This device works through a Windows phone. It uses location and a network of info beacons in cities to determine location and routes to use in getting from one place to another. The device was developed with the charity "Guide Dogs" and it's available in Britain only at this point. Another interesting feature is that instead of using earbuds, it uses bone conduction through the jaw to relay information, thus not compromising the users ears to hear what's going o...
This Tuesday’s release will have (at this point) 16 updates, 5 ‘critical’ (to prevent remote code execution) and 9 ‘important’. It’s a big one as far as 2014 is concerned, and will have a reboot. “Microsoft will patch all supported versions of its IE browser, from the almost-retired IE6 on Windows Server 2003 to the newest IE11. The fix for IE on Windows' client editions -- Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 -- was ra...
A team of Israeli scientists (Prof. Danny Porath, along with Prof. Alexander Kotlyar) have engineered a huge development. This is 4 stranded DNA along which an electric charge can be passed. This was published in Nature Nanotechnology this week. This will pave the way for molecular computers which will be smaller, more sophisticated and cheaper. The four-stranded DNA can conduct up to more than 100 picoamperes of electricity up to more than 100 nanometers, 10 times further than ...
This launcher is a suite with 150 outstanding (and portable) utilities. It has recovery tools, password recovery tools, disk health tools, tools to diagnose unstable/crashing systems. There’s more: NirLauncher can be used from USB flash drive without need of any installation. NirLauncher and all the utilities in the package are completely freeware, without any Spyware/Adware/Malware. This package doesn't contain any 3-party software, toolbars, Web browser plugins, o...
Windows Task Manager is the native Windows app which comes with the OS and which gives very limited information about usage and processes running. It doesn’t list dependencies, which isn’t good. There are better alternatives and all (as far as I know) are free. I took a look at Process Explorer and System Explorer. Mark Russinovich wrote Process Explorer. The older among us also know he did SysInternals, which is the definitive tool collection for analyzing MS OSs.
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OK…this is a bit technical, so brace yourselves. Anyway, recently, a SSL 3.0 vulnerability was discovered. This vulnerability allows the injection of malicious code into your computer and web hosting servers and allow remote code execution. So what’s SSL? It means Secure Sockets Layer (and there are 3). It has been superceded by TLS (Transport Layer Security). The Poodle ( Padding Oracle On Downgraded Legacy Encryption ) attack allows a web criminal to intercept data that ...
Just saw this on ZDNet. Websense® ThreatSeeker® Intelligence Cloud has detected that the official website of Popular Science has been compromised and is serving malicious code (iFrame). The code is of the redirect type and will send the user to other websites which will drop malicious files (RIG Exploit Kit) on the victim’s computer. RIG is an executable. If the user doesn’t have any of the checked AVs installed, then the exploit kit proceeds to evaluate the installe...
Thanks should go to Brad Sams at Neowin for this (and to Hankers). This should be a “definitely do today”. That’s because once you’re hacked, it’s pointless. This “Security Code” will allow you to recover your account if someone hacks it and changes the password. “How to”: 1. Login. https://account.live.com/p 2. Under “Recovery Code” click “Set up”. If you’ve done this in the past, your page will say, “Replace”…in which case, click “Replace”. 3....
De-Vasive (abbreviated DV here) was invented for Android users and does something good: It let’s you know when apps start using certain camera features. When an app starts the phone's camera. When the microphone is activated. When Bluetooth or WiFi are activated. Detect which apps track your location. That’s a pretty good thing. The free app won’t let you block the app activating a process or warning, but it will let you know it’s been...
If (as happened to Uvah) your laptop or your PC has been stolen or even misplaced (in someone else’s apartment), while it’s not as easy as on an Apple OS device, it’s still possible. All these methods depend on the thief’s greed. If he/she decides to check (or deface) your facebook, gmail or Dropbox accounts, there’s a good chance you can trace your property’s IP address. That doesn’t mean you can find its physical address easily, but the Police can. You or they can obtain ...
Certainly, a good antiviral will help protect your computer (as will common sense), but some 15,000 new viruses are occurring everyday so antivirals are in a little to be envied “catch up” position. But, while no new versions of common sense are available, sometimes it just isn’t your fault if you catch a ‘drive by’. There are additional levels of protection such as virtualization of browsing and to allow running apps in a protected environment…like Sandboxie which also exists i...
Last week I wrote about iOS 8 and the 5th Amendment , the first installment on this topic. I figured it wouldn't take long for the other shoe to drop. The director of the FBI, James Comey feels that in the ‘post-Snowden’ era, the pendulum of distrust in the government has swung too far. He said that encryption software on smart devices will create a ‘black holes’ in which bad people can operate. He asked the question, “Are we so mistrustful of gove...
MS requested feedback for Windows 10 Tech Preview. MS has even opened its OWN Windows suggestion page at the Uservoice feedback site here: https://windows.uservoice.com/forums/265757-feature-suggestions/filters/top Cortana got to keep its name from requests on that site, so they’re watching it closely and listening (for a change). Paul Thurrott has put together his tabulation of the top ten W10 results as well using ‘like’ votes to rank them. You can find them...
Well…the title says it all. Dropbox has “ropBox seems to have bulk reset all accounts appearing on the pastebin leaks, though accounts do not appear to have had their passwords reset as of yet.” I changed mine, thank you. “Hackers claim they will release more of the nearly seven million DropBox accounts if they receive donations to their bitcoin address. Appearing to nearly be holding the account information of millions ransom. - – FreedomHacker DropBox has to...
Another good reason to keep your apps updated: “The company has confirmed that a bug in an older version of its desktop apps could lead to files being deleted permanently, without the user’s knowledge or consent. The problem is related to Selective Sync, which allows users to only synchronize some important folders across machines.” – Neowin Anyway, at least dropbox is trying to recover the lost data and reimburse the users who lost stuff. It’s not clear, though if ...