Search Results for: office

Insecure Nvidia Drivers
It was widely reported today that drivers older than the current Nvidia drivers have several known security vulnerabilities.
The latest secure ones are version 431.60 from July 23rd.
Download | Release Notes

CVE-2019-1125 | Windows Kernel Information Disclosure Vulnerability
“An information disclosure vulnerability exists when certain central processing units (CPU) speculatively access memory. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could read privileged data across trust boundaries.
To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would have to log on to an affected system and run a specially crafted application. The vulnerability would not allow an attacker to elevate user rights directly, but it could be used to obtain information that could be used to try to compromise the affected system further.
On January 3, 2018, Microsoft released an advisory and security updates related to a newly-discovered class of hardware vulnerabilities (known as Spectre) involving speculative execution side channels that affect AMD, ARM, and Intel CPUs to varying degrees. This vulnerability, released on August 6, 2019, is a variant of the Spectre Variant 1 speculative execution side channel vulnerability and has been assigned CVE-2019-1125.
Microsoft released a security update on July 9, 2019 that addresses the vulnerability through a software change that mitigates how the CPU speculatively accesses memory. Note that this vulnerability does not require a microcode update from your device OEM.”
This is an update on the Spectre mitigation issues.

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

How the smartphone affects Mobile Network Experience Report
“Samsung users experienced faster download speeds than Apple and Huawei users in 35% of countries, across 40 countries analyzed…In the U.S., Samsung users experienced download speeds 8.2 Mbps faster than iPhone users.”

Amazon Is Coaching Cops on How to Obtain Surveillance Footage Without a Warrant
“When police partner with Ring, Amazon’s home surveillance camera company, they get access to the “Law Enforcement Neighborhood Portal,” an interactive map that allows officers to request footage directly from camera owners. Police don’t need a warrant to request this footage, but they do need permission from camera owners.
Emails and documents obtained by Motherboard reveal that people aren’t always willing to provide police with their Ring camera footage. However, Ring works with law enforcement and gives them advice on how to persuade people to give them footage.”

My “everyday carry knife” is on sale: Gerber Paraframe Mini Knife, Fine Edge, Stainless Steel
2 1/4 inch blade, pocket clip
List Price: $13.00 | Price:$8.94 | You Save: $4.06 (31%)

Fitness Experts Debunk 17 Exercise Myths
“Crunches will give you abs. Cardio is the key to weight loss. These are two of more than a dozen exercise myths that do more harm than good. Business Insider brought in three professional athletic trainers to debunk them.”

Chrome 76 Released
“Chrome 76.0.3809.87 contains a number of fixes and improvements…This update includes 43 security fixes.”
Download for Desktop: 32- bit or 64-bit | Blog Post
Chrome 76 arrives with Flash blocked by default, detecting Incognito mode disabled, and PWA improvements

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

Amazon’s Free Doorbell Cameras Only Cost Law Enforcement Agencies Their Dignity And Autonomy
“There’s no such thing as a free surveillance camera. Amazon gives these to local cops with the understanding they will proselytize on behalf of its doorbell cameras. Police give these cameras to residents with the understanding (albeit one without the legally-binding language) that they’ll hand over footage from these cameras whenever officers ask for it.
The set-up is sustainable and scales well. The more residents who download Amazon’s surveillance/snitch app Neighbors, the more credits cops can apply towards the purchase of more Ring cameras. It’s a new spin on pyramid schemes, with Amazon gaining market share with each deployment, allowing government employees to do the legwork.
The police become middlemen and advertisers.”
Amazon is just being Amazon I reckon but the police departments should be ashamed of themselves.

OpenSUSE Leap 15.1 – A dream come untrue
“The installer is no longer as awesome as it used to be, the package management is quite broken, and the system wasn’t stable enough to be fun and enjoyable, before or after my tweaks. The Plasma desktop is sweet, and while SUSE does have tricks most other distros don’t have, like YaST, BTRFS, Snapper and such, it feels raw and jumbled and hastily put together. There were too many rough edges and errors and application crashes for me to consider this for serious work. Alas, my dream of using openSUSE in my production setup was dashed once again. All in all, Leap 15.1 deserves something like 4/10, a far cry from the legend it used to be.”
I came to that conclusion 3 1/2 yaers ago: Not Happy With openSUSE Leap and KDE5 (December 19, 2015)

Congressman Calls Out METALLICA After Ticket Scam Is Revealed
“According to The Pulse Of Radio, a congressman has called out METALLICA after it was revealed that representatives for the band allegedly partnered with concert promoter Live Nation to sell portions of their tickets directly to resellers, denying fans the chance to buy tickets first at face value.”
Concert ticketing in this country is an absolute farce. It is corrupt from top to bottom and any band that denies knowledge of this are Lars liars.

Capital One’s breach was inevitable, because we did nothing after Equifax
“Why should we be surprised? Equifax faced zero fallout until its eventual fine. All talk, much bluster, but otherwise little action.
Equifax’s chief executive Richard Smith “retired” before he was fired, allowing him to keep his substantial pension packet. Lawmakers grilled the company but nothing happened. An investigation launched by the former head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the governmental body responsible for protecting consumers from fraud, declined to pursue the company. The FTC took its sweet time to issue its fine — which amounted to about 20% of the company’s annual revenue for 2018. For one of the most damaging breaches to the U.S. population since the breach of classified vetting files at the Office of Personnel Management in 2015, Equifax got off lightly.”
Every damn one of us saw that coming. The rich rarely get punished as they should.

Startling Study Reveals Majority Of U.S. Packaged Food Is Ultra-Processed
“Now, a new study out of Northwestern University has identified another contributing factor: the overwhelming majority of packaged foods available in the U.S. in 2018 were ultra-processed and unhealthy…American food goods were found to be significantly more processed and contain larger amounts of sugar and sodium, on average.”
I don’t think any sane person thinks our affordable food choices are very healthy. Adults are fatter and sicker and more disturbing is the nations children are too.

Microsoft Office Updates
This update provides the latest fixes to Microsoft Word 20XX 32 and 64-Bit Edition. Additionally, this update contains stability and performance improvements.
All supported version of MS Office have updates.
How to check for Office updates.

Intel PROSet/Wireless Software and Drivers for Windows 10
Version: 20.120.1, Date: 4/24/2019
Download & Info

Windows security on disconnected devices whitepaper (Microsoft)
This whitepaper will help you understand the use of a defense in depth strategy when protecting disconnected devices. It’s especially relevant for enterprises in the manufacturing, public service, and military industries.
Download & Info

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

I Used to Work for Google. I Am a Conscientious Objector
American companies continue to build surveillance tools that are used to violate human rights. Workers who refuse to comply deserve protections.
One part of me says, “Shut up and do your job or quit.” But that’s only when I disagree with what they are doing…

Senator Says Nurses Don’t Need Breaks As They Spend Most Of The Day Playing Cards, Nurses Respond With Sarcastic Pics
The lawmaker came under fire after saying that nurses in smaller hospitals “probably play cards for a considerable amount of the day” during a debate about legislation that would provide nurses with uninterrupted meal and rest periods.
What a tool.

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.2 Optional
Support for World War Z & Anno 1800
Download | Release Notes

VirtualBox 6.0.6
This is a maintenance release.
Download | Changelog

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

Adblock Plus Filters Can Be Exploited to Run Malicious Code
An exploit has been discovered that could allow ad blocking filter list maintainers for the Adblock Plus, AdBlock, and uBlocker browser extensions to create filters that inject remote scripts into web sites.
uBlock Origin not affected.

Top 1000 Tech Bloggers
Rise Social Media ranked them. I only looked at the top 100. I’m familiar with less than 1/2 a dozen of them.

Someone Tweets About Super Hero Fans Being Undateable, So This Woman Reveals The Toxicity Surrounding Men
Star Wars and super hero movie obsession culture has revealed a whole new population of undateable men. Might be worse than men who wear cargo shorts.
I’ve never heard of this woman. I found the reaction to this persons tweet as interesting as her tweet was pathetic. I don’t really understand the whole “toxic masculinity” thing. I’m not into super heroes. I like Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, etc. I consider myself a Geek. Like most dudes I pretty much just go about my business, don’t care about fashion, and try and do right by others. I don’t have time for people like this.
Oh, and yes, I wear and like cargo shorts.

Employee privacy in the US is at stake as corporate surveillance technology monitors workers’ every move
Corporate interest in surveillance seems to be on the rise to boost productivity.
2018 survey by Gartner found that 22% of organizations worldwide are using employee-movement data, 17% are monitoring work-computer-usage data, and 16% are using Microsoft Outlook- or calendar-usage data.
Employees are concerned over this invasion of privacy.
If you want to periodically observe employees WITH THEIR KNOWLEDGE that is reasonable. Anything else is not. I find people watching me work annoying. Many folks find it stressful.

Police: Don’t give out too much information on bumper stickers
“You know the little family decals that’s on the windows, yeah that’s a not a good idea either. Because once again, it’s telling strangers, what your home life is like,” said Mangina.
It might seem harmless but, even little things might tell crooks that one parent travels a lot and that someone is home by themselves.
“I just don’t think it’s a good idea especially in today’s climate,” said Mangina.
The Irondale officer also speaks from experience. It was only a few years back, after a rash of car break ins, that crooks admitted to police they targeted cars with certain gun labels on them.
Good advice.

Science and bicycling meet in a new helmet design
New helmet is supposed to solve a problem identified in studies of NFL injuries.
Got excited. Looked it up. Prices $150-$300. Nope.

What Peloton Means for the Future of Fitness
The workout giant is changing at-home exercise — and spawning a flurry of copycats.
Peloton basic bike starts at $2,245 + $49 a month membership. Peloton treadmill starts at $4,295 + $49 a month membership.
I was gonna comment but I remembered seeing this perfect statement from a young woman’s Dad. I would like to buy him a pint.
I told my mother I was considering buying a Peloton and…received this email minutes later from my father, who I should really start enlisting if I need to drag someone.

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

Law enforcement taps Google’s Sensorvault for location data, report says
The database is for targeting ads and seeing how effective they are. But it’s reportedly also been a treasure trove for police.
&
Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police
The tech giant records people’s locations worldwide. Now, investigators are using it to find suspects and witnesses near crimes, running the risk of snaring the innocent.
&
Bill of Rights of the United States of America – Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Big Tech Lobbying Gutted a Bill That Would Ban Recording You Without Consent
The Illinois Keep Internet Devices Safe Act would have empowered average people to sue big companies for recording them without consent, but industry association lobbying defanged it.

As China Hacked, U.S. Businesses Turned A Blind Eye
Technology theft and other unfair business practices originating from China are costing the American economy more than $57 billion a year, White House officials believe, and they expect that figure to grow.
Yet an investigation by NPR and the PBS television show Frontline into why three successive administrations failed to stop cyberhacking from China found an unlikely obstacle for the government — the victims themselves.

Microsoft’s work with Chinese military university raises eyebrows
Microsoft has been collaborating with researchers linked to a Chinese military-backed university on artificial intelligence, elevating concerns that US firms are contributing to China’s high-tech surveillance and censorship apparatus.

Editorial: Who is serving today
The Army fell short of its recruiting goals in fiscal year 2018 for the first time since 2005…
And the military, on average, also is better educated than the general population. Overall, 98 percent of enlisted active duty troops have at least a high school diploma compared with only 88 percent of American adults. And military officers are considerably better educated than average U.S. adults. More than 80 percent of active-duty officers have at least a bachelor’s degree and 42 percent advanced degrees, compared with about 30 percent of the general population.
And as for socioeconomic representation, forget the old perception that enlisted troops come from low-income, deadbeat homes. Researchers with CNA found that most recruits come from solidly middle-class families. In fact, lower-income neighborhoods tend to be underrepresented in the military…
Today’s military is more diverse than ever. Today more than 40 percent of active military members belong to racial and ethnic minority groups, almost mirroring the makeup of the general population. And women, while still only 17 percent of the active force, represent a quickly growing population, especially as all career options now are open to them.
Every time I meet one of these young vets or active duty soldiers I am impressed with them.

Science Explains Why Men with Longer Beards Have Smaller Testicles
Labcoats believe that primates, like us, only have the energy to develop one or the other

Nvidia Geforce Game Ready WHQL Driver 425.31
Download | Release Notes

Intel PROSet/Wireless Software and Drivers v21
Windows 7 | Windows 8.1 | Windows 10

Client NVMe Microsoft Windows Drivers for Intel SSDs
This Windows driver can be used to enable your system to recognize the Intel SSD 660p Series, Intel Optane SSD 900P Series, Intel Optane SSD 905P Series, Intel SSD 750 Series, and Intel SSD Pro 7600p/760p/E 6100p Series.
Download & Info

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

Amazon Workers Are Listening to What You Tell Alexa
Amazon.com Inc. employs thousands of people around the world to help improve the Alexa digital assistant powering its line of Echo speakers. The team listens to voice recordings captured in Echo owners’ homes and offices. The recordings are transcribed, annotated and then fed back into the software as part of an effort to eliminate gaps in Alexa’s understanding of human speech and help it better respond to commands.
And that is one of the reasons I will never have one of those type of devices.

Apple Music Censors Songs in China Referencing 1989 Tiananmen Massacre and Democracy, Watchdog Says
While other big American tech firms have limited their operations in China at least in part to avoid complying with the country’s strict censorship laws, Apple has fought to stay inside and has reaped the financial rewards…Chinese journalists and netizens recently found that Apple Music’s Chinese streaming service censored a song by Hong Kong singer Jacky Cheung that references the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, an extremely politically sensitive topic for the Chinese Communist Party. The incident’s 30th anniversary is coming up in June.
kar·ma
/ˈkärmə/
noun
(in Hinduism and Buddhism) the sum of a person’s actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences.

Biologist Exposes Sushi Restaurants For False Labels For Their Ingredients
Biology professor Dr.Jennifer McDonald asked her college senior class to go out to various sushi restaurants and bring back a sample for their lab assignment, so they could extract the DNA and find out if the fish name on the menu was in fact what it said it was. Not only did the class expose some serious fish fraud they uncovered some other seriously stomach-churning “ingredients.”
Gross

What’s the significance of black hole photo? (Dr. Michio Kaku) – CBSN Live Video – CBS News

Most Popular Jelly Beans by State [Interactive Map]
Popcorn flavor? Yuck! Shout out to Alaska, Colorado, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, and Tennessee.

I’ve been sick for almost a month. A sinus infection turned into acute bronchitis because the inept doctors at my local urgent care center wouldn’t prescribe an antibiotic when it was obvious I needed it. I’ve been on doxycycline hyclate (antibiotic) and prednisone (steroid to help breathing) for several days now. I haven’t been focusing well. Here at TweakHound.com some misspelling and general rambling have ensued and I apologize. I’m gonna take a few days off. I might head up towards the mountains and hit a few breweries.

Macrium Reflect v7.2.4156
Bugfixes, support large cluster size (NTFS)
Download | Release Notes

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

Office Depot And Partner Ordered To Pay $35 Million For Tricking Consumers Into Thinking They Had Malware
“Consumers have a hard enough time protecting their computers from malware, viruses, and other threats,” said FTC Chairman Joe Simons. “This case should send a strong message to companies that they will face stiff consequences if they use deception to trick consumers into buying costly services they may not need.”
LOL. The ENTIRE industry uses those tactics.

Hundreds of millions of Facebook records exposed on Amazon cloud servers
One of the companies stored 146 gigabytes of data containing more than 540 million records, including comments, likes, reactions and account names, on the Amazon servers, according to UpGuard. The number of users whose data was included is not yet clear.
#DeleteFacebook

‘Beyond Sketchy’: Facebook Demanding Some New Users’ Email Passwords
I don’t know what’s worse. The ignorance of asking for the password or the ignorance of giving it. #DeleteFacebook

25 Years Later: Interview with Linus Torvalds
I didn’t find the interview interesting until this:
But, I absolutely detest modern “social media”—Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. It’s a disease. It seems to encourage bad behavior.
I think part of it is something that email shares too, and that I’ve said before: “On the internet, nobody can hear you being subtle”. When you’re not talking to somebody face to face, and you miss all the normal social cues, it’s easy to miss humor and sarcasm, but it’s also very easy to overlook the reaction of the recipient, so you get things like flame wars, etc., that might not happen as easily with face-to-face interaction…
Add in anonymity, and it’s just disgusting. When you don’t even put your real name on your garbage (or the garbage you share or like), it really doesn’t help.
I’m actually one of those people who thinks that anonymity is overrated. Some people confuse privacy and anonymity and think they go hand in hand, and that protecting privacy means that you need to protect anonymity. I think that’s wrong. Anonymity is important if you’re a whistle-blower, but if you cannot prove your identity, your crazy rant on some social-media platform shouldn’t be visible, and you shouldn’t be able to share it or like it.

People need to wake up to dangers of AI, warns Google ethics adviser
“AI is the single most disruptive force that humanity has ever encountered and my concern is that so much of the discussion that we hear about now is very incremental,” said De Kai, a professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, in an interview this week. “We are near an era when people can easily produce weapons such as fleets of armed AI drones … the cat is out of the bag.”
I would put the odds at better than even AI will be our undoing. I dunno, maybe I’m just in a mood.

Ex-Mozilla CTO: US border cops demanded I unlock my phone, laptop at SF airport – and I’m an American citizen
“On this trip, the kiosk directed me to a Customs and Border Patrol agent who kept my passport and sent me to secondary inspection,” Gal said. “There I quickly found myself surrounded by three armed agents wearing bullet proof vests. They started to question me aggressively regarding my trip, my current employment, and my past work for Mozilla, a non-profit organization dedicated to open technology and online privacy.”
I don’t fly much. Don’t care if I ever do again. Folks making comments on this article talk about burner phones and laptops for travel…

Luigi that ordered a Tweak Guide:
I need a legit email addy bro!

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.1 Optional
Bugfixes
Download | Release Notes

Microsoft Office 365 Updated
Non-Security update Version 1903 (Build 11425.20202)
How to check for Office updates.

O&O AppBuster Updated
Win10 app uninstaller from the same folks who make O&O ShutUp10.
Download & Info | Changelog

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

IT and security professionals think normal people are just the worst
Two surveys of IT and security experts suggest they put most of the blame for data insecurity at the feet of ignorant, careless employees.
I’ve been out of IT for quite some time. The biggest issue I saw back then was organizations not willing to spend what it takes to secure their network and data. As for “ignorant, careless employees”, always has been, always will be the case.

Google’s constant product shutdowns are damaging its brand
We are 91 days into the year, and so far, Google is racking up an unprecedented body count. If we just take the official shutdown dates that have already occurred in 2019, a Google-branded product, feature, or service has died, on average, about every nine days.
Google is till copying Microsoft I see.

A Mystery Religion Pre-Dated The Incas by 500 Years, Stunning Lake Discovery Reveals
For long before the Incas held dominion over the sweeping lands stretching from Colombia to Chile, an even more mysterious and ancient society inhabited this elevated Andean region.
This older empire was called the Tiwanaku state, whom we know even less about.

Dear Tickmaster,
I’ve never bought tickets for a soccer match on your site. I’ve never even looked for tickets for a soccer match on your site. I wouldn’t go to a soccer match unless you paid me, a lot, a whole lot. Oh, and beer, I’ll need a lot of that too. Stop sending me emails to buy tickets for a soccer match on your site.
Thanks

Updates available for all currently supported versions of Windows.

Windows 10
1809 – March 12, 2019—KB4489899 (OS Build 17763.379)
1803 – March 12, 2019—KB4489868 (OS Build 17134.648)
1709 – March 12, 2019—KB4489886 (OS Build 16299.1029)
Several “Addresses an issue” +
Security updates to Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Scripting Engine, Windows Shell, Windows App Platform and Frameworks, Windows Kernel-Mode Drivers, Windows Server, Windows Linux, Windows Hyper-V, Windows Datacenter Networking, Windows Storage and Filesystems, Windows Wireless Networking, the Microsoft JET Database Engine, Windows Kernel, Windows, and Windows Fundamentals.

Windows 8.1
March 12, 2019—KB4489881 (Monthly Rollup)
March 12, 2019—KB4489883 (Security-only update)
Several “Addresses an issue” +
Security updates to Internet Explorer, Windows App Platform and Frameworks, Windows Hyper-V, Windows Storage and Filesystems, Windows Fundamentals, Windows Kernel, Windows Server, Windows MSXML, and the Microsoft JET Database Engine .

Windows 7
March 12, 2019—KB4489878 (Monthly Rollup)
March 12, 2019—KB4489885 (Security-only update)
Several “Addresses an issue” +
Security updates to Internet Explorer, Windows App Platform and Frameworks, Windows Cryptography, Windows Hyper-V, Windows Storage and Filesystems, Windows Fundamentals, Windows Server, Windows Kernel, Windows MSXML, and the Microsoft JET Database Engine .

Windows 7 To Become Nagware, Again
After 10 years, support for Windows 7 is coming to an end on January 14, 2020, with Office 2010 following shortly thereafter. We are here to help you with recommendations for what to do next and answer questions that you may have about end of support. Beginning next month, if you are a Windows 7 customer, you can expect to see a notification appear on your Windows 7 PC. This is a courtesy reminder that you can expect to see a handful of times in 2019.

CCleaner v5.55
Bunch of stuff for people using the pay for version. Yeah, I don’t know why you would pay for this either.
Also a fix for the Chinese owned Opera browser.
I would skip this one.
Download (I use portable) | Release Info
See also: Blocking A Programs Internet Access Via The Windows Firewall