Daily Archives: September 20, 2021

• Real-time MS-DEFCON alerts debut!

  Posted on September 20, 2021 at 02:45 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  ISSUE 18.36 • 2021-09-20

  MS-DEFCON

  

  By Susan Bradley

  The new AskWoody SMS alert system is now available for Plus members.

  The MS-DEFCON system has been a staple of the AskWoody site for many years now. You know it as a visual system of numbers and colors that provides a quick indicator of the relative safety of applying updates (patching) to Windows and other Microsoft apps and services.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.36.0 (2021-09-20).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.36.F (2021-09-20).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, MS-DEFCON AskWoody Plus Newsletter, MS-DEFCON, Patch Lady Posts

• Older Geeks: Keeping it clean

  Posted on September 20, 2021 at 02:44 CDT by Chris Husted • Comment in the Forums

  PROFILES

  

  By Chris Husted

  Hidden away in a small town of 5,000 in the Missouri Ozarks is a small computer-repair shop run by a pair of self-confessed “super nerds” who over more than a decade have amassed some 4,000 freeware programs that all satisfy one steadfast credo: “No ads, no crapware, no b.s.”

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.36.0 (2021-09-20).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.36.F (2021-09-20).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Profiles AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Profiles

• Apple gives privacy one minute

  Posted on September 20, 2021 at 02:43 CDT by Silvia Eckert • Comment in the Forums

  APPLE NEWS

  

  By Silvia Eckert

  “California streaming” ducks the controversial CSAM issue at last week’s annual iPhone event.

  As reported by Brian Livingston in his column Apple plans to break its end-to-end encryption (AskWoody 2021-08-30), Apple announced about a month ago an initiative to limit the distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) by looking for inappropriate imagery on its customers’ devices and reporting occurrences to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. But because the technology represented what amounted to surveillance that could be applied to virtually anything, an enormous amount of backlash against the initiative occurred.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.36.0 (2021-09-20).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.36.F (2021-09-20).

  Apple, AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter Apple, Apple News, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, privacy, security

• Reader wants the deets on failed Home v. Pro test

  Posted on September 20, 2021 at 02:42 CDT by Fred Langa • Comment in the Forums

  LANGALIST

  

  By Fred Langa

  OK, this is embarrassing: A reader called me out after my planned side-by-side Home/Pro test drive fell apart. (“Crashed and burned” might be more descriptive.)

  So, with a deep gulp to swallow my pride, here’s where things went really, really wrong — and why.

  Plus: Beyond simple disk wipes and overwrites, a better way to prep an old hard drive for safe resale!

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.36.0 (2021-09-20).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, HDD, LangaList, Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro

• Sanas makes emerging-market English sound American or British

  Posted on September 20, 2021 at 02:41 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  A tiny tech startup says its software can almost instantly convert the accent of an ESL (English as a Second Language) speaker into a stream of audio that sounds almost exactly like an American or a British native speaker.

  Sanas — whose domain name is Sanas.ai — is based in Palo Alto, California, and has used artificial intelligence to analyze thousands of ESL speakers in India, Latin America, the Philippines, and elsewhere. The AI system picks up differences in their speech patterns compared with Western speakers who learned English in childhood. The software’s output is like a 3-D printer for sound.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.36.0 (2021-09-20).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender, Speech

• Freeware Spotlight — SageThumbs

  Posted on September 20, 2021 at 02:40 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  BEST UTILITIES

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  Some of the most common things I get asked about at our computer store are how to email a picture and how to make it smaller. Or, how to make a picture my desktop background image.

  To us geeks, these tasks are pretty straightforward because we have done them hundreds of times; but to a novice who is just learning to use a computer, it can seem rather confusing.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.36.0 (2021-09-20).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Best Utilities, Freeware Spotlight AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, utilities

• Back to School, Back to patching

  Posted on September 20, 2021 at 02:39 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  September is the month for in-the-wild patching.

  September is a month of change. From going back to school here in the United States to seasons changing all over the world, one thing remains constant: we have to patch. No matter what technology we have or use, it seems like this month, we’re patching it.

  From Apple devices that are getting a fix for the targeted attack that allowed journalists to be spied upon, to Chrome’s several vulnerabilities that have already been used in targeted attacks, to Microsoft’s ActiveX and Office bugs that have already been seen in active attacks, you will probably be patching sooner versus later.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.36.0 (2021-09-20).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Patch Watch AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Patch Lady Posts, Patch Tuesday