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Author Archives: Laz
LinkedIN Censors US Journalist For China
I could try to ad-lib this, but the article says it much better than I could, so here goes:
LinkedIn censors US journalist on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party over ‘prohibited’ content, offers to ‘help’ her make her profile CCP-approved
“U.S. company LinkedIn now works as a censor on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party, blocking my Axios colleague’s profile because of her critical reporting on the CCP,” Axios reporter Jonathan Swan tweeted this week. With the tweet, Swan hoped to raise awareness about the alarming censorship activity going on at LinkedIn, a popular business networking platform owned by Microsoft, in specific reference to colleague his Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian.
Read the full article here: https://www.theblaze.com/news/linkedin-censors-us-journalist-covering-china
Hackers post data from 533 million Facebook users online
The data of 533 million Facebook users including phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, birth dates and more have been made public. According to ZDNet, of that data, 32.3 million users were from the United States alone! This data breach includes information from Facebook users from all over the world and also includes information such as gender, location and job status! The data in question was posted in downloadable groups by country and samples of the data have been confirmed by Facebook. All users of Facebook should be wary because it’s a pretty safe bet that this data that is now public will be used for criminal activities like phishing and scamming in any way that hackers can think of.
All in all this is another example of a large company being careless with it’s customer’s data because at the end of the day they won’t be punished for this transgression. For the users that had their data stolen, and of course we don’t know which of us that is, this is another reminder that we need to be very careful about what data we share online and how we share it. While this latest data leak is by no means our fault, it’s still our data that is in the wind.
Check out ZDNet for more information!
Activision demands shutdown of Warzone’s largest stat tracking site
It appears that the dinosaur that is Activision doesn’t like it’s players knowing their stats as they play the game Call of Duty: Warzone. You see, there is (was) a site called SBMM Warzone that tracked player stats for the game, in fact it was the largest stat tracking site out there. Recently, Activision had its lawyers reach out to SBMM Warzone and demand the shutdown of their site claiming copyright infringement. I personally think big companies doing this is wrong, the players obviously loved and used the site as it was providing a service that Activision itself wasn’t providing or it wouldn’t have been so successful. Sites like these help the game community and in return help the game stay popular and relevant. I mean, imagine playing World of Warcraft or Minecraft without CurseForge for example? This is another example of a big company flexing its muscles because it can, not because it is doing anything positive.
You can get more details here at PC Gamer.
ALESIS Products Reset Procedures
So, recently I was setting up a new rack of effects for processing vocals, and when I turned on my ALESIS Quadraverb … it was not working. Just a blank screen though the backlight was lit. What’s the point you ask?? I’m glad you asked that! In the process of troubleshooting my unit, I found a long list of reset procedures for lots of ALESIS products. So, I thought I’d post that list here for anyone that may need it. Plus, it’ll help make sure that this information doesn’t disappear by having it on another site. Here is the list:
- ADAT – Power up while holding PLAY and RECORD. “Drum on” Hrs will not be reset
- ADAT-XT – Power up while holding PLAY and RECORD. “Drum on” Hrs will not be reset
- BRC – Power up while holding PLAY and RECORD
- AI-2 – Power up while holding STORE. (Adat tape header information will also be cleared)
- D4 – Power up while holding OUTPUT and VOICE.
- DM5 – Power up while holding OUTPUT and VOICE
- HR-16 – Power up while holding ERASE, DELETE, and RECORD
- HR-16B – Power up while holding ERASE, DELETE, and RECORD
- Midiverb III – Power up while holding INT PROG and STORE
- M3 – Power up while holding BYPASS and PROG
- Midiverb 4 – Power up while holding PROG and D
- MMT-8 – Power up while holding ERASE, PAGE A and PAGE
- QS6 Keyboard – Power up While holding number ZERO and THREE buttons
- Quadrasynth – Power up while holding DATA buttons 1 and 4. Note that this only clears the edit Keyboards buffer. Currently there is no hard reset/re-initialization routine available.
- Quadraverb – Power up while holding BYPASS and PROGRAM
- Quadraverb GT – Power up while holding BYPASS and PROGRAM
- Quadraverb 2 – Power up while holding PROGRAM and COMPARE. This is a soft reset (sets global to default, clears edit buffer but leaves user memory intact). Power up while holding PROGRAM, COMPARE and >BLOCK. This is a hard reset(set all functions to default and clears user memory).
- S4/S8 Sound – Power up while holding DATA buttons 1 and 4. Note that this only clears the edit Modules buffer. Currently there is no hard reset/re-initialization routine available.
- SR-16 – Power up while holding ERASE and PLAY
- X2 Console – Power up while holding ALT, ERASE FWD, and DEC. This is a soft reset Factory mute parameters will be loaded into memory. Currently there is no user hard reset or Re-initialize routine available
This list was originally found on Sweetwater’s website, their page is here. If you have never bought anything from Sweetwater and you want or need music gear, those guys are amazing to work with. Their support after the sale is second to none in my humble opinion. I hope this list helps anyone that may need it!!!
NVIDIA Nerfs GPUs To Combat Crypto Mining
To address the GPU market supply shortage, NVIDIA has now decided that they are not happy with people that use their GPUs for mining cryptocurrency (e.g. Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.). Trying to make some good PR in the process, they are saying that they (NVIDIA) are for gamers and they are trying to hurt the miner’s bottom line to dissuade them from buying GPUs. I for one don’t think they care about gamers or miners either way, they just want to look good so they can sell more cards (when they can get them in stock) and look better to the public and their shareholders.
So, what is going on? Well, if you have tried to purchase a GPU (a.k.a. video card or display adapter) any time recently, you have probably noticed that they are usually out of stock right away from vendors selling them new. Continue reading