Thursday 12 November 2015

Google and Facebook are battling to create the ultimate virtual assistant #vmvwiki ps

The war of the AI virtual assistants has been heating up as of late. It’s no secret that Google, Facebook, and Microsoft have all been working feverishly towards the next big thing in artificial intelligence – a virtual assistant that can wave her binary wand and handle all the tedious minutia that has come to characterize living in the digital era

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/217460-google-and-facebook-are-battling-to-create-the-ultimate-virtual-assistant

Monday 12 October 2015

Google Drive is back after lengthy outage

#vmvwiki ps

Updated: Google Drive and its services are back after a disruption that lasted nearly two hours.

http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/google-drive-is-down-1306450

Ad blocking for the masses, part three: Apple iOS 9 and the future of web browsing #vmvwiki ps

My three-part series covering the recent spurt of ad blocking software was supposed to be simple. Part one dealt with uBlock Origin for desktop browsers. Part two took a look at the new Adblock Browser for Android and iOS, from the developers of Adblock Plus.

http://www.extremetech.com/mobile/215587-ad-blocking-for-the-masses-part-three-apple-ios-9-and-the-future-of-web-browsing

The nuclear industry has a ‘culture of denial’ about hacking threats #vmvwiki ps

A new report from world-leading international think tank Chatham House says that the US nuclear industry is mired in a “culture of denial” about the risks of a cyber-attack on the crucially important facilities.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/215661-the-nuclear-industry-has-a-culture-of-denial-about-hacking-threats

Monday 5 October 2015

Get ready for organized cybercrime #vmvwiki ps

A new post from security blogger Brian Krebs has focused attention on a growing trend in the cybercrime underground: cooperation. It’s not like regular organized crime, in which physically localized gangs can dominate a local underworld, but a crowd-based system of skills-sharing that could end up being far, far more dangerous.

http://www.extremetech.com/internet/214873-get-ready-for-organized-cybercrime

How to send and receive encrypted email for free #vmvwiki ps

So you want to send an encrypted email. You criminal, you.

First, it’s necessary to make a few basic points. Programs like Outlook and services like Gmail will talk about offering “encrypted” email to their users, and they certainly do, but that’s not what we’re talking about.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/214833-how-to-send-and-receive-encrypted-email-for-free

Critical TrueCrypt security bugs finally found #vmvwiki ps

For several years, TrueCrypt was the gold standard in PC disk decryption suites. That changed nearly 18 months ago, when the individuals who developed the software abruptly quit.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/215285-critical-truecrypt-security-bugs-finally-found

Researchers at ASU battling ISIS and other extremist movements online #vmvwiki ps

The internet is oft likened to a giant electronic brain, with pages taking the place of neurons, and Facebook likes, tweets, and page views functioning as the firing of those neurons. Thus is the flow of information increased or dampened according to the amount of individual users who access and share it.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/215160-researchers-at-asu-battling-isis-and-other-extremist-movements-online

Microsoft fully unleashes Azure HDInsight on Ubuntu Linux #vmvwiki ps

Microsoft has expanded the reach of its Azure HDInsight onto Ubuntu Linux for the first time. The cloud-based big data analytics service has been available to Windows customers for some time and after it was unveiled as a public preview in February it is now fully available to Linux users.

http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/cloud-services/microsoft-fully-unleashes-azure-hdinsight-on-ubuntu-linux-1305279

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden joins Twitter #vmvwiki ps

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has re-entered the (online) public eye today by joining Twitter.

While he hasn't posted anything groundbreaking just yet, his first post - which asks "Can you hear me now?" - gives us a good indication that he will likely be using the social media platform as a way to voice his views and reach the public much more widely.

http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/edward-snowden-is-officially-on-twitter-1305425

Twitter may axe its 140-character limit #vmvwiki ps

If you frequently find yourself needing to say more than what Twitter's 140-character limit allows, here's some good new - Twitter is reportedly working on a way to let users go beyond the current character limit

http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/twitter-may-axe-its-140-character-limit-1305435

Friday 25 September 2015

Amazon announces new $50 Fire tablets, sells them by the six pack

This tablet costs $50.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/214502-amazon-announces-new-50-fire-tablets-sells-them-by-the-six-pack

Mozilla fixes 14-year old Firefox bug, turbocharges Adblock Plus #vmvwiki ps

The problem was related to how Firefox handled ABP’s style sheets and could, in certain edge cases, send memory usage rocketing up to 2GB

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/214823-mozilla-fixes-14-year-old-firefox-bug-turbocharges-adblock-plus

Friday 18 September 2015

Google Docs Voice Typing lets you speak instead of type #vmvwiki ps

Last week, Google announced it has added free speech-to-text capabilities to Google Docs (Google calls it Voice Typing). This would have been huge news 20 years ago, yet when Google unveiled it, it was only described in a single paragraph in a middle of a larger blog entry.

http://www.extremetech.com/mobile/213506-google-docs-voice-typing-lets-you-speak-instead-of-type