Those who have tried the developer’s version of Microsoft’s new Windows 11 OS have reported that what used to be the ‘blue screen of death’ is now black.

What Is The Blue Screen of Death?

The so-called blue screen of death (BSoD) is displayed on a computer running Windows when there has been a fatal system error/system crash whereby the OS has reached the stage where it can no longer operate safely.  In Windows 10, this screen has a blue background, a sad face symbol (introduced back in 2012), an error message, and a QR code (added back in 2016). The QR code enables the user to use scan with their phone to find articles and assistance.

Now Black

The new black screen of death retains the same on-screen elements i.e., the QR code and  symbol.

Microsoft’s Windows Insider Program

Those who have been the first to try windows 11 are part of Microsoft’s Windows Insider Program.  This is a ‘community’ of millions of people who have signed up through Microsoft’s website to enable them to run Windows Insider Preview Builds of the latest versions of Microsoft’s products, and provide feedback that can help any issues and bugs to be identified and addressed before the wider release.  You can register to become a Windows Insider here: https://insider.windows.com/en-us/about-windows-insider-program

Other Issues

Other issues relating to Windows 11 that have been reported by insiders include not being able to install the operating system due to missing hardware requirements (which has since been fixed using an update to settings), a streamlined version of File Explorer reverting to the old style for some users, and the Start Menu search not working.

Will It Work On Most Computers?

One other major worry that’s been highlighted is that, as things currently stand, the new Windows 11 may not be able to run on many computers because it only supports eighth generation and newer Intel Core processors, Apollo Lake, and newer types of Pentium and Celeron processors,

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Back in 2015, it was announced that Windows 10 would be the last version of Windows. A lot can change in the world and in the marketplace of technology in a few years, and Microsoft has found itself having to up its game and change its plans in order to compete with Apple. Windows 11 will be released later this year (date as yet unspecified) and, no doubt, more bugs and issues will be highlighted and reported, as is expected in the testing stages with the Insider Program. The issue of whether Windows 11 can run on machines that don’t have the newer processors, however, is quite an important one that could affect many businesses, and it remains to be seen what comes back from Microsoft about this during this testing phase.

Blue ‘Screen of Death’ Back, But in Black

It has been reported that children called ‘Alexa’ are being bullied because they share the same name as Amazon’s digital assistant and consequently, some parents are now calling for a digital name change.

Alexa

There are an estimated 4,000 people in the UK who are under the age of 25 and called “Alexa” (a female form of Alex).  Amazon reportedly chose the name Alexa for its digital assistant (launched in 2014) because it has a hard consonant with the X, which means that it is a ‘wake word’ that can be recognised with higher precision. Also, the name is reminiscent of the Library of Alexandria, which is also used by Amazon Alexa Internet.

Servant Or Slave?

The BBC, for example, recently reported the stories of different families where younger members named Alexa had experienced bullying because of their name, with one US mum alleging that the name has become synonymous with “servant or slave”, thereby making some abusers feel that they have a licence to treat people of that name in a subservient manner.

One part of the BBC’s report highlights the plight of a girl who was bullied from the age of six over her name, and even claims that adults with the name Alexa also attract ‘comments’.

Not Advertised

One of the criticisms by those families whose children have been the subject of name-based bullying is that Amazon doesn’t appear to advertise the fact that the wake word ‘Alexa’ can be changed.  In fact, customers have a choice of wake words, including Echo, Computer, and Amazon.

How To Change The Wake Word

The wake word in an Amazon Echo, for example, can be changed by opening the Alexa app, opening ‘Devices’, selecting ‘All Devices’ and selecting the device concerned, scrolling under ‘General’ and selecting ‘Wake Word’, selecting and alternative wake word from the list, and then selecting OK.

Advice for parents and carers on how to deal with bullying and cyber-bullying can be found on the NSPCC website here https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-is-child-abuse/types-of-abuse/bullying-and-cyberbullying/, on the Kids Health website here: https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/bullies.html and on the Bullying UK website here: https://www.bullying.co.uk/advice-for-parents/what-to-do-if-your-child-is-being-bullied/.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Amazon had to call its digital assistant something and it’s sad and unfortunate that the name is being used by some people as an excuse to bully others. One thing the company could do to help is, perhaps, to make a greater effort to publicise the fact that users have options to change the wake word to something more benign and generic like ‘computer’ or something that at least reinforces the name of an Amazon product such as ‘echo’. Bullying in school or in the workplace can have damaging and long-lasting effects on the victims and can highlight individuals who need to be challenged and educated in order to understand the causes, and to help them and modify their own bullying behaviour for the good of all.

If you’ve ever wanted to click on a link to a website but wanted a way to check first whether its spam or worse, here are five ways to safely check:

1. Check the status of a website URL using Google’s Transparency Report, which harnesses Google’s Safe Browsing technology.  See: https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search?hl=en

2. Use URLVoid to check a website’s reputation and detect potentially malicious lnks.  See: https://www.urlvoid.com/

3. Use ScanURL to check a website for malware, phishing, viruses, and poor reputation. See: https://scanurl.net/

4. Check any link that you suspect is a phishing site by using PhishTank.  See: https://www.phishtank.com/

5. Use VirusTotal to scan a web page for malicious links: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/

With the launch of Microsoft’s Windows 11 recently announced in an online event, we take a brief look at what’s new with this new OS, how it challenges Apple, and when it’s available.

Early Preview + Free Update

An early preview version of the new Microsoft Windows 11, next generation OS will be released for app developers next week and will be made available as a free update to existing Windows 10 users, provided their devices have a minimum of 64 gigabytes of storage and 4 gigabytes of RAM (see Windows 11 spec requirements here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-11-specifications). Windows 10 is currently running on a staggering 1.3 billion devices!

Warning

It has been reported that due to Windows 11 only supporting eighth generation and newer Intel Core processors, as well as Apollo Lake, and newer types of Pentium and Celeron processors, as things stand, the new Windows 11 may not be able to run on many computers.

Also, with Microsoft Windows 11, the required “hard floor” (minimum configuration) is that a device needs a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip (a type of security chip used for things like storing passwords and encryption keys) to run it.  This means that without this type of chip, Windows can’t be run on a device, and even with devices that meet the “soft floor”, it looks as though they may receive a notification that an upgrade to Windows 11 is not advisable.  The Windows PC Health Check app should be able to tell you if your PC can support Windows 11. You can download the app here: https://aka.ms/GetPCHealthCheckApp.

Some Key Points

Provided Windows 11 does run on your computer, some key points to note about the new OS are that:

– For upgrading from Windows 10, the upgrade roll-out plan is not yet finalised but Microsoft says it will begin “late in 2021 and continue into 2022”.

– PCs with Windows 11 pre-installed will be only available later this year.

– The new OS is based on the code of Windows 10 which should minimise new glitches and favour continuity of experience.

– Teams is built-in to Windows 11. This integration is designed to strengthen Microsoft’s position in its battle (heightened during pandemic remote working) with competing cloud-based, collaborative working and communication platforms e.g., Slack and Zoom.

– Android apps can run on the Windows desktop laptops and PCs and a new Windows Store lets software developers use their own in-app payment systems (and pay no commissions to Microsoft).  This move by Microsoft is likely to be deliberately in contrast to rival Apple’s “walled garden” approach to developer software downloads and Apple’s in-app payment systems (and pay commissions of up to 30%).

– It’s good news for gamers (individual users) as Xbox Games Pass comes pre-installed.

– Desktop layouts can be more easily customised e.g., using Snap layouts, news, information, and entertainment can be more easily curated by the user (through Widgets and Edge).

Obvious Changes

– The ‘Start’ menu is in the bottom-middle position rather than bottom-left.  It’s worth noting also that your pinned apps and sites may not migrate when you update from Windows 10 and Live Tiles are no longer available.

– There are some changes to the Taskbar e.g., People no longer present, some icons not appearing in the System Tray, alignment to the bottom of the screen is the only location allowed, and apps can’t customise parts of the Taskbar.

– You can no longer find/use the Timeline (similar functionality has been added to Microsoft Edge).

– As expected, Internet Explorer is totally disabled, thereby completing the move to Edge.

Other Changes To Note

– Users can more easily and seamlessly undock a computer from an external monitor e.g., to take a call in another (quieter room) and then return to the docking station. This is likely to appeal to business users.

– Apps such as 3D Viewer, OneNote for Windows 10, Paint 3D (most people just use Paint) and Skype won’t be removed on upgrade but won’t be installed on new devices or in clean installing of Windows 11.  Instead, they’ll simply be available from the Store.

– Microsoft is including tools in Windows 11 to tip/reward/motivate content creators and local news outlets.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

This is the first new version of Windows for 6 years and is clearly aimed at competing with Apple’s App Store business model, challenging Alphabet Inc’s/Google Play Store, encouraging/helping developers, and content creators, and appealing more to business/corporate users with some of its improved features and integrated Teams. It is a shame, and somewhat confusing, therefore, that many machines may not have the (chip) spec to run Windows 11. It remains to be seen how this situation plays out before the full release date later in the year.

That said, Microsoft announced on Thursday that (for those who can successfully run Windows 11) it will include new tools for tipping content creators – including local news outlets – directly in the Windows 11 operating system. The company recently cut commissions on games sold through the store to 12 percent, which is lower than the 15 percent it takes on regular apps and has been a critic of Apple’s App Store. Visually and organisationally, the centred start menu, customisation, and curation options, plus the cleaned up “creative space” is designed to endear itself more to users in an Apple-like way and give greater control but not feel like a drastic, hard to master change. Businesses will have to wait until an unspecified ‘later in the year’ date to experience Windows 11 for themselves, by which time more should be known about any changes to the chip “hard floor” and any other glitches that may be revealed by those trying the developer version.

After John McAfee was found dead in a Barcelona prison cell last week, we take a brief look at the colourful life of this complicated, maverick software entrepreneur.

McAfee Antivirus

The products that made John McAfee a household name were his antivirus software and anti-spam products. John McAfee formed his software company, originally called McAfee Associates, back in 1987. His idea to create anti-virus software came about while working (as a contractor) at Lockheed Martin, where he worked on a classified voice-recognition program. While on that job, McAfee saw a piece of self-replicating code that had been designed to copy itself onto any floppy disk that was inserted into affected computers. This led to McAfee finding a way to disinfect the computers, thereby creating a very early kind of what became known as anti-virus. McAfee then posted his anti-virus cure on a bulletin board and decided to set up his own company specialising in tackling what he realised would be a threat to computer systems.

John McAfee resigned from the company in 1994 and the company was sold to Intel in 2011 for £4.7bn. The McAfee company has since grown by acquisition, thereby diversifying its security offerings. There have been many reports from users that McAfee software seems hard to completely uninstall.

The Man

John McAfee rose to commercial fame as a maverick entrepreneur. Born in Gloucestershire, the son of an Englishwoman who met an American soldier while he was stationed in the UK in World War II, it is reported that his father was an abusive alcoholic who shot himself when McAfee was only 15 years old. It seems that McAfee inherited addiction and is reported to have continued taking drugs during the many programming jobs where he learned his software trade at many prestigious companies, including NASA, General Electric, and Xerox. His academic career (a PhD in mathematics) had been cut short after he was reported to have slept with an under-graduate he was supposed to be mentoring, but this would be one of many parts of his life that may have been part of his addict’s behaviour patterns. This sickness led to his wife leaving him, losing his employment at Omex in 1980 due to drug dependency, and finally making it to Alcoholics Anonymous in 1984, after which time he claimed to have never drunk or taken drugs again.

Publicity and News

John MacAfee was often in news, particularly, and unfortunately after moving to Belize in central America in 2008. McAfee moved next door to a man called Gregory Faull. Mr Faull was murdered in his home in 2012 and it emerged that Mr Faull had reported McAfee’s dogs to the local police for being dangerous and that the dogs had been poisoned. Although some saw this as a possible motive for an attack on Mr Faull, McAfee claimed to have hardly ever spoken to Mr Faull and McAfee suggested that the whole situation may have been part of an extortion plan. After disappearing shortly after the murder, McAfee was found by police in Guatemala, and after questioning was released as a free man a few days later.

Although free, he was ordered by Florida court to pay a large ‘wrongful death’ claim to Faull’s estate in 2019.

Presidential Ambitions

In 2015, John McAfee became a candidate with the ‘Cyber’ party, but in 2020, McAfee announced that he intended to run for President in the US either for the Libertarian Party or for his own party as a way to give a platform to the ‘crypto community’.

Crypto Currencies

As reflected in the reasons for his presidential ambitions, what proved to be the last years of McAfee’s life were focused on promoting ‘alt-coins’ which were crypto-currencies that were competitors to Bitcoin.

Death

Following accusations of failing to file tax returns for four years and potentially owing millions, accusations of concealing assets, and accusations of fraud and money laundering, John MacAfee was arrested and imprisoned in Spain in October 2020.  Last week, just hours after the news that a Spanish court had agreed to extradite him to the US to face charges, the 75-year-old was found dead, possibly by suicide, in his prison cell.

Helped Build The Software Industry

Although John McAfee was clearly a complex character who made the news in later life for many of the wrong reasons, he will also be remembered for the important part he played in the initial building of the software industry as well as being one of the more controversial software entrepreneurs.

The new £50 note featuring the face of mathematician and ‘father of computer science’ (and Bletchley Park code-breaker) Alan Turing has entered circulation.

Turing’s Birthday

The note, which was announced in July 2019 and finally entered circulation last week to coincide with Turing’s birthday, means that all new UK banknote denominations are now made of plastic.  The old paper £20 and £50 notes won’t be accepted as payment in shops from October next year.

ACE & Bombe

As well as the 1951 photo of Turing’s face, the new £50 note also features his Automatic Computing Engine (ACE) which is credited as being the first full specification of an electronic stored-program all-purpose digital computer, and drawings of the electro-mechanical Turing-Welchman ‘Bombe’. Although the British ‘Bombe’ was based on an existing Polish cypher-machine, its initial design was produced in 1939 by Turing at Bletchley Park. This was one of the tools used by Turing and the top-secret Bletchley Park team to break the Enigma-enciphered code messages, thereby benefitting the allies and shortening the war by years.

Father of Computer Science

After studying at King’s College Cambridge, in 1936 Turing published his paper “On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem”, with which Turing proved that his “universal computing machine” could perform any mathematical computation if it were representable as an algorithm. This, plus his work developed at Bletchley Park is why Turing is widely thought of as the father of modern computer science.

Who Uses £50 Notes?

Although featuring Turing on a banknote is thought to be long-overdue recognition of a person whose work was of worldwide importance and that Turing was wronged by his 1952 conviction for “gross indecency” and subsequent ‘chemical castration’, the denomination of the note has highlighted questions. For example, with cash usage in decline anyway (despite claims that there is high demand for notes), and very few people using £50 for retail purchases, and the former chief executive of Standard Chartered bank, Peter Sands, being reported as describing the £50 note as the “currency of corrupt elites, of crime of all sorts and of tax evasion”, most people in the UK are likely to have very few and very brief encounters with the new note.  Back in 2018, the future of the £50 note, as well as 1p and 2p coins was discussed in a government review.

Cash Usage In Decline

Even before the pandemic, cash use was in decline thanks to the convenience of contactless payments. With ‘contactless’ being preferred over cash during the pandemic, this has hastened the decline of cash use in developed countries. For example, in October 2020, a survey by Nationwide Building Society revealed that by that point in the pandemic, the average respondent had gone over six weeks without using cash and that the lockdown led to 27% of respondents using mobile payments and 25% to use online or mobile banking for the first time.  Also, in the first week of lockdown, 23 March, 7.15 million contactless payments worth £77.27m were made by Nationwide customers.  As lockdown progressed, there was a substantial increase in contactless payments to 10.31 contactless payments worth £128m in the week beginning 25 May 2020.

Access To Cash research from 2019 showed that cash usage appeared likely to end by as soon as 2026, although notes and coins may still be used in 15 years’ time, but only for an estimated 10% to 15% of transactions.

Cashless Would Not Favour Already Disadvantaged Groups

Even though the move towards cashless may sound convenient to most members of society, it should also be remembered that many poorer and older members of society (and those with mental health challenges) rely on cash, may not have a bank account, and may suffer more hardship if cash was accepted in fewer places.

Also, businesses in rural areas have always found it more difficult to go cashless in preference of digital payments due to those areas being less well served by broadband and mobile connections.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

It is good that the UK has given some more recognition to the achievements of Alan Turing (and his Bletchley Park team), and in addition to his 2013 posthumous apology and royal pardon for his conviction for gross indecency, featuring him on the note is another way to acknowledge how his treatment during his life was unfair.  Even though there are claims that there is still huge demand for notes, most people and businesses rarely use £50 notes.  There are also many different studies confirming a decline in cash usage in favour of alternatives such as contactless which is more convenient for users and businesses, can save costs, and allow faster trading in business premises. With so many more of us now opting for online shopping, this also favours cards over cash. The pandemic has undoubtedly forced consumers to rely more upon contactless, digital, and online payments, and has forced people to try new payment methods that they may prefer going forward.  This means that businesses can expect (and should plan for) a growing preference by customers to use contactless, digital, and online payments.