Want to see if your PC is susceptible to the Spectre attack?

Here's a little C program (compiler not included).

With minor tweaking I got it to compile with VS2008. And... yes, my i7-3770 (Win 7) is vulnerable.

Sweet.

Michael Wolff is a total loser who made up stories in order to sell this really boring and untruthful book. He used Sloppy Steve Bannon, who cried when he got fired and begged for his job. Now Sloppy Steve has been dumped like a dog by almost everyone. Too bad! https://t.co/mEeUhk5ZV9

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018

Congratulations, sir! This dignified, statesman-like tweet is the perfect way to counter the book's narrative that you're an impulsive, childish dimwit. https://t.co/VW1uzqu5pr

— @HamillHimself (@HamillHimself) January 6, 2018

NPR just interviewed the guy who wrote that new Trump book. His take on things is even more depressing than the excerpts have been.

We're so screwed.

Wolff's book paints a portrait of a White House in disarray, with an incompetent Trump at the center.

"I think the two fundamental issues were that Donald Trump doesn't read anything. Let me accent that — anything. Nothing," Wolff told NPR. "If you're working for the president of the United States, that's an odd position because how do you get information to him? That's already a major hurdle. But then there's the second hurdle — that not only does he not read; he doesn't listen. So it becomes from Day 1, the crisis of the presidency: You can't tell him anything."

For example, Wolff pointed to how Trump was obsessed on his first full day in office with claiming that the crowds at his inauguration had been larger than at former President Barack Obama's — which was inaccurate. However, Wolff said, "You couldn't say to him, 'That's not true. You shouldn't have said it from the beginning, but now we have to fix it.' He wouldn't read it, and you couldn't tell him it because he won't listen to you. It is entirely his reality."

Gallup poltteth:

Per this, expect that Republican number to evaporate, once the Dems start campaigning for legalization and against Jeff Sessions' recent crack-down on decriminalization/legalization.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has scheduled a briefing for later this month to outline how the public can prepare for nuclear war.

It's been a long time since I've seen dry powder snow. NC winter storms seem to be all about ice or wet heavy snow. But today we have two inches of fresh, dry, blowing snow. And since it's not supposed to get above freezing until Monday, this stuff will be blowing around for a while.

Lovely!

And so I'm "working " from home!

BANGKOK: A Bangkok clinic that has drawn 100 men a month to its penis whitening service has caused a stir in Thailand, with social media users both baffled and alarmed by the phallic fad.

The Lelux Hospital, renowned for its body whitening expertise in a country obsessed with skin colour, began offering the unconventional treatment six months ago after a male customer complained of "dark parts" on his groin.

"These days a lot of people are asking about it. We get around 100 clients a month, three to four clients a day," Bunthita Wattanasiri, a manager for the Skin and Laser department at Lelux Hospital told AFP.

The procedure, which uses laser whitening, got wide play on Thai television and social media on Thursday (Jan 4) after the hospital released images of a man undergoing the treatment.

"We have to be careful because it's a sensitive part of the body," Bunthita said, adding most clients were aged between 22 and 55-years-old with many from Thailand's LGBT community.

She said they use a very small laser.

Priebus demonstrated no ability to keep Trump from talking to anyone who wanted his ear. The president-elect enjoyed being courted. On December 14, a high-level delegation from Silicon Valley came to Trump Tower to meet him. Later that afternoon, according to a source privy to details of the conversation, Trump called Rupert Murdoch, who asked him how the meeting had gone.

“Oh, great, just great,” said Trump. “These guys really need my help. Obama was not very favorable to them, too much regulation. This is really an opportunity for me to help them.”

“Donald,” said Murdoch, “for eight years these guys had Obama in their pocket. They practically ran the administration. They don’t need your help.”

“Take this H-1B visa issue. They really need these H-1B visas.”

Murdoch suggested that taking a liberal approach to H-1B visas, which open America’s doors to select immigrants, might be hard to square with his promises to build a wall and close the borders. But Trump seemed unconcerned, assuring Murdoch, “We’ll figure it out.”

“What a fucking idiot,” said Murdoch, shrugging, as he got off the phone.

A fundamental design flaw in Intel's processor chips has forced a significant redesign of the Linux and Windows kernels to defang the chip-level security bug.

Programmers are scrambling to overhaul the open-source Linux kernel's virtual memory system. Meanwhile, Microsoft is expected to publicly introduce the necessary changes to its Windows operating system in an upcoming Patch Tuesday: these changes were seeded to beta testers running fast-ring Windows Insider builds in November and December.

Crucially, these updates to both Linux and Windows will incur a performance hit on Intel products. The effects are still being benchmarked, however we're looking at a ballpark figure of five to 30 per cent slow down, depending on the task and the processor model. More recent Intel chips have features – such as PCID – to reduce the performance hit. Your mileage may vary.

...

The fix is to separate the kernel's memory completely from user processes using what's called Kernel Page Table Isolation, or KPTI. At one point, Forcefully Unmap Complete Kernel With Interrupt Trampolines, aka FUCKWIT, was mulled by the Linux kernel team, giving you an idea of how annoying this has been for the developers.

There's a less-technical explanation at Gizmodo.

Is in serious trouble.

"North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.' Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!" Mr. Trump tweeted.

CBS News