Microsoft finally lets you customize console colors.

This has taken way longer than it should have, but Microsoft finally released a tool to make it easy to change console color schemes (similar to what has been in many Linux desktop managers for years).

By default, the console window uses an awful default color scheme (dark blue text on a black background is really hard to see). I recommend the OneHalfDark scheme.

Download ColorTool from Microsoft.

Here are some screenshots of how it looks on my system.

Windows Meltdown patches

More information on Meltdown (CVE Identifier: CVE-2017-5754): https://meltdownattack.com/

Here's the KB numbers and download links for the currently-supported versions of Windows.
This is supposed to have auto-installed on Windows 10 / Server 2016 already (if automatic updates is enabled), but it won't show up in Windows Updates for older Windows versions until next week (Patch Tuesday, January 9th), though.

Working code to exploit Meltdown is already in the wild, and apparently a system can be compromised just by visiting a website with something as simple as an embedded malicious JavaScript file.

Windows 10 (1709) and Server 2016 (1709): KB4056892
https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB4056892

Windows 10 (1607) and Server 2016 (1607): KB4056890
https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB4056890

Windows 8.1 and Server 2012 R2: KB4056898
https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB4056898

Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2: KB4056897
https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB4056897

KBs for other Windows 10 builds:

Windows 10 (1703): KB4056891
Windows 10 (1511): KB4056888
Windows 10 (1507): KB4056893

I haven't seen any mention of updates for Windows 8, 2012, Vista, 2003 R2, 2003, or XP, and I doubt there will be any official releases fixed for those. Those systems were already considered insecure for web usage, and now even more so.

new web host

I just moved my web site to a new host. I had been with my previous web host (A Small Orange) for 14 years. I only recently discovered that their lack of support was because they were sold to EIG back in 2011.

(updated) Fix mouse wheel scrolling in macOS Sierra (10.12)

Upgrading from "Mac OS" 10.11 to "macOS" 10.12 didn't bring a lot of visible changes, but it did bring an interface change.

My mouse's scrollwheel seemed to not work right. Slow movements were ignored, and quicker movements caused web pages to jump too fast.

I did a Google search and found out that I wasn't alone. macOS Sierra changed how scroll wheels function. Why? I don't know.

"USB Overdrive" was a recommended fix. However, after using it for a few days, I started having more and more problems with other things. Drag and drop would sometimes stop working, middle-clicking would stop working, and VMware Fusion would crash even more than usual. In all cases, disabling USB Overdrive cleared the issue up. I've tried contacting the developer about this, but have received no response, and they continue to have the "works with 10.12" blurb on their website.

I found that the Chromium Wheel Smooth Scroller extension for Chrome improved scrolling a lot. Slight movements are no longer ignored.
I currently have its top four settings set to 20, 0, 1, 1.