local

Sun
31
Dec
John Lister's picture

Store Opening Times May Hurt Google Rankings

A change to Google's search algorithm for local rankings has prompted fierce debate about what information is most useful to customers. The rankings now vary minute to minute based on listed opening hours. The change affects "local pack ranking". ... That's the section that appears at the top of many Google search results pages showing three businesses close to the user's location and relating to the search. The section, often marked "Places" gives basic information about the business including its address and user ratings. Many business recently noted their appearance or non-appearance in this ... (view more)

Thu
15
Jun
John Lister's picture

Facebook Refines 'Safety Check' for Crisis Events

Facebook has announced four changes to its Safety Check feature for dealing with local crises. The changes will offer more detail about what's currently happening, coordinate local help, and help make fundraising easier. Safety Check is a feature ... that lets people in the geographic area of a natural disaster, terror attack or other crisis quickly mark themselves as "safe." The idea is that this saves people exchanging a plethora of messages in order to check if somebody is OK. That's particularly important with voice calls and text messages, which can easily overload local ... (view more)

Mon
10
Aug
Dennis Faas's picture

How to Disable Windows 10 Email Login

Infopackets Reader Alice K. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just installed Windows 10 on my PC, and I was disappointed that I now have to sign on with a Microsoft account email address. I would much rather not have to login to Windows 10 with a Microsoft ... account. Is there any way I can login to Windows 10 normally without an email address? " My response: Windows 10 and its services are largely based on the user having an Internet connection and a Microsoft account. For example, OneDrive, which allows users to store files seamlessly on the Internet, requires a Microsoft account in order to ... (view more)

Wed
14
Jan
John Lister's picture

AMBER Alert System Coming To Facebook

Facebook is to issue missing child alerts in user news feeds to US citizens. The alerts will be based on the user's location and will tie in with existing alert systems. The updates will be based on the AMBER Alert program that has been run for 20 ... years in the United States. AMBER Alert updates already go out via a range of media including: radio and television, highway electronic billboards, electronic signs outside participating retailers, and text alerts to users who have chosen to receive such messages. Whether and when to send an alert is the decision of local police, using their own ... (view more)

Thu
20
Nov
Brandon Dimmel's picture

MS Kills OneDrive 'Placeholders' for 'Selective Sync'

Microsoft is facing a storm of protest over its decision to remove a popular feature from its OneDrive cloud storage service. The change is set to take shape when the company's next operating system, Windows 10 , is released next year. In Windows ... 8.1, OneDrive shows ' smart files ', otherwise known as ' placeholders ' stored on the cloud, but not available on a local device. If a user decides they want to view or edit that file and double click on it, OneDrive begins to download the file to local storage. The advantage of smart files is simple: they let users view the entire contents of ... (view more)

Tue
18
Feb
Brandon Dimmel's picture

Woman Jailed After Forgetting to Return VHS Tape

A South Carolina woman was recently imprisoned for failing to return a VHS tape checked out from a local video store roughly nine years ago. Kayla Michelle Finley went to her local police station a few days ago to report a crime. The 27-year-old ... hardly expected that such a visit would result in her imprisonment for the crime of failing to return a VHS copy of the film "Monster-in-Law," a film that starred singer-actress Jennifer Lopez and Academy Award winner Jane Fonda. "Monster" Criminal Forgets to Return Video Tape Finley rented the justifiably forgotten comedy from ... (view more)

Thu
27
Jun
Dennis Faas's picture

Hate a Website About You? It's Not Google's Problem

A European court says Google should only be forced to delete search engine listings in extreme circumstances. It's a blow to campaigners seeking a legal 'right to be forgotten.' The court comments follow the case of a Spanish man whose home was ... repossessed in 1998. A local newspaper published a government announcement about an auction for the property. That article remains online today and is among the first results when you search for the man's name using Google. He says the repossession is far in the past and wants the link to the newspaper article removed. The man complained to Spanish ... (view more)

Tue
11
Jan
Dennis Faas's picture

Messaging program for office or LAN/WAN?

Infopackets Reader Robert F. writes: " Dear Dennis, I really find your newsletters to be interesting and of great help -- keep up the good work! I want to set up an office and be able to email my secretary and have her reply to the email without ... having an Internet connection as I don't need the internet in the business. Do you know of a program that would let me do this? I own a Dell PC and talked to a technician, but they didn't have a suggestion for me. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated! " My response: The simple answer is that email is designed to run on the ... (view more)

Thu
21
Oct
Dennis Faas's picture

Security Risk: hidden Admin account in WinXP, Part 2

Yesterday , I wrote an article concerning a hidden Administrator account in Windows XP. As we discovered, this poses a significant security risk (especially for XP Home users) because it means that virtually anyone can gain unrestricted local access ... to the machine if the Administrator password is left blank. Side note: The term "remote access" means to control / gain access to a computer which is physically housed in another location (typically over a network, such as the Internet). In a similar respect, gaining "local access" to a computer means to utilize the machine at ... (view more)

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