December 2017

Remember Google Plus? Google's answer to Facebook that did not really meet the company's expectation even after forcing most sites and websites to integrate it in their sites?

I use Google Plus only to post links to new articles that I write here on Ghacks, but not for anything else. I have done this ever since Google Plus was introduced by Google, and got the odd comment underneath posted links occasionally.

Spam was never a big issue on the site until recently. I started to receive notifications about new comments some weeks ago that were all spam.

Bulk Crap Uninstaller 4.0 is out; the new major version of the third-party software uninstaller for Windows comes with a set of new features such as related application detection during removal, or a new treemap view for installed applications.

Most programs that you install on a Windows machine can be removed through the Control Panel or Settings application. While that works most of the time, it is the case that many programs are not removed completely.

Computer security heavyweight Avast released its machine-code decompiler RetDec as an open source tool to the public recently.

The company worked on RetDec for seven years, and released the decompiler "to help the cybersecurity community fight malicious software". The decompiler can be used to analyze a program without running it.

Basically, what a decompiler does is take an executable file as input, to source code. It is pretty much the exact opposite of a compiler, a program that turns source code into executable files.

Noisli is a web service and a mobile application that you may use to generate background noise that helps you focus or relax. There are quite a few cases where background noise may assist you in whatever you are doing. White noise for instance helps blend out other, distracting noise, and rainfall may help you work better or relax.

Haven is a free application for Google's Android operating system that turns any Android device into a privacy-respecting home security system endorsed by Edward Snowden, the Guardian Project and Freedom of the Press Foundation.

The use of electronic gadgets in home security is growing, and while you may sleep better knowing that your property is monitored by security systems, there is always the underlying issue of privacy.

Google unveiled Android Go some time ago. Android Go is an optimized version of Android designed specifically for low-end devices and infrastructure.

As is the case with these "lite" versions, they are not availably everywhere. The main reason for limiting access is simple: Google, and other companies, want users to use the main applications.

However, lite applications have several advantages over full apps. They don't use that many system resources which is useful for operating the app and battery live, network consumption, and operating times.

Mozilla revealed a new version of Lockbox today, a password manager extension for desktop versions of the Firefox web browser that replaces the built-in password manager when installed.

Mozilla calls Lockbox an experiment to "test and improve password management and online security".

Now, for something completely different: here are some of my top game (and apps) picks of the Steam Winter Sale of 2017.

The start of the sale was on December 21, 2017, and it ends on January 4, 2018. As is the case with recent sales, games are discounted but there is no dynamic nature anymore.

Opera 50, the next stable version of the Opera web browser, comes with cryptocurrency mining protection to block mining scripts on sites automatically.

Crypto mining using JavaScript is a relatively new phenomenon. This cryptocurrency mining method received some bad press because it was abused by a number of sites.

Nvidia announced yesterday plans to end Nvidia graphics driver support for 32-bit operating systems on the official Nvidia Support website.

Current Nvidia graphic cards drivers install on 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows, Linux and FreeBSD.

This changes after the release of the upcoming 390.x version of the GeForce Game Ready Driver for all supported operating systems. Nvidia won't release drivers for 32-bit operating systems anymore regardless of GPU that is used.