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Patch Tuesday

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Windows Updates Available
You got Windows, you got updates. (Microsoft Security Update Summary for May 8, 2018) below)
May 8, 2018—KB4103721 (OS Build 17134.48)
*Until further notice my advice is to wait a week or so to see what the fallout is over the latest updates. It seems every single update breaks something anymore.

Of Course
What would Patch Tuesday be without Adobe patching another flaw in Flash Player?
APSB18-16 Security update available for Adobe Flash Player
Version 29.0.0.171 is out.
for Firefox, Opera
for Internet Explorer
Flash for Edge, IE 11, and Chrome update automatically with the browser.

Off Topic

Equifax confirms data breach included driver’s licenses and passports
Jail. Someone needs to go to jail.

The average American works more hours than a medieval peasant
I wonder if it is all worth it? Some synonyms for peasant: boor, bumpkin, hayseed, hick, oaf, peon, rube, serf.

[Read more…] about Patch Tuesday

Monday Random Stuff…

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You Can’t Opt Out Of Sharing Your Data, Even If You Didn’t Opt In
“So does that mean that, in addition to locking down our own privacy choices, we need to police the choices of our friends and family? No, said Cohen, Gillmor and Viljoen. In fact, the privacy of the commons means that, in some cases, your data is collected in ways you cannot reasonably prevent, no matter how carefully you or anyone you know behaves.”
Sad fact.

Microsoft’s Satya Nadella Said
Lot’s of articles out there quoting (often wrongly) what he said at the MS Build Conference. So I went looking for the transcript.
You can download it here: Satya Nadella: Build 2018
“We ensure that when we use data, it is to benefit the user.”
Look, I don’t know much about the man but he really needs someone to look over his speeches. The “It’s for your own good” excuse is just lame and frankly a little insulting.
Then he said, “We ensure that the user is always in control of their data and its use.”
I’m…uh…hmmm…
I…um…that’s…man o man…

Windows Commands Reference
A PDF containing an overview and alphabetical listing of Windows commands.
Download

You Don’t Say…
A new report says the Chinese government is behind a decade of hacks on software companies.
Is there anyone that is even remotely surprised by this?

Personal privacy vs. public security: fight!
Good read on this topic. Recommended.

Off Topic

AT&T/Verizon lobby asks FCC to help raise prices on smaller ISPs

Android P will finally restrict apps from monitoring your network activity

How Robin Williams was being torn apart and couldn’t fight back
My name is Wil Wheaton. I live with chronic Depression, and I am not ashamed.

Lyme Disease Is On The Rise Again. Here’s How To Prevent It

TweakHound.com Is 16 Years Old

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Yep, I started this site 16 years ago. Whois says Creation Date: 2002-05-13T18:12:23Z but I think “May 2002” is close enough.
The average life span of a website is 2.7 years so this site is ancient by internet standards.
The purpose of this site was and is to inform and help in matters computer related. You know, “computer stuff…”
I hope I can still be doing this in another 16 years. I don’t know though. Will we still be using PC’s then?
There was a time when this site sometimes saw +35k unique hits a day. Today it is a fraction of that. I’ve have heard from every one of the world regions except maybe the 2 poles. You’ve no idea how humbling and special that is to me.
To the millions who have stopped by through the years, Thank You!
I hope I was able to help you in some small way.
About TweakHound.com | About Me
(original logo)
TweakHound's 1st Logo, circa 2002!
You can browse through this sites past at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/*/tweakhound.com
https://web.archive.org/web/20021127182517/http://www.tweakhound.com:80/
Years ago sites used “affiliates” to pass on their news. The use of affiliates was twofold: 1 to bring visitors directly to your site, and 2 to increase your Google page rank. AFAIK Google stopped using such things and sadly few website operators are friendly anymore.
At any rate, here is a list of affiliates from TweakHound.com’s past. Most of them are no longer around or have been bought out and changed:
3dXtreme
BlargOC
BlynkNet
DarksidePC
Dark][Tweaker
Flickerdown
Furioustech
HardCoreMods
[H]ardOCP
HardwareGeeks
OCIA
OverclockerCafe
PCeXtremist
PChardware UK
PCReviewSpot
PcTechTalk
SubZeroTech
TechSeekers
XtReMoDs
Warp2Search

Friday Random Stuff…

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GeForce Hotfix Driver Version 397.55
– After driver installation, Device Manager may report Code 43 error on a few GTX 1060 cards models.
– Netflix playback may occasionally stutter.
– Added support for Microsoft Surface Book notebooks.
– Windows 10: Driver may get removed after PC has been left idle for an extended period of time.
Download

Spectre Next Generation
“A total of eight new security flaws in Intel CPUs have already been reported to the manufacturer by several teams of researchers. For now, details on the flaws are being kept secret. All eight are essentially caused by the same design problem – you could say that they are Spectre Next Generation.”

[H] Victorious
Nvidia is canceling their GPP Program.
Chalk one up for the good guys!

Macrium Reflect v7.1.3196
“Incremental and Differential images created since 17th April using Macrium Reflect v7.1.3147, 3159 or 3169 could be corrupt if the Changed Block Tracker (CBT) driver was involved in the Image creation. This has been resolved.”
Download

LMAO OMG WTF SMH
If you think the H in IMHO stands for honest you should be banned from the internet and instant messaging for life.

Off Topic

GUNS N’ ROSES: Remastered And Expanded Edition Of ‘Appetite For Destruction’ Due In June

3 White Lions Cubs Born At Metro Richmond Zoo (pics and video, they are awesome)

Ron Howard Gets A New ‘Solo’ Trailer For May The 4th

Wednesday Random Stuff…

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***UPDATED – Windows 10 April Update Benchmark

Samsung NVMe Driver v3.0
“This driver supports Samsung NVMe SSD 970 PRO, 970 EVO, 960 PRO, 960 EVO and 950 PRO.”
Download | Alternative download at MajorGeeks

O&O Shutup10
Version 1.6.1396 – released May 2, 2018
-Adapted for the Windows 10 Spring Creators Update 1804 (Build 17134)
-Fixed issue with finding High Contrast mode on user-defined schemes
-User interface adapted
-Bug Fixes: Various small bug fixes
-Available in English, German, French, Italian and Russian
Download

Win10 April Update Freezing Chrome
Source: Neowin. It happened to me too.

Tuesday Random Stuff…

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Win10 Benchmark Continued
I’m no nearer figuring out why my benchmark scores are lower. I thought maybe my NVMe SSD had an even bigger performance hit but my AS SSD Benchmark and CrystalDiskMark scores are similar to the results I had before.

Features removed or planned for replacement starting with Windows 10, version 1803
Thanks JO!

7-Zip 18.05
Download | Release Announcment

Linux Releases
Kali Linux 2018.2
“This Kali release is the first to include the Linux 4.15 kernel, which includes the x86 and x64 fixes for the much-hyped Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities. It also includes much better support for AMD GPUs”
Download | Release Announcment
Fedora 28
“For the first time, we’re making it easy for users to enable certain third-party software sources, including proprietary Nvidia drivers.”
Has kernel 4.16.
Download | Release Announcement
Meanwhile at openSUSE…
At the end of May they will release openSUSE Leap 15 which follows version 42.3. Yes you read that right. Oh, and it will use kernel 4.12 that was released last July.

Monday Random Stuff…

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AMD Radeon Adrenalin Edition 18.4.1 Optional Drivers
“Initial support for Windows®10 April 2018 Update” plus a few bugfixes.
Download | Release Notes

Firefox 59.0.3
“Fix for compatibility with Windows 10 April 2018 update”
Download | Release Notes
Related: How to Stop Mozilla From Sticking Ads in Your Firefox Browser

Off Topic
Stuff I bookmarked today:

Google boss warns over evil ‘sci-fi style’ robots that could ‘manipulate people’ and steal your job
Danger! Danger Will Robinson!

China is now monitoring employees’ brainwaves and emotions
“The Orwellian-as-all-get-out practice”

Everything coming to Netflix, Amazon Prime, and HBO Now in May
Not real excited about the list.

AP Explains: A look at DNA-sharing services and privacy
No. No way. Uh uh. Not gonna do it.

Multiple fire crews battle blaze at Amazon center
That is my local center…

Monday Morning Random Stuff…

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Win10 Update Stuff
Review: Windows 10 April 2018 Update shows promise, but ultimately disappoints

https://changewindows.org/build/redstone4/17134/pc

Most folks will be watching here for the download: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO
We will know today if that is the only way to get it for now. If so, you DO NOT need to make a disc or usb image from the ISO. Download the image to somewhere other than your OS (C:) drive, extract the image using 7-zip, and then click on setup.exe. That’s it.

Off Topic

Digital and analog audio’s curious coexistence
Related: Myths (Vinyl)

GMO Corn
An article on my local paper’s website said GMO corn is OK. Nobody seems to source their information anymore so I Googled “gmo corn” and found another article that lead to the study:
Impact of genetically engineered maize on agronomic, environmental and toxicological traits: a meta-analysis of 21 years of field data
So yeah, the study pretty much says that.

Tu Quoque
Recent political events had one sides defenders saying, “Well, your guy does/did it too.”
This is a Logical Fallacy also known as Appeal to Hypocrisy.
By making this counter-argument people hope to discredit the initial argument:
A – She ate too much.
CA – Well he ate too much last week.
The fact that “He” ate too much does not excuse someone else eating too much.
I think of it like this: Pointing out my bad behavior does not excuse yours.
When you use a logical fallacy I just tune you out.
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Tu_quoque

Ride The Wild Surf
World record: 80 foot wave!

Ride The Wild Surf – Jan and Dean

Weekend Random Stuff…

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The Week Ahead
The Win10 WhatEverItsCalled update is “available for download” tomorrow. AFAIK that means what it says and you can download it but it will not be on Windows Update until Patch Tuesday which is May, 8th. If you want to delay this update my guide is here.
Star Wars Day (May The 4th be with you) is Wednesday. Rumor has it that Solo: A Star Wars Story advanced tickets will go on sale then. I always do the first showing of Star Wars and Star Trek so I’m watching out for an announcement. BTW, there is a new Solo trailer and I’ve embedded it at the bottom of this post.

Off Topic

Interesting Links
Stuff I’ve bookmarked in the last few days.
Took an ancestry DNA test? You might be a ‘genetic informant’ unleashing secrets about your relatives
I trust those tests and the companies that do them about as far as I can throw an elephant.

New Star Map Could Change Everything We Know About the Milky Way
Very Interesting.

‘Dare to Be Different’: See New Doc on Radio Station That Broke U2, Cure in U.S.
I watched this. Good stuff.

Kiss frontman Paul Stanley reveals plans for ‘major’ tour to start next year

Solo: A Star Wars Story | Becoming Solo Featurette

Friday Random Stuff…

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AMD Combat Crate
The rumors are true,
“The AMD Combat Crate comes stocked with the essential hardware you need to push your game to the next level and lay waste to the competition. With a lightning fast Ryzen processor, powerful Radeon RX graphics backed by revolutionary Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition and a future-ready MSI motherboard – the AMD Combat Crate is the ultimate arsenal for gamers.”
AMD Combat Crate Bundle with Ryzen 5 1600 CPU,
MSI Gaming AMD Radeon RX 580 graphics card,
and MSI B350 Tomahawk AM4 Motherboard
Currently $549.00

Win10 1803/RS4/SCU/Next/April/1804/Whatever Update
Source: Windows Blog
Official name: Windows 10 April 2018 Update
Official release date: “will be available as a free download beginning Monday, April 30”

Software Updates
Google Chrome 66.0.3359.139 (bugfixes and 3 security fixes)
VirtualBox 5.2.10 (maintenance release)

Off Topic

Subway Closing 500 Stores
Story. My Experience at Subway:
Me: “I would like a half Italian Hero on white.”
Subway Person: (starts making sub, I think she puts the right meat on it) Then looks up and stares at me… “What do you want on it?”
Me: I want that. (pointing at the picture above and behind her)
Subway Person: (Turns around, stares at pic, she is clearly confused. Asks the other girl, “What’s on the Italian?”
Other Subway Person: “I don’t know.”
Me: *sigh* “From the picture I’m going to guess it comes with cheese, lettuce and tomato. I’ll just have provolone and vinegar & oil.”
Firehouse Subs and even Arby’s is way better around here. We don’t have any good old-school deli’s. I would love a N.Y. style Reuben about right now.

S.O.S.
ABBA is gonna release a couple of new tunes for the first time in 3 and a half decades. They are also gonna, get this, tour “virtually”. Yeah, they want you to pay for a “concert” that they aren’t even at. If you buy tickets to this show, I’ve got some ocean front property in Arizona I would love to sell you.

You Ain’t Worth The Whiskey
– Horse Soldier Bourbon’s New Bottle is Made from World Trade Center Steel
– Jameson Bow Street 18 Years