• Why AI is stupid garbage and everyone in the industry is lying frantically to cover up the truth. (Ars Technica)
  
  Okay, I may have paraphrased Tim Lee at Ars just a little there, but if you look at the promises AI leaders have made against the mathematical problems they face, that is the gist of the situation.
  
  AI - LLM-based generative AI, not the more interesting discriminative AI - uses a technology called transformers which lets it process data in a massively parallel way. This requires about the same amount of work as a traditional neural network on simple prompts, while being able to use highly parallel hardware like graphics cards, so you get the result much faster.
  
  For simple prompts:

  The longer the context gets, the more attention operations (and therefore computing power) are needed to generate the next token.

  This means that the total computing power required for attention grows quadratically with the total number of tokens. Suppose a 10-token prompt requires 414,720 attention operations. Then:

  • Processing a 100-token prompt will require 45.6 million attention operations.
  • Processing a 1,000-token prompt will require 4.6 billion attention operations.
  • Processing a 10,000-token prompt will require 460 billion attention operations.

  So as you make your question more detailed and specific, the amount of time taken to produce an answer increases rapidly.
  
  Work is now on to replace transformer models with classic neural networks, which don't have these limitations, but also don't have the magical ease of development of the transformer model.
  
  But that means that promises of AGI next year are simply lies.

• Embodied, the startup that produced an $800 robot for children and has now run out of money, is working to release code and documentation to allow hackers to keep the robots working after the company shuts down.  (Ars Technica)
  
  Good to hear.
  
  
  
• The jury in the Arm vs. Qualcomm suit has sided with Qualcomm on two of the three questions put to them.  (Yahoo)
  
  Qualcomm, which has a license to produce Arm chips, bought startup Nuvia, which had a license to produce Arm chips. 
  
  Qualcomm then produced chips based on Nuvia's design.
  
  Arm sued Qualcomm saying Qualcomm was not licensed to do that.
  
  The jury verdict said Qualcomm did not breach its Arm license in buying Nuvia or producing the chips - which are used in the new Arm based laptops which are not selling particularly well so far.
  
  They did not reach a verdict on the question of whether Nuvia was in compliance with its Arm license.  I'm not sure how relevant that is, though Arm plans to continue legal action.
  
  
  
• You're not fired.  You're just locked out of the building and put on mandatory leave without pay.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Electric van maker Canoo is not looking too healthy.
  
  
  
• What is Broadcom doing with VMWare?  Slashing costs.  A lot.  (Ars Technica)
  
  Not making many friends in the process, but they can worry about that after taking a dip in their swimming pool full of money.  Based on the latest figures sales have increased only slightly, but costs have been cut in half.
  
  In addition, Broadcom has effectively killed the VMWare reseller market, so that if you want to migrate your company off VMWare, you need to get technical support from Broadcom.

Posted by: normal at Sunday, December 22 2024 11:26 PM (bg2DR)

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• Here's a list of the 49 American AI startups that have raised $100 million or more in 2024.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Top among them is OpenAI, which raised $6.6 billion this year, but close behind is Elon Musk's xAI, which raised $6 billion.
  
  Interestingly Europe didn't miss the boat with Mistral leading the table there with $1.2 billion raised.
  
  What all that money will achieve I don't know.

• For consumer hardware, it's not achieving much.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  AI PCs just aren't selling.  That is, people are buying PCs, and some of them are labeled "AI", but nobody is buying a PC because it is labeled "AI".
  
  Notable Qualcomm's sales of its new Arm-based Windows laptops can be best described as meh.
  
  
  
• Meanwhile here's an M.2 card that contains a 24 TOPS AI accelerator.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  More precisely, four 6 TOPS accelerators.
  
  Why?  I don't know.  But it costs $149, which is reasonable if you need one.
  
  
  
• How types make hard problems easy.  (Mayhul)
  
  Yes, thank you.  We figured this out sixty years ago.  Then JavaScript happened.
  
  
  

Posted by: PatBuckman at Sunday, December 22 2024 12:43 AM (rcPLc)

Posted by: Joe Redfield at Sunday, December 22 2024 04:31 AM (KOtXO)

Posted by: normal at Sunday, December 22 2024 01:16 PM (bg2DR)

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• Oh yeah, don't use SMS for two-factor authentication either.  (Gizmodo)
  
  It was never ideal since your phone number could get SIM-swapped without you knowing, but now that the entire phone network has been hacked it's not very useful at all.
  
  
  
• Microsoft promises meanwhile to keep nagging you to use passkeys rather than passwords online.  (The Register)
  
  A passkey lets you log in to a website without the tedious logging in part, so long as you have already logged in to your device.  This is actually fairly secure because the passkey consists of two parts - you have one part and the website has the other - and nobody can steal your password from the website and hack your account because effectively they only have half the password.
  
  But if they hack your laptop, you're hosed.  Though that is true regardless.

• Chemosphere, which recently published a study warning of the dangers of flame retardant chemicals in black plastic utensils which was off by a factor of ten such that you are perfectly safe unless you make a habit of eating spatulas has been deindexed by the Web of Science for being a bit crap.  (Ars Technica)

  According to Retraction Watch, Chemosphere has retracted eight articles this month and published 60 expressions of concern since April.

  The month is still young.
  
  
  
• Nintendo's Switch 2 can "only" run games at 4K / 30fps.  (Notebook Check)
  
  It's a handheld device for children.  What do you expect?
  
  
  
• Amazon Haul is a Temu version of Shein.  (The Verge)  (archive site)
  
  The same Chinese companies selling useless garbage at impossible prices and basically lying to everyone.
  
  Though to be fair, the "Bicth" hat did indeed say "Bicth".
  
  
  
• Perplexity AI is a better search than Google.  (The Register)
  
  I just tried it with a few queries and it's actually not terrible.  It does give stupid corporate-speak answers sometimes, but it also gives links.
  
  How long AI search engines can survive in an AI web is another question.
  
  
  

Posted by: normal at Saturday, December 21 2024 03:48 PM (bg2DR)

Posted by: Mauser at Saturday, December 21 2024 06:19 PM (nk1Z+)

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• The US government has warned politicians and government officials to avoid the phone network.  (Reuters)
  
  It's full of Chinese hackers and nobody can say when - or if - it will be secure again.

  The first recommendation: "Use only end-to-end encrypted communications."

  Which they have been trying to ban.
  
  
  
• Meanwhile in the world of digital license plates, the absolutely thinkable happened: They got hacked.  (Wired)  (archive site)
  
  Digital license plates aren't supposed to let you change your license plate number.
  
  But of course they do.  There's a programming port on the license plate which is secured by a sticker.  Peel off the sticker, plug in a programmer, and you can do anything.

• Interpol wants to rename "pig butchering" to "romance baiting".  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Which is actually not a terrible idea.  Every time I hear the term "pig butchering" I have to stop for a moment and realise that no, the one I'm thinking of is salami slicing and pig butchering is something different.
  
  Romance baiting is more evocative on what the scam involves.
  
  
  
• Bluesky invited a million sociopaths in through the front door.  They were not ready.  (Tedium)
  
  It's not a technical issue, it's a people issue.  Well, commies aren't people, but not everyone on Bluesky is a communist.
  
  
  
• Not even slightly ready.  (The Free Press)
  
  Jesse Singal writes on Bluesky's Jesse Singal problem.
  
  He still doesn't get it, of course:

  Bluesky happens to be left-wing, but I don’t think the lesson here is that left-wingers are particularly violent. Rather, the lesson is simply that humans are human, and online, their behavior is shaped by both the prevailing norms in their community, and whether rules constraining that behavior exist and are enforced.

  So what he is saying is that left-wingers are particularly violent.
  
  
  
• The Radxa Orion O6 is an Arm motherboard that is a little more powerful than a Raspberry Pi.  (CNX Software)
  
  It has twelve Arm cores - eight A720 and four A520, so fairly powerful, coupled with up to 64GB of soldered RAM, an M.2 slot for storage, dual 5Gb Ethernet ports, HDMI, DisplayPort, USB-C with DisplayPort support, and a full-length PCIe x16 slot.
  
  It's mini-ITX form factor, with the board starting at $199 with 8GB of RAM and a case going for $39.
  
  
  
• Australia wants to ban common encryption methods by 2030 because quantum.  (The Register)
  
  In theory quantum computers can break many existing encryption methods.  But existing encryption methods exist, and everyone everywhere uses them all the time.

Posted by: Rick C at Friday, December 20 2024 10:49 AM (NEIix)

Posted by: Rick C at Friday, December 20 2024 10:51 AM (NEIix)

Posted by: Rick C at Friday, December 20 2024 11:01 AM (NEIix)

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• What happened to ChatGPT the other day?  It wasn't DNS, but it wasn't not DNS either.  (Try Parity)
  
  OpenAI deployed a new system that had been running happily on their test servers for some time.  About twenty minutes in, things started going horribly wrong, with the monitoring system that reports on all things production taking over and then taking out the production servers, because it had a hidden scaling problem that never showed up on the smaller test environment.
  
  And with the monitoring process eating up all the bandwidth on the control network, the simple changes they needed to make to fix the problem couldn't be done because OpenAI's internal DNS was down.
  
  Lesson of the day: Hard code all your IP addresses in your software.*

• Nvidia has made its Jetson Orin Nano robotics development kit half the price and also up to twice as fast.  (Serve the Home)
  
  If you already have one, you can download the speed upgrade.  Which is odd, because it doubles your memory bandwidth, which is a hardware function.
  
  
  
• AMD's Strix Halo laptop chip, with 16 Zen 5 CPU cores and 40 RDNA3.5 graphics cores, is coming soon to the Asus ROG Flow Z13...  Tablet.  (Hot Hardware)
  
  Which is not as surprising as it seems because the current model of the Z13 can include dedicated a Nvidia RTX 4060, so a Strix Halo tuned to the lower power end of its spectrum would not use any more power than the current CPU and GPU combination.
  
  
  
• The Minisforum MGA1 is an external graphics card / dock thingy that dramatically speeds up laptops and mini-PCs except.  (Notebook Check)
  
  It's about as fast as a laptop version of the RTX 3080, but can only be connected via OCuLink.  If your laptop or mini-PC doesn't have OCuLink - and most don't - it's a paperweight.
  
  OCuLink is pure external PCI Express, so it's simpler, cheaper, and faster than Thunderbolt, but also a lot less common.

Posted by: David Eastman at Thursday, December 19 2024 02:45 AM (aAyxl)

Posted by: J Greely at Thursday, December 19 2024 03:35 AM (oJgNG)

Posted by: Frank at Thursday, December 19 2024 04:15 AM (+i6Xr)

Posted by: wheels at Thursday, December 19 2024 07:31 AM (IB9dr)

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• Zotac has leaked Nvidia's new RTX 5000 series graphics cards.  (VideoCardz)
  
  The lineup includes the RTX 5090, which you can't afford and probably won't be able to buy anyway, the 5090D which is a China-only edition for communists, the 5080 which will probably be overpriced and you won't want, the 5070 Ti which will probably be decent but expensive, and the 5070 which has 12GB of VRAM like the Intel B580 but which will definitely not cost $250 like the Intel B580.
  
  The new cards all reportedly use GDDR7, so memory bandwidth is likely to be significantly better than 4000 series cards.  GDDR7 memory uses trinary rather than binary signals - a technique known as PAM-3 - so it can move data 50% faster at the same clock speed.
  
  Thunderbolt 5 also uses PAM-3 encoding but right now it's kind of useless so we should hope that's not a sign of things to come.

• TSMC employees account for 1.8% of the children being born in Taiwan.  (Boom)
  
  That is not immediately noteworthy until you consider that TSMC employees account for 0.3% of all jobs in Taiwan.
  
  So even if only one member of each couple is employed by the company, that's still three times the national average fertility rate.
  
  
  
• Hygon's 16 core server CPU is kind of bad.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  It is literally a (licensed copy of) the original Zen architecture from 2017.  And it behaves like it.
  
  
  
• Here's the full source code for the Commodore 64 version of Elite.  (GitHub)
  
  Did that version include the rescue mission where the ungrateful bastards kicked your cargo out of the hold to make room for themselves?
  
  The GitHub repository is very comprehensive, with every line of code documented and extensive instructions on how to build and run the programs on modern systems.  Also included are versions for the Apple II, BBC Micro, and the NES, and even Elite-A, a fan-made extended version.
  
  
  
• SoftBank has pledged to invest $100 billion in the United States over the next four years.  (The Register)
  
  That used to be a lot.
  
  
  
• The Framework 16 laptop now supports up to four M.2 SSDs.  (Notebook Check)
  
  The graphics card for this laptop lives in a plug-in module at the rear.  If you don't need a dedicated graphics card it works fine without one, using the built-in AMD graphics on the CPU.
  
  Now you can plug a different module in that holds two extra M.2 slots, and the good part is the module only costs $39.
  
  
  

Posted by: normal at Wednesday, December 18 2024 08:15 AM (bg2DR)

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• A major laptop manufacturer is expected to show off an ion drive at CES.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The Frore Airjet uses a piezoelectric element to silently produce an airstream to cool whatever it is attached to.  The problem is that it is not particularly power efficient - only about one fifth as effective as laptop fans, which are not themselves paragons of efficiency.
  
  The Ventiva ICE is an ionic engine.  Also silent, it ionises the air molecules to attract them to a metal grate, where they are deionised but keep right on moving, creating an airflow which cools your laptop.
  
  This isn't the first time that someone has come up with this idea, though, so we're going to have to see whether they can make it work.  Previous efforts have been very sensitive to dust buildup, which is enough of a problem with fans but renders ion blasters useless.
  

• How to protect yourself in the face of the Salt Typhoon phone network hack.  (The Intercept)
  
  Don't say anything on a private phone call that you wouldn't shout in a crowded theatre.
  
  Same goes double for text.
  
  And remember, the FBI has your best interests in mind and is entirely trustworthy in every respect.
  
  
  
• If you want the new Intel B580 video card, try again next year.  (WCCFTech)
  
  It's sold out everywhere.
  
  
  
• Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says the federal government is taking decisive steps to combat the drones seen in the skies over New Jersey.  (ABC News)

  We have top men addressing the problem.
  
  Top.  Men.

  
  
  
• The new class of weight loss drugs - GLP-1 agonists like Ozempic - may also work to treat diabetes, sleep apnea, heart attacks, strokes, kidney disease, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, substance abuse, and run-on sentences.  (Ars Technica)
  
  They may not.  Anything linked directly to obesity is a likely win, and the drugs do seem to work against addictions.  The others are more speculative but are undergoing clinical trials right now.

Posted by: Joe Redfield at Tuesday, December 17 2024 04:39 AM (KOtXO)

Posted by: Frank at Tuesday, December 17 2024 05:37 AM (+i6Xr)

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• TSMC has announced performance specs for its upcoming 2nm node.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Compared with the current leading-edge 3nm process, it uses 24% less power for low-power mobile chips, and 35% less power for desktop chips.  Or if you keep power the same, it runs about 15% faster.
  
  Compared to 5nm, it uses around 48% to 55% less power, and compared to 7nm (which I'm running right now), the reduction is as much as 70%.
  
  Chips will be coming off the production line in 2026.
  
  
  

Tech News

• If your company licenses the enterprise version of Windows, Copilot doesn't work and will never work.  (Thurrott)
  
  So you can go ahead and reassign the Copilot key on your keyboard now.
  
  
  
• A Transatlantic Tunnel, hurrah!  (Newsweek)
  
  Harry Harrison aside, this article is garbage.  Newsweek was overpriced.
  
  
  
• Hackers are very clever idiots.  (Ars Technica)
  
  They went to extraordinary lengths to steal the credentials of 390,000 security professionals, and then installed a crypto miner guaranteeing they'd be spotted instantly.
  
  
  
• Canadia healthcare technology company Care1 leaked 4.8 million patient records totaling 2.2TB.  (HackRead)
  
  Nice work, guys.

Posted by: normal at Sunday, December 15 2024 10:10 PM (bg2DR)

Posted by: normal at Sunday, December 15 2024 10:13 PM (bg2DR)

Posted by: PatBuckman at Monday, December 16 2024 06:03 AM (rcPLc)

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Posted by: PatBuckman at Saturday, December 14 2024 06:18 PM (rcPLc)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, December 14 2024 06:53 PM (PiXy!)

Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, December 15 2024 02:49 AM (NEIix)

Posted by: Joe Redfield at Sunday, December 15 2024 04:41 AM (KOtXO)

Posted by: PatBuckman at Monday, December 16 2024 05:42 AM (rcPLc)

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• Intel's second-generation "Battlemage" graphics cards are here and...  They're actually pretty damn good.  (Hot Hardware)
  
  They're not perfect: Intel's drivers still hiccupped on a couple of games, resulting in slower than expected performance and some visual artifacts.
  
  But the new B580 routinely outruns Nvidia and AMD cards costing 50% more.  And it leaves Intel's previous generation A770 card in the dust on most tests, while using about half as much power.
  
  And it delivers solid ray-tracing and AI performance.  And it has 12GB of VRAM instead of the 8GB found on competitors like Nvidia's 4060 and AMD's 7600.
  
  And it's cheaper at $249.
  
  All in all, a good card at a good price, only let down by some minor driver issues.  But the driver software has improved dramatically since the first generation of cards was launched, so those problems are likely to be fixed too.

• Microsoft's Recall is back, and yes, it still takes screenshots of your sensitive information.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  You can tell it not to.  It does it anyway.
  
  
  
• Are LLMs capable of non-verbal reasoning?  (Ars Technica)
  
  As at least a dozen commenters point out, LLMs aren't capable of reasoning at all.
  
  
  
• New Zealand has scrapped all government investment in basic social science research.  (Science)
  
  The government has said if you can't use it to build things or blow them up, they're not interested and they're not giving you money.
  
  
  
• In Canada, euthanasia now accounts for 5% of all deaths.  (BBC)
  
  Euthanasia is only available for people who are terminally ill, or chronically ill, or mentally ill, or generally inconvenient.

Posted by: furball321 at Friday, December 13 2024 11:18 PM (As8gg)

Posted by: Rick C at Saturday, December 14 2024 12:52 AM (NEIix)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, December 14 2024 04:12 PM (PiXy!)

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