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Weekend Random Stuff…

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Google Chrome Updated
“The stable channel has been updated to 70.0.3538.102 for Windows, Mac, and Linux”
Download | Download standalone(full) | Download standalone 64-bit Windows version(full)

VirtualBox 5.2.22
Download (Windows) | All Downloads | Changelog

VMware Player 15.0.1
Download (Windows) | All Downloads | Release Notes

Social media use increases depression and loneliness, study finds
“Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram may not be great for personal well-being. The first experimental study examining use of multiple platforms shows a causal link between time spent on these social media and increased depression and loneliness.”

Windows-as-a-service fail: Microsoft keeps customers in the dark
“If Microsoft wants to treat Windows 10 as a service, it has a responsibility to its customers to provide accurate information about problems with that service. Over the last month, the company has failed miserably in that regard.”

Some awesome tech deals today:

Samsung 970 EVO 1TB NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD
List Price: $299.99
Price: $227.99
You Save: $72.00 (24%)
or
Samsung 960 EVO Series – 500GB NVMe – M.2 Internal SSD
List Price: $249.99
Price: $154.85
You Save: $95.14 (38%)

Amazon Early Black Friday Deals are live!

Wednesday Morning News

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Intel Graphics Driver for Windows 10
Version: 25.20.100.6373 Date: 11/5/2018

Intel PROSet/Wireless Software and Drivers
Windows 7 Version: 20.90.0 Date: 11/6/2018
Windows 8.1 Version: 20.90.0 Date: 11/6/2018
Windows 10 Version: 20.90.0 Date: 11/6/2018

Microsoft Office November Updates
Bugfixes
Microsoft – How to install Office Updates

ADV180028 | Guidance for configuring BitLocker to enforce software encryption
Security Advisory – Published: 11/06/2018
“Microsoft is aware of reports of vulnerabilities in the hardware encryption of certain self-encrypting drives (SEDs). Customers concerned about this issue should consider using the software only encryption provided by BitLocker Drive Encryption™. On Windows computers with self-encrypting drives, BitLocker Drive Encryption™ manages encryption and will use hardware encryption by default. Administrators who want to force software encryption on computers with self-encrypting drives can accomplish this by deploying a Group Policy to override the default behavior. Windows will consult Group Policy to enforce software encryption only at the time of enabling BitLocker.”

System76 readies release of American-made powerhouse Linux PC
“Finding a native Linux PC isn’t easy. Any Best Buy has an assortment of Windows PCs and Chromebooks. But Linux-powered computers? Not so much. Now System76, one of the leading Linux PC companies, has created something even rarer: A PC built in the US.”

Friday Random Stuff…

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Macrium Reflect 7.2.3825
Update to fix a couple of issues.
Download

jv16 PowerTools 4.2.0.1920
Bugfixes and improvements.
Download | Blog announcement

Time To Patch
Woody says, It’s time to install the October Windows and Office patches — and maybe tweak your settings
“Yesterday, Microsoft suddenly stopped playing Three Card Monte with the Win7 Monthly Rollup. The Win10 1809 ‘up’grade remains under wraps. For the first time in a long time, the coast’s clear. Now’s an excellent time to get your October patches installed and, if you’re using a Win10 Pro version, consider changing some Windows Update advanced options.”

Amazon Early Black Friday Deals are live.
Amazon Early Black Friday Deals: Computer & Accessories

Have a great weekend!

Tuesday Random Stuff…

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Macrium Reflect 7.2
Download | Release Notes

Wise Disk Cleaner 10.1.2.757
Download (I use portable) | Release Announcement

New Linux Releases
Fedora 29 – IMB is buying their “sponsor” Red Hat. It will be interesting to see what happens to Fedora.
Kali 2018.4 – “penetration testing platform”
Manjaro – This is a rolling release distro. I’m generally not a fan of rolling releases but this one is at the top of the board at Distrowatch so what do I know.

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

What is FLAC? The high-def MP3 explained
“CNET explains what FLAC is, where to buy music in the format, and how to play it on your phone, computer or hi-fi.”
I’m ripping exclusively to FLAC now. I haven’t found a single Windows or Linux software audio player that doesn’t play it. AFAIK Android phones have always played it and Apple finally supported it with iOS 11.

Walmart is selling its own line of gaming PCs and the specs don’t suck
No thanks. I can’t stand that place.

Bars in downtown Reykjavík ran out of beer serving thirsty US sailors and marines
Well done!

Avery Tweak Beer
Picked up a bottle of Avery Tweak beer today. Those guys make some seriously delicious beer.
Now if they would just make one called TweakHound…

Weekend Random Stuff…

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Software Updates
AMD has new drivers if you are playing Fallout76 Beta.
CCleaner has an update for the 3 of you that are using Edge.
Nvidia has some 416.64 beta drivers to fix issues in a few games.

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

Beware of Bing Chrome Download Ads Pushing Adware/PUP Installers
Recent stories have posted this “‘new discovery”. The above article was written by BleepingComputer on April 8, 2018. It seems the same BS has come back despite Microsoft saying they took care of it. You’ve been Binged.

China’s Maxim – Leave No Access Point Unexploited: The Hidden Story of China Telecom’s GP Hijacking
Military Cyber Affairs document.”Conveniently, China Telecom has ten strategically placed, Chinese controlled internet ‘points of presence’ 4 (PoPs) across the internet backbone of North America. Vast rewards can be reaped from the hijacking, diverting, and then copying of information-rich traffic going into or crossing the United States and Canada – often unnoticed and then delivered with only small delays.”
Geeze Louise…

Goodwill workers in NJ find original 1774 ‘rebel’ newspaper
“A quick eye by Goodwill workers in southern New Jersey turned up framed pages from an original 1774 Philadelphia newspaper with an iconic “Unite or Die” snake design on the masthead.
The frayed Dec. 28, 1774, edition of the “Pennsylvania Journal and the Weekly Advertiser” boasts three items signed by John Hancock, then president of the Provincial Congress, who pleads for the Colonies to fight back “enemies” trying to divide them.”
Very cool!

You CAN drink away your troubles, study says: Alcohol affects a gene making your brain forget the bad times and only remember the good ones
“Just one glass of wine could be enough for you to dismiss your bad memories and focus only on the good times, a new study suggests…One drink only changes the pathway for an hour, but three can change the pathway for 24 hours – which could explain why we forget being sick or stumbling home.”
We already knew that, didn’t we?!

Looking For A Webhost

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My current awesome webhost is calling it quits. I’m in search of another.

TweakHound.com doesn’t use a ton of resources. Here are my base requirements:
– Price under $50 per month.
– Security. The webhost should have a good security rating. Free SSL
– Speed. This site is very fast and I want it to stay that way.
– Uptime. 99% or better.
– 100k visits per month.
– 5 gigs of storage.
– Automatic backups.
– Speed, Speed, Speed

I do my own email.
Server must be in U.S.A.
My current server is on the West Coast (California). If I had my druthers I would prefer it be near me on the East Coast.

I’ve come up with:
Bluehost
Hostgator
Inmotion (located in my state, Virginia)
Siteground (former webhost recommended)

Recommendations please!

Thursday Random Stuff…

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

One Windows Kernel
“In this blog post, I will talk about the evolution of the core pieces of the Windows kernel that allows it to transparently scale across a low power NVidia Tegra chip on the Surface RT from 2012, to the giant behemoths that power Azure data centers today.”
Good read.

GM’s data mining is just the beginning of the in-car advertising blitz
“GM captured minuted details such as station selection, volume level, and ZIP codes of vehicle owners, and then used the car’s built-in Wi-Fi signal to upload the data to its servers. The goal was to determine the relationship between what drivers listen to and what they buy and then turn around and sell the data to advertisers and radio operators. And it got really specific: GM tracked a driver listening to country music who stopped at a Tim Horton’s restaurant. (No data on that donut order, though.)”
Is there nowhere you can go to get away from this crap?

Red Sox vs. Astros fan interference: Everything you need to know about the controversial call in ALCS Game 4
It was a home run. The Red Sox “win” should have an asterisk next to it. If they move on so should their title. If they win it all, ditto.

How America’s top CEOs are spending their own money on the midterm elections

Tuesday Random Stuff…

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Google Chrome Updated
“The Chrome team is delighted to announce the promotion of Chrome 70 to the stable channel for Windows, Mac and Linux…Chrome 70.0.3538.67 contains a number of fixes and improvements.”
Download | Download standalone(full) | Download standalone 64-bit Windows version(full)

MediaMonkey 4.1.22
“V4.1.22 is a strongly recommended update with about 20 fixes including several urgent issues.”
Download | Changelog

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

Winamp returns in 2019 to whip the llama’s ass harder than ever
Good to see. Still rockin’ out with Winamp in Windows and Android.

Windows 10 October 2018 Update Performance Against Ubuntu 18.10, Fedora 29
“Of all the benchmarks ran on this Intel Core i7 8086K + ASUS Z370-A + MSI Radeon RX 580 box, Windows 10 came in first about 10% of the time but it ended up being in last place about 50% of the time.”

A thread written by @real_vijay
“Google is working on a new search engine code-named “Dragonfly” that will aid China’s effort to censor information from its citizenry.
As a former Google engineer I wanted to share some information on what it’s like to be inside Google as these decisions are made.”

Stephen Hawking warns that AI, ‘superhumans’ could wipe humanity in posthumous book
“While primitive forms of artificial intelligence developed so far have proved very useful, I fear the consequences of creating something that can match or surpass humans”
“Once such superhumans appear, there are going to be significant political problems with the unimproved humans, who won’t be able to compete”

Friday Random Stuff…

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Nvidia GeForce Game Ready Driver 416.34 WHQL
“Provides the optimal gaming experience for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, SOULCALIBUR VI, and GRIP”
Download | Release Notes

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition Optional 18.10.1
Support For: Windows 10 October 2018 Update, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
Download | Release Notes

Intel Solid State Drive Toolbox
Version: 3.5.6 Date: 10/8/2018
Download | Release Notes

Intel SSD Firmware Update Tool
Version: 3.0.4 Date: 10/8/2018
Download | Release Notes

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

Stephen Hawking’s final scientific paper released
“The work, which tackles what theoretical physicists call “the information paradox”, was completed in the days before Hawking’s death in March. It has now been written up by his colleagues at Cambridge and Harvard universities and posted online.”

Def Leppard
One of my all time favs.
Def Leppard’s First-Ever Live Album, ‘Mirror Ball – Live & More’, Certified Gold In U.S.
Not a big live album fan but this one is OK.
Rock Hall of Fame: Def Leppard, Stevie Nicks, Radiohead, Rage Lead Nominees
I don’t much care about the R&R HoF and the guys in Def Leppard have pretty much said the same thing. Too many good acts are not in there and too many bad acts are.
Why the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame should be put out of its misery
I will leave you with videos from some of my favorite songs. Have a great weekend!

(I always listen to Bringin’ On The Heartbreak with Switch 625 but there is no official video for that)


Wednesday Random Stuff…

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I know there are several TweakHound readers in the path of Hurricane Michael. Hope you all make it through OK.

Intel Graphics Driver for Windows 10
Version: 25.20.100.6326 Date: 10/9/2018
Highlights
Launch Driver Games
Fix for FIFA19*
Launch Driver Games:
Pathfinder: Kingmaker*
Battlerite Royale*
FIFA19*
Download | Release Notes

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

Intel Announces 9th Gen Core CPUs: Core i9-9900K (8-Core), i7-9700K, & i5-9600K
“Leading from the top of the stack is the Core i9-9900K, Intel’s new flagship mainstream processor. This part is eight full cores with hyperthreading, with a base frequency of 3.6 GHz at 95W TDP, and a turbo up to 5.0 GHz on two cores…Also featuring 8-cores is the Core i7-9700K, but without the hyperthreading. This part will have a base frequency of 3.6 GHz as well for a given 95W TDP, but can turbo up to 4.9 GHz only on a single core. The i7-9700K is meant to be the direct upgrade over the Core i7-8700K, and although both chips have the same underlying Coffee Lake microarchitecture, the 9700K has two more cores and slightly better turbo performance, but less L3 cache per core at only 1.5MB per.
The other important overclocking focused processor is the Core i5-9600K, with six cores without hyperthreading. Users will also see a lot of similarity in this part to the Core i5 of the previous generation, but with added frequency.”
Intel and their minions got caught fudging their benchmarks.
The minions admitted some of it and are retesting.
The NDA embargo ends on October 19th so we will have to wait until then to see real benchmarks.

Privacy Badger Now Fights More Sneaky Google Tracking
“With its latest update, Privacy Badger now fights “link tracking” in a number of Google products.”

Former Google boss launches scathing Silicon Valley attack urging tech giants to end the delusion that it’s making the world a better place
Jessica Powell said she had become tired of defending the company in her role as its top PR chief.
“This is an industry that takes itself far too seriously, and its own responsibility not seriously enough…You can’t go about telling your advertisers that you can target users down to the tiniest pixel, but then throw your hands up in front of the politicians and say your machines can’t figure out if bad actors are using your platform.”