Never Download a Driver-Updating Utility; They're Worse Than Useless

Did You Know? Paul Reubens, better known as Pee-Wee Herman, was the actor originally slated to voice Roger in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Geek Trivia A Zarf Is Used To Hold? Astronaut Vomit → Coffee Cups → Sub-Atomic Particles → Encrypted Emails → Advertisement Download the Vulnerability Management for Dummies eBook Vulnerability Management for Dummies arms you with the facts and shows you how to implement a successful Vulnerability Management program. Whether your network consists of just a handful of computers or thousands of servers distributed around the world. Click here to download Geek Comic Today's Tech Term Web Pad A Web Pad (a.k.a Web Slate) is touch-screen tablet computer designed for light-duty Internet activities such as visiting websites and interacting with web applications. What We're Reading from Around the Web NASA's Latest Virtual Reality Is Designed to Soothe Homesick Astronauts [Motherboard] A Wearable Gadget Implanted in Your Hand Isn't as Freaky as You'd Think [Wired] Spreadsheets Turn 35: A Look Back At Three Decades Of Cells [The Atlantic] Gigabit cellular networks could happen with 24GHz spectrum, FCC says [ArsTechnica] The Big Future: Can we colonize Mars? [The Verge] Research says kids eat less after playing Angry Birds [Polygon] Here's Why Public Wifi is a Public Health Hazard [Medium] Disney rendered its new animated film on a 55,000-core supercomputer [Endgadget] Never Download a Driver-Updating Utility; They’re Worse Than Useless Never download a driver-updating utility. Like PC-cleaning programs, they try to charge you money for a service you don’t need. They do this by scaring you with threats of blue screens and system problems. Read This Article → How to Unsubscribe from Email Newsletters the Correct Way Do you get too many newsletters and other promotional emails? These emails aren’t technically “spam” — they’re from legitimate organizations. Thanks to the US CAN-SPAM act, every legitimate company offers a consistent way to unsubscribe from their newsletters. Read This Article → Ask HTG: How Can Studios Release High-Definition Versions of Decades Old Movies and TV Shows? One of the benefits of the widespread adoption of high-definition television sets and HD capable media players like Blu Ray players and HD-capable streaming boxes has been a push for film and television studios to re-release old content in beautiful HD. But how exactly are they producing HD content 20+ years after the fact? Read This Article → Secure Your Online Accounts By Removing Third-Party App Access You’ve probably given a few applications or websites access to your Google, Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, or Microsoft account. Every application you’ve ever allowed keeps that access forever — or at least until you revoke it. Read This Article → Reduce Eye Strain When Using Smartphones and Tablets in the Dark Reading your smartphone or tablet in the dark is probably bad for you. That’s unlikely to stop you, so beyond quitting cold turkey, what are the easiest ways to fix your bedtime reading device so it doesn’t put so much strain on your eyes? Read This Article → How to Upgrade Your Existing Hard Drive in Under an Hour If you’ve been eyeing the falling prices on spacious solid-state drives but putting off an upgrade because you don’t want the hassle of reinstalling everything, we here to help. Read on as we show you how to clone your old HDD onto a new HDD and get your entire system back up and running in under an hour; no reinstallation of Windows and all your apps necessary. Read This Article → How to Import Your POP3 Emails Into an IMAP Account We recently explained why you should be using IMAP instead of POP3 for your email. If you still have old POP3 emails stored offline, you don’t have to abandon them — import your POP3 emails into an IMAP account. Read This Article → Ask HTG: What’s the Deal with Android’s Persistent “Network May Be Monitored” Warning? The release of Android 4.4 KitKat brought a wide array of improvements included enhanced security. While the security might be tighter, the messages can still be a bit cryptic. What exactly does the persistent “Network May Be Monitored” warning mean, should you be concerned, and what can you do to get rid of it? Read This Article → Beware: Never Download “Codecs” or “Players” To Watch Videos Online If a website asks you to download a “codec,” “player,” or “browser update” to play a video, run the other way. You don’t actually need to download this sort of thing — the website is trying to infect your computer with malware. Read This Article → Advertisement Download Worse Than Heartbleed? Meet ShellShock: A New Security Threat For OS X and Linux A serious security issue with the Bash shell – a major component of both most UNIX-like operating systems – has been discovered, with significant implications for computer security worldwide. The issue is present in all versions of the Bash scripting language up to version 4.3, which affects a majority of Linux machines, and the entirety of computers running OS X. Curious about how it works and how to protect yourself? Read on for more information. Click here to download