• A tale of two protests: The DC protest rally didn't happen because it glowed bright enough to be seen with the naked eye from the Oort Cloud.
  
  The Melbourne protest went right ahead.  The police locked down public transport and major roads in the center of Melbourne in preparation...  So fifteen minutes before the event was supposed to start, the organisers simply moved it by a couple of miles.
  
  
  
• AMD's next-gen graphics cards could triple the rendering power over the current generation.  (WCCFTech)
  
  At the high end they're also expected to cost twice as much - but twice as much as current MSRP, not twice current retail, which is close to twice MSRP anyway.  Since they're not expected to ship until late next year (ignore where it says Q4 2021, that's an error) we might actually see supply constraints somewhat improved and prices likewise.
  
  The mid-range 7600XT will have - according to these leaks - similar hardware to the current high-end 6900XT, but with more cache and less memory bandwidth.

• It being a slow news day, I'm going to post some of the stuff I would usually filter out.
  
  
  
• KySync is a multi-threaded file-distribution protocol based on Zsync.  (Kyall)
  
  Somewhere between Rsync and BitTorrent as far as I can make out.
  
  
  
• Excision's CRISPR HIV therapy has been cleared for human testing by the FDA.  (Fierce Biotech)
  
  Good.  Probably.
  
  
  
• Sysz is an fzf terminal UI for systemctl.  (GitHub)
  
  Fuck systemd.
  
  
  
• Toshiba's N300 18TB NAS drives use FC-MAMR.  (Serve the Home)
  
  This uses a spin torque oscillator to focus the magnetic flux of the write head, increasing the capacity of the drive by, um, 12.5%.
  
  Oh, and an uncorrectable error rate of 1 in 1014 bits.  Allegedly.
  
  
  
• An open source DRM driver has been made available for Mediatek AI cores.  (Phoronix)

  ... DRM driver that implements communication between the CPU and an APU. This uses VirtIO buffer to exchange messages. For the data, we allocate a GEM object and map it using IOMMU to make it available to the APU.

  It also makes julienne fries.
  
  
  
• AMD and Valve are focusing on a P-State / CPPC driver with Schedutil.  (Phoronix)
  
  This is to improve performance of the recently announced Steam Deck portable gaming console.  
  
  I think.
  
  
  
• KWinFT is continuing work on the WLROOTS render / library split.  (Phoronix)
  
  No idea, sorry.
  
  
  
• Google is resetting permissions on billions of Android apps.  (Thurrott.com)
  
  This will be annoying for users but is probably a good idea.  Permissions used to be rather lax and apps were installed with permissions they never really needed.  Those permissions will be taken away so an update to a game can't start checking the numbers you dial even if you originally said it could, three years ago.
  
  
  
• If you want an iPad Mini 6 because it's the only good small tablet around, be prepared to wait.  (9to5Mac)
  
  Pre-orders have been pushed out to November.
  
  It's also rather expensive.  Samsung's Galaxy Tab A7 Lite is a quarter the price, and is a perfectly viable alternative if you don't care about typography.  The iPad has a 2266x1488 display, which is fine at 8"; the Samsung has a 1340x800 display, which simply isn't enough.

• Deliver sixteen tons what do you get
  A bottle of piss and deeper in debt
  Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
  I owe my soul to the Amazon store.  (Bloomberg)
  
  On the one hand, anything that hastens the exodus from and collapse of large liberal cities is an unalloyed good.  On the other hand, all the people pushing for these company towns vote Democrat anyway and they will turn out to be just as bad as the first time around.
  
  
  
• Speaking of company towns, bit of a kerfuffle in Melbourne today.  The old-school working class socialists have had quite enough of the new-wave managerial class socialists and decided to break things.
  
  Safe prediction: The Victorian government, which collectively has the decision-making capacity of a week-dead wombat, will promptly step in to make everything much worse.
  
  Update: That was indeed prompt.  Victoria has just announced lockdowns won't be lifted until 90% of the population is fully vaccinated.
  
  Riots it is then.

• There's a chipset driver bug that affects security on all AMD desktop and laptop systems.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  This probably doesn't affect Linux servers, particularly ones with Epyc CPUs, which don't actually have a chipset.  And it only affects you if you're running untrusted software on your computer, at which case you're already screwed.
  
  
  
• The lower-end Alder Lake desktop parts won't have the low-power efficiency cores.  (WCCFTech)
  
  Which makes total sense for several reasons.  Those cores are mostly for laptops where you need to save power, but are also useful for Intel's high-end desktop parts because they draw about as much power as a space heater.    The lower-end desktop parts don't fall into either of those categories.  Mostly.
  
  
  
• The Biden administration is planning to sanction crypto exchanges and wallets used by ransomware groups.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  That description is a bit confused, but the idea is not without merit - prevent them from turning their ill-gotten digital gains into ill-gotten fiat gains.  I expect the implementation to be a disaster.
  
  
  
• The operator of a DDoS for hire service is facing 35 years in prison.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Good.
  
  
  
• If you're a Linux admin on Microsoft Azure you're probably having a lousy week.
  
  As mentioned yesterday, if you don't pre-emptively firewall every single thing it only takes one network packet to get root access. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  If you do, it still only takes one network packet from a local user.
  
  Also, you need to manually update every single server because Microsoft neither told you about the management agent it was installing nor provided automated updates.
  
  And it's already being actively exploited. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  So if you don't want all your Azure servers mining crypto and joining botnets, update them now.
  
  
  
  

Posted by: normal at Sunday, September 19 2021 05:28 AM (LADmw)

Posted by: normal at Sunday, September 19 2021 11:19 AM (obo9H)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

• Australia is acquiring a fleet of nuclear submarines specifically to counter the growing threat of China.  (ABC - ours, not yours)
  
  This makes so much sense that I'm shocked it was even considered.
  
  The usual suspects are apoplectic:
  
  
  
  
  Just gravy on the cake really.
  
  
  
• Meanwhile China's property market - the scam that supports the rest of the economy - is busily imploding.  (CNBC)
  
  Sometimes literally.
  
  

• Slot machine chain Dotty's suffered a data breach.  (ZDNet)
  
  Among the customer data leaked is (deep breath) social security numbers, drivers license and state ID numbers, passport details, financial account information, health insurance, treatment information, biometric data, MEDICAL RECORDS, tax details, and credit card numbers and expiry dates.
  
  IT'S A FUCKING SLOT MACHINE.  YOU PUT YOUR MONEY IN, IT SPINS AND BEEPS, AND YOU LOSE YOUR MONEY.  WHY THE FUCK DO THEY HAVE YOUR MEDICAL RECORDS?
  
  
  
• Ahem.
  
  
  
• USB SSDs are almost here.  (AnandTech)
  
  Yes, you can already get SSDs with a USB interface, but they are internally either SATA or NVMe drives with an adaptor.  These new controllers connect the flash storage directly to a USB-C port.
  
  I've been saying for a few years now that it's time for USB to replace SATA.  USB 3.2 is four times as fast as SATA, and USB 4 is twice that again.  It provides power and data over a single convenient cable, it works the same for internal and external drives, and it supports hubs to easily expand your ports.
  
  
  
• The Solana blockchain crashed.  (Bloomberg)
  
  This is not something that blockchains are supposed to do, but it did.
  
  On the other hand:
  
  
  
  
  400,000 TPS is a lot.  Ethereum does 14.  Not 14,000, 14.
  
  
  
• I think I mentioned a partial leak of this before but pricing and specs are out for AMD's full Milan-X lineup.  (WCCFTech)
  
  These are the same CPU cores but with extra memory stacked on top of them so that they have between 3 and 6 times as much cache.  All models of Milan-X have 8 CPU chiplets, where low-end Milan-non-X have only four, so while there are low-end Milan-X models they are far more expensive than their non-X counterparts.
  
  At the high end the difference is only around 10%, which is promising for the desktop versions expected shortly.
  
  
  
• The entire network of South Africa's Department of Justice got encrypted by a ransomware attack.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  How?  How can a network of that size be so homogenous that a single attack can encrypt it all?  From what I've seen of government systems, 80% of the data would survive because the servers were too old to run the virus code.
  
  
  
• Microsoft Office 2021 is out - sort of, if you're not a big corporate customer it's another couple of weeks.  But if you prefer to buy it outright rather than pay a subscription you'll...   Oh.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  If you prefer to buy it outright you'll find Microsoft happy to take your money, it turns out.
  
  I do want Visio Pro.
  
  
  
• This is rather nice.
  
  
  
  
  I watch Hololive just about every day - or just have them on as background noise, more often - and I still needed a guide to who everyone was.  Everyone is here except HoloCN (who get a shoutout on the poster) and that girl from Gen 1 whose name shall not be spoken.  That includes not just Coco and Aloe but all of Holostars as well.
  
  You need to click through and open the image in a new tab to appreciate it - it's 4096x1613 pixels.
  
  

Posted by: Jay at Saturday, September 18 2021 12:28 AM (mrlXS)

Posted by: cxt217 at Saturday, September 18 2021 07:28 AM (MuaLM)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

• TipTop's "The One" gluten-free bread is bread.  Sure it's made of tapioca starch and rice flour and - yes - soy, but it tastes like bread, has the texture of bread, doesn't fall apart the moment you butter it, and only costs twice as much as bread.
  
  It's the breadiest bread I've had since I was diagnosed with celiac back in 2010. 
  
  
  
• Microsoft has fixed a bug that potentially let anyone hack your Azure Linux servers. (Wiz)
  
  They silently install a management agent on your servers if you use certain Azure services. The management agent has a hole in it - not so deep as a well, not so wide as a church-door... Actually, it pretty much is. If you don't firewall your server properly, anyone can access that agent to run any code they want without needing anything fiddly like a password.
  
  It's a double whammy: A remote code execution vulnerability coupled with complete failure to actually check the password. You can just waltz straight in.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Microsoft is now offering the option to go passwordless on your Microsoft accounts.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  
  
  
  Just like your servers.
  
  What could possibly go wrong?

• The Xiaomi 11T has an A78 core and the 11T Pro the newer X1 core, allowing for an easy performance comparison. (AnandTech)
  
  Except that both models cheat to get better scores on performance and battery benchmarks, so the easy performance comparison is basically useless.
  
  
  
• AMD is ready to produce Arm CPUs. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  They're just... Not actually doing so. So the announcement, and the article, and this news item, are all kind of pointless.
  
  
  
• Intel is cutting prices on its server CPUs to compete with AMD. (WCCFTech)
  
  Just not for you. Unless you ship a million servers a year you're stuck with list price and that's not changing.
  
  
  
• When Stack Overflow goes wrong. (Litle Man in My Head)
  
  Looking for a quick example of how to implement encryption? Stack Overflow answers will give you a convenient cut and paste solution that will ruin your day.
  
  
  
• Developer burnout: Shut up you whiny little bitches. (CodeSubmit)
  
  Seriously? This is what people consider "burnout"? There's no mention at all of auditory hallucinations.
  
  
  
• Don't pass mutable default values to Python functions. (Valinsky)
  
  That's it. That's the article. Now you don't need to read it.
  
  
  
• Is Apple's new A15 mobile CPU actually faster than the A14?  (MacWorld)
  
  Apple's own marketing numbers suggest that it's slower.  That seems unlikely but you'd think they'd oversell rather than under.
  
  
  
• ExpressVPN's CIO was a former UAE spy.  (Motherboard)
  
  And they knew that when they hired him.

  Daniel has a deep understanding of the tools and techniques used by the adversaries we aim to protect users against, and as such is a uniquely qualified expert to advise on defense against such threats. Our product and infrastructure have already benefited from that understanding in better securing user data.

  Yeah, that's one way to look at it.

Posted by: cxt217 at Friday, September 17 2021 10:27 AM (MuaLM)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

• Apple announced a new range of cameras with phones attached to them.  (The Verge)
  
  They're supposed to be pretty good cameras too.
  
  
  
• Apple also announced a new small tablet which gets a few things right but has some bizarre marketing.  (The Verge)
  
  The iPad Mini 6 has an 8.3" 3:2 screen with a resoluion of 2266x1448.  That's pretty good, and the narrower ratio is better for reading than the old 4:3 screen.  At a little under 300 grams it's the a similar size to the old Nexus 7 except about 20mm wider.
  
  The weird part?  Apple trumpets a "new all-screen design".
  
  It has huge bezels.
  
  "An all-new enclosure features a new edge-to-edge screen, along with narrow borders and elegant rounded corners."
  
  It has huge bezels.
  
  What do they even think they're saying here?  They have a claim about the new edge-to-edge screen surrounded by photos of huge bezels.
  
  I don't get it.
  
  
  

Tech News

• Rare earth metal prices are soaring.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Along with less rare metals like lithium - up 150% since last year, aluminium, and copper.
  
  China mines half of rare earth elements and processes 85% of production, because it produces pollution like nothing else.
  
  I mentioned earlier that the Salton Sea by itself contains enough lithium to supply two thirds of the world's demand.  There's no shortage.  It's just that extracting these materials makes a hell of a mess.
  
  
  
• Kioxia - which I insist is pronounced kosher - formerly Toshiba's flash storage division is making SLC SSDs again  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The disadvantage is that these drives cost tree times as much to make as typical TLC models.  The advantage is that they're up to 10 times as fast in terms of read latency, so you can sell them for five times as much.
  
  That still leaves them slower than Intel's Optane, which uses an entirely different technology, but Optane costs about five times as much again.
  
  

• Russia has issued fines against Facebook and Twitter for failing to delete illegal content.  (Reuters)
  
  In all, eight fines were issued by a district court totalling 35 million roubles  ($4.26).
  
  
  

Posted by: Rick C at Thursday, September 16 2021 04:17 AM (eqaFC)

Posted by: normal at Thursday, September 16 2021 12:08 PM (obo9H)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, September 16 2021 03:19 PM (PiXy!)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

• Facebook has unveiled a new compression algorithm called Superpack that produces files typically 20% smaller than Zip.  (Facebook)
  
  It does this not by using a smarter algorithm, but by generating and compiling a custom algorithm on the fly.  If the file is large you can attach the code for the new algorithm to the compressed copy and still save space.  The decompression side takes that same custom algorithm and runs it in reverse.
  
  Not mentioned in the article: The terms safety, security, or buffer overflow.  The words exploit and exploited do appear, but not in the context I'm concerned with.

• If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done slowly or if possible not at all: Australia's digital vaccine passport is six months behind schedule and still nowhere in sight.  (ZDNet)
  
  This is the kind of government incompetence I can truly get behind.
  
  
  
• Microsoft has announced its stance on Windows support for Arm-based Macs.  (Thurrott.com)
  
  And that stance is no.
  
  
  
• Things are happening on Ethereum. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  I work with blockchains on almost a daily basis and I'm hard-pressed to understand, let alone explain, what these idiots are doing.
  
  
  
• YouTube improbably took down a stream of the 2021 Ig Nobel Prizes.  (Improbably)
  
  Over use of parts of a recording of Funiculi, Funicula from 1914.

Posted by: DougO at Wednesday, September 15 2021 07:44 AM (kqK5x)

Posted by: J Greely at Wednesday, September 15 2021 08:32 AM (ZlYZd)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

• Apple won a battle to lose the war.  (500ish)
  
  An interesting examination of the recent ruling that suggests Apple is incapable of doing what is needed to avoid further antitrust cases - which they will eventually lose.
  
  
  
• Another look at the Apple ruling.  (MacStories)
  
  This one gets key facts immediately and comically wrong, spinning wildly in Apple's favour, and even it says that Apple lost.
  
  
  
• Ethereum sucks.  I don't mean the ecosystem or the inflationary nature or the weird cult followers or any of that, I mean the technical implementation of the blockchain.  It's fucking garbage.
  
  

• Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to reinvent XML, badly.  (KDL)
  
  We don't need a JSON alternative that is simultaneously more complicated and less powerful than JSON.
  
  
  
• Nvidia might be bringing back the RTX 2060 - only with double the memory.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  With capacity constraints and products selling out as fast as they can make them, no-one is in a rush to bring out new low-end video cards.  But if you already have the chips - or the capacity, since the 2060 was built on an older 12nm process - then maybe adding it back in to the product line is not a terrible idea.
  
  
  
• Why Firefox is losing users.  (It's FOSS)
  
  Because, in short, they write bad code and hate their users.

Posted by: cxt217 at Tuesday, September 14 2021 09:21 AM (MuaLM)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, September 14 2021 10:55 AM (PiXy!)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

• Quick question not relating to computers: What's a reasonable minimum rating of pressure washer for cleaning a modest-sized back deck and front steps?  Is 125 Bar going to do a reasonable job or just be a waste of  money?
  
  
  
• How to install Windows 11 without an internet connection.  (Hot Hardware)
  
  Microsoft really wants to lock your Windows login to an online account.  Because fuck you, that's why.
  
  I just got a brand new Windows 10 laptop and didn't have to bother with that, but they seem to be ramping up their efforts with Win 11.
  
  
  

Tech News

• Epic is appealing the Apple ruling.  (Thurrott.com)
  
  There's a lot of argument over what the ruling actually ruled.  Many of the claims are patently false - e.g. those claiming that the judge made a positive ruling that Apple was not guilty of anticompetitive behaviour, rather than there just being insufficient evidence presented.  The ruling said

  these factors alone do not show antitrust conduct

  Epic is appealing that, but I'm not sure of the details yet since there aren't any details yet.
  
  
  
• If accusing people of copyright infringement doesn't get a site taken down just accuse them of hosting CSAM.  (TorrentFreak)
  
  Boom, they're deindexed.  And most important, it doesn't matter that it's not true.
  
  
  
• A pro-China misinformation campaign is attempting to exploit political division in the US.  (CNN)
  
  Yes, we call that CNN.
  
  
  
• China has banned new video games.  (Reuters)

  This story was corrected to say China "slows down" approvals, not "suspended", in headline and paragraph 1 and 2 after SCMP clarifies. Also, corrects paragraph 2 to say China's strategy emerged after a meeting and not at the meeting.

  I repeat, China has banned new video games.
  
  
  
• China tells Tencent and Netease to focus less on profit.  (CNN)
  
  Reminder: However bad things are where you live, you don't have a monopoly on power-crazed idiot assholes.  They're everywhere, ruining everything for everyone.
  
  
  
• The average quality of the information in a social network is inversely proportional to the square of the size of the network.  (Meta.Ath0)
  
  And that's being optimistic, excluding deliberate fraud and bias on the part of the network.
  
  Details from Scientific American.  They're not what they once were, if they ever was, but at least the authors of this article are aware of the dangers of trying to combat this.

  But who decides what is fake or manipulative and what is not?  Information can come with warning labels such as the ones Facebook and Twitter have started providing, but can the people who apply those labels be trusted?  The risk that such measures could deliberately or inadvertently suppress free speech, which is vital for robust democracies, is real.  The dominance of social media platforms with global reach and close ties with governments further complicates the possibilities.

  
  
  
• AMD expects to grow next year.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  They're likely correct.  They'll still be supply-constrained through the end of 2022, but less so than right now as new factories and new processes continue to come on line.  They're switching to 6nm for Rembrandt - which has just started production and will ship in a few months - and 5nm for, um, I think it's Raphael, late next year.
  
  In the meantime they're focusing on profits.  Since they sell out of everything they can make, they want to focus on the most expensive parts.  The chiplets in a Ryzen 5600X and a Threadripper Pro 5995WX are identical, but the profit margin on the Threadripper is far higher.
  
  
  
• The best budget 4K resin-based 3D printer money can't buy, maybe.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The Elegoo Mars 3 has a resolution of 4098x2560 and can't be yours for just $300.  I know Elegoo mostly from their electronics hobby kits which are also perpetually out of stock.

Posted by: normal at Sunday, September 12 2021 10:57 PM (obo9H)

Posted by: PatBuckman at Monday, September 13 2021 12:47 AM (r9O5h)

Posted by: Rick C at Monday, September 13 2021 02:17 AM (eqaFC)

Posted by: normal at Monday, September 13 2021 02:33 AM (obo9H)

Posted by: Rick C at Monday, September 13 2021 02:46 AM (eqaFC)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Top Story

• It's been 20 years, but I'll let others take up that story.
  
  
  
• A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
  
  The press deals with a quietly momentous ruling in the Epic v. Apple case.
  
  Apple bests Epic, but change is coming to the App Store.  (Six Colors)
  
  Apple mostly wins in Epic Games Fortnite trial, but must ease payment rules.  (CNet)
  
  Apple risks losing billions annualy from Epic Games ruling.  (Bloomberg)
  
  Epic wins big in case against Apple.  (Thurrott.com)
  
  Major win for Epic Games: Apple has 90 days to open up app store payments.  (Ars Technica)
  
  Epic vs. Apple ruling revealed: Apple must allow App Store devs to redirect users to other payment systems.  (9to5Mac)
  
  Ars Technica runs a surprisingly straight headline, but I think they do A/B testing on their headlines so I have no idea what others are seeing.  Their readers are not welcoming of the truth either.
  
  The ruling forces Apple to allow developers to use third-party payment systems, meaning you can make your app a free download and charge for activation, paying 3% to Stripe or PayPal rather than 30% to Apple.  That could reduce App Store revenue from $70 billion per year to zero.
  
  Meanwhile Epic Games is required to pay Apple $3.6 million due to breach of contract.
  
  I think we can work out who lost this one.
  
  
  
  

Tech News

• So is Ars Technica right about anything else, or is it all crazytown over there?
  
  House bill would eliminate natural gas.  (Ars Technica)
  
  Crazytown it is then.
  
  
  
• I previously criticised Intel for making dumb decisions with their upcoming 12th generation platform, but if the latest leaks are accurate they merely did something weird.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Alder Lake, Intel's 12th generation desktop family, brings support for DDR5 and PCIe 5.0.  But it only supports PCIe 5.0 for the PCIe slots - and no consumer cards support PCIe 5.0 - and not where bandwidth is most needed, on the interface to the chipset.
  
  But the diagram in that article shows that bandwidth to the chipset has actually doubled, because the width of the band has doubled.  It's still based on PCIe 4.0, but now has 8 lanes rather than 4.
  
  That's fine.  You could still potentially saturate that link, but it would take some serious effort.  The chipset on AMD's high-end Threadripper motherboards also uses an 8 lane PCIe 4.0 interconnect, so that's pretty good for a consumer platform.
  
  The weird part is the number of PCIe lanes in total.  Between the CPU and the Z690 chipset, an Alder Lake system can have up to 48 lanes of available PCIe: 16 at 5.0 speeds, 16 at 4.0, and 16 at 3.0.  But the CPU has 28 PCIe transceivers and the chipset 36, when they are typically designed in blocks of 16.
  
  
  
• Thunderbolt adaptors aren't likely to "just work" any time soon.  (Mat Millman)
  
  If it's not built into your motherboard you're going to have a bad time.
  
  
  
• Don't rewrite your project in Rust.  (ITNext)
  
  Or at all.  Unless you know exactly why you are rewriting it, have already run a pilot project and measured the benefits, and have someone prepared to pay for it, it's a bad idea.
  
  Unless you're using Node.js, in which case, no time like the present.
  
  
  
• Quadranet has filed to have a copyright infringement lawsuit dismissed.  (TorrentFreak)
  
  Quadranet notes that it is not alleged to have infringed upon anyone's IP rights.
  
  Its customer, LiquidVPN - well, LiquidVPN uses many providers, one of which is Quadranet - LiquidVPN is also not alleged to have infringed upon anyone's IP rights.
  
  Some of LiquidVPN's customers, or at least, some people using services purchased by some of LiquidVPN's customers, are alleged to have infringed upon IP rights.
  
  The plaintiffs here seem to be following the Willie Sutton rule.  Not to give them any ideas, but if they took that to its logical conclusion they might be able to force dramatic changes on the industry.
  
  Though they might also simply lose and be forced to pay the defendants' legal bills.
  
  
  
• Axios is why private citizens should be allowed to own nuclear weapons.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Because you keep hearing how terrible things are in Australia, and don't hear about riots in protest over government overreach, it's a bit hard to understand just how bad it is here in NSW right now with everyone complying with our fascist overlords.
  
  Here's video shot in Sydney today at the height of the lockdown.
  
  
  
  
  Uh.  Yeah.  We're not very good at following rules.
  
  
  
• But what about the mainstream media, you ask? They're all lefties. They'll be totally on board with whatever farcical nonsense the government pulls.
  
  
  
  
  Not so much.  Outside of the loonies on Twitter, everyone has had enough of this shit and has stopped listening.
  

Posted by: PatBuckman at Sunday, September 12 2021 12:16 AM (r9O5h)

Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, September 12 2021 02:52 AM (eqaFC)

Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, September 12 2021 08:19 AM (eqaFC)

Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, September 12 2021 08:25 AM (eqaFC)

Posted by: cxt217 at Sunday, September 12 2021 09:10 AM (MuaLM)

Posted by: PatBuckman at Sunday, September 12 2021 12:04 PM (r9O5h)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, September 12 2021 02:42 PM (PiXy!)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

• Germany gotta Germ.  (Washington Post)
  
  Someone insulted a German politician on Twitter...  So police raided his house looking for evidence.
  
  Evidence of what?  The insult is public; he called the sports minister for Hamburg a dick.  What more evidence is there to gather?
  
  If this sort of idiocy applied to the US or Australia you'd need more police than there are ants in the whole of Texas.  Insulting politicians is the national pastime.
  
  
  
• Meanwhile, as we worry about all our gadgets being made in China, that country is getting set for an economic implosion.  (Washington Post)
  
  Chairman Xi is fast rolling back the - let's not pretend they're reforms, the fascism of his recent predecessors - and going right back to communism.  I predict famines making a regular reappearance within the decade.  China can't feed itself and its government is only making the situation worse.
  
  
  
• Taiwan is paying attention and just launched the first of a new class of ship designed to take out aircraft carriers.  (Asia Times)
  
  Small, fast, and relatively cheap, the new corvettes are loaded with anti-aircraft, anti-ship, and medium-range supersonic cruise missiles, as well as torpedoes.

• Back to regular tech stuff, never click the enable editing button.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  A bug in Internet Explorer lets a sneaky document take over your computer.
  
  
  
• Oh, and if you are running containers on Azure cloud and received  a Service Health Notification you can start worrying now.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  A bug let other users' containers steal credentials from your containers and use that to break into your system and do, basically, whatever they wanted.
  
  Remember, there is no cloud, there's just computers run by idiots.
  
  
  
• Speaking of which, you can't buy a Microsoft Visio subscription as a regular user.  You have to first set up a corporate account with Microsoft.  So yes, I now have two accounts, which I'm sure is going to make my life easier.
  
  
  
• Michael Freedman proved the four-dimensional Poincaré conjecture back in 1981 but no-one remembers how.  (Quanta)
  
  It's a very complicated proof and the published paper isn't entirely complete, so Freedman sat down with other mathematicians and took them through the proof in detail until they were satisfied.  He won the Fields Medal for his work, the mathematical equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
  
  Freedman was 30 when he published his proof.  Now he's 70, and the colleagues who understood his proof are mostly either retired or dead.  So a new generation of mathematicians has got together to write a book about it before there's no-one left alive who understands how he proof works.
  
  
  
• Want something faster than an SD Card in your laptop?  SD Express is almost here.  (AnandTech)
  
  SD Express uses the PCI Express interface - either 1 or 2 lanes of PCIe 3.0.  That means it can potentially approach 2GB per second.  The reference device tested here has 1 lane and runs at up to 890MBps. though sustained sequential writes are a lot slower.
  
  
  

Posted by: normal at Saturday, September 11 2021 04:11 AM (obo9H)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, September 11 2021 09:17 PM (PiXy!)

Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, September 12 2021 02:35 AM (eqaFC)

Hide Comments | Add Comment