Computer News

New DNS Service
This story is all over the WWW as are the opinions of the service. Don’t skip this one y’all. IMHO essential reading.
“Cloudflare’s mission is to help build a better Internet. We’re excited today to take another step toward that mission with the launch of 1.1.1.1 — the Internet’s fastest, privacy-first consumer DNS service. This post will talk a little about what that is and a lot about why we decided to do it.”
I tried it for a little bit. Didn’t notices a bit of difference in speed. Don’t know if I will use it or not so I’m in wait-and-see mode.
iVerge – Cloudflare launches 1.1.1.1 DNS service that will speed up your internet

The Naughty List
Ranked – Tech Companies That Won’t Delete Your Information
Anyone out there use LinkedIn?

Thurrrott On Win10 SCU
“it was only a matter of time before Microsoft stopped pummeling users with so much change. And Windows 10 version 1803, thankfully, is that release…
There’s only one major new feature to speak of, called Timeline…it’s unlikely that most users will even find it…
new look and feel is more prevalent throughout the system now, giving Windows a more modern look…
Windows 10 version 1803 should begin deploying to end-user PCs on Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.”
Th-th-th-that’s all, folks!

Woody On Windows Crappy Week
“I can recall lots of bad Windows patches over the past couple of decades, but I’d be hard-pressed to come up with any that approach this year’s phalanx of Windows 7 screw-ups. It’s as if Microsoft doesn’t care about old multi-billion-dollar businesses.
For now, I continue to recommend that individuals stay put and don’t install any of the March patches.”
I’m not entirely sure Woody and I aren’t related.

Facebook News
I’m sure we are all tired of it. I’m out (at least for the time being). If you haven’t gotten the message by now then you never will.

Off Topic

Han Solo Sneakers?
Han Solo Sneakers!
Cool but at over $100 shipped it is little too much money for me. Drop it to about $70 delivered and I would jump on it.

Do You Watch Professional Sports?
A new poll entitled Interest in Baseball Declines says, “The proportion of Americans who say they are baseball fans matches its lowest in nearly ten years.” The results of the entire poll are interesting.
Other sports:
NFL viewership down by as much as 18%
(I didn’t watch much because my teams suck.)
NBA viewership up by as much as 18%
(I haven’t watched an NBA game since Jordan retired the 1st time.)
NHL viewership seems to be down by as much as 20%
(2016-2017. I can’t seem to find current stats.)
NASCAR down
(For me the sport died February 18, 2001.)
Soccer down too.
(I don’t watch it.)
Related article: Sports media year in review: a troubling trend for ratings

Updated April 1, 2018, 08:30(EDT) – added a few links

Intel SSD Toolbox 3.5.2
Download | Release Notes

Where Ya Been CNN?
CNN just discovered what we Geeks have known for years about Microsoft. To quote myself,
“The philosophy has become cloud first, mobile first, subscription-based twaddle.”

GET OFF OF FACEBOOK
As the (unscientific) poll stands now around 70% of the respondents aren’t on Facebook with another 13% leaving.
You guys are truly the best of the best of the best!
As for Fbook, the bad news continues:
Well, These New Zuckerberg IMs Won’t Help Facebook’s Privacy Problems

Growth At Any Cost: Top Facebook Executive Defended Data Collection In 2016 Memo — And Warned That Facebook Could Get People Killed

Report: Facebook Staff Suddenly Concerned About Privacy, Specifically Theirs

Americans are losing trust in Facebook — here’s why they’ll keep using it anyway

Etc.
‘He Broke Boundaries With His Mind’: Public Pays Tribute At Stephen Hawking’s Funeral

Why the rush to defend Amazon?

OFF TOPIC
From beer league to big league: 36-year-old goalie Scott Foster makes emergency debut in Blackhawks’ 6-2 win

DEF LEPPARD Guitarist Says ANGUS YOUNG Should Resist Urge To Make New AC/DC Album With AXL ROSE: ‘It’s Lost Its Integrity’

Terry Myerson Out
Microsoft’s head of Windows is done. The only reasons I see given right now are speculation though most if it suggests he was asked to leave. I know almost nothing about him personally so I’ve no opinion on the man. As the head of Windows however…
One comment I saw said it perfectly re Myerson’s departure, “Rearranging chairs on the Titanic.” Microsoft, or at least the Windows for PCs part, has been headed in the wrong direction since Windows 7. The philosophy has become cloud first, mobile first, subscription-based twaddle. IMHO there are many people within the Microsoft hierarchy that need to go. Starting at the top.

Mp3tag 2.87 Released
Download | Release Announcment

It’s Opening Day
MLB is back. The Detroit Tigers game got postponed so I’m gonna watch my homeboy, World Series Champion, and Kates’s hubby Justin Verlander on the mound.

#DeleteFacebook Edition ( aka GET OFF OF FACEBOOK )
New Poll Up – – – – > > > >

Too Little Too Late?
Facebook – It’s Time to Make Our Privacy Tools Easier to Find
Did they just admit to purposely making them hard to find before?

31% of Tech Workers Say They Will #DeleteFacebook
Percentage of the employees at the top 5 tech companies that say they will delete Facebook:
Amazon – 34%
Google – 38%
Microsoft – 50%
Snap – 46%
Uber – 40%

Playboy Too
No more Facebook for the bunnies.

Off Topic
Fed-Up Chef Breaks Down Deer Leg in Front of Vegan Protesters
Rare White Lion Cub Seen in South Africa

Nvidia Geforce Game Ready 391.35 WHQL Drivers
“Provides the optimal gaming experience for Far Cry 5”
Download | Release Notes

Win10 SCU RTM? ETA???
Diggin’ this military sounding acronym stuff!
Another report saying the latest build (17133) of Win10 is RTM. As of this writing BuildFeed has the last Win10 build released as Build 17133.1 so they may be right.
This build has been released to the fast ring. Downloading and installing now.

BranchScope
New attacks from the same vulnerability that bought us Spectre.
“It’s likely to be years before researchers have determined all the various ways in which the speculative execution hardware can be used to leak information this way, and it will be longer still before robust, universal defenses are available to stop the attacks.”

GET OFF OF FACEBOOK
Facebook Acknowledges It Has Been Keeping Records of Android Users’ Calls and Texts
LOL. Wow. Just…Wow.

It Gets Funnier
“Nearly half of the popular apps from the Google Play Store are sending information about private individuals to Facebook, regardless of whether or not they have an account with the social networking site”

Facebook Container
“Prevent Facebook from tracking you around the web. The Facebook Container extension for Firefox helps you take control and isolate your web activity from Facebook.”
Facebook Container by Mozilla

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.3.4 Optional
Download | Release Notes

Firefox 59.0.2
All downloads | Release Notes

Win10 For Gamers?
PCWorld thinks Win10 needs a “Gaming Edition“. I can’t argue with that.

GET OFF OF FACEBOOK
Elon Musk hopped on the #DeleteFacebook train. With all the anti-Facebook ranting I have done I should feel vindicated. I don’t. I don’t think that many people will leave it.

Off Topic
Sunken USS Juneau Famous for the Sullivan Brothers Discovered on St. Patrick’s Day
Drivers being blinded by ‘too-bright’ LED headlights on posh new cars, warns RAC

Google Chrome Updated
“The stable channel has been updated to 65.0.3325.181 for Windows, Mac and Linux.”
Various bug fixes and a security fix.
Download

Got Patches?
KB4090007: Intel microcode updates
“Intel recently announced that they have completed their validations and started to release microcode for newer CPU platforms around Spectre Variant 2 (CVE 2017-5715 (“Branch Target Injection”)). This update includes microcode updates from Intel for the following CPUs:” Skylake, Kaby Lake, Coffee Lake.
You have to download and install this manually: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB4090007

Wise Disk Cleaner 9.7.2
Improved the feature of Common Cleaner. Minor GUI improvements. Updated various translations.
Download (I use the portable version)

AMD / CTS Labs
AMD will patch the security issues found by CTS labs. They will do this via a BIOS update. AMD and others continue to insist the vulnerability is next to impossible to exploit.

#DeleteFacebook
Yep. That’s a thing right now. Here is an article that shows you how to delete your Facebook account.

[H]ard On Nvdia 2
Last Tuesday I linked to an article at [H]ardOCP that took Nvidia to task for the questionable tactics it uses in it’s GeForce Partner Program. A reporter from Forbes saw the article and started asking questions too. Interesting stuff:
“Since publishing the story, all of Bennett’s contacts have gone silent including Nvidia. My own follow-up to his investigation is stalled. I’d secured a commitment from a few companies to speak off the record, but they have also gone dark. Prior to that happening I had two brief conversations that made it obvious the program was troublesome, to put it mildly.”

Google News Initiative
IMHO we are an era where almost every news outlet picks a side rather than reporting facts. It seems most people get their news from sites that agree with them politically rather than being accurate.
Google says they aim to fix this. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting on it.
“There are three specific goals of the Google News Initiative: highlight accurate journalism while fighting misinformation, particularly during breaking news events; help news sites continue to grow from a business perspective; and create new tools to help journalists do their jobs.“

ARSTechnica – Entire broadband industry will help FCC defend net neutrality repeal
“NCTA represents cable companies such as Comcast, Charter, Cox, and Altice. CTIA represents the biggest mobile carriers, such as AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, and Sprint. USTelecom represents wireline telcos with copper and fiber networks, such as AT&T and Verizon. All three groups also represent a range of smaller ISPs.”
Opposing FCC Net Neutrality repeal:
Google
Microsoft
Amazon
Apple
Facebook
Dropbox
Mozilla
EFF
Twitter
Netflix
Snapchat
Spotify
AdBlock
AdBlock Plus
many more…

see also: iVerge – All 535 members of Congress, and how much money they got from ISPs

Firefox 59.0.1
Firefox 32-bit | Firefox 64-bit | All downloads | Release Notes

Intel Will Release New CPUs
“These changes will begin with our next-generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors (code-named Cascade Lake) as well as 8th Generation Intel® Core™ processors expected to ship in the second half of 2018.”
and
“First, we have now released microcode updates for 100 percent of Intel products launched in the past five years that require protection against the side-channel method vulnerabilities discovered by Google.”

Stephen Hawking’s Favorite Places
“At CuriosityStream, we will always be grateful that Professor Hawking passionately shared his enthusiasm for the wonders of the Universe with his fellow humans. In tribute, please enjoy the complete series of Stephen Hawking’s Favorite Places through Friday, March 23rd.”

“Widespread contamination”
“Researchers tested 250 bottles of water in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Thailand and the United States.
Plastic was identified in 93 percent of the samples, which included major name brands such as Aqua, Aquafina, Dasani, Evian, Nestle Pure Life and San Pellegrino.”

The Retail Big Brother
“Major retailers, including Best Buy, JCPenny, Victoria’s Secret and a variety of others, have been tracking the return habits of shoppers and secretly punishing those who are suspected it be abusing return policies.”

Chinese Social Credit System
I saw this article: China will ban people with poor ‘social credit’ from planes and trains
Huh. WTF is “social credit?”
Read the link to this article: Big data meets Big Brother as China moves to rate its citizens
Coming to a college campus near you.

UVA Basketball Makes History
Virginia Ends Historic Season by Suffering Biggest Upset in College Basketball History
“This was a sports version of David and Goliath in a true sense. Virginia entered the game as 20.5-point favorites and would lose by 20. David felled Goliath with a rock to the forehead, but he also cut off the giant’s head.”
My bracket is a disaster and I don’t care. I love that UVA got taken down. Way to go UMBC!

Google Chrome Updated
“The stable channel has been updated to 65.0.3325.162 for Windows, Mac and Linux.”
Download
This does NOT have the flash update. From the comments:
“to download the updated Flash Player, go to chrome://components , and under the entry for Adobe Flash Player click on “Check for update”. ”

Sacrificial Lamb?
An executive at Equifax has been charged with insider trading. It isn’t the big guy.
Thanks Chris!

Big Little Brother
Mobile license pilot study to allow police to ‘ping’ cellphone for a license
Why don’t you just mandate we all have a chip implanted in us?

The Not-So-Friendly Skies
Puppy dies after flight attendant insists it be stored in an overhead bin
United Airlines Just Admitted It’s Now Charging $9 for Overhead Bin Space (It Could Cost More)
United Airlines mistakenly flies family’s Kansas-bound dog to Japan
I hate flying. Cramped seats, rude staff, dirty environment, TSA, the waiting…