Newsletter Archives

• Ignore Susan Bradley’s Patch Watch at your peril

  Posted on December 4, 2023 at 02:44 CST by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  They say a cobbler’s children have no shoes. I proved this aphorism — the hard way — when I absent-mindedly clicked on a Microsoft update that seriously messed up some features of Windows 11 that I rely on.

  I’ll tell you what occurred and how you can prevent it from happening to you. Most importantly, I’ll explain how you can recover if an update has already wreaked havoc on your system.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.49.0, 2023-12-04).

  Public Defender File Explorer, KB5032190, Master Patch List, Newsletters, Patch Watch, Windows 11

• Microsoft adopts passkeys in Windows 11 — death to passwords!

  Posted on November 20, 2023 at 02:44 CST by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  When Microsoft enhanced Windows 11 in a September 2023 update to support “passkeys” — a more secure form of authentication — it signaled the beginning of the end for insecure and hard-to-remember passwords.

  To create a passkey, you simply use whatever method unlocks your devices: a character-based PIN, your face, a fingerprint, or what have you. You then visit any website or other remote service that’s passkey-compatible. The server exchanges with your device an “authentication token.” This uniquely identifies you and the device you are using to sign in.

  The token is a private/public key pair. Your PIN, photo, or fingerprint is never sent across the network, where it could be intercepted by man-in-the-middle attacks.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.47.0, 2023-11-20).

  Public Defender FIDO, FIDO2, Newsletters, Passkeys, Passwords, PINs, W3C, Windows Hello

• The Windows 10/11 Hello PIN works, but change is coming

  Posted on November 13, 2023 at 02:45 CST by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 20.46 • 2023-11-13

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  A new Microsoft sign-in method — designed to replace today’s relatively insecure usernames and passwords — was introduced to Windows 10 in July 2015.

  The technology is called Windows Hello. It involves your entering a PIN, which can be up to 127 characters long including numbers, letters, and symbols. This PIN is associated with a device of yours: a smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop computer, etc. Once you use your PIN with a Microsoft Account, an Active Directory, or other services that recognize the technique, you never have to enter a username or password on that connection again.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.46.0, 2023-11-13).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Public Defender KB5030310, Newsletters, Passkeys, Passwords, PINs, Windows Hello

• Anyone can render you naked with three mouse clicks

  Posted on October 30, 2023 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Artificial-intelligence technologies have so invaded our lives that now dozens of sketchy websites enable anyone to upload a picture of your face and immediately receive an AI-generated nude that’s completely photorealistic.

  Tech-savvy perverts have published fake nudes of celebrities for years, of course. But making those falsified images required at least some talent with Photoshop and other image-editing tools.

  At the new AI-fake websites, you just upload a fully clothed headshot of anyone. You then click, click, click, and you have a “nudified” copy. Most people would believe the resulting image is an actual photograph of how the victimized person supposedly looked at the time.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.44.0, 2023-10-30).

  Public Defender AI, Deepfakes, Generative AI, images, Newsletters, Watermarks

• Can Microsoft Advertising just keep your money?

  Posted on October 16, 2023 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Scores of legitimate business owners report that they were rejected by Microsoft for “egregious behavior” shortly after applying for an account to advertise in the Bing search engine.

  If Microsoft doesn’t want to accept more advertising revenue, well, fine. But the new account holders say Microsoft failed to promptly refund hundreds of dollars that the potential new advertisers had deposited to fund their initial ad buys.

  Talk about adding insult to injury: US applicants, among others, receive a formulaic email message telling them to call a phone number in Brazil for support!

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.42.0, 2023-10-16).

  Public Defender Advertising, Microsoft, Newsletters

• How Amazon ejected AI-written e-books from its bestseller lists

  Posted on October 2, 2023 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  The giant online retailer, Amazon.com, faced a problem. Hackers were using chatbots to create fake e-books — mostly novels full of gibberish — and posting them into the Kindle Unlimited (KU) service.

  The perps then launched scripts to “read” their works. The automated traffic resulted in Amazon’s e-book bestseller lists being dominated by drivel.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.40.0, 2023-10-02).

  Public Defender AI, Amazon, ChatGPT, DDoS, E-Books, Generative AI, GPT-Author, Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, Newsletters

• Wi-Fi 7? Why not!

  Posted on September 18, 2023 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  International standards bodies are just months away from finalizing a wireless networking improvement that’s being called Wi-Fi 7. When devices start supporting and using the new protocol, Wi-Fi 7 promises theoretical speeds far beyond what’s currently possible with Wi-Fi 6 (which was officially approved back in 2014).

  But don’t go out and buy all new stuff just yet. Theory is one thing, and reality is another. You may never see noticeably faster speeds from any Wi-Fi 7 devices you may own in the future. What are the reasons for this? I’m glad you asked.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.38.0, 2023-09-18).

  Public Defender 802.11be, Newsletters, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi 7

• MORE of your worst Windows 11 irritations solved

  Posted on September 4, 2023 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  We’ll all eventually be forced to upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11. Microsoft says it’ll end security updates for Win10 on October 1, 2025, as I wrote in Part 1 of this two-part column.

  In today’s Part 2, I describe the two options we face: Hang on to our Win10 installations until the last possible moment, or take the time now to adopt Win11 and cure some of the worst bugs and stupidities that Redmond sent out the door with it.

  I invited my readers to send me fixes they’ve found for Win11’s problems. We’ll get into those workarounds in a minute. But before you go any further, please take a look at the first half of this two-part column and then review my previous exposés of Win11 that you may have missed.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.36.0, 2023-09-04).

  Public Defender File Explorer, Newsletters, Photo app, Photo Viewer, Taskbar, User Interface, Windows 11

• Your worst Windows 11 irritations — solved!

  Posted on August 21, 2023 at 02:45 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 20.34 • 2023-08-21

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Despite all the wailing and gnashing of teeth that Windows 11 users have directed at Microsoft, the tech giant still hasn’t corrected the OS’s most common failings. Fortunately, we can fix the problems ourselves.

  Microsoft plans to end technical support and security patches for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. (Redmond might extend that date — if big corporate users howl loudly enough — but don’t count on it.) It’s likely that we’re little more than a year away from being forced to run Win11, like it or not. You might as well make it work the way you want it to. Why suffer the dumbed-down user interface that you get out of the box?

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.34.0, 2023-08-21).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Public Defender File Explorer, Newsletters, Start menu, StartAllBack, Windows 11, WinSetView

• How can an e-cigarette know the age of its user?

  Posted on August 7, 2023 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  The dominant e-cigarette manufacturer Juul filed in the US last month an application to sell a new technology that requires age verification and prevents the use of third-party, candy-flavored vaping cartridges.

  Juul nearly went bankrupt in November 2022 after agreeing to a $439 million settlement with several US states. The attorneys general of those states successfully argued that the company had marketed fruity flavors specifically to appeal to minors.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.32.0, 2023-08-07).

  Public Defender Age Verification, Bluetooth, health, Newsletters, Pod ID, Regulation, safety

• Will Threads be the real Twitter killer?

  Posted on July 24, 2023 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  The parent company of Facebook and Instagram — Meta Platforms — launched this month Threads, a Twitter-like social network. It looks like the first serious contender to knock Twitter off its perch.

  Unlike other Twitter competitors — Mastodon, Bluesky, Truth Social, and many more — Threads has already attracted a gigantic audience. The Threads app for iOS and Android surpassed 100 million users in just its first five days. That makes it the fastest-growing app ever, besting ChatGPT, which required two months to hit the same mark.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.30.0, 2023-07-24).

  Public Defender Facebook, Instagram, Newsletters, Social networks, Threads, Twitter

• A computer museum near you is closing soon

  Posted on July 10, 2023 at 02:45 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 20.28 • 2023-07-10

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  You certainly remember your first boyfriend or girlfriend. You might also remember your first cigarette and your first drink (hopefully not while driving your first car). But who’s going to remember the pioneering computer technology breakthroughs that have put mainframe power on everyone’s desks and in everyone’s pockets?

  There are discouraging signs that much of our electronic history is going to be lost.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.28.0, 2023-07-10).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Public Defender History, Museums, Newsletters
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