Computer News

Net Neutrality
Oh no, we ain’t done with this yet. Not by a long shot. A NN vote has been forced.

Why I Do Not Use A NAS Device
Well, this kinda stuff is one reason at least. Western Digital My Cloud had over 80 security vulnerabilities exposed last year alone. Another one has been found and it is far reaching.

New Nvidia Drivers
Nvidia GeForce Game Ready Driver 390.65 WHQL
Provides the optimal gaming experience for Fortnite, including support for ShadowPlay Highlights in Battle Royale mode.
Security Update – This driver add security updates to driver components.
Download
Release Notes
Latest Linux driver is 384.11 Release Date: 2018.1.4

Macrium Reflect Updated
Version 7.1.2817 is out. There has pretty much been an update a week. If you haven’t created a boot disk lately you may want to do it now.
Download
Release Notes

Good Luck To All My Apple Using Friends
They’ve got an update for Spectre. Hope your experience goes better than my AMD using Windows bros. At least they have an update. I wonder how long us Android users will be waiting?

List Of CES News I Care About
1 – Booth babes
2 –

Class
We the people are ticked off and that means lawsuits. There are three class action lawsuits aimed at Intel right now. Hopefully there are many more to follow. I’ve inquired about joining one.

Nightmare On Elm Street
The FCC is trying to say the lame internet speeds we had years ago are more than adequate and is trying to label them “broadband”. Some folks think they are trying to “Hide the Digital Divide“.
See also: #MobileOnly Challenge (frack I hate hashtags)

Breakfast Club
Wanna know the answer to Why Raspberry Pi isn’t vulnerable to Spectre or Meltdown? My guess: Cause it uses a crappy little CPU?
Tip: Sometimes bragging only serves to highlight your shortcomings.
Me, I’m in the math club, uh, the Latin, and the physics club… physics club.

RoboCop
ISP threatens to turn off heat off of those who are infringing on copyright. Apparently they have assumed to role of Barney Fife. Let us just hope Andy didn’t let him take his bullet out of his pocket.

Back To The Future
After being on the cover 10 times, Bill Gates will be the first guest editor at Time Magazine. I had to pop over to their website that I didn’t even know existed. I haven’t picked up an issue of Time in 20+ years and didn’t think much of it back then. In fact I haven’t picked up an issue of any print magazine in that long except the one with the bunny logo. Contrary to popular excuse making, it was only for the pictures.
Source

What do the above headlines have in common?
First correct guesser gets…um… the thanks and awestruck congratulations of me!

Intel CPU Design Flaw
Over the last 24 hours most tech sites are reporting a doom and gloom scenario invloving Intel CPUs. The gist of it is there is a security flaw in Intel CPUs that requires patching at the OS level. This patch may impact performance. Clickbaiters are using 30% as a number. IMHO we have no reliable info on the scale or impact of this issue yet. I would take everything you read with a grain of salt.
‘Kernel memory leaking’ Intel processor design flaw forces Linux, Windows redesign
Good breakdown: Serious Intel CPU design flaw may require a Windows patch, but probably won’t affect gaming performance
Technical breakdown: The mysterious case of the Linux Page Table Isolation patches
Original paper on this issue: KASLR is Dead: Long Live KASLR

Fakespot
I’ve been looking for an action camera for a while now. Go Pros are out of my price range. I saw a deal for the DBPower EX7000 4K Sports Action Camera. 4K, touchscreen, blah, blah, blah. Seemed like a great deal. I start Googling. Red flag number one, this thing seems to always be on “sale”. Red flag number two, I can’t find a reliable review. Gut feeling says stay away from this thing. I keep Googling. In the comment section at one deal site I see a comment about fake reviews for this product on Amazon. It mentions a site called Fakespot. Never heard of it.
You copy/paste a url from Amazon. Fakespot then “looks for patterns to filter out reviews we think are unreliable”.
Depending on whether you look up the camera or camera kit, Fakespot says the reviews for the aforementioned camera are 74% or 100% “low quality”. Gut feeling reinforced, I skip this camera.
Very cool. Fakespot is now on my bookmarks list.
https://www.fakespot.com/about

Asinine
I just ran into this: KDE Dropping “Run As Root” Feature Stumbles Backlash From The Community

 
3 Computers, 1 Mouse, 20% Off
“Meet the next generation of Logitech’s flagship mouse, re-designed to provide the ultimate experience for power users and masters of their craft. MX Master 2S works seamlessly across three computers, including navigating and copy-pasting between them. The stunning design is packed with advanced features to help you get more done, more efficiently and comfortably than ever.”
Logitech MX Master 2S Wireless Mouse

Happy New Year!

Software Updates
Firefox 57.0.3 (fixes a single issue) Thanks Scott!
Intel Graphics Driver for Windows 10, version 15.60.1.1.4901 (28DEC2017)
Macrium Reflect 7.1.2801
Wise Disk Cleaner 9.6.2.685 (improved Microsoft Edge Session cleaning)

Use An Ad Blocker
Online ad companies are using “browsers’ built-in login managers (also called password managers) to retrieve and exfiltrate user identifiers without user awareness.”
Most adblockers block this behavior.
Original paper: No boundaries for user identities: Web trackers exploit browser login managers

Off Topic
2 Supermoons this month!

Corsair Hydro Series, H100i v2 CPU Water Cooler $85
That is $45 / 35% off!

Bye Bye HomeGroup
“with today’s build you’ll start to see us retire the HomeGroup service.”
As an ex-network guy I never used the HomeGroup and disabling the HomeGroup Provider service is one thing I’ve always done.

Exposed, Again
“a California-based data analytics firm, was left publicly exposed, revealing massive amounts of sensitive personal information for 123 million American households. Exposed within the repository are massive data sets belonging to Alteryx partner Experian, the consumer credit reporting agency, as well as the US Census Bureau, providing data sets from both Experian and the 2010 US Census. While the Census data consists entirely of publicly accessible statistics and information,”
Jail. People need to start going to jail.

GET OFF OF FACEBOOK
In 2017, key Facebook builders disowned their creation – iVerge
“We have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works.”
“It probably interferes with productivity in weird ways. God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains.”
“Facebook did not set out to increase political polarization and empower bad actors to undermine democracy, but this outcome was inevitable,”

Facebook Aiding Discrimination
Dozens of Companies Are Using Facebook to Exclude Older Workers From Job Ads
“Among the companies we found doing it: Amazon, Verizon, UPS and Facebook itself. “It’s blatantly unlawful,” said one employment law expert.”
GET OFF OF FACEBOOK

Package Thieves – Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Cold

Still trying to get everything installed and tweaked on my new rig. Thanks for the comments. More articles to follow.

Software Updates
Autoruns v13.81
EMDB 3.09
Google Chrome 63.0.3239.108

Firefox Idiots
I’ve obviously been busy this last week but I did read about the Firefox Looking Glass saga. Apparently Mozilla delivered an extension without any user knowledge or consent. I say apparently because I have FF on multiple machines and VMs and I never saw it. Anyway, folks were rightfully pissed off and now Mozilla is apologizing. Stupid move bros.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Many Star Wars fans seem to hate The Last Jedi:
The Last Jedi Is the Most Divisive Star Wars Movie Between Fans & Critics
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_wars_the_last_jedi/
I enjoyed the show very much. Aside from the ridiculous Leia space flight I thought the movie was damn good. It closed the door on much of the past and opened new doors for the future. I’ll be going to see it again.

Off Topic
Really, really off topic.

Grisly Scene
I live in a rural area. I was coming home last Thursday night. About a mile from my house I round a corner and see a dozen police cars. The next morning this story is on the local news site. Within days the story is world wide. The gnarly details follow. If you are squeamish stop reading here…
Official story a couple of days out:
Two giant pit bulls turned on their master and killed her. Scene described as “grisly”.
Actual story:
When she was in elementary school, this woman attended the school where my wife works. Goochland, Virginia is a small county population wise. I once heard someone say, “They ain’t no secrets here.” Double negative aside it is pretty much true. I’ve known this info for days. It is official now so…
Remember my warning above. I’m serious. If you are squeamish stop reading here…
The dogs turned on her. Puncture wounds all over her body including neck and face. She was torn up bad. Really, really bad. She had been dead for a while when the police showed up. The deputies actually watched the dogs eating her. Yes. Eating her. Why they didn’t drop those animals on site I don’t understand.
FYI: Google news search for pit bull attacks.
More reading:
Goochland sheriff described ‘grisly’ scene after woman mauled to death by her pit bulls
Goochland sheriff reiterates belief that pit bulls killed woman, says foul play ‘narrative doesn’t fit’

Net Neutrality Gone For Now
Not a surprise. I expect multiple lawsuits to follow.
The FCC just voted to repeal its net neutrality rules, in a sweeping act of deregulation
Regulators abolish ‘net neutrality’ rules in heated hearing that was stopped because of a BOMB threat as protesters rallied outside

It’s Time!
I’ll be leaving in an hour or so to pregame before the 6 p.m. STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI OPENING NIGHT FAN EVENT
May the force be with you.

Here in Central Virginia we are getting our first snow!

Protection Patch
Windows Defender has been patched. The issue is critical. You should be patched automagically at some point. You can hurry things along by checking Windows Update.
You need to be on: Microsoft Malware Protection Engine version 1.1.14405.2 or higher.
To check your Windows Defender you can open it by searching “defender” or by pressing the Windows + R keys and copy/paste: C:\Program Files\Windows Defender\msascui.exe

Software Updates
Audacity 2.2.1
Nvdia Geforce 388.59 WHQL Game Ready Driver – “Provides the optimal gaming experience for Fallout 4 VR”

Amazon Key Sucks
Amazon Key is a program that gives access to your house to the delivery guy and who knows who else. This dude had a host of problems. First off I ain’t doing a smart lock unless it is biometric. Secondly, anyone that gives a key to their house to a stranger is an idiot.

Higgins Passed Away?
I didn’t know actor John Hillerman passed away. He was famous for sicking “The Lads” on Thomas Magnum. RIP Higgy Baby.

It’s The Weekend!
https://vimeo.com/245857321