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Friday Random Stuff…

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AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.7.1
Download | Release Notes

The Specter Of Spectre
New Spectre-like attack uses speculative execution to overflow buffers
&
New Spectre 1.1 and Spectre 1.2 CPU Flaws Disclosed
It just keeps getting worse and worse.

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

Microsoft might move jobs abroad because of U.S. immigration rules
Liars. They just want to keep their cheap(er) foreign labor instead of paying U.S. workers what the job is worth. Businesses have been doing that forever. Coal and steel mines did it. The railroads did it. When they can’t bring enough workers in they ship the work overseas like the auto industry, electronics, tech support…

Samsung phones are most bork-prone as a quarter suffer ‘performance issues’
“‘State of Mobile Device Repair & Security’ report reveals that Samsung’s phones had the highest failure rate among the manufacturers it tracks…Overall, a staggering 27 per cent of Samsung smartphones showing performance issues during Q1”

The World Is Better Than Ever And Continues To Improve. Why Do People Consistently Believe Otherwise?
“Worldwide poverty has dropped dramatically, we are in the Long Peace when it comes to war, the old cycles of famine boom and bust have leveled off, science has made it possible for everyone to live better for longer and spend less on basic necessities. The world continues to improve. Why, then, do polls consistently show that people believe otherwise? The answer may lie in a phenomenon called “prevalence induced concept change.”
Some people aren’t happy unless they are whining about something. There are those who always want to play the poor little underdog. Others just want everyone else to be miserable.

Starbucks Bans Plastic Straws, Winds Up Using More Plastic
“Yet missing from this fanfare was the inconvenient fact that by ditching plastic straws, Starbucks will actually be increasing its plastic use. As it turns out, the new nitro lids that Starbucks is leaning on to replace straws are made up of more plastic than the company’s current lid/straw combination.”

I say bring back Bring back Froot Loops Cereal Straws! It could add a great twist to a Margarita.

This Revolutionary Chainless Concept Could be the World’s Most Efficient Bike
“The design halves the amount of friction generated by the market-leading chain and derailleur setup by eliminating eight different points of contact. The pinion-style system also utilizes 21 low-friction CeramicSpeed bearings that transfer torque seamlessly from the front ring through the drivetrain and onto the 13-speed cog.”

‘Star Wars’: Billy Dee Williams Reprising Role as Lando Calrissian

Tom Petty ‘An American Treasure’ Boxed Set Track List Revealed, New Song Drops
Info: Tom Petty, AN AMERICAN TREASURE. Released: September 28, 2018
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Keep A Little Soul (Official Music Video)

Patch Tuesday

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Windows Updates
Updates available for all supported operating systems. Windows 7 & 8 have bugfixes and security fixes.
Windows 10 Release History
Win10 1803 – July 10, 2018—KB4338819 (OS Build 17134.165)
Win10 1709 – July 10, 2018—KB4338825 (OS Build 16299.547)
Win10 1703 – July 10, 2018—KB4338826 (OS Build 15063.1206)
Win10 1607 – July 10, 2018—KB4338814 (OS Build 14393.2363)

Adobe Reader Updated
APSB18-21 Security updates available for Adobe Acrobat and Reader
Download | Home

Mp3tag v2.89
“Mp3tag is a powerful and easy-to-use tool to edit metadata of audio files.”
Download | Release Info

Patch Tuesday

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Got Windows? You got updates. MS Office too. See the end of this post for full breakdown. Among many other things these Windows Updates contain more Spectre fixes.
Win10 1803 – June 12, 2018—KB4284835 (OS Build 17134.112)
Win10 1709 – June 12, 2018—KB4284819 (OS Build 16299.492)
Win10 1703 – June 12, 2018—KB4284874 (OS Build 15063.1155)
Win10 1607 – June 12, 2018—KB4284880 (OS Build 14393.2312)

All flash plugins were patched last week. I’m not gonna track this security nightmare anymore. Do yourself a favor and uninstall it. I have it installed on like one of 7 computers and I don’t even remember why it is installed on that.

Chrome Updated
“The stable channel has been updated to 67.0.3396.87 for Windows, Mac, and Linux…This update includes 1 security fix”
Download
Download standalone(full)
Download standalone 64-bit Windows version(full)

[Read more…] about Patch Tuesday

Monday Random Stuff…

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Reboot Your Router
The FBI kindly suggest you reboot your router.
“Foreign cyber actors (Russians) have compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers and other networked devices worldwide.”
At least half a million devices have been affected.
According to ARSTechnica here is a list affected routers:

Linksys E1200
Linksys E2500
Linksys WRVS4400N
Mikrotik RouterOS for Cloud Core Routers: Versions 1016, 1036, and 1072
Netgear DGN2200
Netgear R6400
Netgear R7000
Netgear R8000
Netgear WNR1000
Netgear WNR2000
QNAP TS251
QNAP TS439 Pro
Other QNAP NAS devices running QTS software
TP-Link R600VPN

Mp3tag 2.88
Pretty big update.
Download | Changelog | Release Announcment

Do You Know Science?
Each year the government asks 10 simple questions to test the public’s knowledge of science. Can you correctly answer them all?
Basic stuff here. Disappointed with the results.

Friday Random Stuff…

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CCleaner Updated
They added an “opt out” option in the privacy menu. (Thanks Arthur!)
Download
***Warning – the free, installer version contains a Google Chrome and a Google toolbar installer. That is why I do not install CCleaner. I use the portable version that eventually shows up on their “Builds” page.

Video – Speculative Store Bypass in 3 minutes from Red Hat
Video
“Speculative Store Buffer Bypass is a security vulnerability that allows unauthorized users to steal sensitive information through websites. Similar to the Spectre and Meltdown threats in early 2018, it exploits speculative execution–a process most computers use to speed up routine tasks (to learn more about speculative execution, watch our previous video Spectre and Meltdown in 3 Minutes – https://youtu.be/syAdX44pokE). This 3 minute video shows you how Speculative Store Buffer Bypass is different and what’s being done about it.”

Off Topic

My Solo: A Star Wars Story “Review”
Solid movie. Great actors and cameos. Secrets of the past revealed.
Woody Harrelson is a welcome addition to the Star Wars universe. The Mother of Dragons is stunning in looks as well as character. Donald Glover is as smooth as Billy Dee. L3-37 is as annoying as it is funny. Surprised at the ending. Questions linger. Sequel!
8/10

You’ve Been Pouring Guinness All Wrong

Tuesday Random Stuff…

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Unreal Gold Free
If you want it better grab it quick.
https://www.gog.com/game/unreal_gold 48 Hours only
https://store.steampowered.com/app/13250/Unreal_Gold/ “limited time”
Unreal (1998 video game) at Wikipedia

Tired Of This
Another Spectre-like vulnerability. More patches coming with more performance hits.
INTEL-SA-00115 – Q2 2018 Speculative Execution Side Channel Update

Wireshark Updated
Version 2.6.1 brings a bunch of bugfixes.
Download | Release Notes

Off Topic

Amazon urged not to sell facial recognition tool to police
“People should be free to walk down the street without being watched by the government,” the groups wrote in a letter to Amazon on Tuesday. “Facial recognition in American communities threatens this freedom.”

This is America’s favorite burger brand
“Five Guys is America’s favorite burger chain, according to Harris Poll’s 30th annual EquiTrend study.
Harris surveyed a total of 77,031 people to determine the “brand equity” of 17 different burger chains — Jack in the Box, Hardee’s, White Castle, Carl’s Jr., Checkers/Rally’s, DQ Grill & Chill, Burger King, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, SONIC America’s Drive-In, Five Guys, In-N-Out Burger, Culver’s, Steak ‘n Shake, Whataburger, Shake Shack, Smashburger.”
NO. No to every single one of them. Agreed, some of these burgers will do in the absence of a non-chain alternative and almost any burger is better than a salad.
#1 burger. Grilled. Grilled on the back deck. Grilled over the fire at the campsite. Bonus points for bacon.

Monday Random Stuff…

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Adobe Updates
Bunch of vulnerabilities in both these products.
APSB18-17 Security updates available for Adobe Photoshop CC
To update open the app and go to Help > “Updates.”
APSB18-09 Security updates available for Adobe Acrobat and Reader
Download

Off Topic

15 Veteran-Owned Gear Brands You Should Know | HiConsumption

Boob Tube To YouTube
The NYT opines on Why Traditional TV Is in Trouble. They mean traditional broadcasters. Basically they say old farts are watching and youngsters aren’t.
My short list:
– Cable is expensive. The “TV packages” are made to make max money and make no sense.
– Low quality and irrelevant programming.
– Too many commercials. And, most of them range between bad and insulting.
– Binge watching is a far more enjoyable way to enjoy TV.

Single? Smile, But Don’t Be Happy
Some PhD says that smiling will get you la.. um…makes you more attractive. The advice for ladies is stop posing like a model. Not mentioned but I’ll just throw out, stop with the fish lips.
Dudes, apparently a prideful but not happy smile does the trick. All you single swipers out there, you’re welcome and you owe me bros.

Watch Harrison Ford Surprise Young Han Solo Alden Ehrenreich During ET Interview

Email Encryption Vulnerable

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“A group of European security researchers have released a warning about a set of vulnerabilities affecting users of PGP and S/MIME. EFF has been in communication with the research team, and can confirm that these vulnerabilities pose an immediate risk to those using these tools for email communication, including the potential exposure of the contents of past messages.“

Attention PGP Users: New Vulnerabilities Require You To Take Action Now

Officially called “EFAIL”: https://efail.de/

A number of platforms are said to be vulnerable.
Quotes include, “Email is no longer a secure communication medium” and “can confirm that these vulnerabilities pose an immediate risk to those using these tools for email communication, including the potential exposure of the contents of past messages.”.
IMHO there seems to be a bit of hysteria going on about this this morning. On the other hand, I’m no security expert so what do I know.

Protonmail has stated,
“ProtonMail is safe against the efail PGP vulnerability. The real vulnerability is implementation errors in various PGP clients. PGP (and OpenPGP) is fine. Any service that uses our @openpgpjs library is also safe as long the default settings aren’t changed.”

I dunno, I never really believed anything on a computer was 100% secure or private and tend to conduct myself accordingly. Of course I’m just an average, boring dude so I’ve no idea why someone would waste the effort to read my email.

There is gonna be a lot more to read on this in the coming days.

Wednesday Random Stuff…

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***Patch Now***
Backup your computer with a disk image and run Windows Update.
Critical bugs are being actively exploited. These bugs were patched yesterday.

New Nvidia Drivers
Nvidia Geforce Game Ready 397.64 WHQL Drivers are out.
“Provides the optimal gaming experience for Destiny 2: Warmind, Conan Exiles, and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire”
Download | Release Notes

Roger, Over And Out
Some dude asked, “Is Google crossing a line with new AI that pretends to be human?“.
Crossed the line? They cut the line into little shreds and torched it.

You’ve Got To Be Sh**ing Me
Someone is upset because people aren’t talking nice to Amazon Alexa.
“When you’re a child, you should respect a grown-up — even if she’s in a little black cylinder”
It’s not a grown-up, it’s a fracking box.
“Hearing a child boss around a digital assistant could be disconcerting”

Off Topic

KIX Celebrates 30th Anniversary Of ‘Blow My Fuse’ With ‘Fuse 30 Reblown’

He searched for his Japanese birth mother. He found her — and the restaurant she had named after him.