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Wednesday Random Stuff…

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***Patch Now***
Backup your computer with a disk image and run Windows Update.
Critical bugs are being actively exploited. These bugs were patched yesterday.

New Nvidia Drivers
Nvidia Geforce Game Ready 397.64 WHQL Drivers are out.
“Provides the optimal gaming experience for Destiny 2: Warmind, Conan Exiles, and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire”
Download | Release Notes

Roger, Over And Out
Some dude asked, “Is Google crossing a line with new AI that pretends to be human?“.
Crossed the line? They cut the line into little shreds and torched it.

You’ve Got To Be Sh**ing Me
Someone is upset because people aren’t talking nice to Amazon Alexa.
“When you’re a child, you should respect a grown-up — even if she’s in a little black cylinder”
It’s not a grown-up, it’s a fracking box.
“Hearing a child boss around a digital assistant could be disconcerting”

Off Topic

KIX Celebrates 30th Anniversary Of ‘Blow My Fuse’ With ‘Fuse 30 Reblown’

He searched for his Japanese birth mother. He found her — and the restaurant she had named after him.

Monday Random Stuff…

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You Can’t Opt Out Of Sharing Your Data, Even If You Didn’t Opt In
“So does that mean that, in addition to locking down our own privacy choices, we need to police the choices of our friends and family? No, said Cohen, Gillmor and Viljoen. In fact, the privacy of the commons means that, in some cases, your data is collected in ways you cannot reasonably prevent, no matter how carefully you or anyone you know behaves.”
Sad fact.

Microsoft’s Satya Nadella Said
Lot’s of articles out there quoting (often wrongly) what he said at the MS Build Conference. So I went looking for the transcript.
You can download it here: Satya Nadella: Build 2018
“We ensure that when we use data, it is to benefit the user.”
Look, I don’t know much about the man but he really needs someone to look over his speeches. The “It’s for your own good” excuse is just lame and frankly a little insulting.
Then he said, “We ensure that the user is always in control of their data and its use.”
I’m…uh…hmmm…
I…um…that’s…man o man…

Windows Commands Reference
A PDF containing an overview and alphabetical listing of Windows commands.
Download

You Don’t Say…
A new report says the Chinese government is behind a decade of hacks on software companies.
Is there anyone that is even remotely surprised by this?

Personal privacy vs. public security: fight!
Good read on this topic. Recommended.

Off Topic

AT&T/Verizon lobby asks FCC to help raise prices on smaller ISPs

Android P will finally restrict apps from monitoring your network activity

How Robin Williams was being torn apart and couldn’t fight back
My name is Wil Wheaton. I live with chronic Depression, and I am not ashamed.

Lyme Disease Is On The Rise Again. Here’s How To Prevent It

Friday Random Stuff…

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GeForce Hotfix Driver Version 397.55
– After driver installation, Device Manager may report Code 43 error on a few GTX 1060 cards models.
– Netflix playback may occasionally stutter.
– Added support for Microsoft Surface Book notebooks.
– Windows 10: Driver may get removed after PC has been left idle for an extended period of time.
Download

Spectre Next Generation
“A total of eight new security flaws in Intel CPUs have already been reported to the manufacturer by several teams of researchers. For now, details on the flaws are being kept secret. All eight are essentially caused by the same design problem – you could say that they are Spectre Next Generation.”

[H] Victorious
Nvidia is canceling their GPP Program.
Chalk one up for the good guys!

Macrium Reflect v7.1.3196
“Incremental and Differential images created since 17th April using Macrium Reflect v7.1.3147, 3159 or 3169 could be corrupt if the Changed Block Tracker (CBT) driver was involved in the Image creation. This has been resolved.”
Download

LMAO OMG WTF SMH
If you think the H in IMHO stands for honest you should be banned from the internet and instant messaging for life.

Off Topic

GUNS N’ ROSES: Remastered And Expanded Edition Of ‘Appetite For Destruction’ Due In June

3 White Lions Cubs Born At Metro Richmond Zoo (pics and video, they are awesome)

Ron Howard Gets A New ‘Solo’ Trailer For May The 4th

Wednesday Random Stuff…

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***UPDATED – Windows 10 April Update Benchmark

Samsung NVMe Driver v3.0
“This driver supports Samsung NVMe SSD 970 PRO, 970 EVO, 960 PRO, 960 EVO and 950 PRO.”
Download | Alternative download at MajorGeeks

O&O Shutup10
Version 1.6.1396 – released May 2, 2018
-Adapted for the Windows 10 Spring Creators Update 1804 (Build 17134)
-Fixed issue with finding High Contrast mode on user-defined schemes
-User interface adapted
-Bug Fixes: Various small bug fixes
-Available in English, German, French, Italian and Russian
Download

Win10 April Update Freezing Chrome
Source: Neowin. It happened to me too.

Tuesday Random Stuff…

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Win10 Benchmark Continued
I’m no nearer figuring out why my benchmark scores are lower. I thought maybe my NVMe SSD had an even bigger performance hit but my AS SSD Benchmark and CrystalDiskMark scores are similar to the results I had before.

Features removed or planned for replacement starting with Windows 10, version 1803
Thanks JO!

7-Zip 18.05
Download | Release Announcment

Linux Releases
Kali Linux 2018.2
“This Kali release is the first to include the Linux 4.15 kernel, which includes the x86 and x64 fixes for the much-hyped Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities. It also includes much better support for AMD GPUs”
Download | Release Announcment
Fedora 28
“For the first time, we’re making it easy for users to enable certain third-party software sources, including proprietary Nvidia drivers.”
Has kernel 4.16.
Download | Release Announcement
Meanwhile at openSUSE…
At the end of May they will release openSUSE Leap 15 which follows version 42.3. Yes you read that right. Oh, and it will use kernel 4.12 that was released last July.

Monday Random Stuff…

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AMD Radeon Adrenalin Edition 18.4.1 Optional Drivers
“Initial support for Windows®10 April 2018 Update” plus a few bugfixes.
Download | Release Notes

Firefox 59.0.3
“Fix for compatibility with Windows 10 April 2018 update”
Download | Release Notes
Related: How to Stop Mozilla From Sticking Ads in Your Firefox Browser

Off Topic
Stuff I bookmarked today:

Google boss warns over evil ‘sci-fi style’ robots that could ‘manipulate people’ and steal your job
Danger! Danger Will Robinson!

China is now monitoring employees’ brainwaves and emotions
“The Orwellian-as-all-get-out practice”

Everything coming to Netflix, Amazon Prime, and HBO Now in May
Not real excited about the list.

AP Explains: A look at DNA-sharing services and privacy
No. No way. Uh uh. Not gonna do it.

Multiple fire crews battle blaze at Amazon center
That is my local center…

Monday Morning Random Stuff…

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Win10 Update Stuff
Review: Windows 10 April 2018 Update shows promise, but ultimately disappoints

https://changewindows.org/build/redstone4/17134/pc

Most folks will be watching here for the download: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO
We will know today if that is the only way to get it for now. If so, you DO NOT need to make a disc or usb image from the ISO. Download the image to somewhere other than your OS (C:) drive, extract the image using 7-zip, and then click on setup.exe. That’s it.

Off Topic

Digital and analog audio’s curious coexistence
Related: Myths (Vinyl)

GMO Corn
An article on my local paper’s website said GMO corn is OK. Nobody seems to source their information anymore so I Googled “gmo corn” and found another article that lead to the study:
Impact of genetically engineered maize on agronomic, environmental and toxicological traits: a meta-analysis of 21 years of field data
So yeah, the study pretty much says that.

Tu Quoque
Recent political events had one sides defenders saying, “Well, your guy does/did it too.”
This is a Logical Fallacy also known as Appeal to Hypocrisy.
By making this counter-argument people hope to discredit the initial argument:
A – She ate too much.
CA – Well he ate too much last week.
The fact that “He” ate too much does not excuse someone else eating too much.
I think of it like this: Pointing out my bad behavior does not excuse yours.
When you use a logical fallacy I just tune you out.
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Tu_quoque

Ride The Wild Surf
World record: 80 foot wave!

Ride The Wild Surf – Jan and Dean

Weekend Random Stuff…

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The Week Ahead
The Win10 WhatEverItsCalled update is “available for download” tomorrow. AFAIK that means what it says and you can download it but it will not be on Windows Update until Patch Tuesday which is May, 8th. If you want to delay this update my guide is here.
Star Wars Day (May The 4th be with you) is Wednesday. Rumor has it that Solo: A Star Wars Story advanced tickets will go on sale then. I always do the first showing of Star Wars and Star Trek so I’m watching out for an announcement. BTW, there is a new Solo trailer and I’ve embedded it at the bottom of this post.

Off Topic

Interesting Links
Stuff I’ve bookmarked in the last few days.
Took an ancestry DNA test? You might be a ‘genetic informant’ unleashing secrets about your relatives
I trust those tests and the companies that do them about as far as I can throw an elephant.

New Star Map Could Change Everything We Know About the Milky Way
Very Interesting.

‘Dare to Be Different’: See New Doc on Radio Station That Broke U2, Cure in U.S.
I watched this. Good stuff.

Kiss frontman Paul Stanley reveals plans for ‘major’ tour to start next year

Solo: A Star Wars Story | Becoming Solo Featurette

Friday Random Stuff…

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AMD Combat Crate
The rumors are true,
“The AMD Combat Crate comes stocked with the essential hardware you need to push your game to the next level and lay waste to the competition. With a lightning fast Ryzen processor, powerful Radeon RX graphics backed by revolutionary Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition and a future-ready MSI motherboard – the AMD Combat Crate is the ultimate arsenal for gamers.”
AMD Combat Crate Bundle with Ryzen 5 1600 CPU,
MSI Gaming AMD Radeon RX 580 graphics card,
and MSI B350 Tomahawk AM4 Motherboard
Currently $549.00

Win10 1803/RS4/SCU/Next/April/1804/Whatever Update
Source: Windows Blog
Official name: Windows 10 April 2018 Update
Official release date: “will be available as a free download beginning Monday, April 30”

Software Updates
Google Chrome 66.0.3359.139 (bugfixes and 3 security fixes)
VirtualBox 5.2.10 (maintenance release)

Off Topic

Subway Closing 500 Stores
Story. My Experience at Subway:
Me: “I would like a half Italian Hero on white.”
Subway Person: (starts making sub, I think she puts the right meat on it) Then looks up and stares at me… “What do you want on it?”
Me: I want that. (pointing at the picture above and behind her)
Subway Person: (Turns around, stares at pic, she is clearly confused. Asks the other girl, “What’s on the Italian?”
Other Subway Person: “I don’t know.”
Me: *sigh* “From the picture I’m going to guess it comes with cheese, lettuce and tomato. I’ll just have provolone and vinegar & oil.”
Firehouse Subs and even Arby’s is way better around here. We don’t have any good old-school deli’s. I would love a N.Y. style Reuben about right now.

S.O.S.
ABBA is gonna release a couple of new tunes for the first time in 3 and a half decades. They are also gonna, get this, tour “virtually”. Yeah, they want you to pay for a “concert” that they aren’t even at. If you buy tickets to this show, I’ve got some ocean front property in Arizona I would love to sell you.

You Ain’t Worth The Whiskey
– Horse Soldier Bourbon’s New Bottle is Made from World Trade Center Steel
– Jameson Bow Street 18 Years

Wednesday Random Stuff…

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Software Updates
Macrium Reflect 7.1.3169
Wireshark 2.6.0

Nvidia GeForce Game Ready Driver 397.31 WHQL
“Provides the optimal gaming experience for BattleTech and FrostPunk”
Download | Release Notes

Over It
That Win10 update that never got released? The one “they” say will be called “”April Update”? Now “they” say it will be released in May. Oh, and it might also be 1804 instead of 1803. I think we are all over it at this point.

Samsung 970 Pro and EVO NVMe SSDs
Seems the 960s were just released. Press Release here.
Anandtech ran some benchies.
“Since faster storage brings diminishing returns to overall real-world application performance, many consumers will can find drives cheaper than the 970 EVO that are still fast enough, and drives like the 970 PRO are impossible to justify on the basis of performance alone.”

Explained – 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen™ Processors: XFR 2 and Precision Boost 2

Off Topic

Best Headline Ever?
Uranus Smells Terrible. There, We Said it
“The finding comes courtesy of a study in Nature Astronomy, revealing that the cloud tops of Uranus are made principally of hydrogen sulfide, the gas that is principally responsible for the foul smell of rotten eggs and, yes, human flatulence.”

Fleetwood Mac Detail New Tour and Talk Life After Lindsey Buckingham

Pair of 1926 Macallan whiskies sold for record $1.2m