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Tech News & Commentary
Vince in Albuquerque, New Mexico listens to the Podcast asked us: “There is a continual threat going on with the Internet Explorer, I know there’s Firefox, Chrome. I’m running Windows 7 on my desktop PC. My question is what is the recommended safer browser to use so someone won’t get these threats or hacks. I heard on the news that they’re strongly recommending that we don’t use Internet Explorer at all.”
Vince, Firefox and Chrome right now are the safest to use in regards to security. You might need to download a few add-ons on Firefox to get the extra attention but it will it give you the security as well as with Google Chrome. The Department of Homeland Security advises to use alternative browsers while Microsoft fixes security issues.
One advantage Chrome has going for it is that it auto-updates, it doesn’t really prompt you and tell you “hey, there’s an update, would you like install it now or keep clicking Not Now forever?” instead you close it, open it again, and it’s running a newer version that it never told you about, that means that, for the most part, Chrome users are always running the latest stable version of the browser without having to really go out of their way to update, the only exception are the people who literally never close the browser, they would have to go to a menu and select to update it manually (or just close it and reopen it), but most users are always up-to-date.
Of course, an auto-update feature isn’t unique to Chrome, Firefox has done that for a while also. Chrome simply does it silently without telling you that it’s happened, while Firefox makes a point of displaying an upgrade screen to tell you what’s new.
We use a mix of Firefox and Chrome, and find a lot to like about both browsers. If you are a hardcore Google fan and believe that you can’t spell email without “G-mail,” then Chrome is probably the better choice. It does a better job of integrating seamlessly with your Google accounts.
But if Google seems a little too “big brother” to you, using Firefox is a wise choice as well. As long as you’re not using Internet Explorer, which Microsoft seems completely unable to make safe.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
“Into Gaming Update” Weekly Feature with Mark Lautenschlager
Tom in Columbus, Ohio and listening via the Podcast sent us the following comment: “I teach at a middle school. In the morning kids come in and would like to play music as they enter homeroom. What I’m looking for is an iApp that could start a playlist at a specified time. Now here’s the trick, it needs to start to the nearest second. I know its easy to find one to the nearest minute, but i gotta have it to the nearest second because at the time the last song finishes and the tardy bell rings. Please Help me”
Tom, We actually haven’t found any apps that can start a playlist with that level of accuracy… We’re sorry to have to tell you this, but you might have to either do it manually, or get some kind of dedicated device other than your smartphone to do it.
This would be a great time for our listeners to chime in… do you know something we don’t? Are there any apps out there that do what Tom needs? Let us know at 1-800-899-4686.
If what you’re looking for is something that can start playing a song at a specific time, and the “to the second” can be the start of any given minute, why not look at some of the alarm apps that can play songs from your iTunes library. Two that come to mind are Playlist Alarm Clock and AlarmTunes. Both cost around a buck, and both will let you set an alarm that begins playing music rather than an alarm sound.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Guest Segment:
Robin Wilton, Technical Outreach Director for Identity and Privacy – Internet Society
“IFA History Feature” brought to you by Messe-Berlin
The history of electronic exhibitions began on December 4th 1924 with the German Radio Show in Berlin in Germany, where the art of engineering was most advanced. The event attracted more than 200 exhibitors to display the new technical wonder machines on an area measuring 75,000 sq. feet. The public was excited; more than 180,000 people came to this event. They were fascinated by the detectors and the first valve radio receivers on show and to the fantastic new world of listening to something transmitted from distant locations to their home. The show still exists as IFA and is the biggest CE show in the world.
Larry in San Jose, California asked: “Some company called Netmax Communications says that all the hype about privacy with social media is bunk. They claim that even cloud situations are not private. Is there a way to keep doing business and protect ourselves from the agony of social media knowing everything we do and then sending it to everyone?”
It depends on what you mean, Larry. If you mean sites like Facebook, they make money by publicizing your pretend life, so… they won’t stop.
If you’re making actual dollars from using them, keep using them and deal with the fact that you’re exchanging privacy for money, if you’re not making actual, real world, tangible dollars from them, then why use them? they’re a time suck and time is limited, dedicate that time to actual money making endeavours.
If you mean “cloud situations” like Dropbox or enterprise clouds, treat anything that goes through a third party as public, since you don’t control the protocols and implementations that keep that data private. True enterprise solutions are far, far more robust and trustworthy than consumer-level services, partly because you can’t work with distributed sites if it means publicizing information that can threaten your business’ survival or even people’s lives, and partly because they’re paying a lot of money to keep things that way. Those cloud services require very expensive infrastructure, very expensive monitoring, and are typically only used by large corporations that are likely to face some kind of attack at some point.
If you’re dealing with low risk information, you should be safe enough using services like Dropbox, if you’re dealing with delicate information and you don’t have particularly aggressive and well funded competitors, you should be safe enough using a VPN to access your private network. If you’re dealing with sensitive information that someone may try to get their hands on, then you should be making it very hard to access and you should make sure there’s a chain of responsibility so, it’s up to you to determine what risk is reasonable.
If your concern is Facebook and those kinds of sites, you’re not a customer, you’re a product, they make money by selling your eyes or your information to advertisers, so they won’t be making any big effort to make things more private that they absolutely have to be to keep from losing users, if using them is not making you money, then just stop using them, otherwise you pay for their service with some of your privacy.
To our knowledge, cloud storage providers like Dropbox do not examine the contents of the data you store with them, nor do they sell any information about it to third parties. So if you’re just using a cloud storage provider for backup or file sharing, you shouldn’t been seeing anything related to that showing up on Facebook or any other social media. If you are, then your computer might be infected with some kind of malware that is tracking your activity and reporting it to Internet marketing services.
If what you’re asking is how you can both use Facebook and not have Facebook track what you do using Facebook, we have to say that’s like being a “little bit pregnant.” You’re either on Facebook or you’re not. There isn’t any middle ground. It sounds from your question as though you don’t care for social media, so we would suggest that you handle this in the simplest way possible and refrain from signing up for a Facebook or Twitter account (or Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, or really anything else that involves teenagers taking selfies).
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
If you have any questions about any of this week’s show info, please email us here.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Joanne Black: Autographed copies of her book “Pick up the damn phone”
Hydreon:Fake TV – Burglary Deterrent Device
iolo: Copies of System Mechanic – Tune-up your PC to increase performance and reliability.
Tylt: ALIN Screen Protectors for the iPad Air
“Into Tomorrow”: Microfiber Screen Cleaning Cloths with Dave’s cartoon on them, for all your smartphones, tablets, TVs, camera lenses and computer screens!