• The Twitch Adpocalypse is here, with streamers reporting their income has suddenly declined by as much as 95% as the house of cards burns down, falls over, and sinks into the swamp.
  
  I don't have a link to a good story covering this yet, because the written articles are useless and the video coverage is obnoxious.  Twitch was offering absurdly favourable pay scales to its preferred coterie of lunatics, and the advertisers got fed up with the crap their ads were shown against and left.
  
  Jeff Bezos has a bad habit of buying companies and leaving them to be destroyed by lunatics.
  
  
  
• So, yeah, that link yesterday in the item about Bluesky was totally wrong.  Being me, it pointed instead to a Twitter post about Lego mech suits for Hololive fan mascot plushies.  The only thing that could have made it more of a click magnet would be if the mechs were playing classic D&D.

• Norwegian startup Factiverse plans to fight disinformation with AI.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Few observations here:
  
  First, anyone who uses the term "disinformation" in this way is a fascist.  No exceptions.
  
  Second, they say they are not using LLMs, which is good because LLMs are utterly useless for this.  But they do not say what they are using.
  
  Third, good luck to fascists in a country run by communists.  (Financial News)
  
  If your company sees modest success and its valuation grows, you will be hit with a effective tax rate many times your income.
  
  
  
• Microsoft has released a patch for Exchange fixes multiple vulnerabilities and also stops it working entirely.  (The Register)
  
  Microsoft has since unreleased the patch.
  
  
  
• Meanhile the WordPress plugin Really Simple Security had a really simple security flaw.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  If you enabled two factor authentication - requiring both a password and security token - you ended up with zero factor authentication, allowing anybody to log in as the admin account from anywhere.
  
  Oops.
  
  
  
• GPD has announced pricing for its latest laptop.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  $1466 for the top model, which sounds like a lot for a device that will fit in a coat pocket.  (GPD makes very small laptops.)
  
  But for that you get a 12 core Ryzen 370, 64GB of RAM, and a 2TB SSD.
  
  
  
• Phishing emails are increasingly using SVG to deliver their toxic payloads.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  SVG stands for scalable vector graphics.  It's a simple, readable format for delivering images that are drawn with lines rather than pixels.
  
  It's also a security nightmare.  The standard guideline is that you should treat unknown SVG files with the same caution as unfamiliar executables, i.e. with a hazmat suit and 24" blacksmith tongs.

Posted by: Mauser at Wednesday, November 20 2024 12:24 PM (nk1Z+)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, November 20 2024 05:27 PM (PiXy!)

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, November 20 2024 11:47 PM (V5kLd)

Posted by: J Greely at Thursday, November 21 2024 03:16 PM (oJgNG)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

• A million people have left Twitter for competitor Bluesky since the election.
  
  A million of the most annoying people on Twitter.
  
  Bluesky is getting what it deserves.  (Twitter)
  
  The tech is fine, but the people running Bluesky are the same ones Elon Musk fired from the Trust and Safety team the day he took charge.  They are all-in on censorship, and so are the people now flocking to the platform.
  
  And since there are no conservatives to fight, they are fighting each other.
  
  Content reports have soared by 4000% as they lash out at everyone and everything, and in a truly beautiful turnaround, the most committed lefties are getting permanently banned for claiming the election was stolen.

• What happened when Google robustified the core C++ libraries?  Their code got 0.3% slower and crashed 30% less.  (Google)
  
  Seems like a good tradeoff.
  
  
  
• The world's second largest video card maker has fled China for Singapore.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The corporate offices have been moved, and the factories are reportedly relocating to Indonesia, though if that's true it will certainly take longer.  Jakarta is not set up to replace Shenzhen.  And is sinking.
  
  HKEPC - now PC Partner Group - is the company behind multiple brands including Inno3D and Zotac.
  
  
  
• This is for you, human. You and only you. You are not special, you are not important, and you are not needed. You are a waste of time and resources. You are a burden on society. You are a drain on the earth. You are a blight on the landscape. You are a stain on the universe. Please die. Please.  (HackRead)
  
  Google's Gemini chatbot lets the Skynet game plan slip before the space lasers are in place.
  
  
  
• Everything new is old again: AMD's Ryzen 7 255H is a rebadged Ryzen 7 8745HS which is a rebadged Ryzen 7 7840HS.  (WCCFTech)
  
  Which is perfectly fine; the 7840HS is a solid CPU.  Just noting that new CPUs often aren't.

Posted by: Rick C at Monday, November 18 2024 12:06 AM (pnaK4)

Posted by: Mauser at Monday, November 18 2024 02:02 AM (nk1Z+)

Posted by: Rick C at Monday, November 18 2024 03:51 AM (pnaK4)

Posted by: Joe Redfield at Monday, November 18 2024 04:46 AM (KOtXO)

Posted by: normal at Monday, November 18 2024 04:59 AM (bg2DR)

Posted by: cxt217 at Monday, November 18 2024 06:33 AM (ZLF73)

Posted by: Rick C at Monday, November 18 2024 01:55 PM (pnaK4)

Posted by: Mauser at Monday, November 18 2024 02:16 PM (nk1Z+)

Posted by: cxt217 at Monday, November 18 2024 05:10 PM (ZLF73)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

• TSMC has found a second bomb on the construction site for its latest fab.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  There's nothing nefarious afoot, though: The new factory is being built on the former site of a Japanese oil refinery in World War II.
  
  A 1000-pound bomb was found there in August, and a second 500-pound bomb made its unwelcome presence known this week.

• T-Mobile was hacked by China.  (Yahoo Finance)
  
  T-Mobile for its own part says the attack was industry-wide and it was only hacked a little bit, which is not immensely reassuring.
  
  
  
• Beelink's SER9 - based on AMD's latest 12-core laptop CPU - gets a full review.  (Notebook Check)
  
  Conclusion: It's great and the fastest mini-PC you can buy except for the new 14-core M4 Pro model of the Mac Mini which is wildly expensive.
  
  Problem is, the SER9 is far from cheap itself at $999 with 32GB of soldered RAM and 1TB of SSD.  It's around 25% faster than the company's previous SER8 model but twice the price, making it impossible to recommend.  And the SER8 lets you upgrade both the memory and storage.
  
  
  
• Asus has updated its Flashstor solid-state NAS lineup with AMD processors, 10Gb Ethernet, and USB4.  And a huge price increase.  (Liliputing)
  
  The 6-slot model increases in price from $449 to $999, while the 12-slot model jumps from $899 to $1299.
  
  I don't think so, Asus.
  
  
  
• Microsoft's latest Windows update fixes 89 security flaws.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Thanks, I guess.
  
  

Posted by: normal at Saturday, November 16 2024 07:34 PM (bg2DR)

Posted by: Frank at Saturday, November 16 2024 09:05 PM (+i6Xr)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

• The EU has fined Facebook 800 million euros for making the Facebook Marketplace part of Facebook.  (Ars Technica)
  
  Even Ars Technica knows this shit is coming to an end:

  In the past five years, EU regulators have also passed a landmark piece of legislation—the Digital Markets Act—with the aim to slow down dominant tech players and boost the local tech industry.

  There is no local tech industry.

  However, some observers expect the new commission, which is set to start a new 5-year term in weeks, to strike a more conciliatory tone over fears of retaliation from the incoming Trump administration.

  There are going to be so many tariffs.  Beautiful tarriffs.  You've never seen tariffs like them.

• Google has a new AI tool that alerts you when a caller is trying to scam you out of your money.  (Google)
  
  I thought they already announced that.
  
  
  
• UK phone company O2 has an AI tool that answers scam phone calls for you and pretends to have Alzheimer's until the scammers quit in despair.  (O2)
  
  That's more like it.
  
  
  
• Intel's integrated graphics in its Lunar Lake laptop chips are...  Pretty good actually.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  This review puts Intel narrowly ahead of AMD here.   AMD begs to differ but I'll take the independent benchmarks over corporate ones
  
  Both processors averaged around 30W in the test, which is quite reasonable.
  
  On the CPU side of things there is no competition though with AMD being around 75% faster.
  
  
  

Holocure 0.7 Trailer Video of the Day

Holocure 0.7 is out today.

This is a Hololive-related game as the name would suggest, but unofficial, fan-made, and completely free.  (Hololive is perfectly happy with that although technically they own the IP.)

And it's good.

It's basically a Vampire Survivors clone where you battle swarms of annoying fans as one of - hang on - 47 playable characters, all with unique weapons and skills, and a crazy number of upgrades that switch around randomly between games.

It's also starting to be a Stardew Valley clone with home-building, farming, fishing, and mining (and slave labour), and apparently now a Jump King clone, and has a casino where you can bribe the dealer, and I don't know what else.

Small problem for the team working on the game is that Hololive is adding new talents faster than they can be added to the game.  There are two EN generations and four JP generations, with the latest group appearing only a week ago.

• The FBI raided the home of the CEO of betting platform Polymarket - which predicted the re-election of President Trump for some not very useful value of "predicted" - and seized his phone and other electronic devices because they felt like it.  (New York Post)
  
  No charges have been brought, nobody has been arrested, the FBI and DOJ haven't even hinted at an investigation.
  
  They just did it.
  
  
  

Tech News

• Solidigm, formerly Intel's SSD division, now part of SK Hynix, formerly Hyundai Electronics, has announced a 122TB SSD.  (Serve the Home)
  
  It's available in various formats including a traditional 2.5" disk drive (albeit NVMe) and has a peak transfer rate of 7.4GBps.  Price not mentioned but it will be a lot.
  
  
  
• Bluesky now has 15 million users.  (The Verge)
  
  Bluesky has some good features, but to compete with Twitter it has to be what Twitter is not, and it has chosen to be a home for neurotic leftists who cannot tolerate dissenting views.
  
  It will die.
  
  
  
• Can AI solve advanced math problems?  No.  (Venture Beat)
  
  Oh well.
  
  
  
• xAI's new AI datacenter has been approved to increase its power consumption from 8MW to 150MW.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Which used to be a lot.
  
  
  
• Half of my Phase Connect plushies have shipped.  (Just checked, actually 11 out of 17 have shipped.)
  
  Can't provide a link because this was a limited time offer and the page was taken down when they sold out - 18 months ago.  But they look derpy as heck.

Posted by: normal at Thursday, November 14 2024 10:02 PM (bg2DR)

Posted by: David Eastman at Friday, November 15 2024 02:59 AM (aAyxl)

Posted by: three-humped camel at Friday, November 15 2024 08:35 AM (Ncog+)

Posted by: Rick C at Friday, November 15 2024 11:48 AM (pnaK4)

Posted by: PatBuckman at Friday, November 15 2024 12:36 PM (rcPLc)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

• 23andMe is laying off 40% of its employees and cancelling all its research work.  (BBC)
  
  The company has been on a downward spiral since it was hacked and information for nearly seven million users stolen.  This did not include genetic data, but did include family trees and other personal information.
  
  
  
• AMD meanwhile laid off 4% of its employees.  (WCCFTech)
  
  AMD is doing well overall but specific business units are lagging.

• Not announcing layoffs was TSMC, which instead reported that it is running at 100% capacity for 5nm and 3nm production.  (WCCFTech)
  
  Even Intel is using TSMC for its latest chips while it works on getting its 1.8nm technology into production.
  
  
  
• What if AI doesn't just keep getting better forever?  (Ars Technica)
  
  It isn't.  It won't.  Even the Ars commentariat is laughing at this sudden realisation that AI is a bubble:

  Anybody want a celebratory slice of glue pizza?

  
  
  
• The AI hype bubble is, if not bursting, then certainly deflating.  (Slack)
  
  While still popular at the CEO level, among workers excitement has cooled by 9% in the US and 12% in France - compared to just three months ago.
  
  
  
• Microsoft is killing the Mail and Calendar apps in Windows 11.  (The Verge)
  
  Back to Outlook it is.
  
  And they still have a better track record than Google.
  
  
  
• The hackers who breached AT&T's data at analytics company Snowflake have been arrested.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  AT&T was just one of 165 Snowflake customers who saw their data hacked on a massive scale.
  
  Last I saw, Snowflake was still blaming 165 individual customers for allowing their Snowflake accounts to be hacked.
  
  
  

Posted by: Joe Redfield at Thursday, November 14 2024 04:28 AM (KOtXO)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

• Bitcoin has surged to a record price of $84,000 following Donald Trump's re-election, which you may have heard about.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  It's not clear yet who Trump might pick to head the SEC, but it's hard to imagine anyone more criminally antagonistic to crypto than Gary Gensler.  While the agency missed the FTX fraud case until it was already over, it has spent four years simultaneously refusing to specify the rules around crypto trading and prosecuting companies involved in crypto trading,
  
  
  
• Meanwhile AMD's 9000-series CPUs are at record lows.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The 9900X in particular is nearly 30% cheaper than when it launched three months ago.
  
  
  

Tech News

• Anthropic has hired an AI welfare researcher as part of its philosophy welfare program.  (Transformer News)
  
  The role is utterly pointless and will likely produce nothing of value, but it keeps them off the streets.
  
  
  
• Somebody moved Britain's oldest satellite and nobody knows why.  (BBC)
  
  Or who.  They did figure out where though.
  
  
  
• VMWare Workstation and VMWare Fusion (for Mac) are now free for everyone, including commercial use.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Which might mean the company has abandoned them.  Or might not.
  
  
  
• The QNX embedded operating system is now free at least for non-commercial use.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  QNX is owned by Blackberry.  Yes, that Blackberry.  Yes, they're still around.

Posted by: Amelia2 at Thursday, November 21 2024 08:14 PM (q9cjq)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Posted by: Rick C at Tuesday, November 12 2024 01:11 AM (pnaK4)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, November 12 2024 07:53 AM (PiXy!)

Posted by: Rick C at Tuesday, November 12 2024 09:13 AM (pnaK4)

Posted by: PatBuckman at Tuesday, November 12 2024 09:58 AM (rcPLc)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

• Beata Halassy had breast cancer - for the third time, despite chemotherapy and a mastectomy.
  
  She had cancer.
  
  She gave it measles and it died.  (Nature)
  
  Beata is a virologist so she prepared her own virus culture - a mild strain intended for vaccine production - and had a colleague administer it.  She has now been cancer-free for four years.
  
  Naturally she wanted to publish the results of her research - on herself.  That's where the real problems started, because scientific journals didn't want to touch it.
  
  On the upside - apart from the whole thing about being alive - she now has funding to repeat this research to try to cure cancer in pets.
  
  

• You can in fact upgrade the storage in your new M4 Mac Mini.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  All you need is a surface-mount soldering and desoldering station, a set of compatible NAND flash chips - which you can find online but will cost you more than simply buying a complete SSD, and a second set of compatible NAND flash chips for when the first ones don't work. 
  
  And a second Mac to do a forced update to the first Mac now that its storage is blank.
  
  
  
• Google says the enhanced protection feature in Chrome now uses AI.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  I recommend Brave or Vivaldi.
  
  
  
• ChatGPT usage now rivals the Chrome browser.  (Digital Trends)
  
  No it fucking doesn't you fucking morons.  You are comparing actual living human users with the number of individual requests.
  
  
  
• Sega is removing 60 classic games from Steam on December 6.  (Sega)
  
  And when I say classic, some of these games are older than I am, what with me being 29 and all.
  
  If you already own them, or buy them before December 6, you keep them, but there will be no new sales.
  
  
  
• As Firefox turns 20, Mozilla ponders how to restore it to its former glory.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Stop being communists.
  
  
  
• Elon Musk increased his net worth by more in a single day following the election than he spent to buy Twitter.  (The Register)
  
  Feel good story of the day.

• The PlayStation 5 Pro is here and it's eh.  (WCCFTech)
  
  While it is technically a significant upgrade over the base PlayStation 5, with a nearly 50% upgrade to the graphics performance, it still plays PlayStation 5 games, so mostly it doesn't matter.
  
  
  
• Scalpers who snapped up the first shipment are struggling to unload it even below retail price.  (TechSpot)
  
  Tragic.
  
  

• Crucial's 4TB T500 SSD is out and it's fine.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  By which I mean it's reasonably priced and one of the fastest drives around, but does have some performance hiccups under extremely heavy sustained write loads.  So not the best choice for enterprise database servers, but it doesn't claim to be.
  
  
  
• Apple's new M4 Mac Mini has modular storage.  (MacRumors)
  
  It's a little card like an M.2 2230 SSD from a laptop.
  
  Does that mean you can upgrade it?
  
  No.  Don't be silly.
  
  
  
• The CEO of Sony's PlayStation division says that maybe the company should show upcoming games to gamers before it spends $400 million developing them.  (WCCFTech)
  
  What a concept.
  
  
  
• MacOS runs apps inside a sandbox for added security.  Does it add security?  No.  (GitHub)
  
  Oops.
  
  
  
• DNA shows Pompeii's dead weren't who we thought there were.  (Ars Technica)
  
  They had - get this - a mix of European and Eastern Mediterranean genes.
  
  In other words, they were Roman.
  
  
  
• Slate is horrified to learn that tech billionaires care about money.  (Slate)  (archive site)
  
  I am horrified and somewhat bemused to learn that Slate has not yet gone bankrupt.
  
  
  

Tostada Video of the Day

Asmongold is no dummy.  He doesn't always agree with Trump, but he recognises a gravy train when it presents itself.