Will Nvidia fail after EVGA announcement?

Paul

Is this end for Nvidia?

We can only assume that EVGA got away from Nvidia due to the strict rules set aside for all AIB (Add-In Board) companies.   I don’t say that lightly, Nvidia has said in the past what AIB could and couldn’t do.  They were so controlling, that most couldn’t even make enough money to the public.  It’s almost always a lost leader for most of the companies because they are told how much they can sell their Nvidia boards for weather it be for EVGA, MSI, or some third party such as Dell, and Alienware.  Then Nvidia could come along and under cut them by selling their own for much cheaper and easier.   Let’s not forget to mention that Nvidia would wait till the last minute to give AIB’s driver’s and even information about what the next version of the GPU will be like.

This is just a power move

There’s been talk about this being a power move by EVGA but I really do not think so.  They have stated many times that they will not go to AMD or intel, but people still think they will do that.  Others say that EVGA will be back in the GPU arena later on after everyone cools off.   I don’t know about that either because I can’t see EVGA coming back without some major reason that would give them the advantage they are looking for.   Either way, it doesn’t look good for EVGA for sure and sooner or later they will need to start laying people off.   You can’t have all those people doing nothing.

What’s next for Nvidia

I can only guess what will happen with this announcement.  Of course Nvidia did have stocks drop over the weekend and maybe that was too expected but I don’t see this as being a big issue with them.  They knew it would happen once EVGA announced it, they had to know.   The problem is what will Nvidia do to get customers to want to buy their stocks and keep them going.   Will the 4000 series be any better than 3000 series or will it just be a tiny bit better.  We will not know until people start looking at the 4000 series and doing their benchmarks for how it reacts to any given game.  In the meantime, if you have bought a EVGA card what’s your thoughts on this.  I know I bought a 3050 two months ago and now am a little worried if my card fails will I get another 3050 from EVGA or what will happen.

What’s your thoughts on the EVGA and NVidia debacle?   Will they join forces or stay apart?

How Keyloggers work and why you should worry!

Paul

keyloggers

 

The History of Keyloggers

Keyloggers have been used ever since the dawn of computers.   It used to be a problem even in DOS(Directory of Systems).   If you haven’t used Dos that is normal, it hasn’t been used for years and years but it was still was a problem.  What are Keyloggers?  Well, to put it in a way that even those who might not know about computers will understand, is a program or app that will watch everything you do, this includes everything you might say, might type, and then report back to the person or organization who created the keylogger.   If your phone was infected they could use the keylogger to even know your GPS location and you would not even know it.   This is where it has gone in the past and I am sure it will get even worse in the future because of all the IOT(Internet of Things) we have being used to control our Fridge, or even our thermostat.

The Information gained by a Keylogger

Even today, we should be watchful of who might be looking over our shoulders.   It is even more difficult to do that in security because Keyloggers will tend to hide in the background and not show signs that you have a problem on the system or systems involved.  The information a threat actor might gain from using a keylogger is tremendously valuable.    I don’t say that lightly either, when a threat actor gains control of a system and wants to gain access to something even more secure this is one of the ways they can get the information needed to gain access to that really important documentations.   They can sit on a system for weeks to months without being noticed and gaining valuable information such as passwords, account information’s from banks to email addresses, Even your Social Security Number and even what websites you might of visited while the keylogger is installed on your device.  This is just a small part of how much information a keylogger can gain just by being on a system.   They can learn habits of the user, if you visit a site at 12:13pm almost exactly each day, then they will know what you are doing on your break or what you do at night if this is a system at home.  They could even know your location just by having a keylogger on your phone and be able to track you through the day to figure out your habits.

It’s not a victimless as you think

No matter how many times you hear of keyloggers, you probably don’t realize just the truth of the matter.   That the reason to install keyloggers into a system is for money, extortion, or blackmail.   These are just a few of the reason why a threat actor would do this.   They’re doing this usually for money but not always they will do this to make a statement or gain access to information.   This is where the value of keylogging comes into play, anything a user does can potentially show valuable information from black mailing someone because they are visiting sites we shouldn’t be visiting for pleasure or to get the information needed to impersonate someone to gain access or ruin someone’s credit.   All these can bring shame to the victim and make it even harder to survive.   This is one reason security has always been one of those hit or miss areas in IT.  As soon as we find the program, infection, or worm, they go about coming up with new ways to do it all over it.   You see we are always trying to analyze the structures of the programs they create and find them in the wild.    So as soon as we know about the program they have to change the program to be able to do it again on some other systems.

The Ultimate Gaming Shell for Linux Mint and Ubuntu!

Paul

Flickr API shell script

My Gaming Shell script!

I created this a few years ago because of my son who at the time wanted a system but we couldn’t’ afford Windows 10. So I installed Linux Mint.  I’ve found that this script should allow you to play almost any game that doesn’t require anti-cheat or the new DRM games.   Anything would run without much of a problem at least with stuff like Call of Duty and other games like that, I didn’t have much problem running them with this little shell script.   I am sure you’ve seen my Notepad++ shell script to install on your Linux system.  This is something similar and I thought it was high time to share with my readers.  If you haven’t already, you should go over and find out about shell scripting and learn some cool shell scripts yourself.   This however isn’t going to be very educational for some because it isn’t very complicated.

echo "Installing Wine"
echo y|sudo apt-get install wine-stable
echo y|sudo apt-get install winehq-stable

echo "Installing Playonlinux"
echo y|sudo apt-get install playonlinux

echo "Installing steam"
echo y|sudo apt-get install steam

echo "Installing Minecraft"
echo y|sudo apt-get install minecraft-launcher

echo "Installing Lutris"
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lutris-team/lutris
sudo apt update
echo y|sudo apt install lutris

read -p "Do you want to uninstall Firefox? (y/n)? " answer
case ${answer:0:1} in
y|Y )
echo y|sudo apt-get uninstall firefox
;;
* )
echo No
;;
esac
read -p "Do you want to install Chrome? (y/n)? " answer
case ${answer:0:1} in
y|Y )
wget -q -O - https://dl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
sudo apt update
echo y|sudo apt install -y google-chrome-stable
;;
* )
echo No
;;
esac
done

You can download it here along with the Notepad++ Script!

Explaining the script

So let’s first explain the top of the script and work our way down.   As you can see these are just installing the Wine and other utilities around on the internet to be able to play the games or maybe install the stuff you are wanting to install.  It doesn’t have to be games but I am sure it can be almost anything.   My son was always playing Minecraft on his Linux machine.  That game is so easy to install on Linux and runs without much o a problem, so that is why I included it here.  The Next one is obviously Lutris which can be installed on any Ubuntu and Linux Mint system without much problems and allows you to play all sorts of games that might be online games.   I’ve not tried it lately but I am sure these will work just as well as the next.

Finally the last part, I really like Chrome and I hate it that Firefox get’s installed most of the time.   So I put in a script to remove Firefox and install Chrome.   As you can see this one asks you the questions so if you like Firefox, then you need not worry and if you like Chrome you can install that and keep Firefox or remove it.   To each there own.

As you can see this isn’t going to be a big post but I did want to share with you my ultimate gaming script for Linux and even Windows 11 can’t hold me back if I ever do decide to do that.  After all, I did get Microsoft Flight Simulator to run on Linux Mint!  Are you going to use Linux more to play games on or are you going to stay with Windows?  Why not let me know and thank me for an awesome script that you can use anytime with your Linux system.

Windows 11 comes with some Printer Problems and Other Issues

Paul

Windows 11

Printer Issues

It seems that if you have a Brother printer there is an issue with being able to print after the latest updates to Windows 11.   I am not sure why it isn’t on Windows 10 but according ghacks “Printers may not be detected correctly by the operating system if the printer is connected to the device via USB“.   This issue might not only be for Brother printers but more than that.   This is something just coming up on the net and not everyone knows what is going on but the fix for this issue is to make it a network printer and not connected to a USB.   Microsoft hasn’t yet said anything about this issue.

Performance hit using Windows 11 on AMD

This isn’t a surprise to me but I didn’t know about this until as of late.   It seems if you are using Window’s 11 and AMD than you might be getting a 5% -15% performance hit according to Bleeping computers.   It can be up to 15% performance hit if you are playing games on Windows 11.    The L3 cache is the issue with Windows 11 performance issues.   AMD is working on fixing the issue and should have a BIO’s update available later on this year.   Until then, I strongly recommend not upgrading to Windows 11.   You should just keep with Windows 10.

Windows 11 uses to much memory

It seems to be the File Explorer is using way to much memory for Windows 11 and Microsoft is looking into why this is an issue.  Microsoft has issued an update in the ‘Dev’ Channel according to bleeping computers and as of yet isn’t available in the release channel.   It seems to be a memory leak that is causing the file explorer to have up to a 1GB size in Windows 11.

Parts of Windows 11 not translated

According to a Reddit user, there seems to be a problem with Windows 11 not translating to the right languages.  I’ve seen the photo and I am not sure why it isn’t translate but you should check it out to find out what I am talking about.

These are just a few that I saw and thought I’d share with you about some of the problems with Windows 11 and the latest updates.   I am sure this isn’t just Windows 11 but probably some of this might be even Windows 10 but it seems like Windows 11 is getting people’s attention and I thought it should at least be considered to stay off of Windows 11 until they get something done or make something compelling to upgrade to Windows 11.

 

Understanding Shell Script in Linux Mint and how to use it properly

Paul

 

Shell script

Shell scripts are powerful!

Any Admin who has used shell scripts to complete a bunch of tasks on Linux will tell that you should already be using it.  It’s something that even I can’t really understand but know a lot about since I have to install Linux a lot.   Sometimes it can go weeks before I have to use my shell script again or the next day.  It varies from time to time when I will need to use it but it is an admins best friend.   Is shell scripts like python, absolutely but there is something that we should at least explore and understand.   I am going to talk about this and give examples for those who might want to follow along with me as we talk about “What is shell scripts and how can I use them?”.  I am sure this will be a long series maybe a few post here and there but it will be really good for those who might want to learn even more about the world of Linux.

Shell scripts vs python

Let’s at least get this one out of the way, because someone is bound to ask this question.  What’s the difference in shell scripts verses python?  In the short answer not much, but in the long answer the python language is more complex and you can do a lot more with the python did you can do with shell but only to a point.  Each one has it’s own unique qualities and can be used on Linux and Windows.   Although shell scripts can’t be run on exactly, they can be renamed to be batch files (.bat) which is DOS(Directory of System) old system.  Way before Windows we had DOS and way before any GUI interfaces we had to create batch files to load up the system.  If you’re old enough you probably remember autoexec.bat or even the config.sys files that you occasionally had to edit to get to the command prompt.

Shell scripts in Linux

What’s the use of using shell scripts in Linux you might be asking yourself?  It’s very useful to use when there is a problem or need to install a bunch of things that would take longer to install individually.  Shell script basics are really just that like a batch file in DOS and it can do a lot of things from asking a question to installing many different files.   It can rename or remove files, it is also good for cleaning up a directory that might be full of junk files or maybe you want to have a shell script to backup your /home directory.  This is the power of shell scripting in Linux.  Shell script basics can make your life so much easier and better in the long when you finally decide to delve into the Linux system.

Shell scripts If and then

Just like batch files, you can use this in Shell scripting.  If something happens then do this or you can even go farther that by using Else statements also.  You can ask something from the admin like where the file location of a file you want to use.  It can make your life so much simpler and can help keep the Linux system running smoothly.

if [ expression ]
then
statement
fi

You can do so much more with the shell script when you personalize it to what ever you might need.

echo What is the shell script you want to run?
read $FILE
if ! [ +r $FILE ]; then
Echo "Admin permissions are required to run this shell script"
then exit 0

As you can see this can be very useful when you want to get around certain installation situations and needing to install files without prompting.

Here’s a good one for those who might need to do just that:

echo y|sudo apt-get install [apt program]

This will allow you to bypass the yes question when it is asked and you can just create a basic shell script to install the files that you wanting to do like I have from time to time with gaming systems.   If you don’t want to wait around and install them manually this is the best approach for people who might want to multiple programs at once.

Executing the shell script

if you can’t execute the shell script than you haven’t given permissions to execute it in Linux.  You either have edit the properties in Linux, by right clicking on the shell script and clicking on the properties tab.   Then check “Allow executing file as a program” or you can do a command line

chmod 0700 script.sh (only allow owner to run script)
chmod 0755 script.sh (Allow owner users, and groups to run script)

As you can see the chmod command can be very useful in Linux, so take care to use it wisely.   I will talk about even more about shell scripting in the coming days and hopefully provide you with a very powerful script for installing all the gaming and even the drivers that you might need to for your new Linux gaming system.