AMD's Ryzen Mobile chips are now available in laptops/notebooks and all-in-ones. Performance is good, and power consumption/performance-per-watt is substantially better:
What is the format of this file? JPG? PNG? How, precisely, is it exploiting the image viewer? Via buffer overrun?
Details are not available yet. According to one story, the people who discovered the exploit are not talking about details until it has been patched. I don't know if it's relevant but the story specifically mentions SVG and today i learned that you can embed Javascript code into an SVG image file. Since the only SVG image viewer that most people have is a web browser, this could be one possible attack vector.
In the first link from the summary, there's a video embedded a bit down. At 0:27, there's a screen shot containing a "Notepad" dump of the HTA file, here you can see that the opening bytes represent a standard JPEG (JFIF) format image. When I worked in Imaging and ECM (FileNet Corp.), I knew many programs that relied on the "magic number" (opening bytes) of a file to identify the format; ignoring the file extension which can sometimes be wrong.
So (I'm guessing) Facebook assumes it's a regular ol' JPEG image based on the header bytes, when in reality it's an HTA (HTML Executable). When Facebook tries to serve it to the user, the web browser knows it's not a JPEG and forces the download so Windows Explorer can handle it. The user then double-clicks on the HTA and that's when the exploit takes place. If you still have file extensions hidden in Windows, you'd never know it wasn't a JPEG to begin with.
One wonders why Microsoft still clings to the idea that hiding file extensions is a good idea. It's still the default behavior even in Windows 10.
Well, let's see. I'm going to be 50 soon. That's supposedly a detriment in IT. I make a lot more money than my younger colleagues. That's supposed to hurt me too. I don't know an H1B worker who can even do my job, so I guess I must be worth it. Don't get me wrong. The latter probably exists. I just don't see them lining up to replace me.
Where I used to work (3-letter acronym), there wasn't anyone who could do my job either, but that surely didn't stop them from laying me off. There are countless others who were talented, well trained, but weren't of "optimal" age and salary who were also let go. At some point, apparently, it doesn't matter if anyone can do your job. The big wigs and bean counters are well aware that the structure is hollow. So long as the big name still lights up, there will be some customers, and I suppose that's good enough. I was involved in customer engagements up to the week I left, and I was the last one of my team to go. The guy who was supposed to replace me is presumably there, but we never spent more than 2 minutes discussing things. I shudder to think of how bad it's gotten...
Motherboard: ASUS F2A85-V PRO Processor: AMD A10-5800K Trinity 3.8GHz FM2 Quad Memory (part number): G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 4 x 8GB DDR3 1866 Display Chip: AMD A85X (Hudson D4) [Integrated graphics, not a gamer) Display LCD: Monoprice 30" IPS CCFL Backlit LCD Panel Hard Drive (System): SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256BW 2.5" 256GB SATA Hard Drive (Storage): Hitachi HDS724040ALE640 (0S03355) 4TB CPU Cooler: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 CPU Fan Case: Antec-300 PC Case Power Supply: Rosewill FORTRESS-450w 80 Plus Platinum UPS: CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD 1500VA OS: Windows 7 (64-bit) Professional
Most people back then didn't go to arcades and had never even heard of Pac-Man.
Pac-Man was ubiquitous because the video game craze extended well beyond the arcade. You could find them at movie theaters, liquor stores, pizza parlors, bowling alleys, kiosk space in the mall, even just past the checkout lanes at the grocery store. I don't know anyone who hadn't heard of Pac-Man by 1981.
My most recent upgrade was from a LinkSys WRT54GS v2 to the ASUS RT-N16 Wireless Router 802.11b/g/n. I put the Tomato WRT software on the ASUS router and it's been running flawlessly now for over a year.
Depends, I'm still grandfathered under the "unlimited data" plan, so AT&T cannot legally cap the amount of data I am using.
Lucky for them (and for me?), I'm not one of the high bandwidth users who watch videos all day on my phone... but if someday I need to use that much data off the 3G network, I did pay for it (have been for 2-3 years), and it should be readily available to me.
I have about a dozen 1.5TB Seagate 7200rpm drives purchased intermittently over the past ~2 years from ~4 different vendors. The most recent purchase was at the end of Nov 2009.
So far, no problems (knock on wood). They tend to run 24/7, but don't necessarily see that much disc activity (media server).
I did have one Seagate drive die on me, but I think it was a 750GB drive... and that was a couple of years ago. I have at least 8 of those drives, plus four older 300gb drives... all are off-line now, but they were working fine when they were in use.
I also have a parallel-port EPROM burner that I use more frequently, the Xtronics Pocket Programmer... however, it is not fully compatible with all of the older EPROM chips that I occasionally use.
At least their website is still active, and the latest Pocket Programmer runs off the USB port. Right now, I have no need for a $249.95 upgrade, but will keep it in mind.
Do you have a link to your preferred USB-to-ISA product?
For the record, I did find that the PB-10 would not necessarily run on newer (faster) computers. Maybe some of the internal timing has changed?
The oldest I have in service is a Cyrix 6x86 system running Windows 98 SE. I need it for the ISA slots so that I can run my *Needhams PB-10 EPROM burner.
* Since www.needhams.com doesn't come up anymore, I wonder if they are even still in business.:-(
Not to defend them, but the summary indicates GB caps not MB. 100GB is alot harder to pull down in a month, not that I haven't managed to do it on a crappy DSL line, thus making it even more likely someone with a nice fat cable pipe could do it.
I can easily do 100gb in a week, now that all these 1080p MKV files are out there.
What is your process? Everything I've tried so far makes file that is poor quality, usually audio/video sync problems. I've been trying to convert to.AVI or.MPG - I'm not familiar with mkv. It seems like the encoding programs have half a million settings to fiddle with, and after playing with it for a while, I gave up.
I'm on Windows 2000, using DVD-Shrink, VirtualDub (for DVDs) and DivX.
Insert your DVD and have DVD-Shrink assess it. Normally, I'm just interested in the main movie, so if you want menus and extras, you may have to do some of your own research here. Select "Re-Author" so DVD-Shrink will allow you to recompress the movie and shrink it to fit a certain target size... but I prefer to keep the quality, so I leave it full size.
Now this is an important step. Edit-->Preferences-->Output Files. Uncheck the "Split VOB files into 1GB size chunks". This way you'll get one huge VOB file, instead of several smaller ones. Run the utility, you'll get a bunch of miscellaneous DVD files, in addition to your VOB. The VOB is the only one you are interested in.
Find a copy of VirtualDub that can read a VOB file. Normally, a VOB is some sort of non-standard MPEG2 file, which will result in a synchronization/pack error (or something similar). This version of VirtualDub can read it like any other file. Select DivX as your compression scheme, configure your bitrate for whatever size/quality you desire, then save as an AVI. Done!
For those who like ripping television shows, each title should show up as a separate VOB file. This means every episode is ultimately stored as a separate AVI file. No menus, no commercials, no FBI warnings... just the content!
As a public service, links to three excellent, free, software based HDD wiping utilities.
To be fair, they didn't want the disk wiped, they wanted it upgraded. They needed their existing information intact to be transferred over to the new HDD. Only *after* that procedure was completed, would they be ready to wipe the old HDD. Now at that point, with the old HDD out of the computer, no utilities (free or otherwise) will be able to wipe the drive. You and I can probably figure it out, but to them, it was just easier to pay someone to do the job.
The issue here was not lack of utilities, but someone not doing the job that they said they would do...
Just want to say on the 'better quality' argument: in general I can't tell the difference between VHS and DVD quality [...]
I'm sure there are people who believe they can tell the difference. Most of them probably have their super-high quality flatscreens hooked up incorrectly so that they are are actually getting worse quality on it. But they still believe they can tell the difference. (I'm sure some actually can tell the difference.)
I can easily tell the difference, though I am watching on a 73" rear projection TV. You did not mention what sort of equipment you are using?
My TV will do HDTV (1080i, I believe), and it looks incredible. I would love to see High-Def DVD movies, and am quite happy to pay for them. I am effectively the market for this new technology.
That said, my set does not include the HDMI connector, and it is only 2 years old. So if that is a limitation (however iffy), then I'll just stick with the current DVD format. In this case, I am the market that is being lost due to all this stupid DRM crap.
A thousand bucks? That'll get you like TWO SHARES... I don't know if you could even get someone to part with just two shares. While it's not always the case, most shares are sold in lots, and a common lot size is a multiple of 100...Expensive shares like Google will definately have more exceptions, but I still doubt you will be able to buy only a $1000 worth of Google.
Pffft!! I've never, EVER had a problem buying exactly how many shares I wanted. I have bought Google stock twice, and in neither case did I buy even 100 shares.
I'm sure you can buy just 2 shares. Your stock broker will handle that (I'm talking guys like E-Trade) and will charge you the usual fees. It can totally be done.
If you want them to send you a *certificate* for 2 shares, I'm not sure how that works. I don't think most people get stock certificates anymore. Folks used to buy 1 share of Disney stock just for the certificate though...
Slashdot Mirror
Are these next-gen APUs still affected by Spectre-type vulnerabilities? I saw no mention of those flaws in the PR. But then again, it's a PR.
Apparently not, AMD chips appear to be in the clear:
https://www.elazaradvisors.com...
AMD's Ryzen Mobile chips are now available in laptops/notebooks and all-in-ones. Performance is good, and power consumption/performance-per-watt is substantially better:
https://www.notebookcheck.net/...
Today's demo reports Zen runs at 95 watts, with performance comparable to the i7-6900k running at 140 watts
WTF is a "maliciously coded image file"?
What is the format of this file? JPG? PNG? How, precisely, is it exploiting the image viewer? Via buffer overrun?
Details are not available yet. According to one story, the people who discovered the exploit are not talking about details until it has been patched. I don't know if it's relevant but the story specifically mentions SVG and today i learned that you can embed Javascript code into an SVG image file. Since the only SVG image viewer that most people have is a web browser, this could be one possible attack vector.
In the first link from the summary, there's a video embedded a bit down. At 0:27, there's a screen shot containing a "Notepad" dump of the HTA file, here you can see that the opening bytes represent a standard JPEG (JFIF) format image. When I worked in Imaging and ECM (FileNet Corp.), I knew many programs that relied on the "magic number" (opening bytes) of a file to identify the format; ignoring the file extension which can sometimes be wrong.
So (I'm guessing) Facebook assumes it's a regular ol' JPEG image based on the header bytes, when in reality it's an HTA (HTML Executable). When Facebook tries to serve it to the user, the web browser knows it's not a JPEG and forces the download so Windows Explorer can handle it. The user then double-clicks on the HTA and that's when the exploit takes place. If you still have file extensions hidden in Windows, you'd never know it wasn't a JPEG to begin with.
One wonders why Microsoft still clings to the idea that hiding file extensions is a good idea. It's still the default behavior even in Windows 10.
Well, let's see. I'm going to be 50 soon. That's supposedly a detriment in IT. I make a lot more money than my younger colleagues. That's supposed to hurt me too. I don't know an H1B worker who can even do my job, so I guess I must be worth it. Don't get me wrong. The latter probably exists. I just don't see them lining up to replace me.
Where I used to work (3-letter acronym), there wasn't anyone who could do my job either, but that surely didn't stop them from laying me off. There are countless others who were talented, well trained, but weren't of "optimal" age and salary who were also let go. At some point, apparently, it doesn't matter if anyone can do your job. The big wigs and bean counters are well aware that the structure is hollow. So long as the big name still lights up, there will be some customers, and I suppose that's good enough. I was involved in customer engagements up to the week I left, and I was the last one of my team to go. The guy who was supposed to replace me is presumably there, but we never spent more than 2 minutes discussing things. I shudder to think of how bad it's gotten...
Motherboard: ASUS F2A85-V PRO
Processor: AMD A10-5800K Trinity 3.8GHz FM2 Quad
Memory (part number): G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 4 x 8GB DDR3 1866
Display Chip: AMD A85X (Hudson D4) [Integrated graphics, not a gamer)
Display LCD: Monoprice 30" IPS CCFL Backlit LCD Panel
Hard Drive (System): SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256BW 2.5" 256GB SATA
Hard Drive (Storage): Hitachi HDS724040ALE640 (0S03355) 4TB
CPU Cooler: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 CPU Fan
Case: Antec-300 PC Case
Power Supply: Rosewill FORTRESS-450w 80 Plus Platinum
UPS: CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD 1500VA
OS: Windows 7 (64-bit) Professional
Most people back then didn't go to arcades and had never even heard of Pac-Man.
Pac-Man was ubiquitous because the video game craze extended well beyond the arcade. You could find them at movie theaters, liquor stores, pizza parlors, bowling alleys, kiosk space in the mall, even just past the checkout lanes at the grocery store. I don't know anyone who hadn't heard of Pac-Man by 1981.
My most recent upgrade was from a LinkSys WRT54GS v2 to the ASUS RT-N16 Wireless Router 802.11b/g/n. I put the Tomato WRT software on the ASUS router and it's been running flawlessly now for over a year.
YMMV, of course...
I have Windows 7 x64 in a system where it recognizes 16GB of RAM.
Of course, most of that's got sucked up by Firefox...
Many restaurants can/will limit seating time to 1 hour, or maybe 90 minutes ... buffet or not.
A "free refills" coffee drinker may not eat up too much in materials, but use of the table for hours on end is another story entirely.
Depends, I'm still grandfathered under the "unlimited data" plan, so AT&T cannot legally cap the amount of data I am using.
Lucky for them (and for me?), I'm not one of the high bandwidth users who watch videos all day on my phone ... but if someday I need to use that much data off the 3G network, I did pay for it (have been for 2-3 years), and it should be readily available to me.
I use the EGreat M34A Networked Media Tank:
http://www.amazon.com/Egreat-EG-M34A-Network-Media-Tank/dp/B002IRBKOS
I just picked up my third one on E-Bay, where they are a bit cheaper.
I have about a dozen 1.5TB Seagate 7200rpm drives purchased intermittently over the past ~2 years from ~4 different vendors. The most recent purchase was at the end of Nov 2009.
So far, no problems (knock on wood). They tend to run 24/7, but don't necessarily see that much disc activity (media server).
I did have one Seagate drive die on me, but I think it was a 750GB drive ... and that was a couple of years ago. I have at least 8 of those drives, plus four older 300gb drives ... all are off-line now, but they were working fine when they were in use.
Never tried the 5900rpm drives...
I also have a parallel-port EPROM burner that I use more frequently, the Xtronics Pocket Programmer ... however, it is not fully compatible with all of the older EPROM chips that I occasionally use.
At least their website is still active, and the latest Pocket Programmer runs off the USB port. Right now, I have no need for a $249.95 upgrade, but will keep it in mind.
Do you have a link to your preferred USB-to-ISA product?
For the record, I did find that the PB-10 would not necessarily run on newer (faster) computers. Maybe some of the internal timing has changed?
The oldest I have in service is a Cyrix 6x86 system running Windows 98 SE. I need it for the ISA slots so that I can run my *Needhams PB-10 EPROM burner.
* Since www.needhams.com doesn't come up anymore, I wonder if they are even still in business. :-(
From TFA: The case studies looked at patients whose consumption ranged from two to nine litres of cola a day.
I'm good. :-)
Not to defend them, but the summary indicates GB caps not MB. 100GB is alot harder to pull down in a month, not that I haven't managed to do it on a crappy DSL line, thus making it even more likely someone with a nice fat cable pipe could do it.
I can easily do 100gb in a week, now that all these 1080p MKV files are out there.
You know, ummm ... backups for my BluRay discs. :-)
What is your process? Everything I've tried so far makes file that is poor quality, usually audio/video sync problems. I've been trying to convert to .AVI or .MPG - I'm not familiar with mkv. It seems like the encoding programs have half a million settings to fiddle with, and after playing with it for a while, I gave up.
... but I prefer to keep the quality, so I leave it full size.
... just the content!
I'm on Windows 2000, using DVD-Shrink, VirtualDub (for DVDs) and DivX.
Insert your DVD and have DVD-Shrink assess it. Normally, I'm just interested in the main movie, so if you want menus and extras, you may have to do some of your own research here. Select "Re-Author" so DVD-Shrink will allow you to recompress the movie and shrink it to fit a certain target size
Now this is an important step. Edit-->Preferences-->Output Files. Uncheck the "Split VOB files into 1GB size chunks". This way you'll get one huge VOB file, instead of several smaller ones. Run the utility, you'll get a bunch of miscellaneous DVD files, in addition to your VOB. The VOB is the only one you are interested in.
Find a copy of VirtualDub that can read a VOB file. Normally, a VOB is some sort of non-standard MPEG2 file, which will result in a synchronization/pack error (or something similar). This version of VirtualDub can read it like any other file. Select DivX as your compression scheme, configure your bitrate for whatever size/quality you desire, then save as an AVI. Done!
For those who like ripping television shows, each title should show up as a separate VOB file. This means every episode is ultimately stored as a separate AVI file. No menus, no commercials, no FBI warnings
Pennies are often used only in POS transactions, not vending machines. So why not just make the damn thing smaller?
Automated checkout machines (grocery stores, Home Depot, etc.) accept pennies. Kind of a POS transaction / vending machine hybrid.
Dimes, quarters, half-dollars and full-sized full dollars (i.e. not sacagawea-sized) were made of silver until 1963.
:-)
... but one who knows that 1964 was the last year they made 90% silver coins for general circulation)
(Yes, I am a coin collector)
Hey!! Can I buy all your 1964 non-silver Dimes, quarters and half-dollars?? I'll give you face value...
(Yes, I am a coin collector too
Federation vessels were limited to warp 5 when it was discovered that warp drive destroyed the fabric of space-time.
I thought that limitation only applied to that specific warp corridor?
Riker takes the Enterprise to Warp 13 towards the end of "All Good Things".
As a public service, links to three excellent, free, software based HDD wiping utilities.
To be fair, they didn't want the disk wiped, they wanted it upgraded. They needed their existing information intact to be transferred over to the new HDD. Only *after* that procedure was completed, would they be ready to wipe the old HDD. Now at that point, with the old HDD out of the computer, no utilities (free or otherwise) will be able to wipe the drive. You and I can probably figure it out, but to them, it was just easier to pay someone to do the job.
The issue here was not lack of utilities, but someone not doing the job that they said they would do...
Just want to say on the 'better quality' argument: in general I can't tell the difference between VHS and DVD quality [...]
I'm sure there are people who believe they can tell the difference. Most of them probably have their super-high quality flatscreens hooked up incorrectly so that they are are actually getting worse quality on it. But they still believe they can tell the difference. (I'm sure some actually can tell the difference.)
I can easily tell the difference, though I am watching on a 73" rear projection TV. You did not mention what sort of equipment you are using?
My TV will do HDTV (1080i, I believe), and it looks incredible. I would love to see High-Def DVD movies, and am quite happy to pay for them. I am effectively the market for this new technology.
That said, my set does not include the HDMI connector, and it is only 2 years old. So if that is a limitation (however iffy), then I'll just stick with the current DVD format. In this case, I am the market that is being lost due to all this stupid DRM crap.
A thousand bucks? That'll get you like TWO SHARES ...
I don't know if you could even get someone to part with just two shares. While it's not always the case, most shares are sold in lots, and a common lot size is a multiple of 100...Expensive shares like Google will definately have more exceptions, but I still doubt you will be able to buy only a $1000 worth of Google.
Pffft!! I've never, EVER had a problem buying exactly how many shares I wanted. I have bought Google stock twice, and in neither case did I buy even 100 shares.
I'm sure you can buy just 2 shares. Your stock broker will handle that (I'm talking guys like E-Trade) and will charge you the usual fees. It can totally be done.
If you want them to send you a *certificate* for 2 shares, I'm not sure how that works. I don't think most people get stock certificates anymore. Folks used to buy 1 share of Disney stock just for the certificate though...
they have more bandwidth, both lit and unlit, than they know what to do with
Is that like when you buy a new hard drive and say "Man, it'll take me forever to fill this thing up!!"