08Apr 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Avast claims its secure browser is 30 percent faster than yours

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Avast claims its secure browser is 30 percent faster than yours Avast has updated its browser to give users greater control over their online privacy. According to the company, its renamed Avast Secure Browser (formerly SafeZone) is designed to plug the security gaps that result from users' misplaced protection expectations. Features such as Stealth Mode, HTTPS Encryption, anti-tracking and anti-fingerprinting have been designed to account for the 69 percent of UK consumers who believe standard private-browsing modes will anonymize their identity, and the 81 percent who believe their browser would alert them to web-based threats, such as malicious cryptomining and extensions. Based on the Chromium open source platform, the browser also includes Bank Mode, an extension guard, anti-phishing features, a password manager and Flash Protect, designed to free-up computer resources and preserve battery…
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05Apr 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Microsoft launches AI and entry-level software courses

Microsoft Development
Microsoft launches AI and entry-level software courses Microsoft  today launched two new courses in its online education program for developers: an entry-level software development class and an AI course for more advanced developers who want to expand their knowledge of machine learning. It’s no secret that there aren’t enough data scientists and machine learning developers available to fulfill the current demand. It’s no surprise, then, that a number of large companies have started to teach the fundamentals of these disciplines to their existing employees; starting today, anybody can take the AI courses that Microsoft first developed for its own employees. The Microsoft Professional Program for Artificial Intelligence is available for free on edX.org, though you can also opt to pay for a certificate. Each course runs three months and starts at the beginning of the quarter. Unsurprisingly, there’s…
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04Apr 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Drupal under attack for one million sites

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Drupal under attack for one million sites The team behind the popular open-source CMS Drupal is urging admins to update their sites to ward off a nasty bug that could leave their sites “highly compromised” to attackers, according to the organization. The effected versions (Drupal  6, 7 and 8) of the CMS power over one million websites on the internet. Drupal has marked the security risk as “highly critical” and warns that any visitor to the site could theoretically hack it through remote code execution due to a missing input validation. “This potentially allows attackers to exploit multiple attack vectors on a Drupal site, which could result in the site being completely compromised,” the group noted in a blog post. Drupal sent out an alert last week, telling users that they’d be dropping a “highly critical…
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04Apr 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

goo.gl is shuttering Google shortening service

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goo.gl is shuttering Google shortening service Google announced that it is shutting down its URL shortening service, goo.gl. The company says that new and anonymous users won’t be able to create links through the goo.gl console as of April 13th, but existing users will be able to use it for another year, after which it will be discontinued completely. Firebase Software Engineer Michael Hermanto says that the company introduced the URL shortener in 2009, and that since then, the ways in which people share information on the web has changed, while additional URL shorteners have grown in popularity. He notes that Google is refocusing its efforts by replacing it with Firebase Dynamic Links (FDL), which allow users to redirect to specific locations in iOS, Android or web apps. Existing users will be able to…
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03Apr 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Why Microsoft is splitting up Windows in its latest reorganization

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Why Microsoft is splitting up Windows in its latest reorganization Microsoft is embarking on yet another reorg, arguably the biggest since Satya Nadella took over as CEO four years ago. In this one, Windows will be split into sections all in the name of making Microsoft over to focus on its high-growth businesses. Microsoft is splitting up its Windows and Devices Group and moving the pieces into two new engineering units: Experiences & Devices under Executive Vice President Rajesh Jha and Cloud + AI under Executive VP Scott Guthrie. A couple of units that are currently part of Microsoft's AI + Research group are going to be moving into Guthrie's new organization. Windows and Devices chief Terry Myerson is leaving the company as part of the reorg. Microsoft is making these moves…
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