• After years of ripping off developers by taking a cut of off-platform payments for transactions they had no part in, and then when courts ruled against them, more years of making things deliberately and systematically worse for everyone, a federal judge finally had enough and nuked Apple.  (The Verge)  (archive site)
  
  The ruling is crystal clear: Apple can not demand any cut of off-platform payments, nor can they add roadblocks for developers or for end users.
  
  That was just yesterday.  Spotify is already moving its payment processing away from Apple, and Patreon plans to do the same.

• Redis is open source again.  (Antirez)
  
  Redis tried shifting to a have-your-eat-and-cake-it-too license that nobody liked, and spawned a veritable forest of forks.
  
  It's back under AGPL now, which is fine for most uses.
  
  
  
• The House of Representatives has voted to nuke California.  (CBS)
  
  Starting with California's plan to ban new gas-powered vehicles starting in 2035, and proceeding until California stops being stupid.
  
  
  
• Microsoft is making accounts passwordless by default going forward, moving to newer and less secure methods.  (Microsoft)
  
  Like locally caching the passwords of remote machines and letting you log in if the local copy is right even if the remote one has changed.
  
  
  
• Polygon, a gaming news website that everyone forgot within a year of its creation, has been sold off to a content farm upstate.  (Kotaku)
  
  Polygon was bad from the beginning, and has been insufferable for years.  Pretty much everyone was laid off.
  
  Kotaku is next.
  
  
  
• Meta's Reality Labs lost $4.2 billion in its first quarter.  (CNBC)
  
  Doing what?!
  
  Reality Labs doesn't seem to do anything except bleed cache cash.
  
  
  
• Phase Connect has gathered in Clio Aite, Marimari_EN, and Sleepy into a new Invaders generation starting this weekend.
  
  Pippa can't stop winning.
  
  
  
• Also, ENReco stage 2 starts this weekend.
  
  Play

Posted by: nomal at Friday, May 02 2025 06:51 PM (bg2DR)

Posted by: nomal at Friday, May 02 2025 06:55 PM (bg2DR)

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• AMD is reportedly preparing Ryzen 9000G desktop processors.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  These will be repurposed laptop chips just like previous G-series CPUs.  The difference is that these will offer up to twelve Zen 5 cores (or more specifically four Zen 5 cores and eight of the slower Zen 5c cores) plus up to 16 GPU cores.
  
  And up to 256GB of RAM, since they are after all desktop chips and that's how much you can put in a regular desktop system these days.
  
  Judging by the prices of the laptops though I expect the top models to be expensive.

• Samsung plans to enter full production with its own 2nm process node in the second half of this year.  (WCCFTech)
  
  Now they just need to find customers.
  
  
  
• Microsoft's profits grew by 18% in the latest quarter, buoyed by rising sales of its key product, Slurm.  (AP News)
  
  It has electrolytes.
  
  
  
• Google is spending $10 million to train 100,000 new electricians.  (Yahoo)
  
  Yeah, I don't think that's quite enough, guys.
  
  
  
• The Minisforum N5 Pro is a NAS.  (Liliputing)
  
  It has the familiar twelve core Ryzen 370 and supports five SATA drives and three NVMe drives.
  
  And OCuLink, without which it would be able to support five NVMe drives, and which is kind of useless in a device like this.
  
  
  
• Moved my Minecraft server from a VirtualBox VM on my laptop to an LXC container on my server.  I expected to see some improvement: They're both Zen 3 cores, but the server is a full desktop system rather than a low-power laptop.
  
  It's four times as fast, which I was not expecting.
  
  I'm not sure why it is so fast, or more accurately, why my laptop is so slow.  I'll play around and see if I can work out what is going on there but I am not unhappy with the outcome.

Posted by: cxt217 at Friday, May 02 2025 08:16 AM (ZLF73)

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• Google Play has lost nearly half of its apps in the past year.  Here's why that's a good thing.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Developers aren't leaving Android.  Much.  Rather, Google is belatedly taking steps to weed out the tsunami of crap that has been infesting the plague store for years.
  
  Not sure how you weed a tsunami.  Which might be why it has taken them so long.
  
  In addition to removing 1.6 million garbage apps, Google rejected 2.3 million new apps before they could ever reach the app store, and banned 158,000 developer accounts that were attempting various kinds of nefariousness.

• Reddit is issuing firmly-worded letters against researchers who exposed their users as gullible morons.  (404 Media)
  
  The researchers at the University of Zurich used an AI chatbot to argue with Reddit users, and succeeded at winning the arguments more often than nominal humans.
  
  
  
• It costs more than one Bitcoin to mine one Bitcoin.  (PC Gamer)
  
  That'll slow the fish down.
  
  
  
• If you are still using an LG phone, update it now.  (9to5Google)
  
  Not because it's been hacked, but because the update servers will shut down at the end of June.
  
  LG shut down its phone division four years ago, but has kept the software updated since then.
  
  
  
• If you are running Kali Linux, you'll need to add a new update key.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Because they lost the old one.  They weren't hacked; it wasn't compromised.  It just fell down the back of the sofa.
  
  
  
• One word: Trees.  (WSJ)  (archive site)
  
  Carbon sequestration is potentially a $250 billion market - says the article - but what do you do when the forest you are paying for you carbon credits...  Burns down?
  
  Better call the Lorax.
  
  
  

Musical Interlude

Posted by: cxt217 at Thursday, May 01 2025 09:04 AM (ZLF73)

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• We didn't get hacked or hit by ransomware.  We didn't need to.  We run Oracle.  (CNBC)
  
  45 hospitals belonging to Tennessee-based Community Health Systems lost access to all their electronic records for five days because...  Oracle accidentally deleted them.

• The Radeon 9070 GRE is up for pre-order in China with cards shipping May 8.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  At a price that will excite no-one since this 12GB card costs more than the MSRP of the 16GB 9070.
  
  
  
• PyXL is a chip that runs Python.  (RunPyXL)
  
  In hardware.  Albeit at 100MHz on an FPGA.
  
  How fast it is really is unclear but it achieves a 30x reduction in latency for simple I/O tasks common on embedded systems.
  
  Though it's not clear how directly it runs the Python bytecode, since the notes mention that it compiled into PyXL assembly before running.
  
  
  
• Moving away from Rust.  (Dead Money)
  
  Not because the language is bad, necessarily.  If I were writing a new operating system kernel it would be a strong contender.
  
  But most people are not writing new operating system kernels.
  
  
  
• Writing a computer game without a game engine.  (Karl Zylinski)
  
  Caught between Unreal Engine and its problems, Unity and its license, and Godot and its absolute barking insanity?  Why not try none of them!
  
  
  
• How to soft-brick an iPhone in a perpetual boot loop and collect a $17,500 bug bounty from Apple.  (rambo.codes)
  
  Though this specific instance has been fixed - probably - and you'll need to find your own.
  
  
  
• The Boox Mira Pro Color is a 3200x1800 25-inch e-ink colour display.  (Notebook Check)
  
  And it costs just $1899.
  
  No, I didn't add a digit at the end there.  Or at the beginning.  Or in the middle.

• Google's DeepMind team in the UK is reportedly seeking to unionise, upset by Google dropping the "don't be evil" motto about seventeen years ago.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  We regret to inform you that Google's DeepMind team in the UK has been replaced by DeepMind.
  
  
  
• Meanwhile Microsoft's massive AI efforts have come to a screeching halt.  (XDA Developers)
  
  People are willing to dabble with AI, but far fewer are willing to have it infect their own devices.  Copilot has one twentieth the userbase of ChatGPT and is only falling further behind.

• The Lenovo Legion Tab 3 is pretty good if you're looking for a small, fast Android tablet with a high resolution screen.  (Notebook Check)
  
  Which is a good thing since it is the only small Android tablet with a high resolution screen, apart from Aliexpress deals.
  
  Also good because I just bought one.
  
  However, the Lenovo Legion Tab 4 has already been leaked, so you might not want to buy this one unless you see it on sale.  Which I did.
  
  It's comparable to Apple's latest iPad Mini - in fact, the review scores of the two devices were only 0.1% apart.
  
  
  
• Minisforum has a new mini-PC that is not quite so mini.  (Liliputing)
  
  It has a 16 core Ryzen 9 9955HX laptop CPU, up to 96GB of RAM (or 128GB if you can find the modules), three M.2 slots, a PCIe slot (for very small PCIe cards), two 2.5Gb Ethernet ports, and two 10Gb Ethernet ports, which is a bit unusual in this class of device.  They're SFP rather than RJ45, though, so you'll need transceivers or fancy cables.
  
  Prices start at $839.
  
  
  

Musical Interlude

Posted by: Rick C at Tuesday, April 29 2025 05:11 AM (LBTSR)

Posted by: Rick C at Tuesday, April 29 2025 05:13 AM (LBTSR)

Posted by: Rick C at Tuesday, April 29 2025 05:15 AM (LBTSR)

Posted by: PatBuckman at Tuesday, April 29 2025 12:17 PM (rcPLc)

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• 4chan is back.  (Slashdot)
  
  This will annoy the terminally-online haters and delight the...  Also terminally-online haters.
  
  I don't think I've ever visited 4chan, but as a natural-born archivist I'm glad that it's not lost.

• Hyte - maker of the Hololive limited edition computer cases and apparently other stuff as well - has suspended shipments of certain products to the US due to tariff uncertainties.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Maybe they could try shipping them to Australia instead, because it cost me as much in shipping as the case itself to get the Calliope Mori model.
  
  
  
• Blue Shield California shared personal information of 4.7 million members with Google Ads.  (CSO Online)
  
  The outsourced site analytics to Google and then shared the Google Analytics data with Google Ads, because...  Because they're dumbfucks, basically.
  
  
  
• Do not buy GMKtec's mini-NAS.  (Jeff Geerling)
  
  This device offers four M.2 SSD slots and an Intel N150 CPU in a compact device, just a little larger than a regular mini-PC.
  
  It also overheats.
  
  Badly.  The low-power CPU hits 85C under load and the SSDs hit 70C at idle.
  
  If you throttle the CPU to just 800MHz, and throttle the M.2 bays to PCIE 1.0 speeds  - still fast enough to flood 2.5Gb Ethernet - and also attach heatsinks to two of the I/O chips, and attach high-end heatsinks to the SSDs, then you can get those temperatures under control.
  
  And somewhere along the way it stopped crashing.
  
  But at that point it was twice the size it originally shipped at and ran slower than a Raspberry Pi.

• What this country needs is a really good $20,000 electric truck.  Apparently.  (The Verge)  (archive site)
  
  I mean, given what vehicles cost these days, it's worth a shot.
  
  There are a few corners cut, to be sure.  The Slate Truck is available in one colour - slate grey, has no sound system, and only does 150 miles on a charge.  And the body panels are plastic, not metal, though that's not a first even on much more expensive models.
  
  And it's designed to be repairable by the owner, though how far that goes is something that we'll have to see when it comes out next year.

• Netflix now has dialogue-only subtitles because of the current trend for actors to mumble incoherently through their lines.  (Ars Technica)
  
  No, it's not your hearing going.  I mean, that might also be true, but the younger generations also watch TV with subtitles on because they can't tell what the hell the actors are saying.
  
  
  
• Microsoft's Recall spyware is here.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Also Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC is cheap (if a little fiddly to install) and receives security updates through January 2027 - and no new features at all.
  
  Just saying.
  
  If you can find the IoT edition that's supported through 2032 but I don't know where to get that.
  
  
  
• If you mention the /etc/hosts file - found on all modern operating systems - Substack sends etheric ninjas down the wire to terminate you.  (Substack)
  
  Or more specifically it raises a 403 error when the editor attempts to automatically save your post.
  
  Potato, potahto.
  
  
  
• This mini-ITX NAS motherboard has 10Gb Ethernet.  (Liliputing)
  
  And costs $139 if you can find someone who will ship it to you, given current tariff uncertainties.
  
  There are many such boards on sites like Aliexpress, but most of the cheap ones don't have 10GbE.
  
  
  
• Why are companies lining up to buy Chrome?  (The Verge)
  
  Perplexity, OpenAI, and Yahoo are all among the bidders should the government force Google to divest its browser.
  
  But you can already get Chrome-based browsers like Brave and Vivaldi for free.
  
  These companies aren't looking to buy Chrome.  They're looking to buy you.
  
  
  

Musical Interlude

Posted by: PatBuckman at Sunday, April 27 2025 02:51 PM (rcPLc)

Posted by: Sailorcurt at Wednesday, April 30 2025 01:41 AM (iIviZ)

Posted by: PatBuckman at Wednesday, April 30 2025 06:55 AM (rcPLc)

Posted by: normal at Wednesday, April 30 2025 07:45 AM (bg2DR)

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, April 30 2025 12:41 PM (1zWbY)

Posted by: PatBuckman at Thursday, May 01 2025 02:20 AM (rcPLc)

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• Intel has officially announced its plans to fire all the useless freeloaders and force employees to actually show up at the office and do their jobs.  (Tom's Hardware)|
  
  Employees will be required to be in the office four days a week starting in September, a goal likely easier to achieve when the company is also expected to be firing 20% of its workforce.
  
  

• Meanwhile Intel's current-generation and AI-focused chips just aren't selling.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  But cheaper, previous generation chips are selling, particularly the 14th-generation parts.
  
  
  
• AMD reportedly has a 12GB cut-down model of the Radeon 9070 ready to go.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  This will deliver three quarters of everything on the 9070, and neatly plug the gap between the regular 9070 and the upcoming 9060, which will only have half the performance of the 9070.
  
  
  
• Employee monitoring app WorkComposer leaked 21 million screenshots of monitored employees.  (CyberNews)
  
  How could this happen?
  
  
  
• Why US men think college isn't worth it anymore.  (Bloomberg)  (archive site)
  
  Mostly because it's not.

Posted by: Rick C at Friday, April 25 2025 11:10 PM (1zWbY)

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• TSMC's N3P process is now in full production and N3X is set to follow later this year.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  N3P is a slight shrink of N3E which in turn is a small update to N3.  We're only talking about 5% improvements each time, but if you design a chip for N3E you can produced in on N3P and get free performance and power improvements.
  
  
  
• A little further out, TSMC plans to introduce 14A - 1.4nm - production in 2028 and add backside power delivery in 2029.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Many people would benefit from a little backside power delivery.
  
  
  
• Russia is on track to introduce 28nm chips by 2030.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  28nm is actually a very reliable node and a good choice if you're not trying to win Apple as a customer.  Embedded chips are commonly still produced at 40nm.

• Motorola tried to make Perplexity its default AI assistant and Google said no.  (Bloomberg)  (archive site)
  
  Google was just enforcing the terms of its contract with Android phone makers.  But with the recent antitrust decisions on Google's search and advertising divisions, they may no longer be allowed to enforce those terms.
  
  
  
• The EU is fining Apple and Facebook a combined $800 million for not respecting European values.  (Hot Hardware)
  
  Which either means they didn't disappear for an entire month in August, or didn't invade Belgium without leaving a tip.
  
  One of those.
  
  
  
• Cluely is an AI app designed to let you cheat on anything.  It's so bad it's actually easier to just tell the truth.  (The Verge)  (archive site)
  
  Its terms of service also forbid you from using it for its advertised purpose, which is...  Suspect.  They might be high on their own supply over there.
  
  

Posted by: PatBuckman at Thursday, April 24 2025 11:27 PM (rcPLc)

Posted by: normal at Friday, April 25 2025 08:16 AM (bg2DR)

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