April 2015

Show me the programs that you run on your computer and I tell you who you are. While it may not be that easy all the time, it is fair to say that programs can tell you a lot about the user.

For instance, programs can reveal if a user is a webmaster or developer, privacy or security conscious, or interested in entertainment more than anything else.

The favorite programs, applications that you cannot live without and use regularly, may reveal the most about you.

Public DNS services may offer advantages over the DNS servers used natively by Internet Providers. These advantages may not be limited to speed only as you may get additional functionality on top of that.

This may include filtering options, for instance to block malicious sites or phishing sites straight away, but also options to bypass network or country-wide Internet filters.

ISPs in Spain for instance blocked access to The Pirate Bay website recently on the DNS level and a workaround for that was to switch to a global DNS service to access the site again.

HTTPS Everywhere is a browser extension that is published by the Electronic Frontier Foundation that improves privacy and security by enforcing the use of the HTTPS protocol on websites supporting it.

It is of specific use when you are connecting to sites or services that support http and https depending on how you access the site and its contents.

Version 5 of HTTPS Everywhere has been released this week to the public introducing thousands of new rules in the program.

Have you ever cleaned up the computer of a friend, relative or customer that was filled to the brim with adware and potentially unwanted software?

If there is lots of unwanted software installed, you are in for a long clean-up session as you need to remove programs and browser extensions, and restore system and browser settings as well.

Sometimes, it might make more sense to format the whole computer and start anew.

The recent history of the TrueCrypt encryption software is a strange one. First, there was a crowdfunding campaign to get the software audited for security issues in 2013 after Edward Snowden leaked classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) starting June 2013.

Then in May 2014, an announcement was published on the TrueCrypt website claiming that TrueCrypt was not secure anymore and that users should find another program to use for that purpose.

I did use 7-Zip in the past for all archiving needs under Windows until I ran into issues extracting new RAR archive files which 7-Zip does not support.

While the author of the program released beta versions fairly regularly, no stable version has been released since 2009.

I switched to Bandizip, an excellent file archiver supporting all major formats including the new RAR format because of this.

Global hotkeys can be quite useful on a system for instance to open the System Control Panel with Windows-Pause, to copy the screen to the Clipboard with the Print-key, or to open the Task Manager with Ctlr-Shift-Esc.

Like 802.11n, the IEEE released a draft of the amendment before its final release. These early devices are known as “Wave 1”. Unless you 11ac router is less than a year old, it falls into this category. The final release was in January 2014 and the subsequent equipment known as “Wave 2”.

The majority of this article will compare 11ac to 11n because it really is an enhancement of 11n.

Let’s start with what 11ac doesn’t do:

Every version of Windows ships with a list of installed services that control features of the operating system.

While some are essential for the operating system others are optional or only required if specific functionality is required.

For instance, if you don't have a printer connected to the computer and never print on it, you may not need toe Print Spooler service.

The same is true for other services such as Remote Registry or Remote Desktop, Bluetooth Support, Bitlocker Drive Encryption or Fax.

As a kid, I spend most of my money playing arcade games such as Galaga, Space Invaders or Asteroids.

Even though I was a bit late to the party, I enjoyed those games a lot not only because they offered something different but also because of the arcade feeling, the constant noise and the atmosphere in general.

NewRetroArcade brings the 80s and early 90s back to life. You could say that established front-ends such as MAME do that as well and you are partially right in that.