Daily Archives: January 13, 2025

• Treasure Hunt — 10 hidden gems on OlderGeeks.com

  Posted on January 13, 2025 at 02:45 CST by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 22.02 • 2025-01-13

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  This week we’re looking at ten very useful and free programs that just kind of got buried in the thousands of other programs on our website.

  This is not a “Top Ten” list — the selections are not ranked. But most have their place and serve a purpose, so I hope you’ll find something useful here.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.02.0, 2025-01-13).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Freeware Spotlight ChrisPC DNS Switch, Cstitch, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, GrandOrgue, Hosts File Editor, Lum Screen Recorder, MiTeC DirList, Newsletters, Piggy Banks, SyncDroid, WaGi’s IP-Blacklister, Writemonkey

• Forum Top Ten lists!

  Posted on January 13, 2025 at 02:44 CST by Will Fastie

  FROM THE FORUMS

  

  The forums are a centerpiece of AskWoody, allowing our community to engage with one another to solve problems, share insights, offer feedback, and add to our collective knowledge. (Not to mention keeping us in line.)

  We appreciate both the questions and the ongoing willingness of forum members to participate.

  Here’s a quick summary of posts from the second half of 2024. We look forward to seeing what happens in 2025.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.02.0, 2025-01-13).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  From the Forums Forums, Newsletters

• Technology fail! Hackers steal $870M from Zelle users, US says

  Posted on January 13, 2025 at 02:43 CST by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Three of America’s largest banks — Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo — were sued last month by the US Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) for fraudulent losses suffered by their Zelle online-payment customers.

  These banks and others launched Zelle in 2017 to compete with electronic funds-transfer apps like PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App. But the financial institutions failed to implement basic fraud-prevention measures, and as a result, Zelle customers have lost $870 million to hackers since the services began, the CFPB says.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.02.0, 2025-01-13).

  Public Defender Bank of America, Banks, Financial Fraud, JPMorgan Chase, Newsletters, Scams, Security, Wells Fargo, Zelle

• PowerToys to manage your window layouts

  Posted on January 13, 2025 at 02:42 CST by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  WINDOWS 11

  

  By Mary Branscombe

  Get document and app windows where you want them more easily — with some help from Microsoft’s free utilities.

  Some of the utilities in PowerToys are powerful tools you might need only once every few years, but there’s one I use dozens of times a day because it’s so useful. You might already be using a version of it that’s built into Windows 11!

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.02.0, 2025-01-13).

  Windows 11 FancyZones, Metro Apps, Newsletters, PowerToys, Snap Layouts, Windows 8, Workspaces

• Choosing your own domain name services

  Posted on January 13, 2025 at 02:41 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  ON SECURITY

  

  By Susan Bradley

  There is a long-standing joke in enterprise technology: “It’s always DNS.”

  That’s because if something isn’t working, checking your domain name services to make sure they are set up and are working properly is a first step in diagnosing the problem. Misconfiguration has been the cause of many major outages — it’s not unheard of for incorrect DNS settings to take down entire firms or websites.

  Even for consumers, bad DNS settings can prevent access to the Internet.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.02.0, 2025-01-13).

  On Security DHCP, DNS, Domain Name Services, IP address, Newsletters