TweakHound

Computer stuff...

Eric (a.k.a. TweakHound)

Thursday Morning Random Stuff…

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Those patches from yesterday are under active exploit. If you are one of the three people that actually use Internet Explorer then get patched.
The article about Facebook I linked to yesterday made its way to the major news outlets. CNN & Fox & NPR.
Seriously, #DeleteFacebook : How to Delete Facebook

Linux Mint 19.1 Is Out
Mint has become my distro of choice. I conduct the majority of my web activities in a Mint virtual machine.
19.1 brings many changes and is an LTS release supported until 2023.
I’m not real thrilled with the default kernel of 4.15. The current LTS is 4.19 and it has been out since October. 19.1 is said to have support for installing “mainline kernels“. I’ve not seen a decent guide on this.
Download Linux Mint 19.1 Tessa
New features in Linux Mint 19.1 Cinnamon

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 18.12.3 Drivers
Bugfixes
Release Notes
Windows 10 64-bit
Windows 7 64-bit

Other Software Releases
EMDB 3.29
FinalCrypt 2.8.0
HWiNFO 6 (I use portable.) (Use the green button to download)
VirtualBox 6

Stuff I bookmarked recently. Some off topic, some not:

Least-Educated State: California
California ranks No. 1 among the 50 states for the percentage of its residents 25 and older who have never completed ninth grade and 50th for the percentage who have graduated from high school, according to new data from the Census Bureau.
“No surprise”, says the residents of the other 49 states.

The Runaways’ Jackie Fox Locks Up Her First Week on Jeopardy!
A former bassist with The Runaways — the late-1970s all-female, teenage proto-punk/hard-rock band that inspired countless women to take up music — Fox has stirred interest in the rock world and beyond with her success on the syndicated game show. After a Wednesday-morning taping at Jeopardy!’s studio in Culver City, she had earned enough money to win again, for her fourth day as champion.
She is one smart lady: Fuchs earned her B.A. summa cum laude from UCLA in Linguistics and Italian, with a specialization in computing, and her J.D. from Harvard, where Barack Obama was one of her classmates. Fox speaks Italian and French, as well as conversational Greek and Spanish.
The Runaways – Cherry Bomb – Official music video

Out Of Band Update

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CVE-2018-8653 | Scripting Engine Memory Corruption Vulnerability
A remote code execution vulnerability exists in the way that the scripting engine handles objects in memory in Internet Explorer…

Updates for all currently supported Windows versions.

Windows 10
Build 1809 – December 19, 2018—KB4483235 (OS Build 17763.195)
Build 1803 – December 19, 2018—KB4483234 (OS Build 17134.472)
Build 1709 – December 19, 2018—KB4483232 (OS Build 16299.847)

Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 update history pages not updated as of this writing.

Wednesday Morning Random Stuff…

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It is Wednesday right?

Intel PROSet/Wireless Software and Drivers for Windows 10
Version: 20.100.0 Date: 12/18/2018

Microsoft Blog – Windows Sandbox
Most of the Windows sites are talking about this. In a future Win10 build, Microsoft is going to introduce a TEMPORARY sandbox feature. It isn’t intended to be a replacement for Virtual Machines. Something most writers on this subject seem to be missing.
“an isolated, temporary, desktop environment where you can run untrusted software without the fear of lasting impact to your PC. Any software installed in Windows Sandbox stays only in the sandbox and cannot affect your host. Once Windows Sandbox is closed, all the software with all its files and state are permanently deleted.”
Sounds like a neat feature. x64, Win10 Pro and Enterprise only.

Stuff I bookmarked recently. Some off topic, some not:

This free online tool uses AI to quickly remove the background from images

Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Fight
Google has been forced to shut down a data analysis system it was using to develop a censored search engine for China after members of the company’s privacy team raised internal complaints that it had been kept secret from them, The Intercept has learned.
C’mon man. Does anyone seriously believe that?

As Facebook Raised a Privacy Wall, It Carved an Opening for Tech Giants
Facebook insisted that it had instituted stricter privacy protections long ago. Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive, assured lawmakers in April that people “have complete control” over everything they share on Facebook.
But the documents, as well as interviews with about 50 former employees of Facebook and its corporate partners, reveal that Facebook allowed certain companies access to data despite those protections.
#DeleteFacebook

New thing I’m gonna do:

Stuff I Don’t Understand…
Having another mans name on your underwear.

Hacking My Amazon Fire HD 10

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*** This guide was written in December, 2018. I do not know if this guide works anymore.
*** There is now a better alternative: Fire Toolbox

I purchased:
Amazon Fire HD 10 Tablet and the Samsung 256GB microSD card to go with it [$40.00 off (47%)]
My aim is to watch stuff while on the treadmill or bike at the gym and maybe web surf while watching TV.
This guide is how I rooted and customized my new Fire HD 10.
[Read more…] about Hacking My Amazon Fire HD 10

Tuesday Morning Random Stuff…

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Rollout Status as of December 17, 2018:
Windows 10, version 1809, is now fully available for advanced users who manually select “Check for updates” via Windows Update.

O&O ShutUp10 v1.6.1400
Download | Changelog

Wise Disk Cleaner v10.1.4.760
Download (I use portable) | Release Announcement

Macrium Reflect v7.2.3954
Download | Release Notes

Stuff I bookmarked recently. Some off topic, some not:

Google CEO Sundar Pichai: Fears about artificial intelligence are ‘very legitimate,’ he says in Post interview
“but the tech industry should be trusted to responsibly regulate its use.”
The fox in charge of the hen house analogy was never more apt than here.

Apple Warns iPhones Have A Serious Problem
What Apple is changing is how users will be able to resize pictures and manage applications on their iPhones. How will these functions be altered? Apple hasn’t said, other than to confirm the update and describe this functionality as “minor” when it is clearly anything but.
So what is going on? In short: Apple is trying to win favour with judges and iPhone users are the test subjects for this.
Those “judges” are in China.

Google isn’t the company that we should have handed the Web over to
Microsoft adopting Chromium puts the Web in a perilous place.
Agreed but it may be too late.

Former Edge intern says Google sabotaged Microsoft’s browser
LOL at a Microsoftie whining about web standards.

Social media is turning a generation of children into liars, leading headmistress warns
teenagers tend to “curate” a certain image of themselves on their social media accounts, such as the photograph sharing platforms, Instagram and Snapchat.
They become used to covering up any perceived imperfections, and there is a danger is when this attitude trespasses into other aspects of their life too.
“If you get used to showing one image of yourself on social media, you may begin to believe that is completely aligned to reality,”
Just how is this different than adult social media users? #DeleteFacebook

Polar vortex could unleash winter wallop by January
“Confidence is growing in a significant #PolarVortex disruption in the coming weeks. This could be the single most important determinant of the weather this #winter across the Northern Hemisphere.”
I’m gonna need thicker socks.

Best Christmas Yard Display Ever (Image credit Instagram via Brobible)

My Favorite Non-Tech Related Web Sites – 2018

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I pretty much stop by these daily, time permitting.

News
I use several sites to try and balance out what I see. They all lean one way or another.
CNN
Drudge Report
Fox News
Google News
NPR

Sports, Ladies, Funny…
Often NSFW. No nudity but often risque. Stay away if you’re easily offended.
Barstool Sports
BroBible
theChive

Sites I stop by once in a while.
Bikeride.com – Cycling Events
Blabbermouth
Military.com
NASA – Latest NASA News Releases
Simon’s Cat

Got a favorite or two to share? Please do.
No paywalls.
Non-tech related only.
You must not be connected with that site in any way.
No social media links. (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the like.)
No nudity, hate, extremism, religion, politics…

*** Always browse with:
uBlock Origin – Chrome | Privacy Badger – Chrome
uBlock Origin – Firefox | Privacy Badger – Firefox

Friday Random Stuff…

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Not much going on out there. I reckon it’s the holidays.

Watch Out: Clicking “Check for Updates” Still Installs Unstable Updates on Windows 10
Microsoft hasn’t learned its lesson. If you click the “Check for Updates” button in the Settings app, Microsoft still considers you a “seeker” and will give you “preview” updates that haven’t gone through the normal testing process.
I’m curious, do all the Microsoft execs have to go to clown school before they work there? Do they all have a Masters in Arrogance and Dismissiveness? Is the Microsoft campus in Redmond really just a giant echo chamber? The level of stupidity, incompetence, and condescension under the current leadership is a marvel to behold.

Weekend viewing:
Pabst Blue Ribbon Presents: The Greatest Beer Run Ever
At a time when the Vietnam War was at its height, one man, John “Chickie” Donohue, snuck back into the war zone to find his 3 closest friends and buy them a beer.

expired
Kershaw Leek Pocket Knife, 3″ blade, Made in U.S.A. TODAY ONLY
Was: $44.97
Deal of the Day: $23.99
You Save: $20.98 (47%)
Arrives before Christmas.

Thursday Afternoon News

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*Important – Win10 Privacy Issue article updated.

Intel Rapid Storage Technology (Intel RST) v16.8.0.1000
Win10 only – Download & Info

Intel Ethernet Drivers v23.5
Win 7 | Win 8.1 | Win10 | Complete Driver Pack

CCleaner v5.51
Download (I use portable.) | Release Announcement
See also: Blocking A Programs Internet Access Via The Windows Firewall
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Amazon’s Disturbing Plan to Add Face Surveillance to Your Front Door
Recently, a patent application from Amazon became public that would pair face surveillance — like Rekognition, the product that the company is aggressively marketing to police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement — with Ring, a doorbell camera company that Amazon bought earlier this year.
While the details are sketchy, the application describes a system that the police can use to match the faces of people walking by a doorbell camera with a photo database of persons they deem “suspicious.” Likewise, homeowners can also add photos of “suspicious” people into the system and then the doorbell’s facial recognition program will scan anyone passing their home. In either case, if a match occurs, the person’s face can be automatically sent to law enforcement, and the police could arrive in minutes…Amazon is dreaming of a dangerous future, with its technology at the center of a massive decentralized surveillance network, running real-time facial recognition on members of the public using cameras installed in people’s doorbells.
I was actually considering buying a Ring doorbell. Should’ve known they would f*** it up.

Thursday Morning Random Stuff…

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Nvidia GeForce Game Ready Driver 417.35 WHQL
Provides the optimal gaming experience for the release of Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) beta in Final Fantasy XV: Windows Edition
Download | Release Notes

Google Chrome 71.0.3578.98 for Windows (1 security fix, bugfixes)
Download | Download standalone(full) | Download standalone 64-bit Windows version(full)

Other Software Releases
Tails 3.11
Tor Browser 8.0.4

Stuff I bookmarked recently. Some off topic, some not:

Many apps on your phone are tracking everywhere you go — here’s how to stop them
Your apps are tracking you — here’s how to stop them

How This Supercolony of 1.5 Million Penguins Stayed Hidden for Nearly 3,000 Years
This year, scientists announced an incredible discovery by looking at poop stains in satellite images — 1.5 million Adélie penguins were living and thriving on a little patch in Antarctica surrounded by treacherous sea ice called the Danger Islands.
There is a joke in there somewhere about DC. I just can’t come up with it.

NSFW – Mason Foster, Washington Redskins Defensive Captain
Pure class.