Articles

A bug in the way Windows handles fonts could leave computers open to a "drive-by attack" - as long as the machine is connected to the Internet. It's among the vulnerabilities fixed in the latest Windows security update. All versions of Windows are ... affected . The bug involves the way Windows deals with embedded fonts. An embedded font means that the document includes the code for the font itself. It's generally used where a document or web page designer wants users to see a specific font that's not widely installed on computers. The bug means an embedded font could be coded in a way ... (view more)

The FBI has warned users to think carefully when buying and using "smart" televisions. The warning is based on the idea that many people have bought or will buy new televisions either as part of "Black Friday" or in time for Christmas. The warning ... from the FBI's Portland office is based partly on the prospect that people might not have set out to buy smart sets, but that most or all of the TVs on offer currently have such features. (Source: techcrunch.com ) Cameras and Microphones on Some Sets A "smart" television is simply one that has an Internet connection. Previously that's mainly been ... (view more)

Mozilla has removed security tools from Avast and AVG from the Firefox extension store. It says the tools are collecting too much personal data about users. The extensions are third-party tools for the Firefox browser that add extra functionality to ... web browsing. In this case, the advertised purposes include highlighting and blocking malware that could be downloaded, and warning users when a page may be part of a phishing attack. That's where a user is tricked into typing in personal details into what they think is a legitimate site. Mozilla acted after online posts by Wladimir Palant, who ... (view more)

Facebook is to let users automatically copy their uploaded photos and videos to Google's photo service. It's part of a "data portability" project between tech giants, but is also a demonstration of how slowly the project itself is moving. The tool ... will mean users can transfer files without needing to download them to their devices, then re-upload them to another service. In particular, Google's Photos service makes it easy to access photos on multiple devices. It also has automatic tagging so that users can quickly find all their photos of a particular location or activity, for example. It's ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Hillary K. writes: " Dear Dennis, My main PC recently upgraded to Windows 10 1909 (November 2019 edition) and now it immediately boots into a black screen . I can move the mouse around, but I can't login because I have a black ... screen. I've tried CTRL + ALT + DEL on the keyboard to bring up Task Manager per Microsoft's website, but it doesn't work. I've also tried Windows Key + P to refresh my display but it doesn't work. I can see the hard drive light blinking, meaning that there is activity and the system appears to be loading and doing things, but that's it. All I get is ... (view more)

A hard drive manufacturer has warned its solid state drives could effectively self-destruct after a little less than four years of total operation. HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise) says users need to apply a firmware fix immediately, while it's ... another reminder of the importance of backups. 20 different HPE models are affected, all in the SAS range, which are hard drives typically meant for enterprise. All are solid state drives, which have no moving parts. This makes them more expensive and much faster than traditional hard drives. (Source: hpe.com ) The problem isn't with the actual drives ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Gina V. writes: " Dear Dennis, I watch a lot of sermons from my church online, but since around October this year I keep getting 'An unanticipated problem was encountered, check back soon and try again. Error code: ... MEDIA_ERR_UNKNOWN' I don't understand what this means. I have searched Google and it seems a lot of people have the MEDIA_ERR_UNKNOWN Chrome error message when playing videos in the web browser. I also have a MEDIA_ERR_UNKNOWN Firefox error. I'm not sure what to do next. Can you please help? " My response: Generally speaking, the 'MEDIA_ERR_UNKNOWN' is a generic ... (view more)