Computer News

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.

Intel Graphics Driver for Windows 10
Version: 25.20.100.6373 Date: 11/5/2018

Intel PROSet/Wireless Software and Drivers
Windows 7 Version: 20.90.0 Date: 11/6/2018
Windows 8.1 Version: 20.90.0 Date: 11/6/2018
Windows 10 Version: 20.90.0 Date: 11/6/2018

Microsoft Office November Updates
Bugfixes
Microsoft – How to install Office Updates

ADV180028 | Guidance for configuring BitLocker to enforce software encryption
Security Advisory – Published: 11/06/2018
“Microsoft is aware of reports of vulnerabilities in the hardware encryption of certain self-encrypting drives (SEDs). Customers concerned about this issue should consider using the software only encryption provided by BitLocker Drive Encryption™. On Windows computers with self-encrypting drives, BitLocker Drive Encryption™ manages encryption and will use hardware encryption by default. Administrators who want to force software encryption on computers with self-encrypting drives can accomplish this by deploying a Group Policy to override the default behavior. Windows will consult Group Policy to enforce software encryption only at the time of enabling BitLocker.”

System76 readies release of American-made powerhouse Linux PC
“Finding a native Linux PC isn’t easy. Any Best Buy has an assortment of Windows PCs and Chromebooks. But Linux-powered computers? Not so much. Now System76, one of the leading Linux PC companies, has created something even rarer: A PC built in the US.”

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?!