Techbyter Worldwide (formerly Technology Corner) With Bill Blinn

Microsoft and Adobe are gigantic, but are they as evil as some would have us believe? Big doesn’t always mean bad, so let’s take a look. In Short Circuits: What might the prosecution say in making the case that Adobe, Microsoft, or both are evil. I tried to work out what cases might be made.

Doctored images, deep-fake videos, and disinformation have us surrounded, so now it’s time to identify the ways we can protect ourselves from the lies. In Short Circuits: It’s still easy to spot some manipulated photos or videos, but increasingly we’re going to need artificial intelligence to help us identify the dreck that has been created by artificial intelligence. • And even AI analysis won’t protect us for very long. Just as we must be the final line of defense against malware, spyware, phishing, and social engineering, we need to learn how to deflect the lies being thrown at us.

Even if you use an online backup service, it probably doesn’t capture the operating system and the Registry. An image backup application is needed if you want to avoid having to reinstall Windows and all applications if the disk drive fails. The free Aomei Backupper application may be sufficient. In Short Circuits: You can have absolute madness on your computer if you’re able to locate an old copy of Totally Mad from Broderbund Software, but there are tricks to getting it installed. • Everybody knows how to cut, copy, and paste text and images, but there’s a better option than Ctrl-V for pasting.

No matter how long or complex a password is, it’s useless if a scammer gains access to it. One of the most beneficial aspects of passkeys is that they can be compromised only if the crook gains access to the computer or smart phone where they are stored. In Short Circuits: Microsoft Outlook is facing more competition than it has seen in quite some time, and some of the strongest competition comes from the newly renovated Thunderbird and its stable of more than two thousand add-ons. • Anyone who is displeased by Microsoft’s decision to add advertisements, which they call “recommendations”, to the Start Menu and elsewhere will welcome relief from two open-source apps that stifle them.

The domain name service you use may have an effect on the speed with which web pages load, but there are other reasons to examine the DNS you use now and possibly change it. In Short Circuits: When you’re giving away or selling a computer or disk drive, think about the files that were on the computer. Just deleting them doesn’t really remove the data. How much more you need to do depends on how much you value privacy and security. • Excire, the company that makes the standalone Excire Foto and the Lightroom Classic plug-in Excire Search, is also helping law enforcement agencies evaluate photographic evidence.

Panicking pundits pummel Photoshop prematurely. If you listen to or read some of what passes for thoughtful reporting, you might be convinced that Adobe is a demon that must be eliminated. I disagree. In Short Circuits: Windows 7 introduced a handy new way to share files with other local users, but HomeGroup wasn’t widely used and it was discontinued with Windows 10. A follow-up function is limited by working only with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections, not Ethernet. Something better is needed. • Mozilla’s Pocket is a handy way to make references for articles you want to read available on any mobile device or computer that has a browser.

When I noticed a disk drive problem early one Saturday, I decided it was time to replace an aging cabinet filled with aging disk drives. A significant performance boost was a welcome extra. In Short Circuits: Microsoft would like you not to use cleanup applications such as CCleaner because they might damage the Registry, but now they’re offering a CCleaner-like app called PC Manager. • Editing Environment variables is much easier today than it was 40 years ago with EDLIN on an early DOS computer, and an addition to Microsoft’s PowerToys makes it even better.

Despite having used CrashPlan for the past eight years and still feeling that it is a viable online backup service, I have switched to Backblaze. In Short Circuits: Starting in less that two weeks, Facebook will begin using your public posts, photos, and chatbot iterations to train its AI. • Libraries are among my favorite institutions because of their high-tech and low-tech solutions to today’s problems.

This week is all about artificial intelligence, starting with the many ways AI can be used to improve images and sometimes create scenes that do not exist in real life. There are also applications for old and new motion pictures. In Short Circuits: We’ll move on to how AI might soon be used to help applications like Waze and Google Maps evaluate more conditions that affect your route. • Is the last place we should ever expect to find AI on the Desktop? Probably not. But is Stardock the last firm we’d ever expect to put it there? Let’s ponder that.

Many Windows 11 users will be offered an update to Windows 11 version 24H2 between now and the end of the year. As is usual with Windows, the update brings both useful new features and a certain number of annoyances. In Short Circuits: Actions by three states probably kept internet service providers from doing their worst when the FCC eliminated net neutrality rules in 2017. Now the rules are back, but for how long? • Portable Apps is a handy program that stores utilities, browsers, and games on a thumb drive so they can be used on any computer, but there’s also a good reason to install Portable Apps on a desktop or notebook computer.

An update to Excire Search brings the ability to look for photos using a text description, as introduced in Exicre Foto, to the company’s plug-in for Adobe Lightroom Classic. In Short Circuits: Fake reviews, scam products, and questionable sellers can all be made to look like real bargains. Fakespot by Mozilla helps you sort the truth from the lies. • One of the most important new capabilities coming to Windows 11 version 24H2 will be all but meaningless to many users.

Ensuring that your computer is safe, private, and secure is easy enough, but doing so will make the computer virtually unusable. Let’s consider some options that help without hindering, at least not too much. In Short Circuits: Windows computers use the New Technology File System, which was new in 1993, but it’s not a good choice for devices that must also be used by MacOS computers or Android devices. • Thumbnail images shown on YouTube can help users decide whether they want to view the program, but all too often the thumbnails are little more than clickbait. There’s a browser extension that will help.

Some remarkable capabilities have been added to Audacity, but it’s still not a contender to take Audition’s place for audio productions. In Short Circuits: It’s not a good idea to skimp on the devices you use to interact with your computer. One or more properly placed monitors, a mouse that fits comfortably in your hand, and a keyboard that doesn’t result in wrecked wrists are all more important that we may think. • How close is your computer’s hard drive to failure? Some disk disasters can’t be predicted, but others can and a free utility program that watches the indicators provided by modern disk drives sounds early warnings.

When something goes wrong with your computer, it may be easier, faster, and less frustrating to fix it yourself instead of dealing with tech support. In Short Circuits: Every computer screen is different and your vision is unique to your eyes. That’s why it’s a good idea to use Microsoft’s ClearType Text Tuner. • You’ll start to see computers being marketed with heavy AI claims soon, probably before the end of the year, but waiting for the next generation in late 2025 is probably wise.

A surprising number of Facebook accounts are being stolen and recovering them is difficult, if not impossible. That’s why it’s better to avoid trouble in the first place. In Short Circuits: Although your internet service provider includes domain name services, there’s a good reason to use one of several alternate services. • Efforts by the federal government to eliminate junk fees have finally resulted in some changes that affect what service providers must tell you before you sign up.

You still have about a year and a half to decide what you’ll do when Microsoft ends support for Windows 10. There are several choices, but not all options will work for all users. Let’s take a look at some that will keep the computer out of the trash. In Short Circuits: Although Microsoft has added a file renamer function to PowerToys, it won’t be sufficient when you need to apply complex names to a lot of files. A manual process becomes cumbersome when more than a few files are involved, absurd for hundreds or thousands of files. This is a job for the Bulk Rename Utility. • Newer keyboards have a special key to open the emoticon finder, but there’s a faster and easier way to insert bullets, fractions, currency symbols, and accented characters. It’s yet another utility built in to PowerToys.

Romania-based security company Bitdefender offers a comprehensive protective suite for Windows and MacOS computers, as well as IOS and Android phones. The package includes enough licenses for all devices used by everyone in the family unless you have an exceptionally large family or everyone has five or six devices. In Short Circuits: Your internet service provider would like you to continue renting a modem from them, but there are good reasons to buy your own and cost is just one of the reasons. • Scam offers appear like clockwork every couple of months for counterfeit US postage stamps that are often shipped from China. Facebook seemingly can’t (or won’t) do anything to stop them.

The virtual desktops feature that was added to Windows 10 and improved in Windows 11 can help organize the computer when you need to work on more than one task at a time. In Short Circuits: Artificial intelligence is now being used to improve audio recordings by removing flaws such as background noise and room echo. Despite being new, the results are already astonishingly good. • Bugs are a simple fact of life for computer users. If you’re delaying a purchase until all the bugs have been eliminated, you’re going to wait for a very long time.

If you regularly mutter to your computer that it doesn’t do something you want it to do or doesn’t do something the way you want it to, stop for a moment and investigate. There’s a good chance that the computer can accommodate your desires. In Short Circuits: Anyone who has trouble finding where TV programs they want to watch are streaming, or who forgets to watch new episodes, will find JustWatch useful. • The latest versions of Adobe’s photo editing applications are filled with useful features, but that doesn’t mean we should forget about applications such as SnapArt4.

One of the most common ways that people are victimized online involves the victims failing to recognize social engineering and giving their login credentials to scammers. In Short Circuits: Facebook accounts are filled with gold that scammers like to mine. There’s a quick and easy way to view what crooks see so that you can modify your account to maximize security. • Europeans can remove Microsoft’s Edge browser because of European Union rules, but these rules don’t apply in the United States. There’s still a way to tame or remove Edge, and I’ll explain how.