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Weekend Random Stuff…

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It’s been a boring week out there in tech news land.
Some minor software updates:
AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.6.1 Optional Drivers
Samsung Magician SSD Software 5.2.1 (Thanks A.G.)

Stuff I bookmarked this week. Some off topic, some not:

Next generation Humvee debuts as NXT 360 with armor and autonomous compatibility

Pretty tough looking vehicle.
I was in the Army when we switched from the M151 A2 (Jeep) to HMMWV. I logged a lot of miles and sleep time in the first generation of the Hummer.
Here are a couple of my HMMWVs.
The one on the left was my first one pictured with my 60 Gunner along about 1986 or 1987 (West Germany).
The one on the right is me in Desert Storm in 1991.

Hackers can summon Cortana to break into Windows 10 PCs
Good to see someone found Cortana useful.

Facebook is tracking you in ways you never knew — here’s the crazy amount of data it sucks up
#DeleteFacebook

IQ scores have been falling for decades, and a new study blames schools and nutrition
Scores started falling in 1975. That was the year Pet Rocks were created and Captain & Tennille’s, “Love Will Keep Us Together” was the #1 song. Coincidence? I think not.

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

Thursday Morning Random Stuff…

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Firefox Updated
EN-US 64-bit
All Firefox Versions
Release Notes

Chrome 67.0.3396.79
Download
Download standalone(full)
Download standalone 64-bit Windows version(full)

New GPU Drivers
AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.5.2 Optional
Nvidia Geforce Game Ready 398.11 WHQL Drivers

Off Topic
Stuff I’ve bookmarked.

Everything You Know About Surviving Rip Currents Is Wrong
Huh. Glad I read that!

Miss America is scrapping its swimsuit competition
Never watched more than a few minutes of a pageant. I find the whole thing annoying.

Facebook confirms data-sharing agreements with Chinese firms
#DeleteFacebook
Dem lawmaker: ‘Looks like Zuckerberg lied to Congress’
No. Really. #DeleteFacebook

More than half of U.S. households have ditched landline phones
I would have thought it would be more than that. A dozen years ago I came home and checked the messages on my answering machine. I looked at my cell phone and then back at the answering machine. “Why am I paying for this?” I thought. Haven’t had a landline since.

Max Scherzer becomes fifth ever with two career immaculate innings
Oh Detroit. What could have been. Some former Tigers pitchers still playing:
Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, David Price, Rick Porcello…

Arnold, “Milk is for babies. When you grow up you have to drink beer.”
One of my favorite quotes. Ever.

Friday Random Stuff…

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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

Make Air Monarchs Great Again
Source: Barstoolsports
Adam Jones of the Baltimore Orioles is making it his mission to MakeMonarchsGreatAgain. Oft maligned as “dad shoes” these may be the single best athletic shoes ever.
(BTW – If you judge someone by the shoes they wear you have serious mental/emotional issues. Grow up.)
Air Monarchs are my all-time favorite footwear. I have weird feet. One foot is 1 inch longer than the other making my shoe size roughly 10 extra wide and 11 regular. Air Monarch 10.5s fit as well as any pair of shoes can. I destroyed my ankles playing football and the Air Monarchs also have wide soles which adds ankle support. Here is a shot of my current pair used at the gym. They are Grey/Volt color and were allegedly made for Seahawks coach Pete Carroll.

“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.

Wednesday Random Stuff…

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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”.

Wednesday Morning Random Stuff…

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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.

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.