John Lister

The French government has persuaded one of that country's major Internet providers to drop a plan that would have blocked all website advertising automatically. Government officials said the move could have placed the future of many successful ... websites in doubt. Free, a broadband provider to more than five million French subscribers, proposed to update software on its cable modems to, by default, block website advertisements. Its customers would see a blank space where advertisements appeared on websites delivered via its competitors' Internet services. (The firm's name -- Free -- reflects ... (view more)

After spending more than a year investigating allegations that Google favored its own products when producing search results, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has decided against imposing any serious punishment on the search giant. In response, ... Google is both celebrating the decision and also using the FTC report for its own benefit. The FTC decision is in line with earlier reports that suggested government officials simply didn't have much proof of any wrongdoing by Google. In what appears to be an agreed-upon outcome, Google has promised that for the next five years it will make it easier ... (view more)

Security researchers have recently claimed the leading antivirus products demonstrate just a 1-in-20 chance of detecting new malicious software. However, high-profile figures in the security industry have questioned the validity of this new ... research. The research was conducted by Imperva, a digital security firm based in California. It intentionally set out to collect samples of virus code. To make sure it was collecting new samples of brand new viruses, Imperva searched discussion forums for hackers offering tips on how to breach security defenses. After gathering 82 examples of malicious ... (view more)

Two prominent PC manufacturers have stopped making netbook computers. The move, announced by both Acer and Asus, suggests some PC makers may now see the netbook form factor as an unattractive compromise between tablet and laptop computers. A netbook ... is an especially lightweight, compact, and cheap laptop computer. Many netbooks, like the Hewlett-Packard (HP) Mini, feature a 10.1-inch screen, 1 or 2GBs of RAM, and a sub-500GB hard drive. Netbooks usually retail for under $500. Netbooks became extremely popular four or five years ago, as the global economy took a turn for the worse. The cheaper ... (view more)

Facebook was recently forced to temporarily switch off a New Year's Eve messaging feature after a report suggested that private messages could be easily accessed and read by strangers. The feature is called "Midnight Delivery." It allowed Facebook ... users to send a 'Happy New Year' message to a friend. Unlike a normal message, however, the New Year's message would be "delivered" at precisely midnight. Furthermore, the message wouldn't arrive in the usual Facebook inbox. Instead, the recipient would get a link taking them to a special website called "Facebook Stories," where ... (view more)

The president of Fujitsu, a major PC manufacturer, has now blamed Windows 8 for the company missing its most recent sales targets. Some reports indicate Fujitsu computer sales are less than 80% of what they were a year ago, when the highly popular ... Windows 7 was the operating system of choice. PC makers like Fujitsu often count on new versions of Windows to boost hardware sales. This is because many consumers wait until the release of a new operating system (OS) to purchase a long-desired computer. Fujitsu Sales Take a Plunge However, at least one report says that sales of Fujitsu PCs running ... (view more)

Here's a question from a long-time Infopackets reader with a fairly common problem: "Dear Infopackets team, I recently updated to Windows 8 Professional and find that I now have a mouse problem. I'm left handed. When using Windows 7, I easily ... configured the mouse so the right-side button operated as the main clicker. Now with Windows 8, I find I must reset the mouse buttons every time I boot up the system. It just doesn't remember. Is there a way to make it stay the way I want it? Thanks a bunch, Werner V." My response: Dear Werner, You can solve this mouse problem. One way is to ... (view more)

Facebook is testing a new messaging system that will cost people $1 to send a message to a stranger. It's designed to deter spammers from using the site to annoy Facebook members, but some analysts have suggested Facebook could also be looking to ... profit from the new system. Right now you can send a Facebook message to another user for free, even if they aren't your 'friend' on the site. However, in most cases, this message will not find its way into the recipient's 'Inbox.' Instead, it will go into a separate message folder marked 'Other.' Because you won't get alerted in the same way as you ... (view more)

Amazon has been hit by a simple but sneaky scam involving bogus "lost item" claims that could lead to difficulty for legitimate Amazon shoppers. The problem was highlighted by web development blogger Chris Cardinal, who received several mysterious ... emails from Amazon about an order for an expensive camera. (Source: htmlist.com ) At first Cardinal assumed the messages were part of a phishing scam, which involves tricking people into providing personal information, including log-in data and passwords. However, upon logging into his Amazon account he discovered the emails were genuine. ... (view more)

A leading consumer magazine has told its readers there is "no compelling reason" to switch to Windows 8. Consumer Reports opines that in most cases only touchscreen users will benefit from an upgrade. The magazine made those comments in a new issue ... filled with computer reviews, among which PCs equipped with Windows 7 received some of the highest ratings. Consumer Reports is not a computer software magazine. However, it is widely read and its reports have a significant impact on the technology industry. In fact, a couple of years ago Consumer Reports recommended users avoid buying Apple's ... (view more)