TweakHound

Computer stuff...

Eric (a.k.a. TweakHound)

The Facebook Dilemma

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This topic has been making the rounds for a couple of days. I wanted to watch the entire thing before I passed it along.
The Facebook Dilemma is two, 50+ minute videos of a PBS Frontline special. It is the story of the dangers of Facebook. The first video deals more about the dangers to individuals. The second is about the dangers Facebook presents to society and democracies around the world. It then circles back to the dangers to individuals.
You’ll learn not only about these topics but about the stunning greed, arrogance, tone deafness, and outright deceit on these issues from the highest levels of Facebook.
In the end the only solution is to #DeleteFacebook.

“The promise of Facebook was to create a more open and connected world. But from the company’s failure to protect millions of users’ data, to the proliferation of “fake news” and disinformation, mounting crises have raised the question: Is Facebook more harmful than helpful? On Monday, Oct. 29, and Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018, FRONTLINE presents The Facebook Dilemma. This major, two-night event investigates a series of warnings to Facebook as the company grew from Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm room to a global empire. With dozens of original interviews and rare footage, The Facebook Dilemma examines the powerful social media platform’s impact on privacy and democracy in the U.S. and around the world.”

PBS Frontline – The Facebook Dilemma

Tuesday Random Stuff…

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Macrium Reflect 7.2
Download | Release Notes

Wise Disk Cleaner 10.1.2.757
Download (I use portable) | Release Announcement

New Linux Releases
Fedora 29 – IMB is buying their “sponsor” Red Hat. It will be interesting to see what happens to Fedora.
Kali 2018.4 – “penetration testing platform”
Manjaro – This is a rolling release distro. I’m generally not a fan of rolling releases but this one is at the top of the board at Distrowatch so what do I know.

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

What is FLAC? The high-def MP3 explained
“CNET explains what FLAC is, where to buy music in the format, and how to play it on your phone, computer or hi-fi.”
I’m ripping exclusively to FLAC now. I haven’t found a single Windows or Linux software audio player that doesn’t play it. AFAIK Android phones have always played it and Apple finally supported it with iOS 11.

Walmart is selling its own line of gaming PCs and the specs don’t suck
No thanks. I can’t stand that place.

Bars in downtown Reykjavík ran out of beer serving thirsty US sailors and marines
Well done!

Avery Tweak Beer
Picked up a bottle of Avery Tweak beer today. Those guys make some seriously delicious beer.
Now if they would just make one called TweakHound…

Firefox Stop Video Autoplay

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The settings for stopping video autoplay in Firefox changed recently. Since I keep my sound off until needed I didn’t notice until this morning. A search turned up the following thread at Mozilla’s forums that corrected the issue for me (at least temporarily):
Block video autoplay not working

“hi, in firefox 63 the autoplay preferences are reorganized in preparation for this feature shipping out of the box in one of the upcoming versions. in about:config you can set media.autoplay.default to 1 in order to block automatic playback on all pages or set it to 2 to decide on a per domain basis.”

Weekend Random Stuff…

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Software Updates
AMD has new drivers if you are playing Fallout76 Beta.
CCleaner has an update for the 3 of you that are using Edge.
Nvidia has some 416.64 beta drivers to fix issues in a few games.

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

Beware of Bing Chrome Download Ads Pushing Adware/PUP Installers
Recent stories have posted this “‘new discovery”. The above article was written by BleepingComputer on April 8, 2018. It seems the same BS has come back despite Microsoft saying they took care of it. You’ve been Binged.

China’s Maxim – Leave No Access Point Unexploited: The Hidden Story of China Telecom’s GP Hijacking
Military Cyber Affairs document.”Conveniently, China Telecom has ten strategically placed, Chinese controlled internet ‘points of presence’ 4 (PoPs) across the internet backbone of North America. Vast rewards can be reaped from the hijacking, diverting, and then copying of information-rich traffic going into or crossing the United States and Canada – often unnoticed and then delivered with only small delays.”
Geeze Louise…

Goodwill workers in NJ find original 1774 ‘rebel’ newspaper
“A quick eye by Goodwill workers in southern New Jersey turned up framed pages from an original 1774 Philadelphia newspaper with an iconic “Unite or Die” snake design on the masthead.
The frayed Dec. 28, 1774, edition of the “Pennsylvania Journal and the Weekly Advertiser” boasts three items signed by John Hancock, then president of the Provincial Congress, who pleads for the Colonies to fight back “enemies” trying to divide them.”
Very cool!

You CAN drink away your troubles, study says: Alcohol affects a gene making your brain forget the bad times and only remember the good ones
“Just one glass of wine could be enough for you to dismiss your bad memories and focus only on the good times, a new study suggests…One drink only changes the pathway for an hour, but three can change the pathway for 24 hours – which could explain why we forget being sick or stumbling home.”
We already knew that, didn’t we?!

Thursday Morning Random Stuff…

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Google Chrome Updated
“The stable channel has been updated to 70.0.3538.77 for Windows, Mac, and Linux”
Bugfixes
Download | Download standalone(full) | Download standalone 64-bit Windows version(full)

Cheap Windows Keys
A couple of folks sent a link to an article stating that cheap Windows keys support crime and will stop working.
I call BS.

Save up to 33% on select Gerber knives (Today Only)
I just bought one.
deal expired

Wednesday News

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Software Updates
Tails 3.10.1
Tor Browser 8.0.3
Winaero Tweaker 0.12.1

Memo to Microsoft: Windows 10 is broken, and the fixes can’t wait
“Windows 10 is officially a shit show…So three urgent changes are required.
Firstly, reintroduce dedicated testers. Don’t rely on automation and the crowd – that clearly isn’t working. Raise the prestige of testers in the company. Secondly, repurpose the Insider programme – reclassify it as a fan club. Anything, really. It’s not a substitute for professional testers. And thirdly, slow down. The rush to bring immature software to market has clearly deteriorated software quality. Are annual releases such a bad thing? Or even delaying the software until it’s actually ready?”
Hear, Hear!

Apple’s Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex”
“Our own information — from the everyday to the deeply personal — is being weaponized against us with military efficiency,” warned Cook. “These scraps of data, each one harmless enough on its own, are carefully assembled, synthesized, traded and sold…We shouldn’t sugarcoat the consequences. This is surveillance.”
Preach!

Making it easier to control your data, directly in Google products
“Before today, if you were searching on Google and wanted to review or manage this data, the best way for you to do that would have been to visit your Google Account. Now, we’re bringing these controls to you – from directly within Search, you can review or delete your Search activity and quickly get back to finding what you were searching for.
We’re also providing quick access to the privacy controls in your Google Account that are most relevant as you use Search. For example, to control the ads you see when you search, we give you access to your Ad Settings. Additionally, you can access your Activity Controls to decide what information Google saves to your account and uses to make Search and other Google services faster, smarter and more useful.”
Do you think they would be doing this if Geeks, Privacy experts, and Academics weren’t screaming about this issue?

Tuesday News

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Firefox 63
Performance improvements, “Added content blocking, a collection of Firefox settings that offer users greater control over technology that can track them around the web. In 63, users can opt to block third-party tracking cookies or block all trackers and create exceptions for trusted sites that don’t work correctly with content blocking enabled.”
Download (all) | Download 32-bit EN-US | Download 64-bit EN-US
Release Notes

The Creepy Line

“An eye-opening documentary, The Creepy Line reveals the stunning degree to which society
is manipulated by Google and Facebook and blows the lid off the remarkably subtle – hence
powerful – manner in which they do it.
The Creepy Line is a title culled from the words of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, when
during a 2010 interview he explained Google’s code of conduct: “The Google policy on a lot of
things is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it.”
However, as Dr. Robert Epstein explains in the film, “Google crosses the creepy line every
day”. Containing ground-breaking interviews with Jordan B. Peterson, Peter Schweizer, and
others, The Creepy Line offers an explosive look at the meddling and intervening done by
Google and Facebook on their supposedly “neutral platforms”.
The Creepy Line takes the conversation about data privacy and control further than ever
before by examining what Google and Facebook do once they control a user’s data. Not only
is this data sold to the highest bidder, but it is used it to mold, massage, and manipulate
the public consciousness while influencing opinion on a vast scale – all with the goal of
transforming society to fit their worldview.
Offering first-hand accounts, scientific experiments and detailed analysis, The Creepy Line
examines what is at risk when these two tech titans have free reign to utilize the public’s most
private and personal data to manipulate society
There is no question that the “creepy line” is getting ever-creepier, and that the tech giants
have crossed it.“

I had bookmarked this a few weeks ago waiting for it to come out. I watched it yesterday. If you don’t already distrust these companies this should change your mind.
Must see TV!
Watch for free on Amazon Prime
Watch for $3.99 on Amazon
Watch for $4.99 on iTunes

Looking For A Webhost

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My current awesome webhost is calling it quits. I’m in search of another.

TweakHound.com doesn’t use a ton of resources. Here are my base requirements:
– Price under $50 per month.
– Security. The webhost should have a good security rating. Free SSL
– Speed. This site is very fast and I want it to stay that way.
– Uptime. 99% or better.
– 100k visits per month.
– 5 gigs of storage.
– Automatic backups.
– Speed, Speed, Speed

I do my own email.
Server must be in U.S.A.
My current server is on the West Coast (California). If I had my druthers I would prefer it be near me on the East Coast.

I’ve come up with:
Bluehost
Hostgator
Inmotion (located in my state, Virginia)
Siteground (former webhost recommended)

Recommendations please!