Windows – Page 11 – Paul's Tech Talk

How Nvidia LHR Graphics cards will work. Are they even worth it?

PaulMay 24, 2021

Someone from Ebay selling their 2070 super for that much!

All over priced GPU’s

Well you can see that there are several different types of people who are trying to sell cards. Those who get them out right and buy them and then turn around and sell them on sites like this for even more money. I really can’t blame people for doing this after all the demand is high for really good Graphics cards. The problem right now is the crypto miners are using them to get bitcoins and even dogecoins. It is a constant problem because of how much people can make with mining rigs to get bitcoins or even dogecoins. Although right now the Bitcoin, and other crypto miner coins are dropping in value rather fast, we really don’t know if it will keep going down or go even higher in the future.

Nvidia Announced Low Hash Rates

A few weeks ago, Nvidia announce the LHR Graphics cards that is being made in the future. The low hash rates will go into effect when the gpu thinks it will is being used to mine and will drop the hash rates to half to discourage miners from buying gpus to crypto mine for coins from all the most common miners. There are some really big problems ahead for those who might want to bit mine. So now that they made this announcement what is the likelihood that they find a way to get around this bitcoin limiter?

Will it work?

Many people wonder that, and I am also really curious about it. I can only surmise what it will likely be like and we can then go ahead and see when the finally release it. I am hopeful that it will be hardware locked, meaning that no one can change with any possible way. This should make the miners go somewhere to get their hardware. I have heard of miners trying to unlock this feature but I think I’ve heard it because of the firmware updates. This isn’t a hardware but a software lock and those can easily be hacked and changed. Hardware locks are those that are not able to be modified or changed and thus should make it far less likely for the miners to even try to use them for their mining rigs.

Will it make any difference in gaming?

This part is also something I really don’t know much about but Nvidia has said that it will not make any difference in speed and use of the GPU for gaming since most of them don’t use hashes to run games and when it does is just to check a file is correct and that is far and few between. I can surmise that if it does make a difference it will be so slight and not even hardly be seen by the gamer. The frame rates and speed of the games I can’t see that creating any problems in the game play.

When will it be released?

It is due to happen sometime at the end of this month or at the beginning of next month. Don’t expect too much to happen at first launch and I don’t know what the prices will be. I’ve been looking all around to see when they will start selling but Amazon, NewEgg, and Even other stores around the internet have yet to show any signs of selling those cards yet. You’ll know when you see the box, I am sure it will say something like low hash rates or will have the LHR on the box somewhere to make sure to let the crypto miners know that it isn’t something they may want. This is just one of those steps we will have to watch and see how that will evolve in the future because I am sure the crypto miners are going to try to find way to get past the hash limiter and make it to where it will work just like normal.

Will you use it?

Now here’s the ultimate question, will you use it when it get released just to because you’ve been waiting for that GPU to put in the system you’ve built or are you going to just wait and see what people say about it? Why not leave a comment and tell me what you think will happen and is this a good idea or a bad idea?

Is there a Difference between AntiMalware and Antivirus?

PaulMay 18, 2021

Photo By TheDigitalArtist

Is there a Difference?

In any system, we’ve all asked that question once or twice. Even I’ve asked that question at least once and I am sure it is a really slippery slope when it comes to defining if there is or isn’t a difference. We can analyze each one in parts but still come back with a question because each has its benefits in today’s economic atmosphere. According to Wendy Zamora:

A virus is a piece of code that is capable of copying itself in order to do damage to your computer, including corrupting your system or destroying data.

So we can see a virus is specially designed code to copy itself and to do some really nasty things in your system but is that all it does? Let’s dig a little deeper on this topic.

AntiMalware Vs AntiVirus?

When you hear Antimalware? Does it bring anything to your mind or give you any ideas of what it is that they are doing or is it just a word you’ve heard? According to Panda Security:

Antimalware and antivirus are not the same. They complement one another to act as the highest level of defense against malicious software, along with healthy online habits.

As you can see both of them aren’t the same and yet they do a lot to help each other out because they make what most people would call a layered security. They help prevent some of the low profile infections that we seldom hear. These programs create what I call a layered security. Each one works to prevent all sorts of infections in a computer system and also helps keep your data safe from ransomware.

What should I do?

This is a common question when it comes to how to protect your system from all these different threats. I personally use AVG Internet Security for my Home system and Malwarebytes also to help protect my system. I really like AVG because it was simple to use and they have a great free version of it to download and use. Another good one that I like to use is Superantispyware as a way to check my system from time to time and make sure it doesn’t see anything that those other two might miss. Even if you only use one of each, you are far better off than just waiting for that infection to happen or that data loss to happen. It can be quite troublesome if you don’t protect yourself and your data and keep the antivirus and antimalware up to date.

Do you have a favorite Antivirus or Antimalware? Why not leave a comment and tell me why you like your choices? I’d love to hear what you think of AVG, Malwarebytes or even SuperAntiSpyware?

How Computers have changed the world

PaulApril 28, 2021

The History of Flight Simulator

In the early 80’s and 90’s, there was very few people who actually knew this but bases and other places had flight simulators for their pilots to practice. In the early days we had simulators where you had to schedule to have a chance to work on their pilot skills. It would be a big bulky room with Hydraulics and even had a preformed landscape that was used. This wasn’t easy to setup or even to move if you had to. The building had to have massive room to make the simulator move and feel like you were in the air. The controls didn’t always worked as they should of and you had to have someone monitoring the simulator outside and hit buttons to make the simulator do things they wanted too. Pilots only had so much time usually allocated a hour at a time to fly the sim to work on their skills. It always left the pilot with stress because they would want to do even more than the simulator could do.

The early Simulators:

could not fly to far
Had massive heat issues. (The Simulator had to have a cool off period between flights)
Be down for days to weeks due to hardware.
Need Racks of physical tape backups
cost a lot to make and maintain

The Downfall of Simulators

Like most who are reading this, you’re probably asking yourself why would they have those simulator? In truth, they were required by the FAA and the Military to train new pilots before they could actually fly a real plane or helicopters. Pilots also were required to fly so many hours in a simulator a week to brush up on their pilot skills, in the early days. When new models came out, the pilots would come back to the simulator to learn how to fly the new models such as the Boeing 747 aircraft. Each simulator facility, there was a massive undertaking to update the simulator to the newest model and keep their pilots up to date on the latest techniques to flying.

Fast Forward to today

In today’s era, there are some major upgrades to the simulator. The building has been reduced to more than half. The simulator itself can be used longer and acts more like a real boeing 747. The controls in the simulator work even better because the heating issue was resolved by the way the system has developed. You really only need a few fast CPU and GPUS, such as a I9-10850k with a Nvidia 2060ti or even better a 2 x 3060ti with SLI. The Simulator now has few downtimes and less heat and even more realism than the before. You can feel the aircraft and expect it to do what you want it to do and learn even more about aviation, navigation, and communication in the new simulators. Pilots can now do simulations at home with very little cost to them compared to what it would of cost in those days. You can buy a Microsoft Flight Simulator and fly anywhere in the world you want to and keep up your flight skills in 2020. No more needing to schedule to use that flight simulator when you can do it at home and learn the techniques that are required.

Some Useful Links:

Windows 10 is the baby in the corner

PaulFebruary 19, 2020

Windows 10 is a child still

Microsoft has been making great strides with Windows 10, but even now they still need to improve. If you haven’t been paying attention lately. Some of the things that people are having issues are like not being able to shutdown due to permissions. That issue seems to be an issue with Adobe and not really a Microsoft issue, you have to update your Adobe Creative Cloud to the newest version to solve this issue.

Microsoft’s Update Bugs

The update KB4532693 has been making headway after this late update because it is reporting that users are seeing their desktop and files are missing but that isn’t really true. It seems this update was causing problems with removing the temporary user. If you are having issues like not finding your files or desktop. You should try to remove KB4532693 update and restart. If you do that you could very well see everything back to normal. Follow bleeping computers website and how to restore your data if this is has happened to you.

The other update in February seems to be KB4524244 which is also causing issues such as Freezes, boot problems, and installation issues. Microsoft has removed this update. It is an issue with UEFI and third party hardware. This update also breaks the push button reset or Reset this PC in which you will get an error “There is a problem resetting your PC”. To be able to reset your PC you will need to remove KB4524244 update and restart your PC. You can go to Bleeping Computers and follow their instructions on how to solve this but it is a simple fix!

Windows 10 needs to grow some more

This is why I have issues using Windows 10. I always encourage people to use Linux because I haven’t had any issues like I have seen with Microsoft. I am hopeful that Microsoft fixes some of these issues and begins growing Windows 10 into an adult operating system. If you would like to try Linux, I suggest trying these free Operating systems and finding one that is a good fit for you! What do you think about Windows 10? Do you use Linux? Why not leave a comment and tell me what you like to use.

Installing a Windows 10 in VirtualBox on Linux!

PaulFebruary 13, 2020

Windows 10

Sometimes I hate to admit this but I need Windows 10 to do stuff with. Like making a multiple bootable USB key or Something like that! If you are like me and need it for a certain app that isn’t available on Linux. This solution seems to work well. It also doesn’t hurt that Microsoft is giving away Free Windows 10 to people. I didn’t have to do anything but put my email address in the system and it activated without a problem. It could just be that I have been in the beta for Windows 10 and it is associated with my account. Either way its a win for me. I decided to install Windows 10 because Windows 7 end of life was January. I’ve never really liked Windows operating system so I tend to use it from time to time. You could possible make it a dual boot also where Windows 10 and Linux Mint boot separately. If that’s an option for you than it will be a whole lot faster.

Install VirtualBox on Linux

The first part of this post is how do you install Virtual Box on your Linux Mint Machine. This might seem hard to understand but once you do it a few times you will understand it.

sudo add-apt-repository “deb [arch=amd64] https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian <mydist> contrib”

Now to install the right version of Virtual box you will need to know your distro of your Linux Mint. You can easily find that out by doing the “lsb_release -cs” command and it should say Tricia, Tina, Tessa, Tara, Sylvia, Sonya, or Serena”. You’ll put that instead of the <mydist> So like mine it would be:

sudo add-apt-repository “deb [arch=amd64] https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian tricia contrib”

It would also be a good idea to know if you have a 32 bit or 64 bit system Linux System. You can find that out either through command line or desktop. The command line is “arch“. You might have to change the arch line to 32 but more than likely you are running a 64 bit system.

Now you need to Add the Keys to the repository and that command is easy.

wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add –
wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add –

The last step is to install Virtual Box on your Linux Mint system.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-6.1

A Good tip for those who might want to install an older version is to hit the tab button after you type the app you are wanting to install it will show you all available versions that you can install.

Installing Windows 10

You’ll need an ISO of windows 10. I got mine from Microsoft directly. You can download the ISO from them directly and get the latest version. Once you have the ISO, you’ll want to run Virtualbox and set it up. There are many Tutorials that will show you how to do that. This one was just install Virtualbox on Linux MInt.