• Roblox is the biggest game in the world, with more monthly players than Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo combined.  How much money does it make?  (Matthew Ball)

  Over the last four quarters, Roblox’s income from operations was ($1.2B) on revenues of $3.2B, representing a -38% profit margin.

  Oops.
  
  Not as bad as it sounds because Roblox's accounting procedures are properly conservative, and the company is cash flow positive.  An interesting look into where all the money goes though.
  
  
  

Tech News

• If you're building a budget gaming PC, should you go with the older 6750 XT or the newer 7600 XT given that they are about the same price?  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The 6750 XT.  It does use more power but it also delivers noticeably better performance.
  
  Only problem is that since it's no longer made it's disappearing from shelves.
  
  
  
• Your $1700 smart bassinet now has a $20 subscription fee.  (Independent)
  
  Because of course it does.
  
  
  
• A plague of rash-inducing mites has descended upon Illinois.  (Ars Technica)
  
  And the DNC as well.
  
  
  
• Micro-libraries need to die.  (Bvisness)

  This is so unbelievably wrong that it should not even be up for debate. But because there is a debate regardless, someone needs to exhaustively and painfully explain why bad practices are bad.

  Yes.
  
  This seems to be primarily a problem with Node.js, which is also unbelievably wrong and should not even be up for debate.

Posted by: Rick C at Tuesday, August 20 2024 12:05 AM (MItL9)

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• Alexandre de Moraes, flamboyantly psychotic president of Brazil's Superior Electoral Court, threatened in a series of secret orders to start arresting Twitter's employees in Brazil if they didn't enforce content bans over which they had no control.
  
  Twitter published the secret orders and shut down its office in Brazil.
  
  Of course, Twitter is a social network, so it is still available in Brazil.  Just beyond the reach of the courts.
  
  Take note, Terry Britain.

• Asus is preparing next-generation X870 motherboards to go with the new Ryzen 9000 CPUs.  (WCCFTech)
  
  Do you need to upgrade your X670 board?
  
  No.  The chipsets are identical.  The motherboards might have slightly different sets of features - for example, USB 4 is required on X870 boards but optional on X670 - but existing motherboards will work just fine with the new CPUs.
  
  
  
• Drivers who purchased hydrogen-fueled cars are suing Toyota over their own stupidity.  (Yahoo)
  
  There are only 54 locations offering hydrogen refueling in California, out of the 200 the state has promised.  Why people are suing Toyota rather than the state I do not know.

  When he first bought his Toyota Mirai in 2022, Ryan Kiskis was a happy man. He loved the idea of applying cutting edge hydrogen fuel cell technology to environmental consciousness.

  
  

  "It’s a great car," he said. "My background is an engineer, I'm a huge automotive fan, and I felt the the world was finally catching up with what we have to do" to cut greenhouse gases.

  Hydrogen is a lousy fuel.  Any engineer should understand that, meaning Mr Kiskis is a lousy engineer.

  Then reality crashed in.He soon learned that hydrogen refueling stations are scarce and reliably unreliable.

  After he bought the car?

  He learned that the state of California, which is funding the station buildout, is far behind schedule - 200 stations were supposed to be up and running by 2025, but only 54 exist.

  Well, that project is doing better than the high-speed rail at least.

  And since Kiskis bought his car, the price of hydrogen has more than doubled, currently the equivalent of $15 a gallon of gasoline.

  You would need a heart of stone not to laugh.

  With fueling so expensive and stations so undependable, Kiskis - who lives in Pacific Palisades and works at Google in Playa Vista

  Of course he works for Google.

  drives a gasoline Jeep for everything but short trips around the neighborhood."I"ve got a great car that sits in the driveway," he said.

  With any luck it will get stolen.
  
  
  
• Why you should just use Postgres, written by someone who doesn't know anything about the alternatives to Postgres.  (McCue)
  
  Using Postgres is not a bad recommendation, but the author of the article says this about MongoDB:

  This is because this sort of database is basically a giant distributed hash map. The only operations that work without needing to scan the entire database are lookups by partition key and scans that make use of a sort key.

  It's hardly possible to be more wrong.  MongoDB's indexing is remarkably flexible, letting you define indexes on arrays and sub-objects, including fields that don't even exist at the time the index is created.
  
  
  
• Citizen scientists working with NASA have discovered an object moving at a million miles an hour.  (NASA)
  
  They don't know what it is, but when the police catch up it's losing its license forever.
  
  
  
• Authors are suing Nvidia over the use of copyrighted materials in training AI.  (TorrentFreak)
  
  Nividia's defense, as far as I can tell, is that the authors are using uncopyrighted words and facts which means that Nvidia can do whatever the fuck it wants.
  
  
  
• Speaking of doing whatever the fuck it wants Google was threatening reviewers if they didn't favour the new Pixel phones over everything else in the universe.  (The Verge)
  
  Caught red-handed, the company said the language used in the threats "missed the mark".
  
  
  

Posted by: Rick C at Monday, August 19 2024 03:20 AM (MItL9)

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• Does reasoning emerge in LLMs? (Arxiv)
  
  No.

• Solar Winds has a critical vulnerability being actively exploited. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Again.
  
  
  
• Why didn't the Apple IIGS launch with the 8MHz 65816? (Userlandia)
  
  There weren't any.
  
  
  
• Windows 11 now lets you create 2TB FAT32 partitions. (Ars Technica)
  
  Y tho?
  
  
  
• The Framework Laptop 13 is now available with Intel's Core Ultra 7 155H. (Notebook Check)
  
  But it costs 30% more than the equivalent AMD model.

• What's next for KOSA, the Kids' Online Safety Act, that passed the Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support over the objections of critics pointing out the obvious and catastrophic second-order effects that would simply lead to banning minors from the internet entirely?  (The Verge)
  
  Yeah.  Dunno.  It's a podcast, and there's no transcription, or even a summary.
  
  I didn't even realise it was a podcast at first because there's eight paragraphs of useless blather in the form of a story, and the linked audio starts out talking about something else entirely.
  
  Update: And the podcast is unbelievably obnoxious.

• Stop fucking monkeys.  (Ars Technica)
  
  That is all.
  
  
  
• Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave a speech telling tech startups to just steal stuff.  (The Verge)
  
  Literally.

  So, in the example that I gave of the TikTok competitor - and by the way, I was not arguing that you should illegally steal everybody's music

  That by the way was precisely what he did argue.

  - what you would do if you're a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, which hopefully all of you will be, is if it took off, then you'd hire a whole bunch of lawyers to go clean the mess up, right? But if nobody uses your product, it doesn’t matter that you stole all the content.
  
  And do not quote me.

  Got it.
  
  
  
• Getting HDMI video working on the Pi Pico 2.  (GitHub)
  
  No surprise that this works just like the Pi Pico.
  
  
  
• Getting HDMI video working on the Apple II.  (Liliputing)
  
  Pretty neat, though you have to be pretty devoted to the Apple II to be adding a $200 video card to it.
  
  
  
• The final review of the Ryzen 9950X and 9900X, I promise.  (Phoronix)
  
  This time it's testing technical applications on Linux, and shows these chips in a much more favourable light.
  
  The sixteen core 9950X is the fastest processor overall, and the twelve core 9900X lands between Intel's 24 core 13900X and 14900X.
  
  In some types of benchmark the AMD chips utterly dominate.  In machine learning workloads, the 24 core Intel chips fall just behind AMD's previous generation six core chips.
  
  If you do any of this stuff, worth a look.

Posted by: Rick C at Friday, August 16 2024 10:34 PM (MItL9)

Posted by: PatBuckman at Saturday, August 17 2024 12:10 AM (rcPLc)

Posted by: Joe Redfield at Saturday, August 17 2024 03:35 AM (KOtXO)

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• So what is going on with that data breach of 2.9 billion people?  (Troy Hunt)
  
  I'm glad you asked.
  
  Since the breach is supposed to affect only the US, UK, and Canada, and those countries do not have 2.9 billion people, obviously someone was being imprecise.
  
  Turns out that a lot of people where being imprecise.  While the National Public Data breach does contain 2.9 billion records, that does not mean 2.9 billion people.
  
  Troy Hunt took a leaked sample of the data which contains 134 million unique email addresses.  He found himself in the list 28 times, but none of the entries associated his email address with any other recognisable data.
  
  So...  It's bad, but probably not the end of the world.
  
  That's next year.
  
  

• Putting AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X to the test.  (AnandTech)
  
  We're getting a clearer picture of why some reviewers are praising the Ryzen 9000 series and others are panning it.
  
  If you are focused mainly on gaming performance, the 9000 series offers only modest gains over the 7000 series, but costs significantly more.
  
  And there's no Ryzen 9000 X3D model yet - these models triple the on-chip memory and provide significantly better performance on many games - so the net result is that the newer, more expensive chips are actually slower.
  
  But if you are focused on technical work, Ryzen 9000 rules the roost.  And if you can use AVX - 512-bit vector math - it crushes everything else like a bug, up to ten times as fast as Intel's offerings (which have AVX-512 but disabled).
  
  There are also some potential performance issues with the 12 and 16 core chips on Windows right now, issues that didn't happen with Ryzen 7000, and don't happen on Linux.
  
  So it's not a simple one to recommend, but it's also not bad.
  
  If you're interested in gaming though, either go with the 7800X3D now or wait for the 9800X3D.
  
  
  
• Middle age starts at 44, and old age at 60.  Ish.  (The Guardian)
  
  Scientists studying biochemical markers of aging have found that it's not a steady process, but shows two bursts of aging around 44 and 60 years.
  
  They suspect another burst at 78 based on other studies, but haven't actually looked.
  
  
  
• Google Gemini is replacing Google Assistant on Google Pixel Phones.  There's just one small problem.  (Fast Company)
  
  It doesn't work.  Inasmuch as Google Assistant works, Gemini doesn't.
  
  
  
• The Harris campaign is lying.  (The Verge)
  
  You know it's bad when the crazies at The Verge are saying that.
  
  
  
• Twitter has announced its new AI image generation tool and the left has gone even more insane than usual.  (The Verge)
  
  The article isn't the worst of it here.  It's kind of bad, but the comments are deranged.

Posted by: normal at Friday, August 16 2024 08:54 AM (bg2DR)

Posted by: Rick C at Friday, August 16 2024 10:38 PM (MItL9)

Posted by: PatBuckman at Saturday, August 17 2024 12:09 AM (rcPLc)

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• Will the DOJ seek to break up Google?  (Bloomberg)  (archive site)
  
  Maybe.
  
  But since nobody from the DOJ or Google is talking, this article is pure speculation.
  
  
  
• Meanwhile Texas is suing General Motors, alleging that the company misled customers into handing over rights to their driving data.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Which GM then sold to insurance companies for pennies.
  
  Texas is seeking fines of $10,000 per offense - that is, for every car sold in the state since 2015.

• AI PCs accounted for 14% of all sales in Q2 2024.  (Reuters)
  
  An AI PC is a PC with an AI sticker on it.
  
  
  
• If you're looking for a decent gaming PC on a budget, it looks like AMD is planning a 5500X3D.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  There is already a 5600X3D and this would be very similar, but the 5600X3D is a Micro Center exclusive, so if you don't live near one of those you're out of luck.
  
  
  
• New research reveals that "AI" - in the form of Large Language Models or LLMs - is incapable of learning anything and poses no threat.  (Neuroscience News)
  
  Yeah, we know.

Posted by: normal at Wednesday, August 14 2024 07:42 PM (bg2DR)

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, August 14 2024 11:35 PM (MItL9)

Posted by: madrocketsci at Thursday, August 15 2024 01:53 AM (1wy35)

Posted by: PatBuckman at Thursday, August 15 2024 09:20 AM (rcPLc)

Posted by: normal at Thursday, August 15 2024 05:28 PM (bg2DR)

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• The Fifth Circuit has ruled that geofence warrants - which seek to gather information on anyone within a specific area at a given time - are categorically unconstitutional.  (EFF)
  
  This is pretty clear from the plain wording of the Fourth Amendment, but it's always good to see a court that can read.

• The GPD Pocket 4 has the new 12 core Ryzen AI HX 370, up to 64GB of RAM, up to 4TB of SSD (or 8TB if you install your own), a 2560x1600 144Hz touchscreen covering 97% of DCI-P3 colour, USB4, wired 2.5Gb Ethernet, HDMI, and a pressure-sensitive stylus.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Only problem is that Pocket part.  The screen measures 8.8" diagonally.
  
  
  
• Memes, photos, emails, and innumerate leftwing idiots writing in The Guardian are bad for the environment.  (The Guardian)
  
  What a depressingly stupid article.
  
  
  
• Intel employees in Ireland are being offered a lot of money to go somewhere else.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Seven weeks of redundancy pay for each year they've been with the company, up to half a million Euros.
  
  
  
• The GIL is optional in Python 3.13.  (GeekPython)
  
  The GIL prevents multiple threads of code from using the Python interpreter simultaneously.  Obviously that limits performance, so to scale up you need to run multiple separate interpreters.
  
  This change can double performance of multi-threaded code that doesn't use multiple interpreters, but everyone uses multiple interpreters at this point, so it's about twenty years late.
  
  
  

Gunnabilism Video of the Day

Posted by: Jay at Tuesday, August 13 2024 09:30 PM (CXH/7)

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• A scientist accused of cherry-picking studies after announcing he had cherry-picked studies is now accusing his accusers of working for Big Alcohol.  (Yahoo)

  "We identified six high-quality studies out of 107 and they didn't find any J-shaped curve," Dr Stockwell said. "In fact, since our recent paper, we've now got genetic studies which are showing there's no benefits of low-level alcohol use.
  
  "I personally think there might still be small benefits, but the point of our work is that, if there are benefits, they've been exaggerating them."
  
  Taking aim at Dr Harding, he accused him of being an "industry-funded person" who has "made a living from putting a good spin on the relationship between alcohol and health". Dr Harding denied being "funded by anyone". Dr Stockwell in turn brushed off the claim that he himself is compromised through his links to the temperance lobby.
  
  "I have attended a meeting funded by the Swedish Temperance Organisation and I've written material that they have published," he said. "I've had connections with the International Order of Good Templars. I've attended some of their meetings, but I'm not a member."

  Yeah, this guy is not interested in the science.

• Starship's next test flight is expected late August or early September.  (WCCFTech)
  
  Excelsior!
  
  
  
• AMD is not planning patches for that security vulnerability for Ryzen 1000, 2000, or 3000 chips.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Epyc server chips from the same generations are receiving patches.
  
  
  
• AMD's Ryzen 9700X - yea or nay?
  
  Nay, at least not at current prices.  The main competition to AMD comes not from Intel, but from AMD itself.  The 8 core 9700X is more expensive than both the 12 core 7900, which will be a better platform for productivity, and the 3D V-Cache enabled 7800X3D, which is one of the best CPUs available for gaming.
  
  And both have similar power efficiency to the newer chip.  The 7900 is a 65W chip like the 9700X.  The 7800X3D is nominally a 120W chip but consistently uses far less than that, running close to the 88W peak power allowed to AMD's nominal 65W chips.
  
  
  

Posted by: Rick C at Monday, August 12 2024 11:09 PM (MItL9)

Posted by: PatBuckman at Tuesday, August 13 2024 12:30 AM (rcPLc)

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• A Florida data broker called National Public Data collected the personal information of essentially everyone in the US, UK, and Canada, and then got hacked.  (The Register)
  
  2.9 billion records including names, addresses, and government ID numbers, plus information on relatives and address changes going back thirty years.
  
  Exactly how National Public Data got access to all this information is an unanswered question.  They certainly didn't ask the people the data refers to, nor did they make any public announcement that they were doing this.
  
  
  
• The solution to that "unfixable" AMD security flaw from yesterday turns out to be a $9 SPI flash programmer.

• Terraforming Mars for $15 a day. (Science)
  
  Or maybe slightly more than that, but still surprisingly cheap on a planetary scale.
  
  The plan is to glitter-bomb the Martian upper atmosphere with two million tons of iron and aluminium dust per year, manufactured from the Martian soil.
  
  The trick is that the dust doesn't have to be delivered directly - getting it a hundred meters off the ground should be enough for the sandstorms to pick it up and do the rest of the work.
  
  This should warm the planet sufficiently that you won't immediately freeze, just asphyxiate. Making the air breathable is left as an exercise for the student.
  
  
  
• The SLS Block 1B second stage booster being built by Boeing for NASA has been slipping its schedule by almost one year per year for seven years.  (Ars Technica)
  
  Originally due in February 2021 at a cost of $700 million, and rescheduled for April 2027 at a cost of $5 billion just last October - after a whole series of delays and overruns - it is now expected to cost at least $5.7 billion and won't be delivered until 2028 at the earliest.
  
  
  
• But $229 is $229.  (Notebook Check)
  
  The Asus Vivobook 14 is available for that price at Best Buy right now.
  
  That gets you a Core i3 1215U - two performance cores and four efficiency cores, 8GB of RAM plus a spare memory socket, a 128GB M.2 SSD that you would probably want to replace right away, and a 1920x1080 IPS screen that covers 60% of sRGB.
  
  The screen is the only real problem there for basic use.  Colours will more poop than pop with this one.  You can get cheaper laptops but they will probably also come with meh screens, and they will have Celeron CPUs with no performance cores, making them about half the speed.

• Users are fleeing X (formerly Twitter) in droves and signing up for Threads (Meta's, which is to say Facebook's, Twitter clone), except that not a single word of that is true.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  In an article that looks suspiciously like legitimate reporting, Tech Crunch looks at claims circulating on Threads, finds them false, and spills the beans.
  
  In reality Twitter's user base is growing, and Threads is stagnant at best.

• A critical security vulnerability affects almost all AMD processors built since 2006.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  It only affects systems that have already been hacked at the kernel level, so you don't need to worry.  If you're using cloud servers, you don't need to worry, because they don't allow root-level access.
  
  But if you are using dedicated servers in a datacenter - which I am - this is potentially a nasty problem.  To guarantee a previously used system is clean the datacenter would need to directly rewrite the BIOS using a debug cable.
  
  AMD has already issued updates for pretty much all their CPUs, so this reduces the scope of the problem signficantly.
  
  
  
• Tim Peters, a core member of the Python development team, has been suspended under the project's Code of Conduct for raising concerns about the Code of Conduct.  (The Register)
  
  We did warn you.
  
  
  
• A 512-bit RSA key gave a user access to an entire network of home energy systems.  (Ars Technica)
  
  512-bit RSA keys were first broken by researchers in 1999, and by 2015 could be broken by anyone for a few dollars in a few hours.  I've been using 4096-bit RSA keys for years.