sman

Avast Online Security and Avast Secure Browser are spying on you "https://palant.de/2019/10/28/avast-online-security-and-avast-secure-browser-are-spying-on-you/" Are you one of the allegedly 400 million users of Avast antivirus products? Then I have bad news for you: you are likely being spied upon. The culprit is the Avast Online Security extension that these products urge you to install in your browser for maximum protection. But even if you didn’t install Avast Online Security yourself, it doesn’t mean that you aren’t affected. This isn’t obvious but Avast Secure Browser has Avast Online Security installed by default. It is hidden from the extension listing and cannot be uninstalled by regular means, its functionality apparently considered an integral part of the browser. Avast products promote this browser heavily, and it will also be used automatically in “Banking Mode.” Given that Avast bought AVG a few years ago, there is also a mostly identical AVG Secure Browser with the built-in AVG Online Security extension. When Avast Online Security extension is active, it will request information about your visited websites from an Avast server. In the process, it will transmit data that allows reconstructing your entire web browsing history and much of your browsing behavior. The amount of data being sent goes far beyond what’s necessary for the extension to function, especially if you compare to competing solutions such as Google Safe Browsing. Avast Privacy Policy covers this functionality and claims that it is necessary to provide the service. Storing the data is considered unproblematic due to anonymization (I disagree), and Avast doesn’t make any statements explaining just how long it holds on to it.

I would suggest 'Slimjet' for Windows.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SlimBrowser

Passive-Aggressive Email Phrases: Here's What They Really Mea "https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/18-passive-aggressive-email-phrases-heres-what-they-really-mean.html" 1. "Thanks in advance." Translation: I'm already thanking you for doing me this favor, even though you haven't yet agreed to it. Therefore, you must do it. 2. " ... I'd be most grateful." As in, "If you could respond to this inquiry any time within the next 24 hours, I'd be so grateful." Another form of thanking someone in advance, with the same expected result. 3. "Can I send you some information?" This is a classic sales technique that, as someone who gets lots of pitches, can drive me straight up the wall. If you're going to mail me a book, it makes sense to ask my permission first. For anything else, the investment on your end is exactly the same whether you send me an email asking to send information or just go ahead and email the information. The only purpose of asking first is to create some sort of commitment that I'll pay attention to that information. And to waste everyone's time with two emails instead of one.

Water-based Air Conditioner cools without harmful Chemicals "https://www.rtoz.org/2018/01/20/water-based-air-conditioner-cools-without-harmful-chemicals/" A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has pioneered a new water-based air-conditioning system that cools air to as low as 18 degrees Celsius without the use of energy-intensive compressors and environmentally harmful chemical refrigerants. This game-changing technology could potentially replace the century-old air-cooling principle that is still being used in our modern-day air-conditioners. https://youtu.be/PkqWVIa0ANQ A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has pioneered a new water-based air-conditioning system that cools air to as low as 18 degrees Celsius without the use of energy-intensive compressors and environmentally harmful chemical refrigerants. This game-changing technology could potentially replace the century-old air-cooling principle that is still being used in our modern-day air-conditioners. Suitable for both indoor and outdoor use, the novel system is portable and it can also be customised for all types of weather conditions. The research team’s novel air-conditioning system is cost-effective to produce, and it is also more eco-friendly and sustainable. The system consumes about 40 per cent less electricity than current compressor-based air-conditioners used in homes and commercial buildings. This translates into more than 40 per cent reduction in carbon emissions. In addition, it adopts a water-based cooling technology instead of using chemical refrigerants such as chlorofluorocarbon and hydrochlorofluorocarbon for cooling, thus making it safer and more environmentally-friendly. To add another feather to its eco-friendliness cap, the novel system generates potable drinking water while it cools ambient air. Protection for pacemakers ETH scientists have developed a special protective membrane made of cellulose that significantly reduces the build-up of fibrotic tissue around cardiac pacemaker implants, as reported in the current issue of the journal Biomaterials. Their development could greatly simplify surgical procedures for patients with cardiac pacemakers. "Every pacemaker has to be replaced at some point. When this time comes, typically after about five years when the device's battery expires, the patient has to undergo surgery," explains Aldo Ferrari, Senior Scientist in ETH Professor Dimos Poulikakos's group and at Empa. "If too much fibrotic tissue has formed around the pacemaker, it complicates the procedure," he explains. In such cases, the surgeon has to cut into and remove this excess tissue. Not only does that prolong the operation, it also increases the risk of complications such as infection. Microstructure reduces fibrotic tissue formation Edit - added articles

After four years, Rust-based Redox OS is nearly self-hosting "https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/11/29/after_four_years_rusty_os_nearly_selfhosting/" A better operating system thanks to Rust's combination of safety and performance? The Redox OS, written in Rust and currently under development, is only "a few months of work away" from self-hosting, meaning that the Rustc compiler would run on Redox itself, according to its creator Jeremy Soller. Soller, who is also a principal engineer at the Linux hardware company System76, based in Denver, USA, says that he is now running Redox OS permanently on one of his company's laptops, with "full support for the keyboard, touchpad, storage and Ethernet". Redox will be a desktop operating system first, but both embedded and server uses are envisaged eventually. Redox has a POSIX-compliant C library written in Rust, called relibc. It is Linux-compatible both at the syscall API level and at the syscall ABI (Application binary interface) level, subject to the same architecture. You can also run Redox applications on Linux. There is a shell called ion. There is a desktop environment called Orbital, and applications already include a calculator, file browser, image viewer, terminal emulator, 3D renderer, and a vi-like editor called Sodium. It is best described as experimental and not in line to replace any existing OS for the time being. Still, if Rust continues to grow in popularity, its characteristics of safety and unimpeded performance seem ideal for creating a new operating system, so perhaps Redox will become more prominent. ®

Microsoft: We're creating a new Rust-based programming language for secure coding "https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-were-creating-a-new-rust-based-programming-language-for-secure-coding/" Microsoft's Project Verona involves creating a new language for "safe infrastructure programming" to be open-sourced soon. Microsoft can't throw away old Windows code, but the company's research under Project Verona is aiming to make Windows 10 more secure with its recent work on integrating Mozilla-developed Rust for low-level Windows components. The company recently revealed that its trials with Rust over C and C++ to remove insecure code from Windows had hit its targets. But why did Microsoft do this? The company has partially explained its security-related motives for experimenting with Rust, but hasn't gone into much detail about the reasons for its move.

There is always a catch, when anything is offered 'free'.. One cannot have the cake and eat t too.. if one wants to stick with Windows, have to live with any data harvesting to go with it.. So, this will be great news for Windows users on older versions..

You can only go by what the VPN provider says so, but there are instances of VPN's breach of trust. On this check - Does a VPN Really Protect My Privacy? "https://www.pcwrt.com/2018/08/does-a-vpn-really-protect-my-privacy/" In conclusion, while a VPN may help you to hide your activities from the ISP, bypass any IP address based restrictions, and possibly enhance security when you are connected to public WiFi, in general it does not necessarily provide a more secure connection. Nor does it make you completely anonymous. Can VPNs Really Be Trusted? "https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/security-data-protection/cyber-security/can-vpns-really-be-trusted/"

Why the free upgrade to Windows 10 still works … "https://borncity.com/win/2019/11/30/why-the-free-upgrade-to-windows-10-still-works/" [German]Some users are aware that the free upgrade from Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.1 for private users (in the home and professional versions) to Windows 10 still works. Now there is an unofficial explanation. The facts If you are still working on an older Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1, you can download a new Windows 10 installation file via Media Creation Tool and then upgrade from the current Windows 7/8.1. Afterwards you simply reinstall Windows 10 and use the product key of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. Windows 10 should be able to be activated with it. This is even described in the Microsoft Answers forum. This tip has been passed around in various forums and websites since the end of the free upgrade offer in July 2016 (see my German blog post Windows 10: Gratis-Upgrade läuft am 31.12.2017 aus). Many observers speculated about what this was all about and when it would end. Microsoft had already let the free upgrade for people with disabilities continue (see Doch noch gratis Windows 10-Upgrade nach dem 29.7.2016?). But still free Windows 10 upgrade after 29.7.2016?). In addition, corporate customers with volume license programs are out of this question anyway – they are allowed to upgrade and downgrade anyway, with corresponding contracts. Unofficial truth released by a Microsoft Employee It probably starts with ‘The cat is out of the bag’, and then a user who claims to be working at Microsoft on Reddit describes why the free upgrade still works. I work at Microsoft and have been since before the Windows 10 launch. That whole “free” upgrade for a year was fully marketing fluff. After the cut off happened, the direction given was that it requires a paid license HOWEVER, this was brought up by the brick and mortar stores that they were doing simple clock changes on customer devices during the upgrade challenge to get around it and then ultimately it was clear two years later that anything Windows 7 and up would go to 10 fully activated and still to this day. In short: After the expiry of the official free upgrade offer, the motto was officially issued that you now need a chargeable product key. But the whole thing was a marketing trick, which came up due to the pressure of the trade. They feared for sales of Windows 10 packages and devices and urged that the ‘free upgrade’ expire after one year. Internally, the then head of the Windows Developer Group (WDG), Terry Meyerson, had other ideas. He was particularly concerned about the 1 billion Windows 10 installations he had announced for 2018. The Microsoft employee writes on reddit: WDG didn’t care pretty much at all because Terry Meyerson at the time cared more about his upgrade stats than license revenue as Windows isn’t Microsoft’s cash cow anymore. It’s the same stance back in the day where Microsoft would allow Windows Updates on pirated copies of Windows 7 as the bigger picture was to thwart security threats based from those copies. You still can do this no problem, however careful, do an upgrade keeping everything as if you choose to yeet everything and start fresh, you lose your free upgrade. That old 7 license converts to a 10 digital license and from there you can clean install no problem. As for audits, this mainly is for volume licensing than anything. An SMB with 10-200 Windows 7 machines that were OEM licensed don’t really matter. If you try this with 1,000 computers, iffy. At the end of the day, Microsoft had four years to close that loophole and never did so if worse came to worse, you could technically go through legal avenues as the EULA for 10 literally doesn’t have a clause for this at all. You can’t ***** on someone taking advantage of an activation workaround when you as the manufacturer never closed it. In the last paragraph, he also discusses the topic of business customers and auditing – which have OEM licenses. Ok, this is not an official position of Microsoft and they would rather seed doubts, that you will never get a valid license for Windows. But it’s the best explanation for the free upgrade even after 4 years – Microsoft didn’t do anything to close this hole. There is a 2nd explanation, why Microsoft ended the official ‘free upgrade period’: Microsoft does not permanently give away a paid product because the lost turnover and lost profit must be communicated to the investors. The operational loss due to the free upgrade between 7.2015 and 7.2016 was 2 billion US dollars, Microsoft lost 1.4 billion profit. (via)

Nothing is ultimate.. How 100m has evolved over time, pushing human limits.. Technology will keep evolving and come up with surprises, not thought of.. let's welcome breakthrough's which can make life easier and more meaningful..

More info in "https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190620100015.htm" In the home, energy savings from efficient lighting and appliances have been completely wiped out by increased use of computers and gadgets, and by 2025 a 'tsunami of data' is expected to consume a fifth of global electricity. But this new device would immediately reduce peak power consumption in data centres by a fifth. It would also allow, for example, computers which do not need to boot up and could instantaneously and imperceptibly go into an energy-saving sleep mode -- even between key stokes. The device is the realisation of the search for a "Universal Memory" which has preoccupied scientists and engineers for decades.

Selective patching effectiveness?? feedback from users would help..

Discovery of a 'holy grail' with the invention of universal computer memory "https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=19/06/20/1821219" [An] electronic memory device -- described in research published in Scientific Reports -- promises to transform daily life with its ultra-low energy consumption. [...] The device is the realisation of the search for a "Universal Memory" which has preoccupied scientists and engineers for decades. Physics Professor Manus Hayne of Lancaster University said: "Universal Memory, which has robustly stored data that is easily changed, is widely considered to be unfeasible, or even impossible, but this device demonstrates its contradictory properties." A US patent has been awarded for the electronic memory device with another patent pending, while several companies have expressed an interest or are actively involved in the research. The inventors of the device used quantum mechanics to solve the dilemma of choosing between stable, long-term data storage and low-energy writing and erasing. The device could replace the $100bn market for Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), which is the 'working memory' of computers, as well as the long-term memory in flash drives. [...] Professor Hayne said: "The ideal is to combine the advantages of both without their drawbacks, and this is what we have demonstrated. Our device has an intrinsic data storage time that is predicted to exceed the age of the Universe, yet it can record or delete data using 100 times less energy than DRAM."

This New Chip Could Bridge The Gap Between Classical And Quantum Computing "https://www.sciencealert.com/new-chip-promises-to-bridge-the-gap-between-classical-and-quantum-computing" Quantum computers exist today, although they're limited, cut-down versions of what we hope fully blown quantum computers are going to be able to do in the future. But now, researchers have developed hardware for a 'probabilistic computer' – a device that might be able to bridge the gap between genuine quantum computers and the standard PCs and Macs we have today. The special trick that a probabilistic computer can do is to solve quantum problems without actually going quantum, as it were. It does this using a p-bit, which the team behind this research describes as a "poor man's qubit".

This Japanese hotel room costs $1 a night. The catch? You have to livestream your stay "https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/livestream-hotel-room-japan-intl-hnk/index.html"

@exile360My needs are simple, trading and general purpose browsing, while you have a larger criteria software & gaming to cater to. So, any OS switch has to be in line with one's need. Agreed Linux is not alternative to Windows. I would in-fact watch out for Redox OS which seems to hold lot of promise with a distinct approach..

Tks for all the info @exile360. I'm not a gamer and trading occupies large chunk of the day for me from 9am - midnight . so can't add anything from my side. But how long browsers will continue to support Win 7 for latest media plays?? And prime video doesn't run on Chromium as I face problems in using prime video in my Linux distro with chromium and have to switch to FF based distro to run Prime..Even I face problems with playing some media under chromium in FB , twitter etc. while using Slax OS..9and have to download the part media and run it in a new browser tab- an irritant).. Edit - the problem with prime is due to the need for DRM compliance, and browsers which support it and recognised by Prime.. And when it's latest media plays it's about the media codecs supported by browser and also Flash support which is under phasing out..

After EOL, w/o brower updates, running latest media , netflix, prime video etc. would become a problem. yes, know that you use sea monkey (which is not in the list of supported browsers for Prime Video) but still further up, will face issues in media play even in FB, twitter etc. Prepare to pay In a blog post by Microsoft 365 Corporate VP Jared Spataro, it was announced that from January 14, 2020 a monthly fee, that doubles each year, will be implemented for Windows 7 users in order to keep their computers safe. Unfortunately, this offering is only available to Windows 7 Professional customers in Volume licensing. So the everyday user running Windows 7 Home will not be applicable. A pricing plan obtained by ZDNet for Windows 7 Support is as followed: • Year 1 (January 2020 - January 2021): $50 per device, with Windows 10 Enterprise add-on rate of $25. • Year 2 (January 2021 - January 2022): $100 per device, with Windows 10 Enterprise add-on rate of $50. • Year 3 (January 2022 - January 2023): $200 per device, with Windows 10 Enterprise add-on rate of $100. While this increasing payment model was created to incentivize Windows 7 users to upgrade, the option to hold on to your preferred platform remains if you’re willing to pay for it. Whatever you choose to do, we hope these tips help!

@exile360Dx12 and Win 7 compatibility vs win10 is different.. There are, however, some limits to support. Only 64-bit Windows 7 with SP1 installed is supported. There’s no PIX or D3D12 debug layer on Windows 7, no shared surfaces or cross-API interop, no SLI/LDA support, no D3D12 video, and no WARP support. According to Microsoft, “HDR support is orthogonal to D3D12 and requires DXGI/Kernel/DWM functionalities on Windows 10 but not on Windows 7.” This seems to imply that HDR content can work in Windows 7, but it may be on the developer to implement it properly. "https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/297092-microsoft-makes-it-easier-to-bring-directx-12-games-to-windows-7" There are technical differences between DX12 on Windows 7 and DX12 on Windows 10. DirectML (Direct Machine Learning) is not supported under Windows 7, but all other features implemented in the October 2018 Windows 10 update are supported. There are differences in terms of API usage (D3D12 on Windows 7 uses different Present APIs), and some fence usage patterns are also unsupported. There are, however, some limits to support. Only 64-bit Windows 7 with SP1 installed is supported. There’s no PIX or D3D12 debug layer on Windows 7, no shared surfaces or cross-API interop, no SLI/LDA support, no D3D12 video, and no WARP support. According to Microsoft, “HDR support is orthogonal to D3D12 and requires DXGI/Kernel/DWM functionalities on Windows 10 but not on Windows 7.” This seems to imply that HDR content can work in Windows 7, but it may be on the developer to implement it properly. Microsoft has published additional resources on the topic, including a NuGet package and a D3D12 code sample that runs on Windows 7 and 10 with the same binary. Why Make DX12 More Accessible? This is honestly a little surprising to see. Windows 7 is supposed to be headed for firm retirement in a matter of months. The implication here is that Microsoft is taking this step to cater to gamers that are still using Windows 7, but the Steam Hardware Survey suggests that’s a distinct minority of gamers. Windows 10 has a 71.57 percent market share according to the SHS, while Windows 7 64-bit is pegged at 20.4 percent. What’s interesting here is that the SHS actually tilts much more towards Windows 10 than a generic OS survey. Chinese-Desktop-Market-Share StatCounter data puts Windows 10 at 58.63 percent of the market as of July, compared with 31.22 percent of Windows 10. This suggests that gamers tend to update their hardware more quickly than the mass market, which makes sense. But from what we’ve read, the Windows 7 gamers may be concentrated in China, where it remains the most popular OS. 49.46 percent of Chinese gamers are using Windows 7, compared with just 41.13 percent of PC gamingSEEAMAZON_ET_135 See Amazon ET commerce occurring under Windows 10. Even if we assume Chinese gamers are more likely to be using Windows 10 — and it’s not clear they are — there’s still a much larger share of users in that nation. It’s not clear at all how Microsoft is going to deal with that problem as it relates to overall support, but it could be that this is Microsoft’s way of providing a certain degree of backward-compatibility without being willing to do anything equivalent as far as continuing to provide security features. Microsoft wants its customer base — all of it — to be Windows 10. It’s surprising to see the company extending DX12 backward, but we’d be stunned if they granted Windows 7 a stay of reprieve and kept publishing patches for it. MS could also be hoping to encourage devs to adopt DX12 more widely. Three years after debut, neither DX12 nor Vulkan has done much to revolutionize APIs or gaming. Developers do use the APIs, but we’ve seen comparatively little use of them to pull off anything unique. The need to support older hardware and a wide range of users, plus the fact that these APIs require developers to be more familiar with the underlying hardware, seems to be a drag on their overall usage.

Gr8 news indeed, Ron.. And what about Redox OS which is said to be distinct to iron out the gaps even with Linux??

AMD's Ryzen Gang Is Currently Clobbering Intel On Amazon's CPU Sales Chart "https://hothardware.com/news/intel-ryzen-sales-domination-amazon-intel-zen" Your room can be as bright as the outdoors "https://www.benkuhn.net/lux" Deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's might disrupt swimming ability "https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-parkinsons-swimming/deep-brain-stimulation-for-parkinsons-might-disrupt-swimming-ability-idUSKBN1Y12K6" Boeing 777X’s fuselage split dramatically during September stress test "https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/boeing-777xs-fuselage-split-dramatically-during-september-stress-test/" You watch TV. Your TV watches back. In our latest privacy experiment, we tracked how four of the most popular TV brands record everything we watch "https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/09/18/you-watch-tv-your-tv-watches-back/"

Jor1k: Run Linux in the browser with multicore and network support (github.com) "https://github.com/s-macke/jor1k" jor1k is a OpenRISC 1000 emulator written in JavaScript running Linux. It runs in almost any modern web browser. Have a try and see if it runs in your browser by opening the demo. More information can be found on the Wiki pages. @exile360

It's not only about OS support, once EOL is reached, slowly browsers & apps too will follow suit to drift away and stop support for OS (as happened with XP)..So, inevitably OS shift will become a necessity and unavoidable. Edit - @exile360 Operating Systems: Rust Redox – An Next-Generation Attempt to Plug Linux OS Gaps "http://formtek.com/blog/operating-systems-rust-redox-an-next-generation-attempt-to-plug-linux-os-gaps/" Rust is a language developed by Mozilla to help developers be more productive in writing all sorts of software. Even the software for operating systems which normally tends to be written in languages like C or assembly for optimized performance. A group of developers have decided to try to use Rust to build a ‘next-generation’ operating system. Linux is the model, but the goal is to rethink and re-implement to improve the existing capabilities of Linux. Redox Os is MIT-licensed open source. And it is small, coming in at just 26MB out of the box. The goal was to build a microkernel that shipped with the bare minimum of capabilities but which could be expanded, as needed, depending on the requirements of a project. The Redox documentation says that “…we will not replicate the mistakes made by others. This is probably the most important tenet of Redox. In the past, bad design choices were made by Linux, Unix, BSD, HURD, and so on. We all make mistakes, that’s no secret, but there is no reason to repeat others’ mistakes.” An interesting abstraction in Redox is the idea that everything is like a URL. This is a change from Linux’s idea that every item is a file. It simplifies how handlers are registered and provides more consistency.