Computer News

7-Zip 19.00
64-bit Windows | 32-bit Windows | 7-Zip Home
What’s new after 7-Zip 18.06:
-Encryption strength for 7z archives was increased: the size of random initialization vector was increased from 64-bit to 128-bit, and the pseudo-random number generator was improved.
– Some bugs were fixed.

Google Chrome Updated
“The stable channel has been updated to 72.0.3626.119 for Windows, Mac, and Linux”
Bugfixes
Download

FinalCrypt 3
Free file encryption software for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Download & Info

Intel Wireless Bluetooth Drivers v20.120.0
Window 10 | Windows 8.1 | Windows 7

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

Vox lawyers briefly censored YouTubers who mocked The Verge’s bad PC build advice
iVerge made a really bad how to build a PC guide. iVerge gets mocked by anyone who knows anything about building PCs. iVerge get panties in a wad and lashes out like a spoiled child.

The Final Version of the EU’s Copyright Directive Is the Worst One Yet
Despite ringing denunciations from small EU tech businesses, giant EU entertainment companies, artists’ groups, technical experts, and human rights experts, and the largest body of concerned citizens in EU history, the EU has concluded its “trilogues” on the new Copyright Directive, striking a deal that—amazingly—is worse than any in the Directive’s sordid history.
Under the final text, any online community, platform or service that has existed for three or more years, or is making €10,000,001/year or more, is responsible for ensuring that no user ever posts anything that infringes copyright, even momentarily. This is impossible, and the closest any service can come to it is spending hundreds of millions of euros to develop automated copyright filters. Those filters will subject all communications of every European to interception and arbitrary censorship if a black-box algorithm decides their text, pictures, sounds or videos are a match for a known copyrighted work. They are a gift to fraudsters and criminals, to say nothing of censors, both government and private.

NETGEAR R6700 Nighthawk AC1750 Dual Band Smart WiFi Router, Gigabit Ethernet
List Price: $129.99
Price: $89.99 then clip $10 coupon. Final price $79.99
You Save: $50.00 (38%)

Win10 Updates
All supported versions of Win10 have updates except 1809. A bunch of fixes.
1803 – February 19, 2019—KB4487029 (OS Build 17134.619)
1709 – February 19, 2019—KB4487021 (OS Build 16299.1004)
1703 – February 19, 2019—KB4487011 (OS Build 15063.1659)

Wise Disk Cleaner 10.1.6 Released
Download (I use portable) | Release Info

HandBrake 1.2.1
HandBrake is a tool for converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs. Free.
Download

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

Your phone and TV are tracking you, and political campaigns are listening in
Welcome to the new frontier of campaign tech — a loosely regulated world in which simply downloading a weather app or game, connecting to Wi-Fi at a coffee shop or powering up a home router can allow a data broker to monitor your movements with ease, then compile the location information and sell it to a political candidate who can use it to surround you with messages.
“We can put a pin on a building, and if you are in that building, we are going to get you,” said Democratic strategist Dane Strother, who advised Evers. And they can get you even if you aren’t in the building anymore, but were simply there at some point in the last six months.

You may soon have to give your DNA to the state and pay $250 for the privilege

Barack Obama: ‘If You’re Confident About Your Sexuality, You Don’t Need Eight Women Around You Twerking’

John Wayne has been dead for 40 years. Maybe focus your ire elsewhere

#MoveOver
In October, Lt. Bradford Clark, a Hanover County firefighter, was killed when a tractor-trailer failed to “move over” as mandated by Virginia law. Now, the General Assembly plans to memorialize Clark through a specialty license plate and strengthen the state’s “move over” law.
from the initial report:
Two firefighters, Carter Lewis and David Johnson, suffered serious injuries and were eventually released after being hospitalized. The day of the crash was the first day on the job for Lewis, who lost part of his leg as a result of injuries. A third firefighter, Chris Elish, suffered minor injuries.
Carter Lewis is the son of a guy I went to basic training with, we rode the train together from Richmond, Virginia to Fort McClellan, Alabama. He is a highly respected state trooper now.
Please give all emergency workers and road crews the space they need to do their jobs. Use your blinker and move over, give traffic that needs to move over the space they need.
more: Audience at annual Valor Awards sees grim reminder of risks first-responders take on the job

Macrium Reflect 7.2.4063
Download | Release Notes

CCleaner 5.53
Download (I use portable) | Release Notes
See also: Blocking A Programs Internet Access Via The Windows Firewall

GeForce Hotfix Driver Version 418.99
This is GeForce Hotfix driver version 418.99 that addresses the following:
Windows 7×64/8.1×64: Fixes random application crash or TDR introduced in previous GeForce display driver 418.81
Download

Linux Releases
Kali Linux 2019.1
Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS (Bionic Beaver)

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

Windows 7 users: You need SHA-2 support or no Windows updates after July 2019
Microsoft will begin rolling out SHA-2 standalone updates for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 in March in preparation for its July 16 implementation deadline.

18,000 Android apps found violating ad tracking rules
Getting online advertisers to stop tracking you over Android may not be as easy it seems. New research has found that over 18,000 Android apps can create permanent records on their users, even when they try to stop the tracking.

Facebook Has Behaved Like ‘Digital Gangsters,’ U.K. Parliament Report Says
“The guiding principle of the ‘move fast and break things’ culture often seems to be that it is better to apologise than ask permission,” said Damian Collins, chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee that drafted the report. “We need a radical shift in the balance of power between the platforms and the people. The age of inadequate self regulation must come to an end.”…”Companies like Facebook should not be allowed to behave like ‘digital gangsters’ in the online world, considering themselves to be ahead of and beyond the law,”

Chinese and Iranian Hackers Renew Their Attacks on U.S. Companies
Russia is still considered America’s foremost hacking adversary. In addition to meddling widely and spreading disinformation during United States elections, Russian hackers are believed to have launched attacks on nuclear plants, the electrical grid and other targets.
Threats from China and Iran never stopped entirely, but Iranian hackers became much less active after the nuclear deal was signed in 2015. And for about 18 months, intelligence officials concluded, Beijing backed off its 10-year online effort to steal trade secrets.
But Chinese hackers have resumed carrying out commercially motivated attacks, security researchers and data-protection lawyers said. A priority for the hackers, researchers said, is supporting Beijing’s five-year economic plan, which is meant to make China a leader in artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies.

The Weather Service prepares to launch prediction model that many forecasters don’t trust
Numerous meteorologists who have experience using the FV3 worry it’s not ready for prime time and have been underwhelmed by its performance.

Google Chrome Updated
“The stable channel has been updated to 72.0.3626.109 for Windows, Mac, and Linux”
Download

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.2.2 Optional (13FEB2019)
Download | Release Notes

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

Equifax mystery: Where is the data?
On Sept. 7, 2017, the world heard an alarming announcement from credit ratings giant Equifax: In a brazen cyberattack, somebody had stolen sensitive personal information from more than 140 million people, nearly half the population of the U.S…Then, something unusual happened. The data disappeared. Completely.

‘I’ve paid $10bn in tax but it should have been more!’: Microsoft founder Bill Gates, 63, says he and the rest of the world’s richest ‘don’t deserve’ their fortunes
‘I don’t deserve my fortune,’ Mr Gates added. ‘Nobody does. It has come through timing, luck, and through people I worked with. I certainly worked hard and I think software has been a beneficial thing, but I benefited from a structure too.

Amazon will pay $0 in federal income taxes for the second year in a row
Amazon, which doubled its profits and made more than $11 billion in 2018, won’t pay any federal income taxes for the second year in a row…he company will not be required to pay the standard 21 percent income tax rate on its 2018 profits, and is claiming a tax rebate of $129 million, which ITEP describes as a “a tax rate of negative 1 percent.

Pet Shop Boys – On social media (lyric video)

 
Pick a season dammit!

Tor & Tails
As usual these have been updated with a new Firefox release.
Download Tor 8.0.6 | Download Tails 3.12.1

(Not this) Eric’s Movie Database 3.35 Released
EMDB is an application to keep track of your movie and TV Series collection. Both physical discs and media files are fully supported. With an automatic import from the database of IMDB, export to csv, text or HTML, thumbnail cover preview, a loan tracker, advanced search and filter functions and multi-language user interface. EMDB doesn’t need a .NET framework or any other external libraries and is therefore fully portable. And best of all… it’s free!
Download & Info

The Hunt For The USS Hornet
One of the most important aircraft carriers in WWII history has been located thanks to efforts from the crew of Paul Allen’s R/V Petrel.
From Wikipedia:
USS Hornet (CV-8), the seventh ship to carry the name Hornet, was a Yorktown-class aircraft carrier of the United States Navy. During World War II in the Pacific Theater, she launched the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo and participated in the Battle of Midway and the Buin-Faisi-Tonolai Raid. In the Solomon Islands campaign, she was involved in the capture and defense of Guadalcanal and the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands where she was irreparably damaged by enemy torpedo and dive bombers. Faced with an approaching Japanese surface force, Hornet was abandoned and later torpedoed and sunk by approaching Japanese destroyers. Hornet was in service for a year and six days and was the last US fleet carrier ever sunk by enemy fire. For these actions, she was awarded four service stars, a citation for the Doolittle Raid in 1942, and her Torpedo Squadron 8 received a Presidential Unit Citation for extraordinary heroism for the Battle of Midway. Her wreck was located in late January 2019.
If you want to see some movies that feature her:
The Life and Death of the USS Hornet 1943 U.S. Navy propaganda film. Run time 16:13
30 Seconds Over Tokyo
Midway
One of my all-time favorite movies. Me and a friend rode our bikes to watch this movie at Green Acres Cinema in Saginaw, Michigan. It featured Sensurround.
They are making another Midway movie:
Midway is an upcoming American historical action drama film directed by Roland Emmerich and written by Wes Tooke. The film will star Woody Harrelson, Luke Evans, Mandy Moore, Patrick Wilson, Ed Skrein, Aaron Eckhart, Nick Jonas, and Dennis Quaid. The film will be released on November 8.
Don’t know why this needs to be redone but it’s got Woody Harrelson so I’ll give it a shot. Seems a far cry from the absolutely star-studded cast of 1976.

Firefox 65.0.1
Bugfixes, stability fixes, 3 security updates.
Download (all) | Download 32-bit EN-US | Download 64-bit EN-US | Release Notes

Nvidia Geforce Game Ready WHQL Driver 418.91
Provides the optimal gaming experience when using DLSS and Ray Tracing in Battlefield V and Metro Exodus.
Download | Release Notes

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Updated
Download EN-US | Download All | Security Bulletin

Intel Ethernet Drivers
See the Readme.txt file on the download page. There are a ton of adapters no longer supported. You’ll want to see the “Other Versions” drivers earlier than 23.5.
Intel Ethernet Adapter Complete Driver Pack 23.5.2 (all Windows, Linux, or FreeBSD)
Intel Network Adapter Driver for Windows 7, 23.5.2
Intel Network Adapter Driver for Windows 8.1, 23.5.2
Intel Network Adapter Driver for Windows 10, 23.5.2

Google Chrome Themes
Colors for Chrome. I’m using my usual Black (Just Black).

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

Your Smart Light Can Tell Amazon and Google When You Go to Bed
For several years, Amazon and Google have collected data every time someone used a smart speaker to turn on a light or lock a door. Now they’re asking smart-home gadget makers such as Logitech and Hunter Fan Co. to send a continuous stream of information. In other words, after you connect a light fixture to Alexa, Amazon wants to know every time the light is turned on or off, regardless of whether you asked Alexa to toggle the switch. Televisions must report the channel they’re set to. Smart locks must keep the company apprised whether or not the front door bolt is engaged.
Those devices will never see the inside of my home.

Android phones can be hacked remotely by viewing malicious PNG image
Android users are being told to patch their Android OS Nougat (7.0), Oreo (8.0) and Pie (9.0) as soon as updates are available after a bug related to PNG images was found.
“as soon as updates are available” Yeah, that’s the thing isn’t it.

FREE Android App – App lock & gallery vault pro (nornally $4.49)
Apps locker & vaults is one of the best Android lock app with privacy guard, the best app locker with password & pattern lock screen, an amazing apps lock that provide high secure features.
This is the super aap locks that will protects your apps, hide picture, all features of app lock for apps & vaulty in a same lock box. Privacy your photo, note, call, sms, email, settings…, all the privacy guard functions for you to ensure your phone security and keep your privacy safe. With this app loxk security protection, your privacy is well protected with password lock screen & pattern lock screen.
Just passing this along and don’t know how long this deal will last. I don’t know anything about this app but the developer has a 3 dozen apps with good ratings. You’ll have to excuse the bad grammar and spelling as the developer seems to be from Vietnam.

Tudder
Tinder for livestock. Sheer genius (ba dum dum tss). And, so many jokes untold…

Franklin County moonshine legend Amos Law dies at 83
Officers kicked down the door of his Rocky Mount home. They dragged him outside, stuffed him into a police car and drove him to jail.
Over and over again.

Patches come out at 1300hrs EST. Well, they used to. With Win10 who knows when they will show up.
Backup if you have the time.

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

Mozilla – Open letter to Facebook
Political actors use disinformation campaigns that prey on our emotions and values to manipulate our behaviour. We have a right to know who is paying to influence our vote, and Facebook is responsible for making sure that happens on their platform. They have made many promises to European lawmakers and users to make political ads more transparent, but so far we’ve seen little action. So we decided to pen an open letter telling them to implement what they’ve promised in enough time to protect users during the European elections.

Only 17% Of Consumers Believe Personalized Ads Are Ethical, Survey Says
A massive majority of consumers believe that using their data to personalize ads is unethical. And a further 59% believe that personalization to create tailored newsfeeds — precisely what Facebook, Twitter, and other social applications do every day — is unethical.

Reports: Russian authorities make deal with Google
The daily Vedomosti reported Thursday that Google has reached an agreement with the Russian state media oversight agency, Roskomnadzor, to regularly receive updated lists of banned sites and delete links to them upon review. The newspaper says Google has already removed about 70 percent of the banned websites from its search results.

Calling people ‘users’ is unethical and outdated
But labeling people as users strips them of complexity. It reduces humans to a single behavior, effectively supporting a view of people as more like robots whose sole function is to use a product or feature. This is a poor ethos for building ethical technology.

Wealth concentration near ‘levels last seen during the Roaring Twenties,’ study finds
The 400 richest Americans – the top 0.00025 percent of the population – have tripled their share of the nation’s wealth since the early 1980s…Those 400 Americans own more of the country’s riches than the 150 million adults in the bottom 60 percent of the wealth distribution, who saw their share of the nation’s wealth fall from 5.7 percent in 1987 to 2.1 percent in 2014

Apple and Google accused of helping ‘enforce gender apartheid’ by hosting Saudi government app that tracks women and stops them leaving the country
Both Google Play and iTunes host Absher, a government web service which allows men to specify when and how women can cross Saudi borders, and to get close to real-time SMS updates when they travel.

HEART Returns To The Road In 2019 For Massive ‘Love Alive’ Summer Tour
HEART will be joined by JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS, Sheryl Crow and Brandi Carlile on the road this summer.
I will be trying to go to this.

Google Chrome Updated
Chrome 72.0.3626.96 for Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux is out. Bugfixes.
Download for PC

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

Why the future of life insurance may depend on your online presence – iVerge
In reality, it has long been the case that what you pay for life insurance could at least be affected by your next Instagram post. It is already legal, and increasingly common, for life insurers to use so-called “nontraditional” sources of public data — including credit scores, court documents, and motor vehicle records — to inform insurance underwriting decisions, though few use actual social media data.
You can’t look at what doesn’t exist…

New Gun Bill Would Require Buyers To Reveal Social Media History
That’s why Didech is proposing gun buyers reveal their public social media accounts to Illinois police before they’re approved for a firearm license.
Really? You want to sanction the government spying on your InstaTwitMyFaceTgram posts?

As Magnetic North Pole Zooms Toward Siberia, Scientists Update World Magnetic Model
North is on the move, and that’s a problem for your smartphone’s maps.
Earth’s geographic north pole is fixed. But the planet’s magnetic north pole — the north that your compass points toward — wanders in the direction of Siberia at a rate of more than 34 miles per year.

Charges Against Chinese Hackers Are Now Common. Why Don’t They Deter Cyberattacks?
the Justice Department has unveiled one China-related hacking indictment after another, including cases against at least a dozen individuals and companies last year alone…”It does not seem to have stopped the Chinese and it certainly doesn’t seem to have imposed any cost on them to get them to the point where they think it’s not worth the attacks,” said Adam Segal, the director of the digital and cyberspace policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations.
American officials say China’s relentless effort to steal American business secrets is part of what they describe as Beijing’s drive to leapfrog the United States as the world’s preeminent economic and military power.
U.S. officials say China’s targets include the fields of aerospace, biotechnology, telecommunications, medical equipment and oil and gas exploration. Those match the business sectors tabbed for strategic development in China’s official government policy called “Made in China 2025.”

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

My Super Bowl prediction: Patriots 35 – Rams 31

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

Windows setup error messages will soon be much less useless
Instead of vague references to the knowledge base, they’ll actually help fix problems.
Oh sure, just like the Microsoft support forums it will always tell you to run scf /scannow.

Could Chinese Telecom Giant Huawei Put U.S. Cyber-Security At Risk?
There’s good news about the future of the Internet. A new 5G network is being created now, which will not only offer faster downloading on cell phones. It will provide the kind of connectivity we need in the era of the Internet of Things – driverless cars, Internet-connected medical devices, smart TVs and virtual assistants. But there are dangers that could be lurking in the equipment needed to build the new network. The Chinese telecommunications equipment giant Huawei is dominating the creation of 5G networks around the world. For years, classified intelligence reports from the U.S. have warned that China would one day use Huawei to penetrate American networks for cyber-espionage or cyberattacks…My guest David Sanger is the author of a book about cyberwar and cyber-sabotage called “The Perfect Weapon.” He’s a national security correspondent for The New York Times.
I caught part of this NPR report yesterday. I downloaded the podcast and listened to it on the treadmill this morning. Excellent stuff.
Article/Transcript | Podcast (mp3)

Privacy battle brews over home security cameras
What’s not to love? Invading people’s privacy – and Big Brother at our doorstep. It’s up to us to set the rules to avoid Big Doorbell.
We’re on a slippery slope…

Expensive internet driving up Virginians’ utility bills, according to study
Virginia is No. 3 for the highest internet bills, according to analysis done by Move.org. The analysis found that Virginians are forking over $75 per month for 60 megabyte/second internet access. The only states paying more are Alaska and Rhode Island.
The problem, IMHO, is the lack of competition. In most of the state you’ve only 1 cable/internet provider.
For me Comcast is it. My cable + internet bill is $192.22 per month.

Weekend Music Videos – ENTER SANDMAN

Enter Sandman- Dave Grohl ambushes Zac Brown Band Pandora Live 2019

Metallica: Enter Sandman Live & Acoustic (AWMH Helping Hands Concert – November 3, 2018)

Metallica – Enter Sandman [Official Music Video]