What’s Up?

I suppose it is obvious that it has been a long time since I have made a post here. The reasons are varied and are beyond the scope of this post but I do want to mention a few things while I am here. I have completed and self published two books now an am working on a third one both of them are available on Amazon if you are interested. Secondly to try and promote my books I now have an account on Twitter where I usually post something every day. I don’t know how long that will last though as it takes a lot of time away from my writing so it depends on how successful it becomes. If you are on Twitter and would like to check it out you can find me at @TheJimAdkins

Intel Layoffs May Be Coming

I don’t know how accurate this report is but if it is true I would expect the effects to far reaching.

Sources speaking to Bloomberg said Intel could announce the layoffs when it posts its third-quarter earnings report on October 27. The company already slashed its profit projection by $11 billion back in July when it warned of increased chip prices due to rising production costs caused by inflation and the global chip shortage. The increases are expected later this year and could be between 10-20 percent.

More Book News

My first book has finally been published! I am really frustrated with how long it took. I would much rather be occupied writing something else than all the other things that deal with getting a book self-published. However, I don’t have the resources to hire a professional publisher to do the work for me. Even if I could secure a traditional publisher, which would also take on the publication duties, I would be unwilling to relinquish the rights. So that option is off the table as well. If you aren’t bored to tears by now, check out the Books tab up top for a look at the cover.

Google Chrome To Drop Legacy Extensions

This IMO is the absolute worst technology news I have read in ages. I hope this doesn’t happen.

Browser extensions such as Ghostery Privacy Ad Blocker, uBlock Origin, and Privacy Badger, along with scripting extensions including TamperMonkey, which are each designed to block adverts and other content and/or protect one’s privacy online, are expected to function less effectively, if they can even make the transition from Mv2 to the new approach: Manifest v3.

100 Lenovo Models With Unremovable Malware

This is scary reading here. Fortunately seems it requires local access it looks pretty hard to get it.

Lenovo has released security updates for more than 100 laptop models to fix critical vulnerabilities that make it possible for advanced hackers to surreptitiously install malicious firmware that can be next to impossible to remove or, in some cases, to detect.

GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Details

Obviously I am old now but it is kind of hard for me to digest gamers paying two thousands bucks for something that will be out of date in a few months. To each his own though I guess.

NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is finally here, and it’s clear the no-compromise design comes with the steep price tag to match. The new flagship GPU is now available at an official price of $1,999. That’s $500 more than the ‘base’ RTX 3090, and closer to the price of line-blurring GPUs like the old $2,499 Titan RTX.

Nvidia Arm Deal Called Off

Is anyone here surprised by this outcome? That being said the 1.25 billion dollar deposit that Arm is keeping has got to soften the blow.

SoftBank’s record-breaking sale of a prized chip designer to Nvidia has officially been called off. At an initial value of $40 billion, the US chipmaker’s acquisition of British design firm ARM would have been the largest semiconductor deal on record. But regulators around the world have long raised concerns about the deal, eventually leading to its collapse on Tuesday.

R.I.P. Richard Marcinko

Long time fan of Richard Marcinko and his Rogue Warrior series of books. I even have a personally autographed copy I treasure to this day. If you wondering who this great American patriot is his books are a good of a place as any to start. Godspeed.

Richard Marcinko, a legendary military figure known for leading SEAL Team Six when the covert special operations unit was in its infancy, died Saturday, according to his son and the National Navy SEAL Museum. He was 81. “Last night, Christmas evening, we lost a hero, who’s also known as The Rogue Warrior, the retired Navy SEAL commander AND the creator of SEAL Team Six, my father, Richard Marcinko,” Matt Marcinko wrote in a tweet on Sunday. “His legacy will live forever. The man has died a true legend,” he added.

Somebody’s Watching Me

Another day another hacker trying to spy on you and your personal information. What’s new?

The new feature alerts users when the microphone or camera has been activated. It’s very similar to a warning that already exists on Apple’s rival iPhone. The Google feature was added to phones in the latest Android 12 update. So if you don’t have that, you won’t be able to see it. The new indicator appears in the top-right corner of the screen. You’ll see a camera or microphone icon when an app attempts to access either respectively. It prevents apps from surreptitiously listening in – or even watching through your camera.

Gmail Outage Over

I must admit this is something that you don’t see everyday.

Gmail is finally back up, following a five hour outage that left frustrated users unable to send or receive emails. According to DownDetector, the issues started at around 08:44 BST, and have just been resolved. Speaking to MailOnline, a Google spokesperson said: ‘On Friday November 12 around 08:30 am UTC, some of our users experienced a service disruption to Google Cloud services, including Google Workspace.

Evening Reading

Being a Kentucky native this is big news here. Even though it is not really PC related.

Enjoy it while it lasts, though. General Motors hasn’t confirmed it but, given the timeframe, this may be the last gasoline-powered Corvette Z06. There has been a Z06 version of each new generation of Corvette since 2001. With GM moving towards electric vehicles, it’s not clear there will be another gasoline-powered Corvette model on which to base another Z06 after this.

Weekend Reading

Not computer related but this looks like a world of fun for someone that has more money than they know what to do with.

For the warbird enthusiast looking for something that offers that little bit extra, the brokers at Platinum Fighter Sales might just have a solution. At $850,000 it isn’t exactly cheap, but it’s also amazingly inexpensive considering the performance it offers. This F-104 Starfighter is a true Mach 2-capable machine that can climb at nearly 50,000 feet per minute, and it looks like it’s achieving its maximum speed when it’s sitting still on the ground. The aircraft for sale also has a storied career behind it, and a very reasonable 2,500 flight hours ‘on the clock.’ This, the fastest of privately available antiques, truly represents a unique opportunity for the biggest speed freak among us, and having the chance to own one, in an airworthy condition, is a rarity indeed.

Windows 11 Slows Down AMD CPU

If you run a system with an AMD CPU, you might want to hold off upgrading to Windows 11 for a bit.

AMD has announced that all of its WIndows 11-compatible processors can suffer from reduced performance in some applications when used with the new operating system, with extreme outliers in eSports gaming titles resulting in up to a 10-15% reduction. For applications, AMD says that the performance impact weighs in at 3–5%. A software update and a Windows Update are in the works to address the issues, with both expected to arrive in October 2021 (this month).

FCC Trying To Stop Overseas Robocalls

The FCC is still trying to stop Robocalls, even those that are coming from overseas. This obviously can’t happen soon enough for most of us.

Ending robocalls is almost like a game of whack-a-mole: Stop one and more pop up. But Jessica Rosenworcel, acting chair of the Federal Communications Commission, thinks she’s found a new hammer to stop the illegal automated spam calls originating from overseas. She’s proposing to close a loophole in FCC regulations to require “gateway” providers to stop robocalls — calls made by automated dialers with recorded messages — before they get to your phone. The agency will vote on the proposal, called the Targeting Gateway Providers to Combat Illegal Robocalls, during its monthly meeting on Tuesday.

Stronger Glass

Researchers have developed a stronger and tougher glass. Now when and how quickly this shows up commercially is still up in the air.

A new type of glass that’s five times more resistant to fractures than standard glass has been created – and it could finally spell an end to smashed phone screens. The glass and acrylic composite material, which ‘offers a combination of strength, toughness and transparency’, was designed by researchers at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Windows 10 Settings

This article has ten settings they say you should disable in Windows 10. I guess I am not doing too bad as I already had eight of them disabled before I read the article.

If you’re a Windows 10 user, you’ll want to spend just a few minutes looking into these default settings, and potentially turning them off, for the sake of privacy, speed and convenience. Here are eight settings that are turned on by default that you can disable in Windows 10. (You can also check out the top Windows 10 tips and tricks, and how to troubleshoot common Windows 10 problems.)

Incognito Mode Subject Of Lawsuit

This confirms once again that lawyers will seek to sue over any little thing today.

Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai in 2019 was warned that describing the company’s Incognito browsing mode as “private” was problematic, yet it stayed the course because he did not want the feature “under the spotlight,” according to a new court filing. Google spokesman José Castañeda told Reuters that the filing “mischaracterizes emails referencing unrelated second and third-hand accounts.”

More On The Chip Shortage

I kept reading things were getting better with the chip supply. It doesn’t look like that is yet happening though.

The shortage of computer chips is raising the price of new and used cars, delaying shipments of electronics and holding back the economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. “It’s a huge problem,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told CNN ahead of leading a White House meeting with manufacturers and users of computer chips. “Everything in your life that has an on-off switch requires semiconductors. Your phone, your car, all of the electronics around you.”

Apple Will Block Fortnite On iOS

So is there even one single person here that didn’t see this coming? I didn’t think so.

Weeks after Epic’s apparent “win” against Apple in the Epic Games v. Apple case, Apple issued a letter denying Epic’s request to have its developer license agreement reinstated until all legal options are exhausted. This effectively bans Fortnite and any other software from the game maker from returning to Apple’s App Store for years.

Microsoft To Replace Passwords

This piece of news had me really excited until I saw the replacements. Take a pin for an example. Isn’t a pin just a numerical password?

Microsoft has a solution for the familiar problem of needing to remember too many passwords: doing away with them altogether. The company announced Wednesday that it will introduce a “passwordless account” option for all users of several popular services such as Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft OneDrive in the coming weeks. Microsoft previously made this option available to corporate accounts in March. “You can now completely remove the password from your Microsoft account,” Vasu Jakkal, the company’s corporate vice president of security, compliance and identity, wrote in a blog post Wednesday.

Segway’s Navimow Robot

I figured it wouldn’t be too long after the iRobot Roomba that someone came up with a robot to mow your lawn. Well it looks like Segway now has.

Segway has introduced its first robot mower, the Navimow, that uses GPS to stay on your lawn and keep it neatly trimmed. So unlike other robot mowers, you won’t have to install a boundary wire to keep the robot on the right patch of grass. Segway says its Exact Fusion Locating System keeps the Navimow to “precise positions and systematic mowing patterns,” keeping its position accurate to within two centimeters. If its GPS signal is temporarily weak, the Navimow has sensors that will keep it mowing.

Weekend Reading

If you grew up on console gaming instead of PC gaming like me then this might be a no brainer purchase for you. Either way though this is worth your time to check it out.

What’s the difference between software- and hardware-based emulation? “Traditional” emulation is software-based. Developers of popular emulation software create a program that tricks game ROMs—that is, copies made from cartridge- and disc-based games, that you can store on your computer—into thinking they are running on original hardware. These are the emulators you download to your computer or which come preinstalled in retro TV consoles like the NES Classic. Software emulation can be great. It can also be flawed. Some games run poorly, graphics get distorted, sound gets garbled. The games can exhibit slowdown and input lag not present on original hardware. Software emulation can be kind of a crapshoot.

Neon Light Tube Mod

Product: Glow 10″ purple neon light rod
Product Link: Purchased at Target
MFR Link: N/A
Reviewer: Jim Adkins
Date: 10/22/2001

Standard disclaimer here: I can accept no responsibility for any mishap that arises from this article. If you are not comfortable replacing a pigtail, find someone to help you who is. Always take precautions when working with electricity. A while back, I wrote a DIY article on installing an acrylic side panel. I still have that panel, and I have grown attached to it. What better way to show off all my hard work, blue motherboard, blue video card, blue rounded cables, big polished copper heat sink? All I needed now was a neon light.

I started to look for a neon light. What better way to show off my tricked-out rig? What I discovered was much the same as when I wrote the article about acrylic side panels. The neon lighting kits were not cheap. Commonly ranging from thirty to forty dollars, throw in ten or fifteen bucks for shipping, and things are quickly becoming expensive. So I started wondering why I couldn’t put together one of my own? Not only would it save me some money, but also, equally important, it would give me an excuse to tinker around some. Keep on reading!

Noctua NH-U12S Redux Cooler

It’s nice to see Noctua making a budget cooler now. This should broaden their appeal to more than just the hardcore overclockers market.

And if by some chance there isn’t, then it’s only a matter of time until someone builds it. Which is very much the case for the CPU cooler in today’s review, Noctua’s budget-friendly NH-U12S Redux. Already renowned for their high-quality, high-end cooling products, Noctua is working to broaden their market by making their products a bit more accessible to budget buyers, and they’re doing so through products like the Redux. At a high level, the NH-U12S Redux is a cost-reduced version of the company’s very popular NH-U12S cooler. With fewer heatpipes and a different fan, the NH-U12S Redux is intended to bring the quality and cooling performance of its predecessor down to a cheaper, more wallet-friendly price of $50. Which also means that Noctua is more directly facing-off with the other major cooler manufacturers in the highly competitive mainstream market segment.

Yet More SCO vs. IBM

This is unbelievable. For many years I thought this case finished. Now I wonder if it may not outlive me in some form. Sad.

One strand of the ancient and convoluted SCO versus IBM legal mess that sought to determine who owns UNIX – and perhaps has a claim over Linux – may be about to end. The case commenced in 2003, but its roots go even deeper.In 1998 IBM, the Santa Cruz Operation (SCO – a vendor of UNIX for x86 CPUs) and others teamed to create Project Monterey, with the aim of developing a version of UNIX that worked on multiple hardware platforms. Which is just what the Linux community had started doing, too.