TweakHound

Computer stuff...

Eric (a.k.a. TweakHound)

Thursday Morning Random Stuff…

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Windows 10 Updates
1809 – December 5, 2018—KB4469342 (OS Build 17763.168)
1803 – November 27, 2018—KB4467682 (OS Build 17134.441
1709 – November 27, 2018—KB4467681 (OS Build 16299.820)

Graphics Drivers
AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition Optional 18.12.1.1 (05DEC2018)
Nvidia GeForce Game Ready Driver 417.22 WHQL (03DEC2018)

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

VCU knocks off Texas, Shaka Smart 54-53 in Austin
Facing former VCU coach Shaka Smart and Texas on Wednesday night at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas, the Rams kept the game close and took some slight leads.
Then, with 4:38 to play, a 3-pointer by Sean Mobley gave the Rams a 3-point advantage. They never relinquished the lead.
Hook’em indeed!

Is NOTHING private any more? Shocking extent of how big firms harvest your data
Examples include:
– Pregnant women’s due dates being farmed out by Asda to mystery third-party companies for marketing;
– Children’s voices recorded on the YouTube Kids app being used by Google to promote other apps;
– Passport copies given to PayPal for account verification purposes being shared with Microsoft for facial recognition products;
– Health details, ethnic origin and political views of Facebook users being used by the social network for targeted advertising;
– Viewers of BT television being profiled for advertisers according toprofiles of their television watching and telephone call records.
Actually not shocking but definitely reinforcing.

Paul Thurrott – Tip: Download Windows 7 and 8.1 ISOs
“I’m not sure when this happened, but Microsoft now has ISO downloads available for Windows 7 and 8.1, and not just Windows 10.”
It happened over 3 years ago.

Saturday Morning News

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Macrium Reflect 7.2.3906
Download | Release Notes

Mp3tag v2.91
Download | Release Notes

BlackArch Linux 2018.12.01
BlackArch Linux is an Arch Linux-based penetration testing distribution for penetration testers and security researchers. The repository contains 2081 tools. You can install tools individually or in groups. BlackArch Linux is compatible with existing Arch installs.
Download
This is a Kali-like distro. Has anyone used it?

About Those Amazon Links
I want to thank you guys that use the Amazon links I post manually. I try to keep them relevant and they are often something I own (or want to). I get a tiny commission on those and that goes to help keep this site going. The costs for running this site includes hosting and software among other things.
As to the other ads…They help too but I hope you regulars are smart enough not to see them. I block all 3rd party ads on all sites, including my own.
uBlock Origin – Chrome | Privacy Badger – Chrome
uBlock Origin – Firefox | Privacy Badger – Firefox

Deal expired
Speaking of which…
Big sale, TODAY ONLY
Save on Star Trek collections on DVD and Blu-ray

Blocking A Programs Internet Access Via The Windows Firewall

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Many programs on your computer access the internet even though they don’t need to. They phone home for a variety of reason including telemetry and checking for updates.
I don’t need or want most programs phoning home for any reason. Still, they try.
With programs getting more invasive I thought it would be appropriate to show you how to block their access to the net.
[Read more…] about Blocking A Programs Internet Access Via The Windows Firewall

Friday Morning Dump

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AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition Optional 18.12.1
“Support for Just Cause 4”
Download | Release Notes

GeForce Hotfix Driver Version 417.21
This is GeForce Hot Fix driver version 417.21 that addresses the following:
– Memory Data Rate reporting incorrect value in NVIDIA Control Panel
– Microsoft Edge does not respond after playing back video
– Can’t apply color format after updating to driver 417.01
Click the appropriate link to download the driver:
NVIDIA GeForce Hotfix Driver 417.21 for Windows 10 x64 – DCH
NVIDIA GeForce Hotfix Driver 417.21 for Windows 10 x64 – Standard

CCleaner 5.50
Download (I use portable) | Release Announcement
This version has “control and transparency over when updates are performed.”
LOL. I control that with the Windows Firewall, article to follow.

Google Shut Out Privacy and Security Teams From Secret China Project
“people’s search records would be easily accessible to China’s authoritarian government, which has broad surveillance powers that it routinely deploys to target activists, journalists, and political opponents…

Beaumont and other executives then shut out members of the company’s security and privacy team from key meetings about the search engine, the four people said, and tried to sideline a privacy review of the plan that sought to address potential human rights abuses…

“Their biggest fear was that internal opposition would slow our operations.”…

Google employees who had worked on Dragonfly watched the furor unfold and were not surprised by the backlash. Many of the concerns raised by the human rights groups, they noted, had already been voiced inside the company prior to the public exposure of the plans, though they had been brushed aside by management…

Zunger and his colleagues produced a privacy report that highlighted problematic scenarios that could arise once the censored search engine launched in China. The report, which contained more than a dozen pages, concluded that Google would be expected to function in China as part of the ruling Communist Party’s authoritarian system of policing and surveillance…

“What Pichai said [about Dragonfly being an experiment] was ultimately horse shit,” said one Google source with knowledge of the project. “This was run with 100 percent intention of launch from day one. He was just trying to walk back a delicate political situation.”

Deal expired
Star Trek: Stardate Collection Blu-ray
$32.36
Was: $58.99
You Save: $26.63 (45%)

Thursday Morning Random Stuff…

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EasyBCD 2.4
This is the program I use to dual-boot. First update in over 3 years!
Download. Requires registration.
EasyBCD 2.4 (November 28, 2018)
– Fixed: bcdboot paramters in RepairBootDrive call
– Fixed:/NLT crashes on malformed XML translation files
– Fixed: partitions with 64-bit extensions are not supported
– Fixed: Detect <= Windows 7 and disable metro bootloader to prevent hidden boot menu
– Fixed: Statusbar height shrinks when blank under Windows 10
– New: Add autocompletion to all path textboxes
– New: Add Ability to turn on/off hypervisor state for entries
– New: Verify destination of “change boot partition” is at least 75 MiB
– Include Bulgarian in BCD/BOOTMGR locale list
– Include XML validity checks as part of build process
– Custom SWF high-DPI support in EasyBCD
– High-DPI support in EasyBCD setup
– Do not repeatedly apply existing settings when modifying entry attribute

Intel Graphics Driver for Windows 10
Download | Release Notes
DRIVER VERSION: 25.20.100.6444
DATE: November 28th,2018
12 newly supported games
I reckon this is also supposed to stop your Win10 October 2018 update from being blocked for older drivers.

Other Software Updates
AMD Ryzen Master 1.5.1.0862
EMDB 3.27

Don’t Be Evil and Don’t Be Hypocrites
4,000 Google employees concerned about the U.S.Defense Department’s Project Maven.
Only 1,400 Google employees concerned about Google’s Project Dragonfly, a Chinese censorship program. As of this writing, 514 signed petition. Now we see Google employees actually supporting the censorship efforts in China.
People are seriously arguing that a censored internet is better than no internet. This while we are still discussing Russian trolls influencing our elections with “disinformation and propaganda”. I’m astounded by this nonsensical argument.

Some info here: iVerge – Dueling employee petitions have revealed a deep divide within Google over China

Wednesday Random Stuff…

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Win10 Updates
Many “Addresses an issue” fixes.
Build 1809 – None
Build 1803 – November 27, 2018—KB4467682 (OS Build 17134.441)
Build 1709 – November 27, 2018—KB4467681 (OS Build 16299.820)

Nvidia GeForce Game Ready Driver 417.01 WHQL
“Provides the optimal gaming experience for Darksiders III”
Download | Release Notes

Macrium Reflect 7.2.3897
Download | Release Notes

FinalCrypt 2.6.3
Free, open source encryption software.
Download & Info

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

Instagram Rich List 2018

Samsung 860 EVO 500GB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD
List Price: $109.99
With Deal: $72.99
You Save: $37.00 (34%)

Samsung 860 EVO 1TB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD
List Price: $199.99
Price: $127.98
You Save: $72.01 (36%)

DEF LEPPARD – The Stories So Far Episode 1 with Joe Elliott
Joe tells all about the making of Pour Some Sugar On Me.

Def Leppard – The Story So Far CD comes out Friday
Track Listings
Disc: 1
1. Animal
2. Photograph
3. Pour Some Sugar On Me
4. Love Bites
5. Let’s Get Rocked
6. Armageddon It
7. Foolin’
8. Two Steps Behind
9. Heaven Is
10. Rocket
11. Hysteria
12. Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad
13. Make Love Like A Man
14. Action
15. When Love And Hate Collide
16. Rock Of Ages
17. Personal Jesus

Disc: 2
1. Let’s Go
2. Promises
3. Slang
4. Bringin’ On The Heartbreak
5. Rock On
6. Nine Lives
7. Work It Out
8. Stand Up (Kick Love Into Motion)
9. Dangerous
10. Now
11. Undefeated
12. Tonight
13. C’mon C’mon
14. Man Enough
15. No Matter What
16. All I Want Is Everything
17. It’s All About Believin’
18. Kings Of The World

Weekend Random Stuff…

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

Nvidiux: Nvidia GPU Overclocking And Underclocking Software For Linux (GUI)
“Nvidiux is a graphical Nvidia GPU overclocking tool for Linux. The application makes it easy to overclock or underclock Nvidia GPUs, while also providing some extra features like fan control or GPU monitoring.”
Cool!

The best phone to buy right now (2018) – The Verge
LOL. I knew what their pick was before I clicked the link. And they wonder why people call them iVerge…

USPS Site Exposed Data on 60 Million Users
“U.S. Postal Service just fixed a security weakness that allowed anyone who has an account at usps.com to view account details for some 60 million other users, and in some cases to modify account details on their behalf.”
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night…

Exclusive poll: America sours on social media giants
“In the past year, there has been a 15-point spike in the number of people who fear the federal government won’t do enough to regulate big tech companies — with 55% now sharing this concern…Yes, but: About 40% of Americans still feel that social media is a net positive for society. Overall, 65% of people say smartphones have made their quality of life better…Americans are more aware than ever before about the dark side of technologies, which should worry Silicon Valley.”
Apparently 40% of Americans wear rose colored glasses.

Google Reveals Plans to Monitor Our Moods, Our Movements, and Our Children’s Behavior at Home
“What the patents describe are sensors and cameras mounted in every room to follow us and analyze what we’re doing throughout our home.
They describe how the cameras can even recognize the image of a movie star’s image on a resident’s t-shirt, connect it to the person’s browsing history, and send the person an ad for a new movie the star is in.”
Smart homes, for people who aren’t.

Windows 10 Telemetry
This topic has been making the rounds for the last couple of days. The German government Federal Office for Information Security did a paper entitled, “Analysis of Telemetry component in Windows 10“. It dissects and offers advice on slowing/stopping/blocking Win10 telemetry.
This article and analysis offers absolutely nothing new. Geeks have known all this information for some time. Everything you could possibly want to know on this subject and the available solutions are available here:
Forums at Mt Digital Life – [REPO] Windows 10 TELEMETRY REPOSITORY (requires login to see everything)

My Amazon Fire HD 10
Received, rooted, hacked. Still playing with it. Article at least a week out.