Tip: Debug Windows like a pro
Troubleshooting software issues can be difficult, as applications rarely provide enough information on what they're doing. If you're lucky, you might get a helpful error message that explains a particular problem, but all too often you're left guessing, or trying to use a technical tool like Process Explorer to try and figure out what's going on.
Some applications, however, do send useful information to the Debug device that describes exactly what they're doing in many key situations. This is intended to help the developer troubleshoot problems, and if there's an issue, he can run a debugger on his system and immediately see what's going on. But regular users can see these messages, too -- and all it takes is a free copy of DebugView.
Advance SystemCare 4 launches, adds new features
iObit has released version 4 of its flagship PC maintenance and optimization tool, Advanced SystemCare. The program comprises a number of system maintenance, cleaning, repair and optimization modules, and version 4 introduces a number of new components, including Disk Scan and Vulnerability Fix, plus a redesigned interface.
Version 4 opens with a greatly simplified user interface, designed to help the novice quickly get his or her PC optimized via Quick Clean and Deep Clean options. An enhanced Turbo Boost module is capable of disabling more unnecessary background services to reclaim precious system resources and speed up the computer.
Kidnapped Kaspersky son freed in raid; no ransom paid
Kaspersky Lab has issued a statement Sunday confirming earlier reports that Ivan Kaspersky, son of CEO and founder Eugene Kaspersky, had been kidnapped and subsequently freed. Ivan Kaspersky was freed in an "operation" by the authorities and no ransom was paid.
The statement in full follows: "Kaspersky Lab confirms that an operation to free Ivan Kaspersky was carried out successfully by the Federal Security Service (FSB), the Criminal Investigation Department of the Moscow Police and Kaspersky Lab's own security personnel. Ivan is alive and well and is currently located at a safe location. No ransom was paid during the rescue operation. Eugene Kaspersky and Natalya Kaspersky are currently unavailable for comment."
Where is my ala carte cable TV?
Over the weekend, I started looking at how realistic would be cutting my IPTV provider and replacing it with over-the-air broadcasts and Internet steaming from services like Hulu Plus and Netflix. Most anyone else would be looking to ditch a cable provider like Comcast, Cox or Time Warner. I have AT&T U-verse -- since February 2008. My U-verse bill for Internet and TV was $140 last month, and that's simply more than I can afford to spend. I'm not fully employed.
The problem, I realize, is that U-verse (or Cox, the other option) offers too much of what I don't want and not enough of what I do. I'd rather pay something like 80 bucks a month, even 100, for Internet and handful of channels and streaming services that my family would regularly watch. Perhaps cable providers don't see the profit opportunity in such an approach, or maybe it would be logistically too difficult to offer such choice or to mange its billing.
PlayStation Network still down, Sony says task of bringing it back up is 'time consuming'
The devastating PlayStation Network outage continues unabated today, with Sony issuing a long-overdue new statement. Patrick Seybold, Sony senior director of Corporate Communications & Social Media, posted the update to the PlayStation Blog, as the network outage entered its fourth full day.
"We sincerely regret that PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have been suspended, and we are working around the clock to bring them both back online," Seybold writes. "Our efforts to resolve this matter involve re-building our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure. Though this task is time consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security."
With PlayStation Network still down, Sony admits it was hacked
Nearly three days after Sony's Playstation Network online gaming service went offline, Sony has finally admitted that the service was compromised by hackers. As a result, the company disabled the service Wednesday evening to investigate the matter, an official statement indicated.
"An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services," spokesperson Patrick Seybold said. The service outage was done "to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward," he continued.
Firefox 4 downloads top 100 million
This morning, when seeing the date on my watch, I realized that about a month had passed since Mozilla released Firefox 4. I wondered how many downloads since the March 22nd launch. Geez Louise, it's more than 100 million, according to the Firefox 4 stat counter, and climbing fast.
Firefox 4 started strong out of the gate with 6 million downloads in the first 24 hours. By comparison, Internet Explorer 9, which launched about a week earlier, had just 2.35 million downloads. But in fairness, IE9 has a disadvantage -- it's not available for Windows XP. Yesterday, Microsoft touted 350 million license sales during Windows 7's first 18 months, but a sale isn't a deployment and doesn't mean running IE9 either. Additionally, XP is still the most widely-used Windows version.
Amazon's two-day cloud computing nightmare nears an end
Amazon appeared to finally have the issues with its Web Services cloud platform under control, saying late Friday afternoon that all but its most "time consuming" volumes had been recovered and were back online. This seems to match up with reports that those websites that depended on Amazon's cloud were for the most part operating normally.
The partial failure which affected Amazon's cloud servers in its Northern Virginia facility, occurred early Thursday morning. Several popular websites including Foursquare, Reddit, and Quora were down for much of Thursday, and those issues extended into Friday as well.
Samsung countersues Apple, but not in the US
Samsung's relationship with Apple seemingly became even more strained on Friday as the company claimed that the Cupertino company's iPhone and iPad devices infringe on five of its patents. The increasingly bitter feud also presents an even bigger conundrum as Apple is one of the Korean electronics maker's biggest component customers.
While Apple filed its lawsuit last Friday in US court, Samsung has not as of yet countersued the company here. Instead, its retaliatory suits were filed in three international markets, including South Korea, Japan and Germany. According to reports, the technologies covered include that for transmission optimization and power conservation during use of HSPA technologies, WCDMA data transmission error reduction techniques, and PC tethering.
Windows 7 speeds up in 2011, 350 million licenses sold
After a year and a half on the market, more than 350 million Windows 7 licenses have been sold, and Microsoft on Friday has claimed Windows 7 to be the "fastest selling Operating System in history."
Windows 7 launched with power in October 2009 and appears to have actually picked up momentum this year. Market analysts at NPD estimated Windows 7 launch sales were 234% higher than Windows Vista; and by September 2010, just short of a year after launch, Microsoft said 175 million licenses had been sold.
Eugene Kaspersky is one tough guy
The security community deals with disturbing news all the time, but none so disturbing as the reports that the son of Eugene Kaspersky, founder and CEO of Kaspersky Lab, has been kidnapped (and now reportedly freed). Russia is a tough place.
The Western stereotype of a Russian businessman is a politically-connected tyrant who probably only got his business through corrupt means. Not Yevgeny "Eugene" Kaspersky; I don't really know much about how he built his business, but I do know that his company has developed high-quality, respected security products that sell really well in the West. He's a genuine engineer, who worked on his own products until the company got too big for that to make sense. You can't do that by bribing public officials.
PlayStation Network still down, Anonymous claims no involvement
As the outage of Sony's PlayStation Network entered into a third day without any end in sight -- and some reports indicate a cyberattack may be at fault -- at least one group is making sure that it is not blamed for the problem: Anonymous.
The group said that the mishap was due to internal issues with Sony's own servers, and those fingering Anonymous were "taking advantage of Anonymous' previous ill-will towards the company." A message to the company's PlayStation blog in Europe had said that Sony was investigating "the possibility of targeted behavior by an outside party," but since had been removed.
Kidnapped son of Kaspersky founders freed, say reports
The 20-year-old son of Kaspersky Lab founders Natalia and Eugene Kaspersky, who was reportedly being held for 3 million Euro ransom by kidnappers in Moscow, may have been released on Friday.
Kaspersky Lab issued an official statement which neither confrimed nor denied the reports of Ivan Kaspersky's kidnapping, and rather gently asked the media to hold back on its speculation, and not to report on rumors and allegations.
Will you drop Dropbox over terms-of-service changes?
Courtesy of our colleagues at Softwarecrew, on Wednesday we posted a story about Dropbox terms of services changes that came as a surprise, if for no other reason than the service's earlier assertions that employees couldn't access subscribers' files nor anyone not authorized by the user. Suddenly that's changed, with Dropbox stating it will open your stuff to law enforcement. I put a poll in the story, and we asked your reaction to the changes. The results are in, and you're not happy.
"This is why you can't trust cloud anything when it comes to data privacy," writes commenter LurkerLito. "If it goes to the cloud you need to encrypt it yourself with your own trusted encryption program. No matter how much people assure you that their stuff is only accessible by you because of their encryption, that is never really true unless you encrypt it with your own tools."
Highjack Hunter takes back your PC from malware's clutches
Some malware infections are straightforward. They're known threats, cause little damage, and your regular antivirus engine can detect and remove them in seconds: easy. Other situations can be a little more complicated, though. Maybe you've run into a brand new threat that your security package doesn't recognize. Some malware will hijack Windows settings, perhaps disabling Task Manager or the Registry editor. Solving an issue like this may require some specialist help from a tool like Hijack Hunter.
Just launch this handy free portable utility, click "Scan," and it'll crawl all over your system looking for anything that might be suspicious. There are no signatures involved here, the program is purely highlighting items that seem interesting or out of the ordinary (which is why it might be able to pick up even previously undiscovered threats).
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