How to Hide Your Last Name on LinkedIn

To take full advantage of LinkedIn, you have to be honest—but this non-anonymity of LinkedIn is what makes it a dream destination for identity thieves. That’s why you should be careful to who you let in and who you show your profile to. It’s always best to hide your personal details from those not directly connected to you.

One of LinkedIn’s security settings allows you to hide your last name from those who aren’t connected to you (i.e. second- and third-degree connections), and you should take advantage to boost your privacy.

How to Hide Your Last Name on LinkedIn

On LinkedIn, your 1st degree connections will always see your full name. But others won’t. It will also turn off your public profile, which will block your LinkedIn profile from appearing in any search engines. The steps below are from the web version of LinkedIn.

1. Log into LinkedIn. Click the Me profile icon on the top right of your LinkedIn homepage.
2. Select Settings & Privacy from the dropdown.
3. Click the Privacy tab at the top of the privacy settings page.
4. Go down to the setting that says Who can see your last name. Click on Change.
   
5. The section expands to display the two options available to you for your display name.
   
6. Select the second option to turn off your last name. It will only be shown with an initial.
7. The change is saved automatically.

The ability to hide your second name can serve a purpose in some situations where you do not want your second-degree connections and others to know more about you. For instance, some business scenarios might lead to a conflict of interest. It also gives you the power to choose how much of your profile should be visible to strangers.

Image Credit: Jirsak/Depositphotos

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How to Create Shortcuts to Registry Keys in Windows

While you can perform plenty of tweaks without it, experienced Windows users know that modifying the Registry can unlock many new features in Windows. And while the Registry gives you a lot of control over your system, it’s not the easiest utility to navigate.

If you often edit the Registry, chances are that you’ll find yourself visiting similar paths often. With a free utility called Registry Shortcuts, you can quickly jump to your most-visited Registry keys.

Just remember to be careful in the Registry so you don’t mess anything up.

How to Create Shortcuts to Registry Keys in Windows

1. Visit the Registry Shortcuts homepage. Under the Download installer, download the 64-bit or 32-bit version depending on your system.
2. Install the program. It doesn’t offer any options or third-party junk, so it should be ready in seconds.
   Unlike most software, Registry Shortcuts has no interface you can open by searching for it. Instead, it adds a new entry to the right-click menu in File Explorer that only appears when you hold Shift to avoid clutter.
3. Open the Registry Editor by typing regedit into the Start Menu.
4. Browse to a key you want to bookmark.
5. Right-click the key in the left sidebar, and select Copy Key Name.
6. Open a File Explorer window, then hold Shift and right-click any folder. You should see a new Registry shortcuts entry.
7. Mouse over Registry shortcuts, then click Paste. This will add the key you copied as a new shortcut inside that folder.
8. Now you can move that shortcut anywhere and use it for easy access to your favorite Registry keys.

If you select Create from Registry Editor bookmarks instead, you can easily create shortcuts to keys you’ve added to the Favorites menu in the Registry Editor.

For more, check out the best tools for working in the Registry.

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Don’t just stir; Stircle

Although I do my best to minimize the trash produced by my lifestyle (blog posts notwithstanding), one I can’t really control, at least without carrying a spoon on my person at all times, is the necessity of using a disposable stick to stir my coffee. That could all change with the Stircle, a little platform that spins your drink around to mix it.

Now, of course this is ridiculous. And there are other things to worry about. But honestly, the scale of waste here is pretty amazing. Design house Amron Experimental says that 400 million stir sticks are used every day, and I have no reason to doubt that. My native Seattle probably accounts for a quarter of that.

So you need to get the sugar (or agave nectar) and cream (or almond milk) mixed in your iced americano. Instead of reaching for a stick and stirring vigorously for ten or fifteen seconds, you could instead place your cup in the Stircle (first noticed by New Atlas and a few other design blogs), which would presumably be built into the fixins table at your coffee shop.

Around and around and around she goes, where she stops, nobody… oh. There.

Once you put your cub on the Stircle, it starts spinning — first one way, then the other, and so on, agitating your drink and achieving the goal of an evenly mixed beverage without using a wood or plastic stirrer. It’s electric, but I can imagine one being powered by a lever or button that compresses a spring. That would make it even greener.

The video shows that it probably gets that sugar and other low-lying mixers up into the upper strata of the drink, so I think we’re set there. And it looks as though it will take a lot of different sizes, including reusable tumblers. It clearly needs a cup with a lid, since otherwise the circling liquid will fly out in every direction, which means you have to be taking your coffee to go. That leaves out pretty much every time I go out for coffee in my neighborhood, where it’s served (to stay) in a mug or tall glass.

But a solution doesn’t have to fix everything to be clever or useful. This would be great at an airport, for instance, where I imagine every order is to go. Maybe they’ll put in in a bar, too, for extra smooth stirring of martinis.

Actually, I know that people in labs use automatic magnetic stirrers to do their coffee. This would be a way to do that without appropriating lab property. Those things are pretty cool too, though.

You might remember Amron from one of their many previous clever designs; I happen to remember the Keybrid and Split Ring Key, both of which I used for a while. I’ll be honest, I don’t expect to see a Stircle in my neighborhood cafe any time soon, but I sure hope they show up in Starbucks stores around the world. We’re going to run out of those stirrer things sooner or later.

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Technique to beam HD video with 99 percent less power could sharpen the eyes of smart homes

Everyone seems to be insisting on installing cameras all over their homes these days, which seems incongruous with the ongoing privacy crisis — but that’s a post for another time. Today, we’re talking about enabling those cameras to send high-definition video signals wirelessly without killing their little batteries. A new technique makes beaming video out more than 99 percent more efficient, possibly making batteries unnecessary altogether.

Cameras found in smart homes or wearables need to transmit HD video, but it takes a lot of power to process that video and then transmit the encoded data over wi-fi. Small devices leave little room for batteries, and they’ll have to be recharged frequently if they’re constantly streaming. Who’s got time for that?

The idea behind this new system, created by a University of Washington team led by prolific researcher Shyam Gollakota, isn’t fundamentally different from some others that are out there right now. Devices with low data rates, like a digital thermometer or motion sensor, can something called backscatter to send a low-power signal consisting of a couple bytes.

Backscatter is a way of sending a signal that requires very little power, because what’s actually transmitting the power is not the device that’s transmitting the data. A signal is sent out from one source, say a router or phone, and another antenna essentially reflects that signal, but modifies it. By having it blink on and off you could indicate 1s and 0s, for instance.

UW’s system attaches the camera’s output directly to the output of the antenna, so the brightness of a pixel directly correlates to the length of the signal reflected. A short pulse means a dark pixel, a longer one is lighter, and the longest length indicates white.

Some clever manipulation of the video data by the team reduced the number of pulses necessary to send a full video frame, from sharing some data between pixels to using a “zigzag” scan (left to right, then right to left) scan pattern. To get color, each pixel needs to have its color channels sent in succession, but this too can be optimized.

Assembly and rendering of the video is accomplished on the receiving end, for example on a phone or monitor, where power is more plentiful.

In the end, a full-color HD signal at 60FPS can be with less than a watt of power, and a more modest but still very useful signal — say, 720p at 10FPS — can be sent for under 80 microwatts. That’s a huge reduction in power draw, mainly achieved by eliminating the entire analog to digital converter and on-chip compression. At those levels, you can essentially pull all the power you need straight out of the air.

They put together a demonstration device with off-the-shelf components, though without custom chips it won’t reach those

A frame sent during one of the tests. This transmission was going at about 10FPS.

microwatt power levels; still, the technique works as described. The prototype helped them determine what type of sensor and chip package would be necessary in a dedicated device.

Of course, it would be a bad idea to just blast video frames into the ether without any compression; luckily, the way the data is coded and transmitted can easily be modified to be meaningless to an observer. Essentially you’d just add an interfering signal known to both devices before transmission, and the receiver can subtract it.

Video is the first application the team thought of, but there’s no reason their technique for efficient, quick backscatter transmission couldn’t be used for non-video data.

The tech is already licensed to Jeeva Wireless, a startup founded by UW researchers (including Gollakota) a while back that’s already working on commercializing another low-power wireless device. You can read the details about the new system in their paper, presented last week at the Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation.

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Technique to beam HD video with 99 percent less power could sharpen the eyes of smart homes

Everyone seems to be insisting on installing cameras all over their homes these days, which seems incongruous with the ongoing privacy crisis — but that’s a post for another time. Today, we’re talking about enabling those cameras to send high-definition video signals wirelessly without killing their little batteries. A new technique makes beaming video out more than 99 percent more efficient, possibly making batteries unnecessary altogether.

Cameras found in smart homes or wearables need to transmit HD video, but it takes a lot of power to process that video and then transmit the encoded data over wi-fi. Small devices leave little room for batteries, and they’ll have to be recharged frequently if they’re constantly streaming. Who’s got time for that?

The idea behind this new system, created by a University of Washington team led by prolific researcher Shyam Gollakota, isn’t fundamentally different from some others that are out there right now. Devices with low data rates, like a digital thermometer or motion sensor, can something called backscatter to send a low-power signal consisting of a couple bytes.

Backscatter is a way of sending a signal that requires very little power, because what’s actually transmitting the power is not the device that’s transmitting the data. A signal is sent out from one source, say a router or phone, and another antenna essentially reflects that signal, but modifies it. By having it blink on and off you could indicate 1s and 0s, for instance.

UW’s system attaches the camera’s output directly to the output of the antenna, so the brightness of a pixel directly correlates to the length of the signal reflected. A short pulse means a dark pixel, a longer one is lighter, and the longest length indicates white.

Some clever manipulation of the video data by the team reduced the number of pulses necessary to send a full video frame, from sharing some data between pixels to using a “zigzag” scan (left to right, then right to left) scan pattern. To get color, each pixel needs to have its color channels sent in succession, but this too can be optimized.

Assembly and rendering of the video is accomplished on the receiving end, for example on a phone or monitor, where power is more plentiful.

In the end, a full-color HD signal at 60FPS can be with less than a watt of power, and a more modest but still very useful signal — say, 720p at 10FPS — can be sent for under 80 microwatts. That’s a huge reduction in power draw, mainly achieved by eliminating the entire analog to digital converter and on-chip compression. At those levels, you can essentially pull all the power you need straight out of the air.

They put together a demonstration device with off-the-shelf components, though without custom chips it won’t reach those

A frame sent during one of the tests. This transmission was going at about 10FPS.

microwatt power levels; still, the technique works as described. The prototype helped them determine what type of sensor and chip package would be necessary in a dedicated device.

Of course, it would be a bad idea to just blast video frames into the ether without any compression; luckily, the way the data is coded and transmitted can easily be modified to be meaningless to an observer. Essentially you’d just add an interfering signal known to both devices before transmission, and the receiver can subtract it.

Video is the first application the team thought of, but there’s no reason their technique for efficient, quick backscatter transmission couldn’t be used for non-video data.

The tech is already licensed to Jeeva Wireless, a startup founded by UW researchers (including Gollakota) a while back that’s already working on commercializing another low-power wireless device. You can read the details about the new system in their paper, presented last week at the Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation.

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The Beginner’s Guide to Comments in Microsoft Excel

Whether you’re creating an Excel workbook for yourself or collaborating on a spreadsheet with others, comments are useful for many reasons. You should master the ways to manage them when you begin your Excel training.

Consider these four uses:

• Set reminders for yourself of tasks you need to do on the worksheet.
• Add notes for yourself or others.
• Explain a formula in a cell.
• Clarify how to use certain parts of the worksheet.

Today we’re going to cover some of the basics for working with comments in Excel.

Add a Comment to a Cell

To add a comment to a cell, click the cell to which you want to attach the comment. Then, do one of the following:

• Right-click on the cell and select Insert Comment.
• Click New Comment in the Comments section of the Review tab.
• Press Shift + F2.

In the comment box, below the name, type the text for the comment.

Click in the cell again, or any other cell, when you’re done entering text. The comment is hidden but the comment indicator remains.

While working with comments in Excel 2016, I came across what seems to be a bug. Usually, when you create a new comment, the name on the comment is pulled from the User name under Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office on the Excel Options General screen.

I created a new comment and added text to it. The User name (my name) displayed at the top of the comment. After a few minutes, the name on the comment automatically changed to “Author” without me doing anything else to the comment.

I thought that Excel might have been trying to pull the Author value from the Document Properties (File > Info screen, then Properties > Advanced Properties > Summary tab), so I entered my name in that field. But that didn’t work either. It still replaced my name with “Author”.

I haven’t been able to find a solution to this problem. If you figure out how to fix it, please let us know in the comments below!

Show or Hide Comments

To show or hide the comment on a cell, click the cell that contains a comment indicator and do one of the following:

• Right-click the cell and select Show/Hide Comment.
• Click Show/Hide Comment in the Comments section of the Review tab.

To show all comments on all the worksheets in a workbook, click Show All Comments in the Comments section on the Review tab. Click Show All Comments again to hide all the comments in the workbook.

The Show All Comments option shows all the comments on all the worksheets in all open workbooks and any workbooks you create or open while the option is on. You can’t show all comments for only one worksheet in a workbook. The only way to do that is to show each comment on the worksheet individually.

You may discover that some of your comments may overlap. See the next section, “Move or Resize a Comment” to find out how to fix that.

Move or Resize a Comment

If some of your comments are blocking other comments or cells, you may want to move them.

To move a comment, the comment must display without you hovering over the cell. So show the comment using the method in the “Show or Hide Comments” section above.

Move the mouse cursor over the border of the comment box until the cursor turns into a plus sign with arrows. Then click to select the comment box. You’ll see sizing handles appear on the sides and corners of the box.

Keeping the mouse cursor over the border of the comment box, click and drag the comment box to another location.

In our example, cell C3 is now not hidden by the comment on cell B2.

You can resize a comment by moving the mouse cursor over any of the sizing handles until it turns into a double-sided arrow. Then drag the handle to resize the comment.

Edit a Comment

Editing a comment after creating it is easy. To edit a comment, click on the cell containing the comment you want to edit and do one of the following:

• Right-click on the cell and select Edit Comment.
• Click Edit Comment in the Comments section of the Review tab.
• Press Shift + F2.

If the selected cell does not have a comment, the Edit Comment button is the New Comment button instead.

Add, change, or delete text in the comment. When you’re done making changes, click on the cell again, or on any other cell.

Delete a Comment

To delete a comment from a cell, select the cell and do one of the following:

• Right-click the cell and select Delete Comment.
• Click Delete in the Comments section of the Review tab.

There is no confirmation dialog when deleting a comment.

Format a Comment

By default, the text in comments using the Tahoma font in size nine. You can’t change the default font and font size, but you can format the text you’ve entered in a comment.

To format a comment, make the comment editable as described in the “Edit a Comment” section above. Then, highlight the text you want to format. Right-click on the selected text and select Format Comment.

On the Format Comment dialog box, make any changes you want to apply a different format to the text. For example, we’re making some text bold and red using the Font style box and the Color dropdown list.

Your new formatting displays on the comment when you hover over the cell to show it or when you show the comment as described in the “Show or Hide Comments” section above.

You can also use the formatting tools on the Home tab to format the selected text in a comment. But you cannot change the font color or the fill color using the Home tab. You must use the Format Comment dialog box to change the font and fill colors.

Copy a Comment to a Different Cell

If you want to add the same comment to multiple cells, you can add the comment to one cell, then copy and paste it into other cells. But there is a special way to do this.

Click on the cell containing the comment you want to copy and press Ctrl + C. Then, right-click on the cell where you want to add the copied comment and select Paste Special.

On the Paste Special dialog box, click Comments in the Paste section and then click OK.

Only the comment is pasted. The contents of the cell remain unchanged.

Remove Comment Indicators From Cells

If you have a lot of comments, the comment indicators (little red triangles) on the cells might get distracting, especially if you’re presenting the worksheet to someone.

You can easily remove the comment indicators from all the cells. Go to File > Options. Click Advanced on the left side of the Excel Options dialog box.

On the right side of the Excel Options dialog box, scroll down to the Display section. Under For cells with comments, show, select No comments or indicators. When this option is selected, hovering over a cell with a comment will not display the comment.

While both the comments and the indicators are hidden, you can’t use the Show/Hide Comment option to show the comment for individual cells. Instead, use the Show All Comments option in the Comments section of the Review tab to show all the comments. This also shows all the comment indicators again.

The Show All Comments option is connected to the For cells with comments, show option. So turning on Show All Comments changes the For cells with comments, show option to Comments and indicators.

You may not see the comment indicators right away. For me, switching to another program and back to Excel seemed to make the indicators display. This may be another bug.

When you turn off the Show All Comments option, Excel goes back to the default action of showing the comment indicators only and showing the comments when you hover over cells. The For cells with comments, show option changes to Indicators only, and comments on hover.

Review All Comments in a Workbook

To review all the comments on a worksheet, you can hover over each cell one at a time, but that can be time consuming if you have a lot of comments.

A faster way is to step through each comment using the Next and Previous buttons in the Comments section on the Review tab. The comments are displayed one at a time each time you click Next or Previous.

Print a Worksheet With Comments

It’s better to review your comments in your worksheet digitally, instead of printing the worksheet. But if would really prefer to review your comments on a paper, you can print your worksheet with the comments.

To print your worksheet with the comments, click the tab at the bottom of the worksheet you want to print.

Show all the comments, or only the comments you want to print, using the methods described in the “Show or Hide Comments” section above. Then, move or resize the comments as necessary using the methods in the “Move or Resize a Comment” section above.

In the Page Setup section on the Page Layout tab, click the Page Setup dialog box launcher.

On the Page Setup dialog box, click the Sheet tab. Then, select one of the following options from the Comments dropdown list:

• If you want to print the comments where they are, select As displayed on sheet. Note that printing comments as displayed on the sheet will block some cells.
• If you don’t want to block any cells, select At end of sheet. This prints a list of all the comments at the end with the cell reference for each.

Click Print when you’re ready to print your worksheet with the comments.

The Print screen on the File tab displays. You’ll see a preview of how your worksheet will look with the comments printed. Select your printer and click Print.

Start Using Comments to Annotate Excel Worksheets

When collaborating on documents, comments help communicate ideas, questions, and problems. Use Excel comments to make the document review process smoother and faster for everyone involved.

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Reddit hires former Time Inc. exec Jen Wong as COO

Reddit, one of the internet’s largest hubs for both traffic and controversy, announced today that it has hired former Time Inc. President of Digital Jen Wong to take on the role of COO.

She will be tasked with managing Reddit’s business strategy, working out of the company’s New York office. Wong left Time Inc. earlier this year when the company was acquired by Meredith Corp for $1.84 billion.

In a blog post, the company detailed the scope of her role as COO. A major focus will be building the company’s advertising strategy:

Her goals as COO will align closely with her past experience at Time, PopSugar, and AOL: using her media, publisher, advertising, and operations expertise to help us build out our offerings for users, advertisers, and partners; applying her experience building successful digital advertising offerings for internet media giants to our own ads platform; and, through it all, working to grow our business while staying true to the things that make Reddit unique.

Despite claiming 330 million monthly active users, Reddit is still a relatively small operation by Silicon Valley standards. A major part of that is that they’ve been slow to build out a sophisticated advertising product, though in recent months they’ve begun rolling out native ads in the company’s mobile apps.

“Jen is a seasoned digital veteran and successful executive at some of the biggest media companies in the world, her experience and vision will help carry Reddit’s momentum forward in the years to come,” Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said in a statement.

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Russia’s game of Telegram whack-a-mole grows to 19M blocked IPs, hitting Twitch, Spotify and more

As the messaging app Telegram continues to try to evade Russian authorities by switching up its IP addresses, Russia’s regulator Roskomnadzor (RKN) has continued its game of whack-a-mole to try to lock it down by knocking out complete swathes of IP address. The resulting chase how now ballooned to nearly 19 million IP addresses at the time of writing, as tracked by unofficial RKN observer RKNSHOWTIME (updated on a Telegram channel with stats accessible on the web via Phil Kulin’s site).

As a result, there have been a number of high-profile services also knocked oput in the crossfire, with people in Russia reporting dozens of sites affected including Twitch, Slack, Soundcloud, Viber, Spotify, Fifa, Nintendo, as well as Amazon and Google. (A full list of nearly forty addresses is listed below.)

What’s notable is that Google and Amazon themselves seem still not to be buckling under pressure. As we reported earlier this week, a similar — but far smaller — instance happened in the case of Zello, which had also devised a technique to hop around IP addresses when its own IP addresses were shut down by Russian regulators.

Zello’s circumventing lasted for nearly a year, until it seemed the regulator started to use a more blanket approach of blocking entire subnets — a move that ultimately led to Google and Amazon asking Zello to cease its activities.

After that, Zello’s main access point for its Russian users was via VPN proxies — one of the key ways that users in one country can effectively appear as if they are in another, allowing them to circumvent geoblocking and geofencing, either by the companies themselves, or those that have been banned by a state.

It’s important to note that the domain fronting that Google is in the process of shutting down is not the same as IP hopping — although, more generally, it will mean that there is now one less route for those globally whose traffic is getting blocked through censorship to wiggle around that. The IP hopping that has led to 19 million addresses getting blocked in Russia is another kind of circumvention. (I’m pointing this out because several people I’ve spoken to assumed they were the same.)

Pavel Durov, Telegram’s founder and CEO, has made several public calls on Telegram and also third-party sites like Twitter to praise how steadfast the big internet companies have been. And others like the ACLU have also waded into the story to call on Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft to hold strong and continue to allow Telegram to IP hop.

But what could happen next?

I’ve contacted Google, Amazon and Telegram now several times to ask this question and for more details on what is going on. As of yet I’ve had no replies. However, Alexey Gavrilov, the CTO and founder of Zello, provided a little more potential insight:

He said that ultimately they might ask Telegram to stop — something that might become increasingly hard not to do as more services get affected — and if that doesn’t work they can suspend Telegram’s account.

“Each cloud provider has provisions, which let them do it if your use interferes with other customers using their service,” Gavrilov notes. “The interpretation of this rule may be not trivial in case when the harm is caused by third party (i.e RKN in this case) so I think there are some legal risks for Amazon / Google. Plus that would likely cause a PR issue for them.”

Another question is whether there are bigger fish to fry in this story. Some have floated the idea that just as Zello preceded Telegram, RKN’s battles with the latter might lead to how it negotiates with Facebook.

As we have reported before, Facebook notably has never moved to house Russian Facebook data in Russia. Local hosting has been one of the key requirements that the regulator has enforced against a number of other companies as part of its “data protection” rules, and over the last couple of years while some high-profile companies have run afoul of the these regulations, others (including Apple and Google) have reportedly complied.

Regardless, there’s been one ironic silver lining in this story. Since RKN shifted its focus to waging a war on Telegram, Gavrilov tells me that Zello service has been restored in Russia. Here’s to weathering the storm. 

We’ll update this post as and when we get responses from the big players. A more complete list of sites that people have reported as affected by the 19 million address block is below, via Telegram channel Нецифровая экономика (“Non-digital economy”). Some of these have been disputed, so take this with a grain of salt:

1. Sberbank (disputed)

2. Alfa Bank (disputed)

3. VTB

4. Mastercard

5. Some Microsoft services

6. Video agency RT Ruptly

7. Games like Fortnite, PUBG, Guild Wars 2, Vainglory, Guns of Boom, World of Warships Blitz, Lineage 2 Mobile and Total War: Arena

8. Twitch

9. Google

10. Amazon

11. Russian food retailer Dixy (disupted)

12. Odnoklassniki (the social network, ok,ru)

13. Viber

14. Дилеры Volvo

15. Gett Taxi

16. BattleNet

17. SoundCloud

18. DevianArt

19. Coursera

20. Realtimeboard

21. Trello

22. Slack

23. Evernote

24. Skyeng (online English language school)

25. Part of the Playstation Network

26. Ivideon

27. ResearchGate

28. Gitter

29. eLama

30. Behance

31. Nintendo

32. Codeacademy

33. Lifehacker

34. Spotify

35. FIFA

36. And it seems like some of RKN’s site itself

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Russia’s game of Telegram whack-a-mole grows to 19M blocked IPs, hitting Twitch, Spotify and more

As the messaging app Telegram continues to try to evade Russian authorities by switching up its IP addresses, Russia’s regulator Roskomnadzor (RKN) has continued its game of whack-a-mole to try to lock it down by knocking out complete swathes of IP address. The resulting chase how now ballooned to nearly 19 million IP addresses at the time of writing, as tracked by unofficial RKN observer RKNSHOWTIME (updated on a Telegram channel with stats accessible on the web via Phil Kulin’s site).

As a result, there have been a number of high-profile services also knocked oput in the crossfire, with people in Russia reporting dozens of sites affected including Twitch, Slack, Soundcloud, Viber, Spotify, Fifa, Nintendo, as well as Amazon and Google. (A full list of nearly forty addresses is listed below.)

What’s notable is that Google and Amazon themselves seem still not to be buckling under pressure. As we reported earlier this week, a similar — but far smaller — instance happened in the case of Zello, which had also devised a technique to hop around IP addresses when its own IP addresses were shut down by Russian regulators.

Zello’s circumventing lasted for nearly a year, until it seemed the regulator started to use a more blanket approach of blocking entire subnets — a move that ultimately led to Google and Amazon asking Zello to cease its activities.

After that, Zello’s main access point for its Russian users was via VPN proxies — one of the key ways that users in one country can effectively appear as if they are in another, allowing them to circumvent geoblocking and geofencing, either by the companies themselves, or those that have been banned by a state.

It’s important to note that the domain fronting that Google is in the process of shutting down is not the same as IP hopping — although, more generally, it will mean that there is now one less route for those globally whose traffic is getting blocked through censorship to wiggle around that. The IP hopping that has led to 19 million addresses getting blocked in Russia is another kind of circumvention. (I’m pointing this out because several people I’ve spoken to assumed they were the same.)

Pavel Durov, Telegram’s founder and CEO, has made several public calls on Telegram and also third-party sites like Twitter to praise how steadfast the big internet companies have been. And others like the ACLU have also waded into the story to call on Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft to hold strong and continue to allow Telegram to IP hop.

But what could happen next?

I’ve contacted Google, Amazon and Telegram now several times to ask this question and for more details on what is going on. As of yet I’ve had no replies. However, Alexey Gavrilov, the CTO and founder of Zello, provided a little more potential insight:

He said that ultimately they might ask Telegram to stop — something that might become increasingly hard not to do as more services get affected — and if that doesn’t work they can suspend Telegram’s account.

“Each cloud provider has provisions, which let them do it if your use interferes with other customers using their service,” Gavrilov notes. “The interpretation of this rule may be not trivial in case when the harm is caused by third party (i.e RKN in this case) so I think there are some legal risks for Amazon / Google. Plus that would likely cause a PR issue for them.”

Another question is whether there are bigger fish to fry in this story. Some have floated the idea that just as Zello preceded Telegram, RKN’s battles with the latter might lead to how it negotiates with Facebook.

As we have reported before, Facebook notably has never moved to house Russian Facebook data in Russia. Local hosting has been one of the key requirements that the regulator has enforced against a number of other companies as part of its “data protection” rules, and over the last couple of years while some high-profile companies have run afoul of the these regulations, others (including Apple and Google) have reportedly complied.

Regardless, there’s been one ironic silver lining in this story. Since RKN shifted its focus to waging a war on Telegram, Gavrilov tells me that Zello service has been restored in Russia. Here’s to weathering the storm. 

We’ll update this post as and when we get responses from the big players. A more complete list of sites that people have reported as affected by the 19 million address block is below, via Telegram channel Нецифровая экономика (“Non-digital economy”). Some of these have been disputed, so take this with a grain of salt:

1. Sberbank (disputed)

2. Alfa Bank (disputed)

3. VTB

4. Mastercard

5. Some Microsoft services

6. Video agency RT Ruptly

7. Games like Fortnite, PUBG, Guild Wars 2, Vainglory, Guns of Boom, World of Warships Blitz, Lineage 2 Mobile and Total War: Arena

8. Twitch

9. Google

10. Amazon

11. Russian food retailer Dixy (disupted)

12. Odnoklassniki (the social network, ok,ru)

13. Viber

14. Дилеры Volvo

15. Gett Taxi

16. BattleNet

17. SoundCloud

18. DevianArt

19. Coursera

20. Realtimeboard

21. Trello

22. Slack

23. Evernote

24. Skyeng (online English language school)

25. Part of the Playstation Network

26. Ivideon

27. ResearchGate

28. Gitter

29. eLama

30. Behance

31. Nintendo

32. Codeacademy

33. Lifehacker

34. Spotify

35. FIFA

36. And it seems like some of RKN’s site itself

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3 Unique Mac Dock Replacements You Should Try

Your Mac’s dock is probably a lot older than you think. It’s been a defining feature of the Mac experience since OS X 10.0, graduating from humble beginnings as part of the NeXTSTEP and OpenStep platforms of the 80s and 90s.

Unlike Microsoft’s Start menu, Apple’s dock hasn’t changed much in the last 20 years. That’s great, assuming you’re fond of Apple’s simplified approach to application management.

But if you’re not a fan of the dock in its current form, you can customize it or replace it with one of these apps.

1. uBar

uBar is the premier dock replacement for macOS. Few other apps go this far in search of better macOS window management. Surprisingly, this is a feat largely achieved by mimicking the look and feel of Windows. You can configure the app as a Windows-like taskbar, or as a smarter version of the Mac dock.

The app defaults to a taskbar layout, placing all your open windows along the bottom of the screen. Apps are grouped together where relevant, making it easy to find anything even if it’s spread across multiple desktops. uBar lets you skip right to the relevant desktop with a click, and another click hides the app.

It also includes a small Start Menu equivalent, with expanded shortcuts to common folders, system preference panes, Terminal, and power options. You can heavily customize the app including adding your own shortcuts and toggling auto-hiding. It also lets you choose where it appears onscreen, change the color scheme, and exclude apps from appearing.

One of my favorite features is the inclusion of a month-view calendar when hovering over the date and time, something macOS doesn’t make easy unless you open Calendar. You’ll also find shortcuts to the Trash and a button that triggers the “expose desktop” gesture where you’d expect to find it on Windows.

Transitioning Windows users will find uBar a useful tool, though if you become too reliant on it you’ll likely never drop Microsoft’s methods. That’s not a problem though, as uBar is a refined and polished product that’s well worth the $30 entry fee. You’ll get a 14-day free trial when you download the app, but you’ll likely only need a few hours with the app to make your mind up.

uBar really feels like a part of macOS, and it works best if you heavily rely on Spotlight as a launcher and disable your old dock entirely.

Download: uBar ($30, 14-day free trial)

2. Station

Station is a dock replacement that uses a hierarchy of folders to organize items in any way you like. It’s more a customizable version of the current macOS dock than a complete revamp. It works best if you have a specific structure by which you like to organize your apps, documents, and frequently-used locations.

Station lets you organize anything you like in a series of nested folders. As an example, you could have a root-level folder titled Applications that contains expanded folders for categories like Adobe and Games. By grouping items in a logical manner, you’re less likely to waste time hunting around and ultimately be more productive.

Station also has the ability to launch all items in a single folder. If you have a set of applications you use for work (like Pages, Evernote, Spotify, etc.), you can quickly jump in by launching everything at once. Adding items to your Station is a case of dragging and dropping everything in place, a potentially time-consuming endeavor.

Unlike uBar, Station isn’t a macOS window manager. Running processes will not appear in Station; only shortcuts and folders you have created yourself show up. That means it might not function too well as a dock replacement, unless you’re going for a “less is more” approach.

A warning about the demo version: you will lose your folder hierarchies when you reload the app, and the app will forcibly quit an hour after you open it. This isn’t the greatest means of testing an app, since you’ll have to re-download and set everything up again if you decide to buy.

Download: Station Demo (Free with limitations)
Download: Station ($15)

3. DockShelf

Sick of only having one dock? DockShelf lets you have as many docks as you like, containing whatever you want, in any position on your desktop. While it might sound cramped and impractical, DockShelf actually makes it pretty easy to keep a ton of icons close by.

By default, the app creates separate tabbed docks for your desktop, apps, places, notes, downloads, and recent files. You can choose to create new docks with their own purposes and icons, and populate them with applications, folders, stacks (popup groups), and even smart folders.

DockShelf can even create docks for running processes (like a taskbar). This lets you switch between apps or terminate processes with a right-click, as well as access external devices like USB drives. There’s even a “desktop” dock which acts as a scratch pad for any files and folders you want to keep within reach.

These docks don’t take up much screen space since they’re tabbed. Thus, you’ll need to hover or click on the tab in order to access the items within. It looks a little basic, but everything seems to work fine. The app could do with an update, but provided you’re running macOS 10.8 or later it should work fine.

The free version of DockShelf displays a splash screen on startup and places a big unsightly “Purchase!” link in your menu bar. There are no time restraints or other limitations that I could see.

Download: DockShelf ($5, Free trial with limitations)

What’s Up, Mac Dock?

Whichever dock you decide to use, getting the most out of Spotlight is probably the best way to increase productivity on your Mac. If you’re coming from Windows, don’t forget to check out our Mac 101 guide for Windows users.

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SNK may be making a mini-console stuffed with arcade classics

If you’ve worked through the amazing selection of games provided by the NES and SNES Classic Editions, you may be in luck: SNK, the legendary arcade game creator behind the likes of Metal Slug and Samurai Shodown, is teasing what looks like its own tiny arcade cabinet.

Teased as part of the company’s 40th anniversary, the shrouded gadget definitely doesn’t look like a NEO-GEO, or even a NEO-GEO Pocket. Gizmodo notes that the description mentions a “new game machine,” but no details beyond that. The tall, boxy outline suggests a small arcade cabinet, and the slab in front of it looks a lot like an arcade controller.

It wouldn’t be a particularly original creation — there are dozens of tiny arcade cabinets with built-in games, but the truth is none of them is particularly good. They’re novelties, perfectly fun for a laugh, but the hardware – compared with the impressive solidity of real arcade controllers and the NEO-GEO’s itself – just isn’t there.

If I had to guess, I’d say this is an arcade cabinet-style console with improved internals, a decent screen to accommodate games newer than 1996, and a separate, perhaps even wireless arcade controller. Price… I’d put it at $200 or $250. Extra controller (and you’ll want it), my guess is $60. I could easily be way off, though. Maybe they’d even let us plug in our old Tanksticks?

An original NEO-GEO controller. You can feel the sturdiness from where you sit.

Inside, you’ll probably find a generous helping of SNK classics, likely limited to arcade and NEO-GEO titles. Even without SNK’s classic games for home consoles like the NES. My eyes were watering as I scrolled down the list of games the company has put out and which may end up on this device.

King of the Monsters 2? Last Resort? Twinkle Star Sprites? King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown, and all the other fighters? Not to mention Metal Slug and its sequels. The amount of quarters I’ve sunk into these fantastic, beautiful games is uncountable.

If SNK is smart, they’ll make it possible to add new games to the system, too. There are plenty to choose from, as the company catered to a number of niches. Having them available for a few bucks each would be a dream — and anyway, if this isn’t a possibility, people will just hack new ROMs onto the system.

Whatever the case is, you can be sure I’m already jockeying for position to review the thing. I’ll let you know the second I hear anything.

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Microsoft Launches Windows Defender for Google Chrome

Google Chrome users can now benefit from one of the few advantages Microsoft Edge offers over the competition. This is because Microsoft has released its Windows Defender Browser Protection—which is already a part of Edge—as a Chrome extension.

While Microsoft Edge is a solid browser—and an improvement over Internet Explorer—plenty of Windows users still prefer Chrome. So, rather than leave them out in the cold, Microsoft is offering up its anti-malware technology to Chrome users.

Microsoft Protects Chrome Users From Malware

Chrome users can grab the Windows Defender Browser Protection extension from the Chrome Web Store. And it essentially means Chrome users will be adding an additional layer of protection over and above that already offered by Google.

The Windows Defender Browser Protection extension works by checking the websites you’re visiting against a list of malicious URLs Microsoft maintains. If you’re heading into danger, the extension will alert you with a red warning screen, and lead you back to safety.

So there's a phenomenon I have noticed at big companies where people you don't care about call pointless meetings just to remind you they exist

Anyway "Windows Defender", a part of Windows 10 I didn't know existed, just popped up a notification to tell me it didn't find anything

— mcc (@mcclure111) April 16, 2018

Windows Defender Browser Protection should protect you against phishing attempts by websites designed to trick you into revealing personal information. It should also help you avoid websites known to be hosting malware that you’ll be prompted to download.

Unfortunately, due to the way this extension works, installing it means allowing Microsoft to view your browsing history in realtime. If that bothers you, then steer clear. If you’re OK with Microsoft knowing you watch cat videos all day then go for it.

Is Microsoft Edge Worth Another Look?

This may seem overkill when Google already offers similar protections against malicious websites. However, we already know Microsoft Edge is the best browser at stopping phishing attacks. So it would make sense to add Edge’s capabilities to Chrome.

Even if you don’t install the Windows Defender Browser Protection extension, this could pique your interest about Microsoft Edge. And to help you out we have compiled a list of things Microsoft Edge is good for, as well as the biggest problems with Microsoft Edge.

Image Credit: Christiaan Colen/Flickr

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The Best Dark Web Websites You Won’t Find on Google

You’ve heard of it before. You’re probably curious about what it is. But chances are, you’re still on the edge about the whole thing.

We’re talking about the dark web—the mysterious part of the internet that isn’t for everyone. At least, that’s what you’ve probably heard.

There are many rumors about what it is and why people go on the dark web. However, it’s worth learning a thing or two about it. Who knows, maybe you’ll even find some of your new favorite sites there. Stick around and we’ll share some of the cool websites we’ve discovered in the hidden corners of the dark web.

Dark Web vs. Deep Web

Before you learn what exactly dark web is, it’s important to know what makes it different from its bigger brother, the deep web.

We’ve talked about deep web and why it’s important before. In a nutshell, deep web and dark web are two terms often confused for one another. When in reality deep web refers to anything on the web that can’t be found using a search engine. That includes emails in your Gmail account, direct messages on social networks, and even your Facebook photos that you marked as “private”.

Dark web, however, is just a sub-section of the deep web. Unfortunately, the dark web is responsible for the bad reputation the deep web has. Black markets selling illegal substances, grisly images, and even new identities for sale—just about every illegal thing can be found there.

At the same time, the dark web is well worth exploring (with caution). You just need to know what you’re doing.

Before You Dive Into the Dark Web

In order to access the sites that aren’t available on the so-called surface web, you’ll need to get two essential things ready: a VPN and Tor browser.

We strongly recommend shielding yourself with a VPN before you enter the dark web. For your security, first run your VPN, and only after a connection is established start the Tor Browser.

Don’t know which VPN is best for you? There are plenty of options out there, both free and paid, but our pick is ExpressVPN which comes with Tor support and three free months.

Now, get yourself the Tor browser. It’s a browser designed to help you access sites on the .onion network, and that’s where you’ll find the dark websites.

Even though VPN and Tor are quite powerful and should be enough to keep you safe while browsing the dark web, it won’t hurt to take more precautions. Disable your JavaScript, close all your software while on the dark web, and cover your webcam.

For beginner dark web users, we recommend a little extra reading in order to understand how this browser works and how to stay safe while using Tor.

A Note of Caution: Click With Care

Before you go on to the sites of the dark web, there’s one more thing to keep in mind. While browsing the deep web, be careful what you click. Even something as innocent as reading the descriptions of some sites can make you uncomfortable. Browse with a purpose and don’t give in to your curiosity here.

1. The Hidden Wiki

Onion URL: https://ift.tt/1iJRX3q

When you first start Tor browser, it won’t lead you to any particular .onion sites. Tor simple provides a safer (encrypted) way to access the normal web. In order to go on an .onion site, you’ll have to know it exists and its location. There are a few ways to find active .onion sites. One of them is using a directory of sites, like The Hidden Wiki.

The dark web will remind you of the old days of the internet. You can navigate your way around it using numerous indexes of sites. The Hidden Wiki is one of them. Here you’ll find a variety of links to different sources on the dark web. One thing to remember here is that it’s community-edited, so don’t take everything you see and read there to heart.

How you can make use of this: The Hidden Wiki is a good starting point for both dark web newbies and advanced users.

2. Sci-Hub

Onion URL: https://ift.tt/1lCEzEl

Sci-Hub is a platform with a mission to liberate scientific knowledge from all over the world. On Sci-Hub you will find around 50 million research papers that you can access for free. It was founded in 2011 by Alexandra Elbakyan from Kazakhstan.

That way, even if an institution or an individual doesn’t have sufficient funding, they can still get access to the world’s collective scientific knowledge. Who knows, maybe someday this resource will help end diseases, droughts, and hunger. If it hasn’t already.

How you can make use of this: Are you a science lover? Or have you been looking for some pretty specific information related to your research? Or maybe you just believe that knowledge should be free and accessible to everyone. Sci-Hub might be the place for you then.

3. Blockchain for Bitcoins

Onion URL: https://ift.tt/1yQplOF

If you don’t know how Bitcoin works or don’t own any crypto, feel free to skip this one. But for those interested, one of the most popular online Bitcoin wallets has an .onion URL (and even has an HTTPS certification for it).

How you can make use of this: If for some reason you want to hold your Bitcoins anonymously, this is the place for you.

4. SoylentNews

Onion URL: https://ift.tt/1OipYXM

SoylentNews is a news aggregate site where you can not only read but also discuss news pieces on science, politics, technology and else. The site is run by volunteers and it’s very much community-driven. Users can submit and moderate the stories and posts.

SoylentNews aims to provide a platform to find news and discuss the relevant topics freely, without censorship. They also state protecting freedom of press and freedom of speech as their main objectives.

How you can make use of this: You might find this site useful and refreshing if you feel you’re tired of mainstream media.

5. ProPublica

Onion URL: https://ift.tt/2glmmfb

ProPublica is probably the first major news outlet that launched a dark web version of their site back in 2016.

ProPublica is a non-profit news organization that aims to “expose abuses of power and betrayals of the public trust by government, business, and other institutions, using the moral force of investigative journalism.” Why are they on the dark web? According to ProPublica, the main reason is to provide their readers with a more anonymous way of browsing the site.

How you can make use of this: If you already read ProPublica or are interested in investigative journalism, you may want to check out their podcast about why they joined the dark web and how the readers can benefit from it.

Still Scared of the Dark Web?

The dark web isn’t necessarily a shady place it’s cracked up to be. With certain precautions, and as long as you know where you’re going and what it is you’re looking for, you can enjoy both the content and anonymity that the dark web offers to its users.

If you feel you’re up for exploring the dark web a little more, make sure to check out more corners of the “hidden internet” that you might like.

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