• My poem is done.  I abandoned the sonnet and went for five stanzas in the common meter - 8-6-8-6 with an abab rhyme scheme.
  
  That solved the problem of finding another rhyme for "baby", but means it can be sung to the tune of the Pokemon theme - which is hilariously (in)appropriate.
  
  
  
• Neopets' database has been hacked and their user and password information is out there.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Worth noting that their password field appears to be VARCHAR(20) - which means if it's stored as a hexadecimal hash, it's just 80 bits, which means that every single password has likely been cracked already.

• Ford is planning to fund it's expansion into electric vehicles by...  Oh.  (Car and Driver)
  
  They're going to fire 8000 people.
  
  
  
• Is the FiiO K9 Pro ESS Desktop DAC / Amplifier a solid product or audiophile nonsense?  (Tech Powerup)
  
  It costs $850 from AliExpress, so I'm not inclined to find out.
  
  
  
• If you're looking to build a fast fast server, the ASRock WRX80D8-2T might be the just the motherboard you need.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  It's built around the Threadripper Pro rather than Epyc, but it's a server board with remote management and tons of I/O.  
  
  While the upcoming 4th generation "Genoa" Epyc chips will have 96 cores, up from 64, the 96 core models we've seen detailed so far max out at just 2.15GHz.  The Threadripper Pro 5995WX has 64 cores and a top clock speed of 4.5GHz, so depending on the workload it could well be faster.
  
  
  
• Minecraft says blocks and blockchains don't mix.  (WCCFTech)
  
  Mojang (now owned by Microsoft, like most things) said no to integrating NFTs with the game client, the server, or using Minecraft IP with NFTs in any way.
  
  
  
• NASA has scheduled the launch of the Artemis I Moon program mission for August 29.  (ZDNet)
  
  This is an unmanned test run for a program that will ultimately bring us very, very expensive virtue signaling:

  Artemis I is the first of three missions that will culminate with NASA landing the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.

  Astronaut: You picked me because I have the right stuff, yeah?
  NASA Program Director: What?  Oh, yeah, sure.
  
  
  
• Should you not buy the inadequate base model of the M2 MacBook Air?  (9to5Mac)

  Waddya asking me for?  Do I look like a nerd to you?  I'm a journalist.  I don't know shit.

  Think I'm exaggerating?  Here's a literal quote sans Pixy Filter:

  I’ve used the base model M1 MacBook Air for work since it came out in 2020. Now I’m on the base model M2 MacBook Air. This is my short review:

  • SSD: I can’t tell that the base model storage is slower
  • Performance: I can’t tell if the M2 chip throttles
  • Speed: I can’t tell if the M2 chip is faster

  Thanks Zac.  I can see why they pay you the big bucks.
  
  
  

Cat, I'm A Kitty Cat Video of the Day

• Everything continues to go perfectly as planned with no delays or interruptions.
  
  
  
• An Italian court has ordered Cloudflare to block three BitTorrent sites from its DNS service.  (TorrentFreak)
  
  This is an important case, because:
  
  1. The sites are not hosted in Italy.
  2. Cloudflare is not an Italian company.
  3. Cloudflare does not host these sites.
  4. Cloudflare does not provide DNS services for these sites.
  
  Cloudflare runs an open DNS service that allows anyone to look up the IP address for any website anyway.  The Italian courts have basically said you cannot provide public access to public information.
  
  Cloudflare has filed an appeal.
  
  You can easily run your own DNS server, but these recent services - 1.1.1.1, 8.8.8.8, and 9.9.9.9 - are fast, convenient, and reliable, so it's far less common to do so.  Might be time to start again.
  
  
  

Tech News

• Western Digital's 22TB drives are available at retail now.  (AnandTech)
  
  In any colour as long is it's gold, or red, or purple.
  
  Buy the gold.  Unless low power consumption is critical, the gold enterprise model is better than the red NAS model in every way, for the same price.
  
  In fact, if that error rate is correct for the red model, it's trash and should be avoided entirely.
  
  
  
• Need a big chunky all-AMD gaming laptop with a 4k 120Hz display and at least moderately useful battery life?  The Alienware m17 R5 might be it.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  It has AMD's latest Ryzen 9 6900HX CPU - not a big advance over the 5900HX except on integrated graphics, which may or may not matter in a gaming laptop - and Radeon RX6850M XT graphics with 12GB of VRAM - basically a desktop 6700 XT.
  
  While no gaming laptop is going to last long on battery while playing games, it did last six hours for a combination of web browsing, video playback, and OpenGL.  The old R4 model managed two.
  
  That's likely because it can switch to the integrated graphics when you're not playing games, probably cutting the power consumption by, well, two thirds.
  
  
  
• For any (computer-related) X, build your own X.  (GitHub)
  
  And yes, the list includes a guide to building your own X.

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• Revive your crappy old laptop with ChomeOS Flex.  (ZDNet)
  
  Formerly known as Chrome OS Flex.  They just changed the name.
  
  ChromeOS would be great except for the whole Be evil thing.
  
  

Tech News

• Which just got Chromebooks banned in Denmark.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Europe's GDPR seems to just be a hammer to ban anything and everything, but if they want to whack moles, Big Tech is a mole-rich environment.
  
  
  
• And also got Google fined 21 trillion rubles ($35 for mentioning the war.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  You started it!
  
  
  
• Senate Democrats are preparing Net Neutrality legislation.  (The Verge)
  
  Net Neutrality is not in itself a bad idea because ISPs are garbage, but the solution is specific and narrowly targeted legislation.
  
  What is happening instead is legislation that designates internet providers as Title II services, granting the FCC exactly the powers they tried to seize without legislation under Obama.
  
  
  
• Nvidia's RTX 4090 might be fast.  (WCCFTech)
  
  And expensive.  And run very hot.
  
  
  

Posted by: digo at Saturday, April 12 2025 04:35 PM (1PM/2)

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• Google is a wretched hive of scum and villainy.  (EFF)
  
  Google's Manifest V3 will - the company lies - protect the privacy of browser users.  It does this by breaking plugins that protect the privacy of browser users.
  
  Google is not a tech company, but an ad company.  The tech these days is a coincidence, and increasingly a hindrance, to the ad business.

• The VPN industry is a wretched hive of scum and villainy.  (The Verge)
  
  House and Senate Democrats are pushing the FTC to stamp on deceptive practices because (checks notes) abortion.  No, really, that's what the article says, Congress and The Verge also being wretched hives of scum and villainy.
  
  
  
• Elon Musk says we'll soon see Steam-powered Teslas.  (The Verge)
  
  I think that's right.
  
  
  
• AMD's Epyc Genoa looks to be the fastest slow chip around.  (WCCFTech)
  
  Or the slowest fast chip.  The 9654P is slated to offer 96 cores and 384MB of L3 cache, using 360W and running at a peak clock speed of...  2.15GHz.
  
  The 7950X will only have 16 cores but will hit 5.5GHz, and the 13900K (or limited edition KS) is rumoured to nudge 6GHz.
  
  So Genoa is fast, yes, but it's not fast fast.  A freight train is not a Maserati.
  
  
  
• Intel's limited edition Arc A770 graphics card should compete - by the time it hits store shelves - with AMD and Nvidia's low-mid-range cards from the previous generation.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The question is not whether these cards are good (they're not) or good value (they're not), the question is whether Intel will keep doing this until they are good and good value.
  
  I'm guessing not.
  
  
  
• Intel's Core i9 13900K outperforms the 12900K in gaming benchmarks by, uh, 5%.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  I'm excited,

Posted by: normal at Monday, July 18 2022 08:53 PM (obo9H)

Posted by: Frank at Monday, July 18 2022 10:05 PM (rglbH)

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• We're sorry that your delivery hasn't been delivered.  Please click on this link to find out when your delivery is expected to be delivered.
  
  <click>
  
  Your delivery will be delivered in two hours ago.
  
  
  
• Intel is preparing to launch its new range of dedicated graphics cards - competing with Nvidia and AMD - to great fanfare.
  
  Well, some fanfare.
  
  A little fanfare.  (The Verge)
  
  Intel's high-end A750 card will compete against Nvidia's definitely not high-end RTX 3060, at least on some games.  Five games, to be precise.  Intel isn't talking about other games.  You've got five games, what do you want?
  
  Had this launched a year ago, even with the performance caveats, Intel would have sold as many as they could make.  But it's launching into a market where cards are sitting on shelves waiting to be bought at or a little below MSRP, so it's probably doomed.
  
  Intel also pulled its rather nice NUC laptop range that came with Nvidia 3060 and 3070 graphics options and replaced it with models with its own graphics chips, meaning they won't be selling any laptops either.

• Alcohol has no measurable health benefits for those under 29.  (The Lancet / Eurekalert)
  
  Those of us aged 29 and up, however, should get plastered at the every opportunity.  I think that's what it says.
  
  
  
• How to set up Windows 11 without an online account.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The first approach is what I did - yoink the internet connection right out from under it.
  
  
  
• Everything we know about AMD's upcoming Ryzen 7000 range.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  
  
• Everything we know about Intel's upcoming Raptor Lake (13th gen CPU) range.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  
  
• How to lose friends and horrify people: A quintuple indirect Hello, world program in Python.  (Mathspp)
  
  If you're a Python programmer this is worth a look because it's just obscuring simple code with advanced techniques, not obfuscated in the way of C contests.
  
  
  

Posted by: normal at Monday, July 18 2022 11:03 AM (obo9H)

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• Quick one today - family dinner.
  
  
  
• Intel's upcoming 13900K - expected to appear on shelves in October - has been benchmarked.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  10% faster in single-threaded tests, 35% faster in multi-threaded.  That's exactly what we were expecting - it's not a major upgrade but adds 8 more of the low-power cores delivering a decent boost in multi-threaded applications.
  
  
  
• CEOs who publicly disparage their customers are f*cking idiots.  (WCCFTech)
  
  Unity had a ton of good will with the game development community.  Their CEO just set it all on fire.
  
  
  
• 10% of the top million websites are pining for the fjords.  (Craig Campbell)
  
  Less than I would have expected given the amount of shit that gets thrown at web servers these days.
  
  
  
• The Log4j security problem will be with us "for a decade or longer".  (The Register)
  
  Sure, you've upgraded and mitigated.  But have you applied a booster upgrade?

Posted by: Frank at Saturday, July 16 2022 10:46 PM (rglbH)

Posted by: normal at Sunday, July 17 2022 01:21 AM (obo9H)

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• Strapped for cash after a decade of (checks notes) consecutive quarterly record profits Intel is threatening to take its fab and go home if Congress doesn't shower it with money.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The bill to produce said golden shower has passed in both the House and the Senate but is now stuck in reconciliation with President Biden threatening to do "you know, the thing" if the two groups don't find common ground in wasting taxpayer money.
  
  
  

Tech News

• The new M2 MacBook Air is thinner, faster, and more expensive.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Just don't buy the 256GB model.  And don't expect to run more than one external display.  And don't expect to run it under sustained load.  (WCCFTech)
  
  On a short benchmark the M2 Air is about 10% slower than the M2 MacBook Pro.  On a long-running benchmark it's around 25% slower because it overheats.
  
  
  
• Why you can't dig Switzerland.  (Shkspr)
  
  It's granite.  Or possibly chaos.  One of those.
  
  
  
• Something went wrong, says Twitter.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  No shit, said all of Twitter's users.
  
  Also I got suspended for "abuse and harassment" for offering a kill-one-now, kill-one-later abortion deal to first time customers.
  
  They really don't appreciate having their infanticide jihad thrown back in their faces.
  
  
  
• Panasonic is building a $4 billion battery factory in Kansas to supply Tesla.  (Nikkei Asia)
  
  Good, I think.
  
  
  
• OpenSea is laying off 20% of its staff.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  OpenSea is a huge NFT marketplace, which is to say, a global agora for bullshit.
  
  They're blaming this on the "Crypto Winter" - and on the global recession.
  
  
  
• You can look forward to Windows 12 in a couple of years.  (Windows Central)
  
  Windows 10 was supposed to be the last version of Windows, just receiving regular updates with new features.  You'd never need to do a full version upgrade again.
  
  Until Microsoft realised that this would sharply limit opportunities to screw everything up for a billion people.

Posted by: Rick C at Saturday, July 16 2022 11:35 AM (BMUHC)

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• Delutaya, Kson, Namie.
  
  If you're deep enough into the rabbit hole to know one of those names, the others might be worth checking out.
  
  
  
• Google is slowing down hiring for the rest of the year.  (WSJ)
  
  That doesn't sound particularly significant, but the company hires about 10,000 people per quarter.
  
  CEO Sundar Pichai declined to comment in depth, saying only that the company had "filled its quota of useless commie boat anchors" and was looking for people who would actually do something in return for their salaries.

Tech News

• 94% of companies have faced an online attack in the past year.  (CSO Online)
  
  The other 6% also faced an online attack and were too busy to answer a freaking poll right now because their website was down.
  
  
  
• The Chinese Wikipedia section on Russia was a work of elaborate fiction.  (Vice)
  
  Apparently one woman wrote or edited 300 separate articles, inventing politics, history, and references from whole cloth.  All the articles linked together and confirmed each other's details, making the fable tricky to spot unless you looked, well, anywhere other than Wikipedia.
  
  Some of the articles were even translated and added to other editions of Wikipedia, because nobody ever bothers to check if something that sounds good is actually true.
  
  
  

How It Started Music Video of the Day

• There's not a lot of tech news this week so I'm going to mention another government that has fucked things up (though not destroyed the entire country): The average household energy bill in Britain is expected to soar from £1,300 to £3,300 in the space of a year.  (BBC News)
  
  That's with price controls.  The article mentions that 30 energy companies have gone broke due to soaring gas prices but doesn't say why the one would lead to the other.  But if costs go up and the price you can charge is limited by government fiat, you are going to go out of business.
  
  
  
• Meanwhile here in Australia it took our new center-left government two weeks to create an energy crisis and our own soaring prices.  And here's me moving to a much larger all-electric house in a much colder climate in the middle of winter just as electricity prices spike to new records.  Yay.

• Alibaba's new 128-core Arm server CPU is a little faster than AMD's existing 64-core chips.  (Serve the Home)
  
  If it weren't, they'd have a problem.
  
  
  
• Axie Infinity got hacked - and lost $620 million worth of Monopoly money - from a fake job offer posted by North Korea.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Oops.
  
  
  
• The Nokia T10 is a pretty solid small Android tablet except for the low-resolution screen.  (Liliputing)
  
  WHY DO THEY DO THAT?
  
  It has dual A75 cores and six A55 cores, which would make it much faster than my Lenovo Tab M8 FHD, but the screen is 1280x800.  My 2013 Nexus 7 was 1920x1200.
  
  
  
• Is the NZCT N5 Z690 a good motherboard?  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  No, not particularly.
  
  
  
  

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