Weekly Tech Insights: Issue 19
Table of Contents
News
Windows
Linux / FreeBSD
Mobile
Browser
Privacy and Security
Software Updates
Gaming
Other
Articles
2023 will be an exciting year for search
How to use Chrome’s Memory Safer to free up Memory
Links
News
Windows
Microsoft updated the description of Windows update KB5021751 to clarify what the update does. The update, designed to collect Telemetry data about old Office installations, does not collect user data according to Microsoft.
Some Windows 10 users ran into a roadblock ad for Microsoft 365 on start of the system that had the “get” and “no thanks” buttons swapped erroneously.
Linux / FreeBSD
Linux 6.1 is now formally recognized as the 2022 LTS kernel.
Mobile
Master Password is a password manager for Android that does not store passwords. I generates passwords on the fly based on the user’s master password and names that users pick to describe the password’s purpose.
Browser
Google and Microsoft are preparing their browsers, Chrome and Edge, to support NVIDIA’s new RTX Super Resolution technology. Basically, what it does is upscale video content using AI. Available for NVIDIA RTX-30 and RTX-40 cards initially, it is capable of upscaling to 4K video resolutions.
Google Chrome 110 was released on Tuesday. The new Stable version fixes 15 different security issues, non appears to be exploited in the wild currently. Chrome 110 adds a few new features, including RTX Super Resolution mentioned above.
Firefox users may soon remove Firefox Suggest entries when they type in the address bar using the mouse. Currently, removal requires using the cursor keys to highlight an entry and then the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Delete to remove it.
It appears that both Google and Mozilla are working on browsers for iOS that are not using Apple’s Webkit browser engine. Apple enforced the use of Webkit for all browsers on the iOS App Store for years, which prevented Google, Mozilla and other browser makers from using their web engines for their browsers on Apple’s mobile operating system.
Privacy and Security
Dashlane published the source code of its mobile applications to GitHub this week. The Android and iOS code is available already, the extensions source code will follow in the future according to the company.
KeePass users may want to check the certain settings in the application to find out if they are well suited to protect the database against brute force attacks. The KeePass 2.53.1 update addresses the issue by making KeePass always prompt for the master key when exporting data.
Bitwarden, a popular password manager, is getting support for Argon2 soon, which will improve the security of the password database further, once enabled.
Software Updates
Gaming
OpenTTD, an open source remake of the classic computer game Transport Tycoon Ddeluxe, has reached version 13.0. The new version improves interface scaling, adds access to new settings, multi-track level crossings and more. The game is available as a free download for Windows, Mac and Linux.
Windows 10 remained the dominating desktop operating system for gamers, at least according to Steam’s January 2023 hardware survey. The operating system lost about 2% to Windows 11, but is still in a lead with 63%. Windows 11 managed to pass the 30%, barely, last month for the first time.
Other
Google and Microsoft announced AI components and services for some of their core products this week. Microsoft announced the integration of more OpenAI technology in the company’s Bing and Edge products.
Google announced Bard, a ChatGPT competitor designed specifically for dialogue.
Microsoft’s implementation is limited currently and there is a waitlist for it. Google announced Bard and NORA during a livestream today. Bard, which the company announced earlier this week, is the company’s answer to ChatGPT in Search. It will become available to more users over the coming weeks, according to Google.
NORA, No One Right Answer, is Google’s answer to user queries that don’t have one definitive answer. Google Search will display multiple options to the user in this case, which act as starting points for exploration.
Google changed the status of the recording to private immediately after the livestream. It is unclear if this is a reaction to the tanking of the company’s stock at the same time.
It is clear that Microsoft has the upper hand at this point in time. Google’s AI technology may well be on the same level or even more advanced, but it is not ready for broad consumption, apparently.
It will be interesting to see how Google plans to remedy the situation in the coming months and years.
Runway launched its Gen-1 video generation AI system this week that transforms video content based on text or image input by the user. As usual, access is limited and interested users may join a waitlist to receive an invitation to try it out eventually.
Runway, for those unaware, created the Stable Diffusion technology in 2022.
Google announced that it will soon blur all explicit images in Search even if the user has turned off SafeSearch. The announcement on the official company blog makes it look like as if only signed-in users get an option to override the new default setting.
Articles
2023 will be an exciting year for search
2023 will be an exciting year for the advance of AI. Microsoft announced the integration of AI into Bing and Google unveiled Bard, its competitor as well.
Both AI components aim to make search more natural without taking away the classic search experience.
On Bing, for example, Microsoft is adding AI computed answers next to regular search results. Bing users may ignore these or use them, it is up to them.
Google too plans to introduce Bard as an option, and not a full replacement for search results.
AI can improve search, especially when it comes to producing direct answers or follow-up questions. Imagine searching for a new Windows laptop. Regular search provides top lists by various sites and shopping results. There may also be videos, especially on Google, which promotes YouTube content heavily.
Once a user finds suitable candidates, additional searches may be fired off. How good is the processor? Is the graphics card suitable for playing modern computer games or a particular game the user has in mind. What about RAM? Is it sufficient for running virtual machines or for photo editing?
All of these require additional searches. AI on the other hand may help users through dialogue and sometimes even comparison. Microsoft demoed a feature in Edge that analyzed a financial report and then compared it to financial data from competing organizations.
The same technology could help users compare different laptops or provide answers to follow-up questions that arose during the initial research.
AI, in the best case, is assisting users. It may speed up certain searches or tasks, without getting in the way when it is not needed. AI may return incorrect answers and companies like Microsoft or Google will limit the capabilities.
As a user, it is important to realize that AI is not infallible. Still, with that said, it looks as if AI is the big topic in computing in 2023.
Bing launched its AI integration as a preview, but it is available to a limited audience only. Google plans to roll out Bard in the coming weeks to users of its search engine.
How to use Chrome’s Memory Safer to free up Memory
Many browser makers work on memory efficiency modes. These modes are designed to reduce the memory-hunger of browsers by unloading websites and services in tabs that are not active.
It should be clear from the description that users with lots of tabs open in their browser benefit from these modes the most, and that users with just a single tab not at all.
Google calls the feature Memory Saver in Chrome’s settings and high efficiency mode internally. Chrome is notorious when it comes to memory use and Google promises that users may save up to 40% of memory when they enable Memory Saver in Chrome.
While mileage varies, it is true that Chrome will use less memory once Memory Saver is enabled. There is no exact figure, and it is likely below Google’s 40% claim.
Google Chrome users may have Memory Saver enabled already in the latest stable version of the browser. Some may need to enable the mode, as it is not available for all users at the time of writing. In any event, Chrome 109.0.5414.120 or later supports the mode.
Here are the steps required to enable Memory Saver in Chrome
Load chrome://flags/#high-efficiency-mode-available in the browser’s address bar and change the status of the experimental flag to Enabled.
Restart Google Chrome
Load chrome://settings/performance after the restart to open the new Performance section of the browser.
Locate Memory Saver on the page and flip the switch to enable it.
That is all there is to it. Chrome will put inactive tabs to sleep automatically from that moment on.
Note that you may add sites to an exceptions list, so that they remain active and will never be unloaded. Just activate the “add” button on the Performance settings page and add the address of the site to prevent it from ever being unloaded.
Microsoft Edge supports Efficiency Mode and a feature called Sleeping Tabs. The latter unloads inactive tabs as well to free up memory.
Links
Fundamental Math for Game Developers
George Orwell’s Six Rules for Writing
List of video game first’s from the 1940’s to 2000’s