Eric (a.k.a. TweakHound)

Firefox 69
Enhanced Tracking Protection on by default.
Download | Release Notes

Stuff I bookmarked recently. Some off topic, some not:

Harry Potter books removed from St. Edward Catholic School due to ‘curses and spells’
“The seven-book series depicting the magical adventures of a young wizard and his friends was removed from the library because of their content, the Rev. Dan Reehil, a pastor at the Roman Catholic parish school, wrote in an email.
“These books present magic as both good and evil, which is not true, but in fact a clever deception. The curses and spells used in the books are actual curses and spells; which when read by a human being risk conjuring evil spirits into the presence of the person reading the text,” the email states”
Eric casts Expecto Patronum at idiot “Reverend”. I’d rather use another spell but it was banned by the Ministry of Magic.

People who post selfies are seen as less likable and less successful, WSU study finds
“In a study that will publish this fall in the Journal of Research in Personality, individuals who posted a lot of selfies were almost uniformly viewed as less likable, less successful and more insecure than people who posted more “posies” — that is, traditionally posed photos that appear to be taken by someone else.”
Nobody likes or respects narcissists.

Meet The Man Who Guards America’s Ketchup
“A man named Hector Osorno. They call him the ketchup master, which is actually a formal title at Kraft Heinz. “He’s completely obsessed [with ketchup],” Siragusa tells me. “He’s got secrets that he won’t divulge.”
Guarding the good name of the worlds only true ketchup. You sir are a hero.

J.J. Watt’s Foundation Has Rebuilt Over 1,100 Homes (And Counting) With The Money It Raised Following Hurricane Harvey
“As things currently stand, Watt’s foundation and their non-profit partners have helped reconstruct almost 1,200 homes (a number that will only continue to rise) and have distributed hundreds of millions of meals for those impacted by a storm whose impact still lingers to this day.”
Many TweakHound readers donated so I thought an update was appropriate.

Humans and Neanderthals Kept Breeding—and Breeding—for Ages
I’m just gonna say that this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that beer existed back then too…

Intel Ethernet Drivers v24.2
Windows 7 | Windows 8.1 | Windows 10 | Complete Pack | Release Notes

Stuff I bookmarked recently. Some off topic, some not:

Doorbell-camera firm Ring has partnered with 400 police forces, extending surveillance reach
“But legal experts and privacy advocates have voiced alarm about the company’s eyes-everywhere ambitions and increasingly close relationship with police, saying the program could threaten civil liberties, turn residents into informants, and subject innocent people, including those who Ring users have flagged as “suspicious,” to greater surveillance and potential risk.
“If the police demanded every citizen put a camera at their door and give officers access to it, we might all recoil,” said Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, a law professor and author of “The Rise of Big Data Policing.”
By tapping into “a perceived need for more self-surveillance and by playing on consumer fears about crime and security,” he added, Ring has found “a clever workaround for the development of a wholly new surveillance network, without the kind of scrutiny that would happen if it was coming from the police or government.”
I warned of this last December: Amazon’s Disturbing Plan to Add Face Surveillance to Your Front Door

Whole Foods CEO on plant-based meat boom: Good for the environment but not for your health
“if you look at the ingredients, they are super, highly processed foods.”
You couldn’t pay me to eat that crap. Well you could but it would cost you at least Surf & Turf dinner (with adult beverages).

Workers say wearing jeans to work is worth $5,000 to them
“In fact, 33% would rather quit their job — or decline a job offer — if it meant wearing business attire every day of the week, according to a new study by staffing firm Randstad US, which looked at attitudes about workplace fashion.
Similarly, one-third of workers said they would rather have a casual dress code than an extra $5,000 in pay each year.”
I don’t like suits. I don’t wear suits. I don’t understand suits. IMHO it’s the uniform of a bygone era.

Macrium Reflect 7.2.4440
Download | Release Notes
I’m uneasy about this one. Previous version pulled, and already complaints of a couple of issues in their forum. I’m gonna hold off on this.

Chrome 76.0.3809.132
“This update includes 3 security fixes.”
Download: 32-bit or 64-bit

AMD Radeon Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.8.2 Optional
Download | Release Notes

Nvidia Geforce Game Ready WHQL Driver 436.15
Download | Release Notes

Stuff I bookmarked recently. Some off topic, some not:

Uh-oh: Silicon Valley is building a Chinese-style social credit system
“Many Westerners are disturbed by what they read about China’s social credit system. But such systems, it turns out, are not unique to China. A parallel system is developing in the United States, in part as the result of Silicon Valley and technology-industry user policies, and in part by surveillance of social media activity by private companies.”

The spy in your wallet: Credit cards have a privacy problem
“I recently used my credit card to buy a banana. Then I tried to figure out how my credit card let companies buy me.
You might think my 29-cent swipe at Target would be just between me and my bank. Heavens, no. My banana generated data that’s probably worth more than the banana itself. It ended up with marketers, Target, Amazon, Google and hedge funds, to name a few.”

Verizon to enable spam call filtering by default on select Android phones
“Verizon says that calls from numbers that have been reported as fraudulent will be automatically blocked, while other numbers will generate a “potential spam” warning message on the incoming call screen. Calls from known contacts will be unaffected. Users also have the option of blocking all international calls if the only ones they receive are spam.”

Trailers
The Mandalorian | Official Trailer | Disney+ | Streaming Nov. 12
Hmmm, dunno about yet another streaming service,
Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker | D23 Special Look
Goosebumps…

Nvidia Geforce Game Ready WHQL Driver 436.02
“Provides increased performance and the optimal gaming experience for Apex Legends, Battlefield V, Forza Horizon 4, Strange Brigade, and World War Z”
Download | Release Notes
See: Anandtech – NVIDIA Releases GeForce 436.02 Driver: Integer Scaling Support for Turing, Freestyle Sharpening, & More

AMD Radeon Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.8.1 Optional
fixes. Supports for Radeon RX 5700.
Download | Release Notes

Stuff I bookmarked recently. Some off topic, some not:

Americans are waiting three years to replace their phones, study finds
“To start with, buyers perceive newer phones’ offerings as marginal upgrades not worth getting a new device for.”
Yep. I hit 3 years this past March on my Galaxy S7 with no plan to upgrade.

What Is Cyberwar? The Complete WIRED Guide
“Incident by catastrophic incident, cyberwar has left the pages of overblown science fiction and the tabletops of Pentagon war games to become a reality. More than ever before, it’s become clear that the threat of hacking goes beyond nuisance vandalism, criminal profiteering, and even espionage to include the sort of physical-world disruption that was once possible to accomplish only with military attacks and terroristic sabotage.”
Interesting. Worth a read.

Ridiculous Headlines Of The Week:
Google wants to help protect your privacy on the web
“Google is looking to position itself as the champion of user privacy on the web.”

A federal program says you should keep your home above 78 degrees
“The program suggests different settings to automate at various times: 78 degrees when you wake up, 85 degrees during the day and 82 degrees when you’re sleeping.”
Kiss my six. Everyone involved with those ridiculous suggestions should be fired. I wonder what the temperature in their buildings and homes are?

Best Article Of The Week
Mind Your Manners, Says Edith Wharton
(If you hit a paywall try this link.)
“You have all become very rude. Not from ignorance, as Americans were in the past, but from indifference and amid affluence.
In your daily dealings you have grown slovenly, indifferent and cold. A great nation cannot continue in this way.”

VLC 3.0.8
Download | 64-bit | Release Page

CCleaner 5.61
Download (I use portable) | Release Announcement
See also: Blocking A Programs Internet Access Via The Windows Firewall

Macrium Reflect 7.2.4433???
Was released and pulled I guess. Watch here: https://forum.macrium.com/Topic30606.aspx

Stuff I bookmarked recently. Some off topic, some not:

Black hole shock: Astronomers spy black hole SWALLOWING neuton star
“Scientists scouring the cosmos for faint ripples in space-time have spied a black hole devouring a neutron star for the very first time.”

Pumpkin Spice Is Back
Yeah, I’m one of those people. I’ve already had 7 different Pumpkin beers. Dunkin’ Donuts pumpkin stuff hits the shelves tomorrow. Starbucks Pumpkin Spice coffee comes out the 27th.
Pumpkin beers I’ve had so far this year: Avery Rumpkin, Schlafly Pumpkin Ale, Alewerks Pumpkin, Blue Mountain Spooky, South Street Twisted Gourd, Southern Tier Pumpking, Southern Tier Warlock.

Study: People Who Use Emojis Have More Sex (Kinda)

Old School Country
The band is called Midland. No “Hick-Hop” here, just “90s-influenced” country. You can read about it and stream it here:
NPR: Midland, Connoisseurs Of Country Craft, Evolves Its Vintage Sound
I liked it enough I pre-ordered it at Amazon.

Some Win10 Versions Updated
1903 – no release
1809 – August 17, 2019—KB4512534 (OS Build 17763.720) A whole bunch of “Addresses an issue” fixes.
1803 – no release
1709 – August 16, 2019—KB4512494 (OS Build 16299.1365) 7 “Addresses an issue” fixes

New Intel Drivers
Intel Processor Identification Utility 6.1.0731 – ***Patches vulnerability
Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) Driver 17.5.2.1024
Intel Wireless Bluetooth for Windows 10 21.30.0
Windows 10 Wi-Fi Drivers for Intel Wireless Adapters 21.30.3

Wise Disk Cleaner 10.2.4
“Minor bug fixes, Updated various translations, GUI and usability improvements”
Download (I use portable) | Release Announcement

Etc.
Avidemux 2.7.4 – “Tons of bugfixes”

Another Question For You, DD-WRT?
At any given time I have 2 dozen or more devices on my home network including 11 video cameras, a home server, 2 Amazon Fire devices, Roku, 6 PCs, 2 phones, a tablet, 5 switches, and 2 wireless APs. The weak spot in my network seems to be my router, a Netgear R6400v2. My network will get wonky (collisions, timeouts…) and a reboot fixes it for a few days or so. I’m considering flashing the router to DD-WRT mainly because it supposedly allows timed reboots. Have any of you used this? If so any thoughts?
My other solution is a new router which of course is $$$ that I would rather not spend ATM.

Stuff I bookmarked recently. Some off topic, some not:

LAST A-10 Warthog Brrrrrrt EVER to be built – theCHIVE
Despite the efforts of some morons over the years they aren’t going out of service yet: A-10 re-winging completed, will keep Warthog in the air until late 2030s
Repost from a few months back:
A-10 Brrrrrrrt Warthog Thunderbolt II Photos Gun Firing : theCHIVE
Cool pics of one of the worlds greatest ground combat weapons. True story…
I was stationed at Kriegsfeld Army Depot in Germany. It was a “special weapons” facility. We MPs that guarded the weapons were called “Towers Rats” (pic below). Every so often the A-10s from Sembach Air Base would come buzzing around the site. One day I climbed on top of my tower and as the A10 approached I dropped my BDU pants and mooned the pilot. He did a quick loop and buzzed my tower so close it shook for 30 seconds. Still makes me chuckle…
Kregsfeld Army Depot pics

Samsung 970 EVO 500GB NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD
One of the fastest most reliable SSDs out there. This is even cheaper than the 250GB version!
List Price: $149.99
Price: $89.99
You Save: $60.00 (40%)