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Tuesday Morning News

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AMD Chipset Drivers
Version 18.10.0418 is out.
Download

Win10 Updates
Will 1803/RS4/SCU/Next/April/Whatever update be released today?
Dunno, but 1709 has got an update:
KB4093105 – April 23, 2018—KB4093105 (OS Build 16299.402)

CCleaner
Couple of IE/Edge fixes and… wait… the release announcement says, “Where appropriate, CCleaner Free may recommend improvements to your system’s antivirus protection“.
Hmmm… Pure speculation on my part but, is this gonna be ads for Avast? Has anyone seen one?
Download

Friday Random Stuff…

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Pretty uneventful week IMHO.

Avast: The CCleaner Hack Was TeamViewer’s Fault
“To initiate the CCleaner attack, the threat actors first accessed Piriform’s network on March 11, 2017, four months before Avast acquired the company, using TeamViewer on a developer workstation to infiltrate. They successfully gained access with a single sign-in, which means they knew the login credentials.”

Ryzen Gen 2 Benchmarks
Anandtech did the right thing and applied all the Meltdown and Spectre patches before benchmarking. Keep that in mind when you read other reviews.
“In our benchmarks, we compared the new AMD chips to the more recent Intel chips, but with the Spectre and Meltdown patches applied. It is clear that the patches have had an effect on some of our Intel scores more than the AMD results: combine that with AMD’s generational improvements and for a lot of tests, especially gaming, there is either a neck-and-neck result or AMD pulls a lead in multi-threaded scenarios. For anything that is hard on a single-threaded, such as our FCAT test or Cinebench 1T, Intel wins hands down, and winning the 1T tests is no easy feat, however overall AMD is pushing that performance-per-watt metric ever closer, and offering a competitive product for users that multitask.”

Ya Don’t Say
“Increasingly, it feels like people in our industry, the tech industry, are losing touch with reality.”
Y’all. Everyone else already knows that.

Off Topic

Disgusting
Saw this:
Equilar 100: CEO Pay at the Largest Companies by Revenue
Looked up this:
Forbes: The World’s Highest-Paid Athletes List
Vogue: The Highest-Paid Models Of 2017
I don’t blame the people who get it. I blame the people who pay it and the culture that allows it to happen.

National Record Store Day
Saturday, April 21, 2018 is National Record Store Day.
“Record Store Day was conceived in 2007 at a gathering of independent record store owners and employees as a way to celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding nearly 1400 independently owned record stores in the US and thousands of similar stores internationally. The first Record Store Day took place on April 19, 2008. Today there are Record Store Day participating stores on every continent except Antarctica.”
Many music artists have special releases for this day. In the past I’ve gotten a few albums and even a Metallica cassette.
This year I am shooting for the Def Leppard – Live at Abbey Road LP. I’ve got emails out but no responses yet…
*edit (April 21, 2018, 11:40(EDT)) – No luck 🙁
About | List of releases | Home

Have A Great Weekend!
Mine will involve one or more of the items below.

Wednesday Morning Random Stuff…

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Google Chrome
Updated to version 66
– 62 security fixes.
– Automatically disable video auto-play
Download | Release Info
Related: Microsoft now has Windows Defender Browser Protection extension for Chrome. Reckon they needed another way to see where you were surfing since nobody is using Edge and IE.

Clonezilla Updated
Version 2.5.5-38 released.
“Clonezilla is a partition and disk imaging/cloning program similar to True Image® or Norton Ghost®. It helps you to do system deployment, bare metal backup and recovery.”
Download | Release Notes
(I use the “Alternative Stable” version.)

Off Topic

RIP Barbara Bush
Wonderful woman.
Dana Perino: For Barbara Bush, loyalty — and love — went both ways
Barbara Bush, a First Lady Without Apologies

Tuesday Random Stuff…

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Macrium Reflect Updated
Version 7.1.3147 of my preferred backup software has been release.
Download | Release Notes | Home Page

Russian Hackers Targeting Routers
“In a joint announcement Monday from the US Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the UK’s National Cyber Security Center, officials warned that Russian spies have been looking for vulnerabilities on millions of routers as a tool for future attacks.
The targets include routers in homes and offices, as well as firewalls and switches from internet service providers, critical infrastructure and major private companies”
US, UK warn of Russian hackers targeting millions of routers

Off Topic

Great Beer
Last week I had Uncle Jacob’s Stout from Avery Brewing for the first time. If you like barrel-aged beers like Founders KBS or New Holland Dragon’s Milk then you’ll love this. Highly recommended.

Tuesday Morning Random Stuff…

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Win10 SCU
The update that didn’t happen is back in the news with no news. We still do not know what the official name of the update is. We still don’t know when it will be released. Microsoft has given us a generic “reliability issues” statement as to why it was delayed.

Oh Intel
Intel says their chips have a vulnerability that, “could allow an attacker to block BIOS/UEFI updates, or to selectively erase or corrupt portions of the firmware.” This means you’ll have to wait for your PC manufacturer to release another BIOS update, if and when they feel like it.
Just after that news, Intel announced some “new initiatives that use features specific to the Intel hardware platform to boost security“.
– Advanced memory scanning will use your GPU to aid in malware scanning.
– Advanced Platform Telemetry “uses things like the processor’s integrated performance counters to spot unusual processor activity.”

Fbook
Yeah. I know I said I was out of Fbook news for a while. But this article is amazing. IMHO a must read.
‘Dear Mark, this is why I hate you.’ An open letter to Zuckerberg

Off Topic
How Often You Should Clean Everything In Your Home (Hint: Very, Very Often)
(check out the links at the bottom of the article for guides)

Tortured for fur: Terrified silver foxes fattened in cramped cages ready to be slaughtered for fashion

Researchers find genetic cause for Alzheimer’s, possible method to reverse it

‘I was a teacher for 17 years, but I couldn’t read or write’

RIP
R. Lee Ermey, Golden Globe Nominee for ‘Full Metal Jacket,’ Dies at 74
(quotes from Full Metal Jacket)
Harry Anderson, Judge On ‘Night Court,’ Dies At His N.C. Home. He Was 65

Friday Random Stuff…

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2nd Gen Ryzen
“2nd generation AMD Ryzen processor lineup offers world’s highest multithreaded performance desktop processors in its class; immediate pre-order availability from more than 150 retailers and boutique PC manufacturers”
Full specs and release info from the AMD PR Department.

It’s gonna be a great weekend. I’ll be out there pedaling somewhere. Hope y’all have a great weekend!

WD Black 512GB Performance M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe SSD
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Wednesday Random Stuff…

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Win10 1803/RS4/SCU/Next/Whatever
“They” say:
– Nobody knows what the actual name of the update is.
– Nobody knows why the update was not released.
– Nobody knows when it will be released.
Reckon the “inside sources” failed them, and us.

Winaero Tweaker 0.10
“Winaero Tweaker 0.10 is out. It will allow you to disable Windows Update reliably in Windows 10, get rid of update notifications, ads in Settings, Timeline and My People. Also, it comes with new tools and tweaks, and it properly works under Windows 10 version 1803 “Spring Creators Update”
Download

Which of the following companies do you trust the least with your personal information?
Recode polled Americans,
“Respondents were asked to choose among Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Lyft, Microsoft, Netflix, Tesla, Twitter, Snap and Uber. Twenty percent selected none of the above.”

AMD Spectre Mitigation Update

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“Today, AMD is providing updates regarding our recommended mitigations for Google Project Zero (GPZ) Variant 2 (Spectre) for Microsoft Windows users. These mitigations require a combination of processor microcode updates from our OEM and motherboard partners, as well as running the current and fully up-to-date version of Windows. For Linux users, AMD recommended mitigations for GPZ Variant 2 were made available to our Linux partners and have been released to distribution earlier this year…
Microsoft is releasing an operating system update containing Variant 2 (Spectre) mitigations for AMD users running Windows 10 (version 1709) today. Support for these mitigations for AMD processors in Windows Server 2016 is expected to be available following final validation and testing.
In addition, microcode updates with our recommended mitigations addressing Variant 2 (Spectre) have been released to our customers and ecosystem partners for AMD processors dating back to the first “Bulldozer” core products introduced in 2011.
AMD customers will be able to install the microcode by downloading BIOS updates provided by PC and server manufacturers and motherboard providers. Please check with your provider for the latest updates.”
Spectre Mitigation Update – Mark Papermaster, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer

Patch Tuesday

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*This post will be updated as info comes in.
Microsoft Security Update Summary at bottom of post.

Windows 7 SP1 – April 10, 2018—KB4093118 (Monthly Rollup)

Win10 1709 – April 10, 2018—KB4093112 (OS Build 16299.371)
“This update includes quality improvements. No new operating system features are being introduced in this update.”
Win10 1703 – April 10, 2018—KB4093107 (OS Build 15063.1029)
“This update includes quality improvements. No new operating system features are being introduced in this update.”
Win10 1607 – April 10, 2018—KB4093119 (OS Build 14393.2189)
“Windows 10 version 1607 will reach end of service on April 10, 2018. Devices running Windows 10 Home or Pro editions will no longer receive monthly security and quality updates that contain protection from the latest security threats. To continue receiving security and quality updates, Microsoft recommends updating to the latest version of Windows 10.”

Insider builds also get the above updates (KB4100375).
[Read more…] about Patch Tuesday