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New Guide To Enable TLS 1.1/1.2 on Windows Vista

I've put together a step by step guide to enabling TLS 1.1 and 1.2 connections on Windows Vista based on an older forum post I'd found so that users of this now-discontinued operating system can improve their security a bit.  I also added a .REG key so you can avoid manually editing the Windows registry while following the steps. You can find the full details on this how-to page:

Dell XPS 8700's PCIe x4 slot is only wired for x1

I ran into this issue myself, so I figured I'd make a quick post on the off chance anyone else looks into it. The Dell XPS 8700's motherboard has an x4 slot, but it's not wired as such. This is contrary to the official specifications published by Dell (PDF) which, at the time of this post, read:

Expansion Bus

PCI Express x1:

Google Chrome has dropped support for Windows XP, Vista, and Mac OS X 10.6 - 10.8

As posted about last month, Google Chrome has today dropped support for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Mac OS X releases 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8. New installations from the Chrome installer download will not work on machines with those operating systems. Existing users will see a message that they will no longer receive updates because their operating system is unsupportted.

Next Month's Google Chrome 50 drops support for Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X 10.6-10.8

Now that Google Chrome 49 has been released as stable, it's crunch time for Chrome users on Windows XP and Vista as well as Mac OS X 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8. Google announced back in November 2015 that Chrome would stop supporting Windows versions earlier than 7 and Mac OS X versions earlier than 10.9 in April 2016. It appears that this end of support occurs with version 50.

Are robo-calls from the 'Committee for Police Officers' Defense' (aka 9 other names) a scam?

New York Police Association aka the New York Police Organization aka the Police Association of New York aka the NYS Association of PBAs aka NY Assocation of PBA Fundraising aka New York Police Chiefs Foundation aka New York Police Chiefs Organization aka NY Veterans Police Association aka New York Police Chiefs Foundation aka Committee for Police Officers' Defense aka National Police Support Fund. The one thing they will admit... 'at least 10% of your donation goes towards police departments'... which means they're keeping about 90% of any money you give them

How To Cancel Windows 10 Technical Preview Installation After Running WindowsTechnicalPreview.exe

The Windows 10 Technical Preview became available today for anyone who signs up for the free Windows Insider Program. With it, you can try out the new Start Menu and other features in the next version of Windows due out in late 2015. Unfortunately, the installer for the preview, WindowsTechnicalPreview.exe is a bit flawed. In this post, I'll point out the flaws and include instructions on how to cancel the installation once you've started it.

Open Source License Popularity Updated

I've updated my Open Source License Popularity page with the latest data from Black Duck Software. The GPL/LGPL still rules the roost but with less of an advantage than before. This could be due to overall growth in the MIT/BSD space or proliferation of forks of such projects on sites like github (where a project like the MIT-licensed bootstrap has over 24,000 forks due to the ease of forking even if nothing is changed).

.NET Use With Portable Apps Analysis Updated

I've updated my .NET Availability & Viability With Portable Apps article with last month's stats from Net Applications. It discusses and anlyzes whether using .NET-based applications is a viable solution in a portable scenario (running apps from a USB drive, cloud drive, etc). While the news is good for overall compatibility and for spread of the later versions of the framework, it's fit as a solution in the overall portable environment continues to decline.  This is primarily due to Microsoft's decision to disable .NET 2.0 through 3.5 apps on Windows 8, 8.1, and 8.1 update 1.  For example, using a .NET 2.0 portable app like  on Windows 8 requires an admin to manually enable .NET 2.0 support; something that won't happen on a PC that's not your own. So, even if you base your app on the now-outdated .NET 2.0 framework, it will run on Windows Vista and Windows 7 out of the box, but it will fail on Windows 8 and later unless an admin enables it. And, as Windows 8 and later continue to increase in market share (13.49% and growing), this will be an even larger issue.  In short, .NET is a bad solution for portable software unless all the PCs you will be coming in contact with are either under your control (where you can install or enable .NET yourself via admin rights) or known quantities (you know ahead of time what .NET frameworks are installed or enabled on every PC).

Sony confirms issue with Xperia Z1/Z1s touch screens and coming fix with Android 4.4 update

Xperia Z1

I recently got a Sony Xperia Z1s from T-Mobile here in the states. Despite the slightly dull screen, it was my favorite of the available phones. Unfortunately, the phone I got as well as the one my girlfriend got have an intermittent touch screen issue. In attempting to research and troubleshoot it, I was able to confirm that it is an ongoing issue, that Sony knows about it, and that a fix is due in an upcoming firmware update. Unfortunately, Sony does not yet have a release date for the update.

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