Newsletter Archives

• 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

• The Star Trek universal translator is here today

  Posted on June 19, 2023 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  PARISOT, FRANCE — I’m working this month in Europe. During this time, I’ve found that handheld language translators have become truly useful in speaking with people when you don’t understand their native tongue.

  My knowledge of French is fairly nonexistent. I can manage to say “oui,” “non,” and “un grand café noir, s’il vous plaît” (a large black coffee, please). So you can imagine my fear when I learned — as I’ll explain later— that I’d be spending 30 days in the land of le Louvre, which I can’t even pronounce correctly.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.25.0, 2023-06-19).

  Public Defender Handhelds, Language, Newsletters, Smart Devices, Translation

• Watch out for fake ‘Windows Defender’ scare

  Posted on June 5, 2023 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  My readers are reporting a new wave of fraudulent “security warnings” that freeze the screen, threaten to auto-delete users’ files, exhort victims to call what is supposedly a Microsoft phone number, and demand a fee for useless “virus removal.”

  Bogus messages from “Microsoft,” “Google,” and every other famous name in the tech industry are as old as the Internet, of course. But the frauds seem to be getting more intense and, unfortunately, more convincing all the time.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.23.0, 2023-06-05).

  Public Defender antivirus, Newsletters, scams, Tech Support Scams, Web Browsers, Windows Defender

• Beware of Google’s .ZIP domain and password-embedded URLs

  Posted on May 29, 2023 at 02:45 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 20.22 • 2023-05-29

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  The security community is up in arms, because Google this month started selling domain names with deceptive endings such as .zip and .mov.

  Even worse, some browsers are allowing usernames and passwords to be embedded into URLs. This means following a link can expose users to viruses without any explicit action (such as clicking “OK”).

  Internet-standards bodies years ago prohibited usernames and passwords in URLs — but hackers still do it.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.22.0, 2023-05-29).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Public Defender Domain names, Google, Internet, Newsletters, security

• No NumLock key? Problem solved! Here’s the fix.

  Posted on May 22, 2023 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Most laptop makers are now leaving the NumLock key out of their smaller notebooks.

  That’s a disaster for people who’ve been getting symbols that aren’t on their keyboard by entering Alt+number — for instance, typing Alt+0169 on the numeric keypad to get the copyright sign (©).

  Some laptops have a function key for a “hidden” numeric keypad. But I’ll show you much easier ways. Read this today, and you’ll be writing documents faster — mañana!

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.21.0, 2023-05-22).

  Public Defender Keyboard remapping, Keyboards, Newsletters, NumLock, TenKeyLess, Windows

• Want a faster, quieter PC? Cool it in water.

  Posted on May 8, 2023 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  I’m not actually suggesting that you soak your computer in a bathtub. But keeping a high-powered CPU from frying — without the earsplitting hum of roaring fans — means a liquid cooler could be just the thing your PC needs.

  It’s well known that water and some nonconductive oils are much more efficient than air at removing heat from electronic components. Many tower and desktop PCs have enough space for a built-in or add-on liquid chilling system. This can enable you to push a CPU to the max without burning it out.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.19.0, 2023-05-08).

  Public Defender CPU cooling, Energy, Newsletters
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