The 11th mission for Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital launch vehicle is slated for takeoff Tuesday morning. The craft will be carrying 38 (!) experimental payloads from NASA, students, and research organizations around the world. You’ll be able to watch the launch live tomorrow at about 6 AM Pacific time.
New Shepard, though a very different beast from the Falcon 9 and Heavy launch vehicles created by its rival SpaceX, is arguably a better platform for short-duration experiments that need to be exposed to launch stresses and microgravity. Launching satellites — that’s a job for Falcons and Deltas, or perhaps Blue Origin’s impending New Glenn, and they’re welcome to it. But researchers around the country are clamoring for spots on suborbital flights and Blue Origin is happy to provide them.
Tomorrow’s launch will be carrying several dozen, some of which will have been waiting years for their chance to board a rocket. Here are a few examples of what will be tested during the short flight:
Evolved Medical Microgravity Suction Device: As more people go into space, we have to be prepared for more and graver injuries. Lots of standard medical tools won’t work properly in microgravity, so it’s necessary to redesign and test them under those conditions. This one is about providing suction, as you might guess, which can be used for lung injuries, drawing blood, and other situations that call for negative air pressure.
This little guy will be doing microgravity test prints using metal.
3D printing with metal in microgravity: Simply everyone knows we can 3D print stuff in space. But just as on Earth, you can’t always make your spare parts out of thermoplastic. Down here we use metal-based 3D printers, and this experiment aims to find out if a modified design will allow for metal printing in space as well.
Suborbital centrifuge: It sounds like something the Enterprise would deploy in Star Trek, but it’s just a test bed for a new type of centrifuge that could help simulate other gravities, such as that of the Moon or Mars, for purposes of experiments. They do this on the ISS already but this would make it more compact and easier to automate, saving time and space aboard any craft it flies on.
The suborbital centrifuge, looking as cool as it sounds.
BioChip SubOrbitalLab: The largest ever study of space-based health and the effects of microgravity on the human body was just concluded, but there’s much, much more to know. Part of that requires monitoring cells in real time — which like most things is easier to do on the surface. This lab-on-a-chip will test out a new technique for containing individual cells or masses and tracking changes to them in a microgravity environment.
It’s all made possible through NASA’s Flight Opportunities program, which is specifically all about putting small experiments aboard commercial spacecraft. The rest of the many gadgets and experiments awaiting launch are listed here.
The launch itself should be very similar to previous New Shepards, just like one commercial jet takeoff is like another. The booster fires up and ascends to just short of the Karman line at 100 kilometers, which (somewhat arbitrarily) marks the start of “space.”
At that point the capsule will detach and fly upwards with its own momentum, exposing the payloads within to several minutes of microgravity; after it tops out, it will descend and deploy its parachutes, after which it will drift leisurely to the ground. Meanwhile the rocket will have descended as well and made a soft landing on its deployable struts.
The launch is scheduled for 6:30 AM Pacific time — 8:30 AM Central in Texas, at Blue Origin’s launch site. You’ll be able to watch it live at the company’s site.
Twitter hasfaceda barrage of awkward questions fromthe U.K. parliament over its ongoing failure to tackle violent abuse targeted at women.
Katy Minshall, the social media platform’s head of U.K. government public policy,admitted it needs to do more to safeguard women users — but claimed the company is “acutely aware” of the problems women experience on Twitter, saying it’s in the process of reviewing how it applies its policies to fix its long-running misogyny problem.
“We are acutely aware of the unique experience women have on Twitter and changes we may have to make in our policies to get that right,” she told thehuman rights committeesession on free speech and democracy this afternoon.“We are very much aware of the real issue that women experience on our platform.”
Parliamentarians raised the issue of how unequally Twitter applies policies on hateful conduct depending on the sex being targeted, withMP Joanna Cherry accusing the company of displaying a pattern of relaxed tolerance to tweets containing violent attacks on women.
She contrasted that with examples of alacritous intolerance to tweets that raised the issue of male violence — citing examples of users who had had their Twitter accounts temporarily suspended for making factual, gender-based observations with a male flavor — such as that, on aggregate, men kill more than women.
Or tweets citing English law — which states that only a man can commit rape.
“There seem to be a number of mistakes here. And they seem to be mistakes that are failing to protect women. Do you accept that?” asked Cherry.
“There is clearly a number of steps that we want to take, we need to take, but we are in a different place to where we were even this time last year,” said Minshall initially, before simplifying her response to “clearly there’s an issue here for us to look at” later in the Q&A session.
She was asked to look at several examples of violent tweets which had been directed at women, including tweets whose recipients had reported them to Twitter — only to be told they did not violate its hateful conduct policy.
Only later, after feminist campaigners, journalists and Cherry herself had tweeted about Twitter’s decision not to take down some of these misogynistic tweets did it reverse course and remove them.
Minshall admitted that one of the abusive tweets had been removed last night, after Cherry had tweeted to draw attention to it.
One tweet cited during the session depicted a cartoon figure with a photo of a real hand holding a gun pointed at the viewer, atop the caption “shut the fuck up terf” — ‘terf’ being a term of abuse which Cherry pointed out tends to be applied to women; another showed a video game clip of a man repeatedly chopping a woman in the neck which had been attached to a tweet saying “what I do to terfs”; a third was what Cherry dubbed “a very unpleasant representation of a male flaying a woman alive” — that she said had been sent to one of the women after they had complained on Twitter about receiving one of the other violent tweets.
Minshall said she believed all the tweets Cherry raised as examples violated Twitter’s policies and should have been removed if they hadn’t already. Though said she doesn’t work in the safety team, caveating her response with: “I’m not the expert.”
She also said that trying to moderate a public discussion about transgender rights can be “difficult” — leading Cherry to point out that none of the counter examples she had raised were in any way abusive towards transgender people.
“What I’m trying to understand is why, initially, the first tweet — the chopping in the neck — was ruled alright by Twitter. And why it took the intervention of a leading journalist, a leading feminist commentator and a member of parliament for it to be ruled not alright,” she went on.
“We need to understand who is actually carrying out these decisions. Who is carrying out the mediation at Twitter. Is it done in the UK, is it done in America, who is done by. Is there any attempt at gender balance within the teams of people looking at these tweets.”
Minshall said she could not answer the gender breakdown question there and then — saying she would write to the committee with an answer.
Cherry also made the point that sex is a protected characteristic in UK law, and pressed Minshall several times on why Twitter’s hateful conduct policy only applies to gender.
“Can you tell us why Twitter has chosen to exclude sex from their hateful conduct policy as a protected characteristic?” she asked. “I’m wondering if that’s what could be going wrong here? That the training is not covering the fact that sexist, misogynistic, demeaning behavior should be treated as seriously as abuse of, for example, trans people.”
Minshall said Twitter’s hateful conduct policy is based upon United Nations definitions, arguing the current policy that protects gender should also protect against misogyny — while admitting there’s still an asymmetrical burden on women users of Twitter to report abuse.
She agreed to follow up with the committee to explain why Twitter’s policy does not include sex as a protected characteristic too.
“There’s a lot that we want to do to reduce the burden on reporters,” she said. “We have rules in place where it would be a breach to target someone based on the fact that they’re a woman — where we need to do far more is to be proactive in reducing the burden on victims to report that to us.”
At another point during the session she said Twitter is also reviewing its policy on harassment — saying it’s concerned about the risk of women being stalked via the platform by ex-partners.
“There is an issue specific to women, typically ex-partners, stalking them on Twitter in ways that have traditionally been difficult to detect in our rules — and we want to do better on that,” she added.
Google is combining several technologies including virtual phone numbers, audio transcriptions, automated reporting and analytics, in a new effort to help small business owners better manage their inbound phone calls. The company’s latest project from its in-house incubator is CallJoy, launching today. Aimed at the U.S.’s 30.2 million small business owners, the system offers a low-cost customer service agent that helps block spam calls, provide callers with basic business information, and redirect customers to complete their requests — like appointment booking or placing a to-go order — over SMS.
Any other calls or questions would be directed to the main business phone number.
Typically, customer service phone agents like this are out of reach for small business owners, but CallJoy is priced at a flat monthly fee of $39 to make the technology affordable.
Like other virtual customer service systems, CallJoy can greet the caller and offer basic information like the business hours or address, for example. It also frees up the business owner from having to deal with the ever-increasing number of spam calls which waste their time, and can move customers off of phone lines to complete tasks online, where appropropriate.
To do so, CallJoy’s virtual agent can send a customer who opts in an SMS text message that includes an URL where the task — like appointment booking or online orders, for example — can be completed.
For example, the agent may ask the customer “Can I send you our food ordering link?” If the customer says “yes,” the text is sent immediately. In addition, the feature can be customized for sharing other types of information — like the company’s email or where to find an online contact form.
If the customer is calling from a landline, however, this textback feature will be disabled and they’ll be directed to the business line instead.
Like other customer service software which alerts callers that calls “will be recorded for quality assurance purposes,” CallJoy records the incoming calls (which is also disclosed). This can help cut down on spam calls because once spammers know the call is recorded, they usually hang up.
The recorded calls are also encrypted and transcribed, and these transcripts then become searchable in the CallJoy dashboard.
Here, call information — including the phone number, audio, and transcript — is stored. The business owner can also go back and tag the calls in order to run reports that help them gain insight into their business. For example, if a salon got a lot of inbound calls about “wedding hairstyles” they may then decide it would make sense to include this information on their website; or a restaurant may want to track how many calls it gets per night for reservations.
Other insights are available, too, like call volume, peak call times, and new vs. returning callers. These are displayed in the online dashboard and sent out in a daily email.
The service works today with existing landlines, mobile phones, Google Voice lines, or other cloud providers by routing calls to the business phone number.
But phone numbers are not ported to CallJoy. Instead, similar to Google Voice, the business would select their virtual CallJoy number with their local area code.
To start receiving call there, they’d have to update all their business information with this new number — including the website, business cards, online listings, ads, social media, and anywhere else the number appears.
CallJoy is also tied to only one location and one phone number. Additional locations with their own lines can be added within the CallJoy dashboard, but businesses are charged per line.
The smartphone industry is in rough shape. Sundar Pichai used the word “headwinds” to discuss the company’s difficulties moving Pixel 3 units, but Canalys’ latest report is far more blunt, describing the situation as a “freefall.”
Things are pretty ugly in the Q1 report, as smartphone shipments declined for the sixth quarter in a row. The combined global units hit 313.9 million, marking their lowest point in almost half a decade, according to the firm.
Of the big players, Apple seems to be particularly hard hit, falling 23.2% year on year. Once again, China played a big role here, but as usual, the full story is much more complex.
“This is the largest single-quarter decline in the history of the iPhone,” said analyst Ben Stanton in a release tied to the news. “Apple’s second largest market, China, again proved tough. But this was far from its only problem. Shipments fell in the US as trade-in initiatives failed to offset longer consumer refresh cycles. In markets such as Europe, Apple is increasingly using discounts to prop up demand, but this is causing additional complexity for distributors, and blurring the value proposition of these ‘premium’ devices in the eyes of consumers.”
A lot to unpack there, but what we’re looking at are some larger issues within the industry, including global economic issues and slowed upgrade cycles for users. The XS was also notably much less dramatic of an upgrade than its predecessor. Stanton did add that the iPhone, “show[ed] signs of recovery towards the back-end of the quarter,” which is promising for Q2.
It also remains to be seen what this year will hold in terms of iPhone upgrades, though most signs point to 2020 as the year the company makes the jump to 5G. Tim Cook was noncommittal on the topic during the company’s earnings call last night, instead pointing to positive numbers on the iPad side and, of course, Apple’s continued push into services.
Analysts are somewhat bullish about the potential of innovations like 5G and even foldables in shaking up the stagnant market, but big players like Apple are clearly hedging their bets, should the free-falling headwinds continue.
Huawei, meanwhile, continues to be a bright spot, with a 50.2% year over year growth and an 18.8% global market share, according to the firm. That growth could be hampered, however, by increased competition from Samsung and fellow Chinese handset companies like Xiaomi and Oppo.
Googleannounced an interesting new Wear OS feature today that makes a number of highly used features more easily available. Google calls this feature ’tiles’ and it makes both information like the local weather forecast, headlines, your next calendar event, goals and your heart rate, as well as tools like the Wear OS built-in timer available with just a few swipes to the left.
In the most recent version of Wear OS, tiles also existed in some form, but the only available tile was Google Fit, which opened with a single swipe. Now, you’ll be able to swipe further and bring up these new tiles, too.
There is a default order to these tiles, but you’ll be able to customize them, too. All you have to do is touch and hold a given tile and then drag it to the left or right. Over time, Google will also add more tiles to this list.
The new tiles will start rolling out to all Wear OS smartwatches over the course of the next months. Some features may not be available on all devices, though (if your watch doesn’t have a heart rate monitor, you obviously won’t see that tile, for example).
Overall, this looks like a smart update to the Wear OS platform, which now features four clearly delineated quadrants. Swiping down brings up settings, swiping up brings up your notifications, swiping right brings up the Google Assistant and swiping left shows tiles. Using the left swipe only for Google Fit always felt oddly limited, but with this update, that decision makes more sense.
Googleannounced an interesting new Wear OS feature today that makes a number of highly used features more easily available. Google calls this feature ’tiles’ and it makes both information like the local weather forecast, headlines, your next calendar event, goals and your heart rate, as well as tools like the Wear OS built-in timer available with just a few swipes to the left.
In the most recent version of Wear OS, tiles also existed in some form, but the only available tile was Google Fit, which opened with a single swipe. Now, you’ll be able to swipe further and bring up these new tiles, too.
There is a default order to these tiles, but you’ll be able to customize them, too. All you have to do is touch and hold a given tile and then drag it to the left or right. Over time, Google will also add more tiles to this list.
The new tiles will start rolling out to all Wear OS smartwatches over the course of the next months. Some features may not be available on all devices, though (if your watch doesn’t have a heart rate monitor, you obviously won’t see that tile, for example).
Overall, this looks like a smart update to the Wear OS platform, which now features four clearly delineated quadrants. Swiping down brings up settings, swiping up brings up your notifications, swiping right brings up the Google Assistant and swiping left shows tiles. Using the left swipe only for Google Fit always felt oddly limited, but with this update, that decision makes more sense.
“Brian is an incredible leader and team-builder who has overseen engineering teams for some remarkable companies,” said SeatGeek co-founder and CEO Jack Groetzinger in a statement. “He is a perfect fit for this role at SeatGeek and embodies the values we hold – he loves building great products, is humble yet aggressive in how he approaches opportunities, and is focused on creating experiences live event fans will love.”
Murphy told me that his career started out in consulting, but he’s been attracted to technology roles in media companies because he was “drawn to all the smart creative folks who want to use their technology in that medium.”
As for SeatGeek, Murphy described it as a “very consumer-oriented, very mobile-focused” company that’s now moving into the enterprise business by working with teams and venues to sell tickets. He also said he’ll be working on international expansion and on helping SeatGeek build a broader live event experience.
“You’ve sort of started to see it with partnerships with Lyft and Snapchat and Spotify,” he said.”There’s definitely an opportunity how we bring our Starbucks-esque experience to the stadium.”
Murphy added that he’ll be “very, very busy with recruiting.”
Meanwhile, SeatGeek’s outgoing CTO Eric Waller isn’t leaving the company — instead, he’s becoming chief product officer.
Causes grew to a jawdropping 186 million users as one of the first ten Facebook platform apps. Started by Facebook co-founder Sean Parker, it was meant to turn a generation into activists and philanthropists. Causes acquired Votizen to augment shallow clicktivism with a way to remind friends to vote. But after Facebook went mobile and the web platform waned, Parker arranged Causes’ sale to his newer civic tech effort Brigade, for which he’d led a $9.3 million Series A and later fed more money. Brigade’s ballot guide was used by 250,000 people in the 2016 election leading to 5 million Get Out The Vote messages sent, but the startup’s apps for connecting with campaigns or debating political issues never went viral like Causes.
Now both Causes’ and Brigade’s stories are coming to an end. In February, we caught wind of Brigade selling off its high-grade engineering team to Pinterest in an acquihire while it sought a home for its IP. Today, Brigade announces its technology and data have been acquired by politician tracking service Countable. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but it’s unlikely that Brigade’s Series A investors earned a return.
“While we didn’t reach the ultimate mountaintop, I think we moved the entire civic tech space forward” Brigade CEO Matt Mahan tells me. “Countable offers a unique opportunity to bring greater scale to some of our best ideas, and our previous work will in turn accelerate their already impressive progress.”
Brigade’s features
Brigade CEO Matt Mahan
Countable lets people view summaries of upcoming legislation, contact their representatives about their opinion, and then track the officials’ votes. “Brigade was founded with the non-partisan mission to reinvent how Americans participate in politics. When they decided to bring their journey to a close, Matt and Brigade’s leadership team sought out a mission-aligned company to acquire their technology, and a responsible place to point any members of their community who were eager to remain civically active and engaged” says Countable CEO Bart Myers. “They approached Countable–an obvious fit for our commitment to lowering barriers to civic entry and empowering meaningful action, and we’re excited to provide a home for their technology moving forward.”
To further their contribution to the democracy innovation community, Countable has agreed to open source Brigade’s voter matching software. This allows apps to tie a user to their official voting record to offer personalized features like reminders of upcoming elections, petitions for local issues, and ways to contact their elected officials. Seth Flaxman, the CEO of civic tech software developer Democracy Works that built TurboVote, says “This is extremely difficult technology to build and can help TurboVote determine which of our 6 million users needs more help registering to vote. They are passing the baton, making it possible for nonprofits like ours to build off their progress.”
But there was one more loose end to tie up. Causes had sucked in a ton of Facebook user data in the early days of the platform before restrictions were put in place (too late to stop Cambridge Analytica). So Mahan tells me “Brigade proactively reached out to Facebook and worked with them and a third-party consultant to conduct a comprehensive review to identify and delete user data that was not essential for providing the existing app experience. In all, we deleted billions of rows of data that ethically we felt should not be transferred.”
Causes grew to a jawdropping 186 million users as one of the first ten Facebook platform apps. Started by Facebook co-founder Sean Parker, it was meant to turn a generation into activists and philanthropists. Causes acquired Votizen to augment shallow clicktivism with a way to remind friends to vote. But after Facebook went mobile and the web platform waned, Parker arranged Causes’ sale to his newer civic tech effort Brigade, for which he’d led a $9.3 million Series A and later fed more money. Brigade’s ballot guide was used by 250,000 people in the 2016 election leading to 5 million Get Out The Vote messages sent, but the startup’s apps for connecting with campaigns or debating political issues never went viral like Causes.
Now both Causes’ and Brigade’s stories are coming to an end. In February, we caught wind of Brigade selling off its high-grade engineering team to Pinterest in an acquihire while it sought a home for its IP. Today, Brigade announces its technology and data have been acquired by politician tracking service Countable. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but it’s unlikely that Brigade’s Series A investors earned a return.
“While we didn’t reach the ultimate mountaintop, I think we moved the entire civic tech space forward” Brigade CEO Matt Mahan tells me. “Countable offers a unique opportunity to bring greater scale to some of our best ideas, and our previous work will in turn accelerate their already impressive progress.”
Brigade’s features
Brigade CEO Matt Mahan
Countable lets people view summaries of upcoming legislation, contact their representatives about their opinion, and then track the officials’ votes. “Brigade was founded with the non-partisan mission to reinvent how Americans participate in politics. When they decided to bring their journey to a close, Matt and Brigade’s leadership team sought out a mission-aligned company to acquire their technology, and a responsible place to point any members of their community who were eager to remain civically active and engaged” says Countable CEO Bart Myers. “They approached Countable–an obvious fit for our commitment to lowering barriers to civic entry and empowering meaningful action, and we’re excited to provide a home for their technology moving forward.”
To further their contribution to the democracy innovation community, Countable has agreed to open source Brigade’s voter matching software. This allows apps to tie a user to their official voting record to offer personalized features like reminders of upcoming elections, petitions for local issues, and ways to contact their elected officials. Seth Flaxman, the CEO of civic tech software developer Democracy Works that built TurboVote, says “This is extremely difficult technology to build and can help TurboVote determine which of our 6 million users needs more help registering to vote. They are passing the baton, making it possible for nonprofits like ours to build off their progress.”
But there was one more loose end to tie up. Causes had sucked in a ton of Facebook user data in the early days of the platform before restrictions were put in place (too late to stop Cambridge Analytica). So Mahan tells me “Brigade proactively reached out to Facebook and worked with them and a third-party consultant to conduct a comprehensive review to identify and delete user data that was not essential for providing the existing app experience. In all, we deleted billions of rows of data that ethically we felt should not be transferred.”
Sometimes you’ll see that frustrating yellow exclamation point icon over your network connection icon in Windows. The OS offers to troubleshoot it for you, but after running through the automatic tool, you see this message:
Windows could not automatically detect this network’s proxy settings.
What does this mean, and how do you fix it? Let’s take a look at Windows’ proxy settings and the steps to repair this.
1. Reboot Your Computer and Router
Before you launch into advanced troubleshooting, it’s always a good idea to restart your equipment first. There’s a chance that this will clear up your issue in a few moments.
Because this error is usually related to misconfigured settings on one computer, restarting your router likely won’t have an effect. But it’s still worth a try whenever you run into network problems of any kind.
If you reboot your computer and router and the problem hasn’t fixed itself, continue on with the more detailed steps.
2. Review Proxy Settings in Windows
Because this issue is related to your Windows proxy settings, that’s a sensible first place to check. To access proxy settings in Windows 10, open Settings, select the Network & Internet category, and switch to the Proxy tab from the left sidebar.
Here you’ll see a list of options related to proxy servers. If you don’t use a proxy (as is the case for most home users), make sure the Use a proxy server slider is turned off. Leave Automatically detect settings on if it is already.
For users who do connect with a proxy, such as in a work or education environment, you might want to check with your system administrator to make sure you have the correct proxy details.
After this, try reconnecting to the network again. If you still get the error, try turning off Automatically detect settings in the proxy options and try once more.
What’s a Proxy Server?
We don’t want to bore you with the details while you try to fix this issue but wanted to provide a brief explanation of what a proxy actually is and why Windows can run into problems with it.
Essentially, a proxy server acts as a middleman between your computer and the internet. Instead of you connecting directly to the internet, you connect to the server, which grabs information from the internet for you.
These are most common in business and school use, where system administrators use them for security and efficiency. It’s very unlikely that you would use a proxy server on your home network unless you specifically set one up. This is why you should clear any proxy settings that might exist when you run into this issue.
When you right-click on the network connection icon and choose to troubleshoot, it runs the Internet Connections troubleshooter, resulting in the “Windows could not detect proxy settings” error. But there’s another network troubleshooter you can run that might provide more help.
Open Settings again and visit Update & Security > Troubleshoot. Find Network Adapter in the list and walk through the troubleshooter for this. As seasoned Windows users know, this tool doesn’t always fix your problem, but it’s worth a try.
4. Auto-Obtain IP Address and DNS
As it turns out, there aren’t many troubleshooting steps specific to proxy servers. We’ll share more tips below, but bear in mind that the troubleshooting looks similar to fixing the “No Internet Access” Windows error from this point on.
While they’re not technically related to your proxy settings, misconfigured IP address or DNS settings can cause this error too. To check them, browse to Settings > Network & Internet > Status. Click the Change adapter options button in the list to see all your network connections, then double-click on the one you’re using.
Here, click the Properties button and double-click Internet Protocol Version 4 in the list. Make sure you have both Obtain an IP address automatically and Obtain DNS server address automatically selected. Misconfigured settings here will prevent you from getting online.
5. Update or Roll Back Your Network Driver
An outdated network driver may lead to connection problems. Similarly, perhaps you’ve recently installed a botched update for your network driver. In either case, replacing it might clear up the trouble.
Right-click on the Start Button and choose Device Manager to open this utility. Expand the Network adapters section and double-click on the connection you use.
On the Driver tab, you can choose Roll Back Driver to uninstall the latest update and return to the previous one. Use this if you started experiencing this issue after updating.
Choose Update Driver and you can check for new updates over the internet. This likely won’t find anything though, so you’ll need to manually download the latest driver from your machine’s manufacturer. See our guide to updating Windows drivers for help.
6. Reset Network Configuration Via the Command Prompt
Windows offers many network troubleshooting tools through the Command Prompt. A few quick commands can clear up your issue in moments. If you’re still having trouble at this point, right-click the Start Button again and open a Command Prompt (or PowerShell) as Administrator.
Then run the following commands, one at a time. They will reset various network functions of your computer:
netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
ipconfig /flushdns
7. Review Firewall, VPN, and Antivirus Software
You should next make sure you don’t have a firewall, VPN, or security suite interfering with your network connection. Perhaps your chosen software had an update that changed some settings you weren’t aware of, or you just installed a new app.
Try disabling your firewall, VPN, and antivirus software one at a time, then see if the error goes away. If it does, the issue lies with one of those apps. You’ll need to configure them to avoid interfering with regular network activity.
8. Scan for Malware
Some malware has been known to continually mess with your proxy settings to prevent you from getting online. If you run into the “Windows could not detect this network’s proxy settings” message every time you reboot, you may be a victim of this.
You should thus run a scan with a trusted anti-malware app, such as Malwarebytes. This will detect any viruses or other malware running on your system and get rid of them. If the scan finds any infections, take the recommended action and see if your connection works as normal again.
9. Utilize a Restore Point
The System Restore feature in Windows lets you return to a previous point when your computer was working normally. If your issues started recently, you should try this to see if you can go back in time.
Search for Control Panel in the Start Menu to open it. If Category is selected in the top-right, switch to Small or Large icons and choose the System entry.
Next, click System protection on the left sidebar. In the resulting dialog box, click System Restore to open a new window. Windows will walk you through choosing a restore point and confirming the operation. Of course, if your computer hasn’t created any restore points, you can’t use this feature.
Note that using a restore point will remove any programs and drivers you installed since making that restore point. You can click Scan for affected programs on a restore point to see what effect it will have. A System Restore won’t affect any of your personal information.
10. Reset Your Network Settings
After trying everything above, you should resort to a full reset of your network options. You’ve already spent a lot of time working on this, and a reset should clear whatever persistent problem is blocking your connection.
Thankfully, Windows 10 makes it easy to reset your whole configuration. Open Settings > Network & Internet. On the Status tab, find Network reset at the bottom and click this.
Be aware that this will remove all network information from your computer, so you’ll need to reconnect to saved networks again. If you’re OK with this, click Reset now. Your computer will perform the reset, then restart.
More on Network Troubleshooting
Now you know what to do when Windows cannot detect proxy settings. All network errors are frustrating, but you should be able to clear this one up without much work. It’s most important to make sure that you have a proxy turned off (if you don’t use one) or configured properly (if you do use one).
Kodi is a great way to organize and view your video and audio files. But Kodi gets even better when you take advantage of its flexibility and adapt it to meet your particular needs.
There are a number of Firefox extensions you can use to enhance your Kodi experience. In this article we’ll show you some of our favorite Firefox extensions for Kodi users.
These must-have Firefox extensions allow you to send files from your browser to Kodi, act as a built-in remote control, and more. All of which will be invaluable to Kodi users.
Imagine you’re perusing YouTube or another video site and spot a video you want to watch. However, you don’t want to watch the video in your browser, as you would rather send it to Kodi.
The Play to Kodi extension allows you to do just that. This extension adds an option to the context menu which appears when you right-click on the link to a video in your browser. You can choose to Play Now, Add to Queue, or Play Next. If the video has a thumbnail you can even Show Image in Kodi if you want.
This works with sites like YouTube, CollegeHumor, eBaumsWorld, LiveLeak, Twitch.tv, Khan Academy, Lynda.com, Hulu, and SoundCloud.
To set up the Play to Kodi extension, click on the icon of a TV. Then click the Cogs icon in the bottom left of the popup. Enter your details like URL, port, username, and password into the Kodi host(s) section and hit Save.
Another task you might want to perform is controlling your Kodi system from your browser. This is handy in combination with the Play to Kodi extension above, as once you have sent a video from your browser to Kodi, you can hit pause, change the volume, or enable subtitles.
Kassi Control gives you a full-featured Kodi remote right in your browser. Just hit the icon and you can perform tasks like pausing and playing the current media, browsing using the four-way buttons, sending text to Kodi, or bringing up context menus.
To set up Kassi Control, click on the icon of a green X. This will bring up a Settings panel. Here you can enter a Display name (where you can name your Kodi system), the IP address for your Kodi system, and your TCP port. Remember, your TCP port is different from your HTTP port. Your TCP port is 9090 by default.
Enter your settings and hit Connect to start using the remote.
Kassi Share works in a similar way to Play to Kodi, letting you send videos from your browser to Kodi. Sometimes you’ll find file types which aren’t supported by Play to Kodi but are supported by Kassi Share, so it’s useful to install both extensions.
Kassi Share supports sites like Facebook, Twitch.tv, Vimeo, and YouTube. When you right-click on a link to a video you’ll have options to Play or Add to Queue.
To set up Kassi Share, click on the paw print icon and then choose Settings. This opens up a new tab where you can add information like the Display Name for your Kodi installation, your Host or IP address, the HTTP port (it should be 8080 by default) and your username and password.
If you like the sound of Play to Kodi and Kassi Share but want an extension that works for music as well as video, then you should try Cast Kodi. This is useful for sending direct links of video or audio files to Kodi, as well as supporting other sites like YouTube, Twitch, Vimeo, Instagram, Facebook, Flickr, and SoundCloud.
Another nice feature of Cast Kodi is that it automatically detects video or audio content from the page you are browsing. While browsing, you just hit the blue soundwave icon. This brings up a panel from which you can add the content from your current page to your Kodi queue or play it immediately. You can also paste links and use the extension as a basic remote with play/pause, forward/back, and volume options.
To configure Cast Kodi, hit the Cogs icon and the extensions page will open. Here you can add your Port, Username, Password, and IP address as well as changing some additional settings.
When you’re browsing the Trakt website, you can use the TraktToKodi extension to play an item in Kodi as long as you have a compatible add-on installed.
To use the extension, hit the Play Button icon. This brings up a Kodi connection panel where you can enter your IP/Host, your Port, and the Add-on ID of the add-on you want to use. Then you can use the extension to watch content as you browse the Trakt website.
How to Connect Firefox Extensions to Kodi
In order to use these Firefox extensions for Kodi, you need to change some settings.
Open up Kodi and go to Settings. Then go to Services. Look under the Control tab. Now make sure that the checkbox for Allow remote control via HTTP is set to On. Port should be set to 8080 by default and you can leave that as is.
It’s a good idea to set a Username and Password here as well for the best security.
Now scroll down and make sure the checkboxes for Allow remote control from applications on this system and Allow remote control from applications on other systems are both set to On.
This will allow you to use Firefox extensions to control Kodi remotely. If you’re having problems or want to see further details, read our article detailing how to set up a Kodi remote control.
Get the Most Out of Kodi Firefox Extensions
Using these Firefox extensions means you can control Kodi remotely, play videos from your browser in Kodi, or add videos to your queue. They are handy for when you’d rather browse for videos on your desktop or laptop but still want to watch them on your Kodi device.
These are great for watching videos from channels like YouTube, Vimeo, or Trakt.tv. But for even more content to watch, here’s how to watch movies on Kodi.
Modern versions of Windows take the hassle out of checking for system updates. Now Windows makes sure all important updates install in the background, so you probably don’t need to intervene aside from an occasional manual check for updates.
However, did you know that Microsoft provides another tool for system managers and advanced users to download Windows Updates? It’s called the Microsoft Update Catalog, and it’s free to use if you need it. Let’s take a look.
What Is the Microsoft Update Catalog?
The Microsoft Update Catalog, also known as the Windows Update Catalog, is a huge repository of Windows Updates. You can search it to find all kinds of updates for Windows 10 and older versions manually.
This Windows catalog used to require ActiveX controls, which meant you could only use it in Internet Explorer. ActiveX is Internet Explorer’s system for plugins, infamous for its security problems. However, Microsoft announced in October 2016 that the service now works in all browsers thanks to the removal of ActiveX from the site.
Wow, the Microsoft Catalog Is Old!
When you open the Microsoft Update Catalog, its dated design will probably bring back memories of using Windows XP. The simple blue background and globe icon definitely match the era, as it hasn’t seen a refresh in at least a decade.
Indeed, the system of checking for updates on a website hearkens back to the olden days of Windows. Initially, Windows Update worked as a web app that you visited to download and install new updates. Later, Windows started including automatic checks for updates so you didn’t have to do this.
Even as late as Windows XP, clicking the Windows Update option in the Start Menu would open the web app and prompt you to check for updates. You could choose Express to get only important updates, or Custom to see optional updates too. The site then let you pick and choose what updates to install to your PC.
Why Download Updates Manually?
Despite the old-school aesthetic, the Windows Update Catalog features current updates for Windows 10. But you might wonder why it exists when you can just click Check for updates in the Settings app.
As it turns out, the Update Catalog is mainly intended for business use. It includes tools that system admins can use to deploy updates in a Windows domain corporate environment.
Home users probably don’t care exactly what updates are installed on their systems. But in a business, IT professionals have to be more discerning. They might decide to pick and choose what updates to install on mission-critical systems. Or they may have to roll back a glitchy update and manually reinstall just that patch later.
Manual Updates for Home Users
However, this doesn’t mean that the site is useless outside of enterprise use. Advanced home users can still use the Update Catalog to install individual updates when needed.
Perhaps you have a specific problem with your computer that a particular update solves, but Windows Update won’t deliver that patch to your PC. Or maybe you want to install an update on an older machine that doesn’t have access to the internet. In both of these cases, downloading from the Windows Update Catalog is a solution.
Notably, Microsoft claims on its Download Center homepage that it now only offers Windows Updates for download on the Update Catalog. It once offered individual downloads on the main Microsoft website but has discontinued this in favor of keeping everything in one place. You’ll still find some older updates there, though.
How to Use the Microsoft Update Catalog
Open the Microsoft Update Catalog in any browser to get started. Use the search bar at the top-right of the screen. You can search for general terms like Windows Vista or Security here, but those will likely bring up thousands of results.
The most useful way to search the Update Catalog is by KB number. Every Windows Update has a number associated with it, such as KB4346087. Searching for this will bring up far fewer results.
Click an update title in the list to see details about it. This will show the last modification date, size of the update, and more. On the Package Details tab, you can see which updates it replaces.
The service also has an RSS option to notify you when new updates arrive matching your criteria. However, this only worked in Internet Explorer in our testing.
Pay close attention to the operating system and version for the updates. Know if you’re on 64-bit or 32-bit Windows; remember that x64 updates are for 64-bit systems and x86 is for 32-bit. Some patches with identical numbers are available for more than one Windows version. And for Windows 10, you must make sure that your version number matches the one in the update.
Visit Settings > System > About on Windows 10 to check this information.
Downloading an Update from the Update Catalog
Once you’ve decided on an update, click the Download button on the right side. This will spawn a new window with a link to download the update. Just click this text and choose a place to save it on your PC as you normally would.
Files ending in MSU are simple installers. Double-click one to open it, then follow the prompts to install it on your system.
If your file ends in CAB, which is often the case for drivers, it’s in an archive format and you’ll need to extract it before using it. Check out the best file extraction software if you don’t have a tool like this installed yet.
After extracting a driver, you may need to manually update it through the Device Manager. Right-click the Start Button and choose Device Manager to open it, then find the driver you want to update and double-click it. On the Driver tab, click Update Driver > Browse my computer for driver software.
Once the update completes, you may need to restart your system to apply it.
Do You Need the Microsoft Update Catalog?
We’ve reviewed what the Windows Update Catalog is for and how it works. Now that you know how to find and install updates from it, do you really need it?
Most regular users will never need to hunt down updates from the Microsoft Update Catalog. There’s no reason to go looking around for updates in normal cases, as Windows Update does the work of finding what you need and delivering it to you.
However, if you’re having a problem and someone recommends that you install a specific KB update to solve it, you may have to do so through the Update Catalog if you don’t already have that patch installed on your system. Just make sure you install the right update for your machine.
Next time you have an issue with Windows Update, don’t think you have to start installing them all manually. Have a look at our Windows Update troubleshooting guide for help.
At that point the capsule will detach and fly upwards with its own momentum, exposing the payloads within to several minutes of microgravity; after it tops out, it will descend and deploy its parachutes, after which it will drift leisurely to the ground. Meanwhile the rocket will have descended as well and made a soft landing on its deployable struts.
Other insights are available, too, like call volume, peak call times, and new vs. returning callers. These are displayed in the online dashboard and sent out in a daily email.
