Stop Criticizing Apps for "Phoning Home". Instead, Ask Why

Did You Know? In the Bering Strait, there are two small islands known as Big Diomede (Russia) and Little Diomede (the U.S.). The stretch of water between these two islands is only about 2.5 miles wide and freezes solid in the dead of winter–meaning someone could technically walk from Alaska to Russia, or vice versa. Geek Trivia Fingernails Are Primarily Composed Of A Compound Known As? Biotin → Keratin → Chitin → Gelatin → Advertisement Download the Essentials of Information Security Kit: Includes a Free PC Security Handbook - 2nd Edition eBook The Essentials of Information Security brings together the latest in information, coverage of important developments, and expert commentary to help with your Information Security related decisions. Click here to download Want to Change Your Email Preferences? At some point in the past you subscribed to the How-To Geek newsletter, but if you'd like to change the frequency or unsubscribe, you can do so by clicking the button. Change my Subscription (or unsubscribe) Today's How-To Geek Articles By popular request, we're including a quick list of the daily articles at the top of the daily email as well as the regular format near the bottom. How to See Other Devices Logged Into Your Facebook Account What Is “Device Association Framework Provider Host” and Why Is It Running on My PC? How to Watch Apple’s Live Stream Events on Windows, Android, and Linux Stop Criticizing Apps for “Phoning Home”. Instead, Ask Why What Does the Percent Sign in Linux Shell Strings Do? Eight Easy Ways to Save Money on Your Utility Bills How to Reset Your iOS Device’s Network Settings and Fix Connection Issues How to Run Two or More Terminal Commands at Once in Linux 10 Ways to Customize the Windows 10 Start Menu How to Stream From VLC to Your Chromecast Geek Comic Today's Tech Term Cyberwarfare Cyberwarfare (a.k.a. Information Warfare and Cyberterrorism) refers to creating havoc or outright attacks on computer and information systems like power grids, stock exchanges, telecommunication networks, etc. What We're Reading This section contains what we're reading from around the web, along with commentary from our editors. Think of it like your daily digest of the most interesting things online. Online medical, sickness, and illness symptoms: Googling our medical symptoms is making us sicker Our fixation with searching for our symptoms and assembling a diagnosis before we even get to the doctor's office is doing us more harm than good. [Quartz] Meet Charpu, the Drone-Racing Megastar Who Doesn't Feel Like Racing He's the best drone racer in the world, but he's not entirely attached to racing in the first place--inside the fledgling "sport" of drone racing and competitions. [Wired] New Catalyst Could Split Water Cheaply The goal: Inexpensive hydrogen for fuel cells that power cars and homes [Scientific American] Meet PocketBlock, the crypto engineering game for kids of all ages When you're a cryptographer, telling your preteen kids what you do isn't easy. [ArsTechnica] How to See Other Devices Logged Into Your Facebook Account You logged into your Facebook account on your friend's computer, and you're not sure if you logged out. Or maybe you’re worried someone else has your password. Thankfully, Facebook tracks where you're logged in, so you can see every device logged into your account, and end any sessions you don't want active. Read This Article → What Is “Device Association Framework Provider Host” and Why Is It Running on My PC? If you browse through your Task Manager in Windows 8 or 10, you'll probably see several instances of a process named "Device Association Framework Provider Host" running. If you've ever wondered what it was, why there are so many, and why it might be spiking your CPU usage, we've got the answer for you. Read This Article → How to Watch Apple’s Live Stream Events on Windows, Android, and Linux Apple claims their live streams are only available in Safari on macOS and iOS. But you don’t have to miss the new iPhone launch if you’re using a Windows PC or Android device. Apple doesn’t make it obvious how to do this, but you can watch its live events on any operating system. Read This Article → Stop Criticizing Apps for “Phoning Home”. Instead, Ask Why Windows 10 is controversial partly because it “phones home” so much. That’s true, but so does every other operating system–and practically every single program you use. Saying a program “phones home” doesn’t have meaning anymore. It’s why a program phones home that’s important. Read This Article → What Does the Percent Sign in Linux Shell Strings Do? When you are in the process of learning how to fully use the Linux shell, you may find yourself curious about how much you can manipulate strings in order to get the best results. With that in mind, today’s SuperUser Q&A post has the answer to a curious reader’s question. Read This Article → Eight Easy Ways to Save Money on Your Utility Bills When it comes to saving money on your electricity and other utility costs, getting something like a smart thermostat or smart outlet to monitor and optimize energy usage can be helpful. But there are a ton of things you can do that require little to no money or effort, too. Here are eight really easy tasks to do around the house that will instantly save you money on your bills. Read This Article → How to Reset Your iOS Device’s Network Settings and Fix Connection Issues If you’re having Wi-Fi or cellular issues that you just haven’t been able to resolve using other methods, iOS gives you the option to reset all your network settings. This sets just about everything back to the factory default, giving you a chance to start from scratch. Read This Article → How to Run Two or More Terminal Commands at Once in Linux If you use Linux, you know how useful the command line can be for working with files, installing software, and launching programs. But it can be even more efficient if you run multiple commands at once. Read This Article → 10 Ways to Customize the Windows 10 Start Menu Windows 10 finally brought back the Start menu, and it's more customizable than ever. Here’s a quick rundown of all the different ways that you can make the Start menu your own. Read This Article → How to Stream From VLC to Your Chromecast VLC’s developers have been working on Chromecast support for some time, and it’s finally here. In the latest bleeding edge Windows versions of VLC, you can stream video and audio files from VLC media player on your PC to your Chromecast. Read This Article → Advertisement Download the Essentials of Information Security Kit: Includes a Free PC Security Handbook - 2nd Edition eBook The Essentials of Information Security brings together the latest in information, coverage of important developments, and expert commentary to help with your Information Security related decisions. Click here to download