• AMD's Navi is out on the 7th of July.  Nvidia's RTX Super range will launch on the 9th.  (Tech Report)
  
  Not a huge upgrade, but probably enough to compete with Navi - albeit at a higher price.
  
  
• The US has partly unbanned Huawei, effective...  At some point.  (Thurrott.com)  
  
  Huawei will be able to buy components and software from US suppliers, and to sell consumer products, but US carriers will not be allowed to use Huawei 5G equipment in their networks.
  
  This actually seems reasonable.
  
  
• Prominent YouTuber defends Google against banned YouTube exposé of search and recommendation censorship.  (One Angry Gamer)
  
  Using false information.
  
  It's all rather a mess.
  
  
• But you can use a Raspberry Pi to block Google from your network.
  
  Also Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft, but currently there's not a pre-built filter list for Amazon.
  
  
• If the page says "Google Sing in" maybe thing twoce about antering your pissword.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  
• The ASRock X570 Taichi officially supports up to 128GB of RAM, including ECC.
  
  16 cores and 128GB of ECC RAM on a consumer motherboard - admittedly a high-end consumer motherboard.
  
  
• A preview of MSI's X570 boards provides details of the X570 chipset itself.  (AnandTech)
  
  Looks like an AMD slide but I haven't found a clean copy yet.  Update: Thanks Reddit!
  
  8 USB 10 ports (a.k.a USB 3.2 Gen 2), 4 SATA ports, and 8 PCIe 4.0 lanes are the core.
  
  In addition there are two sub modules that can each deliver either 4 more PCIe 4.0 lanes (in various configurations) or 4 more SATA ports.
  
  Which means you can get two NVMe ports and up to 12 SATA ports straight from the chipset. 
  
  And this is the same chip as found on the CPU, so in theory you could get 8 USB 10 ports and 12 SATA ports there as well.  If the AM4 package had the pins for that, which it doesn't.  You do get 4 USB 10 ports, so 12 total for an X570 motherboard, with no pin conflicts.
  
  I wonder if it still has 10Gb Ethernet built in, like first-generation Ryzen.  That doesn't seem to have gained much market adoption but they might need to retain it for the embedded market.
  
  
  
  
  
  (Click for full-size versions.)

Posted by: Mauser at Wednesday, July 03 2019 11:40 AM (Ix1l6)

Posted by: J Greely at Wednesday, July 03 2019 05:19 PM (ZlYZd)

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• DMs everywhere wince in sympathy.
  
  
  
  
  
• Is the budget Google Pixel 3a the Pixel to get yes. (Ars Technica)
  
  What about the Google Pixel 3a XL also yes.  (AnandTech)
  
  Headphone jack - ding.  Expandable storage - rude buzzer sound.  64GB is it.  So there's no way I'd even consider getting one, but YKMMV.
  
  
• I warned you about those 128TB micro SD cards.  (AnandTech)
  
  Toshiba just lost 6EB of flash - six million terabytes.  They had a power failure at their facility in Japan that brought five fab buildings to a crashing halt.
  
  These factories draw enormous amounts of power, so backup generators just aren't feasible.  They have dedicated redundant feeds from the grid, and huge battery banks to smooth out voltage drops and brief interruptions.
  
  Unfortunately in this case the power failure lasted 13 minutes longer than the batteries, and most of the wafers in the production line - which is a month's worth of chips at any given time - will have to be scrapped.
  
  
• Thankfully, Micron and other manufacturers are churning out flash as fast as the market can soak it up.  (AnandTech)
  
  This might stabilise prices for a while, but there's enough supply that it's unlikely to provoke price increases.
  
  
• Google says just because you're paying a monthly fee and don't really own anything and can't take your games anywhere else and are restricted to a very limited library doesn't mean you should expect a discount hey why isn't anyone using our new Stadia service did we tell you about Stadia EOL June 2022 no refunds sorry read the fine print.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  I might have elaborated on official statements there slightly.
  
  
• How the DOJ scapegoated Backpage.  (TechDirt)
  
  Though...  Is this story any more accurate than the ones TechDirt gets so obviously wrong, or is it just tickling my personal biases?
  
  
• Like this one: Trump administration considers outlawing encryption.  (TechDirt)
  
  First, no, they didn't.  Second, they can't; it would have to go through Congress.  Third, it's impossible.
  
  First Rule of Online Publishing: A hate click is still a click.
  
  
• The Radeon RX 5950, 5900, 5850, and 5800 graphics cards have not leaked the headline is a lie.  (WCCFTech)
  
  What happened was a range of model numbers were registered as trademarks, from RX 5500 up to RX 5950XT.  No shader counts, memory sizes, bandwidth numbers, clock speeds, dates, prices, nothing.
  
  
• Slack fell over.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Productivity skyrocketed.
  
  
• YouTube's demonetisation rampage has now hit ClownFish TV, a small and completely inoffensive pop culture channel.  (One Angy Gamer)
  
  We apologise unreservedly to neurally impoverished muskrats everywhere for unfairly comparing them with social network management.
  
  
• 24G SAS is a thing.  (Serve the Home)
  
  Has it been out for a while and I missed it because all the noise was about NVMe?  Apparently not; the article ends with "24G SAS is still not here yet."  Oh, good.
  
  It's nearly as fast as a standard PCIe 3.0 x4 connection but with better switching and backplane support.  Of course, consumer drives are still stuck at SATA 3 despite low-end SSDs having been able to saturate that link for years.  I still say that USB is the way to go in the consumer space, particularly now that USB 4 is on its way.
  
  
• That'll do, Ars Technica.  That'll do.
  
  They A/B test headlines, so if you don't get the good one, it's Florida LAN.

Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, June 30 2019 06:10 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, June 30 2019 06:17 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, June 30 2019 06:19 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, June 30 2019 01:10 PM (PiXy!)

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Tech News

• In the latest reminder that the senior management of all the major social networks have the introspective capacity of a Texas armadillo after it has had an unsatisfying encounter with an 18-wheeler, Twitter plans to annotate tweets by major political figures that violate their terms of service, but leave the tweets up.
  
  
  
  
  If Twitter were a company run by functional adults, this might be a reasonable compromise.  Since it's actually a day-release program for neurally impoverished muskrats, the chance that this is going to turn out well for Twitter is somewhat less than the chance that you will win every lottery in the world, tomorrow, including those that have already been drawn and awarded to other people.
  
  
• Jony Ive has left Apple to go fuck up some other company.  (Apple)
  
  That is to say...  No, I'll stick with that.
  
  
• With impeccable timing rarely seen since the John Sculley years, Apple has moved production of the new Mac Pro to China.  (CNBC)
  
  I mean, sure, why not?
  
  
• Google are locking down the Gmail API and will likely kill some apps in the process.  (Ars Technica)
  
  While a pain, this is, unusually for Google, unambiguously the correct thing to do.
  
  
• However, Gmail's confidential mode isn't.  (Forbes)
  
  Confidential, I mean.
  
  Well, no.  It's email.  That's not how it works.  That's not how any of this works.
  
  
• This is the web that was.  (The Old Net)
  
  Pick a year and a website and keep your epilepsy meds handy.
  
  
• NPM 6.9.1 is broken due to .git folder in published tarball
  
  Most of those words are redundant.
  
  
• Finally, some decent Twitter content.
  
  

Anime Music Video of the Day

Picture of the Day

Posted by: Rick C at Saturday, June 29 2019 03:16 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: cxt217 at Saturday, June 29 2019 11:50 AM (LMsTt)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, June 29 2019 05:51 PM (PiXy!)

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Saturday, June 29 2019 06:12 PM (v29Tn)

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• Well, so much for the New Internet then.  (Medium)
  
  I've actually built Ethereum apps.  It.  Does.  Not.  Scale.  Anyone talking it up as "the backbone of the new internet" is either on drugs or trying to sell you some.

  The solution is obvious — these applications will need to be split up across multiple blockchains.

  Well, that solves one of the problems of using Ethereum.  It also solves the benefits of using Ethereum.
  
  Oh, and the tools the article praises are complete garbage.  I've used them.  I'd rather program COBOL using punched cards.
  
  
• YouTube responsible for the destruction of countless BS meters worldwide.
  
  
  
  
  
• VESA announced the DisplayPort 2.0 standard which delivers three times the bandwidth of DisplayPort 1.4 over cables made of powdered moonbeams.  (AnandTech)
  
  Over real cables it has about 50% more bandwidth than 1.4.
  
  As for the resolutions it supports, and refresh rates, and the number of displays, well, it depends.  Up to 16k, at least 3 screens, and 144Hz, but you only get to pick one of those, and the higher numbers require display stream compression (DSC).
  
  
• Taking a leaf from Twitter's moderation team, Microsoft is telling users they can't upgrade to Windows 10 - but not why.  (ZDNet)
  
  At least they don't have to pass a captcha and verify their phone number every couple of days.  That was not a suggestion, Microsoft.
  
  
• It doesn't help to be on multiple platforms if their CEOs all play golf on Sunday.
  
  
  
  
  The video has apparently been taken down from every service except Bitchute.
  
  
  
  
  I'm not sure if it's golf, exactly, but they're sure playing something
  
  
• Twitter is garbage.

• Google has joined the People's Front for Punching Nazis where by "Nazi" they mean, apparently, conservative Jewish podcasters and Canadian academic psychologists.  (One Angry Gamer)
  
  This seems like a rather broader definition of "Nazi" than the one I am used to.
  
  Google hastened to explain that they didn't mean that Ben Shapiro was a Nazi, just that he was "Nazi-adjacent-adjacent", like Portugal in WWII.
  
  
• There's a vulnerability in AMD's secure virtualiz- oh it's fixed already.  (AnandTech)
  
  They screwed up the elliptic curve parameters and ended up with a balloon animal instead of an encryption scheme.
  
  
• Mike you idiot.  (TechDirt)
  
  Apparently there is no intellectual property in the fashion industry.  Now, the tweet and the movie Mike was attacking were indeed stupid and invited harsh criticism, but for Dog's sake get your facts straight for once.
  
  
• AMD's Ryzen 5 3600 breaks cover as a Spanish site bobbles the embargo and it looks pretty good for the most part.  (Tech Powerup)
  
  For example, it beats the much more expensive 8 core i7-9700K in Cinebench.  Multithreaded.
  
  One oddity is slow write performance to RAM.  Read and copy are normal - only limited by the RAM itself, and within a couple of percent of the i9-9900K - so this might be an error in the benchmarking tool, or it might be something that needs a BIOS patch.
  
  
• Do not write your own libc.
  
  I mean, seriously.
  
  
• SK Hynix has entered production on its 128-layer 4D NAND flash the fourth dimension being, of course, marketing.  (Tech Powerup)
  
  
• Worried that bullshit codes of conduct would stifle honest discussion between software developers?
  
  Turns out that developers will be developers regardless of the bullshit codes of conduct with which they are expect to comply.  (ZDNet)
  
  
• GitLab 12 is out.
  
  It has a pancake-sorting algorithm.  No, wait, that was a different article.
  
  
• That guy who got his entire life stolen via a bogus SIM swap got most of it back.  (ZDNet)
  
  No surprise: His bank was the most responsive and responsible, preventing a transfer of $25,000 from ever leaving his account.
  
  No surprise: Twitter was the worst; without a direct contact inside the company he would have been unable to recover his account, and anyway, his entire history is gone.
  
  He offers some useful - if inconvenient - tips to prevent this happening to you.
  
  
• They're back!
  
  
  
  Since both games are headed for PC I give it about 30 seconds before someone patches the character model.
  
  
• Where's Waldo Mike?
  
  

What the Heck Video of the Day

Posted by: Mauser at Thursday, June 27 2019 06:31 AM (Ix1l6)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, June 27 2019 09:09 AM (PiXy!)

Posted by: Rick C at Thursday, June 27 2019 02:27 PM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, June 27 2019 04:04 PM (PiXy!)

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• What if we protected half the websites in the world behind a single CDN...  And then broke that CDN?  (Cloudflare)
  
  Maybe try not doing that.
  
  
• As mentioned yesterday the Raspberry Pi 4 is out.  (AnandTech)
  
  Read the comments, just this once.
  
  Tom's Hardware has a lot of coverage, including a detailed review with benchmarks and an overclocking guide including how to not void your warranty.  (There are specific overclock settings that will and won't void your warranty, so as long as you don't do the bad ones you're fine.)
  
  
• Mike you idiot.  (TechDirt)
  
  
• Because JavaScript is garbage.
  
  If you use map on JavaScript always provide explicitly named parameters or it may do...  Things.
  
  
• Ubuntu says oh, yeah, uh, about that...  (Phoronix)
  
  Short story: 32 bit is back for at least two more releases while they get packaging straightened out for apps like Steam, Wine, and, um, Ubuntu Studio.
  
  
• Apple's iOS 13 beta is out and it's not pretty.  (ZDNet)
  
  
• Unexpectedly YouTube has censored a video about parent company Google's election meddling.  (One Angry Gamer)
  
  It's Project Veritas again.  I find their exposés interesting but their analyses dubious; they are worth paying attention to but not uncritically.  Oh, and Reddit suspended them.
  
  
  
  
  
• The Outer Worlds will be available at launch on Xbox...
  
  ... Game Store for Windows.
  
  So not an Epicsclusive after all.
  
  I'd still prefer Steam - or better yet, GOG - but At Least It's Not Epic!â„¢
  
  
  
  
• "For all its faults, collectivist order may be preferred to individualist chaos."  (Human Events)
  
  Scratch a liberal, find a fascist.
  
  
• Falcon Heavy had a successful launch and a two-thirds successful landing.  (Ars Technica)
  
  SpaceX warned that the chance of recovery of the core booster was only 50/50, and indeed it was forced to abort landing and splash into ocean at the last moment.

Picture of the Day

Posted by: cxt217 at Wednesday, June 26 2019 10:09 AM (LMsTt)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, June 26 2019 10:15 AM (PiXy!)

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• Raspberry Pi 4 is out.  (RaspberryPi.org)
  
  The CPU has been bumped up to a 1.5GHz quad-core A72, which is not slow.  My Mediapad is a quad A72 at (I think) 2.2GHz, and it zooms through stuff.  It should be at least twice as fast as the current Pi 3B+ which has a quad-core 1.4GHz A53.
  
  The Pi 4 also has up to 4GB RAM, WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5, full gigabit Ethernet, two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, and two (micro) HDMI ports.  It can run two 4K monitors at 30Hz, or one a 60Hz and a second screen at 1080p.
  
  $35 with 1GB, $45 with 2GB, $55 with 4GB.
  
  
• If WiFi isn't doing it for you anymore why not try LiFi.  (The Verge)
  
  Since it uses visible light, its ability to pass through solid objects is limited, and by limited I mean zero.  Unless they're made of glass.  On the other hand, since it uses visible light there's no RF interference, because it's not RF.
  
  
• Knitting community Ravelry has gone full Oberlin, banning anyone supporting the President of the United States.  (One Angry Gamer)
  
  Apparently RPG.net did the same thing last year.
  
  Never go full Oberlin.

Posted by: Rick C at Tuesday, June 25 2019 12:29 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Jay at Tuesday, June 25 2019 01:51 AM (mrlXS)

Posted by: J Greely at Tuesday, June 25 2019 06:32 AM (ZlYZd)

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• There is no cloud, there's just someone else's computer.  Possibly yours if you're running Wordpress.  (ZDNet)
  
  A commercial proxy service turns out to consist entirely of hacked Wordpress sites.  Thousands of them.
  
  
•  How AMD's Rome pricing compares with Intel at every level.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Intel is most competitive at the 24-core point, where their cheapest processor costs only 80% more than AMD's most expensive part.  Intel's cheapest 24-core server CPU will save you nearly 5% over AMD's cheapest 48-core CPU.
  
  Ouch.
  
  
• Reddit's new design is now the default.  On my monitor, browsing /r/programming I could previously see 14 headlines and an ad on one page.  Now it's 4 headlines and an ad.
  
  This is not an improvement.
  
  
• TSMC has shown off a chiplet-based ARM server CPU.  (WikiChip)
  
  This is just a tech demo so far - the chiplets are tiny, each containing four A72 cores and the interconnect hardware.  On the other hand, they can hit 4.2GHz, which is pretty fast for an Arm core.
  
  
• How to get 32-bit games running on Ubuntu 19.10.
  
  Step 1: Use a different distro.
  
  
• Three products Apple needs to make but doesn't.  (MacWorld)
  
  A monitor, a router, and an external disk drive, basically.
  
  
• Coming soon from Toho Studios: Rogue Slug.  (BBC News)
  
  Followed by Godzilla vs. Rogue Slug and Rogue Slug One: A Train Wars Story.

Anime Preview of the Day

Posted by: J Greely at Monday, June 24 2019 09:53 AM (ZlYZd)

2 Hence the external hard drive. 

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Monday, June 24 2019 02:12 PM (PiXy!)

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• Moderating social networks is an awful job because people are awful.  (TechDirt)
  
  The situation is not improved by the fact that all the major social networks are run by idiot children.
  
  
• AMD's Epyc Rome lineup looks to have leaked.  (WCCFTech)
  
  Starting at around $500 for an 8 core part (single or dual socket) and ranging up to $5000 for a single-socket 64 core and $7700 for a dual-socket 64 core part.
  
  I still want to see more AM4 servers though.
  
  
• That bug in Chrome's site suggestions has reportedly been fixed in the latest update.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  
• Ubuntu is dropping 32-bit support as of 19.10.  (Ubuntu)
  
  Not only will there no longer be 32-bit builds of the operating system, the 64-bit builds won't have any 32-bit libraries.  While the kernel still retains the ability to run 32-bit apps, you will have to bundle all dependencies with your app.  And you'll also need to work out how to build it in the first place without any 32-bit support in your development environment.

Posted by: J Greely at Sunday, June 23 2019 08:10 AM (ZlYZd)

Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, June 23 2019 10:58 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, June 23 2019 11:13 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: StargazerA5 at Sunday, June 23 2019 02:26 PM (jl9eJ)

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• Google CEO Sundar Pichai admits that they can't moderate YouTube perfectly so they plan to keep fucking everything up as they have been so far.  (TechDirt)
  
  With 100 new videos uploaded every second, and the sum functional IQ of YouTube's executive suite in the single digits, this is not a problem likely to be resolved any time soon.
  
  
• Google Chrome seems to want to screw up your URL suggestions.  If it prompts you with something dumb, hit Shift-Delete to make it forget it.
  
  
• Smartphones are not making children grown horns you fucking morons.  (TechDirt)
  
  I've seen this garbage repeated credulously in multiple newspapers, because journalists are imbeciles.
  
  
• Speak the actual literal truth and Twitter will ban you.  (TechDirt)
  
  Tim Pool pointed this out when he was on Joe Rogan with Twitter's vapid mosquito-fodder figurehead Jack Dorsey and their multifunction legal, policy, trust and safety robot Vijaya Gadde.  That was when they came up with their new corporate slogan "Thank you for your input.  Your account is now permanently suspended."
  
  
• I think the problem with this MacBook Pro extends beyond user error.  (Reddit)
  
  The part where Apple won't touch it until it's spent 24 hours in a fireproof safe is a clue.
  
  
• Windows 10 might soon let you name virtual desktops like CDE did in 1994.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  
• Google will stop making tablets after spending six years desperately avoiding a repeat of their early success.  (ZDNet)

Posted by: Rick C at Saturday, June 22 2019 12:18 AM (Iwkd4)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, June 22 2019 12:52 AM (PiXy!)

Posted by: cxt217 at Saturday, June 22 2019 03:31 AM (LMsTt)

Posted by: Jay at Saturday, June 22 2019 05:03 AM (vuQH5)

5

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, June 22 2019 04:19 PM (PiXy!)

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