• Intel announces record second quarter earnings, a 78% increase in profits, and expects 10% year-on-year growth - and gets hammered on the stock market.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The last part is because AMD's second generation EPYC server chips will be out early next year, offering 48 or 64 cores where Intel's largest chips have 28 cores.  Intel won't have a response ready until 2020.
  
  
• Do I have NBN?  No, I do not.
  
  
• Vibora is a very fast Python web framework with out-of-the-box support for async and Redis caching.  Critical parts are written in Cython for speed.  Which means that you can't use PyPy for speed for your own code, because the PyPy / Cython interface suuuuucks.
  
  Which means that you'd likely be better off using PyPy and something simple like CherryPy, ignoring the horrors of async entirely and letting uWSGI manage your workers.  Which is, as it happens, also faster than the major Swift web frameworks like Vapor and Kitura.

Posted by: Rick C at Monday, July 30 2018 02:56 AM (ITnFO)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Monday, July 30 2018 11:12 AM (PiXy!)

Posted by: cxt217 at Monday, July 30 2018 01:08 PM (BcQU4)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

• Asus announces a Xeon E workstation motherboard, the WS C246 Pro.
  
  A notable point is the presence of four PCIe x16 slots and two M.2 SSD slots.  That's a theoretical 72 PCIe lanes, where the Xeon E provides a total of 16 (plus four dedicated to the chipset).
  
  Ryzen is only slightly better (16 + 4 chipset + 4 M.2), but AMD's EPYC offers 128 lanes.  Go EPYC or go home.  (AnandTech)
  
  
• RPG Maker MV is coming to the Xbox, PS4, and Switch.  It already supports Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and web.  (I've tinkered with it a little, and the web player seems to work pretty well.)  Release date November in Japan, 2019 for the rest of the world.  (Nintendo Life)
  
  Here's a launch video that shows you absolutely nothing about the application or the games it can produce.
  
  
  
  The original trailer gives you a slightly more realistic view.
  
  
  
  It's 73% off at Humble Bundle right now.
  
  
• Google accidentally removed the (extremely popular) Metamask Ethereum wallet app from their Play Store - while leaving a fake app in place.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  
• Xeon Phi is officially dead now, rather than just dying, as it has been since launch.  This is not Intel's Xeon server CPUs, which are raking in cash hand-over-chip, but a separate line of failed GPGPUCPUs that no-one ever wanted.  (The Next Platform)
  
  
• Twitter's stock tumbles 21% as investors begin to notice that the company is run by idiots.  (MarketWatch)

• Intel's 10nm parts will be on the shelves for the holiday season...  Of 2019.  (AnandTech)
  
  
• Amazon Rekognition may know something we don't  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  
• Slack is buying and exterminating competing platform HipChat.  (TechCrunch)
  
  
• A new version of the Spectre CPU vulnerability can leak data over the network from any server...  At a top speed of three bytes per day.  (Ars Technica)
  
  
• Twitter explains that they do not shadow ban users.  Their platform is just so terrible that everyone thinks they're shadow banned.  (Twitter)

• So I was setting up our new servers at Digital Ocean and I thought to myself, it would be really nice if they had projects similar to Google Cloud and I didn't even say it out loud so apparently they can read minds and also code really really fast.
  
  
• Intel's server roadmap has leaked.  Key details: It's a year behind schedule and is named something Lake.  (AnandTech)
  
  
• AMD's stock is up on surging revenues and profits and the promise of future gains in the serve market.  (MarketWatch)
  
  
• Facebook's stock plummets because they suck.  (MarketWatch)
  
  

Picture of the Day

• Baked Apples? There's a patch for that. (AnandTech)
  
  The thermal throttling problem on the i9 Macbook Pro looks to only happen with certain workloads - though not specific applications - and Apple have released a patch which alleviates the problem.
  
  Apple's statement, via Six Colors:

  Following extensive performance testing under numerous workloads, we’ve identified that there is a missing digital key in the firmware that impacts the thermal management system and could drive clock speeds down under heavy thermal loads on the new MacBook Pro. A bug fix is included in today’s macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 Supplemental Update and is recommended. We apologize to any customer who has experienced less than optimal performance on their new systems. Customers can expect the new 15-inch MacBook Pro to be up to 70% faster, and the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar to be up to 2X faster, as shown in the performance results on our website.

  That's a fairly substantial difference.
  
  
• AMD's upcoming Zen 2 will be between 10% and 130% faster than current chips depending on stuff. (Fudzilla)
  
  
• For those of you busy building your very own C256 prototypes but finding supplies of the 6851 SID chips rather constrained, you can now emulate it using a Teensy 3.6.
  
  Which being a 180MHz 32-bit RISC processor is likely more powerful than everything else in your C256 combined. (Hackaday)
  
  
• YouTube loading slow? Might be a case of Invented Here Syndrome.
  
  In case this guy has you blocked too:
  

  YouTube page load is 5x slower in Firefox and Edge than in Chrome because YouTube's Polymer redesign relies on the deprecated Shadow DOM v0 API only implemented in Chrome. You can restore YouTube's faster pre-Polymer design with this Firefox extension: https://t.co/F5uEn3iMLR

  — Chris Peterson (@cpeterso) July 24, 2018

  
  
• It's just gone eight o'clock and time for the battery on your RAID controller to explode. I think that happened to us once. (ServeTheHome)

Picture of the Day

Posted by: Armed and Larry at Saturday, July 28 2018 01:52 PM (rTqn/)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

• I mentioned that my Dell has a fast Toshiba XG5 drive.  They just announced the even faster XG6.  M.2 SSDs are pretty much at the limit of PCIe performance now, so there won't be any significant performance changes until PCIe 4.0 arrives...  Next year.  (AnandTech)
  
  AnandTech also offers their recommendations for the best SSDs for mid-2018.  Interestingly, the M.2 NVMe drive they suggest is not from Samsung or Intel or even Toshiba, but the HP EX920.  Mainly because it's about 30% cheaper without suffering much in performance.
  
  Slight problem in my case is that it's not available in Australia.  At all.  Anywhere.  Not even from NewEgg, who have it in stock.
  
  
• If you have a 2018 MacBook Pro back up your data regularly.  Because if the chip that controls the touchbar fails, you may lose all your data permanently. 
  
  Or just send it back for a refund and buy a real computer.  (MacRumors)
  
  
• Details of Intel's upcoming 8 core desktop chips may or may not have leaked.  If the leaks are correct, hyperthreading will be disabled on all but the new top-end i9 9900K, which means that you'll be comparing a 6-core 12-thread 8700K with an 8-core 8-thread 9700K - performance gains will likely be small.  (WCCFTech)

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, July 25 2018 09:13 AM (ITnFO)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, July 25 2018 08:18 PM (PiXy!)

Posted by: Rick C at Thursday, July 26 2018 01:01 AM (Q/JG2)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

• Benchspotter reviews Seagate's 2.5" FireCuda SSHD.  The results are meh; the added 8GB solid-state cache is enough to make a 5400 rpm drive run like a 7200 rpm drive, but it is not remotely like a true SSD.  (Benchspotter)
  
  I wish they'd put a useful amount of cache in these drives - 32GB at least; 128GB better.  That would increase the price, sure, but on the other hand it would actually be useful.
  
  
• ServeTheHome have EPYC video of hot-swap NVMe action which is frankly not that exciting because it all just worked.  NVMe drives on EPYC systems are wired directly to the CPU, not the chipset, so this is fairly neat anyway.
  
  
• I still don't have NBN.

Posted by: Kayle at Tuesday, July 24 2018 01:58 PM (TtvMc)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, July 24 2018 08:28 PM (PiXy!)

Posted by: Kayle at Wednesday, July 25 2018 12:12 AM (TtvMc)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, July 25 2018 01:07 PM (PiXy!)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

• HP has some teeny weeny workstations with the new Xeon E CPUs.  At 8 inches square they're a lot bigger than recent mini-PCs (the one mentioned yesterday is 5 inches square) but support workstation CPUs and graphics and ECC RAM.  (AnandTech)
  
  
• Ubuntu 18.04 is still a pain in the bum.  If you use Percona packages or the official MongoDB release, things will break.
  
  
• Minecraft now supports Windows.  Not in way you might think.  Video

Picture of the Day

Posted by: J Greely at Monday, July 23 2018 01:48 AM (tgyIO)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Monday, July 23 2018 11:23 AM (PiXy!)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

• Dell doesn't skimp on SSDs.  Rally turns out to have a very nice Toshiba XG5 which is not far short of the gold standard of the Samsung 970.  Only problem is it's kind of small for my needs at 256GB.
  
  If Dell refreshes their AMD Inspiron 27 lineup, there's a few things I'd like them to do:
  
  
• Use the new LCD panel (as found in Rally Vincent), which is brighter and has a better colour gamut.  The old panel was good but a bit muted.  (I can't get any more detailed information from the control panel.)
  
  
• Enable full USB 3.1 gen 2 (10Gbit).  Five USB 3.0 ports is nice, but it's a bit disappointing that they are "only" 5.0Gbit.
  
  Or Thunderbolt or USB 3.2, if either is practical.  But at least full speed USB 3.1.
  
  
• Have some build-to-order options, or at least a higher-end model.  8 cores and an 8GB RX 580 is great, but 16GB of RAM, 256GB of SSD, and 1TB disk are all on the small side.  And with only two RAM slots, one M.2 slot, and one drive bay, upgrading means removing the old one.
  
  
• Even better, make room for more internal options.  Four RAM slots would be a huge win, as would a second M.2 slot, even if it's slower bcause you ran out of PCIe lanes.  Consider ditching or shrinking the subwoofer and using the reclaimed space for a second 2.5" drive bay. It's not a very good subwoofer anyway.
  
  
• Move the webcam up top like you've done with the Intel models.
  
  
• While you're at it, 10Gbit ethernet would be great, since it's not something that can be readily upgraded.  (Or can it?  I need to check the service manual.  One reason I got these things is that almost everything is replaceable.)
  
  
• It's all about the octo-onions or something  (via Hacker News)
  
  (Beyond real numbers and complex numbers, there are two more types of number - quaternions and octonions.  Quaternions are the core of computer graphics;  your graphics card is a huge array of quaternion calculators.  And that's it - there are no other generall useful types of number.  While our games are built of quaternions, it seems reality might be constructed of octonions.)
  
  
• Reddit have redisigned their site to increase density.  It's kind of bad.  Density is not a design goal.
  
  
• Apparently HP bought SGI at some point and I missed it.  Should have happened sooner while there was more left of SGI to buy.  Anyway, they have a new supercomputer if you are in the market for brains in a box.  (ServeTheHome)
  
  
• Ceci n'est pas une iPhone.  (Motherboard, via Six Colors)
  
  
• Is data pollution the new air pollution?  Connected cars may generate 1.5 million petabytes of data per year by 2020.  Which isn't far away at all.  F1 cars currently genreate 36TB of data over the course of a single race.  Self-driving cars can generate 1TB per hour.  (SemiEngineering, Barrons)
  
  
• Chuwi has a nice looking toaster that doubles as a Windows PC.  Video (via Fanless Tech)
  
  There's something very similar available from Australian retailer of cheap Chinese-manufactured goodies for A$219 (4GB/32GB).  That includes sales tax, and works out to US$160, which is a lot better than the Chuwi version at $240.  I'm tempted to buy one, throw in a spare 2.5" drive, and leave it to run Linux stuff for me, like tracking the Ethereum and Stellar ledgers.
  
  Update: Looks like the Kogan device is a rebadged ACEPC AK1.  Getting Linux working is possible but fiddly.  I've had that Grub problem on older servers as well, but Ubuntu 18.04 seems to fix it.

Picture of the Day

Posted by: Wonderduck at Sunday, July 29 2018 09:55 AM (0VFKi)

Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, July 29 2018 11:32 AM (ITnFO)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, July 29 2018 02:36 PM (PiXy!)

Hide Comments | Add Comment