How to Disable Access to the Registry Editor in Windows 10

Do you have an intelligent, curious child who knows their way around the Windows registry? Or maybe you want to prevent a guest user on your machine from editing the registry. You can prevent users from making changes to the registry by disabling access to it.

Today we’ll show you how to disable access to the Registry Editor in Windows 10 using the Group Policy Editor and a third-party tool. These methods disable access to the Registry Editor for all users, including the current administrator account you’re making the change in.

About the Group Policy Editor

The Group Policy Editor used in a Windows domain environment allows a network administrator to control the settings on all the computers in the network.

If you’re using a personal PC running Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise, you also have access to the Group Policy Editor. But it’s called the Local Group Policy Editor.

The Local Group Policy Editor allows you to tweak some additional Windows settings that aren’t available in the PC Settings app or in the Control Panel. Many settings in the Local Group Policy Editor change registry values for you. So if you’re not comfortable editing the registry directly, use the Local Group Policy Editor instead.

Converting to an Administrator Account

The user account for which you’re blocking access to the registry editor should be a standard account—but you’ll need to temporarily make the account an administrator account to disable access to the registry editor. Then, you should switch it back to a standard account.

You can convert a standard account to an administrator account, or vice versa, at any time. But if you only have one administrator account, you cannot change it to a standard account. You must have at least one administrator account at all times in Windows.

To convert a standard account to an administrator account, open the Start menu and click the Settings icon.

On the Windows Settings dialog box, click Accounts.

Click Family & other users in the left pane and click the user account you want to change on the right under Other users. Then, click Change account type.

On the Change account type dialog box, select Administrator from the Account type dropdown list and click OK.

The user is labeled as an Administrator.

To make the user a Standard user again, return here, click Change account type, and select Standard user on the Change account type dialog box.

Disabling the Registry Editor (Group Policy Editor)

You should back up your data, back up the registry, and make a system restore point before making changes in the Local Group Policy Editor.

To disable access to the Registry Editor, first make sure the account you want to restrict access in is an administrator account. If not, follow the steps in the previous section to convert it to one. Then, log in to that account.

Press Windows key + R to open the Run dialog box. Then, type gpedit.msc and press Enter.

In the Local Group Policy Editor, navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > System in the left pane.

Then, double-click the Prevent access to registry editing tools setting in the right pane.

On the Prevent access to registry editing tools dialog box, select Enabled in the upper-left and then click OK.

Close the Local Group Policy Editor and reboot your computer.

For the user you want to prevent from accessing the registry editor, be sure to convert their account back to a standard account. Standard users cannot make changes in the Local Group Policy Editor. They get an error message when they open it.

The Local Group Policy Editor still opens, but there are no settings available to change.

Once you’ve disabled access to the Registry Editor, any user who tries to access the Registry Editor, will see the User Account Control dialog box. Then, the following error message displays.

To re-enable access to the Registry Editor, open the Prevent access to registry editing tools setting again in the Local Group Policy Editor. Select either Not Configured or Disabled on the Prevent access to registry editing tools dialog box.

Disabling the Registry Editor (Policy Plus)

This method is for Windows 10 Home users only.

Windows 10 Home does not include the Local Group Policy Editor. But if you’re using Windows 10 Home, you can use the free, portable, open source program Policy Plus instead.

If you’re using Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise, you have access to the Local Group Policy Editor. You don’t need to use Policy Plus. In fact, you shouldn’t. The Local Group Policy Editor overrides Policy Plus. So it doesn’t make sense to use Policy Plus if you already have the Local Group Policy Editor.

To use Policy Plus, download the EXE file and run it. No installation is needed.

Not all templates are included in Policy Plus by default. To download the latest policy files and add them to Policy Plus, go to Help > Acquire ADMX Files.

Accept the default Destination folder and click Begin.

Click Yes to open and load the ADMX files in Policy Plus.

To disable access to the Registry Editor using Policy Plus, select System in the left pane. Then, double-click  the Prevent access to registry editing tools setting in the left pane.

On the Edit Policy Setting dialog box, select Enabled and click OK.

You may have to change this setting and reboot a few times for it to take effect.

Policy Plus also allows you to search for settings by unique ID, registry (search by key path or name or value name), and text (find in title, descriptions, and in comments).

That’s it! Now the registry editor should be restricted for the user account. Of course, this isn’t the only way to reduce privileges on Windows. Check out some other ways to restrict access for users by locking down Windows accounts.

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How to Remember Video Playback Position in VLC to Resume Later

What happens when you stop watching a movie midway through and return to it later? Fast-forwarding to the exact spot you left off isn’t always easy. Fortunately, VLC Media Player offers a nifty solution: bookmarks.

Bookmarks in VLC are used to remember the current playback position in a video and allow you to resume from that point at a later time. Several media players offer this feature, but VLC is unique in that it also lets you create custom bookmarks.

Resume Playback From Last Played Position in VLC

A certain VLC setting lets you to play the last 100 videos exactly from the last played position the last time those videos were opened:

1. Open the VLC Player. Go to Tools > Preferences (or use the Ctrl + P shortcut).
2. On the Interface screen, go down to the choices for Continue playback?
   
3. Click the dropdown and select Always. Now, whenever you open a partially watched video, it will resume playback from the point you left off.

But what if you want to bookmark specific points in a media file?

How to Use Custom Bookmarks in VLC Player

VLC Media Player has a custom bookmark feature which you can use to save your chosen video positions in the player. You can then instantly go to these points and resume playback from there.

1. Go to Playback > Custom Bookmarks > Manager. Alternatively, use the Ctrl + B shortcut key to open the Edit Bookmarks box.
2. Click the Create button and an instant bookmark will be created for the position of the video file. You can create multiple bookmarks for different positions in a video. To resume playback, click on the bookmark in the box access it from the list displayed under Custom Bookmarks.
   
3. Click Delete and the bookmark will be erased. Clear removes all the bookmarks you have set for the video.

The only problem? Custom bookmarks are session specific. If you shut down the player, or the computer, then the custom bookmarks disappear. But thanks to the VideoLAN community, an extension called Moments’ Tracker can solve this vexing issue. This extension is just one of the powerful ways to extend the utility of VLC Player.

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How to Grant Temporary Permissions to Any Android App

How to Pin Apps and Contacts to the Android Share Menu

Android’s Share menu has undergone quite a few changes over the last few years. It’s now much more customizable, and you can pin your frequently used apps and contacts to the top of the list for easy access.

Clearly, the feature has significant time-saving benefits. Realistically, you probably never share anything to 95 percent of the apps in the list, so by pinning your most-used apps, you won’t need to go scrolling through a massive list of entries just to find the one you want.

Sounds great, right? But how do you set it up? What steps do you have to take to pin your most used Android apps and contacts to the top of the share menu?

How to Pin Apps/Contacts to the Android Share Menu

Before starting, there are a few things to be aware of.

Firstly, if you pin several apps, they will show in alphabetical order; you cannot change the order manually. Secondly, if you pin a contact to the direct share menu, the corresponding app will get pinned to the top of the regular share menu. And finally, any apps you pin will affect the contacts visible in the direct share menu.

Ok, so how do you do pin apps or contacts to the Android Share menu?

1. Open an app from which you want to share something.
2. Tap on the Share icon.
3. Long-press on an app or contact that you want to pin.
4. Select Pin.

To unpin something, repeat the process, but choose Unpin in step four.

For more cool Android tricks, check out our article on Google Play Store tricks every Android user needs to know about.

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How to Fill Calligraphy Text With Color, Textures, or Photos in Procreate

Procreate is a particularly popular app to use when it comes to hand lettering. In addition to a ton of great free and paid calligraphy pens, you can also use the app to fill your letters with color, images, and more.

Once you have your writing on a layer the way you want it, you can jazz it up with color. You can use Procreate’s masking feature to fill the lettering with blended colors, photos, and more.

Method 1: Fill With a Color

• After you’ve completed your lettering, open the Layers tool and tap the layer with your lettering and in the flyout menu tap Select. 
• Tap the thumbnail again and this time tap, Mask. 
• Open the layers panel and create a new layer. This is the layer where you’ll add your color. As you add your color, you’ll see that it’s restricted only to the area of your lettering. You can add just one color if you’d like, but a popular method is to use rainbow coloring and creating a watercolor effect. 
• If you’ve got harsh lines and want your colors to blend, tap the Adjustments tool in the top left menu and tap Motion Blur. Drag the slider to the right to blend the colors. Around 15 to 20 percent should be sufficient. If you find Motion Blur doesn’t create the effect you’re looking for, you can try Gaussian Blur instead. 
• Go back to the Layers panel and turn off the black lettering layer.

Method 2: Fill With an Image or Texture

There is a slightly easier method, which also allows you to use an image or a texture to fill in your lettering:

• Once your lettering is ready, add the image you want to use as your texture by tapping the Actions button in the top left menu and tapping Insert a Photo. (You can also create a new layer above your lettering, add your color over the lettering, so that all the letters are completely covered, and use the gaussian blur tool to blend it together.)
• Select the photo saved to your iPad that you want to use.
• Open the Layers panel again and tap the thumbnail of your lettering and tap Select.
• Tap Invert Selection
• Open the layers panel and tap the thumbnail of the texture or colored layer and tap Clear.
• Your lettering should now be filled with your photo, texture, or coloring.

If you’re looking to up your hand-lettering game using Procreate, don’t forget that you can install Procreate brushes available for download from hand-lettering experts around the web.

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Here are all of Google’s 20th anniversary Easter eggs

Twenty years ago this month, a pair of Stanford PhD students founded a search engine company based in their friend Susan’s Menlo Park garage. Initially named “BackRub,” Larry Page and Sergey Brin eventually thought better of it and opted for a misspelling of the term googol, denoting the number one followed by 100 zeros.

To mark its 20th anniversary, Google’s peppering its properties with some fun Easter eggs, in addition to the above doodle. Starting today, a number of circa 1998-style queries will prompt the suggestion “It’s 2018! Did you mean?

There are 17 such queries. So, spoilers, here’s the list:

mp3 file	stream music
watch a dvd	streaming subscription
googol	Google
gettin’ jiggy wit it	floss dance
page me	New phone, who dis?
butterfly clip styles	top knot
soccer world champions 1998	soccer world champions 2018
chat room	text the group
how to tell someone you like them	swipe right
low-rider pants	how to style high-waisted pants
digital pet	fidget spinner
baby	bae
143	ILYSM
what is Y2K?	how does cryptocurrency work?
screen name	social handle
clip art	GIF

The Google Street View feature is even more fun. The aforementioned Susan (who now runs a little video site) has kindly offered up an inside glimpse of the space where it all started. The garage has been restored to its old glory, with the old-school Google homepage on an equally old-school monitor. There’s also the bedroom that serviced as the company’s “Worldwide Headquarters.”

It’s a history littered with school jackets, empty pizza boxes and a stray Koosh ball or two.

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Sony Finally Supports Cross-Play on PS4

Sony has conceded to the demands of gamers by finally supporting cross-play on the PlayStation 4. In a nutshell, this means PS4 owners will be able to play Fortnite against gamers on other platforms, including the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

The Demand for Cross-Platform Play

Ever since online gaming became a thing gamers have longed to break out of their walled gardens and compete against players on other platforms. Unfortunately, the technology took a while to catch up to the desire, as did console manufacturers’ attitudes.

Then along came Fortnite, a free-to-play game available on every platform you care to mention. And the calls for cross-play became deafening. Microsoft and Nintendo jumped on board, but Sony remained defiant, keeping PS4 owners playing amongst themselves.

Until now.

Using Fortnite As a Willing Test Subject

In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Sony explains how it’s launching a cross-play beta using Fortnite. This allows “cross-platform gameplay, progression and commerce across PlayStation 4, Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, and Mac.”

Sony recognizes that “games have evolved to the point where cross-platform experiences add significant value to players” and sees this beta as “an opportunity to conduct thorough testing that ensures cross-platform play is best on PlayStation.”

Fortnite cross-platform play starts today in open beta. Full details: https://t.co/fyPmx4iB4O pic.twitter.com/wdY3GnT4u1

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) September 26, 2018

Right now this only applies to Fortnite, a game which has amassed a community full of people who couldn’t care less about platforms. And that’s the point. The days of PlayStation players playing in one sandpit while Xbox owners play in another are over.

It remains to be seen whether Sony expands this Fortnite-only beta test into full support for cross-platform play. But it’s hard to imagine the company will try to reverse this decision. If they do the uproar from PS4 owners is likely to be deafening.

Learn More About the PS4 and Fortnite

If this prompts you or your offspring to start playing Epic’s smash hit here’s everything you need to know about Fortnite. And whatever happens with regard to cross-platform play the fact remains the PlayStation 4 boasts some fantastic exclusives.

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6 Tips to Fix Slow Boot Times in Windows 10

One of the most frustrating Windows issues is slow startup. When Windows takes forever to boot, you dread turning on or rebooting your computer. Certain Windows 10 versions are especially prone to this.

Thankfully, slow booting is a solvable issue. We’ll show you the most common fixes for slow startup times in Windows 10.

1. Disable Fast Boot

By far, the most problematic setting when it comes to boot time in Windows 10 is the Fast Startup option. This is enabled by default, and is supposed to reduce startup time by pre-loading some boot information before your PC shuts off.

While the name sounds promising, it’s caused issues for a lot of people. Thus, it’s the first step you should try when you have slow boot problems. (Note that restarting your computer isn’t affected by this feature.)

Open Settings and browse to System > Power & sleep. On the right side of this screen, click Additional power settings to open the Power Options menu on the Control Panel.

Here, click Choose what the power buttons do on the left sidebar. You’ll need to provide administrator permission to change the settings on this page, so click the text at the top of the screen that reads Change settings that are currently unavailable.

Now, untick Turn on fast startup (recommended) and Save Changes to disable this setting.

If you don’t see the Fast Boot option, you don’t have hibernation enabled and thus it won’t show up. To enable hibernation, open an administrator Command Prompt or PowerShell window by right-clicking on the Start button and choosing Command Prompt (Admin) or Windows PowerShell (Admin).

Type the following command to enable it, then try to disable Fast Startup again:

powercfg /hibernate on

2. Adjust Virtual Memory Settings

Virtual memory is a feature Windows uses to dedicate a part of your hard drive as pretend RAM. Of course, the more RAM you have the more tasks your system can handle at once. So if Windows is close to maxing out true RAM, it dips into virtual memory.

Some users have reported that Windows 10 can change virtual memory settings, causing boot issues. You should thus have a look at your virtual memory settings and see if you can change them to fix the slow boot problem.

Type Performance into the Start Menu and choose the Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows.

Under the Advanced tab, you’ll see the size of the paging file (another name for virtual memory); click Change to edit it.

On the resulting window, what’s important is at the bottom. You’ll see a Recommended amount of memory and a Currently Allocated number. Some having this issue find that their current allocation is way over the recommended number.

If yours is as well, uncheck Automatically manage paging file size for all drives to make changes. Then choose Custom Size and set Initial Size and Maximum Size to the recommended value below.

Reboot, and your boot time should improve.

3. Turn Off the Linux Terminal

A while back, Windows 10 got a full Linux bash terminal. This is exciting for developers, but it might also the culprit of your boot issues.

This feature isn’t turned on by default. So if you don’t know what Bash is, you probably don’t need to try this step as you would know if you turned it on.

To turn off the Linux shell, type Windows features into the Start Menu to open the Turn Windows features on or off menu. Scroll down to Windows Subsystem for Linux, uncheck it, and restart.

If this fixes your issues, but you need the Linux terminal, you can download other tools to get the Linux command line on Windows.

4. Update Graphics Drivers

Windows 10 is known to mess with drivers, unfortunately. Updating your graphics card drivers can sometimes fixe boot issues, so let’s give it a look.

Open the Device Manager by right-clicking on the Start button and choosing Device Manager. Navigate to Display adapters to see which graphics card you’re using (typically Nvidia or AMD if you have a dedicated graphics card).

You can usually open the corresponding software on your PC to check for updates. If you don’t have it, you’ll need to navigate to the vendor’s website (or your laptop manufacturer’s website, if you’re using integrated graphics on a laptop) to check for driver updates. Install any new versions available.

We’ve covered updating your computer drivers in more detail if you need help. Hopefully, an update will fix your issue. It might be worth checking for other driver updates in the Device Manager as well, but we haven’t seen anyone discuss other drivers as a cause of slow booting.

5. Remove Some Startup Programs

Perhaps your slow boot time isn’t caused by one of these issues. If you experience slowness between logging in and actually getting to use your computer, too many startup programs could be the culprit.

A lot of software sets itself to automatically run at startup. If you have dozens of apps loading as soon as you log in, this can really bog your system down right away. Follow our guide to removing heavy startup programs and see if that makes a difference.

6. If All Else Fails, Perform a Reset

If you’ve tried all the above solutions and still can’t speed up your boot time, it might be best to cut your losses and reinstall a fresh copy of Windows 10.

You have several options for resetting your PC. The built-in Refresh option can reinstall Windows without removing any of your files. You’ll should still back up your computer data before this, though.

Head to Settings > Update & Security > Recovery and select Get started under Reset this PC to start.

Slow Booting in Windows 10, Begone

Hopefully, applying one or all of these fixes works for you. Slow startup is a huge pain, but you thankfully have options to combat it. If nothing else works, hold out for the next major Windows 10 release, which should clear up the issue.

Looking for more? Check out our basic troubleshooting guide for Windows and more tricks for speeding up Windows.

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7 Siri Alternatives for Android: Google Assistant, Cortana, Alexa, and More

Our phones aren’t merely devices we use to call the people we like (and some folks that we don’t). They’ve become life partners. We take them with us everywhere, even places we would never take the people we love. We cuddle up with them at night and start our days with their company.

But this relationship isn’t one of pure affection. Our phones serve us—they’re personal assistants. Apple’s Siri was the first explicit digital assistant to break into the mainstream. She’s not available on Android, but you may find the options here even better.

So what’s the best Siri alternative for Android? Here are our favorites.

1. Google Assistant

Gmail users, Android owners, and YouTube watchers have given Google plenty of data over the years. Google Now was a feature that used this data to surface information before you knew you wanted it. Google Now sent out suggestions based on your search history, what you watched, and what went through your inbox.

Now there’s Google Assistant, the evolution of Google Now. Google Assistant communicates with you in a more conversational manner, similar to Siri. But with all the information Google has, you may like Assistant’s responses even more than Siri’s.

Google Assistant now comes as part of most Android phones. You can access it by holding the home button or, on some devices, squeezing your phone by its sides. The Google Pixelbook even comes with a dedicated Google Assistant button.

As you might expect, Assistant can make calendar appointments and answer questions. But with it, Google is trying to expand our idea of what digital personal assistants can do. At this year’s Google I/O conference, the company introduced the ability for your phone to place calls and make reservations on your behalf.

If you just want a functional Siri equivalent that likely came with your phone, then look no further. Here’s our more in-depth guide to what Google Assistant can do.

Download: Google Assistant (Free)

2. Cortana

Apple has Siri; Android has Google Assistant. Microsoft figured that Windows Phone needed something, so it came out with Cortana. But the company didn’t stop there. It later released versions for Android and iOS.

Cross-platform availability is possibly Cortana’s biggest appeal compared to Google Assistant. The Halo-inspired personal assistant is baked into Windows 10. One benefit of this is being able to send a text message from your laptop when you miss a call on your phone. You can also talk to your PC the same way you talk to your smartphone or tablet.

This cross-platform synchronization really is the main reason to install Cortana on your phone. If you already interact with her on your PC and Xbox, why not keep the experience consistent? Cortana also plays nice with Amazon Echo devices. But if you’re into Amazon’s ecosystem and not Microsoft’s, you may want to skip to the next item on the list.

Download: Microsoft Cortana (Free)

3. Amazon Alexa

Years ago, Amazon seemed like an unlikely name to associate with digital assistants. Its only widely known consumer products were Kindles. But the company’s Echo smart speakers have caught on, making Alexa a household name throughout the world.

The Android app can stream a playlist, tell you the weather, read off news headlines, and tell you a joke, just like the smart speakers. If you have smart home products integrated with Amazon’s ecosystem, then the Alexa app offers a good way to control it all. The app also grants access to Alexa’s vast library of skills.

You don’t need an Amazon Echo speaker or other smart home gadgets to pick Alexa as your favorite Siri app for Android, but that’s the biggest reason to do so.

Download: Amazon Alexa (Free)

4. Lyra Virtual Assistant

Lyra, formerly known as Indigo, first appeared as a cross-platform Siri alternative in 2013. The ability to continue a conversation with Lyra across multiple devices is still one of the assistant’s main features. If you log in on your computer or install the mobile app, Lyra will pick up the conversation regardless of where you are. You can then interact with it in over 70 languages.

The Lyra app has a simple appearance that nudges you along, with suggestions about the kinds of commands Lyra can understand. You can read the news, translate speech, and listen to music all inside the app.

While the Lyra app appears basic, the experience is tied to an online service. You will need to create an account to start using the app.

Download: Lyra (Free)

5. Robin

Maybe you’re not particularly excited about sharing your information with the companies behind personal assistants. I understand. Fortunately, there are other options from smaller developers.

Looking for Siri-style snark? Robin’s developers have deliberately tried to make an app that feels like a challenger to Apple’s digital assistant. That makes it worth a look for people who are less interested in finding an alternative to Siri and want to find the same experience for Android.

That’s not to say Robin is a copy. Robin is more of a driving assistant than a way to surface information. Think of Robin as a friend riding shotgun that looks up information and does tasks for you while your hands are on the wheel.

Download: Robin (Free)

6. Dragon Mobile Assistant

Maybe you want something with that corporate feel, but without the privacy concerns associated with using a personal assistant made by a company that already knows so much about you. Dragon Mobile Assistant comes from Nuance, the makers of some pretty impressive voice dictation software for PCs and mobile devices. This might be the option that hits the right spot between mega-corporation and a hobbyist tinkering around.

Dragon Mobile Assistant responds to the phrase “Hello Dragon.” It’s not particularly conversational, but provides the answers to basic questions about the weather and general facts, such as the height of Mount Everest. You can use it to send email and posts to social networks, which both draw on one of the app’s biggest strengths.

Dragon uses its own voice dictation engine rather than Google’s, so you may find this assistant does a better job of picking up your voice. If that’s the case, you have the option to have Dragon listen for your commands at all times, even when the screen is off.

Download: Dragon Mobile Assistant (Free)

7. Smart Voice Assistant

Some of these apps look outdated. Others look modern but still somewhat out of place. By comparison, Smart Voice Assistant should look right at home next to the other apps you’ve been running since Android Lollipop.

Smart Voice Assistant isn’t a ready-to-go solution right from the beginning. First, you go through the list of features you can activate via voice commands and assign your own custom keywords. You also assign names to contacts and particular phone numbers. This can feel tedious at first, but when you’re done, you know exactly what your system can do.

Since the app runs in the background, you can then issue these commands anytime. You can fully dictate texts and have the Smart Voice Assistant read back the responses if, for example, you need to keep your eyes on the road.

Smart Voice Assistant is a bit of a one-man effort, so it doesn’t feel quite as polished as the better-funded or more established projects. But the app is easy on the eyes, and it’s sure to appeal to users who wants more control over their experience.

Download: Smart Voice Assistant (Free) | Smart Voice Assistant Pro ($3)

Which Siri Alternative Is Right for You?

We each have our own preferences and needs. Out of the box, Google Assistant works pretty well, but maybe you want to use the same personal assistant on both Android and Windows. In that case, maybe Cortana’s the choice for you.

Those of us who aren’t comfortable with giving these companies more information may find Robin, Dragon Mobile Assistant, or another smaller app worth considering. Overall, your best option probably depends on which ecosystem you’re most tied into.

Image Credits: Willyam Bradberry/Shutterstock

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What Makes Cryptocurrency Better Than Cash or Credit?

At some point, cryptocurrency will replace fiat currency. The tides of cryptocurrency may appear to have stalled, but the truth is that we’re still only at the beginning. Like, the very beginning.

The astronomical rise of Bitcoin and Ethereum throughout 2017 into early 2018 skewed markets—and as markets plunged south, so did wider public opinion.

But that doesn’t change the underlying technology or future prospects of cryptocurrency as a whole. Indeed, cryptocurrencies will soon be ready to take over fiat currency. Here’s why.

Cryptocurrency vs. Fiat Currency, Compared

Fungible: Each unit of currency must be exactly the same and interchangeable. A dollar is a dollar, and a cent is a cent. The same applies to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and all other cryptocurrencies.

Durable: Gold would be pointless if it dissolved in the rain or melted at room temperature. Even paper currency is durable to a point, with many countries using or introducing polymer bank notes. Cryptocurrencies are entirely digital, with data stored on a decentralized network. Other than by losing access to your digital wallet, cryptocurrencies are extremely durable.

Scarce: Currency is scarce; rather, it has a limited supply. Following the 2008 global financial crisis, we saw that governments could create more currency whenever they want, but the point still stands. Cryptocurrency, on the other hand, has limitations that differ from coin to coin. There are only 21 million total Bitcoins, for example, while other cryptocurrencies may have an infinite supply.

Divisible: Currencies must break down into smaller units. Dollars into cents. Bitcoins into satoshis. (What is a satoshi?) Theoretically, Bitcoin can break down into infinitely smaller units, depending on the value of a single bitcoin.

Trade: The main purpose of currency is to facilitate the exchange of goods and services. Some cryptocurrencies lag behind fiat currency here because transactions take too long to verify. Regardless, you can use cryptocurrencies to purchase a wide range of goods and services, just as you can with fiat.

Cryptocurrencies tick all the boxes when you compare all the different functions and aspects of fiat currency.

Why Cryptocurrency Will Replace Fiat Currency

1. Decentralized and Fairer Financial Systems

Elite financiers, bankers, business magnates—an elite few directly control the currencies on which the rest of us depend. Regular folks like you and me can’t influence the market, and even when thousands of people band together, nothing really changes.

A core part of that control relates to supply. When the supply increases, money decreases in value, and vice versa. Those in the driving seat can profit from such sudden changes in financial markets. Decentralization takes global financial control from the elite few and restores it to the masses.

It’s important to note that the cryptocurrencies most likely to prosper as fiat replacements have a limited supply. Furthermore, cryptocurrencies that aren’t directly tied to any governments won’t suddenly be devalued because of the actions of one controlling group. (That doesn’t mean cryptocurrencies can’t be devalued through other means.)

Ultimately, decentralization means less manipulation. Not completely eradicated, but definitely reduced to a much smaller level of influence. Cryptocurrencies aren’t subject to inflation, interest rates, cross-border exchange rates, business taxes, and so on.

2. Cryptocurrency Adoption Is on the Rise

It’s impossible to find figures that accurately show how many cryptocurrency users there are. Some people use multiple wallets, across multiple platforms, for a variety of coins. Furthermore, many users and crypto-exchanges use new wallets for each incoming and outgoing transaction, which artificially balloons figures.

However, there are a few charts that track the steady growth of cryptocurrency markets around the globe.

First up, check out Statista’s chart of “Number of Blockchain wallet users worldwide from 1Q 2015 to 2Q 2018.” It shows a steady increase in the number of Blockchain wallet users, reaching over 25 million users in Q2 2018.

For more perspective, here’s a chart that shows the daily number of active Bitcoin addresses over the same period. Understandably, the chart peaks (1.13 million active addresses) at the same time that Bitcoin’s price peaks, but also reflects the overall growth in Blockchain wallet accounts:

In fact, if we look at the comparative chart for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin, we a similar story:

Chris McCann, founder of the CryptoWeekly newsletter, produced some really interesting charts illustrating cryptocurrency market and user growth in this blog post.

The two standout takeaways are that the crypto market appears to match the internet in its early days—the year 1994, to be specific. Adding to that intrigue are the similarities between the growth of crypto-assets between 2014 to 2017 and the growth in new websites between 1991 to 1995.

So, how many people own cryptocurrency? The truth is, no one knows. Higher estimates put the number at 50 million global users, while the lower bounds stick to around 10 million (which is, in my opinion, way too low given the other evidence we have).

3. More Vendors Now Accept Cryptocurrency

There’s a healthy (and growing) number of online retailers who accept cryptocurrency alongside fiat currency. Prominent examples include:

• Microsoft
• Overstock
• Newegg
• Expedia
• DISH Network
• Etsy (individual sellers)
• Intuit
• Private Internet Access
• Pure VPN

Amazon doesn’t accept cryptocurrencies as yet, but you can use Purse to locate people who are willing to use their Amazon gift cards in exchange for your cryptocurrency. You can even grab a healthy discount on your items this way.

4. Blockchain Is Safe and Secure

A few months back, I sent several hundred euro from the UK to a friend in Spain. The payment got lost in the banking system for nearly two weeks. Neither bank could find the transfer until it “popped” back into existence. During that time, it was as if the money never existed, or had decided to slip into the void.

You have to have trust in the banking system because it’s dominant—but banks regularly lose accounts, payments, transfers, and much more. Furthermore, as we see all too frequently, for all their security audits and regulations, banks are still susceptible to massive hacks.

On the other hand, no one has hacked the Bitcoin blockchain (at least since the very early days, when there was a value overflow hack that created 180 billion Bitcoins, but the developers initiated a soft fork to counteract the hack).

The lack of a blockchain hack has even been turned into a joke bounty of sorts, as the first person to hack the blockchain to execute Bitcoin transactions via any address will become an instant billionaire (presuming Bitcoin keeps some of its value after such an attack). Ultimately, until quantum computers can break a blockchain’s encryption, it remains safe from hacks.

5. Bitcoin Wallets Are Private

Your Bitcoin belongs to you. You keep it in a wallet and store it offline (I hope!). Other crypto-users can’t compel you to part with it, nor can Bitcoin or other blockchain developers force it from your wallet. Unfortunately, quite the opposite is true of fiat currency, especially when kept “secure” in a bank account.

Similarly, creating and monitoring bank accounts is tiresome, requires paperwork, and exposes your financial situation to others. You can have as many crypto-wallets as you want, each with different settings, containing different cryptocurrencies, and—best of all—each one instantly accessible from wherever you are in the world.

When Will Cryptocurrency Replace Fiat Currency?

No one knows. Probably not any time soon, though.

Until it does, cryptocurrency will exist alongside fiat currency as an alternative payment method for an ever-expanding range of goods and services. Financial institutions and governments are already exploring cryptocurrency and blockchain applications, and it’s no surprise why.

If there is going to be a global financial system shakeup, your government wants to be leading the revolution. Want to join in on the fun? See our beginner’s guide to buying your first cryptocurrency.

Read the full article: What Makes Cryptocurrency Better Than Cash or Credit?

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FCC cracks the whip on 5G deployment against protests of local governments

The FCC is pushing for speedy deployment of 5G networks nationwide with an order adopted today that streamlines what it perceives as a patchwork of obstacles, needless costs, and contradictory regulations at the state level. But local governments say the federal agency is taking things too far.

5G networks will consist of thousands of wireless installations, smaller and more numerous than cell towers. This means that wireless companies can’t use existing facilities, for all of it at least, and will have to apply for access to lots of new buildings, utility poles, and so on. It’s a lot of red tape, which of course impedes deployment.

To address this, the agency this morning voted 3 to 1 along party lines to adopt the order (PDF) entitled “Accelerating Wireline Broadband Deployment by Removing Barriers to Infrastructure Investment.” What it essentially does is exert FCC authority over state wireless regulators and subject them to a set of new rules superseding their own.

First the order aims to literally speed up deployment by standardizing new, shorter “shot clocks” for local governments to respond to applications. They’ll have 90 days for new locations and 60 days for existing ones — consistent with many existing municipal timeframes but now to be enforced as a wider standard. This could be good, as the longer time limits were designed for consideration of larger, more expensive equipment.

The 5G wireless revolution will come, if your city council doesn’t block it first

On the other hand, some cities argue, it’s just not enough time — especially considering the increased volume they’ll be expected to process.

Cathy Murillo, Mayor of Santa Barbara, writes in a submitted comment:

The proposed ‘shot clocks’ would unfairly and unreasonably reduce the time needed for proper application review in regard to safety, aesthetics, and other considerations. By cutting short the necessary review period, the proposals effectively shift oversight authority from the community and our elected officials to for-profit corporations for wireless equipment installations that can have significant health, safety, and aesthetic impacts when those companies have little, if any, interest to respect these concerns.

Next, and even less popular, is the FCC’s take on fees for applications and right-of-way paperwork. These fees currently vary widely, because as you might guess it is far more complicated and expensive — often by an order of magnitude or more — to approve and process an application for (not to mention install and maintain) an antenna on 5th Avenue in Manhattan than it is in outer Queens. These are, to a certain extent anyway, natural cost differences.

The order limits these fees to “a reasonable approximation of their costs for processing,” which the FCC estimated at about $500 for one application for up to five installations or facilities, $100 for additional facilities, and $270 per facility per year all inclusive.

For some places, to be sure, that may be perfectly reasonable. But as Catherine Pugh, Mayor of Baltimore, put it in a letter to the FCC protesting the proposed rules, it sure isn’t for her city.

An annual fee of $270 per attachment, as established in the above document, is unconscionable when the facility may yeild profits, in some cases, many times that much in a given month. The public has invested and installed these assets [i.e. utility poles and other public infrastructure], not the industry. The industry does not own these assets; the public does. Under these circumstances, it is entirely reasonable that the public should be able to charge what it believes to be a fair price.

There’s no doubt that excessive fees can curtail deployment and it would be praiseworthy of the FCC to tackle that. But the governments they are hemming in don’t seem to appreciate being told what is reasonable and what isn’t.

“It comes down to this: three unelected officials on this dais are telling state and local leaders all across the country what they can and cannot do in their own backyards,” said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in a statement presented at the vote. “This is extraordinary federal overreach.”

It’s time to chart a course for 5G success

New York City’s commissioner of information technology told Bloomberg that his office is “shocked” by the order, calling it “an unnecessary and unauthorized gift to the telecommunications industry and its lobbyists.”

The new rules may undermine deployment deals that already exist or are under development. After all, if you were a wireless company, would you still commit to paying $2,000 per facility when the feds just gave you a coupon for 80 percent off? And if you were a city looking at a budget shortfall of millions because of this, wouldn’t you look for a way around it?

Chairman Ajit Pai argued in a statement that “When you raise the cost of deploying wireless infrastructure, it is those who live in areas where the investment case is the most marginal—rural areas or lower-income urban areas—who are most at risk of losing out.”

But the basic market economics of this don’t seem to work out. Big cities cost more and are more profitable; rural areas cost less and are less profitable. Under the new rules, big cities and rural areas will cost the same, but the former will be even more profitable. Where would you focus your investments?

The FCC also unwisely attempts to take on the aesthetic considerations of installations. Cities have their own requirements for wireless infrastructure, such as how it’s painted, where it can be located, what size it can be when in this or that location. But the FCC seems (as it does so often these days) to want to accommodate the needs of wireless providers rather than the public.

Wireless companies complain that the rules are overly restrictive or subjective, and differ too greatly from one place to another. Municipalities contend that the restrictions are justified and, at any rate, their prerogative to design and enforce.

“Given these differing perspectives and the significant impact of aesthetic requirements on the ability to deploy infrastructure and provide service, we provide guidance on whether and in what circumstances aesthetic requirements violate the [Communications] Act,” the FCC’s order reads. In other words, wireless industry gripes about having to paint their antennas or not hang giant microwave arrays in parks are being federally codified.

“We conclude that aesthetics requirements are not preempted if they are (1) reasonable, (2) no more burdensome than those applied to other types of infrastructure deployments, and (3) published in advance,” the order continues. Does that sound kind of vague to you? Whether an city’s aesthetic requirement is “reasonable” is hardly the jurisdiction of a communications regulator.

For instance, Hudson, Ohio city manager Jane Howington writes in a comment on the order that the city has 40-foot limits on pole heights, to which the industry has already agreed, but which would be increased to 50 under the revisions proposed in the rule. Why should a federal authority be involved in something so clearly under local jurisdiction and expertise?

Ultra-fast 5G wireless service declared national security priority by White House

This isn’t just an annoyance. As with the net neutrality ruling, legal threats from states can present serious delays and costs.

“Every major state and municipal organization has expressed concern about how Washington is seeking to assert national control over local infrastructure choices and stripping local elected officials and the citizens they represent of a voice in the process,” said Rosenworcel. “I do not believe the law permits Washington to run roughshod over state and local authority like this and I worry the litigation that follows will only slow our 5G future.”

She also points out that the predicted cost savings of $2 billion — by telecoms, not the public — may be theorized to spur further wireless deployment, but there is no requirement for companies to use it for that, and in fact no company has said it will.

In other words, there’s every reason to believe that this order will sow discord among state and federal regulators, letting wireless companies save money and sticking cities with the bill. There’s certainly a need to harmonize regulations and incentivize wireless investment (especially outside city centers), but this doesn’t appear to be the way to go about it.

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Oculus Hybrid Apps let you use 2D & 3D software simultaneously in VR

Oculus showed off the future of working in VR today. Rather than just splaying out 2D software on an infinite desktop, the new Oculus Hybrid Apps system lets you see both 2D screens and 3D models in VR at the same time. That means you could use a traditional image editing suite to change the look of a piece of a 3D object while also being able to rotate, move, and look around that object.

Hybrid Apps were announced at the Oculus Connect 5 conference today in San Jose where Facebook also revealed the new Oculus Quest headset, forward compatability for Oculus content, a mobile app for discovering and remotely installing software on the Rift, and the debut of the YouTube VR app on Oculus Go.

Hybrid Apps are built atop the Oculus Dash virtual desktop system announced last year. In this demo, you can see an artist using the 2D Substance Painter software to polish the colors and textures of a 3D robot model while being able to see changes live.

Oculus showed off a wide array of other new software today. Your Sims-style customizable Oculus Home can now sport Custom Developer Items so you can earn (or maybe one day buy) 3D goods within games. Earn an airship in a flying game, and that airship can float inside your Oculus Home when you’re done playing. The feature could let you build your own trophy wall, making those in-game achievements a lot more tangible.

Each year Oculus shows off the newest versions of its Avatars system that lets you create in-VR visual identity. They’re getting more lifelike thanks to additional hairstyles, skin tones, and accessories. And later this year, Oculus will launch Expressive Avatars that use its research on simulated eye and mouth movement as well as microexpressions to make them feel real.

Overall, Oculus Connect 5 felt a bit anti-climactic. Facebook has a lot of scandals distracting from its VR efforts while also triggering more scrutiny of any choices it makes related to privacy. What once might have been seen as mildly creepy now triggers damaging press cycles. Facebook ended up adding a privacy shield to cover the lens of its upcoming Portal video chat screen, Cheddar’s Alex Heath reports.

Combined with slow adoption of VR, it seems like there is less and less progress between Oculus’ annual conference. Instead of big advances in avatars, we get cosmetic upgrades and reveals of changes that won’t arrive for months. The newest Oculus Quest headset looks pretty similar to its previous prototypes.

At this point, the necessary technology for satisfactory VR has largely arrived. It’s now on Oculus and its legion of developers to build products and experiences that are simple, affordable, and impressive enough to be worth the hassle of face computing.

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Building Google Dataset Search and Fostering an Open Data Ecosystem

Posted by Matthew Burgess and Natasha Noy, Google AI

Earlier this month we launched Google Dataset Search, a tool designed to make it easier for researchers to discover datasets that can help with their work. What we colloquially call "Google Scholar for data,” Google Dataset Search is a search engine across metadata for millions of datasets in thousands of repositories across the Web. In this post, we go into some detail of how Dataset Search is built, outlining what we believe will help develop an open data ecosystem, and we also address the question that we received frequently since the Dataset Search launch, "Why is my dataset not showing up in Google Dataset Search?”

An Overview
At a very high level, Google Data Search relies on dataset providers, big and small, adding structured metadata on their sites using the open schema.org/Dataset standard. The metadata specifies the salient properties of each dataset: its name and description, spatial and temporal coverage, provenance information, and so on. Dataset Search uses this metadata, links it with other resources that are available at Google (more on this below!), and builds an index of this enriched corpus of metadata. Once we built the index, we can start answering user queries — and figuring out which results best correspond to the query.

An overview of the technology behind Google Dataset Search

Using Structured Metadata from Data Providers
When Google's search engine processes a Web page with schema.org/Dataset mark-up, it understands that there is dataset metadata there and processes that structured metadata to create "records" describing each annotated dataset on a page. The use of schema.org allows developers to embed this structured information into HTML, without affecting the appearance of the page while making the semantics of the information visible to all search engines.

However, no matter how precise schema.org definitions or guidelines are, some metadata will inevitably be incomplete, wrong, or entirely missing. Furthermore, distinctions between some fields can be vague: is the dataset repository a publisher or a provider of a dataset? How do we distinguish between citations to a scientific paper that describes the creation of the dataset vs. papers describing its use? Indeed, many of these questions often generate active scholarly discussions.

Despite these variations, Dataset Search must provide a uniform and predictable user experience on the front end. Therefore, in some cases we substitute a more general field name (e.g., “provided by”) to display the values coming from multiple other fields (e.g., “publisher”, “creator”, etc.). In other cases, we are not able to use some of the fields at all: if a specific field is being misinterpreted in many different ways by dataset providers, we bypass that field for now and work with the community to clarify the guidelines. In each decision, we had one specific question that helped us in difficult cases "What will help data discovery the most?" This focus on the task that we were addressing made some of the problems easier than they seemed at first.

Connecting Replicas of Datasets
It is very common for a dataset, in particular a popular one, to be present in more than one repository. We use a variety of signals to determine when two datasets are replicas of each other. For example, schema.org has a way to specify the connection explicitly, through schema.org/sameAs, which is the best way to link different replicas together and to point to the canonical source of a dataset. Other signals include two datasets descriptions pointing to the same canonical page, having the same Digital Object Identifier (DOI), sharing links for downloading the dataset, or having a large overlap in other metadata fields. None of these signals are perfect in isolation, therefore we combine them to get the strongest possible indication of when two datasets are the same.

Reconciling to the Google Knowledge Graph
Google's Knowledge Graph is a powerful platform that describes and links information about many entities, including the ones that appear in dataset metadata: organizations providing datasets, locations for spatial coverage of the data, funding agencies, and so on. Therefore, we try to reconcile information mentioned in the metadata fields with the items in the Knowledge Graph. We can do this reconciliation with good precision for two main reasons. First, we know the types of items in the Knowledge Graph and the types of entities that we expect in the metadata fields. Therefore, we can limit the types of entities from the Knowledge Graph that we match with values for a particular metadata field. For example, a provider of a dataset should match with an organization entity in the Knowledge Graph and not with, say, a location. Second, the context of the Web page itself helps reduce the number of choices, which is particularly useful for distinguishing between organizations that share the same acronym. For example, the acronym CAMRA can stand for “Chilbolton Advanced Meteorological Radar” or “Campaign for Real Ale”. If we use terms from the Web page, we can then more easily determine that CAMRA is in fact the Chilbolton Radar when we see terms such as “clouds”, “vapor”, and “water” on the page.

This type of reconciliation opens up lots of possibilities to improve the search experience for users. For instance, Dataset Search can localize results by showing reconciled values of metadata in the same language as the rest of the page. Additionally, it can rely on synonyms, correct misspellings, expand acronyms, or use other relations in the Knowledge Graph for query expansion.

Linking to other Google Resources
Google has many other data resources that are useful in augmenting the dataset metadata, such as Google Scholar. Knowing which datasets are referenced and cited in publications serves at least two purposes:

1. It provides a valuable signal about the importance and prominence of a dataset.
2. It gives dataset authors an easy place to see citations to their data and to get credit.

Indeed, we hope that highlighting publications that use the data will lead to a more healthy ecosystem of data citation. For the moment, our links to Google scholar are very approximate as we lack a good model on how people cite data. We try to go beyond DOIs to give somewhat better coverage, but the number of articles citing a dataset ends up being approximate. We hope to make more progress in this area in order to get a higher level of precision.

Search and Ranking of Results
When a user issues a query, we search through the corpus of datasets, in a way not unlike Google Search works over Web pages. Just like with any search, we need to determine whether a document is relevant for the query and then rank the relevant documents. Because there are no large-scale studies on how users search for datasets, as a first approximation, we rely on Google Web ranking. However, ranking datasets is different from ranking Web pages, and we add some additional signals that take into account the metadata quality, citations, and so on. As Dataset Search gets used more by our users and we understand better how users search for datasets, we hope that ranking will improve significantly.

A Better Open Data Ecosystem
We built Dataset Search in an attempt to create a tool that will positively impact the discoverability of data. The decision to rely on open standards (schema.org, W3C DCAT, JSON-LD, etc.) for markup is intentional, as Dataset Search can only be as good as the open-data ecosystem that it supports. As such, Google Dataset Search aims to support a strong open data ecosystem by encouraging:

1. Widespread adoption of open metadata formats to describe published data.
2. Further development of open metadata formats to describe more types of data and in more detail.
3. The culture of citing data the way we cite research publications, giving those who create and publish the data the credit that they deserve.
4. The development of tools that leverage this metadata to enable more discovery or better use of data. 

The increased adoption of open metadata standards in conjunction with the continued development of Dataset Search (and, hopefully, other tools) should foster a healthier open data ecosystem where data is a first-class citizen of research.

So, Where is Your Dataset?
It is probably clear by now that Dataset Search is only as good as the metadata that exists on the Web pages for datasets. The most common answer to the question of why a specific dataset does not show up in our results is that the Web page for that dataset does not have any markup. Just pop that page into the Structured Data Testing Tool and you will see whether the markup is there. If you don't see any markup there, and you own the page, you can add it and if you don't own the page, you can ask the page owners to do it, which will make their page more easily discoverable by everyone.

We hope that the community finds Dataset Search useful, users make serendipitous discoveries and save time and scientists and journalists spend less time searching for data and more time using it.

Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Xiaomeng Ban, Dan Brickley, Lee Butler, Thomas Chen, Corinna Cortes, Kevin Espinoza, Archana Jain, Mike Jones, Kishore Papineni, Chris Sater, Gokhan Turhan, Shubin Zhao and Andi Vajda for their work on the project and all our partners, collaborators, and early adopters for their help.

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Soviet camera company Zenit is reborn!

If you’re familiar with 20th century Soviet camera clones you’ll probably be familiar with Zenit. Created by Krasnogorsky Zavod, the Nikon/Leica clones were a fan favorite behind the Iron Curtain and, like the Lomo, was a beloved brand that just doesn’t get its due. The firm stopped making cameras in 2005 but in its long history it defined Eastern European photography for decades and introduced the rifle-like Photo Sniper camera looked like something out of James Bond.

Now, thanks to a partnership with Leica, Zenit is back and is here to remind you that in Mother Russia, picture takes you.

The camera is based on the Leica M Type 240 platform but has been modified to look and act like an old Zenit. It comes with a Zenitar 35 mm f/1.0 lens that is completely Russian-made. You can use it for bokeh and soft-focus effects without digital processing.

The Leica M platform offers a 24MP full-frame CMOS sensor, a 3-inch LCD screen, HD video recording, live view focusing, a 0.68x viewfinder, ISO 6400, and 3fps continuous shooting. It will be available this year in the US, Europe, and Russia.

How much does the privilege of returning to the past cost? An estimated $5,900-$7,000 if previous incarnations of the Leica M are any indication. I have a few old film Zenits lying around the house, however. I wonder I can stick in some digital guts and create the ultimate Franken-Zenit?

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