Computer News

Configure telemetry and other settings in your organization
Updated on February 25th, 2016. “Learn about the telemetry that Microsoft gathers, the network connections that Windows components make to Microsoft, and also the privacy settings that affect data that is shared with either Microsoft or apps and how they can be managed by an IT Pro.”

SSD Reliability
A new study says age is a bigger factor in SSD reliability than usage. This “means that over-provisioning for fear of flash wearout is not needed.” Full study here: Flash Reliability in Production: The Expected and the Unexpected

“Where’s my phone?”
Got Android? Got help!

Horrible Bosses
“Your jobs have been given over to a foreign workforce,” Perrero recalled the executive saying. “In the meantime you will be training your replacements until your jobs are 100 percent transferred over to them and if you don’t cooperate you will not receive any severance pay.”

Don’t Go In The Water
Wireshark 2.0.2 is out there. Bugfixes.

Headed To The NHL?
This high school kid scored a sweet goal for an overtime win! I say sign him now.

Site News
I had to switch to a new caching plugin because W3 Total Cache is causing issues and seems all but abandoned. Now trying WP Fastest Cache. Please let me know if you are having issues.

Who’da Thunk It?
Advertising companies don’t like ad blockers? Really? I can’t imagine why not?
:rolleyes:

FWIW
I don’t think polls are the way to judge the righteousness of something. That said Reuters has polled the public over the Apple v. FBI issue:
46% side with Apple
35% side with the FBI
I know a lot of you have made up your mind on this but I’ll be damned if I can see through all the B.S. on both sides.
When asked if the government should be able to look at smart phones “to protect against terror threats”:
46% agree
42% disagree
I’m curious what will happen to those numbers when the next attack happens?

NoDVD
Blu-ray ripper AnyDVD has been shut down. Check the comments for alternatives.

Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah
A buddy of mine suggested a program called Zipware as an alternative to 7-Zip. It seems to be an OK program but I would really like to find out more about the individual behind it before I recommend it. Near as I can tell he/she/they/it are in Australia?
Have a wonderful day!

O&O ShutUp10 Updated
This is the popular Win10 privacy tool featured in the Windows 10 Tweak Guide. Version 1.3.1355 contains a couple of new features and fixes.
Download & Info

Dumb Phones
When it comes to smart phones I almost feel un-Geeky. I don’t get the fuss about new phones. I’m proud that I’ve held my phone together for over 3 years and I can almost relate to folks going back to dumb phones.

I Didn’t Hear Him Pick A Side
Reporters claimed Bill Gates sided with the FBI over Apple in their dispute. Bill said nothing of the kind. This issue is very complex. I still haven’t made up my mind and frankly I don’t know if I ever will.

Crap Cleaner
CCleaner v 5.15 released.
Download
Release Notes
***Pay attention during install. May attempt to install unwanted programs.

New Intel Chipset Device Software
It always baffles me when Intel puts new stuff in their download center. The date on their download page says 2/4/216 yet I was there a couple of days ago and this version was NOT there.
Anywho, version 10.1.1.14 is out.

Think You’re Having A Bad Day?
Linux Mint has been hacked. Their site, their forums, even their ISO’s.
Not good. Not good at all.

I’ve Been Telling You…
I could almost see the eyes rolling when I said “I think you have to be 8 different kinds of stupid to put your house or car on a network.”
More proof: Major security flaw could let hackers take control of smart homes: Bug could leave thousands of devices vulnerable

Spam-It All
The top 15 corporate spammers include Groupon, Facebook, Twitter, and a host of clothing stores. They’ve listed the top unsubscribed too. Gmail has gotten good at just putting that stuff in the spam or trash folder.

Kodi 16
The free and cross platform home theater program Kodi has been updated. I use and recommend Kodi.
Unfortunately their site doesn’t seem to be able to handle all the attention this release is getting and is down at the moment.

Jaded Heart
I’ve stayed out of the Apple v. FBI fight because I believe both side are playing fast and loose with the truth. Given what’s at stake I’m not going to form an opinion until I am reasonably sure I know all the facts. Every article I read seems to have some kind of anti-government or anti-apple agenda rather than trying to just give facts. Reporters used to actually do that. I trust ALL government agencies and ALL corporations to look after their own interests with CYA being their first consideration. It’s the world we live in.

Wiresharking Win10
Another person weighed in on the issue. I’m really not seeing much new info but it is an interesting read.
“Based on my tests, Windows 10 certainly is receiving telemetry data from my PC, but we knew that already. It’s also easy to counter the FUD in some reports. In one hour there were only 751 packets sent to any Microsoft address (including any Azure, Skype or Akamai CDN edge server), for around 222KB of data. Of those packets only 182 contained data, with 134KB transferred to Microsoft. In two hours there were only 1586 packets, with 382 containing data, and 262KB of data transferred…”
He makes references to the amount of data being small which I find odd. Compressed data…
I will use my motherboard manual as an example. It is 79 pages. Below I compressed the file. I also copied the text into notepad. Then I compressed it. All the text data in that file came out to 28kb compressed. Point being, small files can contain a TON of data.

“Without unencrypting the telemetry packets Microsoft receives, we’re not going to know exactly what data it receives. But they’re small and relatively infrequent, so are unlikely to be packed with your personal data.”
Why is it “unlikely”?

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Default Apps Reset?
4 days ago reader Don H. said his defualt app preferences got reset. Apparently he isn’t the only one with that issue:
Updategate: Windows 10 is resetting default apps back to Microsoft stock

New Nvidia Drivers
Nvidia Geforce Game Ready 361.91 WHQL Driver released. Download
“Learn more about how to get the optimal experience for ARMA 3, Street Fighter V, Monster Hunter Online, and HITMAN (Beta)”

Backup Your Backups
Reader Paul pointed me to an article that discusses where an Adobe Creative Cloud update deleted folks backups. Y’all might find the cloud convenient but don’t trust your data to someone else. Backup your backups!

Now I gotta sign off while I still have an internet connection!

Brrr! It’s getting cold here in Virginia.

Firefox 44.0.2
Fixed – Firefox hangs or crashes on startup
Various security fixes
Download 32-bit (en-US)
Download 64-bit (en-US)
Download other systems and languages
Release Notes

Handbrake Updated
HandBrake 0.10.5 is out. Fixes and performance improvements.
“HandBrake is a tool for converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs.”
Download
[Read more…] about T-t-t-t-hursday Random Stuff…

Amazon has up to 60% off Corsair products including: keyboards, mice, water cooling, PC cases, powers supplies, etc.

Killing time before the Super Bowl edition.

Win10…
As I had done in September, someone fired up Wireshark and watched in horror as Win10 blasted out his private info to the free world.
Well, OK, maybe not in “horror”, and maybe not “blasted”, but the results are interesting. Slashdot even picked it up.

Adblock Plus Preparing To Sell Us Out?
Adblock is “reaching out to its adversaries to find an “acceptable” level and form of advertising on the net.”
Good grief.

Did You Pack Your Makeup?
Apparently Astronaut Sally Ride had to put up with some sexist B.S. from reporters back around 1983. Hopefully we have all grown up a little since then.
For those who don’t know, Sally Ride was the first U.S. woman in space. The first woman in space was Russian Valentina Tereshkova 20 years earlier.
It is my belief that mankind’s future is out there somewhere. I also believe that time is of the essence. All of the Astronauts and members of the various space programs around the world are heroes to me. To all the folks toiling in the backrooms of NASA, Roscosmos, and all the other space agencies, I salute you.

Backup
Reader Ed wrote to let me know his backup scheme and I like it!

Recently I performed a Clone that many of your followers might be interested in doing: I did with W10.
The participants: Samsung SSD……one an 840, the other an 850 (My current C:\)………both 120GB (I never use My Documents on these because I have a large, conventional, internal back up hard drive that I save to…….beyond that is an external that the internal back up is backed up to, and stored in a locked shed, away from the house!). With that said, I rarely exceed 50% on the 120’s.
Cleaned the 850 with all the cleaners you have recommended and ran Spyware/Malware programs as well.
My internal DVD burner is also SATA III………thus the same connectors as the SSD.
Disconnected the DVD connectors and plugged them into the 840.
Formatted the 840, then, using Macrium Reflect, I cloned the 850 to the 840. (then a sticky note attached with the date, so I’ll know when, in a year or so, to Clone again)
When finished I put the 840 back in the box it came in and it too is stored in the shed.
NOW: ANYTHING GO BAD WITH MY C:\ (rare with Samsung SSD)…….I simply unplug the 850 and plug in the 840 and I am back in business.