World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee wants to rethink the way people control online data. He says his "pods" proposal would bring the online world closer to his original vision of the web. Berners-Lee has launched an open-source project and ... associated business to try to counter what he sees as the web's biggest problem: major companies collecting user data and exploiting it as a core part of their business. His new idea is "pods", or personal online data store. This would involve users having a space on a server that acted like a digital safe and contained a range of data. This could be ... (view more)
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Samsung wants to turn old phones into home gadgets. Its evolving its Galaxy Upcycling program to make it easier to convert handsets. The program launched in 2017 as a largely internal project where Samsung staff tried to find ways to use old phones ... for new purposes. This often involved taking advantage of the various sensors in a phone even if its specifications were now too low to run the latest operating systems and apps. Baby Monitor Among New Use Ideas At that point the project appeared to be more about creativity than solving significant problems. For example, one design used a motion ... (view more)
As many as 100 million PCs could still be running Windows 7 according to a newly-published estimate. That's despite Microsoft withdrawing support for the 11-year old system last year. The estimate comes from Ed Bott of ZDNet and is based on data ... published at analytics.usa.gov. That brings together site visitor data from most US government agencies. It means the figures will primarily represent visitors from the United States. (Source: zdnet.com ) Bott notes that across the agencies, 8.5 per cent of visitors in the past 90 days were running Windows 7 and 3.4 percent running Windows 8 or 8.1. ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Paulette J. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently switched from Firefox to Chrome based on your advice in a previous article. I am used to Chrome's interface, however, one thing that really irks me is the constant Chrome notification ... asking me to ' Sign into somesite.com with Google ' near the top right of the screen. It goes on to read 'To create your account, Google will share your name, email address and profile picture with somesite.com'. I can reproduce this notification appearing by visiting Reddit.com. Frankly speaking, I don't want to share my information with every ... (view more)
Google Chrome will now look for a secure version of a website first by default. It could mean a tiny delay accessing some sites, but should nudge more sites to increase security. The change to the browser involves how it handles cases where users ... simply type in the domain (such as infopackets.com) rather than the full website address (such as http://www.infopackets.com or https://www.infopackets.com ). The browser being able to convert one to the other makes it much quicker to type website addresses and allows browsers to use a single space for users to input both website addresses and search ... (view more)
Ticketmaster will pay a $10 million fine for computer fraud and hacking. The company admitted responsibility for hacking an unnamed rival with the help of an employee who had previously worked there. The $10 million figure is calculated as the ... maximum $500,000 penalty for each of 20 cases of breaking the law through "unauthorized access of a protected computer." The fine is through a "deferred prosecution agreement" in which prosecutors hold off pursuing the case through the courts. As part of the agreement, Ticketmaster admitted breaking the law and must cooperate with prosecutors ... (view more)
Chrome and Edge are to get a fix for a problem with saving bookmarks and other files. The glitch is the result of an incompatibility with some anti-virus software. The problem involved security tools which were set to scan files on a computer in ... real-time. Often this involves "freezing" a file immediately as it's written to disk so the security software can check for threats and neutralize them before they have an effect. Unfortunately the way this works means it didn't always go smoothly with Chrome, resulting in the browser "freezing", then simply giving up on saving the file. This caused ... (view more)
A free Microsoft offer to upgrade to Windows 10 was supposed to expire in 2016. However, it appears the upgrade still works, with claims the deadline was simply a marketing ploy. With Windows 10 released in the middle of 2015, the free upgrade offer ... was advertised as running for a year. It was available for Windows 7 and 8.1 users, with most getting an upgrade to the Windows 10 Home edition. Those running Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 8.1 Pro could upgrade to the Windows 10 Pro edition. As most people either upgraded in the first year or decided to give Windows 10 a ... (view more)
A consumer group has warned a time limit on updates could mean phones become a security risk before they wear out. The group wants laws to make it clearer how long devices will receive support. The warning comes from Which?, a British organization ... similar to Consumer Reports in the US. It surveyed 15,000 people about how long they kept their phones. The questions covered how long people had been using their current phone, whether it was newly manufactured when they got it, and how long they had used their previous handset. The calculations only took account of handsets that were replaced ... (view more)
A dispute over Internet law has led to a Presidential veto of a major defense bill. Lawmakers will now decide whether to reject Donald Trump's demands to remove rules on how websites and services handle content posted by users. The bill in question ... authorizes US military spending for the next year. One of the quirks of the US legislative system is that bills can include measures which have little or nothing to do with the main subject of the proposed law. These measures are often the result of negotiation between politicians. In this case, Trump wants the defense bill to include a repeal of ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Michael O. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have a strange problem. Every few reboots, my laptop screen refresh rate will automatically change to 59Hz, even though I've repeatedly set it to 60Hz. On my particular laptop model (Lenovo ... T460), whenever the screen refresh rate is at 59Hz and the screen brightness is relatively low, the screen starts to flicker. The screen flickering is hard to see unless it's on a white background, but it is definitely noticeable and enough to make me want to pull my hair out. When I change it back to 60Hz, the screen flickering stops. The problem is ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Gilles J. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently upgraded to Windows 10 and started using the new Edge browser. As you mentioned in a previous article, the new Edge is essentially Google's Chrome browser, but the interface is a little ... different. All is good, however one thing I don't like about Edge is that the new tab page won't let me redirect to Google. Instead, it displays a bunch of pages I've visited. I'm not interested in seeing that. Any idea how to change Edge new tab page to Google ? I also want to change Edge default search engine to Google . Much thanks!" My response ... (view more)
If you keep seeing a pair of bottomless pyjamas on the Internet, don't worry. It appears to be a glitch that's highlighted the quirks of online advertising. Many users have reported seeing the ad multiple times a day, in some cases embedded in ... almost every page they read. It's particularly noticeable as it's a somewhat unusual product, namely a one-piece tartan outfit with a flap on the backside, presumably to allow bathroom breaks without undressing. The ads are automatically placed by Google and appear to be placed by a Chinese tech company which has the same registered address as a "fast ... (view more)
A Windows 10 update causing problems is no surprise, but the two latest glitches will be familiar to long-time users. Both can lead to the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death," indicating a significant problem. The first problem affects users who run the ... built-in CHKDSK utility, which scans hard drives to look for errors. It appears that running "chkdsk /f" via command line (after the new KB4592438 patch has been applied) can cause the file system to corrupt, which then might result in Windows not able to boot at all. Microsoft says a fix has already been rolled out through an automatic ... (view more)
Broadband providers can no longer charge customers a rental fee for routers if they use their own equipment. It's banned by the Television Viewer Protection Act which has taken effect after a six month delay. The law was passed in December 2019 and ... originally scheduled to take effect in June. However, Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted a six month delay, stating that cable and broadband providers needed more time because of the coronavirus pandemic. $10 Monthly Fee Dropped Many Internet providers charge rental fees for modems or routers, but allow users to ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Leona L. writes: " Dear Dennis, We really appreciate you mentioning our software to your readers! We would like to extend another holiday offer - this time it is lifetime licenses of our most popular software, including: WinX DVD ... Ripper, WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe, WinX DVD Copy Pro, and WinX MediaTrans. Would you please pass on the word to your audience. Thank you and Happy Holidays! " My response: Thanks again, Leona. I'll discuss the details below. Limited Time Offer for Infopackets Readers - Up to 62% Off Digiarty software has created a special page for readers - ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Jill P. writes: " Dear Dennis, I use Microsoft Remote Desktop (RDP) to connect to virtual machines over my network. Most machines use Chrome as the browser. The problem I'm having is that certain actions in Chrome are unreadable ... when using remote desktop. For example: if I try to install a Chrome addon, a dialogue window is supposed to appear confirming that I want to enable the extension. Over RDP, this dialogue box and the text it contains is white and unreadable. There is no way to click on 'OK' to enable the extension. Another time I've seen this happen is if I'm trying ... (view more)
Google has bought a company that helps people turn old laptops into Chromebooks. It will turn "CloudReady" into an official way to use the Chrome operating system. Chromebooks run on ChromeOS, a system that's based largely around using the Chrome ... browser to access online tools and applications. It's aimed particularly at people who mainly use a computer for web browsing, light document editing, and watching streaming video. One of the big advantages is that much of the processing is done remotely rather than on the computer itself. That means a Chromebook can run on cheaper low-spec ... (view more)
Tech giants such as Facebook could face eye watering fines or even be blocked if they don't do enough to remove "illegal content." The proposals in the United Kingdom highlight the difficultly every government faces in balancing online freedoms and ... responsibilities. The measures, set out in the Online Harms Bill, would affect websites and services around the world. If it becomes law, it raises the question of whether the UK is a significant enough market that websites change their practices worldwide to avoid headaches, similar to the way many US business decided it was better to ... (view more)
Multiple Google services were unavailable for almost an hour on Monday. It appears the problem was with the authentication system for user accounts rather than Google's servers themselves being unavailable. The Google search engine was unaffected, ... but that was about the only good news for the company. Affected services included Gmail, Calendar and office tools such as Google Docs. (Source: google.com ) The effect depended on the importance of user accounts. Some tools such as Calendar were completely inaccessible as they are entirely based around an individual account. Gmail Glitches Other ... (view more)
What's one of the best one-stop video editing software available for both PC and Mac? Answer: Digiarty's VideoProc! From the makers of WinX DVD Ripper and WinX Video Convert comes VideoProc: a multi-award winning software program that allows you to ... edit, convert, resize and adjust large/4K videos, DVDs, and audio at fully accelerated speed. VideoProc: Features Overview A Simple to use, Powerful Professional Video Editor VideoProc allows you to quickly edit and share videos for social media sharing. Easily cut, merge, rotate, crop, add effects and touch up video in no time flat! Produce studio ... (view more)
Google is adding specially crafted panels at the top of search results related to COVID vaccines. The panel will give information about specific vaccines available in the searcher's country along with details of rollout programs. The aim is to use ... official and credible sources and counter less reliable information including misleading or unfounded claims about the vaccines. Using the panels could overcome the risk that pages with misleading information either game Google's system or "naturally" find their way to the top of the search results list for a particular user. The first panels are ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Steve G. writes: " Dear Dennis, I run a small business and we use Virtualbox to control our virtual server (Windows Server 2016). We had a hardware problem with the hypervisor machine, forcing us to copy the virtual server onto ... another machine temporarily for a week. Now that we're done fixing the hypervisor machine, it's time to move the virtual server back over. The problem is that I get an error message from Virtualbox stating that " Cannot start virtual machine because the following physical network interfaces were not found ... (etc)" It then gives the option to " ... (view more)
Microsoft is rethinking the way it releases new features through Windows Update. New "Feature Experience Packs" will come out separately to the two major updates each year. The idea is to use the packs to release features and updates for tools that ... fall into a gray area where they aren't an integral part of the Windows 10 operating system itself, but aren't really applications in their own right. The packs will be released as and when they are ready. That opens up the possibility that these "unscheduled" updates could also be used for improvements and fixes to Windows itself without having to ... (view more)
The Director of National Intelligence has confirmed the government collected visitor information from a US webpage using powers stemming from the PATRIOT Act. It's reawakened political debate about whether search and browsing history should be part ... of these powers. The argument centers on Section 215 of the act which gives the government the authority to collect "tangible things (including books, records, papers, documents, and other items) for an investigation to obtain foreign intelligence information." In the past that's been interpreted to include electronic records such as phone logs. ... (view more)
If you lost all of the data on your PC, would you be devastated? According to a recent report, cyber crimes are booming thanks to the covid-19 pandemic . That's because cyber criminals are counting on the fact that most users are working remotely at ... home and/or retired, increasing their chances in converting a "sale". The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said that in 2019, cyber criminals raked in $3.5 billion targeting individuals and businesses in the USA. Of that, $8.9 million was attributed to ransomware attacks, while scammers posing as fake technical support stole $54 ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Harry V. writes: " Dear Dennis, My Windows 10 PC recently updated, but got stuck in an automatic repair boot loop. Now it won't boot into Windows. To fix this, I created Windows Install media on a USB thumb drive using another PC, ... then I booted off the thumb drive on the broken PC and reinstalled Windows. I am now trying to partition the C drive into two partitions (C and D), with C containing only the operating system and D drive containing my user data. When I use disk management (diskmgmt.msc) to shrink the C drive, it tells me there isn't enough free space to shrink the ... (view more)
Microsoft is rewriting a "Productivity Score" feature that businesses could have used to monitor staff performance. The data will now be only available in aggregated form. The feature is designed for IT and network administrators in businesses that ... use Microsoft 365, the subscription version of what was once known as the Office suite. The idea is that the administrators can get a better idea of which features are being used most, which would show where IT administrators might need to focus support. Individual User Data Revealed The problem was that the feature showed these figures on an ... (view more)
Apple has been fined the equivalent of $12 million USD over "aggressive and misleading" claims about the water resistance of iPhones. An Italian regulator said its advertising wasn't clear enough and that a disclaimer tricked clients. The fine of 10 ... million Euros came from Italy's Competition and Market Authority which regulates consumer issues. It took issue with two ways Apple promotes and disclaims the water resistance. (Source: reuters.com ) The first issue was with the way Apple marketed eight iPhone models as being water resistant up to a certain depth (between one and four meters ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Bill G. writes: " Dear Dennis, My question is about how to compact a VHD file (virtual disk). I recently virtualized an old Windows 2016 server and am using Virtualbox as my hypervisor. In the process of updating and configuring ... the virtual machine, I created 3 snapshots (live backups) in case I needed to undo changes. The .VHD is the Server 2016 C Drive and was originally only 60GB - however, I noticed that the 'snapshots' folder has grown to a massive 168GB! I went into virtual machine's snapshot window and deleted all the snapshots, hoping to free up space on the disk ... (view more)
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