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Friday Random Stuff…

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It’s after lunch on a 3 day holiday weekend here on the East Coast of the USA. That means most of the workforce has checked out (either literally or figuratively) and highway traffic headed toward any body of water is beginning to slow to a crawl. Be safe out there and have a great weekend.

Intel Graphics Driver for Windows 10 24.20.100.6286
Download | Release Notes

Software Updates
EMDB (Eric’s Movie Database) 3.20
jv16 PowerTools 4.2.0.1883
VLC multimedia player 3.0.4

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

October 2018 Update
The Windows press are all wetting themselves over the fact that the next Win10 update has a name.
“I’m pleased to announce that our next feature update to Windows will be called the Windows 10 October 2018 Update. With this update, we’ll be bringing new features and enhancements to the nearly 700 million devices running Windows 10 that help people make the most of their time. We’ll share more details about the update over the coming weeks.”
No release date but I will go out on a limb and say sometime in October.

Useful or creepy? Machines suggest Gmail replies
“The responses are automatically created using Google’s artificial intelligence systems. Humans aren’t reading people’s emails, but machines are scanning them. Although Google stopped scanning email to target advertising in 2017, it still scans them to filter out junk mail, identify phishing scams and, now, to create suggested replies. (Yahoo and AOL, both owned by Verizon, still scan email for advertising.)”
I vote creepy.

5-year-old battling rare kidney disease asks for cards for his birthday
Address is in the article. Send the little dude a card!

Weekend Listening
In the early to mid 80s there was a Country Rock band in Virginia called Snuff. Though they never hit the big time, IMHO they were great.
I thought I would leave you with my favorite song from them called When Jokers Are Wild . I carefully recorded it from the original LP.

Thursday Random Stuff…

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

Intel ‘gags’ Linux distros from revealing performance hit from Spectre patches
Nothing Intel does shocks me anymore. I hope the class-action suit I am involved in hits them hard but I’m not banking on it.
Thanks to Dan for the heads up!

Windows 95 is now an app you can download and install on macOS, Windows, and Linux
coollinks

You can opt out of Netflix’s new ads. Here’s how
That crap seriously puts a damper on binge watching. I got rid og it thanks to this article.

Fire dept. rejects Verizon’s “customer support mistake” excuse for throttling
“A fire department whose data was throttled by Verizon Wireless while it was fighting California’s largest-ever wildfire has rejected Verizon’s claim that the throttling was just a customer service error and “has nothing to do with net neutrality.” The throttling “has everything to do with net neutrality,” a Santa Clara County official said.”

“Top Gun” sequel filming aboard Norfolk-based aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln
I head down towards Virginia Beach a few times a year. On the way there you cross the Hampton Roads Bridge–Tunnel and you can see the big ships parked at Naval Station Norfolk. They still awe me.

‘The Big Bang Theory’ to End With Season 12
Apparently Jim Parsons wanted out. I used to love the show but it should have ended 2 years ago.

Marijuana, alcohol abuse accelerate brain aging: study
The researchers found that several brain disorders and behaviors predicted accelerated aging, especially:
Schizophrenia, which showed an average of 4 years of premature aging;
Cannabis abuse (2.8 years);
Bipolar disorder (1.6 years);
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (1.4 years); and
Alcohol abuse (0.6 years

Stretching
I usually don’t post memes or TwitMyFaceTagram screenshots but I couldn’t pass this up:

Tuesday Random Stuff…

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Gmail for Android can now undo sent emails
Android Police has the info and a how-to.

Acronis True Image 2019 Released
Posted for you guys still using Acronis Products.

Logitech’s new Pro Wireless mouse is already an Overwatch League champion
Probably the ultimate wireless gaming mouse. You can preorder it here.
For a great all-around mouse try:
Logitech MX Anywhere 2S Wireless Mouse with FLOW Cross-Computer Control and File Sharing

Facebook has TRUST ratings for users – but it won’t tell you your score
that is the same thing that China is doing:
Big data meets Big Brother as China moves to rate its citizens
#DeleteFacebook

‘Harry Potter’ Readers Make Better Romantic Partners, Study Finds
Hell yeah we are!

Shorts Science: The Formula for the Perfect Length Shorts
I was looking for basic gym shorts under $10 (yes, I’m that cheap). The last pair I bought was the Hanes Men’s Jersey Shorts for $7.00. This article actually has a scale as to what inseam you should get. Thankfully it does not mention the baggy, down past your knees, show your undies garbage. Nor does it mention the 70s ball-hugging shorty shorts either (though a 5″ inseam may be close).
“Not sure if you’re a 5-inch, 7-inch, or 9-inch inseam kind of guy? We—and math—have your back.”
They call it a “Leg Love Quotient” which is a rather…odd name. Anywho, my quotient came out to a 7″ inseam. The last shorts I bought had a 7.5″ inseam so it sounds about right.

Beating King of Pop, The Eagles have No.1 album of all-time
Not a big Michael Jackson fan but comparing a greatest hits album to a standard release seems a bit unfair.
The only MJ songs I really like are Rockin’ Robin (with the Jackson 5), and Rock With You.

Wednesday Random Stuff…

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Virtual Machine Host Software Updated
VMware Workstation Player 14.1.3 – 1 bugfix, OpenSSL update, Sprectre/Meltdown patch
VirtualBox 5.2.18 – a few bugfixes
Speaking of VMs. Many of you know I do most of my day-to-day web activity in a Linux VM. In the past I’ve used openSUSE. I have switched to Linux Mint 19 “Tara” Cinnamon. About the only thing I had to add after standard install was Chromium, Tor Browser, and HPLIP (HP printer drivers).

Foreshadow
Great. Just fracking great. Another Spectre type CPU vulnerability.
“Foreshadow is a speculative execution attack on Intel processors which allows an attacker to steal sensitive information stored inside personal computers or third party clouds. Foreshadow has two versions, the original attack designed to extract data from SGX enclaves and a Next-Generation version which affects Virtual Machines (VMs), hypervisors (VMM), operating system (OS) kernel memory, and System Management Mode (SMM) memory.”
Wired has a good breakdown.

The Guardian – How to turn off Google’s location tracking
After Monday’s news, I was gonna write up something on this and saw this article. It is well done.

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

Ajit Pai grilled by lawmakers on why FCC spread “myth” of DDoS attack
“An FCC Inspector General (IG) investigation found that the FCC lied to members of Congress multiple times in letters that answered questions about DDoS attacks that never happened. Pai’s FCC claimed for more than a year that a May 2017 outage in the public comments system was caused by multiple DDoS attacks. In reality, the FCC system crashed because it was unable to handle an influx of comments triggered by comedian John Oliver asking viewers of his program Last Week Tonight to oppose Pai’s net neutrality repeal.”

Mystery Russian satellite’s behaviour raises alarm in US
“Russian intentions with respect to this satellite are unclear and are obviously a very troubling development,” she added, citing recent comments made by the commander of Russia’s Space Forces, who said adopting “new prototypes of weapons” was a key objective for the force.”

Sacramento welfare investigators track drivers to find fraud. Privacy group raises red flags.
“The EFF has a more skeptical view of the data-collection practice and said it’s “disturbing” that millions of people who are not suspected of a crime can be tracked with license plate photos.”

Suns Out, Guns Out
Remember our hero JJ Watt? Dude is ripped. I’m sure he will be destroying people. Don’t know how much NFL I will be watching this year but that is a topic for another day.
The Internet Reacts To JJ Watt’s Freakishly Large Arms In Latest Instagram Post

Weekend Random Stuff…

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

Intel Launches 9th Gen Core 8 Core and 6 Core CPUs on 1st October
No word on if Spectre and Meltdown are still an issue with these.

Here’s why you’re being kept in the dark about how your data is used
“In the wake of the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal, people are more aware than ever of the tenuous nature of data collection, and more concerned about how securely tech and financial institutions catalog this data.And with good reason: according to the Identity Theft Resource Center, there were 1,579 data breaches in 2017, an alarming 44.7 percent uptick from the year before.”

Hydroelectric Dam Threatens to Wipe Out World’s Rarest Ape
“The world’s rarest great ape, discovered only in 2017, will not survive the building of a $1.6 billion hydroelectric power plant and dam in the middle of its remaining habitat in Sumatra, Indonesia, wildlife experts warn” The project ” is being financed and built by state-controlled Chinese companies under China’s Belt and Road.”
No cool.

Professors allow students to pick their own grade
Crap like this is one of the many reasons I’ve little respect for colleges or college degrees.

The ‘American Pickers’ Find the Aerosmith Van that Started It All
Kinda neat but they paid $25K for it?!

Woman killed by neighborhood dogs
Can you guess what breed of dog???

Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth ‘Star Trek 4’ Future In Doubt as Talks Fall Through
Looks like Paramount tried to renege on previous deals.

There is a Tiger on the prowl in St. Louis. I’m gonna go see how that ends…