The Internet and the Attorney

Tim Green documents how the internet is changing the way lawyers work .

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Bartleby's Reference Collection

Bartleby is a collection from dictionaries and other books which might have been part of a library's reference collection.

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Avoiding Fraud

The National Consumer's League maintains Fraud.org a site that warns consumers of common scams.

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Medline

The U.S. National Library of Medicine offers Medline Plus , a consumer-friendly source of medical information packaged in a number of useful formats.

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Microsoft Office Updates Have Contractual Differences

Gregg Keizer reviews how Microsoft Office updates are distributed. Individual purchasers are updated by Microsoft on Microsoft's schedule, while corporate users have a degree of flexibility described in the article.

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Setting Up a Child User Account in Windows 10

Melissa Riofrio uses a video to demonstrate how to add a child account for Windows 10. In order to prove you are an adult who is authorized to establish an account, you need to use a credit card. You can also set a child up as a local user only, without access to Skype or other Microsoft internet products.

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U.S.Government Publications

The U.S. General Services Administration provides free or inexpensive pamphlets to the general public. Most are only available in electronic format, but some brochures are mailed without cost to support health or welfare initiatives.

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Cyber Security

Bruce Harpham reviews cyber security news from 2015 .

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Cleaning Your Phone

Florence Ion demonstrates how to clean your phone . Her commitment to daily cleaning with alcohol seems over-the-top -- unless one works in a hospital operating room.

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Windows 10 Laments

Woody Leonhard suggest that there are ten hurdles to Windows 10 adoption . These include:

1. Undocumented updates
2. No tools to block specific patches
3. No optional updates
4. Poor documentation
5. Weak privacy controls
6. Poor hardware support
7. Botched OneDrive
8. Edge needs a working back button
9. Surreptitiously takes control to update

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Wordpress Security Weaknesses

Mark Gibbs suggests that users should migrate away from Wordpress due to security flaws. He suggests several alternative technologies, most of which involve static (and thus simpler) website hosting.

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Boot Layer Defense

Agam Shah promotes Dell's boot layer defense against malware.

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Windows Market Share

Steven Vaughan-Nicols discusses the market share of Microsoft Windows.

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IBM Verse

Bob Brown gives readers announcements about IBM's messaging software, Verse . Verse, short for "Converse" creates a message store that responds to faceted search techniques.

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Dodging Malware

Andy Patrizio suggests that avoiding running your Windows computer in the default Administrator mode makes the laptop or PC far more resistent to malware. After several malware infestations that could only be cured by wiping the machine, I hit upon this trick, and it seems to have solved the problem for the past three years.

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Linux Mint Hacked

Ms. Smith reports that the server for Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon edition was hacked this weekend (February 20) and a backdoor was added, apparently by Bulgarians. Clement Lefebvre warns users to reinstall the operating system if they determine that they downloaded the software in this timeframe.

A concern which I have about the concept of software as a service or automatic updates is that vast numbers of users could be compromised if the server distributing the software or updates is hacked.

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Assuming Another's Identity

Paul McNamara suggests there are times when assuming the identity of a loved one is the most practical course of action. He uses the example of being a estate executor closing out a parent's account.

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Social Engineering

IDG.TV created a video explaining social engineering in a corporate context.

In my personal space, I have been plagued with landline phone calls by Asians claiming to be from "Microsoft Windows" who I assume are phishing for information or intend to scam my credit card. I just hang up, or tell the guy I have an Apple Mac.

-DD

Android Pundits Howell and Leung

Jason Howll is an Android pundit who shows interviewer J. R. Raphael the premier apps on his phone.

Other Google experts interviewed by Raphael include Benson Leung, a crusader for the correct implementation of USB-C, and Liam Spradlin, an app designer. And J.R. Raphael also shares how he uses Android in his daily life.

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Azure Internet of Things Hub

Blair Hanley Frank reports that Microsoft has released Azure Internet of Things Hub, a center for collecting sensor data. Frank reports that Microsoft is offering a free tier for tracking the data from up to 500 devices.

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Harassing Telemarketers

Katherine Noyes recounts the story of a frustrated telecom professional who created a bot to waste the time of telemarkers. In my mind, this raises ethical issues - what do you think?

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One Third of American Adults Not Getting Sufficient Sleep

One Third of American Adults Not Getting Sufficient Sleep





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The Brave Browser

Andy Patrizio lauds the new Brave web browser , which is based on Chrome and automatically blocks most ads. Patrizio observes that this should also lower the number of malware infestations, as these are often transmitted using ads. Brave is still in beta testing, and is not currently available for public download. Contact brave.com for more information.

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App Pricing

J. R. Raphael notes that the current low price of most mobile apps restricts how much support and development can be offered in the future. Raphael suggests that users pay more for apps. My own feeling is that the cost of apps should be kept low, but that support should be on a subscription or "per version" model. I agree with Paphael that indefinite support for a marginal price is not a sustainable model.

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Bing App Update

John Brandon extols the updated Bing app for offering better automatice barcode search and restaurant search.

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Web Browser Privacy Mode

Ms. Smith reports that privacy mode in some browsers actually offers extremely limited privacy to users.

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Malware Museum

Ian Paul discovered that the Internet Archive now maintains a display of cheeky DOS viruses in their museum.

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Teaching In A Christian College

Elizabeth Dickens shares her experience (and motivation) for teaching at an evengelical university .

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Microsoft Power BI

Faisal Mohamood reports that Microsoft's business Intelligence product, Power BI, now offers options for publishing directly to the web. Microsoft offers a free limited use version of the software for those who want to experiment with the platform.

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Bogus Support Calls Are Dangerous To Your Computer

Gregg Keizer shows that responding to bogus support calls can result in damage to your computer.

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Internet Explorer Use Declines

Gregg Keizer observes that the combinded market share of the Internet Explorer and Edge browsers is in decline, leaving the Microsoft browsers with a 46.9% market share. He notes that Google Chrome, which has a 35.1% market share, may eclipse IE/Edge before year-end. FireFox (11.4%) and Safari (4.6%) now have low market shares.

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Revive Your Slow Windows PC

Preston Gralla suggests ways to speed up Windows 10 . The general concepts apply to earlier versions of Windows as well.

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Organized Piracy In Academic Publishing

Simon Oxenham writes about organized piracy in academic publishing. The comments which follow the article range from condemning to supportive of Alexandra Elbakyan's work.

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Using Fonts

Laura Solomon provides tips on using fonts in web design.

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How Virtual Assistants Work

Mike Elgin explains that virtual assistants such as Siri, Cortana and Alexa are pre-programmed with phrasing and responses that experts would provide.

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Rushing With Technology

Judy Wajcman muses on the sense of hurry that many people feel in high-tech cultures. The promise of "time saving devices" has escaped us because our productivity expectations increase.

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Under Five Degrees of Separation

Jonah Bromwich reports on a Facebook study which discovered that Facebook friends need to traverse a chain of less than five "friends of friends" to reach a specific stranger on Facebook. The majority of Bromwich's article was on the history of the concept of "Six Degrees of Separation."

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Fourth Industrial Revolution

The World Economic Forum predicts the future of jobs in a new report which examines the effect of technology on the workforce. Women have become a major part of the workforce as a result of automation and the proliferation of white collar job, and this trend will continue. Patrick Nelson offers a summary.

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Adjuct Faculty

Nicole Matos shares the virtues of adjunct faculty to a university.

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Privacy Settings In Windows 10

Preston Gralla provides advice for protecting privacy when using Windows 10 .

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Cruel Comments

Thomas Batt warns instructors to avoid cruel comments when evaluating student work.

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Preparing for Standardized Tests

Shelly Terrell suggests ways teachers can help student prepare for standardized tests .

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Google's Project Fi

J. R. Raphael evaluates Google's Project Fi.

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Free Image Storage

Brandon Butler lists opportunities for free image storage in the cloud.

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Telecommuting

Allen, Golden & Shockley assessed telecommuting and determined that the loss of contact with friends in the workplace may impact a worker's mood.

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Creating Web Resources With Google Docs

Chris Aviles instructs how to create a podcast using Google Drive.

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WiFi Hotspot Review

Brian Nadel reviews five mobile hotspots for road warriors.

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Data Analysts Are In Demand

Katherine Noyes notes that data analysts or data scientists are in high demand. This is in part due to the flood of data being developed by sensors and new technologies.

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Brevity and Wit

Lucy Ferriss suspects that Twitter raising its 140 character limit will reduce the charm and wit of its posts.

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Unified Work Environment

John Brandon extols the benefits of a single computing environment , in this case using Apple technology.

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Advice for Travelers in the Air

Melissa Locker offers tips for air travelers .

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Managing Citations in Google Docs

Amy Cavender discusses reference management software . Cavender says:

I’m a long-time user of Zotero, and I’ve often recommended it to my students (sometimes I’ve even required them to use it for an assignment). I’ll continue to recommend it.

Recently, though, I’ve found that Zotero doesn’t always work well for the way I want to work with my PDFs: I want to be able to read and annotate them on mobile devices, across platforms.

To deal with PDFs in a Google Docs environment, she recommends an app called PaperPile. Commentators continue to praise Endnote for other environments.

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Preventing Equipment Theft

Michael Trucano provides methods for safeguarding computer equipment - or at least for avoiding the blame for the equipment's abscence.

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Microsoft Sway

Blair Hanley Frank mentions an automatic backup feature added to Microsoft Sway . Sway is a part of Office 2016, and it is "designed to create interactive, Web-friendly presentations, without all of the complexity packed into PowerPoint."

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Quantum Computing's Promise

Katherine Noyes comments on the potential of quantum computing for solving resource-intensive problems.

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Influencing Others

Robert Cialdini shares common techniques to influence others . The statistical data provided adds credibility to his list of factors influencing behavior:

1. Reciprocity
2. Scarcity
3. Authority
4. Consistency
5. Liking
6. Consensus

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Contracts for Independent Contractors

Ted Devine suggests that independent contractors should attend to the details of their contracts with firms. A lack of clarity at the front of a relationship can cause problems at a later date.

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Best Search Engines

Paul Gil recommends the best search engines for consumers. His list includes:

1. Dogpile
2. Yippy
3. Bing
4. DuckDuckGo
5. Google Scholar
6. Ask
7. Mahalo
8. Webopedia
9. Yahoo
10. Internet Archive
11. Google

-DD