Newsletter Archives

• Bulging batteries in Surface laptops are a growing issue

  Posted on November 15, 2021 at 02:44 CST by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  More and more users of Microsoft Surface 2-in-1 laptop computers are reporting a bent and battered screen that’s been curved by a dangerously bulging battery that protrudes from its frame.

  This was first covered in an AskWoody post on December 5, 2019. At that time, the post linked to 10 forum threads at Microsoft Answers, Reddit, and elsewhere. The forums contained dozens of stories describing similar-sounding problems.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.44.0 (2021-11-15).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Batteries, bulging battery, Microsoft, Public Defender, Surface

• Most corporate PCs can’t install Windows 11, study says

  Posted on November 1, 2021 at 02:45 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  ISSUE 18.42 • 2021-11-01

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Microsoft has issued many, shall we say, evolving requirements for Windows 11 — confusing people about which devices actually qualify — but now a study of 30 million machines worldwide reveals the answer: at least 55% of PCs used by businesses don’t meet Win11’s upgrade requirements.

  Surprisingly, the incompatibility is not due mainly to Microsoft’s insistence that version 2 of a motherboard-based device called a Trusted Platform Module be installed and enabled before a machine can upgrade to Win11.

  Instead, more than 55% of PCs lack a new-enough CPU to meet the requirements, according to Esben Dochy, technical product evangelist for Lansweeper, the Belgium-based tech-management firm that conducted the study.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.42.0 (2021-11-01).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.42.F (2021-11-01).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, hardware, Public Defender, Windows 11

• A single Registry line enables Windows 11 without TPM 2.0

  Posted on October 18, 2021 at 02:45 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  ISSUE 18.40 • 2021-10-18

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Microsoft has published a new support document revealing a one-line entry anyone can add to the Registry allowing Windows 11 to install on devices that do not have the so-called TPM 2.0 chip installed on the motherboard.

  The Trusted Platform Module, as I explained in the September 6 AskWoody Newsletter, is a small hardware component that generates and stores cryptographic keys, among other things. Until the release of the recent support document, Microsoft had repeatedly stated that the 2.0 version of TPM would be a requirement before Windows 11 would install. In addition, Win11 has CPU and other hardware requirements above those of Win10, as set forth in Microsoft’s Win11 specifications.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.40.0 (2021-10-18).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.40.F (2021-10-18).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft, TPM, Windows 11, Windows registry

• The first Google search result often leads to a virus

  Posted on October 11, 2021 at 02:45 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  ISSUE 18.39 • 2021-10-11

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  The top search result in Google is all too often a link to a website that’s been hacked to infect visitors’ devices with a virus.

  The culprit behind these infections is called “Gootloader,” a descendant of years-old malware that just keeps getting worse on Google — the only search engine that’s being targeted.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.39.0 (2021-10-11).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.39.F (2021-10-11).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Google, Google Search, security

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

  Posted on September 27, 2021 at 02:43 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  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

• 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

• Judge halts over-the-air TV streaming by Locast

  Posted on September 13, 2021 at 02:45 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  ISSUE 18.35 • 2021-09-13

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  A nonprofit organization that uses the Internet to stream live, over-the-air television signals to digital devices has suspended its service throughout the United States after a federal district-court judge ruled that the offering didn’t fully comply with an exception Congress wrote into the US Copyright Act.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.35.0 (2021-09-13).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.35.F (2021-09-13).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Jud, Public Defender, streaming media

• How you might install Win 11 on older PCs lacking TPM 2.0

  Posted on September 6, 2021 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Microsoft officially announced last week that it will offer Windows 11 in a phased release between October 5, 2021, and “mid-2022” — but techies are already finding ways to install the new OS on older PCs that don’t implement TPM 2.0, a chip the Redmond company says is required.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.34.0 (2021-09-06).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, hardware, security, Windows 11

• Apple plans to break its end-to-end encryption

  Posted on August 30, 2021 at 02:42 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Apple Computer shocked computer-security experts when the Cupertino company announced on August 5 that it plans to circumvent end-to-end encryption in Mac and iOS software, reporting US users if more than a few photos in their iCloud account match a national database of child pornography.

  “We want to help protect children from predators who use communication tools to recruit and exploit them, and limit the spread of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM),” Apple said in its announcement. But people with experience in the subject said the technology would be used for everything other than that.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.33.0 (2021-08-30).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender Apple, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, encryption, privacy, Public Defender, security, Surveillance

• The Internet passport is coming — are you ready?

  Posted on August 23, 2021 at 02:43 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  If you’re tired of inventing new passwords to suit every different system, while hackers keep finding ever more clever ways to steal your identity, you’ll love being able to ditch passwords entirely yet still avoid hacks — if websites and services can get enough users to buy in.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.32.0 (2021-08-23).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Biometrics, Public Defender, security

• Where’s our ‘National Strategy for Cyberspace’?

  Posted on August 16, 2021 at 02:45 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  ISSUE 18.31 • 2021-08-16

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Crime on the Internet has gotten ridiculous.

  In 2020, the Federal Trade Commission received 4.8 million complaints of identity theft (and many others go unreported). At least 37% of businesses around the globe experienced a ransomware attack last year, according to security firm Sophos. And for six days in May, hackers were even able to shut down a pipeline that supplies 45% of the US East Coast’s fuel.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.31.0 (2021-08-16).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.31.F (2021-08-16).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, cybersecurity, cyberspace

• Is your smartphone giving you brain cancer?

  Posted on August 9, 2021 at 02:43 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  A group of scientists and researchers is actively promoting findings that the use of smartphones is associated with an increase in brain cancer and related tumors.

  Joel Moskowitz, director of the Center for Family and Community Health at the University of California, Berkeley, told the Berkeley News on July 1: “More than 250 scientists … have signed the International EMF Scientist Appeal, which calls for health warnings and stronger exposure limits.” He added that the new 5G standard, which is replacing the old 4G network, “is an even bigger reason for concern.”

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.30.0 (2021-08-09).

  AskWoody Plus membership, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, health, Public Defender, smartphones
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