News of the Fortnight!

Paint .NET To Stop Working For Windows 7 And 32-Bit PCs

Paint .NET will soon stop working for machines on Windows 7 [or 8.1] as well as 32-bit machines. This is because the latest version, 4.3.3, has moved to .NET framework 6. This is only supported for Windows 10 or 11 64-bit. Of course, Windows 11 is 64-bit exclusive, so 11 users aren't left out.

Winamp To Return As A Radio/Podcast Streaming Service

Winamp plan to relaunch themselves as a location for listening to radio stations and podcasts, not unlike similar apps and websites. Winamp was discontinued in 2013 and was acquired by Radionomy, who started asking people to try a beta version of the Winamp software around that time. At its peak, 2001, Winamp was one of the most popular audio players on the market, attracting a whooping 60 million players. Clearly, Radionomy/Winamp are trying to regain their lost market-share and relevance like they had in 2001.

Camera The Size of A Grain of Salt Developed at Washington Uni

This camera, pictured below, is 50 000 times smaller than a conventional one, yet can make pictures that are just as sharp.

This camera, because it's no bigger than a grain of salt, can be used in many applications such as surgery and robotics. Developed by Washington and Princeton University, this really is a technological marvel. See the full story here.

Government Bans "Easy-To-Access" Default Passwords For Networking Hardware

OEMs have been banned from setting "easy-to-access" passwords [like "admin"] for devices such as routers and switches. They have also banned passwords from being re-settable to a universal factory settting, meaning that every device will have a unique password. This is part of the UK Government's Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill [see here]. I personally love this change :)

3B People Have Never Been Online :(

It has been revealed that 2.9 billion people ave never been online, according to the International Telecommunication Union [part of the UN]. It says that 96% of this group are from developing countries.

0.21% Of Windows Computers w/ 11

In the first few weeks of its release, it has been found that only 0.21% of Windows computers had upgraded to the 11th iteration of Microsoft's OS. This figure is actually lower than the figures of Windows XP and Vista! However, the fact that Windows 11's system requirements are so high at the moment, probably to protect 11's reputation has been a major catalyst for this, as well as the lack of significant features like the promised addition of Android apps to the Microsoft Store.

When is the next News of the Fortnight?

Wednesday 5th January 2022 Will be News of the Fortnight #2!

What is this?

This is the summary of all the tech news in the Computeractive bimonthly magazine.