How old is your computer?

[DapperDan]

I still have my Commodore 64 + Floppy drive. It worked the last time I plugged it in!

As for ones I actually use, my laptop is from 2005, the old desktop I use for an HTPC is from 2006-ish, not counting a recent vid card upgrade, and my current desktop dates to 2008/2009. Oh, and I just got my Windows Home Server this year. I think that's all of them.

I'm starting to think about building a new Sandy Bridge based desktop later in the year, but depending on my gaming I may wait until next year.

My desktop is about a year old now. I upgraded mobo/ram/cpu in Nov 2011. Since then I've upgraded my video card (early summer) and got an SSD drive last month. Zoom zoom. I should be good for a few years, although I'm eyeing a monitor upgrade now.

[Joe Public]

Our home computer is a laptop we purchased in the summer of 2005. It's on its last legs. It has a 2Ghz processor and 2 gigs of RAM and runs on Windows XP. It replaced a desktop I'd had since 1999 that had a Pentium III processor, 128MB of RAM, and ran on Windows 98 SE.

[marsupial]

Laptop, home, 2 years old and I am ready for a new one.

[Uncle Ted]

If your computer is less than 10 years old it may be soon time to get a new one... Unless you don't mind a 5-30% slowdown:

Major flaw in millions of Intel chips revealed

A serious flaw in the design of Intel's chips will require Microsoft, Linux and Apple to update operating systems for computers around the world.


Intel has not yet released the details of the vulnerability, but it is believed to affect chips in millions of computers from the last decade.


The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said it was aware of the issue and that patches were being produced.
Some experts said a software fix could slow down computers.
[...]
The bug could allow malicious programs to read the contents of the so-called kernel memory of computers, which can include passwords and login keys.


It is also likely to affect major cloud computing platforms such as Amazon, Microsoft Azure and Google, according to The Register, which broke news of the flaw.


The effects of the updates to Linux and Windows could incur a performance slowdown of between five and 30 percent, experts said. It would involve separating the so-called kernel memory from other processes.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42553818

[beefytee]

If your computer is less than 10 years old it may be soon time to get a new one... Unless you don't mind a 5-30% slowdown:


http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42553818

How long until intel has chips with fixes out? My understanding is that this doesn't affect AMD chips. Only Intel x86 chips.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Yikes. That is no bueno.

[clackamascoug]

How old is my computer? One week! And to steal a phrase from Seinfeld - "It's real - and it's awesome."

I do hate the little keyboard... I need back lit keys.

[falafel]

Feeling good about my decision to go AMD this time around.

[Uncle Ted]

Feeling good about my decision to go AMD this time around.

I am wondering if the CEO of Intel is feeling good about his decision to dump the stock...

Intel's CEO Just Sold a Lot of Stock

On Nov. 29, Brian Krzanich, the CEO of chip giant Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), reported several transactions in Intel stock in a Form 4 filing with the SEC.


Most of the transactions involved Krzanich exercising employee stock options (these options allowed Krzanich to purchase Intel shares at prices significantly below where they are currently trading) and then immediately selling those shares that he bought at a discount on the open market.
[...]

https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/...-of-stock.aspx

[Uncle Ted]

How long until intel has chips with fixes out? My understanding is that this doesn't affect AMD chips. Only Intel x86 chips.

The OS vendors have known about this since November and have been testing patches...

Both Windows and Linux are receiving significant security updates that can, in the worst case, cause performance to drop by half, to defend against a problem that as yet hasn't been fully disclosed.


Patches to the Linux kernel have been trickling in over the past few weeks. Microsoft has been testing the Windows updates in the Insider program since November, and it is expected to put the alterations into mainstream Windows builds on Patch Tuesday next week. Microsoft's Azure has scheduled maintenance next week, and Amazon's AWS is scheduled for maintenance on Friday—presumably related.


Since the Linux patches first came to light, a clearer picture of what seems to be wrong has emerged. While Linux and Windows differ in many regards, the basic elements of how these two operating systems—and indeed, every other x86 operating system such as FreeBSD and macOS—handle system memory is the same, because these parts of the operating system are so tightly coupled to the capabilities of the processor.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018...erous-patches/

The details about the problem...

https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/741878/eb6c9d3913d7cb2b/

[Jeff Lebowski]

The OS vendors have known about this since November and have been testing patches...


https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018...erous-patches/

The details about the problem...

https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/741878/eb6c9d3913d7cb2b/

Class action lawyers, start your engines!

[Uncle Ted]

Class action lawyers, start your engines!

The hackers have already started theirs....

Embedded Tweet

[Uncle Ted]

"Intel believes these exploits do not have the potential to corrupt, modify or delete data."

Intel Responds to Security Research Findings


Intel and other technology companies have been made aware of new security research describing software analysis methods that, when used for malicious purposes, have the potential to improperly gather sensitive data from computing devices that are operating as designed. Intel believes these exploits do not have the potential to corrupt, modify or delete data.


Recent reports that these exploits are caused by a “bug” or a “flaw” and are unique to Intel products are incorrect. Based on the analysis to date, many types of computing devices — with many different vendors’ processors and operating systems — are susceptible to these exploits.
[...]

https://newsroom.intel.com/news/inte...arch-findings/

[Shaka]

Bad for me. I bought my new Macbook Pro to run my studio. A significant hit will really mess things up for me.

[wuapinmon]

My son wanted this radiator CoolerMaster CPU cooler thing that's water-cooled for Christmas. So, I got it from NewEgg after triple-checking pcpartpicker.com to make sure all his stuff would work with it. We built this machine last year, and it has an i7 6700 in it with 12g RAM, and really powerful video card. I'd planned on the thing lasting until college.

Well, the radiator was like a 1/2" too big to fit in the case. It kept hitting into the RAM and there was no way to make it work. He took a photo of it and sent it to some people on a forum and they said no dice. So, we put the old cooler back on the CPU, and when it boots, he goes into the BIOS to check the settings. He's nerding out about the fan speeds. After he saves the BIOS settings, it goes into Windows, where he messes around some more, and has to reboot to save changes. He does, and now it won't even boot to BIOS. We took out the battery and reset the CMOS, and it rebooted to BIOS, and he changed it all back, but it won't get to Windows anymore. A friend says that something has created an unstable environment...likely the CPU or motherboard. We took every static precaution, and I watched him work (and did some of it too), and I don't know what he/we did. At this point I can't decide if I should buy a whole new system for him, or try and plug-and-play with different parts. Any ideas?