If you're an ordinary user worried about #meltdown and #spectre exploits: the usual guidelines apply. Update your software and use an ad-blocker. The lessons here important. Performance and security are inevitably in tension, and in my view, it is past time we chose security.
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It may or may not have practical impacts, but the way some anti-virus software is blocking or slowing these critical security updates should also be a wake-up call. Security has to come from architecturally as deeply as possible; add-ons can actually make things worse.
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Also, who named these exploits? The names are


and so correctly evocative of the issues raised by the two different but related structural issues. Spectre haunting all modern chips... The Intel meltdown... Sometimes geek poetry is real poetry. :-DShow this thread -
This is a fairly accessible explanation of
#meltdown by@pwnallthethings. (Yes, it has a tiny bit of code but you can follow along if this stuff interests you).#Spectre is more subtle; will post if I find an accessible explainer. https://medium.com/@pwnallthethings/time-travelling-exploits-with-meltdown-1189548f1e1d …pic.twitter.com/9cRWfPnSVB
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Update, folks. Update your software. Best defense. Lots of people are working hard to rollout
#spectre#meltdown mitigations. (Many updates were out much earlier! But no protection till you update!)https://twitter.com/aprilmpls/status/949053354642235392 …Show this thread -
Just tried to describe
#Spectre to a completely non-technical person, finally ended up saying it’s like, umm, platform 9¾ on King’s Cross. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯pic.twitter.com/czMiMpa23W
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End of conversation
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I do hope AMD gets rewarded for their more security-conscious choices, which were likely really tough to make, but I am not hopeful.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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