John Lister

Some users are reporting finding it almost impossible to watch videos on YouTube while using an ad blocker. It's likely the latest attempt by YouTube to crack down, but seems to only work on specific ad blockers. Over recent months, YouTube had ... displayed a warning message to people who used an ad blocker, telling them the video would not play until they switched it off. YouTube maintains that using an ad blocker actually violates its terms of service. The company also argues that ad blocking hurts both creators and users, the logic being that without ad revenue, creators have less incentive ... (view more)

Google appears to be rethinking its use of AI generated "answers" in search results page. It comes as tech experts figured out a workaround to disable the AI generated answers in the first place. The company recently launched what it calls Search ... Generative Experience behind the scenes, and "AI Overview" in search results. It kicks in when it thinks the user is trying to get a specific answer to a specific question rather than simply searching for a website or exploring a wider topic. The AI Overview appears at the top of the results before any links to websites and is rolling out to all ... (view more)

An unprotected Windows XP machine lasted just 10 minutes online before being infected. It was an extreme and arguably unrealistic experiment, but does show just how prevalent online threats are. YouTuber Eric Parker carried out the test with a ... virtual machine running Windows XP. A virtual machine is a machine that lives inside of another machine, which makes it appear as if the virtual machine is a separate, physical computer. It's often used by people running two operating systems on the same computer. In fact, this website runs as a virtual machine. At any rate: it's no secret that running ... (view more)

More than a third of webpages have disappeared in the past 10 years according to a new study. Eight percent of pages that existed last year have already gone. The figures come from the Pew Research Center, exploring what it calls "digital decay" and ... other sources have called "link rot". (Source: pewresearch.org ) Pew's researchers looked at a random selection of URLs which were active at various points over the past 10 years. On average, a quarter have now gone. Naturally there's a downward trend, with 38 percent of pages active in 2013 now unavailable. Even with pages active as recently as ... (view more)

The FBI has taken control of a forum used for selling stolen data. The fact it's the second time BreachForums has been taken down this year shows how it may be an endless task. Such forums are arguably a key incentive for hackers to steal data in ... the first place. The forums make it easier to find buyers for the stolen data, rather than the hackers having to figure out their own tactics for exploiting the stolen information. BreachForums was also a key marketplace for selling malware used for successful hacking attacks. High-profile data offered for sale on the site in recent months included ... (view more)

It's no surprise TikTok has challenged a law that bans it operating in the US under Chinese ownership. But what wasn't expected was individual users suing to block the law. The US government recently passed a law giving TikTok's Chinese-based owners ... ByteDance until January 19, 2025 to sell to a non-Chinese company. If it doesn't, app stores will be barred from distributing the app and hosting companies would not be allowed to serve the business. TikTok says the deadline is so short and the conditions so strict that the law is effectively an outright ban. It's already started a legal challenge ... (view more)

Internet adoption has a positive link with wellbeing, according to an international research project. But it's a mixed picture and cause and effect could be questioned. The research comes from the Oxford Internet Institute, which examined a wide ... range of studies into psychological wellbeing and mental health. They covered a total of 2.4 million people across 168 countries at various points between 2006 and 2021. (Source: ac.uk ) The researchers then cross-referenced the results with figures on broadband and mobile Internet use in the relevant countries at the relevant times. The biggest ... (view more)

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has banned Internet carriers from giving some applications access to "fast lane" speeds. The tweak to recently-restored net neutrality rules aims to close a potential loophole. Last month, the FCC voted to ... restore the principle of net neutrality. Broadly they say Internet carriers must treat all traffic equally. The commission has now published the full wording of the rules which will enforce the principle. One of the most notable elements of net neutrality is speed. Previously used rules explicitly barred carriers from slowing down access when ... (view more)

A new form of laptop memory aims to remove one of the biggest trade-offs in portable devices. It promises speed and power efficiency while still being easily replaceable. Most existing laptop memory falls into two categories, each with a weakness. ... One type, which is easily replaceable, takes up a comparatively large amount of space and uses a lot of power. That's double bad news in a portable computer. The other type is smaller and more energy efficient but must be soldered onto the motherboard, which is effectively the "spine" of a computer's operations. That's great at first but it removes ... (view more)

A new form of Android malware can hijack legitimate apps. "Dirty Stream" take advantage of a legitimate function designed to make life easier for users. The function is called ContentProvider and allows one mobile app to access data from, or ... communicate with, another app. It makes it possible to, for example, open a PDF attachment from a messaging app in a dedicated PDF reader app. The people behind the DirtyStream malware found a vulnerability in the way ContentProvider worked. This made it possible not only to force another app to open a compromised file, but to then use the contents to ... (view more)