TweakHound

Computer stuff...

Freeware

CCleaner…

By

This past 24 hours has seen a wave of fake news and hysteria over CCleaner supposed snooping.
As far as I can tell there is no new data collection. They have introduced a new privacy options section.

From a forum post:
Your privacy is very important to us and we commit to ensuring the continued confidentiality and security of all data we collect and process. We also require that any and all parties which have access to our data adhere to strict security standards and best industry practices. This protects your privacy, whether you are an EU resident or not.
As part of this commitment, we’ve updated our Privacy Policy and added a new ‘Privacy’ tab into our software. If you’re a CCleaner user, in this tab you can adjust your privacy settings. Privacy settings are unavailable for Free users as we do not collect any personal identifiable information, so Free users are essentially anonymous.

Tuesday Random Stuff…

By

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.

Tuesday Morning Random Stuff…

By

The Future Of Cortana?
Microsoft bought an AI company. The only bright side to this is maybe in the future we can get our robot overlords to BSOD.

Speccy 1.32
Hardware info tool. Freeware.
Detection
Improved SSD detection for newer SSD devices
Improved SSD detection for laptops
Settings & Preferences
Added new Privacy menu
Download (I use the portable version)

VMware Workstation Player Updated
VMware Workstation 14 Player Version 14.1.2 is a free upgrade for all VMware Workstation 14 Player users.
Windows 10 2018 Spring Creators Update (Version 1803) as host and guest
Ubuntu 18.04 support as host and guest
VMware Workstation 14 Player Version 14.1.2 also contains bug fixes, security updates and performance improvements.
Download

Off Topic

Banned From Amazon: The Shoppers Who Make Too Many Returns

Tuesday Morning News

By

AMD Chipset Drivers
Version 18.10.0418 is out.
Download

Win10 Updates
Will 1803/RS4/SCU/Next/April/Whatever update be released today?
Dunno, but 1709 has got an update:
KB4093105 – April 23, 2018—KB4093105 (OS Build 16299.402)

CCleaner
Couple of IE/Edge fixes and… wait… the release announcement says, “Where appropriate, CCleaner Free may recommend improvements to your system’s antivirus protection“.
Hmmm… Pure speculation on my part but, is this gonna be ads for Avast? Has anyone seen one?
Download

Wednesday Morning Random Stuff…

By

Google Chrome
Updated to version 66
– 62 security fixes.
– Automatically disable video auto-play
Download | Release Info
Related: Microsoft now has Windows Defender Browser Protection extension for Chrome. Reckon they needed another way to see where you were surfing since nobody is using Edge and IE.

Clonezilla Updated
Version 2.5.5-38 released.
“Clonezilla is a partition and disk imaging/cloning program similar to True Image® or Norton Ghost®. It helps you to do system deployment, bare metal backup and recovery.”
Download | Release Notes
(I use the “Alternative Stable” version.)

Off Topic

RIP Barbara Bush
Wonderful woman.
Dana Perino: For Barbara Bush, loyalty — and love — went both ways
Barbara Bush, a First Lady Without Apologies

Tuesday Random Stuff…

By

Macrium Reflect Updated
Version 7.1.3147 of my preferred backup software has been release.
Download | Release Notes | Home Page

Russian Hackers Targeting Routers
“In a joint announcement Monday from the US Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the UK’s National Cyber Security Center, officials warned that Russian spies have been looking for vulnerabilities on millions of routers as a tool for future attacks.
The targets include routers in homes and offices, as well as firewalls and switches from internet service providers, critical infrastructure and major private companies”
US, UK warn of Russian hackers targeting millions of routers

Off Topic

Great Beer
Last week I had Uncle Jacob’s Stout from Avery Brewing for the first time. If you like barrel-aged beers like Founders KBS or New Holland Dragon’s Milk then you’ll love this. Highly recommended.

Firefox Quantum

By

Firefox 57, a.k.a Firefox Quantum will be released today. It’s a big deal. Completely redesigned, the folks at Mozilla say it’s twice as fast and uses 30% less memory. In addition, the interface will be cleaner and is designed for high-resolution displays
If you want to know the hows see here: Entering the Quantum Era—How Firefox got fast again and where it’s going to get faster
One of the downsides of an all new browser is that many old add-ons will not work. It is up to the add-on creators to update their stuff. The hysterical, chicken-littles over at Zdnet call this “add-on armageddon“.
I’m pretty pumped about Firefox Quantum. I hope it returns Firefox to its former glory.