TweakHound

Computer stuff...

Eric (a.k.a. TweakHound)

Thursday Random Stuff…

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CCleaner 5.52
Download (I use portable) | Release Notes
See also: Blocking A Programs Internet Access Via The Windows Firewall

Intel PROSet/Wireless WiFi Software 20.110.0
Windows 7 | Windows 8.1 | Windows 10

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

Microsoft starts its ‘phased rollout’ of Win10 1809, now controlled by a next-generation machine-learning model
It’s official. In the mind-bending (and internally inconsistent) quagmire that has become Windows updating terminology, Win10 version 1809 is now in ‘phased rollout’ but not yet in ‘Semi-Annual Channel (not Targeted).’ If you don’t want Win10 1809, get your machine locked down.
They should never force an update on anyone.

Three quarters of US Facebook users unaware their online behavior gets tracked
After surveying 963 US adults last year between September 4 to October 1, Pew researchers found that 74 per cent of Facebook users said they were unaware the social ad biz tracks their traits and interests.
That confirms my hypothesis that most Facebook are in fact morons. #DeleteFacebook

One Of The Last Navajo Code Talkers Dies At 94
One of the last remaining Navajo Code Talkers, who relayed messages that were never decoded by enemies in World War II, has died at age 94…That complex language proved to be vital to the United States during World War II. As the Japanese cracked classified U.S. military codes, armed forces turned to members of the Navajo Nation. The messages they transmitted in the Pacific Theater were impenetrable to enemies. Newman enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1943, after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He served in such places as Guam and Iwo Jima.
Thank you for your service brother.

Kentucky All State Choir – National Anthem – 2018
Every night of the All State Choir conference at about 11pm, everyone comes out to the balconies of the 18 story Hyatt hotel to sing the National Anthem.
(If the video does not play you may need to adjust Ublock / Adblock / Privacy Badger settings.)

Tuesday Random Stuff…

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Windows 10 Updates
Only for builds 1803, 1709, and 1703.
Addresses an issue…
1803 – January 15, 2019—KB4480976 (OS Build 17134.556)
1709 – January 15, 2019—KB4480967 (OS Build 16299.936)
1703 – January 15, 2019—KB4480959 (OS Build 15063.1596)

Nvidia Geforce Game Ready WHQL Driver 417.71
Includes support for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 graphics cards as well as support for G-SYNC compatible monitors.
Download | Release Notes

Horowitz – I found a Windows 7 PC still infected with GWX (Get Windows 10) software
He found some GWX related tasks going. I double checked all my PC’s. All good but I had been blocking GWX from the start.

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

Feds Can’t Force You To Unlock Your iPhone With Finger Or Face, Judge Rules
“If a person cannot be compelled to provide a passcode because it is a testimonial communication, a person cannot be compelled to provide one’s finger, thumb, iris, face, or other biometric feature to unlock that same device,” the judge wrote…The magistrate judge decision could, of course, be overturned by a district court judge, as happened in Illinois in 2017 with a similar ruling. The best advice for anyone concerned about government overreach into their smartphones: Stick to a strong alphanumeric passcode that you won’t be compelled to disclose.
We haven’t heard the last of this. I would imagine it goes the the Supreme Court.

https://www.google.com/search?q=gillette+toxic+masculinity

Related???: Men talk about the things that “suck” about being men : theCHIVE

‘Star Trek’ Boss: Picard Leads “Radically Altered” Life in CBS All Access Series
The Picard series will be the first onscreen Trek story set in the aftermath of that event, which would have altered the balance of power in the galaxy. The destruction of Romulus would also have extra resonance for Picard, who has a long and complicated relationship with the Romulans, the alien race that split from Vulcan society thousands of years ago and founded a separate civilization.
As long as they don’t turn him into a mutineer we’re good.

Too Many Workers Are Trapped By Non-Competes
Why have wages been so slow to rise at a time when demand for workers has pushed the U.S. unemployment rate to its lowest point in nearly half a century? One answer: contracts that tie millions of unspecialized workers to their jobs.
In far too many cases, these so-called noncompetes are an unwarranted restriction on freedom to transact and a drag on growth. If Congress won’t act to narrow their scope, states should take the lead.

U.S. Restaurant Prices Jump the Most Since 2011
It’s getting more expensive to eat out. Full-service restaurants, facing higher labor and food costs, raised prices the most in more than seven years in December…The gap between how much it costs to eat out instead of grocery shopping “has continued to widen pretty aggressively. It’s a problem,” said Michael Halen, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst.

Industry wary of alternatives tries to protect a word: meat
More than four months after Missouri became the first U.S. state to regulate the term “meat” on product labels, Nebraska’s powerful farm groups are pushing for similar protection from veggie burgers, tofu dogs and other items that look and taste like real meat.
Nebraska lawmakers will consider a bill this year defining meat as “any edible portion of any livestock or poultry, carcass, or part thereof” and excluding “lab-grown or insect or plant-based food products.” It would make it a crime to advertise or sell something “as meat that is not derived from poultry or livestock.”
Similar measures aimed at meat alternatives are pending in Tennessee, Virginia and Wyoming.
Had me a burger with bacon, cheddar cheese, onions, and jalapenos last night. Animals are delicious.

Storage Deals

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Samsung 970 EVO 250GB – NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD
My pick for your OS drive.
List Price: $99.99 | Price: $77.99 | You Save: $22.00 (22%)

Samsung 860 EVO 1TB SSD
My pick for data drive.
List Price: $199.99 | Price: $147.00 | You Save: $52.99 (26%)

WD Black 6TB Performance Hard Drive
My pick for storage.
List Price: $249.99 | Price: $229.89 | You Save: $20.10 (8%)

Seagate Expansion 4TB Desktop External Hard Drive
List Price: $149.99 | Price: $79.99 | You Save: $70.00 (47%)

WD 4TB Black My Passport Portable External Hard Drive
List Price: $159.99 | Price: $94.99 | You Save: $65.00 (41%)

SanDisk 1TB Extreme Portable External SSD
List Price: $349.99 | With Deal: $179.99 | You Save: $170.00 (49%)

*prices accurate as of this writing, 12JAN2019

Friday Morning Random Stuff…

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Software Updates
Clonezilla 2.6.0-37 – “includes major enhancements and bug fixes”
Firefox – 64.0.2
VLC – 3.0.6

Microsoft: Windows 10 to grab 7GB of your storage so big updates don’t fail
News all over the internet. IMHO, no big deal. Stop your fracking whining.
FYI – As it stands this will only apply to new installs.
Official page: Windows 10 and reserved storage

Best Drive Cleaner? CCleaner VS Wise Disk Cleaner VS PrivaZer
Major Geeks has a video showing the options of each. Good stuff.

Cell Phone Companies Are Selling Access To Customer Location Data

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Motherboard – I Gave a Bounty Hunter $300. Then He Located Our Phone
T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T are selling access to their customers’ location data, and that data is ending up in the hands of bounty hunters and others not authorized to possess it, letting them track most phones in the country…
The bounty hunter did this all without deploying a hacking tool or having any previous knowledge of the phone’s whereabouts. Instead, the tracking tool relies on real-time location data sold to bounty hunters that ultimately originated from the telcos themselves, including T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint, a Motherboard investigation has found. These surveillance capabilities are sometimes sold through word-of-mouth networks…
Motherboard’s investigation shows just how exposed mobile networks and the data they generate are, leaving them open to surveillance by ordinary citizens, stalkers, and criminals…
Don’t think it’s a big deal? This could be your Mom’s, wife’s, girlfriend’s, or daughter’s phone…

Patch Tuesday

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Windows Update
Updates available for all currently supported versions of Windows. Updates for Flash and .Net available where applicable.

Windows 7
January 8, 2019—KB4480970 (Monthly Rollup)
January 8, 2019—KB4480960 (Security-only update)

Windows 8.1
January 8, 2019—KB4480963 (Monthly Rollup)
January 8, 2019—KB4480964 (Security-only update)

Windows 10
1809 – January 8, 2019—KB4480116 (OS Build 17763.253)
1803 – January 8, 2019—KB4480966 (OS Build 17134.523)
1709 – January 8, 2019—KB4480978 (OS Build 16299.904)

– – – – – –

Wise Disk Cleaner 10.1.5 Released
Download (I use portable) | Release Info

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

Hey Apple, what happens on iPhones doesn’t stay there, and your ‘clever’ CES ad is promoting a dangerous illusion
That’s a cute ad you have in Las Vegas for the CES tech convention. “What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone” is both a good dig at your rivals and a clever restating of Sin City’s popular catch phrase.
But it’s literally a lie. What happens on customers’ iPhones doesn’t stay on them — and you know it.
Preach

Survey: Americans Warming to Use of Facial Recognition Tech
I’m not sure I buy the results of the study. If it is even close to true then, well, SMH.

Came up in an email convo with a reader and friend:
SiriusXM stations I mostly listen to:
Hair Nation ’80s Hair Bands 
Ozzy’s Boneyard Ozzy’s Classic Hard Rock 
Classic Rewind ’70s/’80s Classic Rock 

Monday Random Stuff…

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Tomorrow is Patch Tuesday. Backup if you get the time.

Adobe Reader Updated
Download en-US | All Downloads | Security Bulletin | Release Notes

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

Please don’t repeat these things WikiLeaks says you can’t say about Assange (updated)
You absolutely cannot say these 140 things about Julian Assange, according to bastion of the free press WikiLeaks.
A representative of WikiLeaks has sent a “confidential” memo to news outlets including an updated “defamation list” (version 1.2), advising reporters not to mention or publish it. The memo was promptly leaked (update: the first out of the gate to leak was Emma Best of MuckRock). WikiLeaks then linked to a revised, heavily edited and redacted version (version 1.3) they posted “anonymously” on a text paste site.
Here, without further comment or editing, and in its entirety, is the WikiLeaks advisory.

Gentlemen actually do prefer blondes: study
They needed a study for that? Next you’re gonna tell me guys like women with big, um… Anyway, I was searching for the actual research and I found this:
Not so dumb! Blondes have more complex DNA, with more than three times the number of genetic variants than brunettes or redheads
Blondes may have a ditzy reputation, but their lighter locks are far more complex than scientists thought.
I’m not sure of the author’s hair color but I’m not seeing how more complex DNA for hair equates to “Not so dumb”. Maybe it’s because I’m a stupid brunet.
The actual research is here: Genome-wide study of hair colour in UK Biobank explains most of the SNP heritability

Seasonal affective disorder: your eye colour might be why you have the ‘winter blues’
You’re not alone if colder weather and longer nights make you feel down. This well-known phenomenon, called seasonal affective disorder (SAD), might explain why people feel low, irritable, and lethargic in the winter months. For some, the condition can be serious and debilitating.
Although SAD is a recognised form of clinical depression, experts are still divided on what causes the condition, with some even arguing it doesn’t exist. But my own research has found that your eye colour might actually be one factor determining whether or not you develop SAD.
Interesting.

Weekend Random Stuff…

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MS Office Updates Out, Some Already Pulled
How-to update MS Office: Install Office updates
All Office Downloads & Info
Office Standalone Latest Updates
Update history for Office 365 ProPlus – Version 1812: January 3
The updates for Office 2010 have been pulled:
January 2, 2019, update for Office 2010 (KB4032217)
After you install this update, you may experience difficulties in Microsoft Excel or other applications. To resolve this, uninstall the update by following the instructions in the “More information” section.
This update is no longer available.

Updated: WACUP (WinAmp Community Update Project)
Version 1.0.0.3174 released
WACUP (which can be pronounced as wakeup or wac-up or however you prefer it in your native tongue) is designed to work only with the patched Winamp 5.666 release to provide bug fixes, updates of existing features and most importantly new features with the goal to eventually become it’s own highly Winamp compatible media player.
WACUP makes use of the benefits of Winamp being heavily based on a plug-in system so new plug-ins can add additional features as well as allowing replacements to be created which provide better implementations over the plug-ins natively included with Winamp.
Download & Info

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

Apple plasters privacy ad on billboard near Las Vegas Convention Center ahead of CES
“What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone.”
Well played Apple. Never been to CES (can’t afford it) and I didn’t know CES was still a serious thing. Especially since there was a move to reduce or eliminate the best thing about it, Booth Babes!

Los Angeles Accuses Weather Channel App of Covertly Mining User Data
The Weather Channel app deceptively collected, shared and profited from the location information of millions of American consumers, the city attorney of Los Angeles said in a lawsuit filed on Thursday.

Popular Weather App Collects Too Much User Data, Security Experts Say
The app, called “Weather Forecast—World Weather Accurate Radar,” collects data including smartphone users’ geographic locations, email addresses and unique 15-digit International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers on TCL servers in China

Congrats on the new baby. Would you like a DNA screening test?
Every baby born in the United States is given a routine blood test to screen for dozens of inherited medical conditions. Now, the U.S. National Institutes of Health is exploring whether to use DNA sequencing to screen newborn babies for additional genetic abnormalities and disorders…One of the “key ethical issues” when using genome sequencing as a screening tool in newborns (or children in general), she wrote, “is that a comprehensive genetic profile is established without the person’s consent and without a clinical indication…”The issue with genetic information is, that once generated, it cannot be made ‘undone,’ ” wrote Lunshof, who was not involved in Beggs’ study. “If genetic information (that is often probabilistic) is on file, will it be used similar to ‘existing disorders’ and lead to denial of health insurance coverage?”

Move Over ‘Friends,’ Millennials Now Find ‘Seinfeld’ Problematic
Now, one of the most popular and successful TV shows of all time is considered problematic for several jokes that were okay – or a little edgy – in the 1990s that are now offensive to American millennials. The previous victim of this new, politically correct world was “Friends.” Now, “Seinfeld” is getting the social justice warrior treatment.

Blue Moon named official “craft beer” of the Kentucky Derby
Twatwaffles. Blue Moon isn’t craft beer. It is owned by MillerCoors which is owned the Molson Coors Brewing Company, world’s 7th largest brewing company.
Craft beer has the following label:

METALLICA’s LARS ULRICH Interviews JOAN JETT For ‘It’s Electric!’ Radio Show
Joan Jett recently joined METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich for a special edition of “It’s Electric!”, his online radio show on Apple Music’s Beats 1. She reflects on performing with NIRVANA at the 2014 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony, dissects the role of women in glam rock, discusses her 2018 documentary “Bad Reputation”, and more.
I love Joan Jett!

How Apps on Android Share Data with Facebook

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Privacy International Study:
How Apps on Android Share Data with Facebook (even if you don’t have a Facebook account)
Article | Attached PDF Whitepaper | Video
We found that at least 61 percent of apps we tested automatically transfer data to Facebook the moment a user opens the app. This happens whether people have a Facebook account or not, or whether they are logged into Facebook or not…If combined, data from different apps can paint a fine-grained and intimate picture of people’s activities, interests, behaviors and routines, some of which can reveal special category data, including information about people’s health or religion. For example, an individual who has installed the following apps that we have tested, “Qibla Connect” (a Muslim prayer app), “Period Tracker Clue” (a period tracker), “Indeed” (a job search app), “My Talking Tom” (a children’s’ app), could be potentially profiled as likely female, likely Muslim, likely job seeker, likely parent.

See page 35 of the PDF for what little you can do to protect yourself.

This means that much of what you see on your phone either is, or could have been manipulated.
If this doesn’t piss you off then you deserve what you get.

Source: Techspot via [H]ardOCP