Computer News

Thanks to readers Arthur and Allen for a few of these.

AMD Radeon Adrenalin 2020 Edition 19.12.2 Recommended WHQL Drivers
Support for RX 5500 XT, performance improvements, new Radeon Software, lots of other stuff. Be sure to see the release notes.
Download | Release Notes

Macrium Reflect 7.2.4557
A few small fixes
Download | Release Notes

FinalCrypt 6.1.1
Download | Changelog | Home Page

IrfanView 4.54
Download & Info | History of changes

Americans Ranked The 50 Greatest Christmas Movies Of All Time, And I Am Very Disappointed In Everyone
My Top Eleven
1. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1967)
2. Scrooged (1988)
3. A Charlie Brown Christmas
4. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
5. Santa Claus is Coming to Town
6. A Christmas Carol / Scrooge (Almost any year)
7. The Santa Clause
8. Frosty the Snowman
9. Four Christmases
10. It’s a Wonderful Life
11. Bad Santa
What say you?

Busy, Busy

Windows Updates
Windows 7, 8.1, and 10 all got security updates.
Windows 7 Update history
Windows 8.1 Update history
Windows 10 Update history

I’ve updated my article Remove And Block GWX In Windows 7 to stop the new Windows 7 EOS nagware BS.

Google Chrome 79
Improvements, fixes, 51 security fixes
Download
Download for Android

Adobe Reader Updated
Download | Security Bulletin

VirtualBox 6.1.0
“This is a major update.”
Download | Changelog

Nvidia Geforce Game Ready WHQL Driver 441.66
Download | Release Notes

O&O ShutUp10 Updated
1.7.1405 – released December 06, 2019
FIX: Application of predefined settings via menu were not saved
Download & Info

FinalCrypt 6
Improved User Interface with better overview
Improved file manager behavior & presentation
Improved UserGuidance, Display & Button Layout
Download | Changelog | Home Page

Stuff I bookmarked recently. Some off topic, some not

Supposed crack for Windows 7 Extended Updates that don’t exist.
The hack installs 4 .dll files. Cool trick but quite possibly a big security risk IMHO.

The PC was supposed to die a decade ago. Instead, this happened
“And so, here we are, a full decade after the PC’s untimely death, and the industry is still selling more than a quarter-billion-with-a-B personal computers every year. Which is pretty good for an industry that has been living on borrowed time for ten years.
Maybe the reason the PC industry hasn’t suffered a mass extinction event yet is because they adapted, and because those competing platforms weren’t able to take over every PC-centric task.”

FCC tries to bury finding that Verizon and T-Mobile exaggerated 4G coverage
“Verizon, T-Mobile, and US Cellular exaggerated their 4G coverage in official filings to the Federal Communications Commission, an FCC investigation found. But FCC officials confirmed that Chairman Ajit Pai does not plan to punish the three carriers in any way.”

Start10 v1.8
Couple of fixes
Download | Changelog

Microsoft Office 365 Updated
Fixes and a few new features.
Release Info for 365
See MS How-To: Install Office updates
Speaking of MS Office there is a killer deal TODAY ONLY
Microsoft Office 365 Home 12-month subscription for up to 6 people + $50 Amazon.com Gift Card for $99.99
12-month auto-renewing subscription for up to 6 people
1TB OneDrive cloud storage per person
For use on multiple PCs/Macs, tablets, and phones (including Windows, iOS, and Android)

Stuff I bookmarked recently. Some off topic, some not

Mozilla and Opera remove Avast extensions from their add-on stores, what will Google do?
“A month ago I wrote about Avast browser extensions being essentially spyware. While this article only names Avast Online Security and AVG Online Security extensions, the browser extensions Avast SafePrice and AVG SafePrice show the same behavior: they upload detailed browsing profiles of their users to uib.ff.avast.com. The amount of data collected here exceeds by far what would be considered necessary or appropriate even for the security extensions, for the shopping helpers this functionality isn’t justifiable at all.”

Google founders Page and Brin step back from Alphabet lead
“GOOGLE HAS entered a new phase of life, following the announcement that its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin are to step down from their roles at the top of the business.
The two boffins were Chief Executive and President of Google’s parent company Alphabet, but following the departures, it’s Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai who will fill the void, expanding his role to the wider company…
The slight paradox here is that by bringing the Google and Alphabet CEO roles together, the company is effectively bringing the alignment of the two companies back together, making it a little bewildering as to why they’re separate in the first place.
The real reasons are that of accounting and accountability, but it just feels like Google wants to realign as much as it can get away with without bringing anti-trust accusations to the table.”

Genius Allegedly Caught Google Stealing its Lyrics With an Ingenious Watermark
“Their watermark, which is applied to all of their content, makes the apostrophes in their lyrics alternate between straight and curly single-quote marks (’ and ’). In a delightful Agatha Christie-like twist, when converted to Morse code, the apostrophes spell out “red handed.”
Huh, another site that starts with G being content thieves.

Ring let police view map of video doorbell installations for over a year
“The company once offered a map, now withdrawn, that allowed police to zoom in to see the specific location of Ring customers.”

Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe, Poison on Tour 2020
Details?

SCORPIONS Plot July 2020 Las Vegas Residency, Tap METALLICA Producer For New Album
“So the plan is to record until the first of July, where we have a residency in Las Vegas for a whole month.”
I would love to see these guys again.

DISTURBED’s Performance Of ‘The Sound Of Silence’ Becomes First ‘Conan’ YouTube Clip To Surpass 100 Million Views
I had linked to it here: https://www.tweakhound.com/2016/04/01/friday-random-stuff-2/

A tiger went on an 800-mile odyssey in search of food, a mate, and a place to call home
I feel ya bro. I did this when I was 18.

Microsoft PowerToys 0.14
Changes and bugfixes
Download | Release Info

Intel Chipset Drivers v10.1.18
“Certified for 19h1” That’s awesome except we are on 19h2.
Download | Release Notes

AMD Radeon Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.12.1 Optional
Support for Radeon RX 5300M, fixes for RX 5700. If you don’t have one of those cards then skip this.
Download | Release Notes

Firefox 71
Download: 64-bit (en-US) | All Downloads | Release Notes
Related:
Tor Browser 9.0.2
Tails 4.1

FinalCrypt 5.6.9
Bugfixes and performance improvements
Download | Changelog | Home Page

Kali Linux 2019.4
Lots of changes. Apparently there is an ‘Undercover’ mode. Haven’t had a chance to try it.
Download

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

Vulnerability in fully patched Android phones under active attack by bank thieves
“The vulnerability allows malicious apps to masquerade as legitimate apps that targets have already installed and come to trust, researchers from security firm Promon reported in a post. Running under the guise of trusted apps already installed, the malicious apps can then request permissions to carry out sensitive tasks, such as recording audio or video, taking photos, reading text messages or phishing login credentials. Targets who click yes to the request are then compromised.”
See: The StrandHogg vulnerability
Not good. Not good at all.

Wired: I Ditched Google for DuckDuckGo. Here’s Why You Should Too
“It all started with a realization: Most the things I search for are easy to find. Did I really need the all-seeing, all-knowing algorithms of Google to assist me? Probably not. So I made a simple change: I opened up Firefox on my Android phone and switched Google search for DuckDuckGo. As a result, I’ve had a fairly tedious but important revelation: I search for really obvious stuff. Google’s own data backs this up. Its annual round-up of the most searched-for terms is basically a list of names and events: World Cup, Avicii, Mac Miller, Stan Lee, Black Panther, Megan Markle. The list goes on. And I don’t need to buy into Google’s leviathan network of privacy-invading trackers to find out what Black Panther is and when I can go and see it at my local cinema.”
There are good points in the article. I use DuckDuckGo on my computer and phone. I have to say this, for real research there is nothing that tops Google. They know almost everything about almost everyone.

Oregon FBI Tech Tuesday: Securing Smart TVs
“Welcome to the Oregon FBI’s Tech Tuesday segment. Today: building a digital defense with your TV.
Yes, I said your TV. Specifically your smart TV…the one that is sitting in your living room right now. Or, the one that you plan to buy on super sale on Black Friday.”
Unplug it from the internet. My gripe is we went from waiting for the tubes to heat up, to instant on, to waiting for the TV to boot up.

For banks, data on your spending habits could be a gold mine
“For years, Google and Facebook have been showing ads based on your online behavior. Retailers from Amazon to Walgreens also regularly suction up your transaction history to steer future spending and hold your loyalty.
Now banks, too, want to turn data they already have on your spending habits into extra revenue by identifying likely customers for retailers. Banks are increasingly aware that they could be sitting on a gold mine of information that can be used to predict — or sway — where you spend. Historically, such data has been used mostly for fraud protection…Unlike Google or Facebook, which try to infer what you’re interested in buying based on your searches, web visits or likes, “banks have the secret weapon in that they actually know what we spend money on”…“Consumers aren’t aware of the subtle nudges apps are giving them to buy, buy, buy,” Mierzwinski said. “They are basically digging deep into your psyche and figuring out how to manipulate you.”

American jobs are getting worse, new economic index shows
“In 1990, the jobs were pretty much evenly divided” said Daniel Alpert, a founder of Westwood Capital and one of the creators of the index. In the process of running the numbers, he said, “We discovered that 63% of all jobs that were created since 1990 were low-wage, low-hour jobs. That was a pretty stunning statistic.”

Nvidia Geforce Game Ready WHQL Driver 441.41
Support for Halo: Reach and Image Sharpening Support for Vulkan and OpenGL
Download | Release Notes

Paint.NET 4.2.7
Bugfix for last weeks 4.2.6
Download | Release Info

FinalCrypt 5.6.7
Bugfixes
Download | Changelog

Microsoft Office Updated
Fixes and more fixes.
Release Info for 365 | Release info for standard version
See MS How-To: Install Office updates

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

The California DMV Is Making $50M a Year Selling Drivers’ Personal Information
“DMVs across the country are selling data that drivers are required to provide to the organization in order to obtain a license. This information includes names, physical addresses, and car registration information. California’s sales come from a state which generally scrutinizes privacy to a higher degree than the rest of the country.”

Gobbled Out: 1 In 4 Americans Are Tired Of Traditional Thanksgiving Food
“A new survey of 2,000 Americans has revealed that more than a quarter (26%) have grown weary of the usual Thanksgiving food options and would like to see some new cuisine on the menu this year.
It should come as no surprise then that 45% of the survey’s respondents say they’ve already spiced up a Thanksgiving by cooking non-traditional food for the big meal, or plan to do so in the future. Moreover, 43% say they would be open to celebrating an “alternative Thanksgiving” this year.”
We are back to a small traditional turkey dinner this year. For years we have had a tradition of having crab legs for Thanksgiving. Last year we tried that and my Dad just cannot crack the legs anymore. This meant my wife and I had to do his and between cooking the legs in batches and after cracking his, our crab legs were getting cold. It just wasn’t enjoyable anymore. With his condition so badly deteriorating he doesn’t know Thanksgiving from any other day anyway.

Audacity 2.3.3
Many improvements and bugfixes. “Refactoring and 150+ bugs fixed since 2.3.2”
Download | Release Info

Paint.NET 4.2.6
Many improvements and bugfixes.
Download | Release Info

FinalCrypt
“Update fixed the 1st 70 bytes Crib Drag Vulnerability
Disabled all 0 to 255 byte value inversion of keydata
Removed Glow & Bloom effects for better GUI response
Please decrypt en re-encrypt for 100% OTP compliance”
Download | Changelog
Thanks Eric!

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

1.2 Billion Records Found Exposed Online in a Single Server
“contain profiles of hundreds of millions of people that include home and cell phone numbers, associated social media profiles like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Github, work histories seemingly scraped from LinkedIn, almost 50 million unique phone numbers, and 622 million unique email addresses.”

“Ozzy! Ozzy! Ozzy!”…

DVD – Come On Feel The Noize: The Story Of How Rock Became Metal
Exclusive, long-lost live material from rock’s most iconic bands & artists, as well as all-new original interviews with the living legends themselves: This film is your access-all-areas backstage pass to Heavy Metal and Hard Rock history. Delve into the rich history of Heavy Metal: from its scandalous origins in the 1960s to its heyday in the 1980s, from its glam phase in the 1970s to its indestructible present in 2017. A backstage pass into the history of how Rock became Heavy Metal.
Pre-Order at Amazon Now

AMD Radeon Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.11.3 Optional
Fortnite DX12 support
Download | Release Notes

Intel SSD Toolbox 3.5.12
-Added support for Intel SSD 665p Series
-Intel Optane SSD 900P Series firmware update to 435
-Minor bug fixes
Download | Release Notes

Macrium Reflect 7.2.4539
Fixes to program and boot media.
Download | Release Notes

Google Chrome 78.0.3904.108
“The stable channel has been updated to 78.0.3904.108 for Windows, Mac, and Linux…This update includes 5 security fixes.”
“We’ve just released Chrome 78 (78.0.3904.108) for Android: it’ll become available on Google Play over the next few weeks. This release contains the following features, as well as stability and performance improvements:
Dark theme for Chrome menus, settings, and surfaces. Find it in Settings > Themes.”
Download (64-bit en-US) | All Downloads | Release Info (PC) | Download (Android) | Release Info (Android)

AMD Radeon Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.11.2 Optional
Support for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Fix for Battlegrounds.
Download | Release Notes

Intel Graphics Drivers Updated
Windows 7 and 8.1 15.36 (4th Generation Drivers)
“This is simply a security update for 4th generation Intel® platforms on Windows 7* and Windows 8.1*. No further drivers are to be expected for this generation on these operating systems.”
Windows 7 and 8.1 6th Generation Drivers
“This is a security release and only supports Windows 7* and 8.1* for 6th Generation processors.”
Windows 10 DCH Drivers Version: 26.20.100.7463
Launch driver for: Football Manager 2020 and Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition

Wise Disk Cleaner 10.2.5
Download (I use portable) | Release Notes

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Some Answers To Emails
I rolled some of these up into one section or a quick answer.

1909 / 19H2 / November Update 2019
I’m recommending you backup and move to this now. I’m going to treat this as like a LTS (Long-Term Support) version of Linux. That is to say I’m recommending everyone move to this version and if you have “mission critical” systems plan on staying there for a while. 1909 will stay supported until May, 2021.
FWIW – Some folks are confused by the numbers and such. 1909 / 19H2 / November Update 2019 are the same thing.
Reader Ed informed me that 1909 is being distributed via the Media Creation Tool.
I will slowly begin working on a full revision to the Win10 Tweak Guide next week. No time table for completion, as many of you know I have my hands full here.

Credge (Microsoft Edge Chromium browser)
I haven’t reported on this because I don’t care any more about it than any other Microsoft browser. I don’t and won’t use them.

Intel IME
Q – Just wondering about your opinion on the Intel Management Engine vulnerability, as of late 2019? GOOD or BAD?
A – Which one? Jk
They’re all bad and the fixes all hurt performance. AFAIK their is nothing the end user can do but patch or risk it.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

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

Intel Fixes a Security Flaw It Said Was Repaired 6 Months Ago
“The chip maker patched several problems in May. Now it is issuing another fix, and researchers say the company hasn’t been straight about its issues.”
Which reminds me. I haven’t heard back from the lawyers on my lawsuit in a while.

Boss Notices His Employee Sobbing At Her Desk, And His Act Of Kindness Turns Her Into The Best Employee
“Recently, he told his LinkedIn connections about the time he stumbled upon a mom employee, crying at her desk. She’d been up all night, was out of sick days, and her child was ill. However, instead of telling her to suck it up, Bernie did something that modern managers are forgetting about. It’s called being a decent human being and showing empathy.”
The few bosses I’ve had outside of the military have not been good. Most of them just aren’t leaders nor have they had any training. Not a single one earned a drop of respect or loyalty from anyone who worked for them. It all starts with not being an a$$hat. If you can’t manage that you probably aren’t a good human being either.

VMware Workstation 15.5.1 Player
Download | Release Notes

Microsoft Office Updated
A few fixes and a few new minor features.
Release Info for 365 | Release info for standard version
See MS How-To: Install Office updates

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

Google’s ‘Project Nightingale’ Gathers Personal Health Data on Millions of Americans
Paywalled
“The data involved in the initiative encompasses lab results, doctor diagnoses and hospitalization records, among other categories, and amounts to a complete health history, including patient names and dates of birth….At least 150 Google employees already have access to much of the data on tens of millions of patients, according to a person familiar with the matter and the documents…Some Ascension employees have raised questions about the way the data is being collected and shared, both from a technological and ethical perspective, according to the people familiar with the project. But privacy experts said it appeared to be permissible under federal law.”

9 Drinks That Help You Sleep
“A good night’s rest is often overlooked as an important component of health.
Experts recommend that adults aged 18–60 get at least 7–9 hours of sleep each night.
Too little or too much sleep is associated with an increased risk of depression, diabetes, heart disease, and even death.
But sleeping for at least 7 full hours each night does not always come easy.
Fortunately, a variety of sleep-inducing drinks can help you catch some z’s.
Here are 9 drinks that may improve your sleep naturally.”
I would pay real money for 6 hours of uninterrupted REM sleep.

Dating Deception: When Sex Is On Our Minds, Lying Comes Naturally
“New study reveals what most of us probably already know: People will say just about anything to get laid.”
I started swearing to my god and on my mother’s grave
That I would love you to the end of time
I swore, that I would love you to the end of time

Your DNA Profile is Private? A Florida Judge Just Said Otherwise
“Last week, however, a Florida detective announced at a police convention that he had obtained a warrant to penetrate GEDmatch and search its full database of nearly one million users. Legal experts said that this appeared to be the first time a judge had approved such a warrant, and that the development could have profound implications for genetic privacy.”
Grrrrrr…

Your hatred of heart-healthy veggies could be genetic
“If certain vegetables have always made you gag, you may be more than a picky eater. Instead, you might be what scientists call a “super-taster:” a person with a genetic predisposition to taste food differently.”
If my Mom was still alive I would print this out for her!
Mom: “You’re not leaving the table until you clean your plate.”
Me: “But Mom, I’m a super-taster!”