The law in the European Union that I mentioned in the last article was passed as expected and the response from many quarters has been savage. At the time of writing it has yet to be ratified but it has seeded confusion in the online world as to what will be allowed and what won't. It could end up being a subjective nightmare but that is what you get when you are run by a group of essentially faceless bureaucrats in Belgium. I don't think we have heard the end of this one.
Some feedback on the new computer. I'm loving my Lenovo X1, 14-inch, Yoga G3 notebook. It is light for the screen size and the display is excellent. Speed is good, battery life is going well, and it comes with a built-in stylus. The fingerprint reader works well and with a Microsoft 4000 keyboard and mouse, I'm ready to take it anywhere. I did order a protective sleeve, so I can carry it in a backpack when needed or travelling. If you have a notebook with a USB-C port, I recommend getting a USB to USB C thumb drive to easily transfer data from computer to phone and elsewhere as required.
It pairs easily with my Sony 1000xm2 headphones that are also excellent. They work well with my smartphone and a little device that transmits Bluetooth from my AV-Receiver. For those interested, it is the Avantree PRIVA 3 DUAL. In the latter case the sound quality from the headphones is excellent. I also found out that the headphones work well when taking phone calls thanks to the built-in microphones, but I often forget they are paired and answer the phone in the normal way on silence until I remember to disable Bluetooth. So far very happy with all four purchases.
Users of the Microsoft Surface will perhaps wince at this, they are generally stuck at 12 inches and apart from the Surface Book 2 are missing a USB-C port, limited to USB-3 only. I thought Apple dongles were pricey but the new USB-C dongle for Surface users debuts at a steep US$79.99 (2,660 baht). The only dongle I have is for a regular LAN connection and that came free with my notebook.
There is yet another vulnerability from Intel that they don't plan to do much about soon. This one is TLBleed. It allows malware to extract encryption keys and other stuff from applications. It was exposed by a group from the Systems and Network Security Group at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. It took them 17 seconds to extract a 256-bit key used to cryptographically sign data for a third party application and the vulnerability has nothing to do with the previously reported Spectre and Meltdown issues.
Sick of those ads that Microsoft likes to sneak in Windows 10 for products from the Windows Store? Go to Settings, Personalization, Lock Screen then set the background to Picture or Slideshow, instead of Windows Spotlight. You could also disable the "Get fun facts, tips, and more from Windows and Cortana on your lock screen" option while you're there. Now go back to Personalisation and onto Start and set "Occasionally show suggestions in Start" to off. Then back to Settings and on to System, Notifications & Actions and turn off "Get tips, tricks, and suggestions as you use Windows". While you're there also switch off "Show me the Windows welcome experience after updates and occasionally when I sign in to highlight what's new and suggested" if you see it. By now you should be a lot freer from some of those nagging bits and pieces from Windows 10.
Microsoft has bought GitHub. In the simplest sense this is a version control system to allow software development teams to manage their development process. Until recently this platform was enjoyed by software developers who did none of their development under Microsoft platforms. Around the same time GitLab, a similar system, is moving from Microsoft Azure over to Google. The reason given is that they want to take advantage of something called Kubernetes, which I am betting is not the first thought you had when reading the previous sentence. Don't worry, no one else is really believing this reason either. Like you, they were thinking that GitLab moved to provide a non-Microsoft alternative. The official reaction from Microsoft was "no comment". All that aside I'm not convinced that moving from Microsoft's to Google's cloud is necessarily a good thing.
It will soon be time to get a new Wi-Fi router, or if your current one can support it, a firmware upgrade. The Wi-Fi Alliance has announced WPA3, the latest in Wi-Fi security. The new upgrade will provide new and improved authentication and encryption to wireless networks. This includes Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE), a more secure key establishment protocol between devices and 192-bit encryption. By the time you read this it will have shipped and is endorsed by the big names like Intel and Cisco. It's worth remembering that currently connecting to a public Wi-Fi network, in say a café, is fraught with potential security dangers.
James Hein is an IT professional of over 30 years' standing. You can contact him at jclhein@gmail.com.
