Technology

Watch out for Gmailnew Confidential Mode

Most email can either be secure or easy to use. You can have one but not both.

Thatwhy people are so excited about a new feature in GoogleGmail. Itcalled Confidential Mode, and itan easy way to make email more private.

Confidential Mode lets you add an &expiration date& to emails. Once that date arrives, the email is no longer viewable by the recipient.

Messages marked as Confidential can&t be copied, forwarded, printed or downloaded.

And you can revoke access at any time.

Sounds great, right Well, not so fast. There are a lot of &gotchas& in the new Confidential Mode that you need to know about.

Details
Category: Technology

Write comment (90 Comments)

Great R packages for data import, wrangling and visualization

One of the great things about R is the thousands of packages users have written to solve specific problems in various disciplines -- analyzing everything from weather or financial data to the human genome -- not to mention analyzing computer security-breach data.

[ Need to learn R or brush up on basics Download our free Beginner's Guide to R or the Advanced Beginner's Guide to R ]

Some tasks are common to almost all users, though, regardless of subject area: data import, data wrangling and data visualization. The table below show my favorite go-to packages for one of these three tasks (plus a few miscellaneous ones tossed in). The package names in the table are clickable if you want more information. To find out more about a package once you've installed it, type help(package = "packagename") in your R console (of course substituting the actual package name ).

Details
Category: Technology

Write comment (100 Comments)

Two more evolving threats: JavaScript in Excel and payment processing in Outlook

Once upon a time & dating back to the first &Concept& macro virus in Word & the Office folks were wary of new features that had possible security implications. But in the past few weeks, we&ve been introduced to two new features that have &Kick Me& written all over them.

First, JavaScript in Excel. I mean, what could possibly go wrong

[ Further reading: 10 spiffy new ways to show data with Excel ]

Last December, Microsoft published a Dev Center article that talked about using the new Excel JavaScript API to create add-ins for Excel 2016.

Details
Category: Technology

Write comment (90 Comments)

Surface Pro (2017) owners hitting Win10 1803 update blue screens. Now we know why.

As Win10 version 1803 rattles through the unpaid beta-testing phase, itsnagged another victim — Intelaging SSD6 solid-state drives. Both Microsoft and Intel now admit that running Win10 version 1803 on Intel 600p or Pro 6000p is a recipe for disaster.

Some Surface Pro (2017) models ship with &bad& Intel SSD Pro 6000p drives. Customers are complaining about freezes with Win10 version 1803 — and the Microsoft support folks don&t have a clue whatcausing the problem. Now we know.

Herehow the drama unfolded.

Win10 version 1803 has been in beta testing for centuries, in internet time. The &final& version, build 17134.1, entered the Windows Insider Fast ring almost a month ago, on April 16. In a jumble of mixed-up build numbers, Win10 version 1803 has been officially pushed since April 30. Why did it take so long to figure out that the 600p and Pro 6000p cause problems

Details
Category: Technology

Write comment (92 Comments)

IDG Contributor Network: HoloLens and anticipating the next big smartphone/PC-converged solution

Itbecoming increasingly clear to me that the market is getting ready to pivot to the next big computing experience. I&m convinced we don&t need two or three separate computing devices that increasingly do the same things.

PCs, smartphones and tablets all can be used for games, productivity applications and communications. At the same time, we&re increasingly getting into trouble using our smartphones inappropriately, which has resulted in laws restricting their use while doing other things & like driving.

Itgetting closer to a time when we&ll move to a converged solution that will both do all we do on our smartphones, PCs and tablets, and allow us to use the technology more safely. I was at Microsoft Build this month [disclosure: Microsoft is a client of the author], and I&m increasingly convinced their HoloLens could evolve into this converged platform replacement for our personal technology needs.

Details
Category: Technology

Write comment (98 Comments)

Apple Pay: ‘Hey, Siri, get me a Goldman Sachs mortgage&

News Apple may work with Goldman Sachs to launch credit services via Apple Pay shouldn&t surprise anyone — technology is transforming the entire financial system as your iPhone becomes more than a wallet.

Details
Category: Technology

Write comment (94 Comments)
  1. What's in the current Firefox upgrade Enterprise management engine
  2. What it costs to keep up with Windows 10's upgrade tempo
  3. Tidy, redefined
  4. Android versions: A living history from 1.0 to today
  5. 9 new Android P includes that'll make you more productive