This past week, Barnes and Noble put the Google Play store on its Nook HD and Nook HD+ tablets. So while they’re still running a forked Android, they’ll run most Android apps without you having to do anything special. That, plus the high-resolution screen, the low price, plus the ability to plug microSD cards into [...]
All posts tagged google
No, it doesn’t take a “serious hacker” to crack wi-fi through WPS
John C Dvorak is raving in PC Magazine about Netgear wireless routers and range extenders and how easy WPS makes it to set them up–and providing some very seriously flawed security advice along the way. “Note that WPS is crackable by serious hackers using brute-force attack, but any SOHO user not dealing with government secrets [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on March 26, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/03/no-it-doesnt-take-a-serious-hacker-to-crack-wi-fi-through-wps/
Welcome, Tony’s Kansas City readers
Thanks to Tony’s Kansas City for the link this morning. Tony noted that “Security dude reminds us that Google Fiber could kill the software industry.” That’s an interesting spin. I do think it will affect the software industry–but so long as Kansas City stays at the forefront and the rest of the country is content [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on March 24, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/03/welcome-tonys-kansas-city-readers/
Kansas City and Google Fiber
I get a few questions about Google Fiber, because I have Kansas City connections, and I work in computers. People who’ve known me long enough know that I upgraded to first-generation DSL about 30 minutes after it became available at the apartment complex I lived in at the time. The question then was the same [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on March 23, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/03/kansas-city-and-google-fiber/
How to check to see if a FedEx or UPS e-mail message is real
“Did you order anything lately?” my wife asked me. “Not that I can think of,” I said. “We got this e-mail about a FedEx package that they couldn’t deliver on the 17th,” she said. “It has a ‘print receipt’ button.” Don’t click on that button.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on March 21, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/03/how-to-check-to-see-if-a-fedex-or-ups-e-mail-message-is-real/
HP knows Android
HP unveiled its first Android tablet this weekend. They’re not playing in the Polaroid or Archos space, but for $170–neatly between Amazon’s and Google’s prices–you get Android 4.1, a 1024×600 display, and a microSD slot.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on February 24, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/02/hp-knows-android/
Firefox 19 is a big security improvement
Mozilla quietly released Firefox 19 this week. Its biggest selling point is a built-in PDF viewer (like Google Chrome does), which makes me more comfortable than having Acrobat Reader installed–Mozilla is generally faster at fixing security holes than Adobe. Besides that, the built-in reader is fast. No waiting for Acrobat to launch. Short documents like [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on February 21, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/02/firefox-19-is-a-big-security-improvement/
Another easy Apache tweak
I ran my site through Google Page Speed on Tuesday, and scored a surprising 88 out of 100–higher than I expected. Getting above 90 is going to take some optimizations on files that WordPress updates may change, so I’m hesitant to do that, but one thing it told me to do was to cache more [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on February 20, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/02/another-easy-apache-tweak/
The Internet is a 21st century utility–take it seriously
Forbes says we need to take Internet speed more seriously in this country. My take: I got my first modem in 1986, roughly, and after mapping out my modem purchases over the following decade, I saw that I was upgrading to a faster modem speed roughly every 2 years. My jump from 300 bits per [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on January 30, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/01/the-internet-is-a-21st-century-utility-take-it-seriously/
Four simple steps to optimize WordPress
A couple of years ago, I stood up a WordPress server. I made no effort to tune it, let alone turbocharge it, which is a decision I later came to regret. If your site gets more than a few hundred hits per day, you need to tune it. If you want to get more than [...]
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/02/four-simple-steps-to-optimize-wordpress/