TECH

The return of the ugly duckling

Sven Krumrey

A star is born

You won't believe what the creators of AMD processors had to listen to over the years. Too slow, too hot, too old-fashioned. AMD users jokingly reported that they no longer needed to turn on the heat during Winter while their PCs were running and sarcastically raved about their unexpected floor heating. Low-budget PCs come with AMD CPUs by default, they were the second best choice, ideal for smaller pockets. Comparisons to the energy efficiency of old coal power stations were drawn, their naming scheme (AMD Bulldozer? They should have gone with Bobby Car) was ridiculed. But suddenly, the tides have turned - and the reason for that is called Ryzen.

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TECH

7 splendid Chrome extensions

Sven Krumrey

Black Menu - instant access to Google services

The most widely used browser in the world already comes with a load of features. But that doesn't stop smart developers from enhancing it even further with extensions to make it more versatile, more comfortable - just easier to use. You could spend days digging through the store but I'd like to present 7 extensions you might get used to quickly.

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TECH

Zombies under your desk - botnets

Sven Krumrey

A brief overview of common Internet crimes

There are no zombies - even though photos from Ashampoo's last Christmas party may suggest otherwise. But the term zombies also describes PCs that are infected with malware and waiting to be remotely controlled. If a cyber criminal manages to infect thousands of machines, he'll own a so-called botnet and will have the means to create a lot of chaos - and make a lot of money. Often, computer owners notice little to nothing of this hostile takeover and that's part of the plan. The longer infections remain undetected, the longer affected machines can be used for murky business. Read on to learn what botnets are, how they're created and what you can do about them.

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TECH

Have we had enough technological progress by now?

Sven Krumrey

It's been a long time

When I was little, we got a whopping 3 different TV channels and they signed off after midnight. My grandmother's TV was black and white and when the weather was bad you'd hardly be able to see the ball during soccer matches. Every now and then an amazing Hollywood flick was on and we all gathered in front of the box in awe. What sounds like a relic from the past was little more than 40 years ago. And it may serve to explain why the entertainment industry was initially leaping forward while much of the latest technology has yet to catch on with customers.

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TECH

The horror of bad passwords

Sven Krumrey

The fastest solution is not always the best

Every time a year ends, we're treated to the "top 10" from various categories. What were the most often used baby names, which car models sold best, who had the most followers on Twitter? A snore fest. One piece of news, however, woke me up from my winter slumber. A collection of 1 billion stolen data sets was analyzed to find the most popular passwords. Would it just be a case of same old, same old or had there been a learning process? What I found seemed like an invitation to unwanted visitors

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