• The CEO of United Healthcare said maybe a third of US citizens were affected by a recent security breach.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  That...  Is rather a lot.

• Dropbox says hackers breached its secure digital signature product, Dropbox Sign.  (Yahoo Finance)
  
  All users of Dropbox Sign should consider themselves, I think the technical term is "fucked".
  
  
  
• Meanwhile more than a million New South Wales club-goers have had their information leaked via a dubious double-outsourcing arrangement by a provider of club management software.  (MSN)
  
  Including one club that I have actually been to.
  
  The Register has a paragraph explaining why these clubs have your data in the first place.

  Clubs enjoy tax exemptions for some food and drink sales to members, as many were founded as community hubs for military veterans. Members therefore sign in to clubs when they visit to prove they are eligible for the discounts on offer. Clubs capture those sign-ins, plus info on visitors, and data required under laws that regulate gambling and aim to make life hard for money-launderers.

  
  
  
• Maybe you should use a VPN.  Or not.  Microsoft has confired that the latest Windows security update breaks VPNs.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  There will be a fix.  At some point.  Probably.
  
  If you're using a Mac you already went through this last September.
  
  
  
• Want your own supercomputer with 8000 CPUs and 300TB of RAM?  Act now!  Bidding ends tomorrow!  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The GSA's Cheyenne SGI supercomputer from 2016 is up for auction.  It's probably not worth anything, because 8 human years is 500 supercomputer years.  It's like buying a 16th century house.  Looks pretty, but you can expect a few issues, like it collapsing on your head.
  
  
  
• Republicans have pounced on tech executives' internal conversations.  (The Verge)
  
  Conversations with federal government officials trying to coerce them into censoring protected speech.
  
  
  

Posted by: normal at Thursday, May 02 2024 11:00 PM (LADmw)

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• After years of telling motherboard makers to set PL1 = PL2, Intel now says not to do that, and also that it never said to do that.  (AnandTech)
  
  On Intel CPUs, PL1 is the long-term power level; PL2 is the short burst power level.
  
  On a high-end chip rated at 125W, PL2 is something like 253W.  On the top of the line 14900KS, it is increased to 320W officially, and 400W or more unofficially.
  
  This produces great benchmark results but unfortunately fries the chips.
  
  Of course, if you throttle the chips back to the official official power limits, all the existing benchmark results become fairy tales.
  
  So if you're looking for a high-end CPU right now, go AMD.
  
  If you're looking at a mid-range CPU like Intel's i5-14500, none of this is likely to matter.  It's a good chip.
  
  
  
  

Tech News

• TSMC is preparing an 8x retical super carrier interposer for 2026.  (AnandTech)
  
  I don't know either but apparently it involves cows.
  
  
  
• Every SSD is SLC if you try hard enough.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Modern SSDs store either three bits (TLC) or four bits (QLC) per memory cell, but the controllers have the ability to store just one bit per cell, which is faster and much more reliable.  Of course that way you get one third or one quarter the space, but your drive can last up to thirty times longer.
  
  
  
• The Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal on Texas's age restriction legislation for porn sites.  (NBC)
  
  An initial ruling by a federal judge held that the law was too broad, but was overturned by the Fifth Circuit, and the Supreme Court didn't answer the door, so now the law goes into effect.
  
  
  
• I ordered a couple of new monitors for my home office on Monday.
  
  They showed up this morning.
  
  Then three hours later I got an email saying they had been shipped.
  
  At least some parts of the process are working smoothly.
  
  
  

Posted by: McDirty at Saturday, May 04 2024 04:17 AM (NC1hU)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, May 04 2024 06:06 AM (PiXy!)

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