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Windows 8 gets automatic updates, enforced restarts after 72 hours of polite harassment
Windows 8 is renaming the second week of every month. After "Patch Tuesday" comes "Gentle reminder Wednesday," "Polite yet firm suggestion Thursday" and "Automatic restart Friday". In order to keep everyone's system secure, Windows Update will download patches in the background before adding a notification on your lock screen that you're due a restart. If you haven't managed it within 72 hours, you'll be given a 15 minute warning to save your work and close up before it forces the shutdown -- unless you're watching a movie or conducting a presentation, it'll lie in wait for your next idle period to do it. With this system, you'll only have to complete the procedure once a month and can plan your schedule accordingly. The only time the system will deviate is when a security threat like a blaster worm appears, at which point Microsoft will ensure you're restarting as soon as a fix is available. What, you didn't know that "keeping end-users on their toes" was a feature?
MMO Family: 17 internet safety tactics for gaming families
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family. From tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate niches for every family member, MMO Family offers you advice on MMO gaming of the family, by the family and for the family. "Be careful, there's nasty stuff out there on the internet." It's frustrating to hear this warning clarioned over and over again. We're gamers ourselves, after all. We know easily children can get in over their heads on the internet. "Be careful," intone the experts. "Watch carefully, and be very, very careful ..." But how? What must we be careful to do? To not do? What does "being careful" mean in actual practice? Specific online safety tactics – and putting them into practice without driving anyone crazy in the process – become an epic quest reward that always manages to stay two turn-ins out of reach. As we mentioned last week, your main objective as the parent of a young MMO player is to remain figuratively logged in to their activity. When children are online, parents cannot afford to be figuratively AFK. We're not suggesting you pull up a chair and some popcorn to faithfully oversee kids' every move online. No child needs direct supervision to kill 10 rats (or pick 20 flowers or befriend 30 fairies or frag 50 enemies ...). But young gamers do need your boundaries and your guidance (as well as your feedback, your enthusiasm and your support). Just how strong the boundaries should be will depend on the age of your child and the game that they're playing. Apply common sense, based on your own MMO experience, along with these 17 tactics for safe online gaming.
Intel's new vPro processors toughen up your system
According to Intel, your computer-security fears will be a thing of the distant past thanks to its latest vPro technology update. Apparently, the new safe-guarding apparatus is a combination of the company's Core 2 Duo processors and the Q35 Express chipset, in addition to several "technology innovations" that the chipmaker says will fortify business-centric systems against "software-based attacks," as well as viruses and the ominously vague "other threats." New components of the technology include Intel's Trusted Execution Technology (TXT, AKA LaGrande), which isolates assigned memory and protects it from access via unauthorized software, and improved system defense filters, which can identify a larger number of threats in network traffic. "Today, the business desktop PC just got more secure," says a company spokesperson, though for our system "protection" we're sticking to NoDoz and nunchucks.
