xWood4000

this is a major happening if i ever did see it
 

 
https://www.solarwinds.com/company/customers
 
 
that is a very concerning list. is it war now?

also kind of related... load this up on mobile and check out what powers the dominion voting companies site 
 
https://dvsfileshare.dominionvoting.com/
 

This is a pretty big and emergency directive coming from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), directing all federal civilian agencies to review their networks for indicators of compromise and disconnect or power down SolarWinds Orion products immediately due to a known exploit that is apparently being exploited by hackers. This after the US Treasury and the US NTIA were apparently breached by hackers. A foreign government is suspected and the National Security Council met Saturday to discuss the fallout.
 
The directive from CISA:
https://www.cisa.gov/news/2020/12/13/cisa-issues-emergency-directive-mitigate-compromise-solarwinds-orion-network
Quotes
 
 
 
The Reuters news piece talking about the original hack:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-amazon-com-exclsuive/exclusive-u-s-treasury-breached-by-hackers-backed-by-foreign-government-sources-idUSKBN28N0PG
 
 
 
The IT services company, SolarWinds confirmed that they were the subject of a highly sophisticated hack:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-solarwinds-cyber/it-company-solarwinds-says-it-may-have-been-hit-in-highly-sophisticated-hack-idUSKBN28N0Y7
 

 
SolarWinds has a number of high profile contracts providing IT services, with their website indicating they provide IT services to 425 of the Fortune 500 companies, and various US government departments, such as NOAA, the Pentagon, State Department, the US Postal Service, Office of the President of the United States, and all five branches of the US Military.
 
For those not familiar with it, SolarWinds is a network management system (NMS), and is one of the more ubiquitous network management systems out there. These systems are usually used to monitor, control, and configure network devices and critical servers, and often have critical access to most (often all) systems on the network.
 
A NMS not only has the ability to monitor all systems on the network, but also maintain the availability of the more critical systems on the network, and as such, they have the ability to monitor and control services becoming unresponsive and restarting them, all before a network admin even becomes aware of an issue.
 
 
Fireeye, a IT cybersecurity company (and also one of the companies affected by the hack) had this article up on their site on the SolarWinds hack:
https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2020/12/evasive-attacker-leverages-solarwinds-supply-chain-compromises-with-sunburst-backdoor.html
 
 
Basically, what Fireeye is saying is that the malware slips in via a trojan that uses a modified version of the component of the Orion software framework that contains a backdoor that communicates via HTTP to third party servers. The malware then hides on the network, dormant for roughly two weeks then  it retrieves and executes commands, called “Jobs”, that include the ability to transfer files, execute files, profile the system, reboot the machine, and disable system services. It masquerades this activity as the Orion Improvement Program (OIP) protocol and stores reconnaissance results within legitimate plugin configuration files allowing it to blend in with legitimate SolarWinds activity. The backdoor uses multiple obfuscated blocklists to identify forensic and anti-virus tools running as processes, services, and drivers.
 
 
In all, this is a very big hack, affecting many companies and government agencies.

Summary
 QNAP Releases new 2.5GbE + 10GbE Switches to the QSW Line, the QSW-M2108-2C($249) and QSW-M2108-2S ($299). This should be a nice entry for people looking for a 2.5GbE and 10GbE switch for there home. These are added to the other cost effective 1GbE + 10GbE switches part of the past line up. Some past examples are the QSW-308-1C ($139) (308 line) unmanaged switch with 8 1GbE & 2 SFP+ & 1 10GbE Combo port (RJ45/SFP+) and the QSW-M408-4C ($299) (408 line) managed switch with 8 1GbE 4 10GbE Combo port (RJ45/SFP+) (both lines with a few port configuration options)


 
Quotes
 
My thoughts
These look like great switches for home users looking for entry into higher LAN speeds with out crazy costs. I plan to pick up the QSW-M408-2C soon.
 
Sources
https://www.qnap.com/en-us/product/compare-switches
https://hexus.net/tech/items/storage/147154-qnap-introduces-qsw-m2108-25gbe-10gbe-l2/

QSW-M2108-xx Pictures
 
 
QSW-M408-4C Pictures
 
 
QSW-308-1C Pictures
 
 

Nope, its not a joke, some genius/nut job modder has created a custom chip for the Super Nintendo to support ray tracing.

Bubbles2.mp4 Using some pretty damn impressive electrical engineering and an FPGA they were able to create a custom chip they call the SuperRT to handle ray tracing with up to 4 rays per screen pixel. I should add, I'll summarise the post here but the link to the source goes into WAAAAAAY more detail. If you interested in the full explanation then please go have a read through it.




PanDown.mp4 https://www.shironekolabs.com/posts/superrt/
 
I'm genuinely amazed at what some people do in their spare time. While GPUs are becoming more powerful every year to cope with new features like RT someone decide to build it into a 30 year old console.

Source: https://www.neowin.net/news/nagao-shows-off-gpu-mirror-so-you-can-admire-the-beauty-of-your-gpu-fans
 

 

 

 
Second source: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/nagao-manufacturing-releases-graphics-card-mirror.271606/
 
My thoughts: I'd be tempted to buy one! It's a sounder idea than using a vertical mount for your GPU.

Summary
Apple accidentally gave notarization certificates to a piece of adware called Slayer (letting it run on Macs) but Apple found out and revoked Slayer’s notarization certificates.
 
Quotes
 
My thoughts
I think this will make people more wary of Mac software and maybe question the security of Apple’s products.
 
Sources
https://www.wired.com/story/apple-approved-malware-macos-notarization-shlayer/

Only a few days after Nvidia announced the 3000 series AMD's marketing team is swinging into action. In what was obviously a marketing stunt a streamer showed off an easter egg in a fan made AMD themed map for the popular game Fortnite.
 
To access a hidden message in the level players must enter the code "6000" while playing the map, obviously a reference to the fact RDNA 2 will be the 6000 series.
Doing so reveals the following message

 
For anyone interested in seeing it for themselves - https://hothardware.com/news/amd-big-navi-easter-egg-discovered-in-fortnite-map
Source - https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-radeon-rx-6000-big-navi-teased-in-fornites-easter-egg
 
Things are going to get very interesting in the next few weeks. I'm excited to see what AMD can bring to the fight.

I wish that'd be right up to the house, but having it go between data centers is probably much more beneficial to us. Maybe Netflix in HD will finally look decent.

Actually that seems to be no longer the case. For example the smart doorbell Ring, you pay for it and yet you're still the product.

Not too long ago Google provided 4000 Chromebooks to students in the States for "educational purpose", however it seems like there is much more than just teaching kids.
Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/two-children-sue-google-for-allegedly-collecting-students-biometric-data/
https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/privacy/google-class-action-says-kids-data-collected-from-school-chromebooks
Thoughts: While obviously it is not the first time google infringed privacy rights state wide but I think this is a new low (excluding some other reports from facebook). I guess Google didn't take any hints from COPPA.

On topic since no one seems to want to answer the actual topic... No it won't work without an 8pin
 
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/XCjG3C/evga-power-supply-100w10500kr
 
This is fine for an ultracheap psu.
 
Here is a better choice for a bit more money that will give you more room to expand if you end up moving up-market in the future.
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/r2TPxr/evga-br-600w-80-bronze-certified-atx-power-supply-100-br-0600-k1

That PSU needs an upgrade

Showcased not long ago at Chinajoy 2019, Yeston (the company that many may remember for their RX 580 2048SP PET that GamerNexus reviewed) has once again reached a new height at combining anime waifus and computer processors to create this beauty. Selling at 501 USD and includes lipstick, mousepad, fan, keychain and a 100RMB coupon, this is one of the most expensive 5700XT out there, pricing higher than the anniversary edition and just slightly lower than the ASUS strix OC.
News translated from french:
A user on reddit by the name of WarUltima also made partial translations for some of the caption on store site (ask me if you want more translations)
Source:https://www.cowcotland.com/news/69510/yeston-se-lache-une-nouvelle-fois-avec-sa-rx-5700-xt-sakura.html
https://item.jd.com/100009826256.html
Thoughts: We have reached the apex of Graphic Cards, there is simply no more contenders, for now as long as Asus doesn't create the RTX 2080 TI virtual youtuber edition.

Summary:
It would appear while many people are enjoying Zoom for the free meeting functionality there are now surfacing reports that perhaps it might not be all rainbows and sunshine for the "free" portion of the app. Just recently reports have started to surface that, when you dig into the privacy policy, you'll see something that leaves a lot to be desired in terms of user privacy. It would seem that Zoom is in the business of selling information to advertisers for users for their free
products which includes all sorts of identifying information.
 
 
Thoughts:
They say when something is free that YOU are the product but this could spell a lot of trouble for Zoom in terms of privacy regulations such as HIPPA since they don't seem to discriminate between calls. If they are indeed collecting and selling off this kind of information there could be some huge implications just based on HIPPA alone, not to mention all the school calls/reports/etc and private business meetings that could have information collected from them as well. What the reports don't mention however is what about the paid users of Zoom and if they are subject to the same collections or not.
 
URLs:
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/27/doc_searls_zoom_privacy/
https://blogs.harvard.edu/doc/2020/03/27/zoom/
https://www.consumerreports.org/video-conferencing-services/zoom-teleconferencing-privacy-concerns/
https://zoom.us/privacy
 
 
Edit:
As of March 27th the Facebook SDK has been removed but the question remains is there other data collection going on on the background to sell data to advertisers and how that data is being handled as well.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/z3b745/zoom-removes-code-that-sends-data-to-facebook

There's a headphone jack..
 
YA SEE, IT IS STILL POSSIBLE. NO EXCUSES NOW.

The world needs a universal rating system for gauging the environmental friendliness of a device, something that balances longevity/repairability to the materials used in it and how easily it can be recycled.   A device that can easily last 10 years with updates on minimal replacement parts should score higher than a device you can't fix and have to replace after 3 years.

I would buy this.. if only Samsung was better with their software support for Android.
 
This goes a long way towards a more "sustainable" phone that you can keep for longer due to battery replacement....
 
But sadly that only works if you also get sufficient software updates.

They have a bezel but still wanted to stick their infinity o on it

While everyone is focused on the lite galaxy models, the company's nordic division has announced a new phone with a LCD screen, IP69 and mid-range specs. 
Source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/01/samsungs-galaxy-xcover-pro-brings-back-the-removable-battery/
https://suomimobiili.fi/samsung-esitteli-kestavan-galaxy-xcover-pro-alypuhelimen-suunniteltu-karuihin-olosuhteisiin/
https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_xcover_pro-pictures-10001.php
Thoughts: It's not bad, but a 855/+ equipped galaxy S10 active would be a lot cooler. 

I've had cables fail by simply existing, to suggest that it's solely on consumers for the creation of cable waste is a huge stretch.
 
I like the idea behind the regulations but I'm not convinced this is the way to go. If obsolete cables is such a large waste problem, why wouldn't the EU tackle it in any other way? Such as a minimum manufacturing quality to prevent fragile cables from becoming waste months or even weeks after purchase? Or tackling Apple and other manufacturers for massive waste problems, such as some of the anti-repair bullshit Apple's been going on about while touting how green of a company they are?

https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/04/lemonade-gets-a-nastygram-from-deutsche-telekom-over-its-use-of-magenta-says-it-will-fight/
 
This Is absurd imo you can't own a color and make it so no other company can use it especially since the company they are suing isn't in the same market as them. If every company trademarked a color pretty soon there would be no colors left and then what. What if a company trademarks the color black and sues t mobile is t mobile prepared to make all letters in their marketing material magenta?

https://www.overclock3d.net/news/misc_hardware/need_to_rgb_all_of_the_things_how_about_an_rgb_hdmi_cable/1
 
 
 
I have only one question, why?
 
 
 
New rgb episode coming?

In before the usual people who defend this type of behavior from Microsoft just goes "you just have to unplug your computer from the Internet and then create the local account. We should all lick Microsoft's shoes because they are so kind to continue to give us a way to use local accounts!".

I'm left-handed but not for mouses. Still a good thing for everyone to have. It likely won't sell much, but at least they chose a popular mouse to start with.

Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan opened a Facebook group to get another Left-Handed Edition of the Razer Naga going.    
Razer also made a video about it: Official Razer Left-Handed Naga YouTube Video
PC Gamer covered this story as well: PC Gamer
Are you in need of a left-handed mouse, for gaming or any sort of productivity? Razer will have you covered, a 12 side button mouse made for us left-handed people. Sadly this will be the last attempt for Razer to deliver on a left-handed mouse, unless the demand gets way up. So please join the Left Handed Naga Group and declare your interest. Also tell your friends, or anyone really, the word needs to get around. There are 800 million left-handed people on this planet, more then enough to turn a profit, a lot of profit, but most left-handed people don't know that this product exists, so please help us spread the word.   Please Join: Left Handed Naga Group     Sources: Quote PC Gamer Official Razer Left-Handed Naga YouTube Video Official LH Naga Campaign LH Naga Facebook Group, created by Razer