Steam users were put in a world of hurt yesterday morning when an antivirus definitions update to Avast Antivirus moved Steam .dll files to the quarantine directory and caused Steam to crash. Depending on how you responded to the false positive, it could result in having to reinstall Steam and any of the games in your library you want access to. Shortly after the bad update, … [Read more...]
Product Review: Neato XV-11 Robotic Vacuum
I had a Roomba for a while but it stopped working properly, now preferring to jitter around in circles than clean an entire room. I took it apart several times, tried clearing sensors, reseating components, and blowing out all the dust that a vacuum encounters. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to repair it. Shortly after getting the Roomba, I read about the Neato. It was described … [Read more...]
Adobe Flash Player receives small update, unifies 32-bit and 64-bit version installers
Late last week, Adobe announced an update to its Flash Player product for Windows only. Flash Player was updated from 11.3.300.268 to 11.3.300.270. The minor update addresses a crash with the Adobe Flash Player Update Service (FlashPlayerUpdateService.exe). The update, however, is not available from Adobe's Product Download Center. … [Read more...]
Sophos Threatsaurus makes malware and other threats easy to understand
Sophos has provided their 2012 Threatsaurus free for download. It is a glossary of common terms in data security presented at a casual level that makes it easy to understand and fascinating to learn. The 131-page book goes through security terms, security software and hardware, safety tips, and even a history of malware. … [Read more...]
Microsoft reduces password length to 16 characters on Windows Live accounts
Something struck me as a little funny yesterday when signing up for an Outlook.com account and my password was blocked for being too long. Outlook.com passwords are limited to 16 characters in length. Today, when I went to log into a Windows Live service, I got another message. Microsoft account passwords can contain up to 16 characters. If you've been using a password that has … [Read more...]