Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » décembre 8, 2014

BetaNews.Com (16 non lus)

Barack Obama -- becoming a computer scientist just takes 'a little math and science'

Publié: décembre 8, 2014, 11:02pm CET par Mark Wilson

Today marks the start of the 2014 Computer Science Education Week. As part of this, the second annual Hour of Code is being used to introduce school children to the basics of programming. Students around the world are encouraged to take part in the event which is organized by non-profit Code.org.

The venture has the backing of Barack Obama who is keen to nurture the next generation of coders and computer scientists. And there's no reason to be put off. To quote the president, "becoming a computer scientist isn't as scary as it sounds. With hard work and a little math and science, anyone can do it".

There are lots of big names involved in Hour of Code, including Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Ashton Kutcher, and donations will be used to fund teachers. Microsoft and Apple are among the companies hosting workshops, and it is expected that more than four million people will take part.

To make the world of programming interesting to as wide and as young an audience as possible, there are tutorials and activities featuring Anna and Elsa from Frozen. There's even the opportunity to create your own version of Flappy Bird -- what more incentive could you need?!

You can check out the full introductory video by President Obama here:

Photo credit: scyther5 / Shutterstock
Samsung announces 850 EVO SSD with 3-bit 3D V-NAND

Publié: décembre 8, 2014, 7:18pm CET par Brian Fagioli

When it comes to computer building and upgrades, one of the most important components is a solid state drive. Sadly, many computer manufacturers still utilize spinning hard disk drives in their machines -- a shame, really. Yes, a HDD may be a more cost-effective way to achieve greater storage, but from a performance standpoint, an SSD is far better.

There are many great manufacturers of solid state drives, but Samsung is one of the best. Not only are its offerings reliable, but fast too. Today, the company announces the 850 EVO SSD, featuring a 3-bit 3D V-NAND.

"Based on Samsung's 3-bit 3D Vertical NAND (V-NAND) technology, the 850 EVO SSD provides a significant boost in performance and endurance as compared to its predecessor, making it ideal for use in mainstream PCs. With the slogan of 'a new caliber of performance & endurance', the new drive will be globally launched in a total of 53 countries in the United States, Europe and Asian markets later this month".

The company further explains, "the Samsung 850 EVO series comes in 1TB, 500GB, 250GB and 120GB capacity options, and boasts sequential read speeds of up to 540 megabytes per second (MB/s) and write speeds of up to 520 MB/s. With Samsung’s TurboWrite technology, the 1TB version of the 850 EVO offers random write speeds of up to 90K IOPS, which enables fast storage of high volume data and multi-tasking operations. Additionally, the drive features outstanding reliability with 80GB data writes per day for five years in the 500GB and 1TB models".

The release of this SSD is very timely, as one of my drives, from a different manufacturer, recently failed. Of course, I bought the drive due to a low price, so I have no one to blame but myself. With that said, this time around, I will take a serious look at the 850 EVO. After all, even though the 1TB drive I desire may be a bit pricey, it is hard to put a price tag on the reliability and the safety of your precious files.

Which SSD manufacturer do you prefer? Tell me in the comments.
Windows Phone has a massive apps problem

Publié: décembre 8, 2014, 7:14pm CET par Fadil Pašić

If Microsoft wants Windows Phones to have a higher market share than the current 2.8 percent, it needs to step up its applications game.

The current state of affairs is simple: There are just not enough apps. Some apps have hundreds of fakes and rip-offs in the store, some available for Android or iOS are simply missing for Windows Phone and arrive half a year late.

Last week, Jackdaw Research published a 30-page report highlighting how bad the situation with Windows Phone actually is.

Business Insider detailed a few examples from the report: "A search for 'YouTube' on the Windows Phone returns dozens of obvious fake YouTube apps".

"A search for ‘Swing Copters, a game for iOS and Android created by the maker of 'Flappy Bird', returns more than 25 fake apps with 'Swing Copters' in their title. In fact, the app isn’t available for Windows Phone".

And those are just some of the examples.

Microsoft might never be able to escape the death spiral: the lack of apps drives people to other platforms, which then keeps the popularity of Windows Phones low, which is why developers don’t want to build apps for that platform.

According to IDC, Windows Phone’s market share peaked at 3.4 percent in the last quarter of 2013, and has since fallen to 2.8 percent.

Jackdaw suggests Windows should build an awesome flagship phone, and somehow convince developers that they can make money by building apps for that platform. What actually happens remains to be seen.

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.
Quick Review: PhotoStage Slideshow Producer

Publié: décembre 8, 2014, 6:42pm CET par Mike Williams

PhotoStage Slideshow Producer is a free-for-personal-use video slideshow creator with plenty of unusual extras.

Installation is quick and easy. We politely declined the bundled Google Toolbar, and a few seconds later the program launched.

If you’ve ever used a video editor then the PhotoStage interface will feel very familiar. Timeline at the bottom of the screen, two audio tracks (music plus narration), assorted effects and transitions library top left, preview window on the other side, it’s all very straightforward.

Just as you’d expect, you can drag and drop your source images onto the program. They’ll appear on the timeline, and can be dragged again to reorder them.

Each timeline thumbnail has its duration clearly visible, and this can be changed to anything from one second to an hour.

There are also transition icons in between every image, and you can use these to change the transition type and duration. There are 35+ fades, wipes, dissolves and so on, and while they’re a little basic, the program has enough for most purposes.

Individual images may be customized with simple image editing tools (Brightness, Crop, Rotate), and a few effects (Oil Painting, Negative, Sepia, more). They’re not much use and we’d generally prefer to work on any issues in a real editor, but PhotoStage Slideshow Producer supports that too, with an "Edit in external editor" command.

The Animation effects are also a little gimmicky, spinning your image around or adding water-like ripples. But the Zoom tool is more interesting, allowing you to set up a custom zoom area for each image (zoom out from a face to the full screen, say).

The final option is a versatile text tool. You can enter one or more lines of text, set their alignment, font, size and opacity, fade them in and out, even set them to scroll for a basic credit block. It’s not PowerDirector -- you can’t apply effects, take full control of the animation or save templates -- but the program squeezes a reasonable amount of functionality into its single dialog.

PhotoStage can add a soundtrack, or record a narration for your slideshow. If you’re short on ideas, there’s also access to the NCH Sound Effect Library, which, despite the name, includes plenty of free music. You don’t even have to open your browser, register or anything else: just choose what you need and it’s added to the project.

Throughout all this the Preview window keeps you up-to-date on your progress. When you’re happy, clicking Export allows you to save the slideshow as a video in one of 15 formats, upload it to YouTube/ Facebook/ Flickr, burn it as a DVD movie or data disc, or export it as an image sequence (the raw frames from the slideshow, which you can then import and reuse elsewhere).

We have small issues with PhotoStage Slideshow Producer. The effects are basic; you can’t preview them in real time (drag a slider and you don’t see the results until you release the mouse); the transitions aren’t configurable, apart from duration; there are a few interface quirks.

These are very minor quibbles for a freebie, though. On balance PhotoStage Slideshow Producer is a great tool, and if you do need more then commercial Home and Pro editions add extra effects, video clip support and are licensed for any use. Prices currently start at $29.99, but that’s a special deal, and the base Home version will be $40 after December 15 2014.
Windows 10 Technical Preview testers should be able to update to the RTM release

Publié: décembre 8, 2014, 5:26pm CET par Mark Wilson

There are positives and negatives to being a tester of early versions of Windows. On one hand it means being able to try out new features before they are officially released, but on the other it means putting up with a variety of problems. Preview builds of Windows used to be all but unheard of, but now anyone can get their hands on early bits to get a taste of things to come.

The preview program for Windows 10 has been slightly different to the way things worked in previous early versions of Windows. This time around it is even possible to upgrade to new builds without the need to reinstall from scratch, and it's looking as though it will also be possible to upgrade to the RTM version when it is released next year.

By the time the finalized version of Windows 10 is released, many Windows Insiders and leak downloaders will have been using the operating system for around a year. Having spent the time getting everything set up to your liking, you may already be dreading the day you need to wipe your hard drive and reinstall from scratch. Well, worry no more -- this time, things are going to be different.

In a Twitter post, Microsoft's Gabriel Aul explained that the intention is to let Windows Insiders upgrade directly to the RTM release when the time comes:

@tomzorz_ @krollTJ Yes, that is our intent.

— Gabriel Aul (@GabeAul) December 4, 2014

Some people may still opt for a clean install, but it looks as though it may not be a requirement.
Accenture and Microsoft team up to create hybrid cloud platform

Publié: décembre 8, 2014, 5:05pm CET par Ian Barker

Moving applications to the could is a major step for businesses and finding the right partner to make the transition a success is vital.

The latest latest fruit of the long-standing alliance between technology consulting specialist Accenture and Microsoft is aimed at providing a powerful hybrid cloud platform to bring new capabilities, economics and innovation to the enterprise.

Accenture Hybrid Cloud Solution for Microsoft Azure -- suggestions for snappier names welcome in the comments -- uses new hybrid cloud technologies and services to help enterprises build and manage enterprise-wide cloud infrastructure and applications. It's jointly funded and developed along with Avenade -- a company launched by the two technology giants in 2000.

"Enterprises around the globe are looking for the right platforms and partners to help them transform and thrive in a mobile-first, cloud-first world," says Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. "The Microsoft cloud, combined with Accenture's industry knowledge and implementation expertise, accelerates our customers’ cloud adoption and unlocks new benefits, including powerful new applications, data-driven insights and increased productivity".

The new solution integrates and builds on key existing capabilities from the three companies to help enterprises deliver a one-stop service solution. The Microsoft Azure platform provides enterprise performance, hyper-scale and hybrid capabilities connected to Windows Server with Hyper-V, System Center and Azure Pack running in customer data centers.

The Accenture Cloud Platform supports multi-platform environments with self-service provisioning for any application. There's a central dashboard to control cloud brokerage and management capabilities, along with enterprise-grade governance, reliability, security and operations.

The product also includes professional services to help clients define and execute their cloud goals, based on Accenture's specialized industry knowledge.

"Our expanded relationship with Microsoft represents a game-changing proposition that addresses the biggest concerns and complexities our clients face as they look to leverage the cloud," says Pierre Nanterme, chairman and CEO of Accenture. "With new demands being placed on IT departments every day, enterprises need to smartly connect their infrastructure, software applications, data and operations capabilities in order to become agile, intelligent, digital businesses. This unique collaboration with Microsoft and Avanade is one of Accenture's most strategic and important initiatives for driving enterprise-wide cloud adoption".

The solution is already being piloted and more information is available on the Accenture website.

Photo Credit: everything possible / Shutterstock
Ralph Baer, Odyssey creator and 'father of video games', dies aged 92

Publié: décembre 8, 2014, 4:47pm CET par Mark Wilson

Ralph Baer, the man credited with helping develop the world's first commercial video games console, died this weekend at the age of 92. He may not have been exactly a household name, but without Baer, video gaming as we know it might have taken a very different turn. Without him, the Xbox One and PS4 might not yet exist.

The German-born electronic fanatic and inventor's work led to the creation of the Odyssey console. The games unit was launched by Magnavox in 1972, managing to pre-date Pong, and Baer went on to invent the first light gun for games as well.

Baer's primitive consoles allowed people to play one of several games, although they were all a variation on the same basic idea. Games could be loaded on cards which served as a forerunner to the cartridges found in later consoles. As well as developing a light gun peripheral, the pioneering inventor also worked on developing games that could be played with others over a network.

Four years ago he was inducted into America's National Inventors Hall of Fame. As well as the Magnavox Odyssey and peripheral, Baer is also known for inventing the light-based game Simon, which requires players to remember and repeat patterns of colored lights.

Photo credit: Twin Design / Shutterstock
Paint.NET 4.0.5 squashes major bugs, builds on recent release

Publié: décembre 8, 2014, 4:02pm CET par Nick Peers

dotPDN LLC has released Paint.NET 4.0.5 FINAL, a minor update that follows swiftly on the heels of a more significant update at the end of last month.

Version 4.0.4 introduced one major new feature and promised performance improvements, while 4.0.5 squashes a number of significant bugs that emerged after the previous update.

Paint.NET 4.0.5 offers five specific bug fixes. The first resolves an issue whereby using the Magic Wand tool in Subtraction mode resulted in B-A removal rather than A-B. Also fixed is a crashed triggered when using Effect > Repeat.

Three other crashes have also been patched: one that saw an AccessViolationException error appear on selected hardware when initializing the program canvas using hardware accelerated rendering. Although the crash isn’t fixed, Paint.NET will now switch to software rendering the next time it’s launched to bypass it.

The update also prevents a crash from occurring when using the Settings > Update > Check Now due to Paint.NET incorrectly determining that UAC isn’t enabled. The final crash only occurred only on machines that had updated from an alpha or beta build -- it involved clicking the Shapes tool having selected a different default shape (line or curve) to be used.

The bug fix release follows two weeks after version 4.0.4 saw the light of day -- that update restored the Fill property to the Paintbrush tool (which was a regression from version 3.5), and also promised significant optimizations to various tools, including Move Selected Pixels, Magic Wand and the Copy/Copy Merged options under the Edit menu.

Paint.NET 4.0.5 FINAL is available as a freeware download now for dual-core (or better) PCs running Windows 7 or later. The .NET Framework 4.5 is also required, but will be downloaded automatically if not present. Users of lower powered PCs, or PCs running Vista or XP, can still download Paint.NET 3.5.11.
BlackBerry releases Passport in red, white

Publié: décembre 8, 2014, 2:25pm CET par Mihaita Bamburic

More than two months after it introduced Passport in black, BlackBerry today announces that its latest smartphone is now also available in red and white. The two new color options were introduced for pre-order in late-November, but are only just now shipping.

Both the red and white Passport are officially available from Amazon and BlackBerry's own online store. Both companies list the smartphone as being in stock; taking the Amazon route coupled with one-day shipping will get you a new Passport tomorrow, December 9.

The price is the same on both stores, for the same color option. The red model is the most expensive of the bunch, being listed at $699.99. The white model can be had for $100 less, costing $599.99.

The black model is available at the same price as its white sibling. It, however, was available at $499.99 in late-November, when BlackBerry was running its iPhone promotion.

Then, the Canadian maker lowered the price of its flagship and introduced high trade-in values for iPhones (starting at $240 for iPhone 4S and going all the way to $550 for iPhone 6), to entice users of Apple-made smartphones to switch.

Here are some specs: 4.5-inch display with a resolution of 1440 by 1440, 2.2 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, 3 GB of RAM, 3,450 mAh battery, 13 MP camera on the back with optical image stabilization with 1080p video recording, 2 MP camera on the front with 720p video recording, 32 GB of internal storage, microSD card slot, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac. Passport runs BlackBerry OS 10.3. It comes in at 128 x 90.3 x 9.3 mm and 196 grams (5.04 x 3.56 x 0.36 inches and 6.91 ounces).
What to look out for in 2014's last Patch Tuesday

Publié: décembre 8, 2014, 1:03pm CET par Ian Barker

After last month's blizzard of patches tomorrow's last round of Windows updates for the year looks set to be rather quieter.

Only seven bulletins have been announced, of which three are rated Critical and four Important. Of the Critical patches one is for Internet Explorer, one for Office and one for Windows itself -- likely to be for a remote code execution vulnerability.

There's an Important MS Exchange patch to resolve an elevation of privilege problem. Chris Goettl Product Manager of IT management specialist Shavlik says, "As you may recall, this patch was held out of last month's Patch Tuesday updates along with another out-of-band patch that was released later in November. With all of the changes at Microsoft recently, this practice of holding a patch could become a pattern. It is likely that with less important patches, these will be released on a subsequent Patch Tuesday".

The Internet Explorer patch looks set to be a cumulative security update, something that will probably become a regular fixture in future Patch Tuesdays as hackers increasingly target browsers. There are three Office updates in total all of which address remote code vulnerabilities.

Karl Sigler, Threat Intelligence Manager at Trustwave says, "This security update will be light compared to the previous patch Tuesday. None of the CVEs included in this release are exploited in the wild at the moment. Also, it's not likely there will be a vulnerability as nasty as the Schannel Remote Code Execution vulnerability (MS14-066) from last month".

Third-party patches are expected from Adobe too according to Wolfgang Kandek, CTO of cloud security specialist Qualys. "Adobe has notified of a new version of Adobe Reader and Acrobat in APSB14-28. Both versions 10 and 11 on Windows and Mac OS X are affected by this critical vulnerability. In addition we also expect a new version of Flash as Adobe has had monthly release for Flash in every month in 2014 so far".

All versions of Windows, Office and IE are thought to be affected by at least one of the vulnerabilities. Users with automatic updates enabled should receive these updates automatically though a reboot will be required to apply them.

Photo Credit: fotoscool/Shutterstock
Mous Musicase: The iPhone case that puts an end to lost and tangled headphones [Review]

Publié: décembre 8, 2014, 12:42pm CET par Wayne Williams

I use headphones to listen to music and games on my iPhone a lot. As a result, I often have headphones with me, either wrapped around my phone or just shoved in a pocket. Sometimes though I’ll forget to take them when I go out, which can be a pain.

The successfully Kickstarter-backed Mous Musicase aims to solve this problem by integrating Apple EarPods into your iPhone so they’re always at hand and you don’t have to worry about them getting tangled or lost.

The case essentially provides a home for your headphones, with a winder so you can wind the headphones back in when not in use.

Although getting your Apple EarPods in looks like it might be complicated, it’s actually very easy and just takes some slight assembly. You pull the cross piece out, insert the headphone jack through the mouse shape at the top of the case, and then poke the jack through the hole in the winder. Reattach the cross piece, add your phone and you’re all done.

The Mous Musicase is really designed to be used with Apple EarPods -- the earbuds fit perfectly into the space provided. You can use it with other headphones, but it probably won’t look as good or work as well.

The case itself is made of plastic with a choice of colors for both the case and the winder, and you can mix and match them however you like. I was sent the retro edition, which has the very 1980s color combination of pale blue and shocking pink.

There are cutouts along the case for the sleep/wake and volume buttons, and the speaker and headphone jack. There’s also a hole for the camera.

Swapping the winder and removing your phone from the case is very simple, and the whole design works very well.

However, there is one major issue that some people may have with the Mous Musicase, and that’s it adds significant bulk (but not weight) to your phone, doubling its depth. I like my phones to have a bit of heft to them, but even so, it takes some getting used to. It’s not unlike carrying around an original iPod.

That’s the tradeoff then. You can elect to carry headphones in a separate case or risk damaging them, or you can accept carrying around a much thicker phone with your headphones always at hand.

The case I have is for the iPhone 5/5s, but an iPhone 6 version is coming soon and will be slimmer with tapered edges, so the thinner phone will have a thinner case.

The cases are available in White, Black, Blue and (limited edition) Kickstarter Green, with winders in Dark Blue, Musicalize Gold, Pink, White, and Black. Prices start from £17, but will rise to £19 in the future. You can order one through the Kickstarter page here. You can also go to www.mous.co.
Sony data breach: how not to protect your passwords

Publié: décembre 8, 2014, 11:57am CET par Jamie Hinks

Sony Pictures Entertainment faces being left completely red-faced after reports began to emerge that it contributed to its latest data breach by storing thousands of passwords in a folder entitled "Password".

Personal details of some 47,000 employees and actors have been leaked online in recent days and the much-publicized leak contains confidential details including social security numbers and reams of other tidbits, according to The Telegraph.

The controversially named "Password" folder contains 139 Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, zip files and PDFs that give access to passwords and usernames for everything from internal computers to social media accounts.

One of those files, which has been seen by BuzzFeed, contains scores of usernames and passwords to various social media accounts thus giving anyone easy access to Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter accounts linked to the firm.

Sony hasn’t spoken publicly about the hack and the only noises came in an internal company-wide memo from CEO Michael Lynton and co-chairman Amy Pascal that called it a "brazen attack on our company, our employees and our business partners".

Sony’s leak comes at the same time that a clutch of high profile upcoming films were made available online with many reports pointing the finger at North Korea in retaliation for an upcoming film that pokes fun at the country.

Since then, the country has come out to deny that it is responsible for the hack and called claims that it had anything to do with it "another fabrication targeting the country".

The film in question, The Interview, stars Seth Rogan and James Franco and centers on a fictional plot by the US government to assassinate North Korea’s leader, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the real life leader Kim Jong-un.

Employees at Sony Pictures, who are some of the worst affected, aren’t likely to be surprised at the leak given that former workers told Fusion that the company’s "long-running lax attitude towards security" is likely to blame.

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.
PlayStation Network and Store hacked and taken offline by Lizard Squad

Publié: décembre 8, 2014, 10:35am CET par Mark Wilson

Gamers today found that they were unable to connect to the PlayStation Network. In what appears to be a hack attack, the gaming network as well as the PlayStation Store were knocked offline. Claiming responsibility this time is the hacking outfit Lizard Squad.

Sony has not revealed any details about what has happened yet, but it's clear that the outage did not come as a result of routine maintenance. Lizard Squad tweeted a message that seemed to claim responsibility for the downtime: "PSN Login #offline #LizardSquad".

This is far from being the first attack on Sony. The entertainment giant has had something of a hard time of thing lately. Prior to the PlayStation Network problems, the company was the subject of a series of high profile movie leaks, and employees' details were also leaked following a hack.

Sony acknowledged the connection problems in a tweeting, indicating that the connection issues were being looking into:

We are aware that users are having issues connecting to PSN. Thanks for your patience as we investigate.

— Ask PlayStation (@AskPlayStation) December 8, 2014

Lizard Squad's tweet is short, but seems to claim responsibility -- and it would not be entirely new territory for the group:

PSN Login #offline #LizardSquad

— Lizard Squad (@LizardPatrol) December 8, 2014

In addition to connection problems with the PlayStation Network, the PlayStation Store was also rendered inaccessible, although it is not clear whether the two problems are related. Anyone visiting the Store at the moment is greeted by a message that reads: "Page Not Found! It's not you. It’s the Internet's fault."

At the moment it appears that the PlayStation Network is back up and running, but the PlayStation store still shows an error message.

Photo credit: Barone Firenze / Shutterstock
It's your fault for the huge rise in data breaches

Publié: décembre 8, 2014, 9:21am CET par Darren Allan

New information which was obtained via a freedom of information request in the UK has found that there has been a worrying increase in the amount of data breaches which are caused by human error.

The figures were brought to light by an FOI request made to the Information Commissioner’s Office by Egress Software Technologies, an encryption provider.

Egress found that during the first quarter of 2014, 25 percent of reported data breaches were down to the accidental loss or destruction of personal data -- which is up 15 percent on the second half of 2013. A large percentage of these incidents, 43 percent to be precise, were cases of sensitive info being accidentally emailed, faxed or posted to the wrong person.

In actual fact, only 7 percent of breaches happened due to technical failures, with 93 percent occurring as a result of human error, lack of care when dealing with data, or poor processes which organizations have in place.

Indeed, Egress notes that when it comes to penalties levied by the ICO for data slips, no fines have actually been imposed concerning breaches caused by technical failures, whereas £5.1 million has been extracted from various organizations for mistakes made when handling sensitive data.

£600,000 worth of penalties were imposed for emailing sensitive details to the wrong recipient alone.

CEO of Egress, Tony Pepper, commented: "What these statistics demonstrate is that training alone is not the answer. Organizations have put huge emphasis on process driven training, but the fact that 93 percent of all incidents between January and March 2014 were caused by human error or failure to carry out effective process demonstrates that a change in approach is needed".

"Organizations need to make data protection a priority. Where possible, fax and post must be replaced by secure electronic communication that is procured in its own right. Solutions that are easy to use yet offer comprehensive protection and control have been developed to mitigate the risk of a data breach, so it is mystifying why organizations are not implementing them to reduce their liability".

When looking at reported breaches between April and June 2013, compared to the same period this year, healthcare organizations topped the list of offenders with 91 breaches that doubled up to 183 in 2014. The insurance sector saw increases of 200 percent, and education was up 56 percent among other large increases.

To date, since 2010, the ICO has issued penalties which total over £6.7 million, with public sector organizations being hit by £4.5 million of that sum.

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.
Manage disc images anywhere with Passcape ISO Burner

Publié: décembre 8, 2014, 8:53am CET par Mike Williams

It’s generally very easy to work with ISO files on a modern PC. Archiving programs can extract their contents, mastering software will burn them to disc, even Windows has offered basic support since Windows 7.

If you sometimes work on other people’s PCs, though, it’s wise to bring your own ISO application with the portable Passcape ISO Burner.

The program is very compact, just a single 348KB executable, no adware or other hassles. Simply launch it and a wizard presents you with four options.

The first directly burns an ISO (both 9660 and 13346, UDF) to CD or DVD. You get a couple of optional settings ("Enable buffer under-run protection" and "Quick erase") but otherwise this works exactly as you’d expect.

If you’re using this on someone else’s system, and have a problem, you can choose to burn the image with an external burning program. Passcape ISO Burner then opens whatever is associated with the ISO extension, and tries to pass it the file.

The program can also unpack an ISO image to a folder, useful if you just need to browse its contents.

The most advanced function will try to create a bootable USB drive from your image, as long as it has the necessary boot information. You get to choose whether you target PC is BIOS or UEFI-based (there’s an "I don’t know" option, if you’re not sure).

None of this is too surprising, and you probably have far more powerful programs already installed on your own system. Still, Passcape ISO Burner provides some useful features and is extremely easy to use, and it might be handy if you occasionally need to work with ISO files on other PCs.
Windows 10 Build 9888 includes Cortana -- but so bloody what?

Publié: décembre 8, 2014, 12:18am CET par Mark Wilson

It's not long since Windows 10 build 9879 was released and more recently build 9888 leaked online. I'm not going to link to the download as it's not an official release, but it's easy enough to get hold of -- you know where to look, I'm sure. So far the builds that have seen the light of day, officially or unofficially, have been rather light on features, but build 9888 includes what everyone has been chomping at the bit for: Cortana.

Was it worth the wait? Is a voice activated digital assistant appropriate for the desktop? Should anyone care? My answer to all three of these questions is a resounding 'no' -- with some possible exceptions in the case of the last question. Let me elaborate.

Cortana builds on the ideas introduced by Siri and OK Google, bringing voice activation to the desktop. While voice control makes sense on a mobile, I think it's far harder to justify on a desktop platform. Siri and OK Google make it possible to control a phone or tablet hands-free, which is great for when you're driving or doing something else. There's also Cortana in Windows Phone, but this is of interest to around five people.

Talking to one's phone makes a good deal of sense -- it's what the things were invented for, after all. It's also conceivable that using a small, fiddly in-screen keyboard is rather slower than simply giving a vocal instruction for some people. But is it actually useful? Really useful? Outside of those times when it is not practical or possible to operate your phone with your hands, do the likes of Siri really pay their way?

If you're sitting in a coffee shop or library, if you're walking down the street, if you're sitting on a park bench, do you feel comfortable using voice activation to set reminders and so on? "Remind me to call the doctor about that weird-looking rash in the morning!" Cue lots of strange looks. Potential embarrassment aside, we live in an age when we're all more concerned about privacy than ever. Why on earth would you want to bellow your schedule, your text messages and emails, or your search queries into your phone for all to hear? It's madness.

Sure, voice activation is impressive. The fact that it can be done is quite cool… but, really, is it needed? Anyone who has used Siri whilst out and about -- or even just at home -- must have noticed people turning around to see if they were being spoken to. Introduce the idea on the desktop and the problem is the same. "Cortana, remind me to get milk tomorrow." "What's that, love?" comes a call from the next room. "Nothing. Just talking to the computer."

The problem with understanding accents, and dealing with background noise persist. "EVERYONE SHUT UP! I want to set a voice-activated reminder!" Why not just type the thing? That's why the keyboard's there. We learned to type for a reason. Let's not let that skill go the same way as cursive handwriting. There's the problem of misheard commands. If you're not understood the first time around and need to repeat yourself or even manually change what has been interpreted, have you saved any time? Is it really more convenient?

And does no one feel remotely self-conscious about the idea of talking to their computer? The day I start issuing vocal instructions to an inanimate object is the day I hope my loved ones make a call and get me institutionalized.

Microsoft almost made a rod for its own back by announcing that Windows Phone, Xbox and Windows 10 would be converging into a more uniform platform. In saying this, the company all but committed itself to bringing Windows Phone's Cortana to the desktop -- but it's a terrible idea. It's technology for the sake of technology. It's not clever, it's a waste of time.

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