Sunday, November 16

Geek

Daily News Stuff 16 November 2025

Turn The Beep Around Edition

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Tech News

  • I was reading through the service manual for the HP 9121 disk drive that I found on Bitsavers - it rained this weekend - and it turns out it did in fact run at 600 rpm, twice as fast as was common for other 3.5" drives.

    I then asked Grok to check some details for me, and was swiftly reminded that Grok is less reliable than random half-remembered facts I read in a long out-of-print publication twenty years ago.

    I asked if there were any historical 10-bit processor architectures, and it gave me a couple of examples from the late 60s and early 70s.  It even gave me the detailed opcode format of one of the models and a bunch of links for further details.

    The machines were real.

    They were not 10 bit, though; they were 16 bits, which is hardly a rarity.

    The opcode format was entirely fictional, which is actually a little impressive.  Very minimal but it could have worked.

    The links were also entirely fictional.


  • Some models of Intel's Arrow Lake Refresh CPUs have more cores.  (WCCFTech)

    The 250K, which replaces the 245K, and the 270K, which replaces the 265K, both add 4 efficiency cores, taking them from 6 + 8 to 6 + 12 and 8 + 12 to 8 + 16 respectively.

    The high-end 290K is basically a 285K but 1.8% faster...  And also just 1.8% faster than the new 270K making it ENTIRELY POINTLESS.


  • Copy-and-paste is now the leading cause of corporate data leaks.  (SCWorld)

    Because people are copying and pasting data into AI to get it to lie to them.


  • Google has filed a sweeping lawsuit against one of those companies that are constantly spamming you with fake SMS messages.  (BGR)
    Google's legal action is comprehensive and is intent on completely dismantling Lighthouse's operations.  The search giant is bringing claims under RICO, the Lanham Act, and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).
    I'm not sure yet how it will turn out that this is a bad thing.


  • No uncertainty with this one, though: A group of developers has been working tirelessly behind the scenes to restore a lost video game AND IT'S FUCKING CONCORD.  (Aftermath)

    Concord came out in August last year and quickly achieved notoriety for two reasons: First, it cost $400 million and took eight years to develop, and second, it made absolutely no money whatsoever because it was so bad Sony shut down the servers and refunded everyone after just two weeks.
    Concord wasn't a bad game
    Yes it was.  Objectively so.  It cost $400 million to make, sold just 25,000 copies in total at $40, and was gone in just two weeks.

    Until now.  Until now, you bastards.


  • The International Energy Agency now predicts we will reach Peak Oil by 2050 maybe.  (CNBC)

    Okay.


  • Scientists have confirmed what is inside the Moon.  (Science Alert)

    Cheese sauce?
    A thorough investigation published in May 2023 found that the inner core of the Moon is, in fact, a solid ball with a density similar to that of iron.
    Ah.  Cheese and garlic sauce.  An important distinction.

    Thanks scientists.


  • Turkey is stuffed, seasoned, and in the oven.  We'll see how it goes.

Musical Interlude





Disclaimer: That HP 9121 270k disk drive cost nearly $1200 in 1982.  Which used to be a lot...  And will buy you a whole computer these days so I guess it still is.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:25 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Post contains 658 words, total size 6 kb.

1 We hit Pee Coil in 1948, exactly as predicted.  Everything we've been doing the last 77 years is an hallucination.

Posted by: normal at Monday, November 17 2025 04:20 AM (Sbqr6)

2 Ah, Peak Oil.  One of the dumbest concept to ever grace the thoughts of the mindless mob known as the environmentalism.  Which also means the news media and the political Left.

Entirely by coincidence, I was just looking up the Wikipedia entry for the Commodore 64 and was amused reading that when it launched, the retail price was the equivalent to just under $2000 today, which is what you can spend for an excellent PC today with change - and both the C64 and the current PC will plug straight into your TV!

BTW, thanks for mentioning Clio from Phase Connect.  I have been running her streams in the evening, especially if Nimi, Mint, or Saba are streaming.

Posted by: cxt217 at Monday, November 17 2025 07:56 AM (ZLF73)

3 Are NOT streaming.  Words are hard.

Posted by: cxt217 at Monday, November 17 2025 07:56 AM (ZLF73)

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Apple pies are delicious. But never mind apple pies. What colour is a green orange?




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