End of an era as pioneering BBC3 becomes an online-only station
13 years ago, BBC3 launched in the UK. Last night, the TV station broadcast over the airwaves for the last time. In a bid to slash expenditure, the youth-oriented channel that launched countless comedy careers is now only available online.
The likes of Being Human, The Mighty Boosh, Gavin and Stacey, and the like will live on, but only on the web -- which the BBC is spinning as an opportunity to be freed from the constraints of regular scheduling. The change has been known about for some time now, and there have been a number of campaigns and petitions to try to get the BBC to change its mind.
Ransomware is lucrative -- almost half of all victims pay
I recently covered a story in which security firm Imperva said Cryptowall 3.0 was the most successful ransomware of all time, earning its creators $325 million (£225.7m) so far. Now another story about ransomware emerges, and this one comes from another major security firm, Bitdefender.
In its report, the company says almost half (44 percent) of all ransomware victims have paid to get their data back, with 39 percent saying they expect to be attacked again, in the future.
You can now watch Hulu on your Windows 10 device
You could always watch Hulu on your PC or Mac, or for that matter, on multiple other mobile devices. Now the streaming service wants to integrate much deeper, using Windows 10 as its launchpad.
This doesn't mean it will cease to be accessible in all of the previous ways, it just adds one more option for customers of the service.
iPad Pro's fatal flaw? [fifth in a series]
Editor's Note: Apple contacted me on February 16th, suggesting the short battery life is abnormal. We discussed tech support option but I chose instead to replace the whole kit—iPad Pro and keyboard—to see if the short battery life with Smart Keyboard is a one-off hardware problem.
The follow-up post, on February 24th, countermands the negative conclusions stated in this review. Battery life from the second kit is hugely satisfying and plenty long enough for the typical workday. The user experiences aren't comparable. I debated about deleting the original story but that feels like hiding something. Hopefully this addendum sufficiently retracts the original conclusion.
What you need to know about biometric security
Generally speaking, biometrics refers to the measure or statistical analysis of a person’s physical or biological characteristics. However, increasingly the term is being defined more narrowly, at least in a business context, to refer to biometric security.
Although passwords can be guessed and network vulnerabilities exploited, overcoming biometric security protocols is significantly more challenging. For example, how would a cybercriminal go about duplicating a fingerprint or an iris scan? As a result, the unique aspects that make up our physical features are increasingly being utilized for authentication methods by businesses all over the world.
How to find and buy the ever-elusive $5 Raspberry Pi Zero
The Raspberry Pi Zero is incredibly hard to get hold off. Hardly surprising, when you consider its $5 asking price.
Retailers such as The Pi Hut do replenish their stocks on a semi-regular basis, but even so you’ll have to act fast as even with a one-per-customer restriction in place, they sell out again almost immediately. Fortunately, there is a clever way to find out where the Pi Zero is in stock.
IT security experts are confident they can spot a data breach
A new study by security firm Tripwire says IT security experts are very confident they can detect a breach, and that they can detect it quite fast. For automated tools, they do not share the same levels of confidence.
The survey questioned 763 IT professionals in various verticals, including retail, energy, financial services and public sector organizations in the US, about the seven key security controls that need to be in place in order to quickly spot an ongoing hack attack.
Five tools for recovering corrupted Word documents
You’ve been working on it forever, and had almost finished, but… Disaster. That all-important Word document no longer opens.
If you’re using some other viewer, try reopening it in Word. It may offer to repair the file, and this can fix a lot of problems.
Should you use Amazon S3?
In any discussion about cloud computing, it is becoming harder and harder to ignore Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), the massively scalable, cost-effective cloud storage solution developed specifically to house the huge influx of data created by organizations worldwide.
Amazon S3 commands twice the market share of all its closest competitors combined and is likely to be the storage platform of choice for on-premise hybrid or private cloud deployments for some time to come.
The tech industry's greater responsibility
Today, Internet censorship is becoming a growing concern among dozens of developing countries. In the mid-1990s, China began blocking foreign websites and saw successful results, proving to other authoritarian countries wishing to control their constituents that these types of regulations are well worth the effort. Since then, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Azerbaijan, Syria and others have followed China’s footsteps and began implementing regulations censoring Internet activity.
This means that the people living within these countries are unable to access information from the outside world. Thus, they are fed filtered information that praises their leadership and government, and because they are not exposed to varying and contrary opinions, are susceptible to believing and accepting their government’s authoritarian policies. In western countries we often take our first amendment right for granted. We are allowed to say, write, and scream whatever we’d like about our government without the risk of being jailed or beaten. We’re allowed, even encouraged, to question policies and think differently. If only this were the case worldwide.
'The room had started to smell. Really quite bad': Stephen Fry exits Twitter once again
For a man so readily associated with words -- and certainly for a wordsmith so enamored with technology -- Twitter seems like something of a natural home for Stephen Fry. Over the years he has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers, but last night he closed his account. Fry's latest exit from Twitter (there have been several over the last few years for numerous reasons) came about because of the backlash he received for making a joke at an award ceremony.
Hosting the BAFTAs (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) on Sunday, he referred to costume designer and award winner (and, indeed, friend) Jenny Beavan as being "dressed as a bag lady". 'Offended' Twitter users attacked Fry in their droves, and he fought a valiant battle, before eventually giving up and terminating his account. It comes just days after Twitter set up a new Trust & Safety Council.
LG lets you choose a flagship feature with X series smartphones
Two of the features that consumers get by opting for a flagship smartphone, as opposed to a mid-range or low-end device, are a nicer display and a better camera. Typically, if you are looking for a lesser (and less expensive) handset you will have to settle for less. Manufacturers have to sell those premium devices somehow, right?
But, with its new X series smartphones, LG is challenging the status quo by giving prospective buyers the option to get a flagship-worthy camera or display. It is an interesting strategy, but how is it implemented?
Wink home automation hub gets water sensors with leakSMART
Water damage is a big deal, in fact, it's one of the most reported claims for home insurance, behind only fire and lightning, and wind and hail. Now with home automation products increasingly gaining market share and mainstream acceptability, that problem can be reigned in to a certain extent. No, it won't prevent extremes like Hurricane Katrina, but if a pipe springs a leak then you can get a jump on it.
Wink, makers of a home automation hub that is compatible with many third-party devices, is getting its first water sensors thanks to leakSMART, one of the more prominent manufacturers in the business.
New report reveals in-game purchase habits
Only around two percent of free to play game users spend money making in-game purchases. A new report into buying habits from gaming analytics specialist SOOMLA reveals the -- perhaps unsurprising -- information that those who made an in-app purchase in one game are six times more likely to do so in another.
Yaniv Nizan, Co-founder and CEO of SOOMLA, says, "Attracting payers to your game is like finding a needle in a haystack, but when crossing in-app purchase data from thousands of other games, our payer prediction technology reveals which user segments will eventually convert and what they're likely to buy".
Rampant waste: the hidden cost of enterprise software
A new Flexera Software report reveals that most organizations are unnecessarily wasting significant portions of their enterprise software budget.
Consider these statistics: 75 percent of enterprises are out of compliance with regards to at least some percentage of their software, 44 percent of enterprises (compared to only 25 percent the prior year) paid $100,000 or more in true-up costs to their software vendors as a result of noncompliant software use; and for 20 percent (up from only 9 percent in the prior year) the software audit true-up costs were $1,000,000 or more! In addition, 93 percent of organisations report spending money on at least some software that is under-used -- i.e. shelfware.
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