Category: Tech

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Google Giveth And Taketh, 2019 Edition

Another few months, another round of Google killing and adding products. Coming just on the heels of the “Made by Google 2019” event in mid-October come a couple of products that are getting the Google Reader treatment. This time, it’s Google Daydream and Google Clips. Google Daydream Google Daydream was its phone-based VR lenses. Similar…
Google Will Automatically Delete Your (Worthless) Data

A little while ago, Google introduced the ability to automatically delete some of the data that it knows about you. While that seems like Google turning over a new more privacy-focused leaf, it might not be quite as meaningful as it first appeared. The setting, which you can find on Google’s Activity Controls Page, allows…
iOS vs Android: No Winner Here

My take on the current state of iOS vs. Android.
Monitor Password Breaches with Firefox Monitor

If you’ve been on the internet for more than a few months, you’ve probably heard about a large number of data breaches that have been happening recently. The website HaveIBeenPwned is a great resource that lets a visitor put in an email address and see whether or not that email address has been part of…
Digital Music Reader: Buying Guide [Updated Sept 2019]

With the newest iPads announced at Apple’s event just a few days ago, I thought that it might be worth updating my tablet recommendations since I first posted about using a tablet as a digital music reader years ago. iPads Although not everyone is an Apple fan, and certainly there are some legitimate complaints against…
Google Calendar Spam is 2019’s Junk Mail

Junk mail, spam email, robocalls, and now…spam Google calendar events. I had the delightful experience of getting some of this spam about 2 weeks ago. Basically I just saw a repeating event for “Win a new iPhone” every day at 6-9pm that endlessly repeated. While this is definitely an annoying thing to have happen, resist…
Open-source Dangers: Supply Chain Infection

For software security, many people prefer open-source software. It’s usually functional and inexpensive, although it’s not always pretty. It also (generally) has a reputation for being more secure than closed-source software. But a rash of supply chain attacks have infected many popular open-source projects. Oftentimes the infected code is small and innocuous. As part of…
Understanding Email Headers

One of the most popular ways for people to get infected by malware is through email. One of my first online jobs was working for a company that is involved in email spam filtering. I still work for that company occasionally, and while it’s true that the technology to filter email has gotten more advanced,…
Bluekeep: Bad to Very Bad

The Windows Bluekeep vulnerability was already bad. Now it’s even worse.
The Quest to Cripple Encryption

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but it looks like the Attorney General (as well as law enforcement in general) doesn’t understand how encryption works. At a cybersecurity conference at Fordham University in late July Barr lamented the expanding presence of encryption. In the speech, Barr is trying to play consumers (that use and benefit…