Archived Technology Notes
Published in 2019
Permanent URL10 Surprisingly Practical Raspberry Pi Projects Anybody Can Do
by brad chacos
Streaming. Gaming. Networking. Even printing! The Raspberry Pi is far more than a toy.
The Raspberry Pi single-board computer and all its variants (including the dirt-cheap Raspberry Pi Zero and a turbo-charged Raspberry Pi 4) have captured the imaginations of DIY enthusiasts and budding hobbyists alike.
Much of the coverage you’ll see around the web focuses on the more fantastical projects—magic mirrors, portable gaming handhelds, intelligent drones, and so forth. And for good reason! Those maker masterpieces show what sort of power the $35 mini-PC is capable of in the hands of someone with a little imagination and a bin full of spare electronics, especially now that the Raspberry Pi 4 includes more RAM, a huge CPU upgrade, USB-C charging, and enough graphics horsepower to drive a pair of 4K monitors simultaneously.
But most people, particularly beginners, won’t use the Raspberry Pi to whip up crazy creations. There are near-endless practical uses for this bare-bones kit, from media streaming to extending the range of your Wi-Fi network, as the following 10 projects demonstrate. Time to put that $35 computer to real work.
Read full story at PCWorld…
first published week of: 07/29/2019
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'We Need New Privacy Laws,' Urges Apple CEO Tim Cook
by jonny evans
Apple CEO Tim Cook is urging government regulation to regulate shady data brokers and to protect user privacy.
In a sidelong slap at the business model of Facebook, Google and others, Apple CEO Tim Cook has published an article in which he urges the U.S. government to put surveillance capitalists/data brokers under transparent legal oversight.
“In 2019, it's time to stand up for the right to privacy — yours, mine, all of ours.” Cook writes in an article for Time Magazine.
“Consumers shouldn't have to tolerate another year of companies irresponsibly amassing huge user profiles, data breaches that seem out of control and the vanishing ability to control our own digital lives.”
To put this into context, it is worth reminding ourselves of a 2014 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation into nine data brokers.
This found them to hold vast amounts of data on every U.S. household. In fact, one broker had records of over 1.4 billion transactions and 700 billion data elements.
Read full story at Computerworld…
first published week of: 01/28/2019
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10 Truly Helpful Windows 10 Tools You Might Not Know About
by brad chacos
Enthusiast-friendly power tools lurk in every corner of Windows 10. Let's shine a light on some of the more obscure ones.
So you’ve mastered Windows 10 keyboard shortcuts and Snap open windows like a boss. Now what?
Windows 10 offers many other power tools for enthusiasts—if you know where to find them. Some are older, yet still obscure. Others are relatively new, added during the twice-annual major upgrades Microsoft’s been pushing out since Windows 10 launched nearly four long years ago (though the second update looks to be minor this year). But all 10 of these little-used tricks and tools can help hardened PC users save time or eliminate headaches.
If you’re looking for a guide to even more of the operating system’s darker corners after reading this, be sure to check out our roundup of the best Windows 10 tips and tweaks, as well as our guide to time-saving Windows tricks. Most everyone will learn a little something! Microsoft’s been aggressive about rolling out new features for Windows 10, but not necessarily about promoting them. Speaking of which…
Read full story at PCWorld…
first published week of: 08/26/2019
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5 Things Google Should Kill Next
by Gordon Mah Ung
Google is a stone-cold killer. A virtual Keanu Reeves/John Wick or Chow Yun-fat/Ah Jong of death-dealing, wiping out failing products left and right. Just last week Google killed Inbox, goo.gl, and Google+. Per Killed By Google’s count (yes, that’s a real website), Google has smothered no fewer than 158 of its own children, easily making it one of the most prolific and family-unfriendly assassins around. For all we know, sweet old Auntie Gmail will be next. In honor of Google’s erstwhile “don’t be evil” motto (which Google killed about a year ago, actually), I think it’s time to use Google’s natural ability for good. So here’s my list of other products that deserve to die, if Google would be so kind as to assist.
Read full story at PCWorld…
first published week of: 04/08/2019
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5G Deployment Stands Ready to Supercharge the Internet of Things
by Rob Pegoraro
5G for me and 5G for thee—especially if thou art an IoT device.
It's true that inorganic users don't yell at customer-service reps or trash-talk companies on Twitter. But connected devices can also benefit from some less-obvious upgrades that 5G should deliver—and we, their organic overlords, could profit in the long run.
You may have heard about 5G's Internet-of-Things potential yourself in such gauzy statements as "5G will make every industry and every part of our lives better" (spoken by Meredith Attwell Baker, president of the wireless trade group CTIA, at the MWC Americas trade show in 2017) and "It's a wholly new technology ushering in a new era of transformation" (from Ronan Dunne, executive vice president and CEO of Verizon's consumer group, at 2019's Web Summit conference).
But as with 5G in the smartphone and home-broadband contexts, the ripple effects alluded to in statements are potentially huge—and they will take years to land on our shores. Yes, you've heard this before: the news is big, but it's still early days.
Read full story at ArsTechnica…
first published week of: 12/30/2019
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7 Online Security Basics You Really Need to Stop Ignoring
by mark jones
Security threats are pretty much everywhere online these days. Data breaches, phishing scams, ransomware attacks and identity thieves are just a few things we need to watch for.
While some threats, like data breaches, are mostly out of our control, many can be prevented with just a little time and effort on our part — but that’s the problem. Too few people take security as seriously as they should.
Whether it’s laziness or just a lack of knowledge, too many people leave themselves open to attack. The good news is everyone can change their ways and protect themselves — it’s not too late.
That’s why we’re going to share seven online security basics everyone should be doing. There really is no excuse to ignore these habits anymore — not if you want to be protected.
Read full story at Komando.com…
first published week of: 12/30/2019
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8 Hidden Features of macOS Catalina
by Jason Snell
MacOS Catalina is here, and with it, a bunch of top-line features: Mac Catalyst, new apps, Sidecar, Screen Time, and Voice Control. But as you might expect, Catalina also includes dozens of small feature changes that are worth investigating. Here are a few of the most interesting hidden features in macOS Catalina.
Home theater at last
For the first time, the Mac will have access to the 4K HDR versions of popular movies and TV shows. This comes courtesy of the new TV app—but it has limits. All Macs introduced in 2018 or later are capable of playing videos in HDR and Dolby Vision formats for high dynamic range, and can play audio encoded with the high-quality Dolby Atmos format.
As for full-on 4K HDR streaming, it’s enabled only on 2018 and later MacBook Pros and 2017 and later iMacs with the T2 chip. Unfortunately, that means that older 4K and 5K iMacs are out of luck.
Revert after a bad upgrade
Have you ever installed a software update only to discover that it has broken other software you depend on to do your job?
Read full story at MacWorld…
first published week of: 10/28/2019
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A New Rash of Highly Covert Card-Skim
by dan goodin
GMO sniffer infected Fila UK for 4 months. Six US sites remain compromised.
The rash of e-commerce sites infected with card-skimming malware is showing no signs of abating. Researchers on Thursday revealed that seven sites—with more than 500,000 collective visitors per month—have been compromised with a previously unseen strain of sniffing malware designed to surreptitiously swoop in and steal payment card data as soon as visitors make a purchase.
One of those sites, UK sporting goods outlet Fila.co.uk, had been infected since November and had only removed the malware in the past 24 hours, researchers with security firm Group-IB told Ars. The remaining six sites—jungleeny.com, forshaw.com, absolutenewyork.com, cajungrocer.com, getrxd.com, and sharbor.com—remained infected at the time this post was being reported. Ars sent messages seeking comment to all seven sites but has yet to receive a response from any of them.
Group-IB has dubbed the JavaScript sniffer GMO after the gmo[.]il domain it uses to send pilfered data from infected sites, all of which run the Magento e-commerce Web platform. The researchers said the domain was registered last May and that the malware has been active since then. To conceal itself, GMO compresses the skimmer into a tiny space that’s highly obfuscated and remains dormant when it detects the Firebug or Google Developer Tools running on a visitor’s computer. GMO was manually injected into all seven sites, an indication that it is still relatively fledgling.
Read full story at arsTechnica…
first published week of: 03/18/2019
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Adobe Turns Its Creative Cloud Desktop App Into a Hub
by Matthew Humphries
The app is now a full-screen experience bringing together Adobe's tools, services, assets, and tutorials while adding a new layer of discoverability to the experience.
If you subscribe to Adobe's Creative Cloud set of apps and services, get ready for a re-imagined desktop app as Adobe decided to turn it into a full-bown creative hub.
As The Verge reports, the Creative Cloud desktop app used to be a drop-down menu for accessing the different Adobe apps and their updates. However, Adobe is continuing to expand to other platforms as well as increasing its range of services, so a redesign was required.
Now, the desktop app brings together everything Adobe. You can still use it to access all the Creative Cloud apps and services, but a full list of available assets will be presented, as will tutorials for the different apps and their features. It's also now a full-screen experience, which you can see in action in the tweeted video below.
Read full story at PC World…
first published week of: 10/14/2019
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Alibaba Acquires Israeli Startup Infinity Augmented Reality
by catherine shu
Infinity Augmented Reality, an Israeli startup, has been acquired by Alibaba, the companies announced this weekend. The deal’s terms were not disclosed. Alibaba and InfinityAR have had a strategic partnership since 2016, when Alibaba Group led InfinityAR’s Series C. Since then, the two have collaborated on augmented reality, computer vision and artificial intelligence projects.
Founded in 2013, the startup’s augmented glasses platform enables developers in a wide range of industries (retail, gaming, medical, etc.) to integrate AR into their apps. InfinityAR’s products include software for ODMs and OEMs and a SDK plug-in for 3D engines.
Alibaba’s foray into virtual reality started three years ago, when it invested in Magic Leap and then announced a new research lab in China to develop ways of incorporating virtual reality into its e-commerce platform.
Read full story at TechCrunch…
first published week of: 03/25/2019