Showing 81 - 90 of 173
No new Vistas for us to view?
Life, James Hein, Published on 29/03/2017
» After Microsoft Bob and Windows ME, Vista would have to be the least-loved Windows operating system. It arrived in 2007 on Jan 30, and on April 11 will no longer be a supported OS. That means no more security updates, no hotfixes and no support options, paid or otherwise. Readers will not be surprised to learn that Microsoft is recommending that any remaining Vista users upgrade to Windows 10. You may be thinking that if you are a really large organisation and are willing to pay, Microsoft will provide support just like they still do for some XP customers. But the word on the street is they won't for Vista.
Your TV is watching you
Life, James Hein, Published on 15/03/2017
» Love them or hate them as I write this WikiLeaks has just dropped a large batch of new documents for all the world to see, this time CIA secret materials. The part that has caught most attention is the information on how to spy on people, using commonly found household items. Apple and Android devices, Samsung TV's (glad I recently changed to Sony), Macs and Windows devices can all be used to spy on people -- no one in the US of course -- and pass info back to the CIA. There are also different malware products that can be used to infect all manner of devices including a USB stick that can be used to jump that critical air-gap between your system and the outside world. For anyone living in the real world none of this will be of any surprise. All the leaks really do is confirm what everyone knows and every country does.
The eternal debate between privacy and security
Life, James Hein, Published on 01/03/2017
» What is the line dividing privacy from national security? If you are a privacy advocate, the line is closer to "everything is private". If you are a nation state wanting to protect its interests, that line falls somewhere nearer to your preschool diary. Homeland in the US is working on a policy requiring selected non-citizens entering the US to provide the passwords to their social media accounts to gain entry. This has triggered feedback from human rights groups, civil liberties groups and a bunch of professors. Given that every nation has a right to protect its borders and a customs official can search everything else you bring in, why not information in the digital realm?
Password ain't a password
Life, James Hein, Published on 01/02/2017
» How many people do you know, including yourself, who are avid Facebook users? Be honest. You will know that your account contains a large amount of information, much of it quite personal, that data thieves would be happy to mine and use. A solution is to protect this information.
The road ahead
Life, James Hein, Published on 04/01/2017
» So it's time for 2017 predictions. For a start, I see this being a better year overall as far as technological improvements go. I base this on the possible freeing-up of resources under a Trump-led US, but that of course all remains to be seen.
Of hacking and international cyber affairs
Life, James Hein, Published on 21/12/2016
» According to some reports Russia was the one that hacked into the Clinton servers and arranged the email leaks to get Trump elected. Many of the US security agencies don't agree with this latest assessment. So what do we know? We don't know for example if the servers are running Microsoft or Linux operating systems, if the emails were grabbed in a single block or slowly over time. There is very little info. This is a classic case of one side blaming the other for a result they didn't want, and I suspect that the real story won't come out for some time.
Money trumps morals in the online world
Life, James Hein, Published on 07/12/2016
» In a world where making everything smaller and lighter is the trend, a half-tonne CPU is certainly an anomaly. The 42,300 transistors, 10,548 LED CPU machine was built by hand from regular components and can be seen at the Centre for Computing History in Haverhill, England. The builder is James Newman, who wanted to learn about transistors and then got busy. The result is a CPU that shows how it is working in real time by following the flashing LEDS. At 15m² it roughly equates to the old 33m² Intel 8086. OK not quite that powerful as it only has 256 bytes of ROM and RAM and runs at an estimated 20kHz. I'm putting this in for the people with way too much time on their hands category. You can find out more here megaprocessor.com/programming.html.
Virus free and quids in after upgrade
Life, James Hein, Published on 16/11/2016
» After some years, I moved from Vipre anti-virus across to BitDefender. Part of the reason was base pricing and the rest was that Vipre still charges a premium for Android device protection, something included in the BitDefender family plan. Changing was as simple as uninstalling one and installing the other. The new product has already flagged a number of infection attempts and also a port scanning incident. Around the same time I started having problems with web browsing. Some sites would be fine and others would not appear for a long time or error out. I changed the SSL validation setting in BitDefender which fixed one issue but the remainder stayed. Doing some research, I found the product NetBalancer which when installed immediately cleared up the problem by taking control over what processes could access the network at specific priorities. I still don't know what was causing the initial problem but if you are having similar problems try NetBalancer, there is a free version for basic functionality.
Online training that won't cost you the earth
Life, James Hein, Published on 28/09/2016
» In the ever-changing world of technology, it is often hard to keep up. You can visit expensive training sites that charge thousands of dollars or you can try some alternatives, like the Softonic site found at deals.softonic.com. I've already used them for a project management bundle, chess course, writing for Kindle using Scrivener, and lately a complete web developers course, all for low double digit US dollar prices. So far the content has been quite good and the web developer course includes free web hosting for a year. They may not be quite as slick as the big providers but the info is there so you might as well save a few shekels.
Pokemon, an oops and a US Navy blunder
Life, James Hein, Published on 27/07/2016
» Pokemon Go has taken the world by storm, well everywhere apart from places like China where Google is banned altogether so the frustrated potential Chinese players need to make a trip to Hong Kong to get to play. Pokemon players are fairly easy to spot. They are looking at their phone screens, heads down, fingers not moving or only occasionally. They will normally be seen in groups as everyone is trying to grab a Pokemon character at a specific location. Depending where you are in the world and the popularity of the game in your general area you may have noticed a drop in Internet speed.