The Tech Boy's Blog

With  the  alarming  rate  of  depletion  of  the  major  energy  resources worldwide,  it  has  become  an  urgent  necessity  to  seek  for  renewable  energy resources  that  will  power  the  future. In  this  context  we  have  concentrated  our focus  on  the  research  of renewable energy. Among these renewable energy resources solar energy is one of a kind. Solar  power  (photovoltaic)  systems  are  a  sustainable way  to  convert  the  energy  of  the  sun  into  electricity.  The expected lifetime of a system is 25-30 years. With  all  the  above  information,  the  rapid  depletion  of  the  natural resources of  the  world,  we  would  soon...

A group of Chinese tech powerhouses led by Golden Brick Silk Road has made an astounding offer to buy Oslo-based Opera Software ASA’s top-selling product, the Opera web browser, for a little over a billion dollars. The offer, which the board unanimously recommended to its shareholders, would pay out to investors more than 40% higher than the last per-share closing price. Opera is the world’s fifth most widely used web browser with 7.3% of the mobile browser market, a ranking made possible mostly due to its incorporation on mobile devices like smartphones made by Xiaomi Corp and Samsung. The company says that Opera is currently running on more than 280 million devices worldwide… except China. This deal would open up the user base that Kunlun and Qihoo–two of the tech companies involved in the acquisition–currently enjoys in the country. China has an interesting internet-using demographic in that the majority of its population is considered mobile-first or even mobile-only in that ...

Or rather, International Business Machines has announced that it will be making a big push to utilise the same blockchain technology that underpins crypto currency BitCoin. In a statement on its website, IBM unleashed a slew of  announcements  and investments yesterday all centred around the how it will look to find business solutions based on the emergent and rapidly evolving  blockchain technology as a service IBM has  thrown its hat and its considerable  weight  behind  “distributed ledger or blockchain technology for real world applications. ” Altogether IBM has  said  that there are more than 100 technical architects working  on trying to fast-track blockchain applications for businesses. The announcement is seen by many as just the  first round  by IBM to try and charge into the blockchain industry with a working gambit that its offering is better than anyone else’s. It hopes to be at the forefront of what it th...

A new study by Duo Security uncovered some alarming but sadly unsurprising news: more than half of the 2 million devices they looked at for a report were running out-of-date, unprotected software. Whether it was lack of antivirus protocols or operating systems and apps that hadn’t been updated when a patch was released, these devices were therefore vulnerable to hacking, data breaches, ransomware, and more. According to an  article on the study by eSecurityPlanet , “The two million devices we saw are devices used by our customer’s employees to access one or more enterprise applications,” Ash Devata, vice president of Product at Duo. Sean Michael Kerner of eSecurityPlanet added, “The Duo research found that 80 percent of the devices scanned were using Flash, while 32 percent of employees were running older unpatched versions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. In addition, 22 percent of the scanned devices were running outdated versions of Java.” One of the pieces of informati...

The French government is known for some of its more people-centric privacy laws, which is part of the reason so many celebrities choose to make their home in-country. Now, the government is cracking down on some seemingly innocuous terms of service in Facebook’s system, claiming that the current terms violate their privacy laws. Facebook, like many other internet entities, uses cookies that it tracks for up to two years, even on people who are not members of the site and therefore did not agree to the lengthy terms of service. If an internet user clicks a link and watches a video that was uploaded to Facebook instead of YouTube, for example, that individual can view the video without being a member, and that person’s web behavior is tracked. France has said that’s against their laws. While issuing the desist order that Facebook must comply with within three months (at the risk of facing heavy fines), the government also took some further steps to safeguard its citizens privac...

You know you’re supposed to be doing it, but it’s just such a bother, isn’t it? All that typing and the memorizing and the keeping it all straight…it’s such a hassle. Unfortunately, that’s the all-too-common sentiment behind most internet users and their reluctance to create strong, unique passwords. Heck, if “password” was good enough for the folks at Sony Pictures, it’s good enough for me, right Oh wait…they got hacked. Never mind. In all seriousness, username and password combinations are no laughing matter. With even just your email address and password, an identity thief can ruin your life. Once he’s got that combination, it’s nothing to go to all of your online accounts (a quick search through your old emails will tell him where you bank, where you shop, and more), click “forgot my password,” and then change all of them to whatever he wants, after changing your email password and locking you out, that is. Fortunately, LastPass makes it possible to have lengthy, multicha...

Social media photo and video site Snapchat has had its share of headline-grabbing, embarrassing security issues over the years, some intentional and some due to its own inability to plan. When a hacker warned and then exposed nearly  5 million users’  accounts because of a bug that left the info vulnerable, that was bad enough. But when 100,000 or so shared  videos and photos  were accessed and released online (despite the company insisting that it doesn’t store the messages its users send, while forgetting that the cellular providers’ servers do store that information) some experts wondered if that might have been enough to seal Snapchat’s fate as an untrustworthy platform. But the news last week that Snapchat has experienced a whole new data breach only highlights what too many companies refuse to accept: your biggest security threat may very well be someone on your payroll. In an  apology post on February 28 , Snapchat admitted that an employee had wi...

“Your Browser, Your way.”  (Allegedly.) I’ve used a lot of different browsers over the years and I remember writing about the Linux based Pale Moon browser back in 2014, and I liked it. But now Moonchild Productions has released Pale Moon 26.0, the browser’s first big update in two years, and the new build has some really nice new things going for it. Looks Good And Simple To Use I like the way Pale Moon looks. It’s colourful, and the home splash screen can be customised to carry whatever news, link buttons, or feeds you want it too. In some ways it’s like having a second desktop, and I found it easy to navigate and work my way round quickly.  The new graphics and presentation update have also worked wonders and it’s fast. I also liked the dropdown history button, and the way it’s positioned next to the history bar, so there’s very little fiddling to be done. Security Pale Moon has also updated a lot of its internal security features, including adding s...

Meet Project Natick. Microsoft have u nveiled  their latest research project, and it could be a major game changer in how large companies increase the way they think about cloud computing, by submerging a 38,000-pound container a thousand meters out into the Pacific Ocean. According to Microsoft,  50%  of us live close to a coast, so while dropping data centers under the ocean might sound a bit nuts to start with, it actually makes a lot of sense. With the ever faster expansion of the cloud and the ever increasing need for more internet, large technology firms have been keen to find energy efficient ways to store their increasing amounts of data. Data centers consume up to 3%  of the world’s electricity, and are essential for modern everyday computing. One of the major power draws on these data centers is heat, or rather the cooling of it.  As a result in a bid to lower power costs, tech firms are routinely considering new options and ideas for housi...

I do love me some Pie, particularly Apple Pie. But I’m also a really big fan of  Raspberry Pi . I think everyone should be. And now it seems Microsoft thinks it as well having just announced that they’re currently working on a Windows 10 Internet of Things (IoT) Core for the new Raspberry Pi 3. The new Windows IoT update also just happened to arrive the same day the Raspberry  Pi  Foundation released its new version of the Raspberry Pi, the Raspberry Pi 3.  The date was significant since it was also the 4 th  anniversary that marked the launch of the original Raspberry Pi. The new Raspberry Pi 3 “ Optimized for connected things and smaller devices with or without a display,  Windows 10 IoT Core  brings the power of Windows, including enterprise grade security and servicing, automatic updates through Windows Update when connected to the Internet and the rich Universal Windows Platform (UWP) APIs that give apps easy control over system m...

Microsoft has announced its launch of a new fund with the intention of helping startups and commercial companies to offer access to affordable Internet in “under served markets.” Microsoft’s new  Affordable Access Initiative  will offer grants to commercial enterprises that that can prove demonstrable scalable solutions, which can facilitate access to the Internet in the parts of the globe that have little to no access. According to the company, there are still more people in the world who do not have access to the Internet than those who do. That’s a massive 57 percent of the world’s global population. “Today there are approximately 4 billion people globally without Internet access,”  said  Peggy Johnson, executive vice president of business development at Microsoft.   “The ability to close that gap is more achievable than ever with technology that is readily available and affordable in many parts of the world. Through this fund, we hope to kic...

Near the end of the horror-comedy  The Campaign , the underdog candidate played by Zach Galifianakis woefully mourns his loss by asking how he could have lost since all the polls showed him the lead. The camera switches to a polling place where the voting machines are being closed up and put away, but not before they zoom in on the corporate logo of the manufacturer, the same mega-corporation who’d pushed through his opponent’s campaign and ultimate victory. It’s bone chilling, to be sure, but one polling place in the US has already faced a software issue that led to a major discrepancy in a hotly contested local elected position. Candidates for the Republican County Judge spot in Craighead County, Arkansas, waited until late into the night for any word on the results of the elections, only to find out that a software glitch had miscounted the votes. While the software said there was only a 19-vote discrepancy between the two candidates, an alternate method of counting the ba...

Ercan Findikoglu, the Turkish born bank hacker allegedly behind the theft of millions of dollars has pleaded guilty in a US court, and could now face a jail term of more than fifty years. Between 2010 and 2013 the man is believed to have coordinated three advanced cybercrime campaigns against US based banks and financial institutions by hacking into credit and debit card networks. Once  access  had been gained, Findikoglu is then thought to have changed access privileges that allowed himself and others to inflate balances and remove withdrawal limits on prepaid debit cards. The next stage in the operation then involved the systematic withdrawal of money via cash machines using cloned credit and debit cards over a three-year period. US prosecutors said that in February 2013 gang mules acting for Findikoglu managed to withdraw more than $42,000,000 from 3,000 ATM machines.  “By hacking into the computer networks of global financial institutions, the defe...

Anyone who downloaded Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon edition last Saturday has more than likely been compromised by hackers. Clem Lefebvre, Mint Distro’s creator  warned  in a blog post that a malicious 3 rd  party had been found to have hacked the official website and pointed users who wanted to  download  the open source OS to a modified version that contained an opening that the hackers could exploit.  The compromised ISO was said to have been packed with Tsunami botnet malware. “Hackers made a modified Linux Mint ISO, with a backdoor in it, and managed to hack our website to point to it…What we don’t know is the motivation behind this attack,”  said Lefebvre. The maliciously modified version was  only  available for a short period of time last Saturday before it was found, but if you happen to be one of the few who downloaded the distro from the official site on the 22 nd  February, then you should take action urgently. Lefe...

There is no doubt  about who Microsoft is siding with.  It’s official, Microsoft has backed Apple in its battle with the FBI, and the US government.    Apple is currently  refusing  to comply with a court order that has required the company to create the decryption tool that would make it easier for the FBI to unlock an iPhone that was used in the December massacre in San Bernardino, California. Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer  Brad Smith  of Microsoft speaking at a congressional hearing, said that the tech giant  “wholeheartedly” supported Apple’s in its adamant refusal to aid the FBI in  unlocking a terrorist’s iPhone Smith also said:  “We at Microsoft support Apple and will be filing an amicus brief next week.”  –  An amicus brief is a legal apparatus that allows third parties not directly involved in a court case to  ‘weigh in.’ To illustrate his point, Smith then placed an antiquated ...

At the time of writing, more than 25 of the world’s major media organizations, civil liberties groups, and technology companies, have opted to  follow  Microsoft, and throw their hat in the ring to support Apple in its increasingly entrenched and bitter dispute with the US government. The case centers around an iPhone connected to one of the attackers in last year’s San Bernadino terror attacks. Apple is currently  refusing  to comply with a court order that has required the company to create the decryption tool that would make it easier for the FBI to unlock an iPhone that was used in the December massacre. At a congressional hearing last week, Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer  Brad Smith  said  that the tech giant  “wholeheartedly” supported Apple’s in its adamant refusal to aid the FBI. Google CEO Sundar Pichai stated that US government demands were attempting to set a ‘troubling precedent.’ Cavalry But now other com...

The internet has done great things for the world as a whole, not the least of which is the way it’s enabled huge changes in distance collaboration. Whether it’s working with a top-notch design team across the country, or learning from one of the best professors in your field on the other side of the world, this type of connectivity has brought about massive opportunities for working together with the very best. Unfortunately, it’s also created obstacles in workflow, communication, and project readiness that has made more than a few companies think twice about telecommuting and exterior hiring. Without a solidly reliable way for the entire team, class, or company to effectively work together, nothing gets done. Wrike’s free web-based app is working to fix that. As one of the top productivity tools, users can collaborate on the same project, ping each Twitter-style to bring someone else into the conversation, see a real-time workflow update that shows what has been completed and ...