January 2021

Looking for a way to play some good old SNES classics?  Well, you can play them on your computer. All you need is a good emulator, like Snes9x, and a few ROMs, e.g. homebrew ROMs or ROMs of games that you own a copy of physically.

Vivaldi Technologies released Vivaldi 3.6 Stable to the public on January 28, 2021. The new stable version of the Chromium-based browser improves the tab stacking functionality of Vivaldi significantly. We reviewed the feature when it launched in snapshot builds back in December 2020.

Microsoft released microcode updates, designed to protect Windows 10 systems against Spectre-based attacks, for Windows 10 version 1809, Windows 10 version 1903 and 1909, Windows 10 version 2004, 20H2 and 21H1 this week.

The microcode updates for all other Windows 10 versions have not been updated and remain on the November 2020 state.

Microcode updates come in two forms: as firmware updates or as updates for the operating system. The updates address flaws or issues in processors, and are loaded when the system is started.

Have multiple versions of the same document? Need to find out quickly what the difference is between two lists? Compare Two Lists is a freeware application that can assist you. You may also want to check out Textbrowser, as it provides similar functionality.

In the past two years, Microsoft did release a major feature update in the first half of the year and a minor update in the second half. It appears that the company plans to reverse the process: the next feature update for Windows 10, which is the first update of 2021, appears to be a smaller update, the second feature update, released in the second half, will be a larger update.

If there is one thing that laptop users worry about constantly, it's the device's battery life. Many users keep their computer plugged in at all times for work/gaming purposes. But sometimes you may have no choice but to use the system on battery power, like when you're travelling.

Mozilla is working on a Firefox design refresh under the codename Proton. The project is in its early stages but the general plan appears to be to refresh pretty much any user interface element in the browser.

Mozilla did create several mockups of browser elements, sometimes multiple, to showcase some of the ideas its UI team has for the refresh. It is clear that the project is still in its infancy and that final decisions have not been made yet.

Security researchers of the University of Illinois at Chicago have discovered a new method to track Internet users that is persistent across sessions, even if users clear cookies and the browsing cache.

The research paper Tales of F A V I C O N S and Caches: Persistent Tracking in Modern Browsers highlights that favicons may be used in conjunction with fingerprinting techniques to track users.

Automating things that you do frequently can aid you in becoming more productive. There are a few good programs that you can choose for this purpose such as RoboIntern or System Scheduler.

Microsoft released a new stable version of its Chromium-based Edge web browser on January 21, 2021. Microsoft Edge 88 is a security and feature update that introduces several new features and changes to the browser.

The company released the first stable version of the new Microsoft Edge in January 2020.