TweakHound

Computer stuff...

Computer News

Patch Tuesday Morning

By

Backup if you have the time.

Firefox 64
Download (all) | Download 32-bit EN-US | Download 64-bit EN-US | Release Notes

Sysinternals Freeware Updates
Autoruns v13.93, Handle v4.21, Process Explorer v16.22, SDelete v2.02, Sigcheck v2.71, Sysmon v8.02 and VMMap v3.25

Adobe Reader Updated
Download (en-US) | Download (all) | Security Bulletin

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

Digital Divide Is Wider Than We Think, Study Says
A new study by Microsoft researchers casts a light on the actual use of high-speed internet across the country, and the picture it presents is very different from the F.C.C. numbers. Their analysis, presented at a Microsoft event on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., suggests that the speedy access is much more limited than the F.C.C. data shows.
Over all, Microsoft concluded that 162.8 million people do not use the internet at broadband speeds, while the F.C.C. says broadband is not available to 24.7 million Americans…Fast internet service is crucial to the modern economy, and closing the digital divide is seen as a step toward shrinking the persistent gaps in economic opportunity, educational achievement and health outcomes in America.
It is a problem in the county I live in and across this country. There are teachers in my county that have to drive to their school parking lots to use broadband for school related activities during their off hours.

Facial recognition: It’s time for action
We believe it’s important for governments in 2019 to start adopting laws to regulate this technology…We also believe that while it’s better to address these issues broadly, we should not wait for governments to act. We and other tech companies need to start creating safeguards to address facial recognition technology.
A good blog post with sound ideas. IMHO it will be largely ignored.

Facebook’s fall: From the friendliest face of tech to perceived enemy of democracy
Today, Zuckerberg is seen by many as a wincing megalomaniacal multibillionaire, and the personal data-mining company he created is viewed by some as an existential threat to democracy itself.
#DeleteFacebook

NIH Study Probes Impact of Heavy Screen Time on Young Brains
Brain scans of adolescents who are heavy users of smartphones, tablets and video games look different from those of less active screen users, preliminary results from an ongoing study funded by the National Institutes of Health show, according to a report on Sunday by “60 Minutes.”
I dislike seeing kids in public on phones and tablets. These devices have become babysitters, a way to shut kids up. Sad.

Thursday Morning Random Stuff…

By

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

By

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

Friday Morning Dump

By

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…

By

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…

By

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…

By

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.

Monday Random Stuff…

By

It’s Thanksgiving week here in the U.S.A Expect the news to be slow as folks have other things to attend to. Please be safe and patient out there.
Don’t forget that Uber, Lyft, and taxis are available if you’ve had too much holiday cheer.

I purchased:
Amazon Fire HD 10 Tablet [$50.00 off (33%)]
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. There may be an article or two to follow.

As Insurers Offer Discounts For Fitness Trackers, Wearers Should Step With Caution
“But just how much fitness trackers contribute — if at all — to better health and lower health care spending isn’t yet known. Among the studies that cast doubt on their effectiveness is one published in 2016 by the University of Pittsburgh. That research found young adults who used fitness trackers in the study lost less weight than those in a control group who self-reported their exercise and diet…
Boyd is cautious but confident that some of the ongoing studies will show positive benefits for patient health. But he urges taking care before trading data for dollars. It’s important to know the type of information your tracker is revealing about your health, he says, and to know exactly how it will be used. Your incentives could offer a clue ”
Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I’ll be watching you
Every single day
Every word you say
Every game you play
Every night you stay
I’ll be watching you
Oh can’t you see
You belong to me
My poor heart aches
With every step you take
Every move you make
Every vow you break
Every smile you fake
Every claim you stake
I’ll be watching you
– The Police

Friday Random Stuff…

By

Firefox 63.0.3
A few fixes.
Download (all) | Download 32-bit EN-US | Download 64-bit EN-US | Release Notes

[H]ard At Work
Kyle and crew have had several great articles this week
First they came out with: GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FAILS After Gaming for 2 Hours
“After gaming for a few hours this evening, playing Hunt: Showndown, I was met with a hard-lock, while the game was on its end-of-mission screen…Is there something rotten in RTX land? You are damn right there is, and we are all just coming to grips with it now.”
Several days later: NVIDIA on the Cause of RTX 2080 Series Card Failures
“NVIDIA has announced that the culprit behind some of the defective early boards for the NVIDIA RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition was limited test escapes…it would seem that NVIDIA is actually owning up to putting bad RTX 2000 series cards into the market…Only this morning, we have seen an EVGA 2080 Ti XC literally burst into flames, and of course one of the two RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition cards we purchased directly from NVIDIA has failed with what looks to be a RAM issue.”
They pitted the current top CPUs against each other: Intel Core i9-9980XE vs AMD Ryzen Threadripper
“The 9980XE seems to overall fall in between the 2950X and 2970WX performance-wise. From that perspective, you are paying about $679 to $1079 more for the 9980XE, than the competitive Threadripper processor…The Core i9-990XE in in no way a “bad” CPU for content creators, or for gamers for that matter. The 9980XE simply seems to be overpriced for the performance value it brings to the table now that AMD and its Threadripper are on the scene in the HEDT market.”
They finished out the week with: XFX Radeon RX 590 Fatboy OC+ Video Card Review
“Say bye-bye to the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, because it just isn’t relevant anymore.”

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

Mozilla – Shop Safe This Holiday Season (*privacy not included)
“Teddy bears that connect to the internet. Smart speakers that listen to commands. Great gifts—unless they spy on you. We created this guide to help you buy safe, secure products this holiday season.”
Sounds like the makings of a horror movie.

Microsoft Is Putting Ads on the Mail App in Windows 10
“Mail App in Windows 10“, LMAO

Mapping Thanksgiving
“Using Google Maps data from 2017’s holiday season, we’re providing insight into the places people visit around the holidays, when to visit them, and the best times to get on (or stay off) the road in 2018.”
I’m not traveling for Thanksgiving and will be avoiding any area anywhere near a shopping mall Friday. Oh, and to all the retail stores opening on Thanksgiving evening, you suck.

Security boffins uncover seven more Spectre and Meltdown attacks
The article covers this research paper. The conclusion reads:
“Our systematization uncovered 7 (new) transient execution attacks (Spectre and Meltdown variants) which have been overlooked and have not been investigated so far. We demonstrated all these variants in practical proof-of-concept attacks and evaluated their applicability to Intel, AMD, and ARM processors. We also systematically evaluated all defenses discovering that some transient execution attacks are not successfully mitigated by the rolled out patches and others are not mitigated because they have been overlooked. Hence, we need to think about future defenses carefully and plan to mitigate attacks and variants that are yet unknown.”
It’s worth noting that AFAIK there are no Spectre / Meltdown attacks in the wild ATM.

Scientists say humans will be having lots of sex in self-driving cars
Kinda obvious IMHO. Apparently Millennials won’t be though.

Antares rocket launch moved to Saturday on Virginia’s Eastern Shore
“Most of the rockets launched from Wallops are sub-orbital, which means they don’t get high enough to enter Earth orbit. This one will not only go into orbit, but it will eventually dock with and resupply the International Space Station! These Antares rockets are the biggest to launch from the Wallops Island Facility and are easily seen (if the sky is clear) from Richmond and all over the east coast.”
If I can get my lazy a** up at about 3:45 I’m gonna drive to the end of my block and try and watch it.
Wallops Mission Status Center. There is also a tracking map there.