• This was not unusual except in how blatant it all was:
  
  The UN released a human rights report noting that the US had 100,000 children in custody.
  
  The news wires pounced on it.
  
  And then they discovered that the report specifically said the numbers were from 2015.
  
  It instantly and very explicitly became a non-story.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  In every case they made no attempt to correct the story.  They simply deleted it.  (National Review)
  
  

Tech News

• Porsche Design unveiled a beautiful 15" laptop that's thinner than a dog-ate-my-homework excuse.  (AnandTech)
  
  It has up to 16GB RAM and 1TB of SSD, which is pretty good, a great selection of ports, most of them at the back and out of the way, dedicated PgUp / PgDn / Home / End keys, an underwhelming Y-series CPU because it's a fanless design, and a mediocre 1080p display because who needs a decent screen anyway?
  
  
• Asus has launched the ProArt StudioBook Pro X.  (AnandTech)
  
  It has a six core Xeon CPU, 64GB of ECC RAM (upgradeable to 128GB), Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000 graphics with 16GB of GDDR6 RAM, 4TB of SSD and a hard drive, two Thunderbolt 3 ports plus separate HDMI 2.0, three USB 3 10Gbit ports, WiFi 6 and wired Ethernet, microSD and a headphone jack...
  
  And a 17" 1920x1200 display because who needs a decent screen anyway?
  
  
• Lenovo's ThinkPad P53 gets a going-over.  (PC Perspective)
  
  It has a six core i7-9850H, 64GB of ECC RAM (on an i7?), Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000 graphics with 16GB of GDDR6 RAM, 1TB of SSD, two Thunderbolt 3 ports plus separate HDMI 2.0, three USB 3 5Gbit ports, WiFi 6 and wired Ethernet, microSD and a headphone jack and a SIM slot...
  
  And a 15" 1080p display because who needs a decent screen anyway?
  
  
• Cerebras has launched the CS-1, the server that houses that 1.2 trillion transistor monster chip.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  It uses 20kW of power - 1kW for the server, 15kW for that massive chip, and 4kW for the integrated cooling system that stops the whole thing from melting into a puddle.
  
  It also integrates 12 100GbE network ports just to make all your other servers feel inadequate.
  
  
• AMD has announced the Radeon Pro W5700, their first profession card based on the new RDNA architecture.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  It's basically the same as the RX 5700, except for a lower TDP figure (Radeon Pro cards usually run cooler and slightly slower than their domestic counterparts) and the output ports - five mini DisplayPorts and one USB-C.
  
  
• The DOJ is moving to scrap its movie distribution regulations.  (New York Times)
  
  Regulations dating back to the Paramount consent decree in 1949.  Yeah, the industry has changed just a little since then.
  
  
• Two senators are asking why Facebook is still tracking users' locations after they opt out.  (CNBC)
  
  That's actually a good question.
  
  
• They can probably blame it on Visual Studio Code.  (Thurrott.com)
  
  It's really not very good.
  
  
• Kubernetes is the new Java.  (ZDNet)
  
  Bloated, horrible, and impossible to uninstall?
  
  
• Get your tech turkeys earlier for Thanksgiving.  (ZDNet)
  
  
• Canonical releases Charmed OSM as its latest enterprise push.  (Phoronix)
  
  Sorry, what?

  The latest enterprise push by Ubuntu maker Canonical is Charmed OSM as their own commercial flavor of Open-Source MANO.

  Still not getting it.

  Charmed OSM is a distribution of Open-Source MANO for network function virtualization (NFV) management and orchestration. This Management and Orchestration (MANO) stack is designed to handle commercial NFV networks. Canonical's Charmed OSM is targeting major telecommunication companies for their NFV needs.

  Oh, of course, an OSM NFV MANO for MTC RFQs.  Got it!
  
  
• TechDirt agrees with Ajit Pai on something.
  
  I think that's the seventh seal.
  
  

Posted by: Rick C at Thursday, November 21 2019 07:39 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, November 21 2019 10:50 PM (PiXy!)

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• Google Stadia is here and to everyone's surprise it pretty much sucks.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Performance is more-or-less adequate on games that don't require fast response if you live in New York and have high-speed fiber internet.
  
  Otherwise, no.
  
  
• It's not just Andrew Yang's monetary policy that's a train wreck.  (TechDirt)
  
  His tech policy is also - and I quote - "unbelievably dumb".
  
  
• A look at the bits inside the MacBook 16.  (iFixit)
  
  It turns out that the new keyboard is much the same as the old keyboard - not the new old keyboard, but the old old keyboard.  They compare it to the iMac Magic Keyboard which they call "a well-liked, reliable design" but is in fact a spongy disgusting piece of garbage that should never have seen the light of day.
  
  (Yes, I own one.)
  
  
• YouTube's handling of copyright continues to be a clusterfuck.  (TorrentFreak)
  
  Copyright-free music used in thousands of videos and supplied by YouTube itself has been hit by copyright claims.
  
  
• AMD's B550 chipset is on its way at last.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The X570 is great technically but it's expensive and requires active cooling.
  
  The B550 looks like an updated X470, with two extra SATA ports and an added downstream PCIe 3.0 x4 bus, so that motherboard makers can easily have two full-speed M.2 slots.
  
  It doesn't itself support PCIe 4.0, but that doesn't mean the motherboard can't.
  
  
• Interpol clarifies that it both is and is not opposed to strong encryption and has no statement to make at this time.  (TechDirt)
  
  That's very helpful, thanks.
  
  
• Wait, they're still alive?  Via has announced a new 8 core x86 CPU with an integrated 20 TOPS AI engine.  (Phoronix)
  
  This is aimed at embedded apps rather than the desktop.  Probably.
  
  
• The only secure camera is one covered with black electrical tape.  (ZDNet)
  
  I have some festive black-and-orange tape from Halloween a couple of years ago that works nicely.
  
  
• The only secure online store is - wait, that's a trick question, there is no secure online store.  (ZDNet)
  
  There is no entirely secure offline store either, of course, but at least the thieves are required to show up in person.

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, November 20 2019 12:36 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, November 20 2019 12:42 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, November 20 2019 12:47 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, November 20 2019 12:50 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, November 20 2019 12:54 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, November 20 2019 12:57 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, November 20 2019 08:25 AM (PiXy!)

Posted by: cxt217 at Wednesday, November 20 2019 12:24 PM (LMsTt)

Posted by: Jay at Wednesday, November 20 2019 01:35 PM (vuQH5)

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• Google Stadia will launch with 22 games, not 12.  (Thurott.com)
  
  None of the added games are Tomb Raider, which is another plus, but none of them are huge titles either.
  
  
• The blades of modern wind turbines are made of super-strong composite materials. Only problem with that is there's no easy way to dispose of old and broken blades.  (Star Advertiser)
  
  They can't be recycled, so they end up as landfill, and they are huge.
  
  
• A newly discovered form of carbon can act as a permanent magnet.  (Science)
  
  The researchers were trying to create pentagraphene - graphene, but pentagonal rather than hexagonal, and no, I have no idea how that would work either - and instead got a weird film that is reflective, conductive, and magnetic.
  
  The molecular structure hasn't been confirmed yet, and it hasn't been independently replicated, but it looks interesting.
  
  

Posted by: Rick C at Tuesday, November 19 2019 02:54 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: kurt duncan at Tuesday, November 19 2019 05:25 AM (mEm0n)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, November 19 2019 02:38 PM (PiXy!)

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• So for some reason if I add magnification to my reading glasses prescription I can use regular lenses instead of high refractive index ones and they get a lot cheaper.
  
  Looks like my cunning plan to replace my 7" tablet with a 6" phone is a go.
  
  Since I have a couple of promo codes from buying three pairs of new glasses earlier this year I'll probably get the reading glasses with built-in ZOOM ENHANCE and some prescription sunglasses as well.  That will give me five pairs of glasses and a spare set of frames for only slightly more than one pair cost me through a major eyewear chain last time. 
  
  (I found a frame I like that comes in five different colours so they'll all be colour coded, though I already find that when I'm not wearing glasses in the first place it's not particularly easy to distinguish the gold distance pair from the rose gold reading pair.)
  
  
• Linux containers - often referred to as LXC or LXD - work just fine and are very easy to install and configure except for the networking which is fucking crazy.  I have them running now on virtual servers both for our stuff here and for my day job - so I can get one server from Digital Ocean or IBM or other cloud provider, and subdivide it and have different apps and services each running in their own little box without having a minimum monthly charge for every tiny app I might want to deploy.
  
  I was planning to move the whole of mu.nu and mee.nu to an LXC environment last year but the deployment dragged on forever due to network configuration problems (and general lack of time to fight those network configuration problems) and eventually I gave up on the idea because the server was costing me a lot of money and we weren't able to use it.
  
  Then a couple of weeks ago I realised that judicious use of SSH tunnels would have got me 95% of the way there and given me flexibility on distributing where the actual networking endpoints lived.  Realised that about a year too late to have used that trick to migrate us all to that lovely server I had at the time.
  
  Oh well.  Back to monitoring the bargain racks at reliable hosting providers again.
  
  
  
  
• Rip all the threads!  (WCCFTech)
  
  Newegg has 8 core Threadrippers for $150 and 12 cores for $267.  And motherboards for $240, which is not exactly cheap but is not unreasonable either if you need 64 PCIe lanes for something.
  
  Of course, it is going to be superseded in a couple of weeks, but the cheapest Thirdripper will be $1400 plus a motherboard, so there is still room for a product like this.
  
  Meanwhile the second-generation 2920X is $370 on Amazon.  Which means that even with the motherboard it will work out cheaper than a 3900X (assuming you can find a 3900X).
  
  
• Wikichip has a story on that trillion-transistor pizza-scale AI chip but their site has the hiccups right now so the page might not load.
  
  The article discusses how they manage die yield when the die is the size of a dinner plate.  There are - according to the spec - 400,000 individual cores on the chip, but there are several thousand spare cores that can be enabled before each chip is sold to take the place of failed cores in the grid.
  
  Yes, this chip has between 4000 and 6000 extra cores just to cover wafer defects.
  
  
• New AMD Epyc servers from Quanta.  (Serve the Home)
  
  Not that interesting really unless you're specifically looking to buy one of these, except for the point that 1U servers can now squeeze in 12 2.5" front-accessible drive bays.
  
  And squeeze is the right word, because that leaves half an inch total per drive to account for the hot-swap drive caddy, the frame holding the drive caddies, the airflow between those, and the case of the server itself.
  
  
  
  
• Apple has banned apps in any way relating to vaping including those designed to manage medicinal marijuana.  (ZDNet)
  
  They've even gone so far as to cancel the developer account of PAX Labs, developer of, uh, the "iPhone of marijuana vapes".
  
  Whatever you may feel about them, the devices are legal in many locations and Apple has no legal or moral obligation to police them.  They just chose to do so.
  
  
• Google, meanwhile, is perfectly happy to collect all your medical data.  (ZDNet)
  
  Without your consent, or, apparently, even your knowledge.  They just hoovered it all up.  (Whether we're talking the vacuum cleaner or J. Edgar remains to be seen.)
  
  
• Microsoft is killing Cortana.  (Thurrott.com)
  
  The digital assistant.
  
  For Android and iOS.
  
  In some countries outside the United states.
  
  I have never used it off Windows and hate it on Windows, but it was the only such service that worked across all devices.
  
  
• Google manually changes search results, and they do it all the time.  (MSN)
  
  Originally published in the Wall Street Journal, but that's paywalled and MSN seems to have the full text of the article for free.
  
  The Journal found that Google engineers tweak the algorithm to favour certain companies, manually adjust autocomplete text and featured results, blacklist sites in certain contexts or indeed entirely, while Google executives lie about all of this.
  
  This comes as little surprise to anyone who has been awake any time in the past decade, of course.

Video of the Day

Posted by: J Greely at Monday, November 18 2019 01:24 AM (ZlYZd)

Posted by: Rick C at Monday, November 18 2019 01:49 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Rick C at Monday, November 18 2019 02:04 AM (Iwkd4)

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• I've dropped One Angry Gamer from my list of sources because I'm sick of the bullshit that goes on in the comments over there.  They may just be trolling, but I've had enough.  Looking for a site that covers that sort of news that isn't run by crazy people.
  
  
• Apple will be forced to open its NFC function to other payment processors.  (9to5Mac)
  
  The ruling comes from Germany, but there's an investigation going on in Australia over this as well.
  
  
• Dell's latest XPS 13 2-in-1 has an Ice Lake CPU.  (AnandTech)
  
  That means up to 4 cores (meh) but also up to 64 graphics cores (which I already have in my HP Spectre).
  
  It comes with a 13.4" 1920x1200 or optionally a 3840x2400 16:10 display, which is nice in a market full of 16:9 screens.  There's no GPU cache, but it uses LPDDR4X-3733 RAM, providing about 50% more bandwidth than the typical 2400 or 2666 DDR4 RAM.
  
  It has dedicated PgUp and PgDn keys, but Home and End double up with F11 and F12. There is literally no spare room available though, so I'll give them a pass on that.
  
  Ports are minimal, but it includes the essentials: Two Thunderbolt 3, microSD, and headphone jack.  Weight is 1.33kg - 2.9lb.
  
  It's not cheap - fully configured with the 4K screen, 32GB RAM, and a 1TB SSD it comes to A$3999 - but it is the closest I've seen to my ideal laptop.  The 2-in-1 thing is of no use to me personally - it's a 180° hinge, not a detachable keyboard - but doesn't really detract from the device either.
  
  
  
  
• The Supreme Court will hear the appeal over the stupid Google v. Oracle Java API case.  (TechDirt)
  
  The original decision from about ninety years ago was carefully reasoned and clearly correct, so naturally it got overturned by the Federal Circuit.  The Supreme Court loves smacking the Federal Circuit around, so there's a good chance the original correct ruling will be reinstated.
  
  
• RISE 2020 will take place in 2021.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  This is - or was - a huge annual tech conference held in Hong Kong.  Not any more.
  
  Thanks China.
  
  
• Facebook is busy working on its Libra blockchain platform thingy.  (Tech Crunch(
  
  Because all those bothersome regulations only apply to running a blockchain.  You can develop and release whatever the hell code you want.
  
  
• Amazon is a flea market of fake crap.  (Washington Post)
  
  No shit, Sherlock, says everyone who has ever gone shopping for an SD card.
  
  
• Google has cancelled its weekly all-hands meetings after discovering the company is run by idiots.  (CNBC)
  
  
  
  
• A new Chrome feature intended to save memory ran amok Tuesday and killed over five trillion people.  (ZDNet)
  
  More specifically, a lot of companies depending on internal web apps tested and deployed for Chrome discovered that the new feature would save memory by delivering them to the White Screen of Death.
  
  
• Don't charge that phone!  (ZDNet)
  
  Fake or hijacked public USB charging stations can hack your phone and send your private data off to Latveria in milliseconds.
  
  
• Most Americans correctly believe they are being constantly tracked.  (MIT Technology Review)
  
  I already used no shit, Sherlock, didn't I?
  
  
• Three executives from Apple's custom CPU division have left to start their own company.  (9to5Mac)
  
  They are planning to compete not with other mobile chip designers (tricky) but with Intel and AMD for the mainstream market (all but impossible).
  
  Within five years they'll be out of money and someone will buy them.
  
  
• A couple of days ago I said of the Realme 5 Pro that

  It would be even easier if Oppo would just ship stock Android and stop screwing things up

  Well.
  
  This is the Umidigi (formerly UMI) F1.
  
  
  
  It has a mid-range Helio P60 CPU (four A73 and four A53 cores), a 6.3" 2340x1080 screen with a teardrop notch, 4GB RAM, 128GB flash, 16MP front and rear cameras, dual SIM cards or one SIM and one microSD, a headphone jack, a fingerprint reader, and a USB-C connector.
  
  And stock Android.
  
  Android 9.0 at the time of this review in May, not sure if there's been an update yet.  (GadgetGuy)

  Setup is typical stock Android with no hint of a UI or other overlays, nor does it try to get you to create a UMIDIGI account at setup – good so far. And you can recover old apps by signing into Google Play or copy apps and data over from another Android phone.

  A$280 from Amazon Australia with free delivery.  (Or A$250 for the boring looking black version.)
  There is also an F1 Play model selling for A$300.
  
  The difference is a bit confusing: The Play is mostly the same, but is configured as 6/64GB rather than 4/128GB and has a 48MP main camera.  For just A$20 more, that's an interesting tradeoff, since with stock Android it should support adoptable storage and I can add another 200GB no problem.  (And even if that doesn't work 64GB for apps and 200GB for storage is fine.)
  
  Only catch is that model ships directly from Umidigi, rather than from Amazon, so another week for delivery, and if you need to return it you may have a problem.
  
  Now, the interesting thing is in between those two - yes, exactly splitting the A$20 price difference at A$290 - is the Umidigi X.  This is again a Helio P60 with a 6.3" 2340x1080 screen, 4GB RAM and 128GB storage, dual SIM or SIM plus microSD, a headphone jack, and an AMOLED screen with in-screen fingerprint sensor.
  
  Oh, found the catch.  That Amazon page lies.  The screen on the AMOLED model is actually 1548x720.  (Umidigi)
  
  That's not terrible, but I do want a 1080p display.  Because my next tablet might well be this phone and a new pair of reading glasses.
  
  Finally, if you've decided that you're not willing to compromise, the Umidigi S3 Pro at A$350 comes in a 6/128GB configuration with a 48MP main camera and a Helio P70...  Which is about 5% faster than the P60.
  
  But it's not available in shiny red.
  
  I think the F1 is the safest choice since it ships from Amazon themselves and includes an Australian fast charger.
  
  Really the only reason not to buy the Umidigi F1 is that they just announced the Umidigi F2.
  
  Upgrades include 6GB RAM, a 6.5" screen, room for two SIMs and a microSD card, Android 10, a quad-camera array with a 48MP main sensor, and a 32MP selfie camera.  It looks like it will be more expensive, and it's also not shipping yet.

Posted by: Wonderduck at Saturday, November 16 2019 09:24 PM (18xJF)

Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, November 17 2019 07:53 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, November 17 2019 07:55 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Mauser at Sunday, November 17 2019 05:31 PM (Ix1l6)

Posted by: Mauser at Sunday, November 17 2019 05:36 PM (Ix1l6)

Posted by: Jay at Sunday, November 17 2019 11:34 PM (vuQH5)

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• The Ryzen 3950X is here and it stomps all over everything.  (AnandTech)
  
  Stomp stomp stompity stomp.
  
  
  
  Stompity stomp.
  
  
• Amazon is suing the Department of Defense over JEDI mind tricks.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Why didn't the Empire think of that?
  
  
• Carriers are resistant to replacing SMS with faster better cheaper RCS messaging, because they know which side of their butter is breaded.  So Google is saying screw you guys and rolling it out themselves unless they aren't.  (WCCFTech)
  
  Google is still run by idiots though.
  
  
• PayPal is stopping payments to Pornhub quote-models-unquote.  (Vice)
  
  Forget the social networks, regulate the payment processors.
  
  
• Why is the migration to Python 3 taking so long?  (StackOverflow)
  
  Python 3 was created to make life easier for the developers of Python, not for their users.  By Python 3.5, or at least 3.6, it was actually better than Python 2 and migration made sense, but the whole process was unnecessarily painful and stupid.
  
  
• Is Docker in trouble?
  
  Sadly it looks like while the company is a financial squeeze, the technology is going to continue to plague us forever, as the package manager of choice for people who don't know what the fuck they are doing.  Or don't care.  Or both.
  
  
• Thicker and heavier is better: The MacBook 16.  (MacWorld)
  
  
• Being run by idiots is not inherently a Sherman Act violation.  (ZDNet)
  
  That would keep the DOJ very busy indeed.
  
  
• Andrew Yang wants to tax advertising and create a new federal government department in charge of regulating algorithms.  (The Verge)
  
  Serious, this guy is Stalin with Photoshop.
  
  
• Uber got hit with a $650 MILLION tax bill in New Jersey.  (Bloomberg)
  
  That represents four years of unemployment and disability insurance taxes, plus interest and penalties.  New Jersey's position on this contradicts federal law, and I'm not sure which way that goes in this case - whether the 10th Amendment or the absurdly overbroad interpretation of the Commerce Clause comes out on top.
  
  
• There's a new social network in town and it only costs $13 a month and oh it's already dead.  (The Next Web)
  
  Nobody could have predicted this.
  
  
• China's National Space Administration has successfully completed a landing in China.  (Reuters)
  
  This precedes a planned landing somewhere else.  Probably.

Posted by: J Greely at Friday, November 15 2019 06:46 PM (ZlYZd)

Posted by: Rick C at Saturday, November 16 2019 02:28 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Rick C at Saturday, November 16 2019 02:29 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, November 16 2019 07:22 AM (PiXy!)

Posted by: Rick C at Saturday, November 16 2019 10:16 AM (Iwkd4)

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• The Google Pixel 4 XL with 64GB storage costs A$1279.
  
  It has 6GB of RAM, a 16MP main camera, no fingerprint sensor, no headphone jack, and no microSD slot.
  
  The Oppo Realme 5 Pro with 128GB storage costs A$399.
  
  It has 8GB of RAM, a 48MP main camera, a fingerprint sensor, a headphone jack, and a microSD slot.
  
  This is not a difficult decision.  (TechRadar)
  
  It would be even easier if Oppo would just ship stock Android and stop screwing things up, but this one is unusual in that it's readily available in Australian retail outlets, so I'll take it.
  
  In addition to the Realme 5 Pro there's also a Realme C2 at A$199, a Realme 5 at A$299, and a Realme XT at A$499 with an OLED display.  They're all good value for money, but the 5 Pro is probably the pick of the litter.
  
  It even looks pretty.
  
  
  
  
• Turns out that rumoured 16" MacBook Pro is real.  (AnandTech)
  
  Fully configured it comes in just short of A$10,000.
  
  Admittedly, fully configured includes 64GB of RAM and 8TB of SSD.
  
  The MacBook 16 also comes with Radeon Pro 5300M or 5500M graphics - AMD's new low-end Navi parts with up to 8GB GDDR6 RAM.
  
  Perhaps most significantly, they've ditched the terrible Magic Keyboard, replacing it with a new and slightly less terrible Magic Keyboard with old-style switches and an entire millimetre of key travel.  The escape key has also escaped from wherever they had it penned up, because that's back too.
  
  
• The Buffalo LXW-10G2/2G4 switch has two 10G ports and 4 2.5G ports.  (AnandTech)
  
  That's okay, I guess.  If the price is right.  And they decide to sell it outside Japan.
  
  
• Twitter and Instagram begin a new round of experiments to find faster ways to burn shareholders' money.  (TechDirt)
  
  Just soak it in liquid oxygen like a pro.
  
  
• Ring is Amazon's attempt to be Google.  (TechDirt)
  
  Amazon isn't run by idiots to nearly the same extent as Google (the ocean of fake microSD cards listed on their store notwithstanding) but the Ring program is creepsville.
  
  
• Motorola's new Razr will cost $1499 unless it doesn't.  (WCCFTech)
  
  It's a flip phone with a 6.2" 2142x867 folding display and an additional 2.7" 800x600 display on the...  Front?  Back?  Outside?  Wherever.  It has a 16MP outside camera and a 5MP inside camera, 6GB RAM, and 128GB storage.
  
  Sorry, this is the Verge, but it's genuinely cool to see this thing in action.
  
  
  
  It's expensive, but it looks like it's a solid device.
  
  
• Another day, another Intel security bug.  (Kernel.org)
  
  This one is slightly different.  There's a feature called TSX in Intel CPUs that lets you handle transactional code without conventional (and slow) locking mechanisms.  Turns out it also lets you run side-channel attacks on a server running untrusted code.
  
  The Linux kernel patch disables TSX on all Intel CPUs.
  
  
• Faster and cheaper than a B Ark.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  1. Announce a contract with ICE or some other widely despised institution like the Mayo Clinic or the American Red Cross.
  2. Outraged idiots resign.
  3. Costs drop while productivity soars.
  4. Competitors hire your cast-off idiots and go broke.
  5. Profit.
   
• Let them eat MacBooks.  (Thurrott.com)
  
  
  
  
  You can't succeed, apparently, unless you buy overpriced Apple toys.
  
  
• Facebook deleted 3.2 billion fake accounts over the last two years.  (One Angry Gamer - oh, whatever, you're a grown-up)
  
  I know what you're thinking.  You're thinking, These are the people who can't tell revenue from profit.  I bet it's 3.2 million.
  
  I thought that too.  I was wrong.  (Facebook)
  
  Ugh.
  
  
• Game developers are worried that Google might not cancel Stadia.  (Ars Technica)

  "The biggest complaint most developers have with Stadia is the fear that Google isn't going to cancel it," Fwen Grey, developer of Stadia launch puzzle game Mine, told GamesIndustry.biz in recently published comments.  "Nobody ever says, 'It might actually work this time,' or 'Streaming isn't a complete dumpster fire.'  Everyone accepts that streaming is pretty much dead.  The biggest concern with Stadia is that it might actually survive."

  Or at least, it would have made more sense if she had said that.

Video of the Day

Posted by: Rick C at Friday, November 15 2019 07:01 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Rick C at Friday, November 15 2019 07:14 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Rick C at Friday, November 15 2019 07:21 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Rick C at Friday, November 15 2019 07:33 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Friday, November 15 2019 08:19 AM (PiXy!)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Friday, November 15 2019 08:19 AM (PiXy!)

Posted by: Rick C at Friday, November 15 2019 09:43 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Rick C at Friday, November 15 2019 09:45 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Friday, November 15 2019 04:22 PM (PiXy!)

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• The Garage is a new blockchain-focused incinerator based in Paris.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  They shovel your money into it, and it goes away.
  
  
• Han shot only.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  For crying out loud, George, it was fine the first time.
  
  
• A new variant of the eternal speculative execution bug has been found in Intel's latest Cascade Lake processors.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Just disable hyperthreading already.
  
  
• Apple have released the second beta of iOS and iPadOS 13.3 unless they haven't.  (WCCFTech)
  
  They'll get it right sooner or later.  Probably later. 
  
  Or never.  That's also an option.  (ZDNet)
  
  
• A look at the Ryzen 3900.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  It uses 40% less power and delivers 90% of the performance in most tests.  Perfect for all-in-one systems like the iMac or the Inspiron 27...  Both of which are only available with Intel CPUs.
  
  
• A 16 inch MacBook Pro is expected to arrive tomorrow.  (Thurrott.com)
  
  Mind you, people have been talking about this for over a year.  But this time may or may not be different.

Posted by: Rick C at Thursday, November 14 2019 01:40 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, November 14 2019 04:19 PM (PiXy!)

Posted by: Rick C at Friday, November 15 2019 06:55 AM (Iwkd4)

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• More pinkish, actually.  One of those Sydney days when the wind is from the west and the temperature goes up and the humidity goes down and you have to clean all the windows.  Also, everything is on fire, and the usual suspects are screeching like fire was invented yesterday.
  
  Thankfully no deaths reported thus far.
  
  
• Ryzen 4000 APUs look set to have Vega graphics again.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Speculation is swirling about them featuring 15 CUs (up from 11 currently) but it seems to be purely speculation.
  
  
• Samsung's DRAM factories got hit with a chemical contamination issue wiping out as much as half a billion dollars worth of wafers.  (PC Perspective)
  
  Everything is back on track but price decreases may stall for a few months.
  
  It's funny that we can now talk about a half-billion dollar loss and the company is just blithely expected to keep going with nary a blip.
  
  
• LG has a 43" 4K HDR10 monitor for you.  (AnandTech)
  
  Four HDMI, one full-size DisplayPort, and one USB-C inputs, with 60W charging on the USB-C.  Around $640.
  
  
• Horrible HTML tricks to play on unsuspecting visitors.  (HTML Hell)
  
  
• Jellyfish is a GPU rootkit.  (GitHub)
  
  Well, a proof of concept.  Don't try this at home.
  
  
• 512 cores, 8TB RAM, 32 NVMe SSDs, and 8 GPUs in a 2U server.  (Serve the Home)
  
  It has redundant 2.2kW power supplies, but if you fill it up the peak power draw is well over 2.2kW, which is a slight problem.
  
  
• Did Google really achieve quantum supremacy?  (ZDNet)
  
  This is a great analysis of the recent announcement from Google, which is run by idiots.  Google may have exaggerated just a tiny bit.
  
  
• BuzzFeed, Vice, and Vox staff are shocked to learn that their shares are worthless.  (One Angry Gamer - do not read the comments)
  
  I've been there myself, watching paper wealth vanish in a puff of imaginary smoke, so I almost feel sympathy for these idiots.
  
  I say almost because this kind of thing is an hourly event now:
  
  
  
  
  
• Then they came for One Angry Gamer.  (One Angry Gamer - do not read the comments)
  
  And I spoke up, and said Do not read the comments.  Seriously, what is wrong with people?
  
  
• Stadia will launch with twelve games - three of which are Tomb Raider.  (ExtremeTech)
  
  We are not making this up.
  
  Also, Google is run by idiots.
  
  
• Twitter is proposing to flag posts containing "deepfakes".  (VentureBeat)
  
  Just flag, not ban or remove.  This is the least worst thing Twitter has done all year.
  
  
• Google is planning to name and shame slow-loading websites.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Not entirely a bad idea - the amount of bloat on many sites these days is insane - except that:
  
  
• Google is planning a faster, better way to deliver web apps that curiously only works on Chrome and integrates with Google APIs.  (VentureBeat)
  
  Google is run by idiot weasels.
  
  

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, November 13 2019 02:52 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, November 13 2019 02:55 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, November 13 2019 03:08 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: cxt217 at Wednesday, November 13 2019 10:30 AM (LMsTt)

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• Ubuntu 20.04 will disinclude Python 2.  (Phoronix)
  
  Since it will be out three months after support is dropped for Python 2, that's no surprise.
  
  Fortunately for me, PyPy (the Python compiler) will continue support for Python 2 indefinitely.  Because the chances of me porting 250,000 lines of code before New Year's Eve are slim.
  
  
• Did we mention that nobody likes the Pixel 4 very much?  (ZDNet)
  
  Fortunately there is a simple solution to all the problems with the Pixel 4: Don't buy it.  Google is run by idiots.
  
  
• Microsoft Edge is coming to Linux.  (MSN)
  
  On the one hand, it's based on Chromium, which runs just fine on Linux, and on the other hand, I'm more prepared to trust Microsoft at this point than Google, so...  Bring it on, because Google is run by idiots.
  
  
• Terminator won't be back.  (Forbes)
  
  Don't click on that link.  Forbes now has adblock detection and is just filled with crap if you turn your adblocker off.
  
  Anyway, while Joker - an actual good film - nudges ever closer to the billion dollar mark (for an R-rated comic book movie with a $55 million budget that has not been released in China), the new Terminator film fell into a vat of molten metal and disappeared.
  
  The article linked above (don't click) makes the laughable assertion that:

  It’s a sign that making a better sequel couldn’t save a franchise for which general audiences stopped caring decades ago.

  Better than what, exactly?
  
  
• YouTube has begun banning commenters for using too many emojis.  (Engadget)
  
  First worthwhile thing they've done in years.
  
  Okay, yeah, Google is run by idiots.

Posted by: Rick C at Tuesday, November 12 2019 12:55 AM (Iwkd4)

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