• Freelance journalists are up in arms over a new California law that just destroyed their lives.  (The Hollywood Reporter)
  
  If you are a freelancer and you write more than 35 articles - of any length - for one company in a given year, the new law requires them to treat you as an employee.  Given the massive consolidation of the media over the last fifty years, you could easily be writing for a dozen different publications and still only have one company paying you.
  
  
• BinaryLane has new high-performance and large storage VPS options available in Sydney.  (BinaryLane)
  
  Which is great for me because I live there.  I'm doing off-site backups to DigitalOcean right now but this storage option works out much cheaper - half the price for double the space.  It's hard disks rather than SSD, but I can live with that.
  
  
• 64 cores and can't...  Can't anything, really.  (Random ASCII)
  
  Yes, it's the same guy who wrote the classic 24-core CPU and I can't move my mouse only this time it happened to a "friend".
  
  
• The 16 core Ryzen 3950X is 24% faster than the 18 core i9-10980XE in one unofficial benchmark.  (PC Perspective)
  
  Ouch.
  
  
• Need a mini-ITX socket 2066 server motherboard?  No?  Supermicro has one for you anyway.  (Tom's Hardware)

Posted by: Rick C at Tuesday, October 22 2019 12:35 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Kayle at Tuesday, October 22 2019 11:59 AM (magRz)

Posted by: Rick C at Tuesday, October 22 2019 12:46 PM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Mauser at Wednesday, October 23 2019 12:26 PM (Ix1l6)

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• Facebook isn't free speech, it's an outrage engine.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Well, that's like, just your opinion, man.
  
  
• Verizon is reportedly looking to unload the Huffington Post.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Why anyone would buy it is another matter.
  
  
• AMD beats Intel by up to 5.6x on performance-per-dollar for server workloads unless it doesn't.  (WCCFTech)
  
  The trick here is the numbers only consider the cost of the CPU, not the rest of the server, the storage, or the software.  For some applications this difference is enough to win out even when all the costs are considered, for others (Oracle, SAP) the cost of the CPU itself is lost in the noise.
  
  
• Red means red.  (Nautil.us)
  
  How language shapes perception.
  
  
• If a bubble bursts in a forest full of unicorns and...  Where were we going with this metaphor, exactly?  (The Atlantic)
  
  The Second Great Dot Com Bubble is bursting, only people have actually learned since last time.  Overvalued companies like WeWork are getting systematically slaughtered before their IPOs, hurting incautious institutional investors like SoftBank but not damaging the market the way events unfolded in 2000.
  
  
• Build your own NES emulator in Rust.
  
  It actually looks pretty straightforward.
  
  
• Index all the things: The ups and downs of MongoDB 4.2's wildcard indexes.  (Medium)
  
  These are very cool for a data-warehouse / exploratory environment.  You can index everything in one go, even fields that aren't defined at the time you create the index.  This does have an impact on insert and update performance, of course, so you're still better off defining specific indexes if you can predict your access patterns.
  
  

• Percona now has a PostgreSQL distribution.
  
  Only 11.5 right now; they usually have a delay while they verify new releases themselves.  This builds on their long history with MySQL and several years with MongoDB (starting with TokuMX).
  
  Would be nice if they had a one-stop repo to grab everything from again.  They did have one but it seems only be for MySQL now.
  
  
• A big little SSD from Toshiba.  (AnandTech)
  
  1TB in an M.2 2230 module.  Performance is fairly good, but it's an OEM DRAMless part, designed to be cheap and trouble-free rather than for maximum performance.
  
  
• The Ryzen 3950X - a mainstream desktop part - outruns the Threadripper 2950X by up to 14%.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The 3950X has a 105W TDP; the 2950X is 180W.  Though the exact power consumption running these benchmarks remains to be seen.
  
  
• The first one is free.  (Free-for.dev)
  
  In some cases - AWS for instance - you can run a small app for free in perpetuity.
  
  
• SATA needs to be replaced with USB-C so that internal drives are external.  (Serve the Home)
  
  
• Measuring the Spectre migitation performance impact on Ice Lake.  (Phoronix)
  
  It averages 4.5% but the worst case is 36%.
  
  And yes, this means that Intel's latest CPUs still need software patches to plaster over their security flaws.
  
  

• PyPy 7.2 is out.  (MorePyPy)
  
  This release includes full Python 3.6 compatibility (right in time for Python 3.8), Arm support (this is a JIT compiler, so they need to build that in themselves), and a new, faster JSON decoder (I care mostly about encode performance and that was already very good).
  
  Work is now under way on full Python 3.7 compatibility and updates to the secure sandbox that lets you run parts of your application in a restricted environment.
  
  
• Ubuntu 19.10 is here, including Raspberry Pi 4 support.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  
• Record your journey to your personal Mordor.  (Etsy)
  
  
• Easily install Crystal on any platform!  (Crystal-lang.org)
  
  Except Windows, because it doesn't run on Windows yet.  It does work on WSL though, except if you want to use memory-mapped I/O, because memory-mapped I/O doesn't run on WSL yet.
  
  
• Caddy 2.0 is on its way - currently at 2.0 beta 6.  (Caddyserver.org)
  
  This includes lots of added goodness on top of an already great server.  All the paid "enterprise" extras have been rolled back into the open source version under the Apache license, so you're free to use it anywhere. 
  
  The new config API means you can manage live updates from your own app or configuration management platform.  Of course that also gives you the opportunity to lose your configuration, but you can stick to classic config files if you prefer.  It can even read existing Nginx config files.
  
  It speaks HTTP 1, 2, and 3, and WebSockets on the front end, and can route your requests to pretty much anything.
  
  
• MongoDB 4.2 supports Lucene.  (MongoDB)
  
  This might not sound like much, but at my day job I support large MongoDB databases (terabytes) that are replicated into Elasticsearch (based on Lucene) for, well, search.  Elasticsearch has slightly different data rules than MongoDB, and sometimes records that are just fine in one cannot be stored in the other.  (And this issue seems to be getting worse with recent revisions.)
  
  This update means I'll be able to drop the replication process and the separate search servers and just have all my eggs in one basket.
  
  
• Percona Backup for MongoDB lets you back up your basket.  (Percona)
  
  You can also run it on ZFS and use fsynclock() before a snapshot to get a ready-to-go point-in-time backup, but Percona's backup tool has nice features like writing to S3-compatible storage and backup verification.
  
  
• Yahoo Groups is not shutting down.  They're just deleting all the content.  (ResearchBuzz)
  
  Ugh.
  
  
• Faster than Intel, one quarter the price.  (Serve the Home)
  
  How does AMD's Epyc 7502P stack up against the Intel Xeon Platinum 8280?  Wait, I just told you.  Oops.
  
  
• A malicious Tor browser is stealing cryptocurrency from people buying illegal stuff on the Dark Web.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Just like real life only you don't get stabbed.
  
  
• Fake wordpress plugins mine cryptocurrency on your server.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Which then gets stolen by a malicious Tor browser while shopping for illegal stuff on the Dark Web.
  
  
• Luna Display can now display your Mac screen on your Mac.  (Six Colors)
  
  Your other Mac, that is.  All Thunderbolt Macs used to support this using Target Display Mode, but it died with Retina and still hasn't been restored.
  
  My Dell Inspiron 27s just have HDMI input.  It works.  Well, 99.8% of the time, anyway.
  
  
• Thirdripper is expected to be announced November 5th.  (Videocardz)
  
  24 and 32 core models available November 19th, and the unspecified 3990X - either 48 or 64 cores - to follow in January.
  
  
• Facebook, Google, Twitter, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, YouTube, and even Blizzard haven't done anything spectacularly stupid in public for an entire day.
  
  
• Fomantic-UI is a community fork of Semantic-UI with a dumb name.
  
  Apart from the name, though, it's all good.  Semantic-UI is in most ways superior to Bootstrap, but didn't have the corporate backing and hasn't taken off commercially (so far, at least).  Updates on the official repo have slowed this past year so the community stepped in to keep things moving.

Video of the Day

• LGA4677 is coming with PCIe 5.0.  (AnandTech)
  
  In 2021.  So don't hold your breath.
  
  
• Has your Game Boy seen better days?  The Analogue Pocket is a portable FPGA-based retro gaming emulator.  (Ars Technica)
  
  Dual FPGAs in fact, the second one for hardware hackers, and a 1600x1440 3.5" display.
  
  
• The UK government has signed a deal with Cray to build a 750,000 core AMD system.  (The Register)
  
  Its first task is to work out why they should care in the slightest about smuggling across the border in Ireland after Brexit.
  
  
• A Ryzen 3750X?  Really?  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  There isn't much room for it to distinguish itself unless (as the article suggests) this has two dies and thus 64MB of L3 cache.  That would be an interesting part, and might make sense if they have a lot of left-over dies with fewer than six working cores.  Then again, it wold make more sense to call that a 3850X.
  
  Maybe this is just another OEM part to fill some specific requirement.
  
  
• What's Chinese for "panopticon"?  (TechDirt)
  
  
• Some more Thirdripper details have leaked unless they haven't.  (WCCFTech)
  
  The new lineup will start with the 24 core 3960X at around $999, competing squarely with Intel's 18 core Cascade Lake part on price while squishing it on performance.
  
  
• How can a star be older than the Universe?  (Space.com)
  
  Moisturise regularly.  That's the secret.
  
  
• In an unexpected attack of common sense the UK has abandoned plans for a mandatory porn filter.  (ZDNet)
  
  Because...  Not always idiots?
  
  
• Paris Zoo unveiled an organism with no brain but 720 sexes.  (Reuters)
  
  The faculty of Oberlin College?
  
  
• GitLab gets antiwoke.  (The Register)
  
  GitLab's CEO says the company doesn't care if they disagree with customers morally, so long as they follow the law.
  
  The writer of the article seems to think this is somehow a bad thing.
  
  

• Much to everyone's suprise, Google announced the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL.  (AnandTech)
  
  Starting at $799 for the Pixel 4 with 6GB RAM and 64GB flash.  No microSD, no headphone jack.  No fingerprint sensor either.  Largest storage size is 128GB.  Not sure what decade these idiots are living in.
  
  
• Google also announced the Pixelbook Go which does have a headphone jack.  (The Verge)
  
  It's a magnesium-framed 1kg 13" Chromebook, available in a choice of black and I'm-not-sure-if-this-salmon-is-still-okay. 
  
  Starting at $649 with a Core m3, 1080p display, 8GB RAM, and 64GB storage - no SD card because, as we noted, idiots - and up to $1399 with a core i7, 4k screen, 16GB RAM, 256GB storage.
  
  
• Fortnite developer Shitty Game Store Company said they wouldn't ban people for mentioning Hong Kong.  (TechDirt)
  
  Shitty Game Store Company is 40% owned by Tencent the Chinese Communist Party.
  
  Rival Riot Games, creator of League of Legends, proudly announced mmph.  (One Angry Gamer)
  
  Riot is 100% owned by Tencent the Chinese Communist Party.
  
  Meanwhile DroidHang, creator of mobile lootbox explorer Idle Heroes, is banning accounts that mention Hong Kong even in in-game DMs.  (Reddit) 
  
  Since some players spend hundreds of dollars a month trying to get the new shinies this shows some real determination on the part of the developer.
  
  And Blizzard, who started all this crap, is busy cancelling everything it can cancel and banning everything it can ban.  (One Angry Gamer)
  
  There's no such thing as bad publicity.  There's just good publicity for someone else.
  
  
• SpaceX has filed plans to launch another thirty thousand internet satellites.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  That is rather a lot.
  
  
• A couple of small, cheap, silent, 10G Ethernet swi- oh of course they're fucking SFP -tches.  (Serve the Home)
  
  
• Google is launching their game streaming service Stadia on November 19th.  (One Angry Gamer)
  
  Because idiots.
  
  
  

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, October 16 2019 10:15 PM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, October 16 2019 11:11 PM (PiXy!)

Posted by: J Greely at Thursday, October 17 2019 02:34 AM (ZlYZd)

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• Better never than late.  (PC Perspective)
  
  Intel's 10nm desktop parts may not be shipping, ever.  Intel's statement is that their "current roadmap of 10nm products includes desktop", which is one of those carefully worded non-denials
  
  
• Feeling productive today?  Here's a cure!  The Internet Archive just added 2500 more DOS games.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  They include a browser-based version of DOSBox too, so you can just click and play.  It works surprisingly well.
  
  
• What's new in Python 3.8.
  
  1. A walrus.
  2. Really terrible new parameter syntax.
  
  
• Ubuntu's promised ZFS installer is on its way.  (Ars Technica)
  
  It's actually really easy to set up ZFS on Ubuntu, so long as you already know exactly how to do it.
  
  
• All the leaks and rumours on the Pixel 4 compiled in one place for those who can't wait three hours for the actual announcement.  (ZDNet)
  
  

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, October 16 2019 12:27 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: J Greely at Wednesday, October 16 2019 04:04 AM (ZlYZd)

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, October 16 2019 06:04 AM (Iwkd4)

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• When you see a journalist attacking someone else for lying, it is invariably a demarcation dispute.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  You can't lie!  That's wrong!  That's my job!
  
  
• Safari on iOS 13 sends broswing data to...  Tencent.  (Engadget)
  
  It does this, in theory, to protect against fraudulent websites.  But since it sends the request directly and not via an Apple proxy server, Tencent get to see your IP address and the sites you are connecting to.
  
  This is not a good idea.  You can turn it off.  Probably.
  
  
• iTerm2, a terminal emulator for MacOS, has fixed a critical vulnerability.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Basically, if you connected to a compromised host, and used advanced commands like curl or tail, the remote host could do anything it liked on your local machine.
  
  The bug has been present for seven years.
  
  
• The SEC has told Telegram to STOP.  (ZDNet)
  
  With its ICO, that is.  Because Telegram didn't bother to register it as a security.  Something the SEC can get quite snarky about.
  
  
• Thousand year eggs.  (One Angry Gamer)
  
  Blizzard is reportedly handing out thousand-year suspensions to users supporting civil rights in Hong Kong.  Because, apparently, Blizzard collectively has the intelligence of soap.
  
  
• Bel is a new dialect of Lisp.
  
  Just what everyone has been asking for all these years.
  
  It is named after ASCII character 7.
  
  Also, it is explicitly not useful for anything.
  
  

Posted by: Rick C at Tuesday, October 15 2019 05:50 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tuesday, October 15 2019 06:27 AM (YUAc9)

Posted by: Kayle at Tuesday, October 15 2019 11:59 AM (c9uoq)

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• A week with the Galaxy Fold.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  And it's still mostly functional at the end!
  
  I think Microsoft's Surface Duo is the right approach for now, or depending on what you need, perhaps the Xiaomi Mi Mix Alpha.  Or some combination of the two, with a 360% aggregate screen to body ratio.
  
  
• Zen 3 will deliver 8% better IPC and 5% better clock speeds unless it doesn't.  (WCCFTech)
  
  And the unified 8-core die instead of the dual 4-core CCX design we have now.
  
  
• What to do when you get Sherlocked.  (Astropad)
  
  Astropad produces a utility that lets you use iPads as secondary screens for your Mac, an obvious and very useful technology.  So obvious and useful that it's built in to the latest versions of MacOS and iPadOS.
  
  Astropad are responding by going cross-platform - as their customers have been begging them since they first launched.  (Thurrott.com)
  
  
• Arm responds to the open source RISC-V by allowing custom instructions.  (EETimes)
  
  Until now Arm had kept tight control over the instruction set in their licenses, fearing a fracturing of their ecosystem.  With RISC-V you can do whatever you want, and they risk losing customers who need custom instructions.
  
  This applies to the embedded Cortex M and R licenses, not to the general-purpose A series used in phones and tablets.
  
  
• Copernicium is weird stuff.  (In the Pipeline)
  
  Element 112 lives in an "island of stability" due to its precise nuclear configuration, and it's longest-lived isotope has a half-life of 29 seconds - long enough to examine its chemical and physical properties if you have some really strong coffee available.
  
  Turns out it's a liquid at room temperature.  Just not for very long.
  
  
• Bullshit.js is a useful analysis tool for business communication.
  
  
• Crystal has cracked the TIOBE top 50.
  
  Just behind LiveCode (never heard of it), PowerShell (never used it), ActionScript (dead), Scheme (I've looked at it)...  And Bash.
  
  Not too bad for a language that hasn't yet hit 1.0.
  
  
• Synopsys has demonstrated CXL and CCIX over PCIe 5.0.  (AnandTech)
  
  We got PCIe 4.0, like, a month ago.
  
  
• Don't upgrade your MacBook Pro to Catalina.  (Forbes)
  
  Just in case you hadn't got the idea already.  It is probably safe to upgrade if you have never had iTunes installed at any point.
  
  
• Outdoor.  Air conditioner.  (Kickstarter)

• Fibres considered harmful.   (PDF)
  
  Says Microsoft, who have a terrible implementation of fibres.
  
  Go and Erlang developers expressed surprise at hearing that the feature they had been successfully using for years to develop robust and scalable software was not useful in developing robust and scalable software.
  
  
• Why enterprise software sucks.  (Twitter)
  
  
  
  
  
• One day that DB-25 to 50-pin Centronics adaptor will come in useful.  (ZDNet)
  
  On that day, you won't be able to find it.
  
  
• Everyone loves Facebook.  (ZDNet)
  
  I'm doing some work with Facebook's Libra - but as a technology platform, not a payment platform.  So I don't care that all of Facebook's payment processing partners - Paypal, Stripe, Visa, and Mastercard - have pulled out of the project.  I suspect Facebook does care, though.
  
  
• There's nothing to see here.  (One Angry Gamer)
  
  A $175 Mei statue disappeared from pre-order on Blizzard's online store.  So did another $175 pre-order statue of a different character.  Other Mei merchandise is still available.
  
  In case you have a life and haven't been keeping track, after Blizzard kowtowed to China over a player's Hong Kong comments, the character Mei from their game Overwatch has become an overnight symbol for the Hong Kong civil rights movement.
  
  
  
  
  
• EM8ER will have a butt slider.  (One Angry Gamer)
  
  At last, a worthwhile task for that 2080ti.
  
  
• Do not pour coffee directly into your Panasonic Toughbook 55.  (ZDNet)
  
  It's designed to be splashproof, not entire-cup-of-coffee-proof.  Though a post-mortem did highlight an odd design choice that could significantly improve the coffeeproofing with a quick aftermarket add-on.
  
  
• Supermicro's X11SPA-T motherboard only has one 10G Ethernet port.  (Serve the Home)
  
  It does have twelve DIMM slots, four M.2 22110 slots, four PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, three PCIe 3.0 x8 slots, eight SATA ports, and both remote management and integrated audio, always an interesting combination.
  

Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, October 13 2019 01:21 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, October 13 2019 01:51 AM (PiXy!)

Posted by: Kayle at Sunday, October 13 2019 02:20 AM (EaJqS)

Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, October 13 2019 07:13 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, October 13 2019 01:15 PM (PiXy!)

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