Vincent's Tech Blog

Yes, from today, Microsoft is ending the support for versions 8, 9 and 10 of its home-built browser Internet Explorer, thereby encouraging Windows users to switch on to Internet Explorer version 11 or its newest Edge browser. Microsoft is going to release one last patch update for IE8, IE9 and IE10 today, but this time along with an "End of Life" notice, meaning Microsoft will no longer support the older versions. So, if you want to receive continuous updates for your web browser and avoid being exposed to potential security risks after 12 January, you are advised to upgrade your browser to Internet Explorer 11, or its new Edge browser. End of Life of Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10  "Internet Explorer 11 is the last version of Internet Explorer, and will continue to receive security updates, compatibility fixes, and technical support on Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10," Microsoft says . This move could be part of Microsoft's bigger plan to mo...

Raise your hands if you want Free Video Calling feature in WhatsApp. I am in, and I think most of you people. And the good news is that it looks like WhatsApp's much-awaited Free Video Calling feature is on its way, according to the recently leaked screenshots. Free Video Calling Feature in WhatsApp German technology blog Macerkopf.de has posted what it claims are screenshots from an unreleased version of the popular messaging client WhatsApp for iOS. The screenshots are from an unreleased version of the software ( version 2.12.16.2 ), which is currently being tested internally, but at present it is not clear whether or not those screenshots are legitimate. But, if the leaked screenshots are real, and WhatsApp adds the Free Video Calling feature, then the company could take an enormous bite out of some of its top rival. WhatsApp Video Calling feature will allow you to make video calls to your friends and family anywhere in the world for free as long as you have...

Meet an all-new Hacker’s Search Engine similar to Shodan – Censys . At the end of last month, security researchers from SEC Consult found that the lazy manufacturers of home routers and Internet of Things (IoT) devices have been re-using the same set of hard-coded cryptographic keys, leaving around 3 millions of IoT devices open to mass hijacking. But how did the researchers get this number? Researchers uncovered these devices with the help of Censys – a new search engine that daily scans the whole Internet for all the vulnerable devices. Censys Maintains Complete Database of Everything on The Internet Censys is similar to hacker's search engine Shodan, which is designed specifically to locate any devices that have been carelessly plugged into the Internet without much attempt at preventing unauthorized access. However, Censys employs a more advanced method to find vulnerabilities in the devices and make the Internet a safer place. Censys is a free search engine tha...

Yes, it's time to shift from Wi-Fi to Li-Fi — an alternative technology that is 100 times faster than the average speeds of Wi-Fi. Scientists have just field-tested the new wireless technology called Li-Fi for the first time and achieved marvelous wireless speeds that are 100 times faster than current WiFi speeds. What is Li-Fi Technology? Li-Fi is a new wireless technology that transmits high-speed data using light (i.e. Visible Light Communication or VLC) rather than radio bands. In short, Li-Fi is a Super-Fast alternative to Wi-Fi. Earlier this year, scientists achieved mind-blowing speeds of 224 gigabits per second (Gbps) in the lab using Li-Fi. It's believed that this technology has the potential to change everything about the way we use the Internet today. And Yes, it will. Test Results: Li-Fi is 100 times Faster than Wi-Fi An Estonian startup company called Velmenni took the technology out of the laboratories and into the real-world offices, and in...

Some of Bitcoin’s Core developers have left the Bitcoin project and started building their separate cryptocurrency called DECRED . Decred aims to prevent the issues Bitcoin is currently facing regarding project governance and development funding. CEO of 'Company 0', Mr. Jacob Yocom-Piatt, who has funded Bitcoin development since early 2013, said the actual development of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency is funded by external entities that forms a conflict of interests between the groups and the project's core developers. According to Bitcoin's developers, these group puts limitations on input in Bitcoin's governance, selecting options that are favorable to their own interests only, and generally ignoring the developers' and project's best interests. "The Bitcoin software is controlled by a small group of people who decide exclusively what can and cannot be changed," Jacob says in a press release. "This is in part due to a lack of mechani...

Breaking News: A 23-year-old Bahamian man has been arrested and charged with hacking into the email accounts of 130 celebrities and stealing the unreleased movie and TV scripts, sex tapes, explicit images and even the upcoming album of a famous A-List Celebrity. The hacker named Alonzo Knowles contacted a famous radio host to sell the stolen scripts for the first six episodes of a hit television drama currently being filmed. The unnamed host informed about it to the Homeland Security that cooked up a sting operation and had the radio host put the hacker in touch with an undercover investigator posing as an interested buyer. The LOSE Among the items he offered to sell were: Scripts for three comedy films A hip-hop biopic Another television show Social Security numbers for actors and professional athletes Emails and phone numbers of at least 130 celebrities Sex tapes of celebrities The hacker was arrested on Monday in Manhattan, a day after arriving from the Bahamas...

  Do you know? Microsoft has the power to track every single word you type or say to its digital assistant Cortana while using its newest operating system, Windows 10. Last fall, there was a report about a 'keylogger' that Microsoft openly put into its Windows 10 Technical Preview saying the company 'may collect voice information' as well as 'typed characters.' It was thought that the company would include the keylogger only within the Technical Preview of Windows 10, just for testing purpose. But, the thought was Wrong! The keylogger made its ways to Windows 10 public release offered by Microsoft for free due to which Windows 10 gained millions of adoption in just a few days after its first roll out back in July – but the free upgrade is not always free. Yes, besides various privacy issues, there is a software component that tracks your inputs using your keyboard, voice, screen, mouse, and stylus, however, it is a bit more complicated than you thou...

Wireless charging isn't a new concept at all, but to charge your devices you are still required to place your phone on the top of charging pad. Quite annoying sometimes when slightly misaligned of a device caused your phone not to charge. Now, imagine you never have to plug in your smartphones again, or technology that charges multiple devices at one time. This is what Energous Corporation is all set to offer you. WattUp — Wirelessly Charging Technology The technology company Energous Corporation is about to launch WattUp — a wireless charger that will change the way people charge their electronic devices at homes, in the offices, in the car and beyond. "With WattUp, you no longer need to worry about looking for a charge: once you are in a WattUp wire-free charging zone, the battery life of all your devices will simply be managed, seamlessly and intelligently, so you can devote your time and energy to what really matters," the Energous website reads. WattUp ...

Ever wonder how to hack Instagram or how to hack a facebook account? Well, someone just did it! But, remember, even responsibly reporting a security vulnerability could end up in taking legal actions against you. An independent security researcher claims he was threatened by Facebook after he responsibly revealed a series of security vulnerabilities and configuration flaws that allowed him to successfully gained access to sensitive data stored on Instagram servers, including: Source Code of Instagram website SSL Certificates and Private Keys for Instagram Keys used to sign authentication cookies Personal details of Instagram Users and Employees Email server credentials Keys for over a half-dozen critical other functions However, instead of paying him a reward, Facebook has threatened to sue the researcher of intentionally withholding flaws and information from its team. Wesley Weinberg, a senior security researcher at Synack, participated in Facebook's bug bount...

What do you do to earn up to $150,000? Somebody just hacks into airlines and sells fake tickets. That's exactly what a 19-year-old teenager did and made approximately 1.1 Million Yuan (£110,000 or $150,000) by hacking into the official website of an airline and using the stolen booking information to defraud hundreds of passengers. The teenager, identified as Zhang from Heilongjiang, north-east China, hacked into a Chinese airline website and illegally downloaded 1.6 Million passengers bookings details, including: Flight details Names ID card numbers Email addresses Mobile phone numbers Zhang then used this information to successfully defraud hundreds of customers by convincing them that there was some issue with their booking flights, and they had to pay extra fees, according to People's Daily Online. Moreover, the hack caused the airline to lose almost 80,000 Yuan ( $12,365 USD ) as a result of customers requesting refunds. The incident took place from 31 ...

Researchers have come up with an all new way to revolutionize the standard computer chip that comes inbuilt in all our electronics. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and the University of California, Berkeley among others, have invented a new material that could replace the 'silicon' in conventional chips – built in all electronic devices – making the device's processing speed 1,000 times faster. This means that the new chip made with nano-material could solve complex problems in a fraction of the time our computers take. The brand new chip, dubbed Nano-Engineered Computing Systems Technology (N3XT), takes the landscape from a resource-heavy single-storey layout to an efficient 'Skyscraper' approach, claims a Rebooting Computing special issue of the IEEE Computer journal. Silicon Chip – A Resource-Heavy Single-Storey Layout The standard silicon chips currently used in all electronic devices have one major issue: The silicon chips are arran...

Facebook finally brings in set of buttons in place of the much awaited dislike button, Yesterday we saw the news   here on VTB. Today i bring you a short video of how the reaction buttons will be applied. The Video was originally shared by Mark himself. Watch the video and read his statement below; Today we're launching a test of Reactions -- a more expressive Like button. The Like button has been a part of Facebook for a long time. Billions of Likes are made every day, and Liking things is a simple way to express yourself.For many years though, people have asked us to add a "dislike" button. Not every moment is a good moment, and sometimes you just want a way to express empathy. These are important moments where you need the power to share more than ever, and a Like might not be the best way to express yourself.At a recent Townhall Q&A, I shared with our community that we've spent a lot of time thinking about the best way to give you better options f...

The Facebook Dislike button arrives, but in the form of reaction emoji Facebook has 1.5 billion monthly active users. Facebook has finally unveiled its solution to people’s calls for a “dislike” button — in the form of six new emoji, each representing their own feeling. Mark Zuckerberg hinted last month that his site was looking to expand the Like button, making a way for people to communicate that they were upset by news. And the site is now rolling out its solution in the form of emoji that represent “Love”, “Haha”, “Yay”, “Wow”, “Sad” and “Angry”. Zuckerberg said for a long time that the feature wouldn’t be integrated in the “Dislike” button that many people had asked for, and that users wanted so much that it has spawned its own scams. Since that could be used for bullying and might make users feel bad, the site was exploring ways for people to communicate that they were upset without being explicitly negative. Facebook’s way of doing that seems to be a series of express...

Microsoft unveiled the best phones no one buys at a press conference in New York. As expected, the company showcased two new flagship devices, the Lumia 950 and the Lumia 950 XL. As the names suggest, the XL variant is a phablet. These devices come with great specs. “We want to put Windows in your pocket,” Panos Panay said on stage. “If you haven’t thought about these phones, wake up!” The Lumia 950 come with octacore and hexacore processors and liquid cooling technology. The smaller version has a 5.2-inch display, while the bigger cousin features a 5.7-inch display. These are OLED displays with a pixel density of 564 ppi and 518 ppi respectively. Both devices run a 20-megapixel camera with a natural flash. It also comes with the fifth-generation optical image stabilization technology and a dedicated camera button. It can also shoot 4K videos. All devices come with 32GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot. It has a new USB Type-C connector. Finally, you can charge it...

Maker-funding site Patreon was hacked last week resulting in the dump of gigabytes of code and user data. User passwords were encrypted using bcrypt which suggests they are mostly safe but some users have found their data in the trove. Founder Jack Conte wrote: There was unauthorized access to registered names, email addresses, posts, and some shipping addresses. Additionally, some billing addresses that were added prior to 2014 were also accessed. We do not store full credit card numbers on our servers and no credit card numbers were compromised. Although accessed, all passwords, social security numbers and tax form information remain safely encrypted with a 2048-bit RSA key. No specific action is required of our users, but as a precaution I recommend that all users update their passwords on Patreon. The data seems to have come from a debug version of the site that was visible to the Internet. The debug version included a “snapshot” of the production database. “We protect our...

A couple of business leaders and celebrities like Mark Zuckerberg, Bono, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, amongst others,  signed a declaration challenging world leaders to make the internet available to the whole world by 2020. As ambitious as this may seem, it’s still within reach. Google is working on Project Loon – a fleet of high-altitude balloons designed to bring the Internet to remote areas. Facebook has started building flying Wi-Fi hotspots supplied by solar-powered drones and OneWeb – backed by Richard Branson, plans to launch hundreds of low-orbit satellites. Yesterday, Google announced the introduction of its Project Link initiative to Ghana. The initiative which already provides broadband Internet to Kampala, the capital of Uganda, will provide fiber optic network in two cities in Ghana – Accra and Kumasi creating access to the millions of people living in these cities. Google Ghana country manager Estelle Akofio-Sowah commented saying “The goal is to bring abund...

Below is a compilation of list where you'll find everything from older films or B-movies to African movies, documentaries, cult classics, and more popular mainstream releases from the big and small screen. I also have a few honorable mentions covering traditional TV networks that are streaming their content online as well as popular paid online streaming alternatives. YouTube Over 6 billion hours of video are watched on YouTube every single month. Most of them are music and funny videos, but you can find free full length movies and TV shows on there as well. The vast majority are older films or B-movies, but you'll discover the odd gem if you look hard enough. Videos may be split into multiple chapters, and you'll have to put up with ads. iRokoTv You can find an impressive selection of African Nollywood Movies movies on iRokoTV for free, and the content is supported by ads. iRokoTV has struck agreements with a wide variety of networks and partners. ...

Hello guys. am resuming fully soon off my long term break, due to educational purpose :). Below are the top 10 video tutorials created based on their YouTube views. Vincent technology blog which is a free-end-tech blog would resume full soon with lots of video tutorials in diverse field and tips & tricks in IT. 10. How To Transfer or Seize (FSMO Roles) - Windows Server 2012 FSMO roles are the Flexible Single Master Operation Roles of Active Directory which consist of the following five roles in two categories. 9. Creating CMAK app for VPN Remote Users on Windows Server 2012 Here is a video on how to configure Connection Manager Administration Kit for VPN Remote Users on Windows Server 2012. 8 . Configure VPN with NAP using PPTP/ SSTP Server 2012 (Part 1) Goodday. Here is a tutorial which shows you how to Configure Virtual Private Network (VPN) with Network Access Protection (NAP) and Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP) on Server 2012 which gives y...

In the suburbs of Amsterdam, a 70-meter stretch of solar-powered roadway opened for the public  on November 12th, 2014. The roadway is “made up of rows of crystalline silicon solar cells, which were embedded into the concrete of the path and covered with a translucent layer of tempered glass.” The new solar road, which costs €3m (AUD$4.3m), was created as the first step in a project that the local government hopes will see the path being extended to 100 metres by 2016. More complimentary plans are also on the table as the country intends to power everything from traffic lights to electric cars using solar panels. School children and commuters see the bike road as very useful and a cool part of their daily commute, with approximately 2,000 cyclists expected to use it on an average day. The road, which is named by the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) as SolaRoad, is set to open in the next week. It is made up of rows of crystalline silicon s...

On April 23, 2005, at 8:27 p.m., YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim uploaded the first YouTube video “Me at the zoo.” Shot by high school friend Yakov Lapitsky (who went on to become an engineering professor), it shows Karim talking about how cool elephants’ trunks are. The nearly 20-second clip has been viewed nearly 20 million times. Ten years later, YouTube is “the most valuable storytelling outlet our planet has ever seen” and its CEO Susan Wojcicki is “the visionary behind YouTube’s next evolution,” as Academy Award-winning producer Brian Grazer writes in this year’s TIME 100 issue, which recognizes Wojcicki as a “Titan” in the tech industry.