Tech News 

Posted by: normal at Tuesday, March 26 2024 01:11 AM (zx18t)

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• The global economy runs through a single road in Spruce Pine, North Carolina.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  That road leads to a mine producing the purest quartz in the world, and the factory that processes it.  There is no naturally occurring substitute.
  
  The quartz is used to create crucibles which are used to produced silicon wafers, which are in turn sliced and cooked and dice to produce computer chips.
  
  It is possible to make the quartz synthetically; we just don't right now because there's an enormous pile of it sitting underground in this one spot.  But it would be a few difficult years if anything happened there.

• This seems like a bad idea: EVGA changed the connector layout of its GQ 1000W power supply without changing the model number.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  If you buy a new one the cables have changed too, and everything works.
  
  If you have one already, and it's faulty and is replaced under warranty, then congratulations!  Your existing cables will plug in just fine and deliver 12V on the 5V line to all your disk drives.
  
  
  
• The CEO and founder of Stability AI - creator of Stable Diffusion - has resigned.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  The official announcement doesn't say much and neither do his own tweets, but reading between the lines it seems he's pushing hard for actual open source solutions and the company's investors want bullshit that makes money like ChatGPT.
  
  Doubly interesting in that he apparently owns a controlling interest in Stability AI.  This is the same kind of conflict that recently roiled OpenAI, and led to Elon Musk's pending lawsuit against that company.
  
  

Posted by: Mauser at Sunday, March 24 2024 07:02 PM (nk1Z+)

Posted by: cxt217 at Monday, March 25 2024 03:31 AM (ZLF73)

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• Dropped Naturalist in favour of Untamed Wilds and Exotic Birds.
• Removed Sky Villages because neat as it is, there's no config file and they keep showing up at spawn.
• Further trimming is likely.  Base Minecraft 1.20.1 has 1146 different items in it.  My modpack increases that to 29,675, or counting Chisels and Bits, around 10¹²⁰⁰⁰.

• Rebuilt a "lite" version that runs acceptably in the default Minecraft memory settings (4GB heap).
• Lite version removes most of the large mods, including BetterEnd, BetterNether, Blue Skies, Twilight Forest, Aether addons, and Biomes O' Plenty.
  
• Still includes Nullscape, Incendium, base Aether mod, and also Create and the Steam and Rails addon.  Additional biomes are supported by Terralith (100+) and Regions Unexplored (70+).
• Item count is now 19,167, including 1146 from Minecraft itself, while reducing the modpack size from 949MB to 232MB.  Plus the 10¹²⁰⁰⁰ from Chisels and Bits.
• Also includes the new wolf variants that will be in 1.21, plus four original wolf variants, four cat variants, a new fox variant, and many variants of chickens, sheep, cows, and pigs.
• Also an annoying camel.
• Bird life added with Exotic Birds.
• Fish life expanded thanks to Unusual Fish.
• Miscellaneous mammalia introduced by Untamed Wilds.
• Arthropods courtesy of Canes Wonderful Spiders.
• Reptiles provided by What the Geck'o.
• Creepers supplied by Creeper Overhaul.  You're welcome.
• Big box of crayons purchased at Dye Depot, doubling the regular in-game dyes to 32.  This works with wool, carpets, terracotta (including glazed terracotta), glass, and concrete.
• Big boxes of chalk found at Chalk and Chalked - one for building and one for writing.
• Quarks irradiated by Quark.

Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, March 24 2024 09:38 AM (BMUHC)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, March 24 2024 10:54 AM (PiXy!)

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• If I'm presented with two resumes for a new hire, one a recent Harvard graduate with a PhD in precisely the field I am hiring for, and the other a community college dropout whose only programming experience is putting together a popular Minecraft modpack, I'm hiring the Minecraft kid.
  
  Just saying.
  
  
  
• A quick and perhaps useful summary of the Apple antitrust case.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  The one thing of note is this line describing Apple's response to the suit:

  And in regulating the behaviors that the DOJ claims are monopolistic, Apple’s competitive advantage in the market would be diminished and iPhone customers negatively impacted in the process.

  Well, yeah.
  
  Diminishing competitive advantage in the market is the entire point of antitrust actions.
  
  And Apple claiming that following the law would negatively affect its customers has been the company's response to every interaction with regulators for the past decade at least.  
  
  It's kind of boring, guys.  At least come up with a new lie.
  
  
  
• Meanwhile The Verge barfed up this.  (The Verge)
  
  There were some in yesterday's comment section arguing I was favoring the woke fascist idiots at the DOJ over the woke fascist idiots at Apple who at the end of the day at least produce something.
  
  But if you read even a small part of this pile of drivel - and I certainly wouldn't suggest reading more than that - I think we can all agree that the worst of the lot are the journalists reporting on this story.
  
  In this case we're dealing with Sarah Jeong, the journalistic equivalent of Cymothoa exigua.
  
  Don't look that up if you don't want nightmares.
  
  You should probably avoid looking up C. exigua as well.

• Micron has shown off samples of its new DDR5-8800 256GB MCR memory modules.  (AnandTech)
  
  These use two sets of memory chips the same way other high-capacity modules do, but with a difference: The chips are interleaved so that bytes of data are read from both banks of chips at once, doubling the bandwidth.
  
  This is how a high-capacity server module can be as fast as the best overclocked desktop modules.
  
  Kind of neat, but not something that's likely to trickle down to the consumer space any time soon.
  
  It does give a single-socket 4th generation Epyc server nearly 900GB per second of memory bandwidth, though.  That used to be a lot.
  
  
  
• The first nuclear fusion rocket engine is ready for delivery.  (Interesting Engineering)
  
  I'm not sure how seriously to take this report, but the device does spray ionising radiation all over the place, so it's doing something.
  
  
  
• Users are complaining on Twitter that Instagram and Threads are restricting political content from recommendation results.  (Ars Technica)
  
  This apparently is a new setting in the respective apps, which silently appeared and was silently turned on for everyone.
  
  On the other hand, Threads did specifically announce that they intended to do this.
  
  
  
• 34 nations met in Brussels to pledge to build more nuclear reactors.  (Associated Press)
  
  This has upset all the right people.

  "Nuclear, all the evidence shows, is too slow to build. It’s too expensive. Much more expensive than having peasants ploughing the fields by hand," said the remarkably named Lorelei Limousin of Greenpeace.  "The government must focus on developing real solutions that work for people - like abandoning the poor to starve in the dark while I swan off to Majorca - not nuclear energy which has been established as safe and reliable for decades.  Shit.  One of you polish that up before it goes to press."

Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, March 24 2024 12:13 AM (BMUHC)

Posted by: normal at Sunday, March 24 2024 01:48 AM (bg2DR)

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• Botania
• Create

• Blocks +
• Chisels and Bits
• Chipped
• Dawn of Time
• Every Compat (Wood Good)
• Diagonal Fences / Walls / Windows
• Macaw's Doors / Fences / Roofs / Walls / Windows
• Seafoam's Dyeable Blocks
• Stoneworks

• Born in Chaos
• Canes Wonderful Spiders
• Creeper Overhaul
• The Dawn Era
• Enderman Overhaul
• Friends and Foes
• Naturalist
• Plenty of Golems
• Unusual Fish

• Biomes O'Plenty
• Ecologics
• Geophilic
• Graveyard
• Immersive Weathering
• Nyctophobia
• Serene Seasons
• Tectonic
• Terralith

• Incendium
• Nullscape
• The Aether
• The Twilight Forest

• Better Villages
• Overhauled Village
• Repurposed Structures
• Sky Villages
• Tidal Towns
• The Lost Castle
• Underground Villages
• When Dungeons Arise
• Yung's Better (everything)

• Immersive Aircraft
• Mythic Mounts
• Small Ships
• Steam and Rails

• Aquaculture
• Croptopia
• Farmers Delight (plus addons)
  
  

• Clutter
• Quark
• Supplementaries
• Trails and Tales +

• Nobody ever said anything about it keeping the lawyer away: The DOJ has filed its very long awaited antitrust lawsuit against Apple.  (The Verge)
  
  While Apple isn't a monopoly in terms of total market control, it does control about two thirds of the US smartphone market, and it certainly abuses that market dominance to the detriment of its customers.
  
  And as we've seen, Apple has been playing the malicious compliance game with market regulators for the past decade.
  
  Interestingly, California is one of the sixteen states joining the DOJ in this lawsuit.  New York is another.  Woke idiot governments gone to war with woke idiot businesses?
  
  
  
• Nuh uh, said Apple, arguing that the lawsuit could prevent it looting the corpses of crippled orphans.  (9to5Mac)
  
  That is kind of the point, Apple.

• Apple is not a monopoly like Windows was a monopoly.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  No.
  
  Windows succeeded because anyone could develop and sell software for it without having to give Microsoft 30% of every transaction.
  
  
  
• Oh, and there's this: An security flaw in all Apple Silicon Macs leaks encryption keys if an attacker can get you to run suspect code.  (Ars Technica)
  
  It's another "side channel" attack; these are subtle and not very efficient but very hard to avoid.  Intel, AMD, and Arm have all seen side channel attacks in recent years.
  
  It's kind of like figuring out someone's password just by listening to them type, and matching the sounds of the keys to letter frequencies.  Takes forever - or 26 minutes, whichever comes first - but very hard to guard against.
  
  Encryption software can be rewritten to avoid the flaw, but that will make it much slower.

• The US House of Representatives is doing something vaguely useful for once: It just passed a bill banning the sale of your private information to the nation's enemies.  (The Verge)
  
  No, not Washington DC.  They already have your information.  The other enemies.
  
  
  

Tech News

• Dungeons and Dragons is dying of acute woke poisoning but I still kind of want this D&D Lego set.  (The Verge)
  
  It comes with a dragon, a beholder, a displacer beast, a gelatinous cube, an owlbear, and a mimic, as well as a team of adventurers for them to menace.
  
  
  
• MacOS 14.4 may have another trick up its sleeve: Deleting your files.  (MacRumors)
  
  If you're using iCloud for storage because you bought a 256GB MacBook Air and it filled up instantly and you can't upgrade the storage, well, if you delete the local copy of a file you have on iCloud it might just delete all the backups on iCloud as well.
  
  This is not good.
  
  
  
• The Asus Vivobook 15 OLED has received a little upgrade this year.
  
  While it still has a Ryzen 7730U CPU and comes with 16GB of RAM upgradable to 40GB (8GB soldered and one SO-DIMM slot), the screen has improved from a 1920x1080 60Hz panel to 2880x1620 120Hz.
  
  So 50% better in X and Y and 100% better in T.
  
  It costs A$1200 vs. A$2200 for the Zenbook 15 OLED I mentioned recently (about $800 vs. $1450).
  
  The differences are:
  
  * It has a Ryzen 7730U vs. the 7735U in the more expensive model 
  * It's half a pound heavier
  * Despite that, it actually has a smaller battery
  
  So obviously the Zenbook is built and priced as a premium model, but the screen in the cheaper Vivobook is identical (and excellent), the CPU performance is identical, and it's 40% cheaper.
  
  I looked at getting the previous model Vivobook a couple of years ago but passed it up.  With the updated screen I think I'll get one, and swap in 32GB of RAM and a 4TB SSD from my old HP laptop which has developed a couple of minor issues...  Like just switching itself off whenever it feels like it.
  
  My preferred online store says they'll have it in stock on Monday.
  
  
  
• And that should solve my Minecraft modpack woes.

• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says AI hallucination problems are solvable and AGI is five years away.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  To the first point: Current AI models - that is, LLMs - are specifically designed and trained to generate bullshit.  "Hallucinations" are simply the times when the bullshit is not even surface-level plausible.  You can't prevent this without discarding the entire model.
  
  LLMs work the way your brain does when you're not paying attention, like when someone wishes you a happy birthday and you respond "Thanks, you too." before your conscious mind catches up and you die a little inside.
  
  To the second point: AGI is artificial general intelligence, which is to say, human-level intelligence.  Current commercial research is not even on a path towards that, and what Huang is talking about is defining a set of tasks and then giving the AI an open-book exam.
  
  Which is not AGI in any meaningful sense, but might make AI useful, if you're using an open-source model that doesn't come pre-lobotomised by the left-wing parasites currently infesting Big Tech.

• At the other end of the scale, here's an 8080 emulator.  (Nanochess)
  
  

  #include <stdio.h>
             #define n(o,p,e)=y=(z=a(e)%16 p x%16 p o,a(e)p x p o),h(
                                  #define s 6[o]
               #define p z=l[d(9)]|l[d(9)+1]<<8,1<(9[o]+=2)||++8[o]
                                  #define Q a(7)
             #define w 254>(9[o]-=2)||--8[o],l[d(9)]=z,l[1+d(9)]=z>>8
                                 #define O )):((
                    #define b (y&1?~s:s)>>"\6\0\2\7"[y/2]&1?0:(
                                 #define S )?(z-=
                      #define a(f)*((7&f)-6?&o[f&7]:&l[d(5)])
                                 #define C S 5 S 3
                         #define D(E)x/8!=16+E&198+E*8!=x?
                               #define B(C)fclose((C))
                         #define q (c+=2,0[c-2]|1[c-2]<<8)
                            #define m x=64&x?*c++:a(x),
                           #define A(F)=fopen((F),"rb+")
                      unsigned char o[10],l[78114],*c=l,*k=l
                            #define d(e)o[e]+256*o[e-1]
  #define h(l)s=l>>8&1|128&y|!(y&255)*64|16&z|2,y^=y>>4,y^=y<<2,y^=~y>>1,s|=y&4
  +64506; FILE *u, *v, *e, *V; int x,y,z,Z; main(r,U)char**U;{
  
       { { { } } }       { { { } } }       { { { } } }       { { { } } }
      { { {   } } }     { { {   } } }     { { {   } } }     { { {   } } }
     { { {     } } }   { { {     } } }   { { {     } } }   { { {     } } }
     { { {     } } }   { { {     } } }   { { {     } } }   { { {     } } }
     { { {     } } }   { { {     } } }   { { {     } } }   { { {     } } }
      { { {   } } }    { { {     } } }    { { {   } } }    { { {     } } }
        { { ; } }      { { {     } } }      { { ; } }      { { {     } } }
      { { {   } } }    { { {     } } }    { { {   } } }    { { {     } } }
     { { {     } } }   { { {     } } }   { { {     } } }   { { {     } } }
     { { {     } } }   { { {     } } }   { { {     } } }   { { {     } } }
     { { {     } } }   { { {     } } }   { { {     } } }   { { {     } } }
      { { {   } } }     { { {   } } }     { { {   } } }     { { {   } } }
       { { { } } }       { { { } } }       { { { } } }       { { { } } }
  
                                     for(v A((u A((e A((r-2?0:(V A(1)),"C")
  ),system("stty raw -echo min 0"),fread(l,78114,1,e),B(e),"B")),"A")); 118-(x
  =*c++); (y=x/8%8,z=(x&199)-4 S 1 S 1 S 186 S 2 S 2 S 3 S 0,r=(y>5)*2+y,z=(x&
  207)-1 S 2 S 6 S 2 S 182 S 4)?D(0)D(1)D(2)D(3)D(4)D(5)D(6)D(7)(z=x-2 C C C C
  C C C C+129 S 6 S 4 S 6 S 8 S 8 S 6 S 2 S 2 S 12)?x/64-1?((0 O a(y)=a(x) O 9
  [o]=a(5),8[o]=a(4) O 237==*c++?((int (*)())(2-*c++?fwrite:fread))(l+*k+1[k]*
  256,128,1,(fseek(e=5[k]-1?u:v,((3[k]|4[k]<<8)<<7|2[k])<<7,Q=0),e)):0 O y=a(5
  ),z=a(4),a(5)=a(3),a(4)=a(2),a(3)=y,a(2)=z O c=l+d(5) O y=l[x=d(9)],z=l[++x]
  ,x[l]=a(4),l[--x]=a(5),a(5)=y,a(4)=z O 2-*c?Z||read(0,&Z,1),1&*c++?Q=Z,Z=0:(
  Q=!!Z):(c++,Q=r=V?fgetc(V):-1,s=s&~1|r<0) O++c,write(1,&7[o],1) O z=c+2-l,w,
  c=l+q O p,c=l+z O c=l+q O s^=1 O Q=q[l] O s|=1 O q[l]=Q O Q=~Q O a(5)=l[x=q]
  ,a(4)=l[++x] O s|=s&16|9<Q%16?Q+=6,16:0,z=s|=1&s|Q>159?Q+=96,1:0,y=Q,h(s<<8)
  O l[x=q]=a(5),l[++x]=a(4) O x=Q%2,Q=Q/2+s%2*128,s=s&~1|x O Q=l[d(3)]O x=Q  /
  128,Q=Q*2+s%2,s=s&~1|x O l[d(3)]=Q O s=s&~1|1&Q,Q=Q/2|Q<<7 O Q=l[d(1)]O s=~1
  &s|Q>>7,Q=Q*2|Q>>7 O l[d(1)]=Q O m y n(0,-,7)y) O m z=0,y=Q|=x,h(y) O m z=0,
  y=Q^=x,h(y) O m z=Q*2|2*x,y=Q&=x,h(y) O m Q n(s%2,-,7)y) O m Q n(0,-,7)y)  O
  m Q n(s%2,+,7)y) O m Q n(0,+,7)y) O z=r-8?d(r+1):s|Q<<8,w O p,r-8?o[r+1]=z,r
  [o]=z>>8:(s=~40&z|2,Q=z>>8) O r[o]--||--o[r-1]O a(5)=z=a(5)+r[o],a(4)=z=a(4)
  +o[r-1]+z/256,s=~1&s|z>>8 O ++o[r+1]||r[o]++O o[r+1]=*c++,r[o]=*c++O z=c-l,w
  ,c=y*8+l O x=q,b z=c-l,w,c=l+x) O x=q,b c=l+x) O b p,c=l+z) O a(y)=*c++O r=y
  ,x=0,a(r)n(1,-,y)s<<8) O r=y,x=0,a(r)n(1,+,y)s<<8))));
  system("stty cooked echo"); B((B((V?B(V):0,u)),v)); }

  
  How the heck does that work?
  
  I have no idea.  But it can run CP/M.
  
  
  
• Misconfigured Firebases instances have been found leaking usernames and passwords to the internet.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  And 98% of the 20 million passwords found so far were in plain text, which, uh, no.  Just no.
  
  
  
• Microsoft Office 2024 is here, and you can buy it.  (The Register)
  
  As in, not a subscription.  Pay once and use it forever.
  
  Microsoft has also promised that this is not the last one-time purchase version of Office.
  
  
  

Posted by: Rick C at Thursday, March 21 2024 01:20 AM (BMUHC)

Posted by: normal at Thursday, March 21 2024 10:58 AM (bg2DR)

Posted by: Mauser at Thursday, March 21 2024 03:04 PM (nk1Z+)

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• Ars Technica violated Betteridge's Law (any headline phrased as a question can be answered with no) and the First Rule of the Internet (never read the comments) with a single article: Is TikTok's parent company an agent of the Chinese state?  (Ars Technica)
  
  Yes, they say, but only because if Bytedance executives refuse to comply the communists will murder their families.
  
  Which is accurate but would read better if you elided the "but only".
  
  Oh, and the first comment simply reads, Yes.
  
  Now, whether the proposed legislation is a good idea is another thing entirely; the very worst legislation often comes with massive bipartisan support, because it benefits them, not you.
  
  But doing something about TikTok seems necessary.

• Here we go again - or not: The naturally occurring mineral miassite turns out to be a superconductor.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  At liquid helium temperatures.  Most things are.
  
  
  
• MacOS 14.4 breaks all the things.  (Ars Technica)
  
  When I was regularly using my Mac (I have a 2015 Retina iMac which probably still works) every time I updated the operating system the mouse acceleration utility I was using would break.  So I just stopped updating, because the default mouse support was unusable on a 27" screen.
  
  14.4 breaks USB, printing, Java, many command line functions, and license key managers - which would be a big deal for professional audio users except they're probably still clinging to 10.6.
  
  
  
• In other news, Apple may be partnering with Google Gemini to provide AI functions.  (Ars Technica)
  
  Laughs in Microsoft.
  
  
  
• Microsoft meanwhile is deprecating 1024-bit RSA keys.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Which...  Is actually sensible and necessary; 1024-bit keys have been deprecated in internet standards since 2013.
  
  
  
• Stripe and Substack want all your financial history.  (Substack)
  
  Well, Stripe certainly does, and Substack doesn't seem to have clean hands here.
  
  Substack processes all payments via Stripe, and Stripe appears to be selectively enforcing new rules that require you to provide them with the full transaction history of your bank account.
  
  Robert Malone (author of the piece) got a lawyer instead.  Substack has so far refused to speak to him.
  
  
  
• I bank with CBE.  (BBC)
  
  As you can see, my last transaction was yesterday, when I withdrew $40 million from the nearest ATM.
  
  
  
• The TOXMAX rocket uses a molten, radioactive mix of lithium and cesium-137 as fuel, and a fluorine oxidiser.  (Twitter)
  
  It has a higher specific impulse than hydrogen/oxygen while keeping itself warm on cold winter nights.  Yes, it will kill you, and everyone else in the area, but who wants to live forever?
  
  
  
• How to make your large Minecraft modpack run smoothly with 16GB of RAM.
  
  Step One: Upgrade to 32GB.
  
  I read r/feedthebeast (the modded Minecraft subreddit) to see if I was doing something wrong and nope, Minecraft uses ten times more RAM than disk space for mods.
  
  Just Java things, I guess.

Posted by: normal at Wednesday, March 20 2024 02:05 AM (zx18t)

Posted by: PatBuckman at Wednesday, March 20 2024 02:24 AM (r9O5h)

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, March 20 2024 11:10 AM (BMUHC)

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• Microsoft really, really wants you to use its Etch browser and Thing search engine.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  If you use Chrome, you will get a popup ad begging you to come back.  Please, they won't spam you with ads anymore.
  
  Only problem is the popup ad is so poorly rendered that users reported it as a virus.
  
  Well, not the only problem.
  
  
  

Tech News

• I missed this one when it came out because it originally shipped with only 16GB of RAM: The Asus Zenbook OLED 15 2023 model.  (TechRadar)
  
  It has a 15.6" 2880x1620 120Hz OLED display with 100% DCI-P3 colour.  That's very similar to the display I'm using right now and it's very, very good.
  
  CPU is a previous-generation Ryzen 7735U - eight Zen 3 CPU cores and 12 RDNA2 graphics cores, so not quite the latest but very capable.  One USB 4 port, one USB 3 C port, one USB 3 A port, HDMI, and a headphone jack.  Not a huge wealth of ports but adequate.
  
  It has a numeric keypad but it's a compact three column layout so you can just leave NumLock off and use it as a cursor pad and the Four Essential Keys.  And reprogram the extra keys to your whim with PowerToys.
  
  And it's readily available with 32GB of RAM.
  
  
  
• How the House quietly revived the TikTok ban before most of us noticed.  (The Verge)
  
  If "us" means tech journalists, you guys wouldn't notice a tapdancing elephant in the bathroom if it was inconvenient to the narrative.
  
  
  
• You can download GPT-2 and run it in Excel.  (Spreadsheets Are All You Need)
  
  Seriously.
  
  It's the "small" version of GPT-2, which has 124 million parameters, so it's small enough that Excel doesn't explode.  (Unless you're running on a Mac in which case you might want a blast shield.)  But being able to poke at it as a spreadsheet can help demonstrate how it works.
  
  Modern small LLMs are typically 7 billion parameters, so Excel need not apply.

Posted by: normal at Tuesday, March 19 2024 08:15 AM (K4jh7)

Posted by: normal at Tuesday, March 19 2024 12:35 PM (bg2DR)

Posted by: PatBuckman at Wednesday, March 20 2024 02:42 AM (r9O5h)

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