Infopackets Reader Dan L. writes: " Dear Dennis, I imagine that you might soon be hearing from your users about Roboform having suddenly lost its toolbar feature in FireFox. If not, here's the answer: starting with the recently issued Roboform ... 8.3.7, the RoboForm extension will no longer include a full static toolbar above the content pane of Firefox . Instead, you get a button with a message that reads ("Click this button to show RoboForm commands") with a vertical menu, similar to how Roboform works in Chrome. I found an article at RoboForm that explains the changes - and it seems that ... (view more)
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Political discussion on social media is often driven and manipulated by automated "bots," a university department claims. The word "bots" is a short form for "robot," and refers to online activity carried out using an automated program. The Oxford ... Internet Institute says it studied events in nine countries and found the bots played a role in every case. However, social media groups have questioned such studies saying they are often based on flawed research methods. The study looked at activity on Facebook and Twitter among users in Brazil, Canada, China, Germany ... (view more)
A man killed when his semi-autonomous Tesla car crashed ignored multiple warnings issued by the vehicle, newly-released documents show. The papers also suggest subsequent changes to the way the car's Autopilot feature works should prevent a repeat ... of the incident. Tesla's Autopilot feature is a brand name that covers a technology that's often classed as being "driver assistance," rather than strictly self-driving. The features in question covered a cruise control that kept the car at a constant speed while taking account of nearby vehicles, and an auto-steer function that ... (view more)
Google says it will use a combination of artificial intelligence and human expertise to combat online videos promoting hatred and terrorism. It's also going to tackle videos that follow the letter but not the spirit of its rules and will ... intentionally promote videos that can counter terrorist recruitment. The four steps are part of what Google and YouTube calls an ongoing program to enforce the principle that "there should be no place for terrorist content on our services." Step one is to improve the way Google's systems automatically spot videos that promote terrorism and ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Steve V. writes: " Dear Dennis, I came across your post on screenconnect.com, entitled ' Mono eating too much memory (Linux) ' and am having the same issue. It seems that ScreenConnect is uncontrollably eating memory - for ... example, when I click on client previews, the mono process eats 300mb+ of RAM and will continue to do so for each click. Surely this is not right! At this point I receive 'Internal error' on my ScreenConnect browser control panel (where I can view my clients). Ultimately, /var/log/messages reports 'Out of memory: Kill process xxxx (mono) score xxx or ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Ian S. writes: " Dear Dennis, Recently I noticed through Task Manager that I have very high CPU usage, even with the computer idle. I looked at Task Manager and it says that 'IAStorDataMgrSvc' is eating 25% of my CPU constantly. I ... read that this is an Intel program and that my computer's BIOS may not be set up properly, which is causing the problem. I also read that if I set the BIOS improperly (in order to correct the issue), my computer may get stuck in a blue screen loop. I am afraid to make any changes for fear that it may screw something up. Can you help? " My response ... (view more)
Facebook has announced four changes to its Safety Check feature for dealing with local crises. The changes will offer more detail about what's currently happening, coordinate local help, and help make fundraising easier. Safety Check is a feature ... that lets people in the geographic area of a natural disaster, terror attack or other crisis quickly mark themselves as "safe." The idea is that this saves people exchanging a plethora of messages in order to check if somebody is OK. That's particularly important with voice calls and text messages, which can easily overload local ... (view more)
Microsoft has issued three updates to fix flaws in older, unsupported versions of Windows. It's an unusual move that follows the discovery that both the National Security Agency (NSA) and outside hackers are exploiting the flaws , similar to the one ... that allowed the WannaCry Ransomware worm to spread just a few weeks ago. The updates cover both Windows and Windows Server editions going right back to XP . They'll be issued through the usual automated updates, which means people on Windows 8.1 and later shouldn't need to do anything. Those on earlier systems may need to manually ... (view more)
Russian-backed hackers appear to have the ability to remotely shut down power stations, researchers claim. However, the cyber weapon appears to only have been successfully deployed once so far. Two companies, Dragos Inc and ESET, have revealed their ... analysis of malware that was used in an attack on a transmission station in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, last December. The outage lasted for an hour and blacked out buildings that normally use 20 percent of the city's electricity. (Source: washingtonpost.com ) Malware Easily Customized The researchers say the malware, which they've dubbed ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Gail S. writes: " Dear Dennis, On April 26, 2017 I received an email about the new Roboform 8 release. I have been running Roboform 7 (desktop) for a few years, and have only paid a single fee to register the program. I did not ... want to upgrade to Roboform 8 because I wasn't sure if it was free or not. That said, the following week I received a notification from Roboform 7 that an update was available - I chose to download it. During the setup I was warned that the update was irreversible. Afterward, I realized that I had actually installed Roboform 8! I clicked 'Help -> ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Howard N. writes: " Dear Dennis, In regard to the WannaCry Internet worm which can infect all Windows PCs that have not yet been patched using Windows Updates - how can I make sure that my Windows Update is operating properly, and ... that I am receiving my updates automatically? I enjoy your newsletter - please keep it up and have a nice day! " My response: Generally speaking: you should be able to go to the "Windows Update" service within Windows, and it should tell you when updates were last received. If you haven't received any updates for a while - or if you have your ... (view more)
Security firm Kaspersky Lab has filed a formal complaint accusing Microsoft of acting unfairly over the way it promotes its own security products. Microsoft says it is acting to keep Windows users protected. Kaspersky previously complained to the ... Federal Anti-monpoly Service in its home country of Russia. That led to several changes to Microsoft's policy, including rewording a message that suggested users uninstall third-party security software and use the built-in Windows Defender instead. Now Kaspersky has taken the issue to the European Commission, which oversees competition issues ... (view more)
Apple is to introduce a safe driving mode to stop drivers being distracted by their phone. The mode aims to maximize safety without taking all usability away. The changes follow a lawsuit against Apple by the parents of a child killed in a car crash ... . The driver responsible for the crash had been using FaceTime video calling while driving at 65 miles per hour. The parents said Apple shared some responsibility, as it had developed technology to prevent FaceTime from working in a moving car, but chose not to use it. The new mode will debut with iOS 11, an update that will be distributed to the ... (view more)
The Supreme Court is to examine whether the government must get a search warrant before making cellphone carriers hand over a customer's location history . It's the final step in a six-year case centered on a robbery conviction. Timothy Carter was ... convicted thanks to police evidence showing location data from his phone. In total they had 12,898 records of his location covering a 127-day period. The data came from MetroPCS, which was his cellphone carrier, as well as from Sprint which shared data from when he had received roaming coverage. Data Treated Differently to Phone Itself ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Beth R. writes: " Dear Dennis, I am using Windows 7 and the USB 'Safely remove hardware' icon in my tray bar seems to have disappeared. I understand that USB drives need to be 'safely removed' or they can corrupt, which I would ... like to avoid. What can I do to fix the USB 'Safely remove hardware' so it comes back? " My response: There are a few things you can try in order to fix the USB "Safely remove hardware" icon - I'll explain a few approaches below. The fix below will work on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 10 . How to Fix: USB 'Safely remove hardware' icon missing The ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Peter M. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have a very strange issue. I recently put together a new computer build and installed Windows 10. Everything was working fine for the past month or so, then all the sudden, Windows 10 won't boot ... into the login screen - it simply freezes at the swirling dots. Surprisingly, I can remote desktop into the problematic machine from another, but the system stability doesn't last and eventually it freezes up on me. I suspect I have a hardware problem - perhaps the video card. I've managed to run 'msconfig' and specified Safe Mode with Networking, ... (view more)
A German court has upheld Facebook's refusal to let the parents of a deceased girl access her private messages. It's the latest attempt to deal with the tricky balance of dealing with social network history after people die. The sheer number of ... people on Facebook means that users dying has become a significant issue. An estimated 10,000 users die each day and more than 30 million have already passed away. Facebook deals with the issue by "memorializing" accounts. Once it has seen credible evidence that a person has died, it can put the account into a special mode in which ... (view more)
A Swiss man has been fined for libel after clicking the Facebook "like" button. The court ruled that doing so exposed a post to more users and thus counted as a publication in itself. Several other people had already been found responsible for libel ... in the same case, but they had all written something in their own words rather than simply clicking "like". The unnamed defendant was fined $4,000 Swiss francs, equivalent to US $4,120. He has the right to appeal but his lawyers says the cost of doing so will likely mean he doesn't. Court: 'Like' Makes Content Your ... (view more)
Tens of millions of Android devices may have been infected by rogue apps that found a way past Google's security checks. The 'Judy' malware came through apps in the official Google Play store. Google makes a big deal about its Play Store being a ... safe place to get apps. If an app is obtained from another source other that the Play Store, users must specifically confirm any associated risk during app installation. That makes it particularly embarrassing for Google, considering that the Judy malware was able to slip through its security checks. The malware in question has been dubbed ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Sam R. writes: " Dear Dennis, I am running Windows 10 and I have installed RDP Wrapper (per your previous article). This allows more than one person to use the same Windows computer via remote desktop - this is very convenient if ... you have a 'server' computer and want to use it for multiple purposes. I have a question: I would like to be able to hide the remote desktop user accounts I want to use on the server from being displayed on the Windows 10 login screen. Do you know how I can do this? " My response: It is possible to hide user accounts from the Windows 7, 8 and 10 ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Sam T. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently upgraded my motherboard and CPU to the Intel Core i7 7700k processor which is very fast! I loaded Windows 7 onto the machine and everything was working great - that is, until I went to ... check for Windows Updates and I received the error: ' Unsupported Hardware / Your PC uses a processor that is designed for the latest version of Windows. Because the processor is not supported together with the Windows version that you are currently using, your system will miss important security updates.' Is there any way to prevent this 'unsupported ... (view more)
Two biometric security measures have come into question after reporters and researchers claimed to have overcome them. A phone's iris recognition and a bank's voice log-in both appear to be less than perfectly secure. The Samsung Galaxy S8 - ... arguably the most high-profile and hyped phone currently running the Android system - includes an option to unlock the phone by simply looking at the camera. In a similar way to fingerprint recognition, it works on the idea that the patterns in the eye's iris are unique. Samsung described these patterns as "virtually impossible to ... (view more)
Security researchers say its highly likely hackers linked to North Korea were responsible for the recent widespread WannaCry ransomware attack . The same group, dubbed Lazarus, was previously blamed for two other high profile online attacks. ... According to security firm Symantec, the WannaCry attacks bore five distinct hallmarks of previous attacks thought to be the work of the Lazarus group. This includes shared code such as that used to spread the malware from machine to machine. Other common factors include the same IP address being used to issue commands to infected machines, and similar ... (view more)
A newspaper has published details of Facebook's secret rules about what is and isn't allowed on the site. It shows the extreme difficulty of balancing free speech with privacy and responsibility issues, as well as the sheer scale of moderating ... posts. While Facebook publishes general guidelines about content it considers inappropriate, it doesn't reveal the precise criteria its staff use when removing content. The Guardian newspaper says it has seen more than 100 documents that are used by Facebook moderators when training and when doing their work. (Source: theguardian.com ) Violent language ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Steve P. writes: " Dear Dennis, The company I work for is renting a dedicated Linux web server, which runs CentOS 6.5 and PHPList to manage their mailing list. Recently we were faced with a power outage on the server which then ... caused corruption in the PHPList database. When I look at mysqld.log I see a lot of error messages that 'mysqld: Table './phplist/phplist_usermessage' is marked as crashed and should be repaired'. I checked the database drive for errors using 'e2fsck -n /dev/sdb1' and am getting an error message that '/dev/sdb1: ********** WARNING: Filesystem still ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Vema H. writes: " Dear Dennis I just upgraded to Windows 10 and one thing that really bothers me is the taskbar thumbnail previews. For example, if I place my mouse over top of a task on the taskbar, a preview will show up. The ... problem is that most of the time I don't mean to do this, so part of the screen is being taken away by some task preview that I don't care about. Is there any way to disable the taskbar thumbnail previews? It's driving me nuts! " My response: I completely agree with you - I have never had any use for this feature which I believe started some time ... (view more)
A Texas man is suing a woman he dated for text messaging while the pair were watching Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. Brandon Vezmar filed in small claims court seeking $17.31, the cost of his ticket for a 3D showing. According to the filing, ... reported in the Austin American-Statesman, the pair were on a first date after meeting online. Vezmar claims the woman "activated her phone at least 10-20 times in 15 minutes to read and send text messages." (Source: newsweek.com ) Texter Labeled Threat to Society He argues that this violated the theater's policy and spoiled the experience ... (view more)
A computer processor manufacturer is working on chips to implant into human brains. It could dramatically improve life for people with spinal or brain injuries, but is years from becoming a reality. The project is a partnership between the ... University of Washington's Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering and ARM, a company which dominates the market for processors in mobile devices. It will build on existing technologies which can read signals in the brain and then wirelessly transmit them to nerve stimulators, allowing people to control their hands and arms despite suffering from ... (view more)
Beginning Friday, May 12, 2017, reports surfaced of a new Internet worm capable of infecting Windows machines instantaneously. The worm has been dubbed "WCRY" or "WannaCry" because of its malicious intent to install ransomware on the target machine. ... The Internet worm was made possible because of a leaked NSA (national security agency) document which essentially explained how to carry out the exploit. In this case, the malicious software locks computers such that their files are encrypted and cannot be accessed unless the victim pays a ransom (and the culprits then stand by ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Samir R. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently did a clean install of Windows 10 on my machine and now my numlock on the keyboard keeps shutting off during bootup, even though I have numlock enabled in the computer's BIOS. When I was ... running Windows 8 (which I later upgraded to Windows 10), I did a registry hack to keep the numlock enabled after Windows is loaded. Can you help? " My response: I've had this issue before. I had to do a bit of digging and testing to make sure the registry hack you're referring to is compatible with Windows 10, but I managed to find the answer. I' ... (view more)
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I can help! Send me a message on the bottom left of the screen (using the Zopim Chat button), or click my picture to read more about how I can fix your computer over the Internet. Optionally you can read all about my credentials, here.
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