• Happy birthday, America!  You don't look a day over 240!
  
  (Actually you look a lot better than you did at 240, but we won't go into that.)
  
  
  
• US life expectancy is expected to hit a record high as drug overdoses decrease.  (CNN)
  
  Unexpectedly.  Turns out you can just do things.
  
  
  
• Sitting - or lying down - for more than 30 minutes at a time has been linked to an increased risk of dying of cancer.  (The Guardian)
  
  So has drinking water and breathing air.

• Looks like I need to buy another PC case.  (Hyte)
  
  (Checks price.)
  
  (Checks shipping rates.)
  
  Uh.  Yeah, at close to $1200 I'll wait and see if this shows up at local retailers.
  
  
  
• GitHub has announced plans to distribute physical media of popular repositories.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  This is Microsoft poking fun at Sony.
  
  
  
• Intel has added a 65W 22 core Nova Lake part with BLERK to its upcoming lineup.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Allegedly.  BLERK stands for "Big Last-Level Cache" and is Intel's answer to AMD's X3D parts.  65W stands for, probably, about 150W.  (AMD's 65W parts use 89W peak, for comparison.)
  
  We'll see.
  
  
  
• Intel just increased the price on a broad range of its CPUs.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Mostly its server chips - which have increased by closed to 30% in some cases - but also its desktop parts.
  
  
  
• Bloober Team Ditches Cronos Survival Dread for Aggressive Combat as Lazarus Lands on PC, PS5, Xbox Series, and Switch 2.  (WCCFTech)
  
  I recognised at least one of those words.
  
  
  
   
• AOOOSTAR has launched its own competitor to Valve's Steam Machine, priced at $849.  (Liliputing)
  
  It's a compact system measuring 8"x8"x3", and features Radeon 7600 XT graphics (a little faster than the Steam Machine's 7600M), and a Ryzen 7940HX CPU, which is dramatically faster than the semi-custom processor in the Steam Machine.
  
  What it doesn't have is any memory (apart from the 8GB on the graphics card) or storage.  Well, I assume it's 8GB; I doubt they've included a 16GB card.

• SK Hynix - the third of the Big Three memory manufacturers after Micron and Samsung - is planning to invest $712.5 billion to expand production.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Which I am pretty sure is still a lot.
  
  The article says the total amount involved us 1.1 trillion won (KRW), but that's a mistake; it's actually 1.1 quadrillion won. 
  
  $64 billion goes to expanding the company's existing facilities at Cheongju for producing NAND flash and packaging chips.  $389 billion goes the the new campus at Yongin with initial production planned for next year and meaningful scale in 2028.  The site was originally planned for completion in 2045, but that's been accelerated to 2033 - still a fair way out, but factories will come online in stages throughout those years.
  
  And $259 billion to a brand new campus that they have not even settled on a location for just yet.

• SpaceX has categorically denied that it is working on an AI device thinner than an iPhone running a proprietary operating system that is coloured mint green and makes random South American frog noises when you drop it into wet cement.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Seems oddly specific.
  
  
  
• Intel is planning to restart supply of 10th, 12th, 13th, and 14th generation processors...  In China.  (WCCFTech)
  
  14th - and for some reason, 12th - generation chips are still readily available, and Intel has committed to continued production.  13th generation chips have disappeared from the market but nobody really misses them because they are the same as 14th generation chips only slightly worse.
  
  
  
• The Rootboard is a Linux-base handheld computer based around a Raspberry Pi.  (Liliputing)
  
  Aren't Raspberry Pi board extremely expensive now, I hear two of you ask.
  
  Well, yes, but actually no.  This project is built around the Pi Zero family, which while low-end (all versions have 512MB of RAM) has weathered the DRAM Apocalypse better than other models.
  
  
  

Musical Interlude

• Sony has announced it will stop releasing PlayStation games on disc in 2028.  (BBC)
  
  But that's okay.  Sony doesn't have a habit of abruptly cancelling access to content you've already bought and refusing to offer refunds.
  
  Oh.

• Anthropic's Fable is back.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  US customers already have access and apparently I'm in the US because so do I.
  
  I'll see if it actually makes a difference.
  
  
  
• Google has turned the rest of the internet into sopranos.  (9to5Google)
  
  Google acquired GIF library service Tenor in 2018, and just recently cut off API access so nobody else can integrate with it.
  
  If you're wondering why most of the GIFs on Twitter disappeared, well, wonder no more.  They've switched to an alternative service but it has a small fraction of the content.  The staples are there, like "Sure, Jan", and "Oh no...  Anyway", but it's a pretty spartan platter.
  
  
  
• You had one job.  (Easy Opt Outs)
  
  Apple's "Hide my email" service doesn't.
  
  
  
• Meta is looking to lease out its unused datacenter capacity to functional AI companies.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Probably a good idea.
  
  
  
• Before the DRAM Apocalypse, Micron was viewed as nothing more than a commodity component manufacturer.  (WCCFTech)
  
  Now it's viewed as a commodity component mafia.
  
  
  

Musical Interlude

Posted by: Rick C at Thursday, July 02 2026 11:40 PM (nQDMq)

Posted by: John Donigan at Friday, July 03 2026 04:16 AM (VAiJm)

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• South Korea's national and regional governments and major industrial groups have jointly committed to $1 trillion in investment to expand production of chips and bots.  (Ars Technica)
  
  $585 billion to increase chip production, with a particular focus on doubling memory production within five years.
  
  $357 billion to construct new datacenters to, uh, use up all that extra memory.
  
  And still more billions to expand production of robots and build 8 gigawatts of new generating capacity to power it all.
  
  
  

Tech News

• Speaking of which, Henrico County in Virginia is asking schools to open the blinds and turn off the lights to save electricity.  (404 Media)  (archive site)
  
  Henrico County has 37 datacenters and is constructing 17 more right now.
  
  
  
• Meta - which is to say Facebook - is reusing its DDR4 memory in DDR5 servers.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  That doesn't work, so what they've done is create a custom CXL-to-DDR4 adapter chip, which allows the servers to access memory over PCIe.
  
  
  
• G Skill's new ultra low latency 32GB memory kits cost just $1100.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Thanks, but no.
  
  
  
• For those experiencing difficulties with the latest iteration of Microsoft Notepad, there is a solution.  (GitHub)
  
  Though you will need to assemble it yourself.
  
  It should come to about 2686 bytes and has full feature compatibility with classic Notepad.
  
  
  
• The Redmagic Astra 2 is a large small tablet with a 2400x1504 185Hz OLED display.  (Liliputing)
  
  With its 9" screen it's really pushing the boundaries of a small tablet, but it's only about 20% heavier than the 7" Nexus 7.
  
  It runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 and has up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.  Pricing in China starts at $780 for the base model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage and goes up from there.
  
  The previous model - no longer available - started at $549, so it's gotten a lot more expensive.
  
  
  
• The GPD Win Max 3 is a mini-laptop with, curiously enough, a 9" 2400x1504 OLED display.  (Liliputing)
  
  With a 165Hz refresh so it's the display used in the previous Redmagic Astra tablet.
  
  Apart from that, it has up to a Ryzen 395 processor with 128GB of RAM, and M.2 2280 and 2230 slots for storage.
  
  And a detachable 97Wh battery, which is a lot given its size.

Posted by: FreeKnight at Thursday, July 02 2026 03:10 AM (gXw+B)

Posted by: J Greely at Thursday, July 02 2026 06:52 AM (oJgNG)

Posted by: Rick C at Thursday, July 02 2026 11:43 PM (nQDMq)

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