• AMD announced about seven thousand new (and "new") mobile CPUs at CES.  (Ars Technica)
  
  These start with the Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 395 at the high end, with sixteen Zen 5 cores and 40 RDNA 3.5 graphics cores, and go all the way down to the Ryzen 3 210, which "only" has four Zen 4 cores - three of which are the somewhat slower Zen 4c - and four RDNA 3 graphics cores.
  
  Which is still reasonably fast, true.
  
  
  
• Meanwhile Nvidia announced the new RTX 5000 family and lied about the performance.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The new RTX 5070 is claimed to be as fast as an RTX 4090, but if you dig into the details it turns out they are literally doubling the numbers produced by the 5070.
  
  With the new AI frame generation, it generates three fake frames for each real one, which makes games smoother at the expense of being 75% bullshit.
  
  Pricing starts at $550 for the 5070 and goes up to $2000 for the 5090.

• HP announced the new ZBook Ultra 14 G1a with AMD's new Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 395.  (Notebook Check)
  
  Depending on the options, it can have up to 128GB of RAM - and allocate up to 96GB of that to the GPU if you are doing AI work, which is a cheap way to get a GPU with a huge amount of RAM.
  
  The RAM is soldered and 128GB is going to be expensive, but it is available as an option.
  
  Other than that you get a 14" 2880x1800 120Hz OLED panel, up to 4TB of SSD, two USB4 ports - one on each side, which is convenient, two other USB ports, HDMI, and a headphone jack.
  
  Prices not announced yet but expected to start at $1500.
  
  Oh, and it almost has the Four Essential Keys.  The Home key is shared with F12, but I don't really use F12 anymore since Chrome remapped the Dev Tools.
  
  
  
• A study found that Chinese propaganda network TikTok is a vehicle for Chinese propaganda.  (Gizmodo)
  
  I am shocked.
  
  Also, Chinese propaganda network TikTok is banned in China.
  
  
  
• HDMI 2.2 has been announced, running at 96Gbps.  (PC World)
  
  That's a lot of Gbps.  It's intended for 8K and upcoming 10K displays, which nobody has.
  
  
  
• Intel announced a whole range of laptop CPUs as well.  (Ars Technica)
  
  Nothing as exciting as AMD's Ryzen Max+ Pro, but if they have the same efficiency gains as the new desktop chips they might be decent.
  
  We'll see once reviews drop.
  
  
  
• Note to self: The magical memory reduction option for Minecraft modpacks is in ModernFix, not Ferrite Core.
  
  Add mixin.perf.dynamic_resources=true at the bottom of the config file and watch memory usage be cut in half.

• CES is almost upon us.  What can we expect to see this year?  Crap.  (The Verge)
  
  It's mostly things that you not only don't want, but would pay a modest amount not to have impinge upon your consciousness at all.
  
  Among all that there is probably something worthwhile.
  
  Probably.

• Having utterly failed to produce intelligence, OpenAI is now moving on to superintelligence.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  In much the same way that California is building high-speed rail after so much success with the regular kind.
  
  
  
• Need HDMI output for your Commodore 64?  The HD-64 is just wait you need.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Of course, a Raspberry Pi Pico could do all of this for five bucks, but then...  Actually, I can't think of any downsides.
  
  
  
• The Espresso Pro 15 is a 15" 4K portable monitor.  (9to5Mac)
  
  It's not bad hardware, but the price is another question.  The Pro 15 isn't listed yet, but the Pro 17 costs as much as four 27" 4K monitors.
  
  
  
• Geekom is offering a Ryzen 370 mini-PC.  (Liliputing)
  
  Twelve CPU cores, sixteen graphics cores, dual HDMI outputs, dual 2.5Gb Ethernet, WiFi 7, eight USB ports, M.2 2280 and 2230 slots for SSDs.
  
  And - this is the interesting part - two SODIMM slots for DDR5-5600 memory.
  
  Which according to my understanding was not supported at all by the Ryzen 370 family, and is the only time I've seen socketed DDR5 memory paired with these chips.
  
  Unless the spec sheet is wrong.

• SpaceX is planning another test flight of Starship this month with a payload of dummy Starlink V3 satellites on board.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  The operational plan is to launch sixty of these V3 satellites, each one ten times as powerful as the current V2 Mini, with each Starship launch.
  
  This flight will also shake out new Starship hardware and test the booster chopstick catch mechanism a second time.

• Speaking of Starlink, the new Starlink Mini dish is available.  (CNet)
  
  It's only 13"x17" and weighs a svelte 2.4lbs.  The regular Starlink is 15"x23" and weighs 6.4lbs.  Which is not much at all if it's sitting on your roof, but the Mini is designed to go where you do.
  
  
  
• The Raspberry Pi 5 is getting a 16GB model.  (Notebook Check)
  
  Possibly as soon as this week.
  
  This isn't officially official just yet, but Raspberry Pi have said that they intend to offer a 16GB version of the Pi 5 Compute Module (CM5) this year.
  
  
  
• With 16GB of RAM and an optional M.2 hat, the Pi 5 starts to get expensive, matching the price but not the performance of low-end mini-PCs.  But you probably don't want to get a Beelink GTi12 in its place.  (Serve the Home)
  
  It does have a PCIe slot - sort of - and you can use it with Beelink's new graphics card dock.  And the Core i9 12900H CPU is no slouch even if it's a couple of generations old, and it comes with dual 2.5Gb Ethernet ports.
  
  The problem is getting access to the insides.  On my AMD-based Beelink systems, you remove the bottom cover and the memory slots and M.2 slot are right there.  It takes less than a minute to upgrade the hardware; a lot longer to reinstall the operating system if you replace the M.2 drive.
  
  On the GTi12 though, there are more than 20 screws and brackets to remove before you get down to the memory.  Unless you buy it in the exact configuration you want, that's not going to be fun.
  
  
  
• Feel-good story of the day: The Climate Justice Alliance has yet to receive any of the promised funds from the EPA.  (The Verge)

  "At our core CJA has always been anti war and pro communities," Chavez says. "We are just collateral damage in a war against regulations," they add.

  Roadkill.  What you are is roadkill.
  
  
  
• Markus Persson, a.k.a Notch, has asked if people want him to make a successor to Minecraft.  (WCCFTech)
  
  People said yes.
  
  Notch sold Minecraft to Microsoft ten years ago for $2.5 billion, and since then Microsoft has been slowly stifling the game for fear of killing the chicken that lays the golden eggs.
  
  
  
• Speaking of Minecraft, my modpack imploded.  With the latest versions of the many and various mods, it drops dead either while loading the world or a random time later.
  
  Rebuilding it now.
  
  Update: And now world creation is incredibly slow.  Like set it going and then come back in an hour slow.  Trying again.
  
  
  

Musical Interlude

• Mano Aloe is Delutaya.
• Kiryu Coco is Kson.
• Tsukumo Sana is semi-retired from streaming but can be found if you look.
  
• Uruha Rushia is Mikeneko.
  
• Yozora Mel is Hanamiya Rica.
• Amelia Watson is Dooby3d.
  
• Minato Aqua is Sakuna Yuki.
• Ceres Fauna is Nimi Nightmare.

• Selen Tatsuki is Dokibird.
  
• Pomu Rainpuff is Maid Mint a.k.a Mint Fantome a.k.a Minto a.k.a Minki.
  
• Zaion Lanza is Sayu Sincronisity.
• Nina Kosaka is Matara Kan.
• Mika Melatika is Michi Mochievee.
  
• Victoria Brightshield is MoguGhost.
• Kunai Nakasoto is SunnySplosion.

• Microsoft is planning to spend $80 billion on AI datacenters in 2025.  (Thurrott)
  
  Why?

  "In many ways, artificial intelligence is the electricity of our age, and the next four years can build a foundation for America's economic success for the next quarter century," Microsoft president and vice chair Brad Smith writes. "It's clear that artificial intelligence is poised to become a world-changing General-Purpose Technology, or GPT. AI promises to drive innovation and boost productivity in every sector of the economy. The United States is poised to stand at the forefront of this new technology wave, especially if it doubles down on its strengths and effectively partners internationally."

  Because you don't get a market cap of $150 billion by not creating the Torment Nexus.
  
  
  

Tech News

• Canadian online accounting firm Bench has apparently been bought by Employer.com in a slightly-after-the-last-minute deal.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Bench shut down very abruptly just after Christmas, leaving tens of thousands of customers without their accounting and tax information, only promising that the information would be available for download "soon".
  
  
  
• If you were playing Marvel Rivals on your Steam Deck or Mac, congratulations, your century-long ban has been repealed.  (Ars Technica)
  
  It's not officially supported, and if you did get it working on anything other than Windows, the anti-cheat measure would make sure it didn't stay that way.
  
  
  
• Speaking of Windows, Microsoft offered up a little Christmas gift: Your scanners don't work.  (The Register)
  
  If you are running the Windows 11 24H2 update, at least.  The problem is marked as fixed, but the problem is not fixed.
  
  
  
• It's your fault that Hollywood keeps churning out the same boring crap.  (The New York Times)  (archive site)
  
  The ten top movies of 2024 were all sequels or derivative works.

  The problem is that Americans tend to say one thing and do another: They complain that Hollywood does not make enough original films, only to stay home or go elsewhere when studios call their bluff. Over the past year, the moviegoing masses rejected originals like "Here," "Fly Me to the Moon," "Argylle," "Horizon: An American Saga," "Harold and the Purple Crayon," "Lisa Frankenstein," "Y2K" and "Megalopolis."

  But those movies sucked.

  To be fair, all of those films received soft-to-poor reviews, diminishing their appeal.

  No shit, Sherlock.
  
  
  
• Our security, not yours: If you used online store MyGiftCardSupply to buy gift cards as gifts, the gift was you.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  The store required you to upload your ID to prove you are legitimate.
  
  And stored all those documents - hundreds of thousands of them - on a server without a password.
  
  

Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, January 05 2025 03:19 AM (NEIix)

Posted by: Joe Redfield at Sunday, January 05 2025 04:37 AM (KOtXO)

Posted by: J Greely at Sunday, January 05 2025 05:45 AM (oJgNG)

Posted by: cxt217 at Sunday, January 05 2025 06:58 AM (ZLF73)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, January 05 2025 09:38 AM (PiXy!)

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• Net Neutrality is dead.  Again.  (Reuters)  (archive site)
  
  The FCC's long-running smash-and-grab attempt to enforce Net Neutrality rules by classifying ISPs as Title II common services looks to have been killed off for good by the Sixth Circuit ruling that ISPs are Title I information services, and that given the Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision nullifying Chevron deference, the FCC can fold its regulations until they are all sharp corners and shove them where the sun don't shine.
  
  Given that the Republicans are going to be taking over the FCC in a couple of weeks, there is unlikely to be an appeal; even the commies running the show right now have given up.
  
  Not that Net Neutrality is inherently bad, rather that categorising ISPs as Title II carriers hands all the power to a different bunch of crooks without actually fixing anything.

• The Onyx Boox Note Max is a laptop from another dimension.  (Liliputing)
  
  Extremely thin at just 4.6mm, it has a 3200x2400 e-ink display.  Black and white only on this model; it's aimed at reading and note-taking, though it does run a full version of Android and can run other applications.  Badly.
  
  Interesting though.
  
  
  
• Samsung is hedging its bets at CES with a 27" 240Hz 4k OLED gaming monitor and also a 27" 3D 4k monitor.  (Tom's Hardware and Ars Technica)
  
  Very little detail on the 3D model as yet except that it doesn't require glasses, having the lenses built into the display panel.  How well this will work is uncertain.
  
  (Poorly.  It will work poorly.)
  
  
  
• What else can we expect at CES next week?  Mostly AI slop.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Hooray.
  
  
  
• Speaking of AI slop, Facebook is committed to it.  (New York Magazine)
  
  Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp will all be working to replace human users with bots, which will...  Entirely defeat the purpose of the entire enterprise.
  
  Don't look at me.
  
  
  
• Usage of Windows 10 grew at the expense of Windows 11 in December, despite the fact that free support of Windows 10 ends this year.  (The Register)
  
  Retail customers will be able to pay $30 for one year of extended support when free support ends in October.  After that you're on your own.
  
  Which is pretty much true regardless.
  
  
  
• Passkeys are here and they suck.  (Ars Technica)
  
  The most obvious problem is that ever time a site offers to let you log in with a passkey, a different provider hijacks the login and offers to take care of things for you.  And sometimes you can't even tell which provider has hijacked things for you.
  
  The biggest problem is that even when you have a passkey you need to set up a password first.  And you have to have a recovery mechanism because you're going to forget your password.  So adding a passkey, right now, makes you less secure, not more.
  
  
  
• My stackable Phase Connect plushies arrived, after spending 17 months in Production Hell and another month stuck in the Canada Post parking lot.
  
  Most of them.  I think there's one set yet to ship.
  
  
  
• I'm rich and have no idea what to do with my life.  (Vinay)
  
  This man is insufferable.
  
  

Musical Interlude of the Day

Posted by: PatBuckman at Friday, January 03 2025 11:09 PM (rcPLc)

Posted by: Rick C at Friday, January 03 2025 11:14 PM (NEIix)

Posted by: Rick C at Friday, January 03 2025 11:18 PM (NEIix)

Posted by: Rick C at Friday, January 03 2025 11:26 PM (NEIix)

Posted by: cxt217 at Saturday, January 04 2025 11:41 AM (ZLF73)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, January 04 2025 05:25 PM (PiXy!)

Posted by: cxt217 at Sunday, January 05 2025 06:54 AM (ZLF73)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

• It's Public Domain Day - or was, yesterday - meaning a slew of new content is in the public domain, unless it isn't, in which case it's not. (Duke University)
  
  Sometimes it's hard to be sure particularly when dealing with 95-year-old material where everyone directly involved is probably dead.
  
  But entering the public domain this year - yesterday - is A Farewell to Arms, The Sound and the Fury, The Maltese Falcon, Is Sex Necessary by James Thurber and E. B. White, Alfred Hitchcock's first sound film Blackmail, and The Cocoanuts, the first feature film by the Marx Brothers.
  
  Also the characters - though not the stories - of Popeye and Tintin, the first speaking roles of Mickey Mouse, Singin' in the Rain, Ain't Misbehavin', and Ravel's Bolero.
  
  
  

Tech News

• CES is almost here so all the hardware news is waiting until then. So until next week it's mostly leaks of varying veracity.
  
  
  
• California seeks to fix soaring insurance premiums and outright lack of coverage due to wildfires caused by the state's incompetent forestry policy by... Making things worse. (Fast Company)
  
  We've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas.
  
  
  
• The RTX 5060 could be 20% faster than the current 4060 and have 0% more memory. (Notebook Check)
  
  It's stuck at 8GB which is already posing problems.
  
  Meanwhile Intel's 12GB B580 is already out and cheaper than Nvidia's old card, let alone the new one.
  
  On the third hand, precisely because the Intel card offers such good value, you can't find it anywhere.
  
  
  

Posted by: Rick C at Friday, January 03 2025 09:19 AM (NEIix)

Posted by: Rick C at Friday, January 03 2025 09:20 AM (NEIix)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

• It's not always the Chinese: A US soldier has been arrested for his role in hacking AT&T and Verizon and attempted extortion of the president and vice president.  (Krebs on Security)
  
  This seems like a very poor choice of career paths for a soldier, but Cameron John Wagenius does not strike me as the sharpest spoon in the drawer:

  "In the event you do not reach out to us @ATNT all presidential government call logs will be leaked," Kiberphant0m threatened, signing their post with multiple "#FREEWAIFU" tags. "You don’t think we don't have plans in the event of an arrest? Think again."

  It turned out those plans involved going to prison for an extremely long time.
  
  

• April Fool's Day is still three months away, guys: 9to5Mac has named Apple's Vision Pro headset as its product of the year.  (9to5Mac)
  
  The Vision Pro made history for being the first Apple product where more units were returned than were ever purchased in the first place.
  
  
  
• It didn't even live long enough to be bricked by a bad firmware update.  (Hot Hardware)
  
  Good work, Facebook.  Bonus points for telling customers that you weren't going to fix it and they had to buy a new device, before rapidly backtracking when legal woke up from their drunken stupor.
  
  
  
• What happened in AI in 2024?  A whole lotta nothin'.  (Simon Willison)
  
  Actually, while the industry leader OpenAI produced a whole lotta nothin', smaller AI companies and the open source community were busy eating their lunch.  So as a whole not much changed, but the distribution of the nothin' changed greatly.
  
  Still, on consideration, Carthago delenda est.

  I think telling people that this whole field is environmentally catastrophic plagiarism machines that constantly make things up is doing those people a disservice, no matter how much truth that represents.

  I don't know, maybe you could stop building the Torment Nexus.
  
  
  
• Though at least AI killed off $1600 laptops with 8GB of RAM.  (Ars Technica)
  
  8GB in 2024 cost manufacturers about $8, and renders Windows almost unusable.  Now I'm looking for something to kill off expensive 16GB laptops as well.
  
  Cheap 16GB laptops?  Sure.  Fine.  Perfectly usable for basic tasks.  But expensive ones can burn.
  
  
  
• The Verge's year in review: Advertising masquerading as content and miserable failures.  (The Verge)
  
  But at least they tried.  Sort of.
  
  
  
• Tech Crunch's year in review: Trying its hardest to be worse than The Verge.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  A laudable effort if a questionable goal.