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Software

Friday Random Stuff…

June 1, 2018, 14:37(EDT) By Eric (a.k.a. TweakHound)

th

Battle Royal
Who ya got? Poll up in the right sidebar. Polls not working correctly.
Intel wants PCs to be more than just ‘personal computers’
vs
Eric wants PCs to be just ‘personal computers’

Wise Disk Cleaner Updated
Version 9.7.5.692 brings “improvements” and “fixes”.
Download ( I use the portable version. )

openSUSE 15
Forgot to mention this. Leap 15 was released last week. It use kernel 4.12 released last July. Current LTS in 4.14+. Current Stable is 4.16+.
I don’t get it. Fail.

Off Topic

“We live for the One, we die for the One”
Wikipedia | IMDB
Babylon 5 is one of my all time favorite Sci-Fi series. It is finally available for streaming. (I’ve got the DVD set)
Babylon 5 on Amazon Prime
Babylon 5 DVD Babylon 5: The Complete Collection Series
This poster is on my wall.

Stuff I Bookmarked:

A newspaper columnist’s rant against cheeseburgers gives hamburger loyalists the hero they deserve
Heroes don’t always wear capes.

Facebook, Amazon, and hundreds of companies post targeted job ads that screen out older workers
IMHO this practice is widespread and along with being illegal is short-sighted and disgusting.

Countries With the Widest Gaps Between Rich and Poor
The U.S. is #9 and that is sad.

Scientists race to find who is pumping an incredibly dangerous gas into the atmosphere
China. There, I solved it for you.

AI better than dermatologists at detecting skin cancer, study finds
“At first look, dermatologists correctly detected an average of 87 percent of melanomas, and accurately identified an average of 73 percent of lesions that were not malignant. Conversely, the CNN correctly detected 95 percent of melanomas.”
Interesting but isn’t that why they send it out for a biopsy?

Question Club: Where should Star Wars go after Solo’s box office disappointment?
Disappointment to who? Its opening weekend was a holiday weekend and most sane people hate the movie theater. PPV and DVD by this fall at a fraction of the price to take your family to the theater.

Tagged With: Computer News

Wednesday Random Stuff…

May 30, 2018, 16:41(EDT) By Eric (a.k.a. TweakHound)

www_news

FYI
I am slowly working on updating the Win10 Tweak Guide. I’m reviewing it page by page. It’s is surprising how little of significance has changed given the chaos the last few major updates have caused. Win10 is just… Well, it’s no fun.

Rufus Version 3.0 (2018.05.29)
“Rufus is a utility that helps format and create bootable USB flash drives, such as USB keys/pendrives, memory sticks, etc.”
Changes: UI redesign, drop XP & Vista support, downloads are SSL, other fixes.
I use Rufus to create install media.
Download & Info

About That Free VPN
Some of them are selling your data.
I use TorGuard. Use coupon code TweakHound for 50% Off for Life.

Off Topic

Stuff I’ve bookmarked recently:
Tesla hits parked California police vehicle; driver blames ‘Autopilot’
If one of us hit a cop car we’d still be in jail.

Glasses wearers really are more intelligent – it’s in the genes
That explains a lot. My dumb a** was born with 20/20 vision.

How spies can use your cellphone to find you – and eavesdrop on your calls and texts too
I can’t imagine how bad a spy must have screwed up to be assigned to monitor to my boring phone conversations.

Daniel Craig Refused To Play James Bond For 25th Installment, Then Money Happened
Let’s assign him to monitor my calls and texts!

Child’s Lemonade Stand Shut Down For Lack Of Permit
You hear about stuff like this every year of two. Everyone involved in shutting these kids down is an a**. I don’t even wanna here “I’m just doing my job” or “The laws is the law.”

Most vitamins are useless, but here are the ones you should take
IMHO this is old news. Can’t remember how long ago I heard that “all vitamins create is expensive urine”.

Tagged With: Computer News

Wednesday Morning Random Stuff…

May 30, 2018, 07:56(EDT) By Eric (a.k.a. TweakHound)

google chrome

Chrome 67
“Chrome 67.0.3396.62 contains a number of fixes and improvements…This update includes 34 security fixes.”
Download
Download standalone(full)
Download standalone 64-bit Windows version(full)

VLC 3.0.3
Download | Release Notes

California Consumer Privacy Act
Some dude in California is trying to get the California Consumer Privacy Act on the ballot out there:
– You have the right to tell a business not to share or sell your personal information.
– You have the right to know where and to whom your data is being sold or disclosed.
– You have the right to protections against businesses who do not uphold the value of your privacy.
And whaddya know, a spokesman for a group that “represents major tech companies, including Google, Facebook and Netflix” doesn’t like the idea.

Venmo A Spy Tool?
I don’t know a thing about Vemno other than it’s an app you can pay people with. People are using it “to spy on cheating spouses“.
“Venmo has had a social component since it launched in 2009. Users see a feed of both their own friends’ payments and total strangers’ activity every time they open the app, and it’s easy to look up users. Exact amounts aren’t listed, but you can see who’s paying who and which words or emoji they use to describe the payment.”
That is truly bizarre to me.

Tagged With: Computer News

Monday Random Stuff…

May 29, 2018, 15:58(EDT) By Eric (a.k.a. TweakHound)

mp3tag

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.

Tagged With: Computer News

Friday Random Stuff…

May 25, 2018, 14:29(EDT) By Eric (a.k.a. TweakHound)

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

Tagged With: Computer News

CCleaner…

May 24, 2018, 13:16(EDT) By Eric (a.k.a. TweakHound)

CCleaner

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.

Tagged With: Cool Tools, Freeware, Privacy, This Site

Tuesday Random Stuff…

May 22, 2018, 17:08(EDT) By Eric (a.k.a. TweakHound)

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.

Tagged With: Computer News

Tuesday Morning Random Stuff…

May 22, 2018, 08:25(EDT) By Eric (a.k.a. TweakHound)

vmware_player

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

Tagged With: Computer News

Monday Morning Random Stuff…

May 21, 2018, 07:04(EDT) By Eric (a.k.a. TweakHound)

Monopoly
“Oh, yes, of course Google’s a monopoly. In fact they’re a monopoly in several markets. They’re a monopoly in search. They’re a monopoly in search advertising…People tell their search engines things they wouldn’t even tell their wives. I mean, it’s a very powerful and yet very intimate technology. And that gives the company that controls it a mind-boggling degree of control over our entire society.”
Report on 60 Minutes
Video HERE. The section on Google starts at 2:09.

A bug in cell phone tracking firm’s website leaked millions of Americans’ real-time locations
“It represents a clear and present danger, not just to privacy but to the financial and personal security of every American family. Because they value profits above the privacy and safety of the Americans whose locations they traffic in, the wireless carriers and LocationSmart appear to have allowed nearly any hacker with a basic knowledge of websites to track the location of any American with a cell phone”

Secunia PSI Dead
“Thank you for your interest in PSI. PSI is Flexera’s free computer security solution that identifies missing security patches on user’s private PC, and automatically installs them when possible. This product has reached End-of-life on April 20, 2018, and therefore, no longer available. Existing installations of PSI will no longer function and should be uninstalled.”
Apparently this is old news. Thanks Mike.

***New poll up in the right sidebar: Google – Evil or Not Evil?

Off Topic

People who live in small towns and rural areas are happier than everyone else, researchers say
Not surprising. John Cougar would be proud.

Cheap Trick’s New Single “The Summer Looks Good On You”
Stream it here: https://cheaptrick.lnk.to/Summer
Video here: https://youtu.be/2DeSdkz4dmo

New Magnum P.I.
Not sure how I feel about this. Still like the old series. Tom Selleck was the man. The new “Higgy baby” is kinda hot.

Tagged With: Computer News

Thursday Random Stuff…

May 17, 2018, 14:59(EDT) By Eric (a.k.a. TweakHound)

Start10 Updated
Start10 is a Windows 10 start menu alternative. It is $5 and is my preferred start menu replacement.
Start10 v1.60
– Updated for Windows 1803 to fix searching in start menu
– Added new blur option for Windows 1803 (on by default)
– Links to the Games and Homegroup folders on Windows 1803 will not work(Microsoft deprecated those locations)
Download | Changelog

Off Topic
‘Solo’ is the worst ‘Star Wars’ movie since ‘Attack of the Clones,’ according to critics
“You will find only what you bring in.” – Yoda

Tagged With: Computer News

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