March 16, 2012
As we recently reported, The Pirate Bay has switched from using .torrent file downloads to magnet links with no opt-out policy. The tracker has offered magnet downloads for a good while now, but this is the first time we’ve seen such a large public tracker use embedded links exclusively.
March 12, 2012
Some people call any type of malicious software a “computer virus,” but that isn’t accurate. Viruses, worms, and trojans are different types of malicious software with different behaviors. In particular, they spread themselves in very different ways. Malicious software in general is referred to as “malware.” If you want a catch-all term for bad computer software, malware is the word to use.
February 10, 2012
There are three pieces of software that, in my opinion, make the backbone of a decent security setup on your home PC. These are the anti-virus, the firewall, and the password manager. Of these, the firewall is often the least well remembered despite its importance. The fade of the firewall from public view is due to the fact that Windows itself now has a built-in firewall.
January 11, 2012
Given that binary is so absolutely fundamental to the existence of computers, it seems odd that we’ve never tackled the topic before – so today I’d thought I’d give a brief overview of what binary actually means and how it’s used in computers. If you’ve always wondered what the difference is between 8-bit, 32-bit, and 64-bit really is, and why it matters – then read on!
December 15, 2011
Telnet is one of those tech terms you may occasionally hear, but not in an ad or a feature laundry list of any product you may buy. That’s because it’s a protocol, or a language used to talk to computers and other machines; not only that, but Telnet is actually ancient in Internet terms, dating back from 1973. So what is Telnet, and what is it good for, anyway?
October 28, 2011
For geeks, mechanical keyboards are the holy grail of input devices. They’re relatively rare, they’re expensive, and require some explanation for people to understand them. It’s everything a geek could ask for. If you’re not a keyboard enthusiast then you’ve probably heard of mechanical keyboards and their wondrous benefits, but you may not know how they work.
September 30, 2011
RAID is an acronym for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, and it’s a core feature of server hardware that ensures data integrity. It’s also just a fancy word for two or more hard disks connected together to add some additional functionality. Why would you want to do this? Read on.
September 25, 2011
If you’re like me, tinkering with electronics is something you’d really like to be able to do – in theory at least – but the realities of time constraints, lack of knowledge and few rewards inevitably prevent you from making a start. The Arduino is the answer to all that, and frankly anything that can be considered fun while learning is a truly revolutionary device in my opinion.
September 23, 2011
Remember when the word laptop described virtually every mobile computer on the market? The choices were certainly easier back then (because there was simply less choice available), but today there’s a far wider variety including netbooks, ultraportables, thin-and-lights, desktop replacements, and more. Now, a new category is being added, courtesy of Intel. It’s the ultrabook.
September 20, 2011
Recovering deleted data from a hard drive is generally possible because typically the actual data is not deleted. Instead, information about where the data is stored is removed. In this article I will explain how data is stored on a hard drive, what happens when files are deleted, what formatting a hard drive does, and why it is impossible to recover files after they were overwritten.
