• Humble Bundle has cookbooks.
  
  Whether you want to make anteater stew, turtle soup, whatever the heck that thing is pie...  Okay, yeah, they're O'Reilly.  Programming cookbooks for Python, SQL, JavaScript, Raspberry Pi and Arduino, Docker, R, Scala and more.
  
  
• HP's 10th generation ProLiant MicroServer gets a look-at.  (Serve the Home)
  
  I have an old one of these - third generation or something like that, using an AMD Bobcat family CPU.  The starting price is actually very cheap.  I'd like to see a 2.5" version though.
  
  
• Apple's FaceTime had a tiny little bug that lets anyone spy on anyone else.  (Bleeping Computer)  [Updated]
  
  Basically you could trick the other end into thinking the user had answered the call.  Nice work, guys.  We figured this out in the 19th century, but nooo.
  
  The hack worked via a new group call service; Apple have switched that service off until the bug has been fixed and the service has been tested seventeen hundred different ways.
  
  
• Which online storage is right for you?  (ZDNet)
  
  I have both Dropbox and Google Drive - the latter mostly because I ran out of space for my email.  The problem with Dropbox is you can only get more than 1TB by upgrading to their business plans, which require a minimum of three users.
  
  
• Apple death watch, India edition: iPhone sales in India plummeted almost 50% from 2017 to 2018.  (ZDnet)
  
  Apple sold 1.7 million units in India in 2018 - out of 150 million total smartphone purchases.  The OnePlus 6 sold 1 million units there in 22 days.
  
  
• Star Control: Origins returns to GOG.  (One Angry Gamer)
  
  I picked it up at half price from the Stardock store during the DMCA takedown, but haven't had a chance to play it yet.  Probably in March or April.  2023.
  
  The article also shows a list of the claims behind the DMCA takedown notice, which include obviously uncopyrightable items such as hyperspace, radar, and autopilot.  
  
  
• The headline reads "Uber partner Bell unveils flying taxi".  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Bell?  Wait, that Bell?  Yes, you guessed it, the "flying taxi" is a helicopter.
  
  Okay, it's a four seat autonomous electric quadcopter, so it is something new.  And the fact that Bell is building it suggests that it might actually be real, given that they've been building helicopters since the 1940s.
  
  
• Nvidia issued guidance that they weren't going to meet their revised revenue forecasts and their stock price went splut.  (WCCFTech)
  
  They went all-in on AI and ray tracing with the RTX range, and bumped up prices because those new features make the chips large and expensive to manufacture.
  
  Only problem is, pretty much nothing exists to use those features yet, and they probably won't see truly mainstream support for another two or three years.  
  
  Plus Nvidia had a lot of old cards left in the channel after the crypto mining  bubble burst.  AMD managed that event better in that respect, but on the other hand, during the bubble AMD cards were simply unobtainable.
  
  I think what Nvidia is doing will pay off big in the long run, particularly looking at the specs of TSMC's 5nm node.  It's just going to take a while.
  
  
• Speaking of Nvidia, here's their Titan RTX in case you just discovered a bunch of early Apple stock certificates in your grandparents' attic.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  
• And speaking of TSMC, a chemical contamination at one of their plants may have ruined as many as 10,000 wafers.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  This is in a plant that produces 16nm an 12nm chips, not the latest 7nm, but it could affect Xbox and PlayStation shipments, mid-range phones, and...  Nvidia graphics cards.  It's not a huge shortfall but there's a long lead time in wafer production so it's bound to cause scheduling problems.

• While I snark at Tech Crunch, they are snarking at Instagram.
  
  Both the app and the website went down, refusing all requests, for nearly an hour.
  
  Then they got fixed.
  
  Yeah, that's the whole story.  Next!
  
  
• Pushback on the California privacy legislation from...  Basically, everyone.  (TechDirt)
  
  We're not saying "train wreck", but choo choo CRASH.
  
  
• Many VPNs turn out to be worse than no VPN.  (TechDirt)
  
  If you're not paying for it, they're stealing your data.  If you are paying for it, they might still be stealing your data.
  
  
• Discussions of false DMCA takedown notices have been targeted by false DMCA takedown notices.  (TechDirt)
  
  Fortunately, Google got wise to this and aren't playing along.
  
  
• Facebook is now blocking tools that track Facebook's user trackers. (ProPublica)
  
  The obvious next step is a tool to block Facebook's blocking tool that blocks tools that track Facebook's user trackers.
  
  Of course, this being ProPublica, the shocking ad they use as an illustration is an NRA membership drive.
  
  
• Is Twitter banning users for posting #LearnToCode at smug idiots journalists?  (Reason)
  
  Yes.

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, January 30 2019 03:37 AM (Q/JG2)

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, January 30 2019 03:38 AM (Q/JG2)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, January 30 2019 09:42 AM (PiXy!)

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, January 30 2019 11:12 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, January 30 2019 12:26 PM (PiXy!)

Hide Comments | Add Comment