instant messengers, FTP clients, wireless, etc.) and license keys from more than 2,800 applications. recALL is the world's first program that allows you to recover most of the password and also a license from damaged operating systems through native support of the Windows system’s registry files . Due to the unique function emulation FTP, POP3 and ...
No secret…MS will be putting the second preview of W10 out in January 2015. No secrets revealed here, but there will be a new tool: “The Prepare this PC program enables users of supported versions of Windows, that means Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8, to update to the next preview of Windows 10 using Windows Update.” – gHacks However, two words of caution: “The next Windows 10 version that Microsoft will release in January is still a preview...
Apple OS X users…a very important security fix has been issued for NTP. This update is very important to prevent remote code execution. OS X NTP Security Update ntpd Available for: OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.5, OS X Mavericks v10.9.5, OS X Yosemite v10.10.1 Impact: A remote attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code Description: Several issues existed in ntpd that would have allowed an attacker to trigger buffer overflows. Th...
Good article at TheWindowsClub about this: How to detect them, stop them from installing and rid your machine of them if installed through “bundling” with stuff you did want, for example. PUPs sound innocent enough – but, “Potentially Unwanted Software” but in fact, they are frequently a type of malware, spyware to be exact. I suggest reading the article…well written and informative. Remember…”free” is very rarely, if ever, “free” and watch out for the strings. Pick...
Not interesting in bashing…only in influencing a few consciences and perhaps buying patterns, because nothing changes minds like smaller profits. You no doubt remember the anti-suicide netting and Foxconn from 2010. Apple issued strict standards and inspections, and that fixed that, right? Wrong. BBC Panorama has revealed: “An undercover investigation by BBC Panorama reveals that workers in Chinese factories which make Apple products have been discovered to bei...
I find it a PITA that when you buy a new computer, or the OS online, you don’t get an OS dvd. In an effort to increase profits, MS became a well, PITA. Well, gHacks did a big service for me today. It gave links to the OS isos directly from MS. This isn’t “Whoopy! Free Windows!”, since you need your valid product key to use them. The links below are from official sources only. Don’t ever download Windows from anywhere but an official MS site. ...
I first wrote about this bit of nastiness here: http://drjbhl.joeuser.com/article/457404/CryptoWall_Ramsomware_has_hit_600K_computers_and_a_new_gem_TorrentLocker It was so named because its configuration resides in the Windows Registry in HKCU\Software\Bit Torrent Application\Configuration. It’s real name is Win32/Filecoder.DI Everyone thought, “Whew! Dodged that one: I don’t use Torrents!”. Think again. “A TorrentLocker infection, like other ransomware schemes (...
The latest Windows Update is causing a range of problems: “KB 3004394 blocks the installation or update of graphics drivers such as AMD’s new Catalyst Omega. Nvidia users are also reporting difficulty installing GeForce drivers.” – Jason Evangelho It has been recommended to remove it manually. and MS agrees. What other problems does it cause? “USB 3.0 drivers are broken and User Account Control (UAC) prompts have gone haywire. Microsoft has ackno...
Came across a really good “how to” article at gizmo’s freeware: http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/how-harden-your-browser-against-malware-and-privacy-concerns.htm#Instructions_For_Chromium_Browsers The nice part is that it’s written in non geek English, and links to “ How to stay safe online ” and “ How to protect your online privacy ”…another two very good articles. The article discusses the main browsers, as well as some of their better known variants. It discuss...
Important news for those who track Santa with their children/grandchildren…even those who delight in this themselves (I won’t tell anyone who you are, tbc – whoops!). SO…you don’t have to go to the website anymore…it’s good on W8/8.1 x86, x64 and ARM. You can get it free here: http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-US/app/norad-tracks-santa/445e2479-6da9-41e2-85f7-66550fe8c55b Source: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/norad-track-santa-app-w...