• Intel closes out January with a bang by launching their 28 core Xeon W-3175X for $2999. (AnandTech)
  
  Which is a lot of money - and a lot more than the competing 32 core Threadripper 2990WX at $1799 - but a lot less than expected.  After all, it's the same chip as the Xeon 8180, which runs around $10,000, just with some interconnects disabled.  (Other Linus dropped one of those and busted it.)
  
  This is also the one Intel showed off last year overclocked to 5GHz with an external 1hp water chiller. The version they are actually shipping is slightly more restrained: 3.1GHz base and 4.5GHz max boost frequency, and a 255W TDP.
  
  About that TDP... While it's basically the same on paper as the 2990WX, AMD stick firmly to that limit, while the Intel part draws 380W at stock under full load. Overclocking naturally does nothing to help this.
  
  On Final Fantasy XV, the W-3175X is 2% faster than a Ryzen 2700X, so the latter is probably still our recommended configuration.
  
  More realistically, if you're rendering in Corona it's 20% faster than the Threadripper 2990WX, but is slightly slower in Blender and dead even in POV-Ray. So even if money is no object, you still need to check out the benchmarks for your specific application.
  
  Also, since this is clearly the fastest part Intel can produce, it gives AMD a nice big target to shoot at when they roll out Threadripper 3 towards the middle of the year.  Well, there is that dual-chip 48 core part they're planning, but that is basically two of those $10k parts on a module with a few cores disabled.  I don't think Intel wants to sell that into the desktop market.
  
  Oh, and there are exactly two motherboards available that support this CPU, only one of which is available in retail, and they cost around $1700.
  
  
  
  
• AMD had a great year. (PC Perspective)
  
  Revenue up, margins up, expenses up - well, that's not ideal all else being equal, but revenue climbed $1.2b compared to expenses climbing by just $280m. And a healthy profit at the end.
  
  And that's before the server sales really start to kick in, which should start this year with Zen 2 and Rome.
  
  
• Speaking of which, if the Xeon W-3175X is too rich for your blood but you like the idea of more than four memory channels, Gigabyte has an EPYC workstation motherboard in standard ATX size. (Serve the Home)
  
  Only one DIMM per channel, but there are 8 channels, and they literally could not fit any more.
  
  
  
  Three 1G (including the dedicated BMC) and two 10G Ethernet (the 10G is SPF, though), 16 SATA ports, four full PCIe 3.0 x16 slots and one x8, one M.2 slot, and two USB 3.0. No USB 3.1 or audio; it's really a server board in a workstation format.
  
  
• Apple is facing a lawsuit over that FaceTime bug because we can't have nice things. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  
• Build your own Linux distro in 10 minutes! (Phoronix)
  
  Because why not?
  
  
• Is Intel courting high-speed networky favourite Mellanox? (The Next Platform)
  
  Signs point to yes.

• Upset that Facebook are getting all the publicity lately, Google turns out to also have a privacy-busting iOS app that paid teens to spy on them. (Tech Crunch)
  
  Remember how I said that some VPNs are actually worse than no VPN? Well, that includes Facebook and Google.
  
  Google were at least up-front about exactly what their dodgy app was doing, but that doesn't make it less dodgy.
  
  
• Apple has yanked Facebook's Enterprise Certificate over this nonsense, and may do the same to Google.
  
  Remember, Google controls the competing platform to iOS.
  
  
• Some Android camera apps are also up to no good but at least they're not official apps from Google. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  
• The EU is still at it, forging ahead with legislation that would require anyone (literally anyone) to take down content judged to be supportive of terrorism within one hour of notification by any law enforcement organisation anywhere in Europe. (TechDirt)
  
  Fortunately, if things go to plan this shortly will not include the Online Limerick Control Directorate at Humberside Police. (The Telegraph)
  

  1. Got a call from Director, saying cops wanting to speak to me. He’d had sense not to give out my number, but said he’d pass on details. I rang.

  — Harry The Owl - Limerick Criminal (@HarryTheOwl) January 23, 2019

  
  
• Google+ is shutting down on April 2. (Tech Crunch)
  
  This has already started biting us at my day job. We accept OAuth logins via Google (and others) and that API is being very rapidly deprecated.
  
  
• Say what you like about Ursula K. Le Guin,  she didn't didn't use a shrinkwrap contract to sign her readers up to self-flagellation classes.  (Shoplifiting in the Marketplace of Ideas)

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