科技新闻

政府已于2017年9月15日推出「创科创投基金」。该计划现正接受风险投资基金申请成为共同投资伙伴(截止日期:2018年1月15日)。简介会将于2017年10月3日于香港科学园举行，欢迎风险投资基金出席。

[Disclosure: Microsoft is a client of the author.]Windows is pretty unique in the segment if you think about it. For most everything else we use, the hardware and software come from – and get support from – the same company. For most of our other devices, tools, equipment, etc., a major software update will only come when we buy a new system.The good part of this is that our PCs are more up to date than our cars, appliances and other integrated products. The bad news is if we don’t want to update, we don’t have to – and a lot of us don’t like the update process and are sometimes back a couple of generations on the OS. (I won’t even mention the folks still using Windows XP, because they’re in their own unique and painful world at the moment.)To read this article in full, please click here

I’ve put together thousands of Apple-related tips over the years. I thought it might be useful to reprise 31 essential ones that will help you get more from your iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple Watch.6 Siri tips for everything Change Settings Use Siri to change Settings or System Preferences. Just trigger Siri and ask it to open the Setting or Preference you need – it can change some of them too…Open an App Open any app by triggering Siri and asking it to open the app.Open a website Ask Siri.Siri the weather On any Apple device that supports Siri you can get a weather report by just asking for it. Or sports scores, or get answers to sums, measurement conversions and more.To read this article in full, please click here

Pilot fish gets a call from company’s computer center for immediate service on a 1403 printer, one of those IBM behemoths of the big iron days, the sound of which Columbia University’s computing history project characterized as “at full throttle … somewhere between a power saw and a jet airplane.” What could be so urgent? fish wonders as he heads over to the computer center.The answer is obvious once he looks behind the printer in question. There he sees a female operator sitting on the floor. Fish notes at a glance that she has striking long red hair, and that it is wrapped in the printer stacking rollers. She’s stuck.To read this article in full, please click here

Microsoft has focused its Windows 10 attention on upgrading hundreds of millions of machines before they lose rights to security updates in three months.From June 26 to July 25, the portion of all Windows 10 systems running the May 2019 Update, a.k.a. 1903 in Microsoft's four-numeral format, almost doubled, climbing 5 percentage points to 11.4%, according to analytics company AdDuplex.To compensate, in the same period Windows 10 1803 — the "April 2018 Update" — fell 4.3 points to 53.7%. However, the next feature upgrade, 1809, dipped just three-tenths of a percentage point to 29.7%.[ Related: Review: Windows 10 May 2019 Update unleashes a spring surprise ] The likeliest explanation for the changes — 1903 up, 1803 down, 1809 flat — was Microsoft's July 16 announcement that it had started forcible upgrades "for customers with devices that are at or nearing end of service and have not yet updated their device."To read this article in full, please click here

Android upgrades can often seem like an eternal waiting game, thanks to the role unmotivated device-makers play in the process — but with Chrome OS, it's a completely different story.Chrome OS upgrades, y'see, roll out to every current Chromebook within days of their release, directly from Google and without any meddling along the way from manufacturers. So when you hear about a new Chrome OS version coming out, you can rest easy knowing it'll reach your Chromebook quickly and reliably — no matter who made the thing.To read this article in full, please click here

August is going to be a perilous patching month.We’re tracking down credible reports of the Server 2012 R2 Monthly rollup breaking RDP logins, a conflict between the Win10 1903 cumulative update and last month’s version of Outlook 365, confusion about Win7 patches being branded as “IA64 only,” dealing with the lack of telemetry (!) in the August Win7 Security Only patch, much mayhem trying to install SHA-2 signed patches (including the Win7 Monthly Rollup) on systems using Symantec Endpoint Protection, even more confusion over the difference between Symantec Endpoint Protection and Norton Security Suite, and lots of the usual installation failures and rollbacks.To read this article in full, please click here

This is a huge month for Patch Tuesday as Microsoft attempts to address 93 unique vulnerabilities spanning Windows desktop and server platforms, Microsoft Office and core development tools. Without the pressure of a publicly reported vulnerability and with no Zero-days to urgently address, we recommend a measured pace of testing before deployment for the Windows and Office updates, with a more rapid pace for the IE and development tools patches. Do yourself a favor and reference this handy infographics on the status of each update group.Known issues With each update that Microsoft releases, there are generally a few issues that have been raised in testing. For this August release, and specifically Windows 10 1903 builds, the following issues have been raised:To read this article in full, please click here

Alternative search engines such as DuckDuckGo are attracting growing numbers of privacy focused users, but there’s no doubt that Google dominates the industry, even on Apple products. Fortunately, there are several ways to make your Google activity more private.Do you have a Google account? (You probably do) Do you use Gmail? Did you one use Google +? Perhaps you employ Google Drive, Google Docs or any of the company’s other products. If so, you have a Google account.To read this article in full, please click here

Google and Mozilla have decided to eliminate visual signals in their Chrome and Firefox desktop browsers of special digital certificates meant to assure users that they landed at a legitimate site, not a malicious copycat.The certificates, dubbed "Extended Validation" (EV) certificates, were a subset of the usual certificates used to encrypt browser-to-server-and-back communications. Unlike run-of-the-mill certificates, EVs can be issued only by a select group of certificate authorities (CAs); to acquire one, a company must go through a complicated process that validates its legal identity as the site owner. They're also more expensive.[ Further reading: 10 must-have Safari extensions ] The idea behind EVs was to give web users confidence that they were at their intended destination, that the site computerworld.com, for instance, was owned by its legal proprietor, IDG, and not a fishy - and phishy - URL run by It's Crooks All the Way Down LLC and chockablock with malware. Browsers quickly took to the concept, rewarding EV-secured sites with in-your-face visual cues, notably the verified legal identity in front of the domain in the address bar. The identity was often shaded in green as an additional tip-off. (Chrome dismissed the green in September 2018 as of Chrome 69.)To read this article in full, please click here

Google Sheets is a powerful spreadsheet app that you use through your web browser. It stores your spreadsheets in the cloud with Google Drive. Anyone with a Google account can use Sheets and Drive for free. They’re also part of G Suite, Google’s subscription-based office suite for business and enterprise customers.Recover older versions of a spreadsheetTo read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)

Electrical fire breaks out above the ceiling tiles in this server room, reports a pilot fish in the know.“In the past, the room was a large mainframe room and was protected by a Halon fire-suppression system,” fish says. Nowadays the room just contains half a dozen racks of servers and network gear.The Halon system is still working when that ceiling fire breaks out, but it isn’t triggered. Trouble is, there aren’t any smoke sensors above the ceiling tiles.Fortunately, the fire smolders for quite a while, and thanks to an alert security guard, there’s just minor water and smoke damage to unoccupied areas of the big room.Some time later, management decides to get rid of the Halon system and replace it with a sprinkler system.To read this article in full, please click here

Slack admins can now designate any channel to be used for announcements only, a move aimed at minimizing distractions and ensuring that important information is communicated to workers.While it’s already possible to limit posting in the default #general channel in Slack workspaces, the change unveiled today allows admins on Slack’s paid Plus and Enterprise Grid plans to restrict other channels as well. So, for instance, #it-announcements or #emea-announcements channels can be restricted to broadcasting information only. [ Read the Free course: Managing PCs and Devices with Microsoft Intune special report ] The goal is to prevent employees from posting messages in channels intended for announcements (such as IT-related requests in an IT announcements channel), which can lead to other workers muting the channel and ignoring it completely. To read this article in full, please click here

This isn’t a good look. The Federal Aviation Authority has banned certain models of 15-inch MacBook Pros from flights due to a previously disclosed battery risk.What’s happening? It’s important to stress that not every MacBook Pro is affected, but models sold between mid-2015 to February 2017 are impacted.These are the same Macs Apple issued a voluntary recall for earlier this year, warning that they may “contain a battery that may overheat and pose a fire safety risk”.As part of the recall, Apple is offering free battery replacement for these models. You can check if your Mac is part of this recall on an Apple support page here.To read this article in full, please click here

VITAS Healthcare, a Miami-based a hospice and palliative care company with more than 12,000 employees and about 19,000 patients across 14 states, went on a six-year journey to create a mobile-enabled workforce and the unified endpoint management (UEM) system needed to handle their devices.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)

This pilot fish is the CIO of a small company with offices in New Jersey and New York City.“My one IT person in NYC, who does network admin, desktop support and project management, is out for an extended time due to an illness,” fish says. “I asked the CFO if I could bring in a temporary IT person until she returns.“His answer was, ‘Could you bring in someone for four hours per day instead of eight?’“I said, ‘Sure. When do you want us to have problems then, in the morning or in the afternoon?’“To which he replied, ‘Oh, good point.’”Sharky’s time is your time. Send me your true tale of IT life at sharky@computerworld.com. You can also subscribe to the Daily Shark Newsletter.To read this article in full, please click here