TweakHound

Computer stuff...

Eric (a.k.a. TweakHound)

Wednesday Random Stuff…

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Google Chrome Updated
“The Stable channel has been updated to 88.0.4324.182 for Windows, Mac and Linux…This update includes 10 security fixes.”
Download | Release Info
Chrome for Android updated too.

EMDB 3.72
Movie database freeware. My movies here: TweakHound’s Movie Database
Download | What’s New

Facebook blocks all news in and from Australia
“The change comes as Australia prepares to pass a law that would require companies like Facebook and Google to pay news publishers to carry their stories.”
#DeleteFacebook

New reports indicate AMD’s Ryzen 5000 processors may be failing at a high rate
“It’s unclear how many incidents of Ryzen 5000 failures have been reported in real-world usage, but the controversy sparked when PC builder PowerGPU reported seeing very high failure rates with AMD’s CPU and motherboard, according to a report on Wccftech, with a number of units that were reported as DOA, or dead on arrival.”
The article links to an article that links to a tweet that has been deleted…
At any rate, it gives me a chance to use one of my old favorite, self-made, paraphrased quotes, “Friends don’t let friends drive AMD.”

Great Covers & The Originals
Fats Domino – Ain’t That A Shame (1955)

“Cheap Trick’s version charted at #35 after being released on their 1978 live album Cheap Trick at Budokan. Reportedly, this was Fats Domino’s favorite cover. Domino also gave Cheap Trick his gold record for his 1955 single, which is held by guitarist Rick Nielsen.”
The video below is listed as “Cheap Trick’s official live video for ‘Ain’t That A Shame’.” It may be “official” but it isn’t the version that is on the Cheap Trick at Budokan LP. Now, they played 2 nights at Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan arena, April 28th & 30th. I’m guessing the video is from one night and the song on the LP is from the other.
Here is the song as I have it from the album and then the “official video” below. Anyway, this is from one of my favorite albums.
see also:
https://www.cheaptrick.com/
Cheap Trick’s Rise: The Inside Story

 
My pics of Cheap Trick at Virginia Beach in 2008
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Power Outages

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There are many readers in the Texas area without power right now. Here in Virginia and in the Northwest we had a round of this a few days ago. In the mid-Atlantic we are expecting another round tonight. I hope you all stay safe during this time, I’m thinking of you.
National Power Outage Map
We are fortunate and power or not my wife and I will be fine. We had our house wired for running off a generator when we moved in and I upgraded the generator this past spring. It isn’t a Home Standby Generator (too pricey for me) but it does just fine. We also have a fireplace. We are on well and septic and the generator handles that.
Previously we had dealt with many outages. I remember when Hurricane Gaston rolled through here we were without power for nearly a week. Here are some things I’ve learned (if you’ve anything to add, please do):

Food & Water
– Clean and rinse your tubs and fill them with water. This water can be used for bathing and to refill the toilet tanks, not for drinking.
– Fill as many drinking containers as you can for drinking water and cooking.
– Make preps for your food. Pre-cooking some of it is a good idea. If it’s warm out you’ll need ice and more of it than you think. If it’s cold out then your cooler can be set outside but away from where any animals can get at it. Believe it or not racoons, bears, possums, foxes, and dogs can all open your cooler.
– Load up on canned food and get a manual can opener.

Charge It
– Keep everything you have fully charged right until the power goes out. Shut your phone down if unneeded. If you’ve multiple phones you and your family can rotate having them on.
– On that subject, get more batteries and charge up those rechargeables.

Generators
– Keep your generator in good repair and run it a few times a year. Go out before the storm and start it. Trying to fix it after the power is already out sucks.
– Consider a dual-fuel generator.
– The generator needs to be OUTSIDE. A garage is NOT outside. Depending on where you live, you may need to chain it up. Desperate times…
– Gas up and safely store the fuel. As a few readers recommended to me when I had an issue, use ethanol free gas if you can find it. Consider several backup gas cans, if you don’t have power the gas stations near you may not have it either.
– Make use of surge suppressors. ESPECIALLY your electronics. Consider an Uninterruptible Power Supply. I fried a laptop during Hurricane Gaston despite it being plugged in to a surge strip. Stupidly, I still haven’t bought one…
– Generator safety is key: American Red Cross, Generator Safety Tips | Consumer Reports, Generator Safety Tips | Energy.gov, Using Portable/Emergency Generators Safely

Other Thoughts
– Keep up with your chores ahead of time. Clean the dishes, clothes, etc.
– Never a bad idea to have paper plates and plastic cups and utensils around.
– Got gas or charcoal for your grill?
– If you have a chainsaw, prep that too.
– If it’s below freezing open the cabinets under all the sinks. It helps keep the pipes from freezing.
– Gas up your vehicles. DO NOT use the vehicles to get warm. People are dying from this.
– Candles are a great source of light but are also a fire hazard.
– Please don’t let your pets suffer outside.
– Dig out those old board games and a deck of cards!
– Look out for one another!
– “body heat”, just sayin’…
– Beer, don’t forget the beer.

TweakHound’s World

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I was feeling a little guilty about leaving people out of the “Thank You” post so…
This is a list comes from the supporters of this site since I started keeping track of locations. Specifically, through buying the Win10 Tweak Guide.
So many people want to remain anonymous that I thought it would be cool to put everyone’s town, city, or village. I also included a map!
PLEASE let me know if I have left you out, or got anything wrong.
Also, please excuse the capitalization issues. This table was created by creating a large spreadsheet and the capitalization or lack of it is how they (the buyer) typed it in.
Last updated 30MAR2024.
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The Social Dilemma

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The Social Dilemma
“We tweet, we like, and we share— but what are the consequences of our growing dependence on social media? This documentary-drama hybrid reveals how social media is reprogramming civilization with tech experts sounding the alarm on their own creations…The Social Dilemma features the voices of technologists, researchers and activists working to align technology with the interests of humanity.”
I finally got around to watching this last night. My favorite quotes from the movie:

“I like to say that algorithms are opinions embedded in code.” Cathy O’Neil, data scientist‍

“The way to think about it is as 2.5 billion Truman Shows. Each person has their own reality with their own facts. Over time you have the false sense that everyone agrees with you because everyone in your news feed sounds just like you. Once you’re in that state, it turns out you’re easily manipulated.” – Roger McNamee, Early investor venture capitalist in Facebook‍

“It’s the gradual, slight, imperceptible change in your own behavior and perception that is the product.” – Jaron Lainer, founding father of Virtual Reality Computer Scientist‍

“There’s only a handful of people at these companies who understand how these [algorithm] systems work, and even they don’t necessarily fully understand what’s going to happen with a particular piece of content. So as humans we’ve almost lost control over these systems. Because they’re controlling the information that we see, they’re controlling us more than we’re controlling them.” – Sandy Parakilas, former operations manager at Facebook, former product manager at Uber‍

More quotes: The most hair-raising quotes from Netflix doco The Social Dilemma
More reading: References from Netflix’s “The Social Dilemma”

Question for folks in the U.K.

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Apologies in advance for my ignorance. I’ve never made it to the U.K. despite 3/4 of my DNA coming from those isles.
I’m redoing/updating a supporters list and I’ve run into something I’ve no answer to….
99% of the addresses I’m given say “United Kingdom”. Now, and again forgive me, I’ve always thought of the U.K. as England, Ireland, and Scotland. Likewise I call the people from there as English (or British), Irish, or Scottish. As an aside, a family member has always insisted we are Welsh not English based on the origin of our surname…
So, when filing out my list and I know “United Kingdom” is right for a mailing/billing address but it doesn’t feel right to me. Thus, I’ve been looking up the towns I don’t know to see which of the 3 aforementioned areas they are from and switch the address accordingly.
Anyway, can someone from the British Isles (or United Kingdom?) please straighten me out?
[Read more…] about Question for folks in the U.K.

Patch Tuesday

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Windows Updated
One Cumulative Update and a 1 or 2 .NET updates depending on which version you’ve installed.
20H2 & 2004: February 9, 2021—KB4601319 (OS Builds 19041.804 and 19042.804)
1909: February 9, 2021—KB4601315 (OS Build 18363.1377)

Firefox 85.0.2
“Fixed a deadlock during startup”
Download | Release Notes

O&O ShutUp10 Updated
“FIX: Determining registry key permissions has resulted in fewer displayed settings on some NT domain systems.”
If you aren’t on a corporate network (domain) then don’t bother with this update.
Download | Changelog

Security update available for Adobe Reader
Download | Security Bulletin

Google Chrome will no longer support dusty old computers from the mid-2000s
“Though admittedly small, the user base for Chrome users on devices dating back to the early to mid-2000s still exists. A new policy document published by the Chromium development team states that they will be dropping support for processors that lack something called SSE3, or Streaming SIMD Extensions 3, in x86 Chrome builds.”
SSE3 from Wikipedia:
“Intel introduced SSE3 in early 2004 with the Prescott revision of their Pentium 4 CPU. In April 2005, AMD introduced a subset of SSE3 in revision E (Venice and San Diego) of their Athlon 64 CPUs.”
From Intel: Products formerly Prescott

Tuesday Morning News

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Start10 1.96
“Some tweaks to search to ensure the Start10 search isn’t run ever if you are using Cortana mode and to ensure the search is terminated if you close the menu.”
I don’t use Cortana and I’m not having any issues. Skipping this one.
Download | Release Notes

Barcode Scanner app on Google Play infects 10 million users with one update
“It is hard to tell just how long Barcode Scanner had been in the Google Play store as a legitimate app before it became malicious. Based on the high number of installs and user feedback, we suspect it had been there for years. It is frightening that with one update an app can turn malicious while going under the radar of Google Play Protect. It is baffling to me that an app developer with a popular app would turn it into malware. Was this the scheme all along, to have an app lie dormant, waiting to strike after it reaches popularity? I guess we will never know.”
Google not doing it’s job and Android phone makers failing users by not having a stock barcode scanner.
Internet Wayback page of this app: https://web.archive.org/web/20201108202720/https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.qrcodescanner.barcodescanner