• The best new lightweight laptop may be an old lightweight laptop.  (Ars Technica)
  
  If you're looking for a new lightweight Windows laptop and don't want to wait until eventually AMD models show up, you might be better off buying a model from last year while they're clearing out old stock.
  
  Intel's mainstream 13th generation laptop chips are barely better than 12th generation, and there are some good sales going on, particularly with sales down 30% year-on-year.

• Substack's Twitter-killer, Substack Notes, is live and not yet overrun with garbage.  (Substack)
  
  I'll give it a try at least.  Substack does not appear to be a victim of the woke mind plague just yet.
  
  
  
• Is 12GB of VRAM enough?  AMD says no.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Because all of AMD's high-end cards from the previous and current generations have at least 16GB, where even the 3080Ti and 4070Ti are 12GB cards.
  
  
  
• Need a laptop with six screens, 192 cores, and 3TB of RAM?  Media Workstations has you covered.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  This is really for certain specific markets like oil exploration and film production, where you need an entire server that you can pick up and take with you.
  
  It weighs 45 pounds, and I don't think it has a battery at all.
  
  
  

Posted by: Frank at Thursday, April 13 2023 11:09 AM (rglbH)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, April 13 2023 05:22 PM (PiXy!)

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• We'll make our own Twitter API!  With blackjack, and hookers!  (PyPI)
  
  Twitter recently cancelled the existing free API plan and replaced it with a free API plan which is useless and a paid API plan which is absurd.
  
  If you know what an API is, you might wonder how the Twitter website works, and the answer is that it uses an API.
  
  A free one.
  
  So now there's software that lets you use that instead of paying $100 per month for 50 API requests, which would last you nearly 11 seconds of active use.

• Hackers have flooded NPM with over 600,000 fake software packages, which is a huge problem because no-one can tell them apart from the 800,00 genuine but terrible software packages that were already on there.  (The Hacker News)
  
  Oh no.
  
  
  
• PC sales dropped nearly 30% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023, with Apple the odd one out among the major manufacturers with a 40% drop in units shipped.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Oops.
  
  
  
• How to cluster nine Raspberry Pi Picos into one very slow and basically useless computer.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Two Picos - or better, two of the RP2040 chips the Pico uses - makes sense.  The RP2040 has no built-in graphics but it's clever enough that you can get it to produce an HDMI output just in software.  Only that takes all the memory and half the CPU capacity, so having a second one as the actual CPU makes for a neat embedded / hobby system.
  
  Nine is right out.
  
  
  
• Nvidia's RTX 4070 is basically the short-lived 12GB RTX 3080 model without the cost or power consumption, maybe.  (WCCFTech)
  
  It's not out yet, but it might finally be a merely expensive and not actually insane card in the current generation.  An announcement is expected this week.
  
  
  
• A previously unknown isotope of uranium, U-241, has been discovered.  (Phys.org)
  
  Where the most common isotope, U-238, has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, U-241 has a half life of 40 minutes.  We probably missed it because we were always at lunch when it showed up at the lab.
  
  
  
• How Starlink lost an entire fleet of satellites.  (Inverse)
  
  Red ionosphere at morning, Elon take warning.
  
  
  
• The FTX has fined supplement maker Nature's Bounty $600,000 for Amazon review hijacking.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  This is a trick where you take an Amazon page for a product with positive reviews - possibly even legitimate ones - and change all the contents to push your own brand of bullshit while keeping the reviews in place.
  
  Sometimes the remaining reviews are wildly inappropriate for the new product but most people just see 500 reviews with an average rating of 4.8 and click the buy button.
  
  Notably the FTC did this.  Amazon hasn't done squat.
  
  
  
• The Geekom Mini IT12 is basically last year's Intel NUC model only now it's sold by a Taiwanese company you've never heard of.  (Liliputing)
  
  It's not bad, I'm just not sure what the point is.  An AMD-based NUC, sure, but an Intel one when Intel already makes them?
  
  
  
  

Posted by: Rick C at Tuesday, April 11 2023 11:58 PM (BMUHC)

Posted by: normal at Wednesday, April 12 2023 05:24 AM (obo9H)

Posted by: Mauser at Wednesday, April 12 2023 11:11 AM (BzEjn)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, April 12 2023 11:56 AM (PiXy!)

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• You can't buy a Flipper Zero o Amazon anymore.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  This is a device for testing short-range communications protocols like RFID, NFC, and Bluetooth, and finding security vulnerabilities.  Which is very important given the number of vulnerabilities out there in the wild needing to be fixed. but a bit of a worry in the hands of the wrong people, like, for example, Apple, Samsung, or Kia.
  
  
  

Tech News

• AMD's 9474F is faster than AMD's 5995WX.  (Notebook Check)
  
  The 5995WX was the world's fastest CPU for some time, with 64 Zen 3 cores and high clock speeds, since it's a workstation CPU and not a thermally-constrained server chip.
  
  The 9474F is a thermally-constrained server chip, and only has 48 cores. and runs at a lower clock speed.  But with Zen 4 cores and 5nm vs. 7nm production, it's just plain more efficient.
  
  The fastest Intel CPUs on Passmark now start at #28 on the chart, with AMD Zen 4, Zen 3, and even Zen 2 chips occupying the top 27 slots.
  
  There are no scores yet for Intel's Sapphire Rapids server or workstation chips, but since anyone can submit a score, that just means there aren't chips around for people to benchmark.  I'm not seeing the new W-2400 desktop chips on sale anywhere, or even being reviewed, and they were due last month.
  
  
  
• Intel's second-generation graphics cards, codenamed Battlemage, are expected next year - and probably won't suck.  (TechSpot)
  
  In fact, following driver updates and price cuts, Intel's first generation cards don't suck.  The A750 for example is pretty comparable to AMD's 6700, and cheaper.
  
  When first released they were bad on older game titles (particularly running DirectX 9) but that has largely been resolved, and early driver bugs are reportedly pretty much resolved.
  
  If Intel remains on track for two more generations - expected in 2024 and 2026 - they may end up with something genuinely good.  And given Nvidia's 4000-series pricing, more competition is very welcome.

Posted by: normal at Tuesday, April 11 2023 08:47 AM (obo9H)

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• So Substack announced it was launching a Twitter killer, and Twitter got snippy with Substack, and Elon Musk tried the good old modified limited hangout, and got community noted.  (The Verge)
  
  
  
  I don't know if he ordered this or even knew about it, since it's the sort of thing Twitter did before he took over, and he's busy electrocuting the world and invading the Moon, but Twitter did block the retweeting of Substack links, at least temporarily.
  
  They're a private company, they can do what they want, yes, but if you want to restore trust this ain't the way.
  
  
  
  

Tech News

• AI can crack most common passwords in less than a minute, but so can a potato.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  If you use a common password and the attacker has your encrypted password from a data leak and a list of common passwords and a cheap video card, they can crack it in less than a minute with or without AI.
  
  
  
• The 32 core Loongson 3D5000 is, optimistically, nearly one sixth the speed of AMD's current server CPUs.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Could be worse.  Could be Russian.
  
  
  
• The Acer Predator X32 is a 32" 4k 160Hz HDR1000 monitor that covers 120% of DCI-P3.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Which used to be a lot.  
  
  I've thought of DCI-P3 as an upper bound for the colour range of computer monitors, but it's really not; it's just the colour gamut chosen for digital movie projection.  120% of DCI-P3 is possible just as 95% DCI-P3 monitors are around 120% of SRGB.
  
  I wonder what it looks like.  I'm not inclined to pay $1200 to find out, so I'll assume it's similar to an OLED display, something I do have.
  
  
  
• Want a 128 core Arm-based workstation?  Yes?  Why?  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Anyway, $5658 with 128GB of RAM.
  
  
  
• GraphQL is bad if you don't need it but implement it anyway using unsuitable tools.  (Better Programming)
  
  That entire website appears to be trash articles written by idiots.
  
  
  
• Something I didn't realise about the Western Digital hack and subsequent cloud services outage: It locked customers out of their own NASes.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Cloud-managed NASes are trash.  Don't.  Just...  Don't.
  
  
  
• So it seems is Apple's Find My iPhone service, which has been directing people to the door of a family in Richmond, Texas, for years.  (ABC13)
  
  Apple is aware of the problem.
  
  
  
• That Chinese spy balloon was spying for China.  (NBC News)
  
  Successfully.
  
  And the Biden Administration declined to shoot it down over Montana for fear of it bonking a bison.
  
  
  
• The DOJ has opened an investigation into a series of leaks of classified defense documents.  (Washington Post / MSN)
  
  The balloon did it.
  
  Or possibly a bison.
  
  
  
• More on ChatGPT's little libel spree.  (MSN)
  
  A decade ago, Brian Hood blew the whistle on corruption and bribery involving Australia's Reserve Bank.  Not quite as juicy as it sounds, but still illegal, the bribes were kickbacks to secure contracts for printing polymer (plastic) banknotes, since Australia was one of the first countries to produce plastic banknotes that didn't suck.
  
  Anyway, ChatGPT reported that rather than being a whistleblower, Hood was directly involved in paying the bribes, and was charged with conspiracy to bribe foreign officials, pled guilty, and was sent to prison for two years.
  
  ChatGPT was very specific about all this, only...  None of it happened.
  
  So he's suing, and OpenAI - the company behind ChatGPT - isn't speaking to anyone.
  
  Which is the only smart thing they've done.

Posted by: Frank at Sunday, April 09 2023 07:42 PM (rglbH)

Posted by: normal at Sunday, April 09 2023 10:00 PM (obo9H)

Posted by: Rick C at Monday, April 10 2023 04:07 AM (BMUHC)

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Tech News

Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, April 09 2023 02:49 AM (BMUHC)

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• Artificial Defamation: How ChatGPT libeled law professor Jonathan Turley.  (Jonathan Turley)
  
  Libeling lawyers is not notably a successful business model.
  
  
  
• Libeling lawyers and then citing imaginary articles from real newspapers is not an improvement.  (Washington Post)
  
  This time not just from ChatGPT but from Microsoft's ChatGPT-infused version of its Bing search engine.
  
  
  
• So naturally Google is all-in on further destroying its own search in the same way.  (WSJ)
  
  Let a thousand lawsuits bloom.

• AMD's new Ryzen 7800X3D not only outperforms Intel's 13900K in gaming, it does so at about one third the power consumption.  (Tech Powerup)
  
  The 7800X3D averages 49W in gaming benchmarks; the 13900K averages 143W.
  
  And the AMD chip is cheaper.
  
  
  
• Meanwhile the 7950X3D and 7900X3D have received price cuts.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The 7950X3D is now $599, matching the regular 7950X, while the 7900X3D is $549 and at that price dead in the water.
  
  If you care mostly about games, get a 7800X3D.
  
  If you care about heavy productivity tasks, get the 7950X.
  
  If you want a powerful but cool and quiet workstation, get the 7900.
  
  And if you have one computer for work and games, maybe consider the 7950X3D.
  
  The low-end chips - the 7600 and 7700 - are also quite good, now that cheaper motherboards are coming out.
  
  
  
• Jim Keller, who led the original Ryzen design effort for AMD and now heads design of a new RISC chip at startup Tenstorrent, estimates that next year's Zen 5 chips from AMD will be 30% faster than Zen 4.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Single-threaded.
  
  That's a lot for a single generation.
  
  Not clear exactly how much information Keller has access to, but he's one of the leaders in the field so he might have a good idea.
  
  
  
• The Beelink EQ12 is a mini PC - a NUC - with an Intel N100 CPU.  (Liliputing)
  
  The N series chips have only the low-power E cores from Alder Lake.  But that lets us clearly see exactly how fast those E cores are, and the answer is fast enough.  Single-threaded it's as fast as the Ryzen 1700 I was using up until this time last year.
  
  On the other hand it's only available with 16GB of RAM.  On the third hand it has a DIMM slot so you can upgrade that to at least 32GB.  On the fourth hand it costs just $259 including 16GB RAM, a 500GB SSD, and allegedly Windows 11 Pro.
  
  On the fifth hand it's a lot slower than a 13900K.  On the sixth hand, it uses just 6W of power.
  
  
  
• Which used to be a lot, but that was long ago and in another country.

Posted by: normal at Saturday, April 08 2023 11:16 AM (obo9H)

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• AMD's 7800X3D is here and it's the fastest gaming CPU around. (AnandTech)
  
  Faster - and this is a little awkward, to be honest - than AMD's more expensive 7900X3D and 7950X3D.
  
  Though to be clear, that's just for games.  If you run 3D rendering or video processing or run parallel compiles on large software projects the higher-end CPUs will win, but for games the 7800X3D is the bees knees.
  
  And while it outruns Intel's 13900K, it uses less power than the 13600K, two notches down the product stack, to do so.
  
  I'm still inclined towards the 7900 (non-X) which is the most efficient of the high-end CPUs available, but the 7800X3D is also tempting.
  
  No scores on CPUBenchmark.net as yet, but it's probably very close to the 7700X.

• Bob Lee, creator of Cash App, former CTO of payment platform Square, and SpaceX investor (among other minor startups), was stabbed to death in a fancy neighbourhood in Nancy Pelosi's district of San Francisco. (Tech Crunch)
  
  Following the news, there was an outpouring of grief in the tech community, but they don't seem to have quite figured out that they are the ones destroying the city.
  
  
  
  
  
• Western Digital got hacked. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  The company's cloud-based services are offline, but the 32 aging 3TB drives I have in my second-hand Synology boxes keep chugging away. Well, mostly. I've had to replace a few.
  
  
  
• If you have a Nexx internet-enabled garage door opener, well, first, why, and second, unplug that thing now. (Ars Technica)
  
  Anyone, anywhere in the world, can find it and open the door.
  
  
  

• The music mafia has won a court order in Germany to take down the website of Youtube-dl.  (TorrentFreak)
  
  Which is Pyrrhic at best, because Youtube-dl is open source software and hosted on GitHub, which got so annoyed at the baseless takedown demands that it created a legal defense fund for open source projects.
  
  They've taken down what the developers described as a business card, rather than the business.

• We all know about QNAP NASes, but what about their switches?  (Serve the Home)
  
  Cheap and good.  In fact, cheaper than anything better and better than anything cheaper.  Which is a good place to be.
  
  
  
• Cyberpunk 2077 has a new graphics mode delivering improved visual effects.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  And a frame rate of 16 fps on a $1600 RTX 4090.
  
  
  
• If you've left your secret decoder ring at home, look for the orange sticker.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Ryzen 7000 laptop chips are a mix of Zen 4, Zen 3, and Zen 2 cores, which is utter dogshit.  You can tell by the part number - the third digit is the core generation - but you shouldn't have to.
  
  Thankfully AMD is putting orange stickers on the Zen 4 models to replace to older silver / gray stickers.
  
  
  

• Don't use ChatGPT.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Samsung engineers' use of ChatGPT has led to three leaks of confidential information in less than three weeks.
  
  ChatGPT isn't designed for privacy.  It's not designed to give you correct answers.  It's designed to pretend to be helpful while it empties your pockets.
  
  
  
• Don't let your friends use ChatGPT.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Content warning: Naked Furby.
  
  Now that's just horrifying.
  
  
  

Tech News

• Don't announce products on April 1.  (Liliputing)
  
  Or indeed on March 31 or April 2.
  
  Asus' ROG Ally handheld gaming console is apparently real.  It's similar to the Steam Deck but more powerful, with a Zen 4 CPU and RDNA 3 graphics.
  
  Price and availability TBA.
  
  
  
• Don't buy a graphics card before the RTX 4070 comes out.  (WCCFTech)
  
  Looks like this might hit the sweet spot.  Depends on pricing though.
  
  
  
• Don't bother arguing with Europe.  (TorrentFreak)
  
  Time to null-route the entire continent.
  
  
  
• Dontge.  (MSN)
  
  Twitter's blue bird thingy has been replaced today with the famous image of Kabosu, the shiba inu who gave rises to a trillion internet memes and the DogeCoin internet currency.
  
  Because, apparently.  Just because.
  
  
  
• Post, a "Twitter alternative" where traditional publishers have complete control and you the user can basically just get fucked has launched a public beta.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Bankruptcy filing in 3... 2...

Posted by: normal at Tuesday, April 04 2023 09:22 PM (obo9H)

Posted by: Mauser at Wednesday, April 05 2023 09:24 AM (BzEjn)

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• Don't use ChatGPT.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Samsung engineers using ChatGPT has led to three leaks of confidential information in less than three weeks.
  
  ChatGPT isn't designed for privacy.  It's not designed to give you correct answers.  It's designed to pretend the be helpful while it empties your pockets.
  
  
  
• Don't let your friends use ChatGPT.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Content warning: Naked Furby.
  
  Now that's just horrifying.
  
  
  

Tech News

• Don't announce products on April 1.  (Liliputing)
  
  Or indeed on March 31 or April 2.
  
  Asus' ROG Ally handheld gaming console is apparently real.  It's similar to the Steam Deck but more powerful, with a Zen 4 CPU and RDNA 3 graphics.
  
  Price and availability TBA.
  
  
  
• Don't buy a graphics card before the RTX 4070 comes out.  (WCCFTech)
  
  Looks like this might hit the sweet spot.  Depends on pricing though.
  
  
  
• Don't bother arguing with Europe.  (TorrentFreak)
  
  Time to null-route the entire continent.
  
  
  
• Dontge.  (MSN)
  
  Twitter's blue bird thingy has been replaced today with the famous image of Kabosu, the shiba inu who gave rises to a trillion internet memes and the DogeCoin internet currency.
  
  Because, apparently.  Just because.
  
  
  
• Post, a "Twitter alternative" where traditional publishers have complete control and you the user can basically just get fucked has launched a public beta.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Bankruptcy filing in 3... 2...