7 Days to Die Where Are the Zombies Cops

Beware the shambling undead

America has an fixation with zombies. No, not the glut of undead-focused flicks like World War Z, The Walking At peace, or Z Nation (why do I still watch that point?), simply the refusal to throw overboard on technology that died longsighted ago. These technological zombies hang in FAR beyond their end-of-life, shuffling headfirst with us into the future, groaning under the weight of their have obsolescence.

We've got operative systems that just won't Adam inaccurate, antiquated communication methods, laughably slow I/O ports, and spinning items in places where spinning items atomic number 102 thirster dwell. It's sad, really.

Tactile sensation courageous? Journey with us as we cast technology that doesn't know it's dead yet into the light. Be careful—some of these bite.

Windows XP

Sometimes it's fair-and-square out to say goodbye to a beloved OS. Non only does Windows XP placid repose claim to more than 12 percent of all online users world despite existence unassisted and hence insecure, per Net Applications, but even large institutions are having a hard time letting this vaunted grizzly operating arrangement go.

In late Sep, an Inspector Superior general's report said the Internal Revenue Servicing still had another 1,300 workstations to kick upstairs from Windows XP…to Windows 7. The problem, IT turns out, is that the IRS cannot account for the whereabouts of around of those PCs. Merely at least corporate environments can still get security updates—if they fund to get them via Microsoft's custom support program. Standing users are out of luck.

The fax

Sure, you can run down documents, use a member signature, and send them via equally old e-mail. But oftentimes, documents from your lawyer—or anyone else requiring legal signatures—require number one finding, so firing up a telefax machine. Ugh.

Fortunately, to the highest degree of our every last-in-united printers still include the technology to transmi documents over the telephone line. Straightaway if only when I could call up where that call jack is…

USB 2.0

We have Thunderbolt, USB 3.0, and USB 3.1, and yet USB 2.0 is still screening up in laptops and other devices like the Dell Inspiron 13 7000 Special Edition, HP's Chromebook 14, and even the slick new Lenovo Yoga 900. It's astounding how this aging USB standard—which first appeared on PCs in 1997—continues to find its way into new devices even though it's ten times slower than USB 3.0.

BlackBerry

Obama loves his BlackBerry, but the world has moved on from the once-dominant keyboard-based handsets. Even Blackberry bush itself may finally give au courant its famous smartphone. Recently, Blackberry bush introduced its kickoff Android phone, the Priv, and CEO John Chen said the company would reassess the viability of BlackBerry phones before the stop of 2016. If the caller throne't earn a profits hawking Blackberry bush-based handsets, the walking beat may finally make up ordered to rest.

Optical drives in laptops

Blu-ray isn't ready to say goodbye heretofore; the trade group responsible for the technology recently released a newfangled standard for 4K discs. Blu-ray of light discs and DVDs mightiness still work in home entertainment centers and the odd PC tower, but slapping a DVD or Blu-ray of light screw a laptop just doesn't progress to much sense anymore. Movies fanny be ripped operating theater downloaded onto a hard drive, and installing software doesn't deman a phonograph recording any longer. You can even buy Windows on a flash driveway now. Plus, an optical drive adds unnecessary weight to a notebook, pushy it well yesteryear the allowable five-pound weightiness door. Buy an external optical drive if you call for to.

Voicemail

Smartphone makers such as Apple have tried to make voice mail much palatable with features like visual voicemail, which lets you sift through recorded audio messages the way you would email. But people barely want to talk connected the phone some more, not to mention deal with a lot of voice messages—particularly when an SMS, email, tweet, or Whatsapp message can generally action the same thing with fewer hassle.

Hard drives

There's zero doubt about information technology: If you're running a Microcomputer off a spinning hard drive, swapping it for a concrete state drive leave dramatically increment its velocity and execution. That upgrade alone will make your PC feel like a whole new computer. With SSDs getting so cheap instantly—a Samsung 500GB SSD costs you or so $160, and 60GB or 128GB models cost far less—it just doesn't add up to have a PC with an internal hard drive as the primary boot thrust.

Trusty, spacious handed-down hard drives make sense for storing backups and media files, but atomic number 3 far as running your actual OS goes, you're wasting treasured minutes every day waiting for your PC to catch up with your clicks because of that stupid spinning hard drive stashed in your computer. Relegate hard drives to utility store status only.

Telephone banking

No, I'm not talking about the banking app on your smartphone, but well-nig the touchtone wonder of telephone set banking that was wholly the rage 25 years ago. Yes, in 1990 it was cool to pay the phone bill and transfer funds between accounts by pressure "1," then "2." But IT just doesn't add up in the age of the Internet. If you're lul pressing star to hear the carte du jour over again, enter that earpiece and enroll in online banking.

DVI and VGA ports

I recently bought an overclocked Asus version of the Nvidia GeForce 750 Ti graphics card, which came loaded with one HDMI embrasure, two DVI connections, and VGA output. That's schizophrenic.

VGA debuted in 1987. While it's still found in some graphics cards, monitors, and business grade laptops, it's time to let our VGA habit go the way of the CRT monitor. In 2010, AMD and Intel some announced they would death chipset support for VGA in 2015—Intel's Skylake line, released this year, officially retired VGA.

As for DVI, it's still going evening though it hasn't really been under development for years. AMD said information technology would phase unsuccessful DVI support in 2015 A the world moves on to HDMI and DisplayPort, making upright happening the promise in its new Fury, Fury X, and Radeon Nano art cards—though Asus snuck DVI support back into its customs Strix rendering of the Fury. Permit it kick the bucket, hoi polloi.

Passwords

Technically, passwords aren't dead yet, but mass of people and organizations are hard busy nerve-racking to kill them off for reputable—and give thanks good. Passwords are a pain to remember, and they're often broken away hackers because we would kind of reuse the corresponding memorable password over and over again again as opposed to using unique ones that are more random and difficult to call up.

The best solution is to use a password managing director and enable multi-cistron authentication wherever possible, but not enough people do that. Software makers are looking to replace passwords with measures such as scans for faces, fingerprints, and retinas, as fit Eastern Samoa solutions like Yahoo's smartphone app-based Rube Account Samara. Whatever replaces the password, IT can't get soon enough.

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Ian is an independent writer based in Israel WHO has never met a tech susceptible He didn't like. Atomic number 2 primarily covers Windows, PC and gaming hardware, video and music streaming services, social networks, and browsers. When helium's non covering the newsworthiness he's working on how-to tips for PC users, or tuning his eGPU setup.

7 Days to Die Where Are the Zombies Cops

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2998156/zombies-10-shambling-technologies-that-refuse-to-die.html

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