TweakHound

Computer stuff...

Eric (a.k.a. TweakHound)

Sunday News

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spamThink You’re Having A Bad Day?
Linux Mint has been hacked. Their site, their forums, even their ISO’s.
Not good. Not good at all.

I’ve Been Telling You…
I could almost see the eyes rolling when I said “I think you have to be 8 different kinds of stupid to put your house or car on a network.”
More proof: Major security flaw could let hackers take control of smart homes: Bug could leave thousands of devices vulnerable

Spam-It All
The top 15 corporate spammers include Groupon, Facebook, Twitter, and a host of clothing stores. They’ve listed the top unsubscribed too. Gmail has gotten good at just putting that stuff in the spam or trash folder.

Kodi 16
The free and cross platform home theater program Kodi has been updated. I use and recommend Kodi.
Unfortunately their site doesn’t seem to be able to handle all the attention this release is getting and is down at the moment.

Jaded Heart
I’ve stayed out of the Apple v. FBI fight because I believe both side are playing fast and loose with the truth. Given what’s at stake I’m not going to form an opinion until I am reasonably sure I know all the facts. Every article I read seems to have some kind of anti-government or anti-apple agenda rather than trying to just give facts. Reporters used to actually do that. I trust ALL government agencies and ALL corporations to look after their own interests with CYA being their first consideration. It’s the world we live in.

Monday News

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www_newsWiresharking Win10
Another person weighed in on the issue. I’m really not seeing much new info but it is an interesting read.
“Based on my tests, Windows 10 certainly is receiving telemetry data from my PC, but we knew that already. It’s also easy to counter the FUD in some reports. In one hour there were only 751 packets sent to any Microsoft address (including any Azure, Skype or Akamai CDN edge server), for around 222KB of data. Of those packets only 182 contained data, with 134KB transferred to Microsoft. In two hours there were only 1586 packets, with 382 containing data, and 262KB of data transferred…”
He makes references to the amount of data being small which I find odd. Compressed data…
I will use my motherboard manual as an example. It is 79 pages. Below I compressed the file. I also copied the text into notepad. Then I compressed it. All the text data in that file came out to 28kb compressed. Point being, small files can contain a TON of data.
comp_examp

“Without unencrypting the telemetry packets Microsoft receives, we’re not going to know exactly what data it receives. But they’re small and relatively infrequent, so are unlikely to be packed with your personal data.”
Why is it “unlikely”?

 
Default Apps Reset?
4 days ago reader Don H. said his defualt app preferences got reset. Apparently he isn’t the only one with that issue:
Updategate: Windows 10 is resetting default apps back to Microsoft stock

New Nvidia Drivers
Nvidia Geforce Game Ready 361.91 WHQL Driver released. Download
“Learn more about how to get the optimal experience for ARMA 3, Street Fighter V, Monster Hunter Online, and HITMAN (Beta)”

Backup Your Backups
Reader Paul pointed me to an article that discusses where an Adobe Creative Cloud update deleted folks backups. Y’all might find the cloud convenient but don’t trust your data to someone else. Backup your backups!

Now I gotta sign off while I still have an internet connection!

T-t-t-t-hursday Random Stuff…

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wintersuxBrrr! It’s getting cold here in Virginia.

Firefox 44.0.2
Fixed – Firefox hangs or crashes on startup
Various security fixes
Download 32-bit (en-US)
Download 64-bit (en-US)
Download other systems and languages
Release Notes

Handbrake Updated
HandBrake 0.10.5 is out. Fixes and performance improvements.
“HandBrake is a tool for converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs.”
Download
[Read more…] about T-t-t-t-hursday Random Stuff…

More On Win10 Privacy

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win10_logon_logoAs I sat for 2 and 1/2 hours waiting for the local tire guys to put 2 new fracking tires on my wife’s car, reader Dave sent me the link to:
Ed Bott: When it comes to Windows 10 privacy, don’t trust amateur analysts
The article discusses the article I linked to Sunday. Some random dude took a stab at trying to figure out who/what Win10 was connecting to. Apparently that post has been deleted. I didn’t talk too much about it except to say I had made a similar attempt last September. I was hoping my readers would see that my results were almost totally opposite from his. I don’t know if anyone saw it or not.
Anyway, Ed completely dismantles this guys test and takes folks who were doing “I told you so’s” to task. I think Ed may have been a tad hard on the guy in the original post. He was just making an attempt at some Geekery. He didn’t ask for half the tech world to read it. The reporters sourcing the story deserve the blame for sensationalizing it. Ed does give it to them with both barrels.
Agree with him or not, it is a must read.

***UPDATE, 14:15hrs
The guy that Ed takes to task above has learned from Microsoft that:

Contacting me again a Microsoft spokesperson explained the company now wanted to speak about the issue. In short: Microsoft is taking action. It has decided to release updates “later this year” which will enable users to fully control all background telemetry and data tracking and, if desired, disable it completely. Microsoft also asked me to stress that disabling these background operations is something it would “strongly recommend against”.

My takeaway is that our incessant bitching to and about Microsoft on this issue has produced the second caving in by Microsoft in the last week. One button to shut it all down is what we asked for and it looks like we will get it.
Congrats to us!
and
Congrats to Microsoft!
beer_smiley_clink

Windows 10 Now Has Updates Release Notes

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win10_logoHoly cow! We bitched and Microsoft has caved. Win10 will now have release notes for updates.
“In response to this feedback, we’re providing more details about the Windows 10 updates we deliver through Windows Update. You’ll see a summary of important product developments included in each update, with links to more details. This page will be regularly refreshed, as new updates are released.”
Mary Jo Foley – Microsoft starts providing release notes for Windows 10 updates
Windows 10 update history

Patch Tuesday

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windows securityTime To Run Windows Update
Updates available for all supported operating systems and MS Office versions.
Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for February 2016

Flash Updated
APSB16-04 Security updates available for Adobe Flash Player
“These updates address critical vulnerabilities that could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.”
Main Download Page
Flash for IE
Flash for Firefox
Windows 8/8.1/10 users check Windows Update. Microsoft will get around to updating it…eventually.
Google Chrome users, ditto.

*update 14:58hrs

Google Chrome Updated
“The stable channel has been updated to 48.0.2564.109 for Windows, Mac, and Linux.”
Download or update from within the program.

Monday Musings

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firefox_2013Firefox 44.0.1
Download 32-bit (en-US)
Download 64-bit (en-US)
Download other systems and languages
Release Notes

Super Bowl
Were anyone’s predictions worse than mine?!
IMHO he big game was just OK. The D’s played well. The QB’s didn’t deliver. I didn’t watch the 1/2 time show because I’m not remotely interested in any of the acts.
Lady Gaga did a FANTASTIC National Anthem.
Most of the commercials fell somewhere between lame and horrible. The commercials I liked:
Doritos -Ultrasound
Heinz – Wiener Stampede
Favorite: Kevin Hart – First Date / Hyundai