• Apple announced a new iPad Air and iPad mini bumping the CPU up from the A8 to the A12. (AnandTech)
  
  Apart from that, both models come with 64GB or 256GB of storage, an unquantified amount of RAM, an improved display with DCI-P3 colour gamut (and in the case of the Air, an upgrade from 9.7" to 10.5").  Lightning port rather than USB-C, which is bad, but they retain the headphone jack, which is good.  They have pen support, but the new version of the Apple Pencil is USB-C, so they can only use the old version.
  
  US prices start at $399 for the 64GB mini and $499 for the Air.
  
  
• Nvidia has a new Jetson developer kit out. (AnandTech)
  
  With 128 CUDA cores and a pretty underwhelming quad-core Arm A57 CPU, the bare board is $99 and the full kit is $129.
  
  The dev kit offers HDMI and DisplayPort outputs, 4 USB ports (only one USB 3.0 though), Ethernet of an unspecified speed, 4GB RAM and 16GB of eMMC storage.  And a PCIe M.2 slot for either storage or a wifi adaptor.
  
  The GPU is intended for AI more than graphics, but is perfectly capable of both.
  
  
• Nvidia is adding real-time ray-tracing to 10- and 16-series GTX graphics cards in a driver update expected next month. (PC Perspective)
  
  It will be slower than RTX, of course, but does raise the question of whether Nv's users would have been better off had the company simply added a ton more CUDA cores.
  
  
• Nvidia's (yes, them again) RTX server holds up to 80 Tesla RTX GPUs. (Serve the Home)
  
  The RTX Server Pod holds 1280 GPUs in ten racks.  Apart from delivering petaflops of compute performance for AI, graphics rendering, or simulations, the heat produced can flash-broil a blue whale.
  
  
• A hands-on session with the probably quantum D-Wave 2000Q. (Ars Technica)
  
  

• US Congressman Devin Nunes has sued Twitter and specific Twitter users for $250 million alleging that (a) the users deliberately defamed him for money, (b) Twitter did nothing to stop this, and (c) Twitter actually shadowbanned him to shut him up.  Oh, that and (d) Twitter then lied about that. (One Angry Gamer)
  
  This type of suit is normally hard for a public figure to win in the US, but in this case one of the named parties ran an online business that offered to "anonymously smear our clients' opposition on the internet".  Which knocks the actual malice hurdle flat before the case even begins.
  
  

  Liz Mair was pretty brazen about this. pic.twitter.com/171MhJfJFO

  — The_War_Economy (@The_War_Economy) March 19, 2019

  
  
• New Zealand continues with its brilliant plan to block absolutely everything. (TechDirt)
  
  
• The insanity has spread to Australia too, with Telstra, Optus, Vodafone, and possibly even TPG blocking multiple sites. (Kotaku)

  "We understand this may inconvenience some legitimate users of these sites, but these are extreme circumstances and we feel this is the right thing to do," a Telstra spokesperson said.

  Well, that makes everything alright then, doesn't it, what with "extreme circumstances" and all.
  
  Don't know about TPG; I tried ZeroHedge, Voat, and Kiwi Farms just now and I'm not blocked, but I'm with a subsidiary, not TPG itself; I'm not using my ISP's DNS servers; and I have a business account, all of which are reasons any such blocks might not apply to me.
  
  
• Everyone's favourite boogeyman Vladimir Putin has signed sweeping internet censorship legislation bringing Russian internet access into line with the so-called free world. (Ars Technica)
  
  
• Oh, and while we're talking about AI and censorship, there's this gem.
  
  

  Me: There's no way Twitter would ban someone for a harmless meme!
  
  Twitter: Locks my account after posting the Shocked Pikachu meme for "gratuitous gore"
  
  Me: pic.twitter.com/EvUOvpQZmG

  — Mason Sartin (@sykotiksonik) March 19, 2019

  
  

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, March 20 2019 04:06 AM (Iwkd4)

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