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Blocklist-Update.sh

Blocklist-Update.sh is a script that I wrote to manage blocklists from bluetack etc to be used in conjunction with Transmission torrent downloader in Linux/MacOS. The script can be taylored to work with Qbittorrent as well, but the placement of the blocklists means you'd have to redirect the blocklist to go somewhere locally manageable as Transmission uses its own blocklist directory in .config. I believe there are about 10 lists there now. It works well for my needs. It can be ran weekly using crontab in standard user profile.  To download:  blocklist-update.sh To download the others:  Github
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INTEL MICROCODE UPDATES IN LINUX

A week ago, it was revealed that Ubuntu and its derivatives would be releasing patches to the Linux kernel to try and prevent a critical flaw with the L1TF or a flaw directly affecting memory cache found in L1 of an intel cpu core which was exposed to malicious code running in the background which would steal personal information and reveal it to attackers. This was patched previously, however, Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu didn’t actually fix everything. There was an apology released by Canonical for in fact mucking some things up with their previous patch. It was revealed that there would be another patch to the kernel which came through about a week or so ago, however, this didn’t fix everything either. Intel Microcode is CPU instruction code which is updated by the CPU vendor to add security patches and new instructions to the CPU. Intel aren’t as forthcoming as some might like for them to be about their company’s updates to their CPU firmware. Intel has in the past seemed to laugh off the threat of Spectre and Meltdown and told software developers that it was up to them to secure their software against such threats. Intel Microcode has an impact on Spectre and Meltdown’s abilities to run on your Intel hardware. For those running Ubuntu 14.04 to Ubuntu 18.04, it might be a good idea to update. While it is important to upgrade this piece of firmware, it is also important to note that this could have potential performance implications in the future as updates to the Kernel and underlying firmware seem to have had an impact on Intel specific performance in the past.

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