BRUCEB NEWS
Console Cowboys & Cyberspace: The Enduring Legacy Of Neuromancer
The most valuable book in my collection is a copy of Neuromancer published in 1986 by Phantasia Press. Only 375 numbered copies were signed by the author, bound with gold endpapers, in a white cloth slipcase. It’s tough to find but there are two copies on Abebooks...
Colonial Pipeline And The Business Of Ransomware
Ransomware is big business. I mean that in the most boring way possible. Have you been following the news about the Colonial Pipeline hack? There is a nuance that sheds much...
Why Isn’t “My List” The First Thing I See On Netflix?
I had an epiphany the other day about something that has been puzzling me: I expect “My List” to be the first thing I see on Netflix, and it’s not there. I couldn’t figure it...
Our Complicated Relationship With Outlook
We have a complicated relationship with Microsoft Outlook, built on almost twenty-five years of daily togetherness. There are stretches where we work together happily but they're...
Experian Knows Data Breaches, You Betcha!
You know the big three credit bureaus, right? It’s always entertaining to watch the gyrations of the random number they assign to each of us called a “credit score.” It’s the...
What If Facebook Leaked Your Data And No One Cared?
There was a bit of a fuss earlier this month when personal data turned up on the dark web for more than 500 million Facebook users, including name, phone number, gender, marital...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...