Windows 10 Creators Update gains a secret new System Reset option
Over time, Windows can become sluggish, and beset with problems. A good system clean might be enough to keep you going a while longer, but not always. Worse, if you get hit with malware -- ransomware in particular -- or encounter major hardware problems, your only option might be to reinstall Windows.
Windows 10 offers users two choices here -- go into Settings > Update & recovery > Recovery. Click the Get started button under Reset this PC and you’ll have the option to keep your files (removes apps and settings only) or remove everything (a total fresh start). However, in the Creators Update there’s going to be a new option.
Businesses believe IoT can drive customer engagement
Every fifth business is planning on adopting the Internet of things (IoT) to help address customer demand, and improve engagement. This is according to a new report by analytics firm SAS.
These companies are mostly focused on improving front-end processes and efficiency. Only after tackling these issues will they focus on internal processes.
Facebook reveals what it is doing to tackle fake news
The issue of fake news has been in the headlines a lot recently, and it is Facebook that has borne the brunt of criticism. The social network is in the throes of revamping news feeds in a bid to help stamp out the problem. But Facebook is aware that fake news is not going to be eliminated overnight, and so is focusing on "the worst of the worst".
Today, the company sheds a little light on the work it has undertaken, and what is still being done to help stem the flow of fakery. The initial targets are "the clear hoaxes spread by spammers for their own gain", but this is just the beginning.
No more Windows 10 Insider Preview builds until next year, but there is some good news
Microsoft has been rolling out new Insider Preview builds of Windows 10 on a weekly basis, with just one or two exceptions.
A new build was anticipated for this week, but the software giant isn’t happy with the choice of options, and didn’t want to risk pushing out an unstable release this side of Christmas.
Chromebook's future is bleak
A few days ago, one of my Google+ followers, Steve Kluver, commented on an August 2014 share: "I am shopping for some more Chromebooks this Holiday Season, and found this post via G+ hashtag #chromebook search. How current is your ebook now?" He refers to Chromebook Reviews, which is available from Amazon for sale or for free reading with Kindle Unlimited. I apologized that the tome, published more than two years ago, is "way out of date". If I'm not going to revise, I really should remove the title.
I offered to give him buying advice, which got me to thinking about Chromebook as a concept and computing edifice. While a big fan, and owner of both generations of Google-made Chromebook Pixel, my primary laptop was a MacBook Pro for most of 2016. Measure of commitment: I bought the new 15.4-inch Touch Bar model just a few weeks ago. I've moved on, and got to thinking about why in crafting my response.
What to do when your Mac displays a blank screen and the cursor after a macOS update
In the three years of using my MacBook Air, I have never had any major problems with it. It was totally reliable, even after I accidentally spilled coffee on it. However, updates in the macOS Sierra 10.12 and macOS High Sierra 10.13 families ruined its streak, leaving me with a blank screen that only displayed the cursor.
I initially blamed the update for this, but after I saw no similar reports from other users I started doing some digging. As it turns out, this problem predates Sierra and High Sierra by a couple of years. Apple has not addressed it yet, but, don't panic: it is pretty easy to fix it yourself.
Facebook Messenger gains a powerful new camera with art and 3D effects
Facebook Messenger doesn’t just let you chat with friends, you can also use it to play games.
Today, the chat app introduces a faster, and easier to use camera that will let you spice up your conversations, and capture and share moments as they happen. There’s more to it than just that, though.
News we aren't supposed to know
I’m writing this post on Wednesday evening here in California. Normally I wouldn’t point that out but in this case I want to put a kind of timestamp on my writing because at this moment we’re at the end of the second day of a concerted attack by the UAE Electronic Army on various DNS providers in North America. If you follow this stuff and bother to check, say, Google News right now for "UAE Electronic Army", your search will probably generate some Facebook entries but no news at all because -- two days into it -- this attack has gone unnoticed by the world at large. My last column was about fake news. This one is about real news you never hear about.
We have a great example of such news this week in the Yahoo one billion account hack. Sure, it’s all over the web but it happened in 2013. Are we really supposed to believe that one billion user records were stolen from Yahoo and it took three years for somebody to notice??? The story is that law enforcement officials came across the stolen data, or some of it, and took it to Yahoo for verification. Maybe, but having written these stories for 30 years I think it is much more likely that somebody already knew about the breach and simply chose not to say when it happened. This is not to say that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer knew or didn’t know about the breach, just that shit happens and often isn’t reported if jobs are perceived as being on the line.
IT leaders look to the cloud for backup and recovery
A new survey of over 250 senior IT executives reveals that 89 percent of IT leaders are planning on implementing more cloud based disaster recovery in the next year.
The study by disaster recovery and business continuity specialist Quorum also reveals that 80 percent of IT leaders say it takes more than an hour for them to recover from a server failure, with more than 25 percent saying they need more than two hours.
There's no off switch for IT managers during the holidays
The lack of skilled workers in the IT industry is putting pressure on IT professionals in more ways than we'd previously imagined. A new report, recently released by Unified Security Management and AlienVault says IT managers that will take days off during the holidays will actually spend them worrying about work.
The "good news" is -- less than a third (29 percent) will actually take time off during the holidays. The rest will just keep on working.
Why enterprises are struggling with WAN management
Companies are struggling to manage and secure their WANs, especially at branch locations, according to the findings of a new report.
The study, conducted by Dimensional Research for Versa Networks, finds almost all participants state that maintaining security policies, network devices and complexity due to cloud and mobile applications are the most difficult aspects of managing the WAN.
Evernote clarifies its 'poorly communicated' angst-rousing privacy policy update
There has been great concern over the last day or so following an update to Evernote's Privacy Policy. The update said that Evernote employees might be able to access unencrypted notes as part of a human review of machine learning technologies. Users were unsurprisingly rather concerned, and there was much talk online of a mass exodus to OneNote and other alternatives.
In the face of a user backlash, Evernote CEO Chris O'Neill has issued an apology for any "angst we may have caused" and stressed that "privacy has always been at the heart" of the company. He concedes that the changes to the Privacy Policy were "communicated poorly"... but then managed to half-shift the blame for upset back onto users by saying the change "resulted in some understandable confusion".
Vectr is a polished vector editor you can use almost anywhere
Vectr is a well-designed cross-platform vector editor with a strong focus on sharing and collaboration. The simple interface may look basic, at least initially: a few basic shapes, pen, pencil and text tools and not much else.
A bonus "More Shapes" panel is just one click away, though, giving you arrows, stars, lightning bolts, image and calendar icons, and assorted other clipart-type designs.
Vivaldi ends the year with a series of tab-related improvements
Hot on the heels of Opera’s final release of the year comes Vivaldi 1.6, a new version of the world’s most flexible web browser from Opera co-founder Jon S von Tetzhner.
Version 1.6 -- available for Mac, Windows and Linux -- debuts three new features, all revolving around the browser’s flexible tab management system. The highlight of these is the new tab notification feature.
44 percent of organizations don't meet deadlines for reporting data breaches
While 75 percent of organizations set fixed time limits for investigating potential security incidents, many of them fail to meet their investigating and reporting targets.
According to a study from contextual security technology company Balabit 44 percent of respondents report missing internal or external deadlines for investigating or reporting a breach in the last year, and seven percent say a missed deadline had resulted in serious consequences.
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