• New Spare Laptop has been deployed and is currently installing six months worth of software updates.
  
  Update: Where did all my disk space go?  Wait, VirtualBox is using how much?  Well, those can all go for a start.
  
  Update 2: Oh joy, a Windows Update boot loop.
  
  Update 3: Okay, Windows is updated now.  But it turns out that this laptop won't charge either.  Runs fine plugged in until you do something that draws extra current like, oh, running Idle Champions, at which point it drops dead.
  
  Update 4: That might be a software issue.  (CNet)
  
  But I'll have to open up the laptop and disconnect the battery to fix it.  Ugh.
  
  Hmm.  At some point I reinstalled Windows on this system and scrubbed it of all the Dell-specific drivers and stuff.  Might be worth reinstalling those.
  
  Update 5: BIOS reports the battery is fine, so it is a driver issue.  Well, that can be fixed, one way or another.
  
  Update 6: "This battery charging is temporarily disable."
  
  Update 7: There's apparently a workaround using advanced charging schedules.  Why they even exist I don't know, but worth a shot.
  
  Update 8: Nope.  Time to buy a new battery from some random seller on Amazon, I guess.  I can choose from Ding brand or Binger, or Amanda, or....  The reviews say remove your battery, leave it for two minutes, then try again.  Well, worth a shot.
  
  
  
• The Bolsheviks at Google and Facebook are engaged in a war with the Mensheviks at the ABC.  (The Guardian)
  
  (Australia's ABC, that is.)
  
  The ACCC has mandated that social networks pay news organisations for the right to link to them.  Google and Facebook have said they will simply disable the ability to link to news articles.
  
  The ABC says that hey, it could run a social network.
  
  The only upside to the nightmare that would be a government-run social network is that it would collapse instantly because the ABC couldn't manage a piss-up in a brewery.
  
  
  
• Down the rabbit hole: I'm a paid member of Amelia Watson's channel now.  On the other hand, it works out to something like ten cents per hour of entertainment given how much she streams.
  
  I don't often get to catch the live streams because I'm usually working on something at the same time and need to be able to pause, and they don't allow that on their livestreams.
  
  I've watched a couple of dozen hours of Hololive and politics hasn't been mentioned even once.  It's infinitely better value than Netflix for that reason alone.
  
  
  
• The Raspberry Pi 4 Compute Module is a Raspberry Pi 4 compute module.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  They've dropped the SO-DIMM form factor for some reason.  That's a shame - it breaks backwards compatibility with early compute modules and replaces a standard connector with a custom one.
  
  On the upside, it has one PCIe 2.0 lane.
  
  
  
• Asus looks to be preparing an Intel laptop with Intel graphics.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Nobody knows why, but the answer is probably spelled "money".
  
  
  
• AMD skipped Ryzen 4000 on the desktop because the numbering had become confusing.  And then: The Ryzen 5600U and 5800U will be Zen 3; the 5500U and 5700U will be Zen 2 unless they won't.  (WCCFTech)
  
  This will still be a significant upgrade, because the 5700U will be 8 cores / 16 threads, where the 4700U is 8 cores / 8 threads.  So each model should be 20-25% faster than its predecessor.
  
  
  
• There will be four editions of the Radeon 6900 unless there are five, or three, or some other number.  (WCCFTech)
  
  Rumours suggest a 6900 XE (or XLE), a 6900 XL, a 6900 XT, and a 6900 XTX, ranging from 64 to 80 cores.
  
  We'll know soon - AMD's Radeon event is on the 28th.
  
  
  
• The Arm64 memory architecture supports address tagging.  (LWN)
  
  I didn't know that.  Since nobody actually had 16 exabytes of RAM, the architecture only uses 48 bits for physical addresses, and four bits of the virtual address can be used as a data type field.
  
  
  
• Do not drink the cursed Elixir.  (GitHub)
  
  
  
• Unlocking God Mode in Windows 10.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  You just need 64 blocks of Crying Obsidian and two Diamond Anvils.
  
  Or, alternately, log in with admin privileges and create a folder named GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}.
  
  It will give you a version of the Control Panel with every single configuration and management option available.
  
  

Posted by: Rick C at Tuesday, October 20 2020 03:59 AM (eqaFC)

Posted by: normal at Tuesday, October 20 2020 06:29 AM (LADmw)

Posted by: Rick C at Tuesday, October 20 2020 08:37 AM (eqaFC)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, October 20 2020 09:23 AM (PiXy!)

Posted by: Rick C at Tuesday, October 20 2020 11:15 AM (eqaFC)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, October 20 2020 12:25 PM (PiXy!)

Posted by: Rick C at Tuesday, October 20 2020 01:15 PM (eqaFC)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, October 20 2020 04:46 PM (PiXy!)

Posted by: Rock C at Wednesday, October 21 2020 12:07 AM (eqaFC)

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, October 21 2020 04:24 AM (eqaFC)

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, October 21 2020 10:09 AM (eqaFC)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, October 21 2020 11:04 AM (PiXy!)

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, October 21 2020 12:28 PM (eqaFC)

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