• Axie Infinity, the blockchain game that was eventually hacked and looted of $600 million in Monopoly money, sucked long before that happened.  (Time)
  
  Pretty much everyone lost money except for the people running the company.
  
  
  
• You might ask why people running scams like this aren't charged under laws governing Ponzi and pyramid schemes.  Well, eleven executives of another crypto company, Forsage, just have been.  (CBS)
  
  Good.  And many more to come, I hope.
  
  
  
• An advanced new cryptography scheme designed to be save even against quantum computes just got hacked using a single-core conventional PC - in an hour.  (Ars Technica)
  
  Oops.

Posted by: piorty at Tuesday, March 18 2025 01:38 PM (GLQ4Q)

Posted by: leorasy at Saturday, June 14 2025 12:55 PM (cmleJ)

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• Just on that "best small laptop" from yesterday: It's a great deal in the US ($1029) but crazy expensive in Australia ($2699).
  
  By comparison the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus - the top of the line model - is...  Oh.  Well, I guess they've fixed that then.  I'll wait for that to go on sale as well.  At US$1949 vs. A$3399 it's pretty close to what I'd expect (the Australian price includes sales tax) but it was A$2499 last week.
  
  
  
• Congress has said the CHIPS Act is not a $50 billion cash grab for semiconductor companies.  (The Register)
  
  "Yeah, sure" say the semiconductor companies standing in line with their hands out.

• If you want a Radeon 6900XT now might be the time.  I'm seeing them cheaper than the 6800XT, 6800, 6750XT, and some models of 6700XT.  Of course there will be new cards coming along soon but pricing and availability of those is a big unknown right now.
  
  It's one of the cheapest cards around relative to recent prices.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Not cheap in absolute terms though.
  
  
  
• Intel's Sapphire Rapids server CPUs are reportedly on their 12th revision ("respin") already and aren't even shipping yet.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  It's completely normal for a new chip to require a couple of hardware revisions before launch - expensive, but normal.  Twelve is unusual.
  
  
  
• Is Winamp back to whip the llama's ass?  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Maybe.  The project has been migrated from Visual Studio 2008 to VS 2019 so that they can actually compile it for modern operating systems, and there's a new release available to download.  Not a lot of new features yet though.
  
  
  
• China's new 7nm chips aren't.  (The Register)
  
  All those numbers are marketing bullshit anyway, but this is a double helping.  China doesn't have access to the EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography equipment, or the components for that equipment, or the machines to make those components, so what they've done is applied older DUV processes and used multi-patterning to produce chips that they then slap a 7nm label on.
  
  Basically, what they have is Intel's 14nm+n, for some value of n that doesn't matter because increasing n doesn't change anything.
  
  
  

Posted by: normal at Tuesday, August 02 2022 09:40 PM (obo9H)

Posted by: David Eastman at Wednesday, August 03 2022 03:06 AM (D6Mju)

Posted by: normal at Wednesday, August 03 2022 08:10 AM (obo9H)

Posted by: StargazerA5 at Wednesday, August 03 2022 12:00 PM (NkDYt)

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• The HP Pavilion Plus 14 could be the new best small laptop, taking over from the HP Pavilion Aero.  (PC Magazine)
  
  Fully kitted out it has 16GB of RAM (enough for most users, though I'd like a 32GB option), 1TB of SSD, a 2880x1800 90Hz OLED display, and an Intel i7-12700H with 6 Performance cores and 8 Efficiency cores.
  
  I/O consists of two USB-C ports (not Thunderbolt, but they support DisplayPort video and charging), two USB-A ports, HDMI, microSD, and a headphone jack.  For some reason they're all on the opposite side to my current Dell Inspiron 14 - well, except USB-A where it conveniently has one on each side.
  
  And it has the Four Essential Keys.
  
  That configuration will set you back $1029 in the US (on sale right now, normally $1229), or $2699 in Australia.
  
  Which...  Wow.  Shipping sure is expensive, huh?
  
  The reason I'd still consider it is that it's 30% faster than my current laptop single-threaded, and two and a half times as fast multi-threaded.  It's faster than my full-size Inspiron 16, and a lot lighter.
  
  
  

Tech News

• Intel is planning to obsoleterate 12th generation laptops like the Pavilion Plus before the end of the year.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  13th generation laptop chips were originally scheduled for early 2023, but have now reportedly been brought forward to this year.  That probably means we'll see laptops with the new chips announced by Christmas but good luck getting your hands on one before March.
  
  
  
• Meanwhile Intel's Sapphire Rapids server chips, originally expected in Q3 2022, are now due in Q1 2023.  (WCCFTech)
  
  These are targeted at AMD's third generation Epyc server parts, but will ship months after AMD's fourth generation.
  
  
  
• Nvidia's upcoming RTX 4070 will be 80% faster than the 3070 for the same price unless it won't.  (WCCFTech)
  
  There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies, and computer industry leaks.
  
  
  
• Linus Torvalds is dogfooding Linux on an Arm-based Mac.  (Kernel.org)
  
  From the adage "eat your own dogfood", meaning use your own product to catch problems before your customers do.
  
  Linux has been ported to Apple's Arm-based systems with precisely zero help from Apple, who would rather it didn't exist.
  
  
  
• They had to count them all: 200 holes in Luna's lithosphere.  (Live Science)
  
  The existence of the holes isn't the exciting part, though.  The exciting part is they're sheltered and maintain a fairly steady 17C (63F) meaning that we don't need to dig our own holes to construct a comfy Moonbase.
  
  Huge stockpiles of nuclear waste also entirely optional.
  
  
  
• Did Anonymous follow through on their Twitter boast and actually hack Russian websites?  Apparently, yes.  (CNBC)
  
  An independent researcher worked with CNBC and found that 92% of Russian sites in a random survey had been compromised, and the data leaked by Anonymous seems to be legit.  
  
  In fact the complaint is that there is so much leaked data from Russian sites floating around that no-one has the time to even begin to analyse it all.
  
  Except probably China.
  
  
  
• Hololive's Houshou Marine has crossed the two million subscriber mark - the first from the main Japanese branch and only the third worldwide to do so, and Omaru Polka has crossed the one million mark, becoming I think the 32nd Hololive talent with more than a million subscribers.
  
  Holostars EN seems to be settling in, with all passing the 100k mark in the first week.  (EN Gen 2 all achieved that as well, except thanks to YouTube they had to do it four times.)
  
  They don't seem to invest as much in rigging the Holostars models though.  If you compare how animated Bae's face is, for example, the Holostars generally look like bad marionettes.
  
  
  
  

Posted by: Frank at Monday, August 01 2022 08:32 PM (rglbH)

Posted by: normal at Monday, August 01 2022 09:14 PM (obo9H)

Posted by: Rick C at Monday, August 01 2022 11:42 PM (BMUHC)

Posted by: Rick C at Monday, August 01 2022 11:48 PM (BMUHC)

Posted by: cxt217 at Tuesday, August 02 2022 03:01 AM (2tHvf)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, August 02 2022 09:41 AM (PiXy!)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, August 02 2022 09:48 AM (PiXy!)

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Posted by: Rick C at Tuesday, August 02 2022 10:11 AM (BMUHC)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, August 02 2022 03:31 PM (PiXy!)

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• Cultist of the Ebon Moon working at CERN are not opening up a portal to Hell.  (USA Today)
  
  "There is no truth to the claim that cul- er, scientists at CERN are communicating with demonic entities and using the collider to open up a portal to Hell," spokesthing Ba'al Demonovic told USA Today in an eerie dream.  "We're going to need a much larger accelerator to accomplish that."
  
  
  

Tech News

• The all-new Dell XPS 13 Plus sucks.  (The Verge)
  
  They tried to combine the worst features of the MacBook Air and the trackbar models of the MacBook Pro, and succeeded too well.  And then they added a battery-draining OLED display.
  
  
  
• TSMC has completed primary construction of their new 5nm fab (chip factory) in Arizona.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  It will take about 18 months to fit out the building with services and equipment before production begins in early 2024.
  
  
  

Posted by: cxt217 at Monday, August 01 2022 11:54 AM (2tHvf)

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Posted by: cxt217 at Friday, July 22 2022 12:07 PM (2tHvf)

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• Intel is absolutely definitely positively not cancelling its Arc graphics cards before they're even properly launched says Intel.  (WCCFTech)
  
  "Graphics cards are core to our business and always have been," said an unnamed Intel employee speaking from an undisclosed location.  "Just like Optane."
  
  There's been some weirdness all along with Intel denying it ever had plans for a high-end card in the first generation, and chips apparently sitting in a warehouse for months waiting for drivers to be vaguely workable.  As this blog noted, Intel cited performance numbers for a total of five games.
  
  
  
• AMD cards meanwhile are now almost twice as fast with the latest driver update - in Minecraft.  (Hot Hardware)
  
  Yes, it's just one game, and it's not all that graphics intensive, but if it's the only game you play and you play it on an older AMD graphics card like the RX 580 - which I do - this is welcome.
  
  The update provides a small boost for recent games, but a much bigger one for some older titles.  On a Radeon 6800 XT, the 2011 game RAGE now achieves an average of 120 fps - at 8k.
  
  

Tech News

• If you were expecting to receive your Steam Deck early in 2023, Valve has news: Shipping dates have been moved to late 2022.  (Liliputing)
  
  Yes, that's two items of good news in one day.  No, I don't know what's going on either.
  
  
  
• If you were looking for a small but capable Android phone the Asus Zenfone 9 might be it.  (Liliputing)
  
  It has a 5.9" screen, but it's almost all screen so it's almost exactly the same size as Google's 5" Pixel 2 from five years ago.
  
  
  
• AMD's upcoming Ryzen 7600X beats Intel's 12900K by 22% on one obviously broken benchmark.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The number might be real, because apart from the general design improvements and increased clock speeds, Zen 4 has twice as much L2 cache as Zen 3.  Looking at just one benchmark you might find that it suddenly fits in cache and runs dramatically faster.
  
  Realistically, the 7600X could have about the same single-threaded performance as the 12900K, and probably a little less.  It will be much cheaper and use a fraction of the power, though; it's not intended at all to compete with Intel's high end chips.
  
  
  
• Micron has announced plans to expand its US-based memory manufacturing.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  I question the timing.  Well, no, I don't; they said quite openly that this is because of the CHIPS handout passed yesterday.
  
  
  
• In another gift to AMD Intel is planning to raise prices by up to 20% across the board.  (WCCFTech)
  
  "Up to" being the operative term, they probably have a hundred people doing nothing but modelling how much they can get away with.  Intel knows that AMD can't supply the entire market, but on the other hand customers can just choose to wait, particularly with a RECESSION going on right now.
  
  
  
• Gaming in a cold climate: Intel's fastest, hottest, most expensive desktop CPU mostly loses to AMD's much cheaper 5800X3D.  (AnandTech)
  
  The 12900KS peaks at 270W where the 5800X3D uses just 112W, so unless you also need to keep your igloo toasty warm, AMD is the better bet.
  
  On productivity tasks the 8+8 core 12900KS does handily beat the 8 core 5800X3D, but there you'd probably look to the 5950X on the AMD side - which is also much cheaper than the 12900KS, and also uses much less power, peaking at 142W.

Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, July 31 2022 03:26 AM (BMUHC)

Posted by: GeoGuessr at Monday, March 03 2025 05:14 PM (1roJE)

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• The CHIPS act - delivering $52 billion in subsidies to the massively profitable semiconductor industry - has passed Congress after being bloated out to $280 billion.  (The Verge)
  
  Your tax dollars at work.
  
  Won't stop Intel raising chip prices.
  
  
  
• You might ask why Intel was pushing so hard for its cut of the mud pie when it's been having one record quarter after another and the answer is the gravy train just fell off a bridge.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The company posted a $500 million quarterly loss on a year-on-year revenue drop of 17% and an accompanying drop in gross margins, which is not a pleasant combination.
  
  
  

Tech News

• A big part of that Intel loss was an inventory write-down as they close their Optane storage business.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Optane is faster and more robust than flash and cheaper and denser than RAM, but at the same time it's more expensive and less dense than flash and slower and less robust than RAM, putting it in an awkward place.
  
  It never got the volume in sales to drive the price down, so now it's gone for good.  It was an attractive option - at least on paper - for enterprise databases, but I'm not sure if it made much difference in reality.
  
  
  
• Back on the CHIPS act recipients will be banned from building new fabs in China.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  That provision is probably aimed at companies like Samsung, which is considering a $200 billion investment in US-based fabs.  Samsung already operates fabs in China for older, lower-tech processes - as does TSMC.
  
  
  
• Nirvana Finance - one of those bullshit blockchain "stablecoins" - just got wiped out.  (Coindesk)
  
  Someone borrowed $10 million - unsecured, anonymous, and online - and created a fake transaction to drain funds from Nirvana before paying the loan back and running off with the stolen funds.  Like paying with a cheque and closing your bank account before it can be cashed.
  
  
  
• Instagram says, "Apparently we are not the phone company after all.  Who knew?"  (The Verge)
  
  Oh.
  
  
  
• Twitter is raising prices.  (The Verge)
  
  Even The Verge is skeptical of this one.

• Facebook - well, the parent company, Meta - saw a 1% decline in revenue compared with the same quarter a year ago.  (Engadget)
  
  And more significantly, a 36% decline in profits.
  
  
  
• Facebook's answer to this seems to be to power into the dive.  In response to user complaints about them turning Instagram into a cheap TikTok clone, they said: We don't care.  We don't have to.  We're the phone company.  (The Guardian)
  
  
  

Tech News

• TikTok itself meanwhile says China?  Never heard of it.  (Gizmodo)
  
  Leaked PR documents say:

  Downplay the parent company ByteDance, downplay the China association, downplay AI.

  Accompanied by a set of "proof points" to let you know they're lying.
  
  
  
• Intel's 56-core Sapphire Rapids CPU is 35% faster than the previous high-end Ice Lake chips.  (WCCFTech)
  
  It has 40% more cores, so this is not a huge win.

Posted by: normal at Friday, July 29 2022 09:56 AM (obo9H)

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