Computers threatened by getting slowed down by up to 30% due to necessary patches...

[Eichhörnchen]

Forget your usb stick... go look for your whacking-stick

[vienna]

<O>

[Mr Quatro]

Well this is a subsim

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

This would explain my computer... the dual-core AMD "whatever-it-is" core... No known way to recover... So I guess I'll just install Linux on top of it...

Welcome to Linux. Show MS the middle finger.

Be advised that if you want to use VM/VBox under linux to get some Windows stuff or games running, many have their VBox currently messed up due to the new Linux Kernels which contain the mitigations for Spectre/Meltdown. At least under Mint I read in the major German Mint forum that several such Kernels yesterday and the day before caused problems with VBox. Probably gets fixed with time as well.

[Skybird]

We have received reports from a few customers of higher system reboots after applying firmware updates. Specifically, these systems are running Intel Broadwell and Haswell CPUs for both client and data center. We are working quickly with these customers to understand, diagnose and address this reboot issue. If this requires a revised firmware update from Intel, we will distribute that update through the normal channels.

https://www.computerworld.com/articl...l-systems.html

If you use Haswell and Broadwell: don't touch these upcoming or out-in-the-wild firmware updates.

[Skybird]

After patches for broken patches for broken patches by which Microsoft wanted to tackle it sbroken AMD stuff", now comes Intel and tells people to immediately stop upodating processor firmware.

https://www.computerworld.com/articl...are-fixes.html

This news made my evening. Never again shall I be called "computer paranoid"

[BarracudaUAK]

Originally Posted by Eichhörnchen

Thanks for that great info, Sky. Is there power going through your USB stick only when you have it 'open' on the desktop, or is power going through it as soon as it's plugged into your pc?

USB "back in the day" was rated for "500 mah" per port.
Which is why things like "Force Feedback" Joysticks and Racing Wheels needed external power supplies, but a Mouse or Keyboard would not.

Any time you plug in anything into a powered outlet, it has power.
And since most (all?) usb "jump drives" are not switched. It is on.
Whether or not it is "mounted" (i.e. hardware is made access-able via the file system) is independent of the device being "powered".

Note: I may have misread some of the post on this line of discussion, My apologies if this is the case!

Originally Posted by propbeanie

This would explain my computer... the dual-core AMD "whatever-it-is" core... No known way to recover... So I guess I'll just install Linux on top of it...

The USB, or any "electronic" storage device is very finite due to its physical characteristics. They're like little capacitors that hold a charge, but eventually physically wear out from use. It used to be that you could get one thousand state changes out of early compact cards, but I haven't kept up with what their MTBF rate is now - much less than a HD, but not a BD-RW or similar.

Base on what I've read, my understanding is this:
(In addition to the reasons Propbeanie listed)

The drive/storage starts with little or no "charge", current is used to flip the "gate" from "off" to "on", i.e. "0" to "1".
Current is now stored in the "gate"/"switch".
"Data" is now stored on the SSD.

(all the "1"s representing a "bit" and that part of the data, 'write' all "0"s to a drive and it is "erased")

When the drive is erased/data is deleted, current is used to flip the "gate" from "1" to "0".
But there is still residual "charge" in "gate".

When new data is written to the drive, it flips the "gate" again.... to "on"/"1".
Deleting data repeats the switch back to "off"/"0".

But there is slighting more "charge" than last time.

This process keeps repeating until the drive controller can no longer supply enough voltage to flip the "gate" to the other state (off/on 0/1).

Similar to how a car battery charger must output greater VOLTAGE (very basically: electrical "pressure") to charge a car battery (car batteries are usually 12.99 volts when "dead" and 14.5 volts when "charged").
Which is why most car alternators are around 15 volts.

Also a problem with SSDs: If the current "decays" then the drive "forgets" the data.
-----------------------

I've been following the Linux kernel patches since this started.
Most of the performance reduction seems to be related to primarily one task...
I/O, some links to benchmarks:

Initial (I think) batch of benchmarks:
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...5-x86pti&num=1

More test, also he explains a bit more:
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...e-x86pti&num=1

This gentleman is always running test and benchmarking...
I find it useful to see what's coming up soon.
He test mostly on Ubuntu (unless it a comparison between distros), usually with the latest "git" code (i.e the latest code from the development "branch").


Barracuda

[Skybird]

Everybody, stay away from any BIOS or UEFI firmware updates.

[Skybird]

Since years...? I admit this was new news to me today. Although i repeatedly said that MS's design of W10 may be due to orders by the NSA.

https://threatpost.com/intel-confirm...switch/127739/

Positive Technologies researchers Mark Ermolov and Maxim Goryachy said they believed the kill switch was introduced by Intel at the behest of the National Security Agency which it said also viewed the Intel Management Engine as a possible weak spot of a system’s endpoint defenses.
Concerns over the Intel Management Engine (ME) have been ongoing for years. In May, Intel patched a critical vulnerability that dated back nine years in the company’s Active Management Technology, which is based on Intel ME. That vulnerability could allow an attacker to gain remote access to AMT services such as the keyboard, video and mouse (KVM), IDE Redirection, Serial over LAN, and BIOS setup and editing.
Suspicions date back to 2012 over Intel’s implementation of Active Management Technology (AMT) with some labeling it a “backdoor enabled by default.” A reported flaw identified in June 2016 by researcher Damien Zammit claimed that there was a remotely exploitable security hole in the Intel Management Engine that created a secret backdoor allowing a third party to use undetectable rootkits against Intel PCs. Intel denied such claims.

Lets go digital, everybody must be digital, be digital to maximise your vulnerability, all your mone yonly digital, give access to your life and belongingsa to all world!


Its safe. Always assume the best intentions. And whats more important: its so mega-cool to be all digital and pay with your credit card or your cellphone!

[Skybird]

Current status "as is".

https://www.computerworld.com/artic...t-slowdowns-and-antivirus-proves-crucial.html

[Skybird]

Intel says new Skylake fixes are out to brick more BIOS and UEFI , eh - I mean they said the first part and skipped the latter.

Before you now jump up and run to get these firmware updates done, read this and see if you cannot find reason for some reasonable caution in it:

https://www.askwoody.com/2018/intel-...atch-is-ready/

I repeat, for emphasis, there is exactly NO known Meltdown or Spectre-based malware out in the wild.