Andy Patrizio
Author Archives: Andy Patrizio
- Home → Author's archive:
Andy Patrizio
0
Microsoft to release a Surface Phone in 2017
There have been rumors floating among Microsoft enthusiast sites that the company plans to replace its Lumia brand with a Surface branded phone, bringing it at least into name parity with the more successful tablet line.Now Windows Central, which has a decent track record on mobile news, saysthat there will be a Surface Phone line, but not until next year. In the meantime, there would be a marginal effort with the Lumia, a $7.7 billion mistake that can be blamed on the prior CEO. WC theorizes this is to continue Windows 10 Mobile development, give OEM partners time to make new hardware and give Microsoft time to come back with a bang.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Humidity, not heat, is a hard drive’s biggest threat
Having been to Orlando in August, I know the meaning of the term "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." That was the first and only time I had my glasses fog up for just stepping outside.And it turns out humidity is a greater threat to hard drive reliability than high temperatures, according to a study from Rutgers University in partnership with GoDaddy and Microsoft. In their paper titled "Environmental Conditions and Disk Reliability in Free-cooled Datacenters" (PDF), the team said the most notable result was that all other conditions aside, the effects on controllers and adapters were felt most as humidity levels rose.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Internet2 at 20: Alive and kicking
Nearly 20 years after its launch, Internet2 is quietly humming along on university campuses across the country, doing its R&D work and connecting researchers who might otherwise not be able to share information so readily.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
0
Verizon charts a different cloud services path
When running down the list of top cloud vendors, the name Verizon doesn't come up immediately, but the firm is looking to expand its particular brand of cloud services that complement main players like Amazon and Microsoft. It's also fending off rumors it's getting out of the cloud business. Late last year, the company denied reports it was looking to sell off its enterprise services business, which include cloud services and data centers. At the Wells Fargo Securities 2015 Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in late November, Verizon CFO Francis Shammo denied reports that his company is considering selling some of its enterprise assets after a Reuters report said just that. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
How to conquer the SQL Server 2005 migration challenge
If you still have SQL Server 2005 anywhere in your firm, you now have four months to get a migration program going before Microsoft pulls the plug on support for the aging database. April 12 will be the last day any patches or fixes will be issued. The product will still work, it just won't be fixed if a new flaw or exploit is found. As we discussed when we outlined the challenges of migration, it's believed most enterprises have long since moved off the old database in favor of something newer, either on-premises or possible in the cloud. At best, SQL Server 2005 has been relegated to simple report generation on noncritical data. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Want to secure a Windows PC? Turn off Administrator rights
A new report from the security firm Avecto said the vast majority of critical flaws affecting Windows, Office, and Internet Explorer could be stopped and prevented from spreading just by removing Administrator's rights from the PC's user.The default setting for Windows users on a single-user system is Administrator, which simplifies things for all involved. But just as Administrator rights make it easy to install new software, it also makes it easy for critical vulnerabilities and malware to spread.The report found: 86% of Critical vulnerabilities affecting Windows could be mitigated by removing admin rights. 99.5% of all vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer could be mitigated by removing admin rights. 82% of vulnerabilities affecting Microsoft Office could be mitigated by removing admin rights. 85% of Remote Code Execution vulnerabilities could be mitigated by removing admin rights. 82% of Critical vulnerabilities affecting Windows 10 could be mitigated by removing admin rights. 63% of all Microsoft vulnerabilities reported in 2015 could be mitigated by removing admin rights. The good news for business users is that your IT department has likely set your machine with a lower level of access that limits what can be done, including the installation of software with or Continue reading
0
What U.S. cities are most prone to malware infections, and why?
An anti-malware vendor has released a list of the 20 most infected cities around the U.S. in terms of malware, and the trend appears to be that cities not known for being technology centers are getting hit the hardest.Enigma Software, which develops the SpyHunter anti-spyware detection software, analyzed more than 25 million different infections on computers in the 150 largest cities in the U.S. and found 2015 was a big year for malware over prior years.Enigma came about its numbers via customers who have its software installed on their machines. The national average was 8.1%, meaning nationwide, but that comes from the number of infections divided by the city's entire population.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Samsung sued for not updating Android on older phones
The Dutch Consumers' Association (DCA), or Consumentenbond as it is known in its native land, is suing Samsung for not providing timely software updates to older models of its Android smartphones. The move was driven in part because Samsung has such a strong presence in Holland, and because Samsung is pretty bad about supporting old phones, as I've learned through personal experience.According to DCA's own research (PDF file), at least 82% of Samsung smartphones available in the Dutch market examined had not received any software updates to the latest version of Android in two years.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Windows 8, older Internet Explorer versions face end-of-life deadline this week
This week's Patch Tuesday will be the final time the Windows 8 OS and Internet Explorer versions 8, 9, and 10 see any more fixes. Microsoft is again making the necessary decision to cut the cord and let the aging browsers go, and it has begun urging users to upgrade.As always, the products will continue to work, they just won't be patched if a flaw or exploit is found. With this end-of-life patch, IE users will be given an upgrade notification informing them that the browser will no longer be supported and encouraging them to use the latest version. It's a similar ritual Microsoft had to go through with Windows XP two years ago.And, as it turns out, there are still a fair number of users of the old IE versions – around 19.8%, according to NetMarketShare analytics. So why are the old browser versions hanging on? Two reasons, I suspect.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
How Forbes inadvertently proved the anti-malware value of ad blockers
A few months back I postulated that Adblock Plus and other ad blocking software could act as protection against malware because they kept embedded malware in web pages from ever loading in your browser. Now, Forbes has proven me right.Forbes has taken an aggressive line against ad blockers. When it detects one running on your system, it denies you access to the content until you turn off the ad blocker. Needless to say, this hasn't gone over very well with some people.Forbes included a prominent security research in an article called "The Forbes 30 Under 30," which drew a number of other security researchers to check out the article. After disabling Adblock Plus, they were immediately served with pop-under malware. Security researcher Brian Baskin was the first to tweet about it and included a screen grab of the pop-under.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Windows 10 update didn’t remove spying utility, Microsoft just renamed it
One of the services at the heart of Windows 10's user information gathering (otherwise known as spying) that many thought was removed in the latest update to the operating system is, in fact, still there, doing what it always did.The Diagnostics Tracking Service, aka DiagTrack, was one of the main culprits in telemetry and other user activity gathering in Windows 10. It has been identified as a keylogger, although some people dispute that. Given the concerns around spying in Windows 10, just the accusation is damaging enough.See also: Windows 10 update deep dive: Big changes, minor tweaks, and common problems With the release of Build 10586, or Threshold 2, DiagTrack disappeared and there was much rejoicing. However, the white hat hackers at Tweakhound (and confirmed by BetaNews) have discovered that Microsoft merely renamed it to the Connected User Experiences and Telemetry service, which throws people off, along with all the utilities to turn off these services, like DoNotSpy10.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
How to avoid a data center overrun with idle servers
You've undoubtedly read, or at least seen the articles talking about "comatose" servers, servers in data centers that don't do any work and just sit idle. A study from Stanford University professor Jonathan Koomey and Jon Taylor, a partner at the consulting firm Athensis Group found that up to 30% of all physical servers in data centers do nothing all day long and no one notices.This is not a new discovery; it has been around for several years. In 2008, McKinsey & Co. released a similar study, finding that up to 30% of servers in data centers were as they put it "functionally dead." The Uptime Institute issued a similar report in 2012, finding around 30% of servers to be idle and not working.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
California governor vetoes bill punishing irresponsible drone users
After several incidents where irresponsible drone users interfered with firefighting planes, California looked poised to pass harsher penalties for the idiots who were endangering the planes. It seemed a no-brainer. Well, Governor Jerry Brown doesn't seem to have a brain.In three days, he signed a climate change bill, a gender pay equity law, a bill to combat racial profiling, and one legalizing assisted suicide. But he vetoed three bills that would have prohibited civilians from flying aerial drones over wildfires, schools, prisons, and jails.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Microsoft’s antivirus software sees massive improvement in tests
For the longest time, Microsoft's antivirus programs have brought up the rear in tests, usually ranking near or in dead last. But recent tests from two respected antivirus testers show Microsoft has greatly improved its antivirus product and in a very short time.Germany's AV-Test Institute is something like Consumer Reports for antivirus software. It is the gold standard for AV software testing, and a good review from them can make your product a success. And for quite some time, Microsoft Security Essentials has been a laggard. But for the August tests, the scores improved.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Microsoft’s Windows chief Myerson falls short of addressing Windows 10 spying concerns
After a month of stern accusations, including one from yours truly, the chief of Microsoft's Windows group addressed user concerns over privacy and information gathering in a blog post.Since its launch two months ago, Windows 10 has been dogged by a number of privacy concerns, ranging from machine IDs to keylogging to spying on your Cortana queries. Windows 7 and 8 were also drawn into the controversy, as Microsoft back-ported some of its telemetry gathering functions to the older operating systems, and the company was also found to be downloading the multigigabyte installation files to Windows 7 and Windows 8 machines without user permission.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
3 times Facebook has genuinely scared me
There's no doubt Facebook is a wonder of engineering, a site that brings on vast amounts of data for a user despite it being scattered throughout data centers and external sources. No question, Mark Zuckerberg and crew have engineered a marvel.But there are times when it really spooks me. It comes with friend recommendations. Somehow, this site has the capacity to recommend people that I know in real life but have absolutely no online connections to whatsoever. It's happened so often it can't be a coincidence, either. Three recent examples come to mind: Example 1: While closing the suggestion box for recommended friends, up popped the name of my acupuncturist, whom I haven't seen in six months. She is not in my Outlook contact list, only on my cellphone. Now, I frequently share stories about holistic news and have my naturopathic doctor among my friend's list, but why of the dozens of acupuncturists in northern Orange County did she come up?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
How Adblock Plus could work as malware protection
Last week I discussed one of the pros of ad blockers – how they could significantly reduce the amount of network traffic consumed by pesky advertising, especially auto-playing videos.As I said then and will repeat now, it's a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I don't blame users of ad blockers, now numbering close to 200 million worldwide. Ads are obnoxious. They aren't content to just be there, they have to grab you, oftentimes rudely. See also: Adblock Plus could improve network performance, too At the same time, Network World and every other tech news site lives and dies by ads, so I and everyone else published here (plus those folks behind the scenes) need you to see and click on those ads.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made
The usual bumps of an OS launch are understandable and forgivable, but some of the terms of the end user service agreement for Windows 10 put the NSA to shame.Microsoft is already getting heat after it was found that Windows 10 was being auto-downloaded to user PCs without warning, and more seriously, that it was using the Internet connections of Windows 10 users to deliver Windows 10 and updates to others.But there are worse offenders. Microsoft's service agreement is a monstrous 12,000 words in length, about the size of a novella. And who reads those, right? Well, here's one excerpt from Microsoft's terms of use that you might want to read:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Microsoft outlines Internet of Things plans for Windows 10
At the Computex show in Taipei last week, Microsoft outlined its plans for the Internet of Things (IoT) and how both Windows 10 and Azure will play a part in the strategy.The IoT news was just one of many announcements made as part of a bigger keynote by Nick Parker, corporate vice president of the OEM Division at Microsoft, who was joined by Tony Prophet, corporate vice president for Windows and Search Marketing, and Roanne Sones, general manager of Windows Engineering.Prophet discussed Microsoft's goal of having 1 billion devices running Windows 10 in the next two to three years. The first partner in that ambitious project is Toshiba, which will build "next-generation Windows- and Azure-powered IoT solutions."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
New ‘Internet of Animals’ actually seems useful for pet owners
And now for something completely different, courtesy of the country that definitely does things differently. Japan is rolling out Anicall (site is in Japanese), a social network for dogs and cats that it refers to as "The Internet of Animals."Anicall first rolled out in January at the first ever Wearable Expo in Japan, but more details were shared on the show "Great Gear" on NHK World, the English-language version of Japan's biggest broadcast network.Anicall works with your smartphone and a plastic collar for the pet. Instead of using GPS and Wi-Fi, the collar uses Bluetooth to communicate, giving it a much longer battery life.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here