We're all familiar with CAPTCHAs, those images you have to retype as text to prove that you're a real person and not a bot. The bad news for businesses that use CAPTCHA on their sites is that it seems they're pretty effective at deterring humans too.

New research from bot detection specialists Distil Networks suggests that CAPTCHA use is bad for business as it makes surfers more likely to abandon a page.

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What is a "programmer’s editor"? Some developers seem to think it’s essentially a regular text editor with syntax highlighting bolted on, but if you need more, you might want to take a look at the free PSPad for Windows.

The program doesn’t just open local text files, for instance. A built-in FTP client means you can edit files directly on the server. An "Open… from internet" opens any URL, and an integrated hex editor enables you to work on just about anything.

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We all know that web hosting companies receive legal requests ranging from copyright take down notices to search warrants. But how many such requests do they receive and where do they come from?

US hosting company DreamHost has released a first of its kind transparency report detailing all of the requests it's received in the last year. The three most common types are DCMA/Copyright notices, government requests -- such as those related to criminal investigations -- and requests to remove or censor content, usually related to defamation or privacy suits.

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A number of popular projects have come from crowd-funding via Kickstarter. It's a great place to find new and innovative ideas. Many things there fail to reach their goal (although it could be argued that the market for those items made the decision), while others blast past the funding goal and enter the market. Pebble watch is a great example of that success.

There is some peace of mind when donating money -- for one you will get the product. But, if it fails to hit the goal you aren't out anything. Now you'll have one more option for funding that next great product. Kickstarter is announcing it will start to accept Apple Pay.

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Many of the recent, large data breaches such as Target, Anthem, and Sony started with a sophisticated spear phishing attack: an email targeted at specific individuals within a corporation that is engineered to look legitimate and fool even tech-savvy users. The email either has a malware-laced attachment or a malicious link that when opened installs malware in order to attempt to gain system access and steal data.

Unfortunately, since stealing data is lucrative nowadays, these spear phishing attacks are often very sophisticated and hard to spot since they have been composed with considerable effort and target only a small number of individuals. The emails look legitimate so regular spam filters cannot identify them and not all anti-malware engines will always be able to detect the malware in the attachment. So what can companies do to protect themselves against spear phishing attacks?

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As enterprises expand across national and technological boundaries it can be hard to ensure that all the documents they produce reflect the brand image and follow compliance rules.

Issuing guidelines for document production is one thing but ensuring they're obeyed is another. Danish company Templafy has an answer in the form of a cloud-based template system which launches in the US today.

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Apple has finally announced the new lighter-than-Air MacBook we were all waiting for. And, as expected, it's spectacular. It's so attractive that I can't possibly imagine why my colleague Brian Fagioli would claim that Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 is better. We are living on the same planet, aren't we?

Brian is terribly wrong, of course. But I'm not surprised, because he is, after all, a Surface Pro 3 user, and has been from the get-go. So it's easy for him to miss all the things that make the new MacBook so much better. He could only come up with six reasons to make his case. I offer nine reasons -- tangible benefits -- that prove otherwise!

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If you’re a sports fan, you’re likely familiar with the term "bandwagon fan" -- we all know someone that has "jumped on the bandwagon" based on a team’s recent success. Often, these "fans" face backlash from diehard followers due to a perceived lack of prior support and limited knowledge of the team.

However, in the technology world, being a bandwagon fan can be the difference between success and failure. Think back to the introduction of the Internet -- from the beginning there were skeptics who believed it was just another fad that wouldn’t amount to much in the end. As the Internet gained momentum, it became clear that those who didn’t jump onto the bandwagon would soon be left in the dust.

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Big data by its very nature needs complex analysis and that doesn't sit well with the demands of enterprises for information to respond quickly to operational needs.

To address that Maryland-based Ryft is launching a new analytics platform aimed at speeding up the processing of big data and providing faster insights.

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Microsoft continues to update its latest gaming console on a regular basis, though the company also keeps the Xbox 360 alive as well. Now a new update rolls out to the Xbox One, bringing all sorts of features that fans have been waiting for since the box debuted in late 2013. In fact, Xbox Live's Larry Hryb, AKA Major Nelson, states "This month’s system update on Xbox One brings you some of the most-requested features by our fans".

First up is screenshots, which should make many gamers happy. Simply double-click the Xbox button on the controller to snap a shot, then press Y to save it. Or, even better, you can say "Xbox take a screenshot" and handle both tasks at once.

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The latest Lollipop incarnation may been have around for more than a month now, first arriving on Android One smartphones slated for Indonesia, but Google only yesterday made the official announcement, and revealed the much-awaited changelog. The good news doesn't end there, as the search giant also released a number of Android 5.1 factory images.

Android 5.1 Lollipop packs some pretty major changes. Among them are support for multiple SIMs, a feature that lots of Android vendors have offered for years now, and Device Protection, a feature designed to deter smartphone theft.

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According to a new report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), the US airspace system is incredibly vulnerable to hacking and a state-sponsored hacking effort could paralyze air traffic over North America. Very scary stuff. And as a licensed pilot for 45 years, I can tell you that it’s both true and not true, that the system is horribly hackable but that very vulnerability might be what we need to stimulate real airspace innovation.

Ask any American pilot how they feel about the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and you’ll get variations on the same negative theme. It’s not that pilots love-hate the FAA: there’s no love about it. Pilots tend to hate-ignore the FAA, which is generally viewed as a vindictive regulatory agency caught-up in internal politics and bullshit (that’s a technical term for bureaucratic lethargy). Nobody loves the FAA.

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At the Apple Watch event in San Francisco yesterday, Apple took the wraps off one of the most eagerly awaited wearables ever. In recent weeks, lots of rumors had crept out about the Apple Watch -- pricing, what it would be able to do, and so on -- but one thing was hotly debated: what would the battery life be like?

Yesterday we were promised that the battery would last 'all day'... but what does this actually mean? Apple has published usage scenario details that reveal owners of the device can expect to see anything from 3 to 48 hours of usage -- quite a range.

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There's a lot of talk about big data at the moment but it can sometimes seem to be a bit of an abstract concept. In fact it's something that we encounter and contribute to all the time, even if we don’t always realize it.

Social media risk specialist ZeroFox has produced an infographic showing that where social media is concerned big data is very real and very big indeed.

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Apple makes extremely good computers; Mac Mini, iMac, MacBooks, Mac Pro -- you can't go wrong. With Apple's hardware, however, you have to pay to play; it is not an inexpensive experience. You know what? That's OK. Things are worth what people are willing to pay for them, and people are buying computers running OS X.

Today, while watching Apple's latest event, I started to fall in love with the "new MacBook", but quickly snapped back to reality; my Surface Pro 3 is better than this thing. Apple's latest laptop is arguably more attractive, but Microsoft's can do more, while offering a better experience.

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