John Lister

The Republic of Sierra Leone in West Africa isn't exactly a top tourist destination spot. Nonetheless, even if visiting the place might be dangerous, Sierra Leone has been rated the safest place in the world to use the Internet. The figures come ... from security firm Antivirus Grisoft (AVG), which analyzed data from 127 million customers in 144 countries. The statistics are based around the number of times the AVG software detected a security threat, compared with the number of times users went online. The figures reported are the chances that an average user's computer will be attacked on any ... (view more)

Microsoft has announced it plans to make the PC and Mac editions of Office 2011 as compatible as possible. According to Kurt Schmucker, one of the leading figures in Microsoft's Mac division, the goal is simple: you should be able to print out the ... same document in Office on both systems, put one sheet on top of the other, hold them up to the light, and not spot even the slightest difference. Mac Excel Gets Sparkling Makeover One example of this is a new Excel feature named Sparklines. This is designed to allow users to automatically produce small graphs and charts that appear beside the ... (view more)

Microsoft has warned users of its Windows Home Server technology that they could have problems using newer hard drives. It follows earlier warnings that the drives are also problematic for Windows XP users. Drives Use Advanced Format Technology The ... situation involves sectors, the individual chunks into which a hard drive is divided. The standard size of each sector has traditionally been 512 bytes, but some drives are already using a 4 kilobyte sector, and this will become the standard size for all drives after 2011. The new drives are referred to as having "Advanced Format" ... (view more)

Microsoft says its Windows Phone 7 developer tools have already been downloaded more than 300,000 times. The firm hopes this means there will be plenty of apps available to help the new system compete with rivals such as the iPhone and Android. ... Microsoft confirmed that the final edition of the developer toolkit will be released on September 16th, 2010: a package that should contain everything developers need to make sure their apps work when the phones go on sale. (Source: arstechnica.com ) Thus, we now have the clearest indication yet that phones carrying the new operating system should be ... (view more)

A security expert says he's seen a record response to the recently-named "Windows DLL bug," which can allow hackers to remotely control infected PCs. Mati Aharoni predicts the number of affected applications will soon be in the hundreds. This week, ... Microsoft published a temporary workaround that prevents the exploit from occurring. It's working with third-party application developers to find individual and permanent solutions, but is still extremely wary of issuing a fix to Windows itself. The issue involves a system in Windows known as dynamic link libraries (DLL), a shortcut for ... (view more)

Microsoft has stepped up its marketing by explicitly targeting rival Apple and the Mac. The Redmond-based firm has produced a six-point checklist designed to show the "superiority" of PCs, albeit they're six carefully selected points. In many ... commercial markets the top-selling brand does not acknowledge rivals, while those smaller brands often make direct comparisons to their bigger competitors. Historically, that has been the case with personal computing: while Microsoft has simply touted its own strengths, Apple has run the ongoing "I'm a PC, I'm a Mac" campaign. Microsoft Follows Up on ... (view more)

Facebook users have been urged not to click on a link claiming to offer a "dislike" button. The link scams users to get access to their Facebook account. Dislike Link is Not Endorsed by Facebook There is an official "Like" function on Facebook. It ... allows users to give a virtual 'thumbs up' to comments or news posted by their friends. The function has now been extended so that third-party websites can publish a "Like button" on their sites: when visitors click the button, their Facebook account automatically posts a link to the relevant page. A common use is to allow readers to share a link to ... (view more)

The current address system for computers connected to the Internet (TCP/IP version 4) is entering its twilight. And while the process of introducing a successor is ready to go, critics suggest it is a complex and challenging undertaking. The ... addresses in question are not website addresses: those have many more unused possibilities, albeit many of them hardly memorable or corresponding to common words. Instead, the problem is with Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, which correspond to an individual machine connected to the Internet, whether that be a standard computer or a server hosting a ... (view more)

Multinational video game producer Electronic Arts (EA) has defended its decision to allow game players to use Taliban characters in its new video game, stating that such role-playing is an inevitable part of modern multiplayer gaming. The game is ... Medal of Honor, a name most will recognize given that EA has made several of these first-person-shooters in the last decade. All previous editions have been based around Second World War campaigns, with the player controlling a United States soldier aiming to defeat Axis characters. The new edition is set in modern-day Afghanistan. There had been ... (view more)

Microsoft has confirmed it's investigating yet another large-scale bug affecting all supported editions of Windows. At the same time, it's ruled out issuing an emergency patch for the kernel-related issue that emerged just last week. On Tuesday, ... Microsoft issued a record-breaking monthly Patch Tuesday update containing a record 14 security bulletins. When that was announced, it looked as if it would be network administrators who'd be in for a particularly busy time, while Microsoft security staff could at least have some breathing room. That turned out not to be the case. Bogus Color Data ... (view more)