24 December 2018

Alphabet spins off moonshot project Malta with backing from Gates’s BEV fund


Malta, the renewable energy storage project born in Alphabet’s moonshot factory X, is now on its own and flush with $26 million from a Series A funding round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

Concord New Energy Group and Alfa Laval also invested in the round.

Project Malta launched last year in Alphabet’s X (formerly Google X) with an aim to build energy storage facilities that can support full-scale power grids. The independent company spun out of Alphabet is now called Malta Inc.

Malta Inc has developed a system designed to keep power generated from renewable energy or fossil fuels in reserve for longer than lithium-ion batteries. The electro-thermal storage system first captures energy generated from wind, solar, or fossil generators on the grid. The collected electricity drives a heat pump, which converts the electrical energy into thermal energy. The heat is stored in molten salt, while the cold is stored in a chilled antifreeze liquid. A heat engine is used to convert the energy back to electricity for the grid when it’s needed.

The system can store electricity for days or even weeks, Malta says.

Malta is going to use the funds to work with industry partners to turn the detailed designs developed and refined at X into industrial-grade machinery for its first pilot system.

BEV, the lead investor in Malta’s Series A round, was created in 2016 by the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, an investor group that includes Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, John Doerr, chairman of venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Alibaba founder Jack Ma, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, and SAP co-founder Hasso Plattner.


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Convo now lets you see which employees got the memo


Convo, a tool perhaps best described as a real-time company message board, picked up a new trick this week: automated acknowledgements.

It’s a pretty common thing in the corporate world: you need to send something out to all of the employees at your company, but you also need to know exactly who has seen it (and, of course, who hasn’t.) Who actually got the memo? Can you say that everyone has seen some mandatory reading? Who still needs to see it?

You can try to use email read receipts, but those are hit-or-miss — particularly as many email clients disable them by default nowadays. You can make everyone sign a form saying they’ve seen the document in question, but that’s a pain in the butt. When all you need is a list that says “Yep, these employees have all seen this blurb of text” so you can meet some new compliance requirement, it shouldn’t be complicated.

Convo’s new tool makes it pretty easy: write your post like any other, but check the “Recipients must acknowledge to view” box before sending it out.

When it pops up in your colleagues’ Convo timeline, it’ll be almost entirely blurred, save for a subject line and a prompt asking them to acknowledge the post. Once they deliberately acknowledge it, the post is de-blurred, the original poster gets an alert letting them know someone has read it, and the reader’s name moves from the “Has not seen” to the “Has seen” list.

To be clear, this isn’t a security feature; there are ways to get around the blurring without officially acknowledging it. Hell, you can just say “Hey Jim, did you already open that Convo post? Let me see it on your phone.” The point here isn’t preventing anyone in the company from seeing something, but in making sure everyone has seen something, and having an automatically generated list to fulfill any compliance requirements. If you’re using Convo’s group features correctly, it should only show up for people you intend to see it in the first place.

The feature rolled out earlier this week. It’ll be available for all Convo networks for the next month to check out, at which point they expect to limit it to Enterprise-level customers.


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Captiv8 report highlights data for spotting fake followers


Captiv8, a company offering tools for brands to manage influencer marketing campaigns, has released its 2018 Fraud Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report. The goal is to give marketers the data they need to spot fake followers — and thus, to separate the influencers with a real following from those who only offer the illusion of engagement.

The report argues that that this a problem with a real financial impact (it’s something that Instagram is working to crack down on), with $2.1 billion spent on influencer marketing on Instagram in 2017 and 11 percent of the engagement coming from fraudulent accounts.

“For influencer marketing to truly deliver on its transformative potential, marketers need a more concrete and reliable way to identify fake followers and engagement, compare their performance to industry benchmarks, and determine the real reach and impact of social media spend,” Captiv8 says.

So the company looked at a range of marketing categories (pets, parenting, beauty, fashion, entertainment, travel, gaming, fitness, food and traditional celebrity) and randomly selected 5,000 Instagram influencer accounts in each one, pulling engagement from August to November of this year.

The idea is to establish a baseline for standard activity, so that marketers can spot potential red flags. Of course, everyone with a significant social media audience is going to have some fake followers, but Captiv8 suggests that some categories have a higher rate of fraud than others — fashion was the worst, with an average of 14 percent of fake activity per account, to compared to traditional celebrity, where the average was just 4 percent.

Captiv8 report

So what should you look out for? For starters, the report says that the average daily change in follower counts for an influencer is 1.2 percent, so be on the look out for shifts that are significantly larger.

The report also breaks down the average engagement rate for organic and sponsored content by category (ranging from 1.19 percent for sponsored content in food to 3.51 percent in entertainment), and suggests that a lower engagement rate “shows a high probability that their follower count is inflated through bots or fake followers.”

Conversely, it says it could also be a warning sign if a creator’s audience reach or impressions per user is higher than the industry benchmarks (for example, image posts in fashion have an average audience reach of 23.69 percent, with 1.32 impressions per unique user).

You can download the full report on the Captiv8 website.


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Does Your Wi-Fi Speed Drop? Here’s Why and 7 Tips to Fix It

What Is SuperFetch on Windows 10? And How to Disable It


windows10-feature-performance

Windows 10 is a definite improvement over previous versions in many ways—but it can also feel slow and sluggish when it isn’t configured properly. Of the many ways to improve Windows 10 performance, there’s one lesser-known feature that you should know about: SuperFetch.

In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know about what SuperFetch is, how it works, why it might be problematic, and how to disable it if it’s causing issues.

What Is SuperFetch? How It Works

The official description of the SuperFetch service says that it “maintains and improves system performance over time,” but that’s vague and doesn’t explain the whole story.

SuperFetch is a feature that was introduced back in Windows Vista. It sits quietly in the background, constantly analyzing RAM usage patterns and learning what kinds of apps you run most often. Over time, SuperFetch marks these apps as “frequently used” and preloads them into RAM ahead of time.

The idea is that when you do want to run the app, it will launch much faster because it’s already preloaded in memory.

Task Manager Performance Tab Memory

By default, SuperFetch is designed to take up all your available RAM space with preloaded apps. Don’t worry: it only deals with unused memory. As soon as your system needs more RAM (e.g. to load an app that wasn’t preloaded), it relinquishes the needed memory as necessary.

Note that SuperFetch is not the same thing as Prefetch, which is the preloading memory manager that was introduced back in Windows XP. SuperFetch is actually the successor to Prefetch. What’s the difference? Prefetch did not analyze usage patterns over time and adjust its preloading parameters accordingly.

Is SuperFetch Really Necessary?

For the most part, SuperFetch is useful. If you have a modern PC with average specs or better, SuperFetch most likely runs so smoothly that you won’t ever notice it. There’s a good chance SuperFetch is already running on your system right now and you didn’t even know.

But there are some “problems” that can arise with SuperFetch:

  • Since SuperFetch is always running in the background, the SuperFetch service itself is always using some CPU and RAM.
  • SuperFetch doesn’t eliminate the need to load apps into RAM. Rather, it relocates the loading to an earlier time. Whenever that loading happens, your system still experiences the same slowdown as if you were launching the app without SuperFetch.
  • System startup can be sluggish because SuperFetch is preloading a bunch of data from your HDD to RAM. If your HDD runs at 100% for a few minutes every time you start or restart your computer, SuperFetch could be the culprit.
  • The performance gains of SuperFetch may be unnoticeable when Windows 10 is installed on an SSD. Since SSDs are so fast, you don’t really need preloading. If this interests you, check out our guide to moving Windows from HDD to SSD.

SuperFetch has also been known to cause performance issues while gaming, particularly on systems that have 4GB of RAM or less. It’s unclear why this happens because it doesn’t occur for everybody, but we suspect it has to do with RAM-heavy games that constantly request and free up memory, which may cause SuperFetch to constantly load and unload data.

Is it safe to disable SuperFetch? Yes! There is no risk of side effects if you decide to turn it off. Our recommendation is that if your system is running well, leave it on. If you have issues with high HDD usage, high RAM usage, or degraded performance during RAM-heavy activities, then try turning it off and see if it helps. If it does, keep it off. Otherwise, turn it back on.

Note: To boost performance on a RAM-sparse system, we recommend tweaking the Windows virtual memory limit and tweaking Windows visual effects. You can also try these tips for faster startup and shutdown.

How to Disable SuperFetch on Windows 10

To reiterate, we don’t recommend disabling SuperFetch except as a troubleshooting measure for the potential issues mentioned above. Most users should keep SuperFetch enabled because it does help with overall performance. If you aren’t sure, try turning it off. If you don’t notice any improvements, turn it back on.

Using the Services App

Step 1: Launch the Services app. Open the Start Menu, search for services, then launch the Services app. Alternatively, open the Run prompt by pressing Windows key + R, then type services.msc and click OK.

Windows Services SuperFetch

Step 2: Disable the SuperFetch service. Scroll down until you see Superfetch, right-click on it, and click Stop. SuperFetch is now disabled.

Superfetch Properties

Step 3: Prevent SuperFetch from running automatically. Still in the Services app, right-click on Superfetch and select Properties. Under the General tab, look for Startup type and change it to Disabled. (Or Manual if you’d like the option to turn it on when you need it.)

Using the Registry Editor

The Services app is the preferred method for this, but if it doesn’t work for some reason, you can always edit the registry key directly. Before you do this, make sure you back up the registry in case something goes wrong (it’s more common than you think).

Step 1: Open the Registry Editor. Open the Start Menu, search for regedit, then select it from the results. Alternatively, open the Run prompt by pressing Windows key + R, then type regedit and click OK.

Windows Registry Editor

Step 2: Find the SuperFetch key. Using the left sidebar, navigate to the following:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SYSTEM / CurrentControlSet / Control / Session Manager / MemoryManagement / PrefetchParameters

Edit DWORD 32-bit Value

Step 3: Disable SuperFetch. In the right panel, you should see a key called EnableSuperfetch. Right-click on it and select Modify… to bring up the key editor. To disable SuperFetch, change Value Data to 0 and click OK.

Other Windows 10 Features You Can Disable

SuperFetch isn’t the only example of a feature that might be better off disabled. If you’re still having issues with Windows 10, we highly recommend looking at these Windows 10 features to safely disable as well as our follow-up article with even more features to disable.

Image Credit: AntonioGuillemF/Depositphotos

Read the full article: What Is SuperFetch on Windows 10? And How to Disable It


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5 Simple Finder Shortcuts to Quickly Access Your Data Anywhere


finder-shortcuts

You can access your Finder files and folders in a variety of ways, but there are a few methods that will fetch you quicker results. One of them involves creating shortcuts or using existing ones to access your most-used Finder data.

Let’s take a look at five types of shortcuts you can use to navigate Finder faster.

1. Sidebar Shortcuts

sidebar-shortcuts-in-finder-on-mac

No matter where you are in Finder, you can jump to important locations in a single click—if you’ve pinned a shortcut to them in the sidebar.

To create a shortcut to a folder’s contents, drag that folder from its original location in Finder to the Favorites section of the sidebar. For a standard Finder location such as Home or iCloud Drive, you can enable its sidebar bookmark via File > Preferences > Sidebar too.

You can also add sidebar shortcuts for files and apps, but only if you hold down the Cmd key while dragging and dropping the items onto the sidebar. Without the modifier key, you’ll end up moving the items to the sidebar folder onto which you drop them.

Finder tags also get their own shortcut section in the sidebar. These color-coded labels can help you find files faster. If you can’t see a particular tag or the Tags section itself, you can make both visible from Finder > Preferences > Tags.

2. Toolbar Shortcuts

toolbar-shortcuts-in-finder-on-mac

Toolbar shortcuts are another easy way to keep your favorite files, folders, apps, and tags in sight. They come in handy when you have a particular PDF, calendar, filter, voice dictation app, or infograph you need to bring up often.

To create a toolbar shortcut, hold down the Cmd key and drag the relevant Finder item to the toolbar. Release when you see a green plus mark appear next to the cursor.

We recommend assigning unique custom icons to files and folders to make their shortcuts easy to spot in the toolbar. Apps already have distinguishable icons, so you can leave those alone.

Since it’s so easy to create shortcuts in Finder, you might go overboard with them and end up with a cluttered, unusable toolbar. How about saving toolbar shortcuts only for your most favorite items and using aliases for the rest?

3. Finder Aliases

folder-and-its-alias-in-finder-on-mac

In computer speak, a shortcut usually points to a specific item in a specific location. When you move the item to a different location, the shortcut no longer works. That’s not the case if the shortcut in question is an alias, which points to the linked item regardless of a change in the master folder’s location.

This allows you to create shortcuts or aliases to a single file (or folder) in multiple locations for easy access to the original file. Since aliases barely take up any space, you can feel free to make as many of them as you need. Aliases are a great way to reduce Finder clutter.

To create an alias, select the Finder item you want an alias for and click on Make Alias from its context menu. The shortcut shows up in the same location as the original item. There’s a tiny arrow at the bottom-left of the alias icon to distinguish it as a shortcut. Feel free to rename the alias and move it elsewhere.

You can also create an alias for a file when you’re viewing it. All you have to do is drag the tiny icon before the file name in the title bar and drop it in a Finder location of your choice. If you hold down the Option key while performing this task, you’ll get a copy of the file instead of an alias.

Remember the toolbar shortcuts we discussed above? They’re also aliases, by the way. But since the toolbar can hold only so many shortcuts, we recommend that you use them sparingly.

4. Custom Finder Views

folder-with-a-group-of-aliases-in-finder-on-mac

When you open Finder, it shows the Recents view, where you see your most recently accessed Finder data. How about replacing that view with your most-used data instead?

To begin with, create a new folder in a location of your choosing and:

  • Move your favorite files and folders there, or
  • Create aliases for them in the new folder. (Throw in aliases for your favorite apps as well.)

Next, it’s time to set this folder as the default view for new Finder windows. To do that, first open Finder > Preferences > General. Now click on the New Finder windows show dropdown menu, then choose Other. In the Finder dialog that opens, select the shortcut folder you created and click on the Choose button.

You can even add a shortcut to this new folder in the sidebar, the toolbar, and the Dock, to keep it accessible at all times.

5. Built-In Finder Shortcuts

path-bar-in-finder-on-mac

The path bar at the bottom of the Finder window, right above the status bar, is another way to navigate to specific Finder locations quickly. It displays the hierarchy for a selected file or folder. Click on any location in the hierarchy and you can switch to it directly, bypassing other locations in between.

You can also Control-click the folder name in the title bar to view the file/folder hierarchy and skip to any location in it.

folder-hierarchy-in-the-title-bar-in-finder-on-mac

The Back button in the Finder toolbar is yet another shortcut. Click and hold the Back button to display the folder locations you’ve been to recently from that window. (The list begins with the most recent location.) You can now jump to relevant folder locations from this list.

If the Forward button shows as active, you can click and hold it to get a similar list of locations that you’ve gone through.

back-button-contents-in-finder-on-mac

Take a Finder Shortcut on Mac

Finder shortcuts are a huge timesaver, but it takes a while to discover all their secrets. On that note, we have many more tiny but useful macOS features you’ll want to know about.

Read the full article: 5 Simple Finder Shortcuts to Quickly Access Your Data Anywhere


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Windows Won’t Install Properly? 5 Tips to Solve All Common Issues

How to Manage the Excel Ribbon: 4 Key Tips You Should Know


excel-ribbon

The Microsoft Excel ribbon was introduced in Office 2007, The ability to customize the ribbon arrived in Office 2010.

You can hide and show the ribbon, add commands to the tabs on the ribbon, and even create your own tabs. Read on to learn how.

What Is the Excel Ribbon?

The Excel ribbon is the strip of icons above the worksheet area. It looks like a complex toolbar, which it essentially is. It replaces the menus and toolbars found in Excel 2003 and earlier.

Above the ribbon are tabs, like Home, Insert, and Page Layout. Clicking a tab activates that “toolbar” containing groups of icons for various commands. For example, when Excel opens, the Home tab displays with common commands grouped by function, like Clipboard tools and Font formatting.

Microsoft Excel ribbon

Some buttons open a menu with additional options. For example, the bottom half of the Paste button in the Clipboard group, opens a menu with additional pasting options.

Paste Special option on the Home tab on the Excel ribbon

Each group has a button in the lower-right corner of the group that opens a dialog box containing additional options related to that group. For example, the dialog box button on the Font group opens the Font Settings dialog box.

Group dialog box button on the Home tab on the Excel ribbon

1. How to Hide and Show the Ribbon in Excel

You can hide and show the Excel ribbon (also called collapsing the ribbon) to maximize the space available for your worksheet. This is especially useful if you have a laptop with a small screen.

Hide the Excel Ribbon

To hide the ribbon, click the up arrow button on the lower-right corner of the ribbon.

You can also double-click one of the tabs on the ribbon or press Ctrl + F1 to hide the ribbon.

Collapse the ribbon using the up arrow button on the right side of the Excel ribbon

Another way to collapse or hide the ribbon is to right-click on the ribbon and select Collapse the Ribbon. A check mark next to the Collapse the Ribbon option indicates the ribbon collapses when you’re not using it.

Collapse the Ribbon option on Excel ribbon right-click menu

When the ribbon is hidden, only the tabs are visible.

Click a tab to temporarily show the ribbon. Once you click on a button or command on a tab, the ribbon is hidden again.

Collapsed Excel ribbon with tabs showing

Show the Excel Ribbon

To permanently show the ribbon again, double-click a tab or press Ctrl + F1 again.

You can also click a tab to temporarily show the ribbon. Then, click the thumbtack icon in the lower-right corner of the ribbon.

Another way to permanently show the ribbon is to right-click on the tab bar and select Collapse the Ribbon again to uncheck the option.

Pin the Excel ribbon so it permanently shows

Automatically Hide the Ribbon

If you’re short on screen space, you can automatically hide the entire ribbon, including the tabs.

To automatically hide the ribbon and the tabs, click the Ribbon Display Options button in the upper-right corner of the Excel window and select Auto-hide Ribbon.

The Show Tabs option hides the ribbons but shows the tabs.

To show the tabs and the ribbon again, select Show Tabs and Commands.

Ribbon Display Options menu on the Excel ribbon

To show the ribbon when it’s automatically hidden, move your mouse to the top of the Excel window until you see a green bar and click on the bar.

Excel ribbon automatically hidden

The ribbon drops down over the worksheet. Click a tab and then click on a command.

The ribbon automatically hides again.

Again, to permanently show the ribbon and the tabs, select Show Tabs and Commands from the Ribbon Display Options button.

Excel ribbon dropped down over worksheet

2. What to Do If the Excel Ribbon Is Missing

If your Excel ribbon disappears, it’s most likely just hidden.

You can unhide the ribbon in Excel as described in the Show the Excel Ribbon section above if you only see the tab names.

If your worksheet takes up the whole screen and you don’t see the ribbon or the tabs, the ribbon is in Auto-hide mode. See the Automatically Hide the Ribbon section above to learn how to get the ribbon back.

3. Customizing the Excel Ribbon

Microsoft added the ability to customize the ribbon in Excel 2010. You can do things like:

  • Rename and reorder tabs and groups on tabs
  • Hide tabs
  • Add and remove groups on existing tabs
  • Add custom tabs and groups containing commands you want easy access to

But you can’t make changes to the default commands, like changing their names or icons, removing default commands, or changing the order of the default commands.

To customize the ribbon, right-click on the ribbon and select Customize the Ribbon. You can also go to File > Options > Customize Ribbon.

Select Customize the Ribbon on the Excel ribbon right-click menu

Add a New Group to a Tab on the Ribbon

All commands on the ribbon must be in a group. To add commands to an existing, built-in tab, you must first create a new group on that tab. You can also add commands to groups on your own custom tabs and we’ll show you how to do that in a bit.

On the Customize the Ribbon screen on the Excel Options dialog box, select Commands Not in the Ribbon from the Choose commands from dropdown list. There may be some commands in this list you want available on the ribbon.

Select Commands Not in the Ribbon on the Excel Options dialog box

Make sure Main Tabs is selected in the Customize the Ribbon dropdown list on the right.

To add a command to an existing tab, you must first create a new group on that tab. You can’t add commands to existing groups on the Main Tabs. For example, we’re going to add a command to the Home tab. So, we select the Home tab in the list on the right and then click New Group below the list.

Click New Group on the Excel Options dialog box

The new group is added at the bottom of the list of groups on the Home tab with the default name New Group. The word Custom is added to the end of the new group’s name to help you keep track of custom groups you’ve created. But Custom won’t display on the tab.

To rename the new group, select it and click Rename.

Click Rename to rename a group on the Excel ribbon

Enter a name for the new group in the Display name box on the Rename dialog box.

When the Excel window is too narrow to display the names of the groups on the ribbon, only symbols are displayed. You can choose the symbol that displays for your new group from the Symbol box.

Click OK.

Rename dialog box for renaming a group on the Excel ribbon

Add a Command to a New Group

Now you can add commands to your new group.

Make sure your new group is selected on the right. Then, click on the command you want to add in the list of commands on the left.

Click Add.

Add a command to a new group on the Excel ribbon

The command is added to the tab in the new group you created.

Click OK to close the Excel Options dialog box.

Close the Excel Options dialog box

Because we added our new group at the bottom of the list of groups on the Home tab, it displays on the far right end of the tab.

You can add new groups anywhere on a tab and we’ll show you how. But first, we’ll show you how to add a new, custom tab to the ribbon.

Command added to a custom group on the Home tab on the Excel ribbon

Add Your Own Custom Tabs

In addition to adding groups and commands to the existing, built-in tabs, you can create your own custom tabs. For example, if you’ve created some macros you use often, you can create a custom tab for your macros to make them easily accessible.

See our article about building a custom excel toolbar of VBA macros to learn how to add a new tab to the Excel ribbon in addition to creating some useful macros.

Custom tab with macros on the Excel ribbon

You can also use a custom tab to collect commands you use often in one place.

Custom tab with commands on the Excel ribbon

Rearrange Tabs, Groups, and Commands

You can arrange tabs and groups in any order you want. Commands already on the built-in tabs can’t be rearranged. But you can rearrange any commands you’ve added to custom groups on built-in or custom tabs.

To move a tab, group, or command, access the Customize the Ribbon screen on the Excel Options dialog box.

In the list on the right, select the tab, group, or command in a custom group that you want to move. Then, click the up arrow or down arrow to the right of the list to move it either way. The tab at the top of the list is displayed on the far left side of the ribbon, and the tab at the bottom on the far right.

Rearrange tabs on the Excel ribbon

You can put your custom tab in the most convenient place for you on the ribbon.

Custom tab moved on the Excel ribbon

Hide Tabs on the Excel Ribbon

If there are some tabs you don’t use, you can hide them.

Right-click on the ribbon and select Customize the Ribbon.

On the right, uncheck the boxes for any tabs you want to hide. Then, click OK.

Hide tabs on the Excel ribbon

Rename the Items on the Ribbon

In addition to giving custom tabs and groups your own names, you can also rename existing groups on built-in tabs. You can’t rename existing commands on the ribbon.

On the right side of the Customize the Ribbon screen on the Excel Options dialog box, select the group you want to rename and click Rename below the list.

On the Rename dialog box, enter the name you want and click OK.

Rename a group on the Excel ribbon

Now the group displays with the name you chose.

Built-in group renamed on the Excel ribbon

Use Icons Instead of Text on the Ribbon

If you’re using a laptop with a small screen, you can save some room on the ribbon tabs by removing the text from the commands you add to custom groups and using only icons. You can’t remove the text from built-in commands on the main tabs. Also, you must remove the text from all the icons in a custom group, not just some of them.

On the Customize the Ribbon screen on the Excel Options dialog box, right-click on the group you want to change and select Hide Command Labels.

Select Hide Command Labels for the Excel ribbon on the Excel Options dialog box

The commands in your custom group now display without text.

Labels hidden on commands in a group on the Excel ribbon

4. Resetting Customizations in Excel

If you’ve made a lot of customizations to the Excel ribbon, and you want to go back to the default setup, you can reset your customizations.

To reset one tab, select that tab in the list on the right on the Customize the Ribbon screen on the Excel Options dialog box. Then, click Reset and select Reset only selected Ribbon tab.

To reset all tabs on the ribbon, click Reset and select Reset all customizations. Note that this option also resets the Quick Access Toolbar.

Reset all customizations on the Excel ribbon

Click Yes on the confirmation dialog box.

Delete all customizations confirmation dialog box for the Excel ribbon

Save Time With a Customized Excel Ribbon

Customizing the Excel ribbon helps save time and make you more productive. But it’s just one of the simpler paths to productivity. We also have more tips to save you time when using Excel.

Read the full article: How to Manage the Excel Ribbon: 4 Key Tips You Should Know


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How to Sync Your Contacts From iPhone to Mac

Facebook is not equipped to stop the spread of authoritarianism


After the driver of a speeding bus ran over and killed two college students in Dhaka in July, student protesters took to the streets. They forced the ordinarily disorganized local traffic to drive in strict lanes and stopped vehicles to inspect license and registration papers. They even halted the vehicle of the Chief of Bangladesh Police Bureau of Investigation and found that his license was expired. And they posted videos and information about the protests on Facebook.

The fatal road accident that led to these protests was hardly an isolated incident. Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, which was ranked the second least livable city in the world in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2018 global liveability index, scored 26.8 out of 100 in the infrastructure category included in the rating. But the regional government chose to stifle the highway safety protests anyway. It went so far as raids of residential areas adjacent to universities to check social media activity, leading to the arrest of 20 students. Although there were many images of Bangladesh Chhatra League, or BCL men, committing acts of violence on students, none of them were arrested. (The BCL is the student wing of the ruling Awami League, one of the major political parties of Bangladesh.)

Students were forced to log into their Facebook profiles and were arrested or beaten for their posts, photographs, and videos. In one instance, BCL men called three students into the dorm’s guestroom, quizzed them over Facebook posts, beat them, and then handed them over to police. They were reportedly tortured in custody.

A pregnant school teacher was arrested and jailed for just over two weeks for “spreading rumors” due to sharing a Facebook post about student protests. A photographer and social justice activist spent more than 100 days in jail for describing police violence during these protests; he told reporters he was beaten in custody. And a university professor was jailed for 37 days for his Facebook posts.

A Dhaka resident who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear for their safety said that the crackdown on social media posts essentially silenced student protesters, many of which removed photos, videos, and status updates about the protests from their profiles entirely. While the person thought that students were continuing to be arrested, they said, “nobody is talking about it anymore — at least in my network — because everyone kind of ‘got the memo’ if you know what I mean.”

This isn’t the first time Bangladeshi citizens have been arrested for Facebook posts. As just one example, in April 2017, a rubber plantation worker in southern Bangladesh was arrested and detained for three months for liking and sharing a Facebook post that criticized the prime minister’s visit to India, according to Human Rights Watch.

Bangladesh is far from alone. Government harassment to silence dissent on social media has occurred across the region and in other regions as well — and it often comes hand-in-hand with governments filing takedown requests with Facebook and requesting data on users.

Facebook has removed posts critical of the prime minister in Cambodia and reportedly “agreed to coordinate in the monitoring and removal of content” in Vietnam. Facebook was criticized for not stopping the repression of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, where military personnel created fake accounts to spread propaganda which human rights groups say fueled violence and forced displacement. Facebook has since undertaken a human rights impact assessment in Myanmar, and it has also taken down coordinated inauthentic accounts in the country.

UNITED STATES – APRIL 10: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies during the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee joint hearing on “Facebook, Social Media Privacy, and the Use and Abuse of Data”on Tuesday, April 10, 2018. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Protesters scrubbing Facebook data for fears of repercussions isn’t uncommon. Over and over again, authoritarian-leaning regimes have utilized low-tech strategies to quell dissent. And aside from providing resources related to online privacy and security, Facebook still has little in place to protect its most vulnerable users from these pernicious efforts. As various countries pass laws calling for a local presence and increased regulation, it is possible that the social media conglomerate doesn’t always even want to.

“In many situations, the platforms are under pressure,” said Raman Jit Singh Chima, policy director at Access Now. “Tech companies are being directly sent takedown orders, user data requests. The danger of that is that companies will potentially be overcomplying or responding far too quickly to government demands when they are able to push back on those requests,” he said.

Elections are often a critical moment for oppressive behavior from governments — Uganda, Chad, and Vietnam have specifically targeted citizens — and candidates — during election time. Facebook announced just last Thursday that it had taken down nine Facebook pages and six Facebook accounts for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior in Bangladesh. These pages, which Facebook believes were linked to people associated with the Bangladesh government, were “designed to look like independent news outlets and posted pro-government and anti-opposition content.” The sites masqueraded as news outlets, including fake BBC Bengali, BDSNews24, and Bangla Tribune and news pages with photoshopped blue checkmarks, according to the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab.

Still, the imminent election in Bangladesh doesn’t bode well for anyone who might wish to express dissent. In October, a digital security bill that regulates some types of controversial speech was passed in the country, signaling to companies that as the regulatory environment tightens, they too could become targets.

More restrictive regulation is part of a greater trend around the world, said Naman M. Aggarwal, Asia policy associate at Access Now. Some countries, like Brazil and India, have passed “fake news” laws. (A similar law was proposed in Malaysia, but it was blocked in the Senate.) These types of laws are frequently followed by content takedowns. (In Bangladesh, the government warned broadcasters not to air footage that could create panic or disorder, essentially halting news programming on the protests.)

Other governments in the Middle East and North Africa — such as Egypt, Algeria, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain — clamp down on free expression on social media under the threat of fines or prison time. And countries like Vietnam have passed laws requiring social media companies to localize their storage and have a presence in the country — typically an indication of greater content regulation and pressure on the companies from local governments. In India, WhatsApp and other financial tech services were told to open offices in the country.

And crackdowns on posts about protests on social media come hand-in-hand with government requests for data. Facebook’s biannual transparency report provides detail on the percentage of government requests the company complies within each country, but most people don’t know until long after the fact. Between January and June, the company received 134 emergency requests and 18 legal processes from Bangladeshi authorities for 205 users or accounts. Facebook turned over at least some data in 61 percent of emergency requests and 28 percent of legal processes.

Facebook said in a statement that it “believes people deserve to have a voice, and that everyone has the right to express themselves in a safe environment,” and that it handles requests for user data “extremely carefully.'”

The company pointed to its Facebook for Journalists resources and said it is “saddened by governments using broad and vague regulation or other practices to silence, criminalize or imprison journalists, activists, and others who speak out against them,” but the company said it also helps journalists, activists, and other people around the world to “tell their stories in more innovative ways, reach global audiences, and connect directly with people.”

But there are policies that Facebook could enact that would help people in these vulnerable positions, like allowing users to post anonymously.

“Facebook’s real names policy doesn’t exactly protect anonymity, and has created issues for people in countries like Vietnam,” said Aggarwal. “If platforms provide leeway, or enough space for anonymous posting, and anonymous interactions, that is really helpful to people on ground.”

BERLIN, GERMANY – SEPTEMBER 12: A visitor uses a mobile phone in front of the Facebook logo at the #CDUdigital conference on September 12, 2015 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Adam Berry/Getty Images)

A German court found the policy illegal under its decade-old privacy law in February. Facebook said it plans to appeal the decision.

“I’m not sure if Facebook even has an effective strategy or understanding of strategy in the long term,’ said Sean O’Brien, lead researcher at Yale Privacy Lab. “In some cases, Facebook is taking a very proactive role… but in other cases, it won’t.” In any case, these decisions require a nuanced understanding of the population, culture, and political spectrum in various regions — something it’s not clear Facebook has.

Facebook isn’t responsible for government decisions to clamp down on free expression. But the question remains: How can companies stop assisting authoritarian governments, inadvertently or otherwise?

“If Facebook knows about this kind of repression, they should probably have… some sort of mechanism to at the very least heavily try to convince people not to post things publicly that they think they could get in trouble for,” said O’Brien. “It would have a chilling effect on speech, of course, which is a whole other issue, but at least it would allow people to make that decision for themselves.”

This could be an opt-in feature, but O’Brien acknowledges that it could create legal liabilities for Facebook, leading the social media giant to create lists of “dangerous speech” or profiles on “dissidents,” and could theoretically shut them down or report them to the police. Still, Facebook could consider rolling a “speech alert” feature to an entire city or country if that area becomes volatile politically and dangerous for speech, he said.

O’Brien says that social media companies could consider responding to situations where a person is being detained illegally and potentially coerced into giving their passwords in a way that could protect them, perhaps by triggering a temporary account reset or freeze to prevent anyone from accessing the account without proper legal process. Some actions that might trigger the reset or freeze could be news about an individual’s arrest — if Facebook is alerted to it, contact from the authorities, or contact from friends and loved ones, as evaluated by humans. There could even be a “panic button” type trigger, like Guardian Project’s PanicKit, but for Facebook — allowing users to wipe or freeze their own accounts or posts tagged preemptively with a codeword only the owner knows.

“One of the issues with computer interfaces is that when people log into a site, they get a false sense of privacy even when the things they’re posting in that site are widely available to the public,” said O’Brien. Case in point: this year, women anonymously shared their experiences of abusive coworkers in a shared Google Doc — the so-called “Shitty Media Men” list, likely without realizing that a lawsuit could unmask them. That’s exactly what is happening.

Instead, activists and journalists often need to tap into resources and gain assistance from groups like Access Now, which runs a digital security helpline, and the Committee to Protect Journalists. These organizations can provide personal advice tailored to their specific country and situation. They can access Facebook over the Tor anonymity network. Then can use VPNs, and end-to-end encrypted messaging tools, and non-phone-based two-factor authentication methods. But many may not realize what the threat is until it’s too late.

The violent crackdown on free speech in Bangladesh accompanied government-imposed Internet restrictions, including the throttling of Internet access around the country. Users at home with a broadband connection did not feel the effects of this, but “it was the students on the streets who couldn’t go live or publish any photos of what was going on,” the Dhaka resident said.

Elections will take place in Bangladesh on December 30.

In the few months leading up to the election, Access Now says it’s noticed an increase in Bangladeshi residents expressing concern that their data has been compromised and seeking assistance from the Digital Security hotline.

Other rights groups have also found an uptick in malicious activity.

Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in an email that the organization is “extremely concerned about the ongoing crackdown on the political opposition and on freedom of expression, which has created a climate of fear ahead of national elections.”

Ganguly cited politically motivated cases against thousands of opposition supporters, many of which have been arrested, as well as candidates that have been attacked.

Human Rights Watch issued a statement about the situation, warning that the Rapid Action Battalion, a “paramilitary force implicated in serious human rights violations including extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances,” and has been “tasked with monitoring social media for ‘anti-state propaganda, rumors, fake news, and provocations.'” This is in addition to a nine-member monitoring cell and around 100 police teams dedicated to quashing so-called “rumors” on social media, amid the looming threat of news website shutdowns.

“The security forces continue to arrest people for any criticism of the government, including on social media,” Ganguly said. “We hope that the international community will urge the Awami League government to create conditions that will uphold the rights of all Bangladeshis to participate in a free and fair vote.”


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