BRUCEB NEWS
New! Improved! Bruceb Favorites Gets A Glow-Up
I am inordinately proud of the Bruceb Favorites page, a lovingly curated directory of websites you already know how to reach. I’ve been maintaining it for nearly 30 years. In the last year it began to develop issues – slowing down a bit, occasional stumbles, receding hairline, losing its train of thought, hang on, those are my problems, but there’s overlap – links on the Favorites page had gone dead, the columns would occasionally stack vertically instead of horizontally, borders appeared and disappeared. At last the internet has…
Cortana Daily Briefing & Schrodinger’s Cat
Microsoft Cortana is the Schrodinger’s Cat of personal assistants: it’s both alive and dead simultaneously. To be honest, after opening the door and observing Cortana, you’ll likely decide that the best word is “irrelevant,” which is fine; it means Cortana will keep…
A Nuanced Trip Down Memory Lane
If you’re an old-timer like me, you probably have memories – maybe fond memories, maybe not – of Dragon Naturally Speaking, for many years the only dictation software for Windows that was even remotely useful. Dragon was quirky, buggy, and frustrating, but it also…
Office Licenses Simplified And Made Fascinating
“One account for all things Microsoft.” That’s what the login screen says. It’s a lie. Before we talk about licenses – and oh, how I know you’re looking forward to that! – let’s go through the two types of Microsoft accounts again. You have a personal Microsoft…
Microsoft 365 & Subscription Angst
Microsoft has changed the name of “Office 365.” Were you getting used to it? There are Microsoft execs who giggle with glee when they change names to confuse us. Okay, I don’t know if that’s true but it’s the simplest explanation. I think it’s the same execs who…
The Best Cyber Story You’ve Never Heard
It’s story time! Sit back and relax, I have a good one for you today. It’s not my story – all the credit belongs to Greg Miller and the Washington Post, who wrote a bombshell article about it a year ago. I’m going to boil it down to a thousand words because I know you…
Should You “Sign In With Facebook”?
It seems like everyone is using the sign-in screen that invites you to “Sign in with Facebook” to a website that is not Facebook. Facebook and Google turn up most often but you might also see the option to sign in with Twitter, Amazon, Microsoft, Instagram, or others….
Chrome Gets Some Useful New Features
Chrome is the web browser used by 7.9 billion people, more or less, plus it’s starting to be adopted by schools on planets orbiting distant stars. Google does not make big changes to it because of the people who use Chrome, approximately all of them hate change. But…
Security Tip: Turn On Office 365 Two Factor Authentication
This is an action item. It’s not theoretical. This is not an article to file away in the special folder that you use for Bruceb News articles, the ones you’ve given cute names like Deleted Items. If you have an Office 365 mailbox, secure it with two-factor…
Internet Mobs: GameStop, The Trump Insurrection, And Boaty McBoatface
In the 1990s we built a global communications network. The Internet revolutionized retailing and entertainment, changed how we get news, transformed our social lives, blah blah blah, you know all that, pizza delivery will never be the same, got it. There’s another…
China Has Not Hacked Your Office 365 Mailbox
Hackers have infiltrated tens of thousands of servers running Exchange mailboxes. It’s a huge cybersecurity event, rivaling the severity of the Solarwinds Russia hack. Before we get to the details, let’s put some of you at ease. Microsoft’s online Office 365 mailboxes…
Turn On Car Crash Detection If You Have A Pixel Phone
The Bobcat loader pitched over the embankment and overturned in a ravine, trapping the driver and knocking him unconscious for several minutes. The driver, Chuck Walker, had seven broken ribs and four broken thoracic vertebrae. The exits from the Bobcat loader were…
How To Display Shared OneDrive Folders in Windows File Explorer
I just learned about a OneDrive feature that might be a bit of a game-changer, especially for small businesses. Shared folders in OneDrive for Business can be displayed in File Explorer and browsed naturally, just like your own OneDrive files. That allows a small…
Why I Chose 1Password To Replace LastPass
I’m going to tell you a couple of useful things that I’ve figured out about 1Password, but I need to include a little preface because I’ve been pushing LastPass for more than 10 years and a lot of you use it. PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT You don’t have to stop using…
LastPass Learns Dirty Tricks From Dear Old Dad
We’re at about the midpoint of the LastPass remake of Breaking Bad, where its misdeeds are starting to be glaring and it’s hard to be sympathetic. We’ve seen the show. We know how it ends. See, LastPass is following a path that was first blazed by its corporate parent…
Set Up Remote Access To Help Your Parents With Their Computer
Your parents need your help. Set up a remote connection to their computer so you can look over their hunched shoulders to lend a hand. It doesn’t matter if you’re not sure that you’re skilled enough – compared to them you are a wizard. I’ll give you several ways to…