• A day with the Huawei Mate Pro 30 and it's 7680 fps camera.  (AnandTech)
  
  Slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowfies.
  
  
• Nothing as a service.
  
  Turns out that going cheap is horribly expensive.  At even a modest scale Amazon Lambda costs two to eight times as much as EC2, and EC2 is already not cheap.
  
  
• Bedrock is a modular, WAN-replicated, blockchain nope.
  
  Nope nope nope.
  
  
• You can now pay for public transport in Sydney with your credit card, debit card, or phone.  (ZDNet)
  
  Just touch it to the green arrow at the gate and off you go.
  
  I noticed this today - had an office day after hiding at home for an extended period, and both the new Metro line and the new payment system have gone live.  Hope the payment system is more reliable than the Metro, which almost made me late even though I wasn't using it.
  
  
• Speaking of Sydney, we're number six!  (Slashdot)
  
  On the list of most-surveilled cities outside China.  (China takes eight of the top ten spots worldwide.)
  
  Though we have less than one fifth the number of cameras per person of London, it's not a number I'm particularly excited about.
  
  I wonder where they all are.  The Metro line I just mentioned is fully automated and uses a bunch of them, but not enough to account for the total.

Posted by: Rick C at Monday, September 23 2019 11:29 PM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, September 24 2019 08:52 AM (PiXy!)

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• Water-cooling your Raspberry Pi.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Rather extreme water cooling at that.  Well, extreme water, cooling is another matter.
  
  
• Following problems relating to bootleg THC vaping solutions, Walmart is reportedly ceasing sales of vaping supplies pushing people back onto more harmful tobacco.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Not directly tech-related except in the theme of everything is stupid and legislation mostly makes it worse.
  
  
• Time to weld your rusty pandas.  (Not a Monad Tutorial)
  
  For great justice.
  
  
• Australia has announced that it is tripling its space research budget and will be joining the US in both manned and robot missions to the Moon and Mars.  (NASA)
  
  Australia will specifically be developing automated mining equipment to operate on the Moon, which offers nearly as harsh an environment as suburban Melbourne.
  
  

Posted by: Mauser at Tuesday, September 24 2019 11:11 AM (Ix1l6)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, September 24 2019 11:47 PM (PiXy!)

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• It seems that AMD ran out of September.  Thirdripper and the 3950X will be arriving in November.  (AnandTech)
  
  The 3950X is the 16 core mainstream model; third generation Threadripper will be 24 cores and up.
  
  Given the ongoing shortages of the 3900X this shouldn't come as a surprise, though at least a paper launch of the 3950X was expected this month.
  
  This is the first official news of Thirdripper, apart from Lisa Su's statement that there would be such a thing when its absence on one slide sent rumours flying.
  
  
• A French court has said that yes, Cinderella, you can resell your Steam games.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  That will be interesting.
  
  
• IBM has announced a working quantum computer with 53 qubits.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Their previous model had just 20 qubits.  That means the new one is potentially 8 billion times more powerful, because in theory the computational capacity of a quantum computer scales exponentially with the number of qubits.  We'll see how it turns out, because reality is rarely so generous.
  
  
• Network effects mean that small social networks die and large social networks suck.  (TechDirt)
  
  It doesn't help that all the major social networks are run by idiots.
  
  
• There are tens of thousands of Facebook apps?  (Tech Crunch)
  
  I mean, that still have working API access.
  
  
• YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki says "Sorry everyone, YouTube is run entirely by idiots.".  (Tech Crunch)
  
  When a journalist pointed out that she ran YouTube she replied "What, no I don't.  You're so silly."
  
  
• Gigabyte has a slew of new motherboards on the way including at least five models for Thirdripper unless they don't.  (WCCFTech)
  
  I'm eager to see what kind of chipset AMD cooks up for Thirdripper.  It looks like they have a mid-sized four-channel I/O core, so they could repeat the trick they did with the X570 and rotate that 180° and use it as the chipset.  At the other extreme they could rely on the built-in features of the I/O die and not have a chipset at all.
  
  
• Thousands of words on the socioeconomics of healing crystals without ever addressing the fact that they don't fucking work.  (The Guardian)
  
  
• WCCFTech noted weeks ago that WeWork was a losing proposition.
  
  Investors are just starting to realise that, being rather dumber than a random tech rumour site run on a shoestring budget.
  

Video of the Day

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• Want to go faster than fast?  Gigabyte's Aorus Gen4 AIC SSD can hit 15GB per second.  (AnandTech)
  
  It comes with 4 2TB M.2 SSDs installed.  Price not specified.
  
  
• Want to go just normal fast?  AMD's Ryzen 5 3500 and 3500X are on their way unless they aren't.  (WCCFTech)
  
  6 cores and 6 threads, where the previous generation had 4 cores and 8 threads.  The only difference between X and non-X - according to the leaks - is the L3 cache.  X has 32MB where non-X has just 16MB.
  
  Prices are expected to be $149 for X and $129 for non-X.
  
  
• Apple's Safari browser is dead.  (GitHub)
  
  It hasn't stopped moving yet, but as of Safari 13 it will no longer support proper ad blockers.  This is in the name of security: Apple is making it impossible for browser extensions to collect data on web pages you view.  But in doing that, they make it impossible for ad blockers to work.
  
  You can of course still use something like Pi-hole to nuke the ads before they even reach your browser.
  
  
• A vapid virtue-signalling Ruby programmer working at Google broke a bunch of people's Chef installations by yanking his library from GitHub.  (ZDNet)
  
  He discovered that (a) ICE uses Chef and (b) ICE detains illegal immigrants.  So he took down his library.  Which didn't bother ICE in the least but did cause problems for a lot of other people.
  
  Bright lad you have there Google.
  
  
• YouTube has decided that you are no longer you.  (One Angry Gamer)
  
  Their latest stupid trick is retroactively changing the verification requirements, so that even though your account has been verified for ten years, it isn't any more.  Ha ha, what a lark.
  
  
• Twitter is testing a change that lets you moderate replies to your posts.  (Thurrott.com)
  
  This is stupid.
  
  
  

• AMD has announced a 280W 64 core Epyc CPU for water-cooled  servers.  (AnandTech)
  
  Admittedly Intel's 56 core parts use 400W, but this is starting to get out of hand.  The 5nm node is only expected to reduce power consumption by 20%, so that's not going to solve things either.
  
  
• Oppo's Reno 10x Zoom has a 5x zoom.  (AnandTech)
  
  Apart from that it's all the usual - Snapdragon 855 with a 2340x1080 screen, 6 or 8GB RAM, 128 or 256GB flash, and no headphone jack.
  
  
• The graphics on Intel's 10th gen Irish Coffee Lake processors are much improved.  (PC Perspective)
  
  It actually beats the Ryzen 3700U in several tests, though it gets soundly beaten in others.  Lots of benchmarks at the link if you're looking to buy a laptop with an iGPU adequate for light gaming.
  
  
• Intel's 10 core 10900X high-end desktop CPU is slightly faster than a Ryzen 3800X.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Intel said earlier that their 10th gen HEDT parts would deliver far better price/performance than current models.  I said that would mean price cuts.  I was right.
  
  
• Intel's Core i9 9900KS will have a 127W TDP which means it will actually use 250W at full load.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Intel's standard desktop TDP numbers are measured at base clock, and the 9900KS features a 5.0GHz all core boost clock.  Great chip for getting through the winter if you live somewhere like Hokkaido.
  
  
• Comcast announces yet another streaming platform.  (TechDirt)
  
  Wealth isn't finite, true, but you guys are still idiots.
  
  
• Tumblr's new parent just raised $300 million in funding which ought to last them six months.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  
• Fuck you cPanel.  Was wondering why I was suddenly leaking another hundred bucks a month.  Plesk it is then.
  
  
• How to programatically handle the incomprehensibly tortuous new European Union copyright laws.  (GitHub)
  
  
• Thirdripper is up to 70% faster.  (ZDNet)
  
  The current 2990WX is a niche product that performs very well in some cases, and quite poorly in others, due to high memory latency on two of the four CPU dies.  It would seem that this has been fixed.  It would seem that this has been very fixed.  And that's just the 32 core part - AMD can freely scale up from there as needed.
  
  
• Samsung announced its first PCIe 4.0 SSDs with transfer rates up to 8GB per second.  (ZDNet)
  
  These first models are for PCIe slots and U.2 2.5" drives, not M.2.  And while prices were not mentioned you can count on "not cheap".  They do have a form of internal RAID and will keep working even if an entire flash die fails, so that's good.
  
  
• Well, that's spectacular, even for YouTube.  (One Angry Gamer)
  
  They suspended Laci Green for impersonating a well-known YouTuber, specifically, Laci Green.
  
  Laci Green appealed this, and YouTube promptly responded...  And confirmed the suspension.
  
  

Posted by: Rick C at Friday, September 20 2019 12:46 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Rick C at Friday, September 20 2019 12:50 AM (Iwkd4)

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• HP's Elite Dragonfly delivers a 24.5 hour battery life with the optional extended battery which you have to choose when you order it because it has no upgrade or expansion options whatsoever, not even a microSD slot.  (AnandTech)
  
  Also missing are PgUp/PgDn/Home/End keys.
  
  
• You could have got an AMD AM4 CPU for $4.90 if you had clicked this link before I posted it.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Frys was clearing out old stock of A6-9500 chips for cheaper than a 6502.
  
  
• TSMC's pipeline is full.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Earlier this year with the slowdown of the mobile market TSMC was left with spare capacity, but apparently things have picked up.
  
  
• Don't call Nazis Nazis in Austria.  (TechDirt)
  
  
• Functor, applicative, and monad: How to make any programmer's eyes glaze over.  (GitLab)
  
  
• AMD's Epyc 7302P is quite good.  (Serve the Home)
  
  It demolishes Intel solutions that cost twice as much.  It's "only" 16 cores, but does have 128MB of L3 cache, which is a huge win for certain workloads.
  
  
• Australia's NBN has proposed new 250Mbps and 1Gbps speeds which no-one will be able to get.  (ZDNet)
  
  
• No.
  
  
  
  
  
  

Video of the Day

Posted by: Jay at Thursday, September 19 2019 04:08 AM (mrlXS)

Posted by: ahd at Thursday, September 19 2019 10:08 AM (p41ME)

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• WiFi 6 is here. (AnandTech)
  
  It's one better than WiFi 5.
  
  
• Cerebras, the company that built that enormous 400,000 core AI processor, has partnered with the Department of Energy to build supercomputers based on it. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Could be interesting. A rack full of these would draw about a megawatt.
  
  
• Intel's Tiger Lake will be a quad-core 3.4GHz part. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time.
  
  
• Building an active-backplane 32-bay 2.5" NAS system? Onda has the motherboard for you. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Looks like it has room for 15mm drive height too.
  
  
• The witch hunt came for Richard Stallman. (Hacker News)
  
  He's resigned from the FSF because who needs that kind of shit.
  
  Here's the typical garbage article written about the events, which manages to get every major fact wrong. (ZDNet)
  
  While I often link to ZDNet, that particular writer has never, to my knowledge, written anything that wasn't a complete mess.
  
  
• GitLab has received $268 million in Series E funding. (Tech Crunch)
  
  I use GitLab. It's good, and keeps getting better. It is pretty resource-intensive, though, and the hardware requirements keep increasing.
  
  
• Employees accuse companies of using IT to increase productivity and improve corporate profitability. (ZDNet)
  
  On second thought, let's not read that article. It is a silly piece.
  
  

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, September 18 2019 06:43 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, September 18 2019 06:58 AM (Iwkd4)

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• 64-core Epyc can do 8K encoding in real time.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Better than real time - 79 frames per second.
  
  I don't think this is a major selling point for Epyc, but when Thirdripper lands you can bet AMD will be showing this off.
  
  
• SVG is Turing-complete because of course it is.  (GitHub)
  
  
• HP printers want to spy on you in order to sell you even more overpriced ink.
  
  
• The Instagram app, it turns out, is afraid of no ghosts.  (Medium)
  
  Interesting because it's a pretty minor problem but well-detailed.  I deal with this sort of thing in my day job all the time.
  
  
• Good news, everyone!
  
  

• The Ryzen 9 3950X lands in two weeks unless it doesn't.  (WCCFTech)
  
  AMD haven't said anything more specific than September but there's only so much September to go around.
  
  
• Meanwhile the Ryzen 3900X has the third highest PassMark score.
  
  At 31,877 the $499 3900X is just behind the Intel's $3000 Xeon W-3175X at 33,358.
  
  The large L3 cache on Zen 2 seems to give a significant boost to AMD on this benchmark - the 3700X outperforms the Threadripper 2990WX.  So this may or may not apply to your particular workload.
  
  
• Z is a functional language that installs with NPM and compiles to JavaScript.
  
  Having just spent a couple of days working with TypeScript, I can confidently say that this entire concept needs to die in a fire.
  
  
• Build your own 6502 computer.  (Eater.net)
  
  All the nerdy kids are doing it.
  
  
  
  
• Unionise, get fired is the new get woke, go broke.  (BBC)
  
  I seem to recall hearing of these particular idiots before.  But it's possible I'm thinking of different idiots.
  
  
• Buried in this typically moronic article about France banning Facebook's Libra is an absolute gem.  (Vice)

  "The monetary sovereignty of countries is at stake [from] possible privatization of money by a sole actor with more than 2 billion users on the planet,” [said French finance minister Bruno Le Maire].

  The monetary sovereignty.  Of France.
  
  
• Discord's Nitro game store is dead, surprising absolutely no-one.  (Neowin)
  
  Except possibly Google, who are very easily surprised, being complete morons.
  
  
• Ash finally won a Pokemon tournament.
  
  

Posted by: Rick C at Monday, September 16 2019 03:03 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Monday, September 16 2019 12:23 PM (PiXy!)

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