Archive for June 10, 2023

Is Elon Musk Is Going To Get Rid Of Twitter’s Block Function?

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 10, 2023 by itnerd

Elon Musk is clearly broken. I say that because of this Tweet that he posted. For context,
on Wednesday in reply to someone on Twitter complaining about being blocked, Elon said this:

Now Elon Musk spitballing stuff in public has to be taken seriously as his random ideas often end up becoming reality. Or at least some form of reality as they have a tendency to go off the rails. Twitter Blue being the best example of that. In any case, I have to wonder if he’s thinking of doing this because of the “block the blue” campaign that was on Twitter recently. You can click here and here to get caught up on that, and he’s using some other excuse as air cover. That campaign likely lowered the value of Twitter Blue which hurts Elon’s bank account. Besides that, the block function is an anti-harassment tool to help people avoid having stalkers, abusers, harassers, and the like being able to follow your every word without at least some level of friction. So I don’t know what Elon is up to, but it’s clear he’s up to something.

I guess we’ll find out shortly what the deal is.

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The 15″ MacBook Air Is The Portable Mac To Buy… Here’s Why

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 10, 2023 by itnerd

Apple released the new MacBook Air with a 15″ screen at Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference this week. And as far as I am concerned, this is is the portable Mac to get for most people. You might be surprised by that statement, but here’s why I say that:

  • Users finally get the option for a larger screen for a decent price: In the past, you would have to go to a MacBook Pro if you wanted a larger screen. Those days are now over. You can now get that larger screen and save some cash in the process.
  • Most people don’t need the performance of the MacBook Pro: If you’re not editing videos for a living, or editing photos for a living, you don’t need a MacBook Pro. I say that because most people check their email, type out documents, and maybe do a Zoom call or two. None of that requires a MacBook Pro. Thus you should look at this MacBook Air instead.
  • You’re not giving up portability: The weight of the 15″ MacBook Air is only slightly heavier at 3.3 pounds than the 13″ MacBook Air which is 2.7 pounds. That’s not enough of a difference that most will notice in a backpack. Thus you get a bigger screen without having to lug around a heavy laptop. That’s a total win.
  • You get the same 18 hour battery life as the 13″ MacBook Air: A lot of people are switching to Mac because of battery life that destroys anything on the Intel/Windows side of the fence. But sometimes you lose battery life when you move to a bigger screen. That’s not the case here. You still get battery life that lasts you all day, which makes having to hunt for an AC outlet almost a thing of the past.
  • There’s a lot of value here: Unlike the 13″ MacBook Air base model, you get a lot of value in the 15″ because it comes with the following in the box of the base model 15″ without having to upgrade to get these items:
    • 35W Dual USB-C Port Compact Power Adapter
    • 8-Core CPU
    • 10-Core GPU

That means that once you upgrade the SSD to 512 GB and upgrade to 16GB of RAM to maximize the performance, you are getting a very fast computer that will perform the way you want it. On top of that, you will get a power adapter that allows you to charge the MacBook Air and say an iPhone which is handy if you’re on the go.

Thus if my clients come to me asking about a portable Mac, and they’re not a power user, the MacBook Air 15″ will be the one I recommend to them. And I would recommend it to those of you who have a similar use case as well. Apple has managed to come out with a notebook that is the best notebook for most people. And it’s one that you should consider if you’re in the market for a notebook.

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PoC Released For Windows Win32k Bug That Was Exploited In Attacks

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 10, 2023 by itnerd

A proof of concept that relates to a Win32k vulnerability that was patched in May’s “patch Tuesday” release has been released by security researchers:

The vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2023-29336 and was originally discovered by cybersecurity firm Avast. It was assigned a CVSS v3.1 severity rating of 7.8 as it allows low-privileged users to gain Windows SYSTEM privileges, the highest user mode privileges in Windows

Avast says they discovered the vulnerability after it was actively exploited as a zero-day in attacks. However, the company has declined to share further details with BleepingComputer, so it is unclear how it was abused.

To raise awareness about the actively exploited flaw, and the need to apply Windows security updates, CISA also published an alert and added it to its “Known Exploited Vulnerabilities” catalog.

Exactly a month after the patch became available, security analysts at Web3 cybersecurity firm Numen have now released full technical details on the CVE-2023-29336 flaw and a PoC exploit for Windows Server 2016.

To be clear, this is a threat to anyone running running Windows 8, 10 and Windows Server 2016. Windows 11 users appear to be immune.

Joe Saunders, CEO, RunSafe Security had this comment on this bug:

“We need to pursue ways to protect HEAP and STACK from attacks through memory safety techniques. About 60% of known memory vulns have active exploits available, but it pays to address the entire class of vulns through memory safety as opposed to chasing each one,  vuln by vuln with patch by patch.”

To protect yourself from this vulnerability, your best course of action is to make sure your Windows systems are fully patched. At least until the next vulnerability appears.

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