Slashdot Mirror

It is far easier to place a SIT tone sequence at the start of your voicemail. The technique is shockingly effective. https://lifehacker.com/trick-a...

Some will pan out, most will not.

The problem is that some panned out (a user base that liked what they were doing), and Google killed them anyway, in a lot of cases like taking a kitten that you loved and exposing it to powerful miutagens just to see what it would transform into. Or just plain shot the kitten, as per Google Reader.

https://lifehacker.com/intermi... Often I'll read a topic somewhere else and see it show up on Slashdot hours or days later. When I saw this I was sure it was the post I'd read earlier in the day. Imagine my surprise to find it had the opposite conclusion.

At least I can download Fortnight. 5 hour download? Really? And What's This Feature? It's downloading at 20% the speed of the internet I'm paying for.

You got a new PS4 and tried to download games/updates from PSN on Christmas...which is the WORST day to do so because of how many OTHER people are doing the same thing. PSN download server bandwidth is finite.

Every year, the various gaming websites do articles like "parents, you might want to open up the PS4 box and prepare it before christmas"

https://lifehacker.com/how-to-...

http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2017/1...

Now generally, it's a bit better later on, say after 8pm, but if you have a big 50GB game to download it's going to take a while. I heartily recommend at least 50Mb/s download if you're going to do a lot of big digital games, or MMO's/MMOish games.

Also if you're downloading AND a physical game is installing at the same time, the hard drive only has so much bandwidth.

Fortnite shouldn't take too long to download unless you've got a slow connection. Total size for the thing now is about 16GB total. In comparison Final Fantasy XV is 92GB, Elder Scrolls Online is 87GB.

come on man this is a tech site "news for nerds" NFC isn't that new or complicated or esoteric. It's part of the technology that lets you touch phones together to transfer pictures or contact information. Many (if not most) phones have this. It's been around for a long time, it's how you use your phone to pay for things. I think it might be how credit cards that let you tap to pay work. That's basically what it is. You can program it to interface with other things but you can use it to turn your hand into a virtual business card. Tap someone's phone and they get your contact info. Tap the credit card scanner and you can pay for things. But dude people have been hyping up NFC since 2012 and it's still around six years later. in tech years it should have college ready children by now. It's not unreasonable to expect a reader here to know what it is.

I'm in a state with vote by mail, so I did it weeks ago.

Still can't get my friends to vote. They're convinced it gets you jury duty

Spoof your phone number. Since you can't Googleit yourself:
https://www.techwalla.com/arti...
https://lifehacker.com/5853056...

The legitimate PBX owner would need to be certified by the local phone company. This takes time and effort. (They could charge for this service.)

They could charge for this service. Probably wouldn't go over well with customers.

> Do you realize that the driving force of UBI in today's environment is to actually allow people to survive without working?

You realize there's no reason to assert that? There's nothing published or publicly said, by the organizations running these experiments, to that effect.

You do realize there's more context behind UBI than just Y Combinator's press release? Do press releases really need to repeat everything just for you?

Oh clever little man, you posted a link that says your Apple product will just wear out if you leave it plugged in, not explode. But then, there are these exploding Apple products, which is it? Do they suck because the battery wears out when plugged in, or do they suck because they explode if left plugged in? Or both?

It would seem that A) from the news reports and B) Apple's own blogs that the answer is "both". Not like we had to ask.

Now scurry away and fix your products.

No. Apple's statement is that you might experience reduced battery life if you leave your product plugged-in. That's because Apple's guidelines for best-practices include a suggestion that you do at least a monthly deep-cycle discharge and recharge. That isn't Apple's suggestion; it's the battery industry's.

That's because LiOn/LiPo batteries, no matter who's device they are in, while not experiencing much "memory effect" (look it up), DO experience SOME "memory effect". This, plus the fact that the internal controller chips inside these batteries become slightly miscalibrated over time of many shallow discharges, and a deep-cycle keeps them calibrated. This is most certainly NOT an "Apple Thing:

https://www.androidcentral.com...

https://lifehacker.com/5875162...

https://www.notebookcheck.net/...

So yes, facts ARE "clever".

Now go away.

Not necessarily:
https://lifehacker.com/5763452...
https://www.techwalla.com/arti...
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/ho...

https://panopticlick.eff.org/r...

If merely copying the restore disks is copyright infringement, then there's no need for serial keys and the DMCA provision criminalizing bypassing encryption meant to protect copyright.

If copyright is being protected by serial keys or DMCA-protected encryption, then copying the media without bypassing those copyright protection mechanisms isn't copyright infringement. All the person has done by redistributing such unaltered software is reduce the copyright holder's costs by doing the work of duplication and distribution for them.

From what I've read, his "financial gain" was 25 cents per disk, designed to recoup his cost of optical media and burning the software to the disks. By comparison, most movie studios charge $7-$9 for replacement blu-ray disks, meaning the amount he was charging was completely in line with recouping his material costs.

The only mistake he made based on my reading of the case was stamping the DVDs to make them look like authentic Microsoft disks.

Don't mobile devices have cookie support? Or do mobile devices provide tracking features that are better than what cookies provided?

I think the point is that mobile users often go to websites without clicking on links in the same browsing session, so instead javascript + persistent logins on google/facebook/etc means that they know which user is going to which site. More, they use javascript to track where you look. So, they no longer have to track a cookie. They track a person. You should look at lifehacker's collusion for chrome that talks a little about tracking links.

Extra "privileges". See the comparison:

https://lifehacker.com/what-ar...

The privileges are useful for older men to scope out women in different areas and expand their reach. And they charge more for older people because older men are lonely and have jobs to pay for privileges.

According to this you would need to be earning well over 100k to see anything like that kind of cut: https://twocents.lifehacker.co...

Note that the very rich, like Trump, get a far bigger tax break.

Maybe you earn less but gain in other ways. In any case, that $1.5 trillion has to come from somewhere and in this case it's cuts to things like healthcare.

Remember how the internet was an unending hell hole of bad service in 2015 before NN was passed?

Yes.

Remember how the internet suddenly changed in any noticeable way between 2015 and 2017 when the internet was perfect and good and amazing?

No, but I remember it not getting significantly worse. Other than the introduction of zero-rating systems (which also break NN but either the FCC didn't care, or just didn't get around to it when they had the chance and it doesn't matter now..)

Remember how when NN was struck down by the FCC it all went back to how it was before 2015?

No, but seeing as its been less than two weeks since the vote that's not exactly surprising. Come talk to me this time next year. If Slashdot isn't blocked by your ISP.

iTunes sucks: A GIF guide to why Apple’s desktop music app must be fixed

Why does iTunes suck so incredibly much?

iTunes sucks, we all know it. What are my options for music player (nonstreaming) on the iPhone 6s?

Why I Hate iTunes: Syncing Sucks And So Does Selecting Music

Can iTunes suck anymore than it already does?

iTunes Really Is That Bad

Apple’s iTunes Is Alienating Its Most Music-Obsessed Users

Eleven Reasons Why iTunes Sucks

Why does Itunes SUCK SO MUCH ???

Again: no, people are not happy using iTunes. People use iTunes because Apple requires it for their expensive iDevices. They hate it, but they want to sync music to their iPhones.

You're saying that my assertion about video players is a "no true Scotsman" fallacy? That's a laugh. You just didn't want to dig your hole deeper by responding to what I said. Video players are not designed to deal with large music libraries, nor should they be. A sports car can be used to take lots of cleaning supplies between cleaning jobs, but a utility van will be far better suited to the task. Your choice of VLC to support this notion is especially hilarious. The VLC media library is like only using the Winamp playlist for your entire music collection.

Or perhaps you meant that foobar2000 is not the true Scotsman. In that case, you missed my arguments about the interface being poorly designed.

Now here's a real laugh for you regarding your sneering at Winamp market share. While I don't have stats from anywhere today, Lifehacker did a survey in 2013 to find out what the readers thought was the best desktop music player and in the end Winamp was the winner. So at least in 2013, 16 years after Winamp was released, it was still the preferred player for everyone that read Lifehacker at the time. Unfortunately, most articles seem to omit or only "honorably mention" Winamp based on it no longer being developed which at this point is really only a problem for people who want double size mode to look better or want to sync a modern iPod with Winamp (yes, Winamp used to sync iPods.)

I'm sure iTunes can play music back on garbage hardware while multitasking. Maintaining a 44.1 kHz 16-bit stereo audio stream while multitasking was easily done by Winamp in 1997 on an original Pentium, so why wouldn't it be possible to do the same thing today on a bargan-basement Celeron that's slow for browsing but still two orders of magnitude faster than an original Pentium? It's not hard to have a realtime-priority and heavily optimized thread that does nothing but decompress music file data and pass it to the sound system. Good luck switching between iTunes and other stuff in 2GB of RAM while trying to do some actual work.

One more thing was never addressed. You never elaborated on why "underlying frameworks" is some sort of selling point. Last I checked, no one went out looking for media players and said "I want one that has underlying frameworks."

1) A disc never stops working (when treated right)

In theory, a disc never stops working, period. You're not buy a disc. You're buying a license to view its content whenever you like, forever. As the studios are so fond of telling us, you're not buying a movie, you're buying a license to view the movie. Even if the media fails, the license is still in effect.

Unfortunately, only one studio has been openly holding up their end of the bargain. Disney will replace your broken discs (and tapes) for a modest media fee and shipping. Probably because so many kids destroyed the originals, and their parents would've gotten together to file a precedent-setting class action lawsuit if Disney hadn't held up their end. I think there was one other studio which had a similar replacement policy, buried deep in their website where you'd never find it. The rest expect you to purchase another license rather than honoring the one they already sold you. And they wonder why people pirate their movies.

Agree.

I have never used a password manager.

I have a scheme whereby, when I look at a login page, I can use the address to reconstruct the appropriate password according to a mental algorithm.

I go back to stories like this one

LastPass Hacked, Change Your Master Password Now by Eric Ravenscraft, 6/15/15 3:30pm.

I'd never go back to that site.

So how will you deal with the frustration when you find that the majority of the top ten results from a particular web search query come from that site and others like it? It becomes tedious to add a dozen or more -site:domain.example terms to every single query. Google Search used to allow blacklisting a domain, but this feature has since been permanently discontinued. I found some promising browser extensions for users of Google Search on select desktop browsers:

But what works for Chrome for Android, Edge, or Safari? Or for DuckDuckGo or Bing?

And for years, Paypal's outrageous 3.9% charge just over the actual exchange rate for foreing currencies don't help either. And that not even counting other fees.

And more when they keep making their currency exchange the default choice even when explicitely set to use the card issuer currency exchange in the deeply hidden account configuration settings. Until they will reset it again.

Even Aliexpress/Alipay charge "just" 2%, and many banks won't charge anything.

Gotta say, that's a pretty convincing argument. This article puts some flesh on that story:

http://lifehacker.com/the-power-of-mental-models-how-flight-32-avoided-disas-1765022753

Hard to imagine that plane being landed safely by autopilot or remote control.

Floating, falling
Sweet intoxication
Touch me, trust me
Savor each sensation
Let the dream begin
Let your darker side give in
To the power of the music that I write
The power of the music of the night

If you want to get directions to a destination you have to turn on location services on your phone which then sends your location to a server to generate the maps/directions. You have the same problem if you're a runner or cyclist who wants to track their workouts. All of the data is stored and processed somewhere else.

Or you could use an offline maps app like OsmAnd~ and not need to use anything but GPS. (Even works on tablets.)

If you install a messenger/comms app on your phone it wants to read your contacts so you don't have to manually copy the entries over. Who knows what else that app does with the information?

In general, any comms app is a privacy risk because it uses network by design. The question is what does it have access to, not if it will transmit it. The best protection is looking at the code yourself and building it yourself, but few would do that due to the time and skill required to do so. That being said, I would use: Xabber.

If you use a hosted email service they have the ability to read your cleartext messages.

You clearly don't know how email works. ALL email is cleartext, regardless of storage location, unless you encrypt it yourself before sending it. Try using PGP. Is it a pain to set up? Depends on how well your favorite email client supports plugins. K-9 Mail supports encryption so my suggestion is to use it.

If you want your pictures automatically backed up to "the cloud" then the provider can access them.

In general using a "cloud" service really means "potential data mining" service. By definition, you're giving your data to someone else to hold. Unless you encrypt it first, it's going to be viewable to who / what ever you upload it to, and that's true regardless as to what the data is. (Password, Picture, SSN, A spreadsheet, an email, etc.)

That being said, if it's data sync between devices your primarily after, you could set up FreeNAS, or something like ownCloud locally. If it's the offsite storage you are after, compress the data, then encrypt it with something like APG before sending it (or something like AxCrypt for windows.). (More encryption tools for windows: http://lifehacker.com/five-bes...)

They would allow data to flow in from the Internet, but not back out.

They have that already. It's called "TV" and "Radio". The last component (that I didn't quote) already exists too and is called "sneakernet". (See also the recent increasing scrutiny and intrusion of digital devices by government agents if you want to see why that's becoming a less reliable transmission method.) Your idea would make the Internet completely useless as a communications medium for anyone except special interests who could afford being "allowed" to transmit to other devices. Make no mistake about saying that either, that's exactly what the *IAAs of the world want.

Granted the Internet is not secure, (It was never supposed to be. Insecure transmissions is at the heart of it's design and origin.) but there are methods to protect yourself if you choose to use them. They just require you (and others) to learn about them first. Rather than try to reinvent a propaganda machine, how about trying the tools available and teaching others about them instead? It would make everyone better off.

*Sidenote: I assume you are using a phone and not a PC. Most people are moving that way due to them not actually needing a workstation for

Facebook isn't a govt. Why is it policing anything? Just put up a 18+ sign and make people login confirm they are an adult.

Facebook is a public US company, so they should attempt to keep their customers and shareholders happy. That isn't always possible with billions of both.

It isn't like a new source or public utility. You don't have to use facebook, BTW. Actually, it is pretty easy to block at the network layer. https://lifehacker.com/5817447...

You jest, but you really should be able to take detailed measurements of yourself (not hard; but it helps to have a friend) and enter them into the web site, and then Amazon should be able to calculate how each piece of clothing will fit you...

The assumption is that Amazon has accurate clothing sizes from its vendors. That's, if you'll pardon the expression, quite a stretch.

Unless Amazon launches some sort of Amazon Basics for clothing, sizing is going to remain a bit of a crapshoot.

Why would we want just one programming language?

It's reasonably obvious why we have multiple programming languages but your question has a serious answer. There would be HUGE advantages if it were practically possible to consolidate on one programming language. The economic benefits would be massive. Any time you can reduce the complexity of the tooling you use to make products it reduces cost, reduces errors, makes training easier, and has lots more knock on benefits. In many cases the benefits of minimizing tool complexity (less languages in this case) can be larger than the optimization benefits from using a specialized tool. To use a non-programming analogy, think about Alton Brown's "no uni-taskers" rule. Specialized tools or specialized languages have their time and place but one should avoid them if practically possible.

Now in the real world we're highly unlikely to ever see a single programming language dominate all forms of programming and for very good reasons. But that's a different question than why we would want such a state of affairs. Having multiple languages has advantages but having a single language makes life SO much easier in many important ways.

I got so fed up with the last presidential election and fraudulent telemarketers robo-bombing my phone that I preceded my answering greeting message with the Special Information Tone (SIT) tone to trick the auto-dialers into detecting a disconnected phone number and removing my number from the list. I just downloaded the tone into my mobile device and played it into the mic on the answering machine.

They shouldn't be?
http://lifehacker.com/reminder-gift-cards-are-tax-free-so-make-sure-you-don-1668494857
https://trustfile.avalara.com/blog/should-i-tax-customers-for-gift-cards/
https://www.accuratetax.com/blog/sales-tax-gift-certificates/

As far as anyone knows, Chrome only sends search data home on a regular basis. I think it's still worth being concerned about the platform's capabilities but I wouldn't be paranoid about it.

I feel your confusion. This may be "old school" but I feel it's solid (or has been for me). Start with learning the basic rules.

A lot of people like Python but because most languages use certain characters to enclose blocks of code (and python only uses indents) I would suggest starting with Java or C/C++. Many here will say Python is easier (ruby is probably easiest for many), but your goal will be to have room to grow. You'll find more languages conform to the C/C++ or Java syntax style rules than Python or Ruby. I find it easier to ready than Python myself.

Do yourself a favor and skip VB.net. If you want pure Microsoft (and I would advise against that, would have saved me much grief early in my career) you can do C# and you'll be better prepared for languages with more platforms.

Java, for example you can use in many enterprise system and embedded systems, including Android. C/C++ you can use for robotic controllers, IPhones (objective-c), real-time critical applications (and gaming!!).

Some may suggest starting with scripting languages like PHP, Python or Ruby. there is faster "joy", but I'd sooner suggest starting with MIT's Scratch https://scratch.mit.edu/ (GUI language for teaching children basic of programming). It's a great teaching tool for anyone I think. Hey, it's still valid basics which converts the GUI instructs into 'C'. the reason

I'm so "hung up" on starting with C/C++ or Java is most newer languages take a lot of their cues from the concepts widely used in C/C++/Java. once you learn one of these (especially C++/Java) you can step into any other language out there with relative ease. Some good sites to start would include:

http://lifehacker.com/five-bes...
Note: These are all free or have free options

http://www.learn-c.org/
http://landofcode.com/programm...
https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/el...
https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/el...
https://www.codecademy.com/lea...
http://www.coursera.org/ (real university level courses, a little intimidating at first, but worth it)
http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/t...

For python:
https://www.python.org/

For Ruby:
https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/

the courses as udemy are a little light so I'd only go there for review.

I've given many options here although I've stated my preference. The other advantage to using C/C++ or Java is they make using these invaluable books easier to read:

Writing Solid Code: Microsoft Techniques for Developing Bug-free C. Programs (Microsoft Programming Series) by Maguire, Steve
Code Complete by Steve McConnell


Yes, these books are from MS and old, but I found them invaluable (and I wish MS had actually practice what came from their own publishing companies when writing the code for W2K and XP). Was required reading at one workplace. You'll want to learn about Object-Oriented approaches as well as syntax. It's a lot to take in and this is just the beginning, but it's fun journey. Oh, I would agree, don't bother with Basic. You are better off with Python or Ruby. :D Again, to reduce your learning curve later on, I'd start with C/C++/Java. You'll be glad you did.

Exactly. This post I saw on Lifehacker http://lifehacker.com/how-a-st... shows that making an absurdly high joke will help earn you a higher salary.

This fits in nicely with the recent attack that works on Netgear routers where you can execute a cgi-bin script as root without authorization. http://lifehacker.com/psa-seve...

Seriously. What the fuck? Cgi-bin exploits in 2016?

Just ask them to remove local channels and local sports from your cable package. Buy an eternal VHF/UHF antenna to pick up those channels. Yes your TV will look retro like something from the 1970s. Who cares, you look at the screen, not the antenna.

If Comcast lets you remove those channels, then you won't have to pay the fees and you'll make back the cost of the antenna in a few months. You can pocket the savings every month thereafter.

If Comcast says you can't remove those channels, then they've basically admitted that they are falsely advertising their prices. If there's no way to remove a fee from the price, the fee is a part of the price, not an optional add-on. And they will lose the lawsuits and be forced to include these fees in their advertised prices.

If you want better hardware for running macOS just do it yourself.

See http://lifehacker.com/the-alwa...

The PSTN/POTS trust design is likely older than both of us combined.

Fortunately, autodialers also must trust "Special Information Tones" (SIT) that announce a disconnected number. I put this SIT tone on my voicemail.

Because I ported my longtime landline number, "Rachel from card services" was leaving me messages several times per day. With my SIT tone trick, she is now long gone. I really don't miss her.

(f) And the NSA!
(g) You recoup nothing when you stop paying. You are left no physical assets (server).
(h) Nor the skills you'd gain setting up an efficient (*) home-cloud yourself

(*) The 'Avoid an Always-On PC' statement is misleading. Its possible to let your PC asleep and issue wake-on-lan packets via the internet router (or a small RasberryPi Zero hanging off of it)
http://lifehacker.com/348197/a...

The so called 'security researcher' got confused with Google Nearby https://support.google.com/acc... . Google also moved core android OS functions into Google Play Services so core functions could be updated without rolling an entire android update(which the oem would never do). Moving the location provider was part of the this rework, so everyone could get the latest google maps turn by turn directions and provide a consistent api to developers http://lifehacker.com/why-goog....

tly, looking for a good solution for my personal use case at work. I've found to be a gold mine of information.

I've never had any special love for Apple and especially not bluetooth anything. I read a bunch of posts there which I think this article from lifehacker mostly addresses.

tl;dr - audio compression, dead batteries, overlapping frequency ranges from other shit make bluetooth suck (although supposedly less so than in the past). I don't claim to be an expert just a reader.

You can thank Jeff Bezos for that. He had the app intentionally borked to not work on Android TV and I suspect it didn't help it functionality overall. There are workarounds but ultimately it's such a PITA I stopped trying.

I would think you would have googled for it or noticed the privacy policy of the software but if you really are incapable of that then here you go.

Oh, shut the fuck up, you whiny bitch. Booting multiple operating systems on the same drive has NEVER been reliable, even between multiple Linux distros. Idiots and poor slobs dual boot. People with brains and money use a separate hard drive.

Really? Perhaps you don't have an OS with a decent (third-party) BootLoader/Boot Menu available, like macOS does.

A Raspberry Pi will do nicely.

1) Lazurus Form Recovery - Caches all form data that I input in text boxes, so if the tab gets accidently closed or the browser crashes, I don't have to re-type my pearls of wisdom
2) POSTman - REST client
3) CamelCamelCamel - Check amazon's price history

Honorable Mention
4) Controlled multi tab browsing - Makes sure I don't open a gazillion tabs.

I took the plunge and upgraded my last and more important PC this weekend, 'cause I don't want to be on the hook to pay $199 for a new Pro license when something forces me off 7.

I swear I'm not a shill; I bitch regularly about Microsoft because my job forces me to bear with it. But I was pleasantly surprised how well the in-place upgrade went. Nothing broke, even my old copy of Office 2003 (from my cold, dead hands...) The only thing the upgrade removed without asking were a couple of 3d-party diagnostic utilities like speccy, which doesn't bother me in the slightest. Even Steam fired back up without a hitch.

Now, about that ugliness. You don't have Aero transparency or rounded edges, but with Classic Shell and WinAero Tweeker, you can do a lot to make 10 more livable. A right-click on the taskbar can make Cortana go away, and ClassicShell separates Windows programs from Metro Apps in separate sub-menus, so you never have to look at them if you don't want to. Also, you do NOT have to use a Microsoft/Outlook cloud account. With this kind of setup, it's pretty much the same Windows as before.

Finally, I haven't tried this yet, but there's Spybot Anti-Beacon to address the "phone-home" issues that might be nagging you.

So, here's an idea to grab Windows 10 while its still free with the least risk. Shop for an SSD upgrade, like a 1TB Samsung Evo because damn it's gotten cheap. Clone your precious Windows 7/8/8.1 drive to the new SSD, remove it, set it aside. Then, perform an in-place upgrade as described here on the clone. Try it out. Something go wrong? Hate it? Swap back your old drive; clone again, do what you like. Your old build is safe and sound.

But here's the thing: according to the article, you have effectively retrieved/reserved your free Windows 10 license to use... whenever. If you want to try again in a few months, you can take a blank SSD and download/build Windows 10 from scratch, Microsoft will recognize your PC signature (assuming you haven't changed you mobo) and license you (just skip the part where it asks for a key). In the mean time, however, your old Windows will still work for as long as you want to keep it.

There. Assuming Microsoft doesn't wimp out and extend the deadline, you've just pocketed a $150-200 license for free to use any time you want.

Peoples browsing/application/usage habits are unique enough that any generated random ID will be just as good and can likely uniquely identify an individual with very high accuracy. You've swapped one identifier for another. Privacy through obscurity?

I doubt swapping a user identifier (first.last, userid, whatever...) for an advertising ID will work. After all, Facebook tracks you by generating a random ID for every visit to a page that has a like button. If you are signed in, that page visit is tracked by them. If you sign in later, that page visit is retroactively added to your history. If you create an account later, that random ID is then merged with your account.

Similarly, I almost never sign into any google stuff other than the infrequent email that for whatever reason I can't get on Thunderbird or my phone. Yet the ads I see when I do sign into gmail are for those same items I searched for days/weeks ago. Though with a phone, Google tracks your location too. I seem to remember there being a patent on location-based coupons being sent to user phones some time ago...

Actually, a lot of corporations migrated over to TeamViewer after a fiasco with LogMeIn eliminating their free version of their software.

http://lifehacker.com/remote-d...

Corporate I.T. likes these types of remote assistance packages, primarily because they let you set up a whole list of computers to click to connect with, under a single "master" account. It's really convenient to have all of your company's workstations organized by department or group and easily visible as to which are online and which are offline.

We used LogMeIn for this until they started talking about charging us thousands for what used to be free. That's when TeamViewer kind of popped up out of nowhere, promising equivalent functionality at no cost and a great migration path off of LogMeIn.

TeamViewer gives a unified interface for remote controlling everything set up with it, no matter what platform (Linux, Mac or Windows) and gives the ability to reboot a Windows PC in "safe mode" and still connect back up to it (great for malware removal purposes, etc.).

I've always thought Microsoft's remote desktop client needs a LOT of improvement, so these 3rd. party solutions aren't so necessary.

What most people forget when upgrading:
Are all their favorite programs or Apps "Fully Compatible" with the new Windows?

Do a little research before you commit, and you should be OK.

Also worth the thought and effort:
Make a comprehensive Backup of your system before you start, and have an Escape Plan in place if you want/need to roll back to your previous version.

Finally, if you pull that trigger, be prepared for a learning curve.
There are a lot of articles about the new Windows out there. Look them up! Things to enable, things to disable, things to just plain be aware of, features you may want to access and things you will want to uninstall completely.

Here are a few (hopefully) useful links:
http://lifehacker.com/what-win...
http://lifehacker.com/the-best...
http://lifehacker.com/how-to-c...

And something you might also want to consider: Buy a new HD (or even that SSD you've been wanting, and do a Clean Install of Windows 10. Here's a URL for the How-To:
http://lifehacker.com/how-to-d...

Sorry for all the Plain Text stuff. Anyone that has a bit of tech savvy will still be able to use these easily. After all, this is SlashDot.

And, yes, these are all from Lifehacker. As you can see, that source alone has a lot to reference. The internet itself is a huge resource. I have every confidence that the folks here can access even more if they put their minds to it. Just remember the basics of System Safety, have more than a few grains of salt ready and Play Nice out there, and you should be more than ready to upgrade when you actually feel the increasing pressure from Uncle Bill's minions!

Enjoy!

What most people forget when upgrading:
Are all their favorite programs or Apps "Fully Compatible" with the new Windows?

Do a little research before you commit, and you should be OK.

Also worth the thought and effort:
Make a comprehensive Backup of your system before you start, and have an Escape Plan in place if you want/need to roll back to your previous version.

Finally, if you pull that trigger, be prepared for a learning curve.
There are a lot of articles about the new Windows out there. Look them up! Things to enable, things to disable, things to just plain be aware of, features you may want to access and things you will want to uninstall completely.

Here are a few (hopefully) useful links:
http://lifehacker.com/what-win...
http://lifehacker.com/the-best...
http://lifehacker.com/how-to-c...

And something you might also want to consider: Buy a new HD (or even that SSD you've been wanting, and do a Clean Install of Windows 10. Here's a URL for the How-To:
http://lifehacker.com/how-to-d...

Sorry for all the Plain Text stuff. Anyone that has a bit of tech savvy will still be able to use these easily. After all, this is SlashDot.

And, yes, these are all from Lifehacker. As you can see, that source alone has a lot to reference. The internet itself is a huge resource. I have every confidence that the folks here can access even more if they put their minds to it. Just remember the basics of System Safety, have more than a few grains of salt ready and Play Nice out there, and you should be more than ready to upgrade when you actually feel the increasing pressure from Uncle Bill's minions!

Enjoy!

What most people forget when upgrading:
Are all their favorite programs or Apps "Fully Compatible" with the new Windows?

Do a little research before you commit, and you should be OK.

Also worth the thought and effort:
Make a comprehensive Backup of your system before you start, and have an Escape Plan in place if you want/need to roll back to your previous version.

Finally, if you pull that trigger, be prepared for a learning curve.
There are a lot of articles about the new Windows out there. Look them up! Things to enable, things to disable, things to just plain be aware of, features you may want to access and things you will want to uninstall completely.

Here are a few (hopefully) useful links:
http://lifehacker.com/what-win...
http://lifehacker.com/the-best...
http://lifehacker.com/how-to-c...

And something you might also want to consider: Buy a new HD (or even that SSD you've been wanting, and do a Clean Install of Windows 10. Here's a URL for the How-To:
http://lifehacker.com/how-to-d...

Sorry for all the Plain Text stuff. Anyone that has a bit of tech savvy will still be able to use these easily. After all, this is SlashDot.

And, yes, these are all from Lifehacker. As you can see, that source alone has a lot to reference. The internet itself is a huge resource. I have every confidence that the folks here can access even more if they put their minds to it. Just remember the basics of System Safety, have more than a few grains of salt ready and Play Nice out there, and you should be more than ready to upgrade when you actually feel the increasing pressure from Uncle Bill's minions!

Enjoy!

What most people forget when upgrading:
Are all their favorite programs or Apps "Fully Compatible" with the new Windows?

Do a little research before you commit, and you should be OK.

Also worth the thought and effort:
Make a comprehensive Backup of your system before you start, and have an Escape Plan in place if you want/need to roll back to your previous version.

Finally, if you pull that trigger, be prepared for a learning curve.
There are a lot of articles about the new Windows out there. Look them up! Things to enable, things to disable, things to just plain be aware of, features you may want to access and things you will want to uninstall completely.

Here are a few (hopefully) useful links:
http://lifehacker.com/what-win...
http://lifehacker.com/the-best...
http://lifehacker.com/how-to-c...

And something you might also want to consider: Buy a new HD (or even that SSD you've been wanting, and do a Clean Install of Windows 10. Here's a URL for the How-To:
http://lifehacker.com/how-to-d...

Sorry for all the Plain Text stuff. Anyone that has a bit of tech savvy will still be able to use these easily. After all, this is SlashDot.

And, yes, these are all from Lifehacker. As you can see, that source alone has a lot to reference. The internet itself is a huge resource. I have every confidence that the folks here can access even more if they put their minds to it. Just remember the basics of System Safety, have more than a few grains of salt ready and Play Nice out there, and you should be more than ready to upgrade when you actually feel the increasing pressure from Uncle Bill's minions!

Enjoy!