Newsletter Archives

• Share browsers without sharing their stored passwords

  Posted on September 27th, 2021 at 02:45 Fred Langa Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  ISSUE 18.37 • 2021-09-27

  LANGALIST

  

  By Fred Langa

  Browser-based password managers have an obvious vulnerability on shared PCs: anyone with access to the browser might also have access to all its stored passwords!

  Today’s lead item discusses two separate ways to prevent unwanted password sharing. One is extremely secure but takes a little time to set up; the other takes only seconds but is less secure. Here’s the scoop!

  Plus: Improved searching for old content on AskWoody.com!

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.37.0 (2021-09-27).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.37.F (2021-09-27).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Features, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, browsers, LangaList, security

• Why some Outlooks will stop working with Microsoft services

  Posted on September 27th, 2021 at 02:44 Peter Deegan Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  MICROSOFT 365

  

  By Peter Deegan

  In a few weeks, some Outlook software will stop working with Microsoft’s online services, such as Microsoft 365.

  If you thought that Microsoft products would always work with Microsoft’s own services, I have bad news. There’s a cutoff point. Microsoft is stopping some versions of Outlook for Windows from connecting to Microsoft hosted mailboxes.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.37.0 (2021-09-27).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.37.F (2021-09-27).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft 365 AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft 365, outlook

• Kape Technologies, formerly Crossrider, now owns 4 top VPNs

  Posted on September 27th, 2021 at 02:43 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  A holding company with a controversial history — Kape Technologies — announced this month that it had purchased a leading virtual private network, ExpressVPN, adding it to a collection of three other major VPN companies that Kape acquired in 2017 through 2019.

  This concentration of VPN services has raised concerns.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.37.0 (2021-09-27).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender, Security AskWoody Plus Newsletter, privacy, Public Defender, security, VPN

• Breaking and entering with Linux: What you see

  Posted on September 27th, 2021 at 02:42 Ben Myers Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  HARDWARE

  

  By Ben Myers

  In my first “Breaking and entering” article, you saw what to do step-by-step to get an unbootable system into legacy boot mode and how to prepare a UEFI USB stick with Linux Mint.

  Now, boot your system with that Linux USB stick.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.37.0 (2021-09-27).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Hardware AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Diagnostics, hardware, Linux, Repairs

• Windows 11 Surfaces

  Posted on September 27th, 2021 at 02:41 Will Fastie Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  MICROSOFT NEWS

  

  By Will Fastie

  Microsoft’s September event showcased its updated Surface lineup and doubled down on the Duo 2.

  While Microsoft’s livestream presentation of September 2 was not tremendously exciting, it was a well-done description of the new Surface devices and was hosted by Panos Panay, in fine form.

  I won’t bore you with every detail, but here are some good sources of information.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.37.0 (2021-09-27).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft News, Surface AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft Surface, Surface, Surface Duo, Surface Laptop Studio, Surface Pro, Windows 11

• Microsoft says forget your passwords!

  Posted on September 27th, 2021 at 02:40 Susan Bradley Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  ON SECURITY

  

  By Susan Bradley

  In a major push, Microsoft is advocating moving away from passwords and instead using different authentication methods.

  The headline: “The passwordless future is here for your Microsoft account.” Is it?

  Here’s what Microsoft has to say in its security blog about a move away from passwords.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.37.0 (2021-09-27).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, On Security AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Multi-factor Authentication, passwords, Patch Lady Posts, PINs, security

• Real-time MS-DEFCON alerts debut!

  Posted on September 20th, 2021 at 02:45 Susan Bradley Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  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 20th, 2021 at 02:44 Chris Husted Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  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 20th, 2021 at 02:43 Silvia Eckert Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  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 20th, 2021 at 02:42 Fred Langa Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  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 20th, 2021 at 02:41 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  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 20th, 2021 at 02:40 Deanna McElveen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  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 AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, utilities
• « Older Entries