• Elon Musk claims Tesla's new AI5 chip is 40x more performant than previous-gen AI4.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  We hates that word.  We hates it, precious.
  
  
  
• Fujitsu's new FMV Note A laptop has a Ryzen 7 7735U CPU - one step up from what I am typing this on - and a Blu-Ray drive.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  With BDXL support too, for 100GB rewriteable discs.
  
  
  
• The Radeon AI Pro 9700 launches Monday at a price of $1299.  (WCCFTech)
  
  It's a Radeon 9070 XT with twice as much memory.  At twice the price.
  
  
  
• A look at the Microtik CRS812-8DS-2DQ-2DDQ-RM  (Serve the Home)
  
  Otherwise known as Tim.
  
  Tim is an Ethernet switch with two 400Gb ports, two 200Gb ports, and eight 50Gb ports.  It also has two 10Gb ports but it turns out they're just for management and aren't part of the switching logic.  And hot swap fans and redundant power supplies.
  
  Since all the ports use the same signalling, internally it uses a 32-port 50Gb switch, with 4 ports assigned to each 200Gb connector and 8 assigned to each 400Gb connector, and you can break them out again with an octopus cable.
  
  Tim costs $1295, which is pretty reasonable considering what he brings to the table.
  
  
  
• Serverless is a handicap.  (Viduli)
  
  It also costs several times more than just having a server.
  
  Welcome to the Internet, here's your monthly bill.  Don't worry about paying, we've put a lien on your will.
  
  
  
• Microsoft has updated the Windows file explorer so that it doesn't display previews of files downloaded from the internet - again - because its security model is still dogshit after all these years.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Welcome to the Internet, you've been compromised.  Everything is infinitely worse than you surmised.
  
  
  
• "Analog bags" are in.  Doomscrolling is out.  (Axios)  (archive site)
  
  What the hell is an "analog bag", you ask.
  
  An analog bag is...  A book bag.

  How it works: "I basically just put everything I could grab for instead of my phone into a bag," including knitting, a scrapbook and a Polaroid camera, says Sierra Campbell, the content creator behind the trend.

  Okay, that sounds healthy enough.  What's the harm?
  
  The harm is that everyone who owns one is insane:

  The 31-year-old keeps one bag at home in Northern California, carrying it from room to room, and another in her car.

  But that's just one person.

  "It speaks to an incredible desperation and desire for experiences that return our attention to us, that fight brain-rotting, that are tactile… that involve creating over scrolling," Beth McGroarty, vice president of research at the Global Wellness Institute, tells Axios.

  Welcome to the Internet, fuck this shit I'm out.  You can sit there in the corner and count your ill-earned clout.
  

1 So the bag full of printouts is an analog bag, and the bag full of computer would by implication be a digital bag. 

Presumably I could put some radios and breadboards and stuff into another bag, and call it a mixed signal RF bag, if nobody lynched me quickly enough. 

Yeah, I think you might actually need to institutionalize me if I started making a big deal about having an analog bag.

Okay, yes I do spend far too much time on the computer and on the internet.

Yes, I actually need to spend more time reading various print outs and other stuff.

Okay, I don't think I should be using a smartphone to look at facebook and tiktok and shit.

I did have great productivity this week because I took a pencil and clipboard to the park, and outlined.

I watched digimon when I was younger, but since I have become increasingly less impressed with people making a point of describing things as digital, or analog.  (Okay, there are still some uses I think are valid, and maybe even of situational importance.)

2 And of course, the Fujitsu laptop can only be bought in Japan.  Of course.

I do want and willing to part with money for, laptops with optical drives, but these days, the only way to do that is to buy refurbish/secondhand ones, which means no Ryzen, and probably no gaming laptop.  Because everything has to be pure digital.

3 I bought a USB dvd drive 5 or 8 years ago for the vanishingly rare times I need it.  They're like $15.

4 Too many other uses for my USB ports, and another something that could get lost at the same time you need it.

5 Fair enough, one size doesn't fit all.  But docking stations and powered hubs are also things.  I--surprisingly--like my ultralight new laptop, and a built-in optical drive that I would almost never use isn't just a waste of money but of weight.

6 Different requirements.  I have laptops I use while traveling that do not have optical drives, and it works for those situations.  For most of my needs, however, portability and light weight are not too important but having an optical drive that I can use at any time without using an extra port or cable, either to play my collection of older games (There is no digital version of Civ2.), or watch my movie collection, IS very important.