No surprise, really. It’s an election year. Turns out MS and Yahoo have been selling your name, Zip code, and other info you provided when signing up for their services, and buying habits in order to provide targeted advertising to the political parties. The parties can then match voter records to people’s online identities and send them targeted ads. They profile you. They have succeeded in invading your privacy yet again. I can’t help but wonder if th...
I read it and laughed. IE7? Who on earth uses IE7? Apparently “Kogan” customers, if you can believe this one. Kogan is an Australian online only retailer. Apparently, IE7 doesn’t render their webpages particularly well so, Kogan has decided to charge a 6.8% “surcharge” on customers using IE7 because of the time necessary to create code “work arounds”. Kogan’s sees this as a mission to eliminate the browser from the 1.3% of Australians still using it. The Kogan rep was ...
Got an email, so I cruised over to take a peek. Good stuff listed. Good to take a look at here: http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/best-windows-software#image If you need something specific, it’s categorized by software type. Fences comes up #1 in Productivity. I was surprised by the choice of Rocket Dock, though. Object Dock and Nexus both work better for me, and are supported by continuing development. Enjoy!
The software affected in this update: Windows (XP SP3, Vista, 7, Server 2003/2008) Windows Remote Desktop Internet Explorer .NET Framework Windows Lync Microsoft Dynamics AX Enterprise Portal Several will require a restart. The majority of the patches are for IE vulnerabilities, so they are important. Source: http://www.neowin.net/news/patch-tuesday-microsoft-fixing-27-vulnerabilities
So, this was news to me. The U.N. can control and tax the Internet? ETNO (European Telecommunications Network Operators Association) is asking the U.N. to change international telecommunications regulations to: “…introduce a new Internet tax that appears to target Web giants like Google and Facebook.” - http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2405560,00.asp Others could be targeted as well, according to a c|net story this past week (add Apple and Netflix to...
It’s like a car wreck. You can’t stop watching. Well… I can’t, anyway. Symantec has been watching certain “infected” computers very closely to see what they’d do while infected with the “Flame” virus/Trojan. So, earlier in the week, they noticed that certain Command an Control computers sent an urgent command to the infected PC’s these C&C computers were controlling. The key piece here is that the C&C computers didn’t ‘know’ that their victims no longer were under t...
Figured I’d do something health related. Two suggestions first: This doesn’t come instead of your yearly eye check up, so make sure you get that done. Second, make sure you have an exercise period everyday. Not at the computer. Turn it off and go outside. There really is a world out there. Ok… number one: Adjust monitor position. The top should be at eye level, and it should be 20-30 inches from your eyes. Number two: Adjust your lighting. Hopefully, it’s not coming from be...
To paraphrase a disappointed voter from WI, “This is the end of democracy. The end of the USA as we know it.” Tom and Ray Magliozzi “of Boston (our fair city), MA” as they say it at the end of each “Puzzla (dialect)” are ending their 25 year run on NPR (35 years on WBUR Boston). Yes, disappointed fans: I can take recessions, depressions, invasions: You name it. I cannot take this piece of ugly, heartbreaking news. This really sucks. First it wa...
It is very important to get this emergency patch since Flame masquerades as an MS update. ( Photocredit gHacks ) “Flame” is a virus/Trojan which was designed to collect information through up to 20 modules. It was designed to collect information on the Middle East and on Iranian-Russian nuclear reactors. It probably also has other intelligence gathering and possibly operational options in it. It exploits a vulnerability in MS software, ...
As part of Computrex 2012’s announcements, Asus has just announced that it plans to release the “ Transformer AiO ”. So, what is it? It is a dual OS device capable of running Android and Windows 8. It is an 18.4” Desktop (and possibly a Tablet as well) that runs both OS’s. Dana Wollman at engadget reports that it boots to Windows 8 (as the default), and transitions into Android after a button is pressed. “…the Transformer AiO see...
So many people and organizations are in budgetary trouble, so why should SETI be any different? Because it embodies a primal need of people: To know we aren’t alone. The shuttle program is gone. Startrek’s limited to reruns. Our superheroes aren’t all that super anymore. Now they’re mutants and results of technology gone awry, spider bites, reformed weapons industry magnates with weird science. The whole paragon has undergone deflation and shrinkage, and I don’t like t...
While reporting the disturbing articles about MS taking the legacy code for the Start Menu I asked folks to post whether Start 8 would be affected. Tim Shiesser posted at Neowin.net that Start 8, ViStart and Classic Shell were not affected by this action as Neil and Jafo confirmed, yesterday in Forums. Mr. Shiesser went on to write however, “They probably won't work come the RTM version of Windows 8, but for now you can still enjoy the combination o...
If you’re concerned you might have been infected with this virus/Trojan (depending on your location, probability varies), BitDefender has created a detection and removal tool for x86 and x64 systems gHacks reported this morning. From the BitDefender site: “As we’re digging into Flamer.A, new details about the piece’s modus operandi surface. The team working on it have uncovered that several components use an internal list called NetworkTypeIdentifier. This list refere...
No joy in Mudville today, folks. The Verge (Paul Thurrot) reported: “Microsoft appears to be taking steps to remove legacy code from its Windows 8 operating system that will prevent modifications and hacks to re-enable the Start button and Start Menu. Windows watcher Paul Thurrott reports that the company has been "furiously ripping out" legacy code in Windows 8 recently that lets third parties bring back the Start button, Start Menu, and other legacy parts of the deskto...
What used to be called “RC” (Release Candidate) has been spun to “Preview”, but the meaning remains the same. Apparently, the W8 RC is planned to be released today. This was “accidentally” revealed in an MS hardware and driver blog post (Chuck Chan, Corporate V.P. Windows Development team), yesterday. The blog post has since been taken down. Owen Williams nailed the screen shot on Neowin though and here it is: According to Owen Wil...