Computer stuff...
Win10 Optional Updates
“This non-security update includes quality improvements.” Couple dozens fixes.
20H2 & 2004 – February 24, 2021—KB4601382 (OS Builds 19041.844 and 19042.844) Preview
New Intel Drivers (v22.30.0)
Windows 10 Wi-Fi Drivers for Intel Wireless Adapters
Intel Wireless Bluetooth for Windows 10
Off Topic
I ordered 2 key fob batteries for my wife’s SUV from Amazon. Good news, it was early!
And just look at the packing efficiency!
Google Chrome Updated
“The Stable channel has been updated to 88.0.4324.190 for Windows, and 88.0.4324.192 for Mac”
Download | Release Info
Tiger Woods In Car Accident
https://www.google.com/search?&q=tiger+woods
As of this writing there isn’t much in the way of details and those we’ve been given (like the jaws of life statement) are being proven wrong. Always loved watching Tiger. In a sport that was full of pretentious pri, uh, people, he made the sport worth watching for me. I hope he gets through this.
[Read more…] about Tuesday Random Stuff…
Firefox 86 Is Out
Several improvements including:
“Today, Firefox introduces Total Cookie Protection to Strict Mode. In Total Cookie Protection, every website gets its own “cookie jar,” preventing cookies from being used to track you from site to site…Notable performance and stability improvements are achieved by moving canvas drawing and WebGL drawing to the GPU process.”
Security fixes too.
Download | All New Downloads | Release Notes | Security Vulnerabilities fixed in Firefox 86
Related: Mozilla laid off 250 people, and the company overhaul is just beginning
Tails 4.16
“This release fixes known security vulnerabilities. You should upgrade as soon as possible.”
Download | Release Info
WACUP Build #7170
Download & Info | Changelog
GPU-Z v2.37.0
“GPU-Z is a lightweight utility designed to give you all information about your video card and GPU.”
Download & Info
AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 21.2.3 Optional
Support for DIRT 5 Energy Content Pack, HDMI fixes
Download | Release Notes
Stuff I bookmarked recently. Some off topic, some not:
Privacy faces risks in tech-infused post-Covid workplace
“But what I would worry about is employers using the pandemic to pluck and store information in a systematic way beyond what is necessary to protect health.”
A Case Against the Peeping Tom Theory of Privacy
“It is our purpose to consider whether the existing law affords a principle which can properly be invoked to protect the privacy of the individual” Louis D. Brandeis
The topic of privacy has always been important to me. I remember spending hours in the library combing through books and doing a paper for college entitled “The Right To Be Let Alone” based in large measure on Louis Brandeis’s arguments. I think I still have that paper in a box somewhere.
“The Right to Privacy”, Warren and Brandeis, Harvard Law Review. Vol. IV December 15, 1890 No. 5
“Recent inventions and business methods call attention to the next step which must be taken for the protection of the person, and for securing to the individual what Judge Cooley calls the right “to be let alone” Instantaneous photographs and newspaper enterprise have invaded the sacred precincts of private and domestic life; and numerous mechanical devices threaten to make good the prediction that “what is whispered in the closet shall be proclaimed from the house-tops.” For years there has been a feeling that the law must afford some remedy for the unauthorized circulation of portraits of private persons; and the evil of invasion of privacy by the newspapers, long keenly felt, has been but recently discussed by an able writer. The alleged facts of a somewhat notorious case brought before an inferior tribunal in New York a few months ago, directly involved the consideration of the right of circulating portraits; and the question whether our law will recognize and protect the right to privacy in this and in other respects must soon come before our courts for consideration.”
This absolutely brilliant piece of work was written in 1890. EIGHTEEN NINETY folks. Remember that when some talking head says all these issues are new and the law can’t keep up.
To be let alone: Brandeis foresaw privacy problems
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Right_to_Privacy_(article)
Win10 Updated
KB4023057: Update for Windows 10 Update Service components
“This update includes files and resources that address issues that affect the update processes in Windows 10 that may prevent important Windows updates from being installed.”
Flash got force removed a few days back.
Stuff I bookmarked recently. Some off topic, some not:
New version of Microsoft Office won’t require you to pay for a subscription
This article refers to a Microsoft blog post that they didn’t bother linking to. I don’t know if this was incompetence or obfuscation but I had to go hunting for it:
Upcoming commercial preview of Microsoft Office LTSC, By Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365
“We also plan to release Office 2021 for personal and small business use later this year. Office 2021 will also be supported for five years with the traditional “one-time purchase” model. We do not plan to change the price for these products at the time of the release. We will announce more details about new features included in Office 2021 closer to general availability.”
New browser-tracking hack works even when you flush caches or go incognito
“The technique leverages the use of favicons..The attack works against Chrome, Safari, Edge, and until recently Brave, which developed an effective countermeasure after receiving a private report from the researchers. Firefox would also be susceptible to the technique, but a bug prevents the attack from working at the moment.”
I can’t find anything saying this exploit is being used ATM.
CEO Breaks Down How Remote Work Is Going To Change This Decade
“HQ’s are finished: companies will cut their commercial office space by 50-70%…Fully distributed: ~30% of the companies we talk to are getting rid of the office entirely and going remote-first…Companies doing this have seen their workers decentralize rapidly, leaving expensive cities to be closer to family”
About the password managers. Leaning toward Bitwarden. The feature I was interested in in 1Password isn’t there:
“The WLAN server can’t sync two or more computers.
The WLAN server isn’t available in 1Password 6 or later on Windows.”
Stuff I bookmarked recently. Some off topic, some not:
Why did I leave Google or, why did I stay so long?
“It’s been two weeks since I left Google and I keep getting asked “why did I leave now”? I think the better question is “why did I stay for so long”? When Waze was acquired by Google, most of the people who know me did not believe I would last 7 weeks, let alone 7 years…”
Very interesting article.
‘A Disaster Within A Disaster’: Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Cases Are Surging In Texas
“Texas is seeing a surge in carbon monoxide poisonings this week, as plunging temperatures and persistent power outages send residents searching for warmth increasingly from dangerous sources…State and local officials attribute most of the cases to the use of improper home heating sources, from devices like barbecue pits, charcoal grills and campfire stoves to practices like running portable generators and car engines indoors.”
Bill Gates: Rich nations should shift entirely to synthetic beef
“I do think all rich countries should move to 100% synthetic beef.”
Kiss my…
Radio Garden
Tune in to live radio around the world. This has been around for quite a while and I just found out about it! There are Android and iOS apps too.
About 3/4 of an inch of ice today.
[Read more…] about Thursday Random Stuff…
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
[Read more…] about Wednesday Random Stuff…
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”
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
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
New Intel Graphics Drivers
“This release contains security updates.”
Braswell, 4th and 5th generations: version 15.40, Download & Info
6th Gen: version 15.45, Download & Info
If you are on Windows 10 and using Skylake CPUs or newer I would use the DCH drivers instead:
Newest Intel DCH Drivers are v27.20.100.9168
FAQ about Windows DCH Drivers for Intel Graphics
Reader Question
Q – Why did you stop using openSUSE?
A –
1 – For me openSUSE has become less stable and less desirable over time. I’m not alone. While not scientific, IMHO the Distrowatch page hit ranking offers good insight into what people think about each distro:
Distrowatch Page Hit Rankings for openSUSE
2014: #4, corporate merger, BTRFS now default FS
2015: #4, openSUSE Leap 1st released November, 2015
2016: #4
2017: #6
2018: #9, sold to investment company
2019: #11
2020: #14
https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity
2 – IMHO Linux hasn’t lived up to it’s potential: https://www.google.com/search?q=linux+failed
What Are You Streaming?
It’s beginning to get hard for my wife and I to find something to watch. Over the last few months we were so desperate we did a speedy trip through:
Star Trek Enterprise, DS9, and Voyager. LA Law and Dallas too. We only watched the higher rated shows and use the IMDB app (Android) for that.
We watched Cougar Town and enjoyed that. Trying to put off watching Letterkenny on Hulu for a while.
We subscribed to PBS/Masterpiece through Amazon Prime. Both of use like British TV. Currently we are watching Endeavor and might do Inspector Morse after that.
