November 2022

No More Working Remote for Twitter Employees

We shall call this step #4 in Chief Twit’s ultimate plan to kill Twitter. To recap the plan so far: Step #1: Twitter Blue price and feature changes Step #2: The ‘Verified’ Blue Checkmark fiasco Step #3: Scaring off your advertisers Step #4: Banning Remote Work This tactic might work with Tesla and SpaceX which both have more employees than Twitter (Tesla 99K, SpaceX 9.5K, Twitter 7.5K pre-layoff). However, Twitter employees are a different breed and much like employees of other tech companies have come expect to be able to work remotely. We will see how long before Twitter Employees…

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Twitter Blue’s Verification has Issues

Even before the launch of the “new” Twitter Blue (now with ‘Verified’ Blue checkmark) there has been issues with the verification system. Then there were the US celebrities who changed their profile information on their Verified accounts to impersonate Elon Musk. Many of those accounts end up being banned. Now the ‘new and improved’ Twitter Blue has launched for the low price of $7.99 USD a month (or is it $4.99 USD a month)? Two prices being shown for Twitter Blue membership (BleepingComputer) Regardless of the price the verification system is clearly still broken. From a fake profile being created for Rockstar…

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Twitter Rolled Out the Grey Checkmarks Too Soon

Several news sites have reported getting their ‘Official’ Grey checkmark on Twitter earlier this morning, but now those checkmarks have gone away. It seems Chief Twit want to prioritize who gets those Grey Checkmarks first (and it is not individuals). Elon Musk claims he “just killed” the deployment hours after it began. The gray checkmarks have vanished from those accounts that only just got them, including Engadget’s and The New York Times. With that said, this isn’t necessarily a complete about-face. Twitter VP Esther Crawford clarified that you’ll still see the marks, but that the social media giant is handing them out to “government and…

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Grey is The New Blue for Twitter

As reported yesterday, Twitter was going to introduce a new ‘official’ badge for high profile accounts. This is because the old ‘verified’ blue checkmark now represents a user who is paying $8 a month for Twitter Blue. This means the old blue ‘verified’ checkmark is nothing more then a status symbol and nothing to do with being a verified account. As of today, Twitter has introduced a grey checkmark below the blue checkmark for the high profile accounts. However, not all high profile accounts currently have these, so this change may still be in the process of being fully deployed….

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Gmail No Longer Allowing Users to use old Layout

First off, while I have several personal and one educational Gmail account, I was not aware Google Inc. 168,99 +0,53 +0,31% had made changes to the interface. I manage all my Gmail accounts via Mozilla Thunderbird email client (which ironically I also use to manage my Google Calendar). I might actually access the web interface maybe once or twice a year if I need to access one of the Gmail accounts on my laptop (not sure why I don’t have Thunderbird installed on that machine). When the new interface was rolled out earlier this year, users could go back to…

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Patch Tuesday: Windows 11 KB5019961 & KB5019980

Today is the second Tuesday of November, better known as Patch Tuesday. Today, Microsoft Corporation 394,94 +5,61 +1,44% has released KB5019961 (21H2) and KB5019980 (22H2) for Window 11. These are mandatory updates. Windows 11 KB5019980 and KB5019961 cumulative updates for versions 22H2 and 21H2 to fix security vulnerabilities and resolve thirty-one bugs and performance issues. The Windows 11 cumulative updates include 31 improvements and fixes, with the highlighted fixes listed below: New! It enhances search visual treatments on the taskbar to improve discoverability. This is available to a small audience initially and deploys more broadly in the months that follow. Some devices might…

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Patch Tuesday: Windows 10 KB5019959

Today is the second Tuesday of November, better known as Patch Tuesday. Today, Microsoft Corporation 394,94 +5,61 +1,44% has released KB5019959 for Window 10 (builds 20H2, 21H1, 21H2 and 22H2). With the KB5019959 update, Microsoft has made a total of nineteen bug fixes or improvements, with the eight highlighted changes listed below: It addresses an issue that causes an OS upgrade to stop responding, and then it fails. It addresses an issue that affects the font of three Chinese characters. When you format these characters as bold, the width size is wrong. It addresses an issue that affects Microsoft Direct3D 9 games….

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Twitter ‘Official’ Badge Coming to High Profile Accounts

So anyone (who pays the $8 per month) with a Twitter Blue subscription automagically get the ‘verified’ (blue checkmark) badge and we saw how well that is working with several people getting their accounts banned over the weekend for impersonating Elon Musk with their own ‘verified’ Twitter accounts. To combat this (and to add even more confusion) Twitter is going to roll out (after the US mid term elections are over) an ‘Official’ Badge from some ‘High Profile’ accounts. “Not all previously verified accounts will get the ‘Official’ label and the label is not available for purchase,” explained product manager Esther…

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Beware installing Extensions outside of Chrome Web Store

A new malicious Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browser botnet named ‘Cloud9’ is infecting systems across the world. Users are unknowingly installing this botnet via malicious extensions downloaded from outside the Chrome Web Store. More commonly, users are blinding installing an update to Adobe Flash Player via malicious and faske pop-up when visiting certain none-reputable sites. A reminder, In case you were not aware Adobe ended support for Flash Player nearly 2-years ago on December 30, 2020.  Also, Google Chrome had its own built-in Flash Player support which did not require the user to install any plugins. The malicious Chrome…

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Reminder: Windows 10 21H1 Support Ending Next Month

We mentioned this around last month’s Patch Tuesday, but we mention it again: Microsoft Corporation 394,94 +5,61 +1,44% will  “End of Service’  Windows 10 21H1 (May 2021 update) on December’s Patch Tuesday (December 13th). This means December will be the last time Microsoft will offer updates for the Window 10 21H1 build. This does not mean support for Windows 10 is ending or you need to install Windows 11 to continue getting updates. You may continue to use Windows 10 and get updates through October 2025. All you need to do is install the update for the latest Windows 10…

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