Saturday, April 06

Geek

Daily News Stuff 6 April 2024

The Pain Edition

Top Story

  • To nobody's surprise the FCC has declined to intervene on California's plans to implement net neutrality.  (Ars Technica)

    The problem I always had with the FCC's push for net neutrality - which is back on the table for a vote later this month - is that the claim that the FCC even had the power to vote on such a rule is based on assumptions that would grant the agency massive control over all forms of communication in the US.

    If an individual state legislature wants to fuck up internet access for their own voters, on the other hand, they can do so, subject to the First Amendment.

    I'll have to read up on what California is proposing to do; it's probably bad, but probably legal.

Tech News

  • I've been trying to get the latest Hyte / Hololive limited edition PC cases for months without any luck.  There's only one Hyte distributor in Australia and they can't get them.

    I even looked into freight forwarding, but that worked out to cost as much as the cases themselves, and these are expensive cases.

    Now Hyte offers freight forwarding itself, and if I order both the cases it only costs 50% of the cost of the cases.  Which is still insane, but so am I.

    Then the cases will sit there for months because having spent that much money I won't have much to spare for new parts to fill them with.

    I did want to buy the new Lenovo Legion Tab, but Lenovo is assisting me with my budget because that is still not available anywhere.
     

  • NASA has found the exact problem with Voyager 1 and expects to have it fixed...  Eventually.  (Ars Technica)

    Yeah, I know that feeling, and I'm not even working with 46 year old hardware billions of miles away designed and built by people who have long since retired and aren't returning my emails.


  • Do not buy the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro 360.  (Hot Hardware)

    It has a very nice 120Hz 2880x1800 OLED display, but it costs $1900, and you can get an Asus Vivobook with an almost identical OLED display for half of that.

    And the Asus has upgradeable memory, while the Samsung has 16GB soldered in place.

    Which if you're running Windows 11 will be fully used by the time you've booted the system and started a browser.


  • Speaking of the Asus Vivobook and it's beautiful OLED display...  Yeah, it's still in its box.


  • The Maven is a $2000 e-bike -  (Ars Technica)

    Let me stop you there.

    First thought: $2000 for a bicycle?  So your only question is not if it gets stolen, but if it gets stolen before you get crushed by an SUV.

    Second thought: I mean, if you happened to live in a quiet country town with little traffic and lots of hills, it might be kind of nice.

    Third thought: And, it turns out, illegal where I live.  It has a 750W motor and the rules here set the limit at 500W.


  • Apple is laying off 700 workers, including the entire team working on the Apple Car, which Apple still denies ever working on.  (9to5Mac)

    What exactly do you put on you resume when you worked for a decade on a project that was never officially acknowledged and never produced any real-world results?


  • Testing out my modpack under 1.19.2.

    That enables several mods I wanted (Creatures and Beasts, Critters and Companions, Zoo Architect, and Oh the Biomes You'll Go) at the cost of a couple of smaller ones (Let's Do Brewery, Dye Depot, and Elytra Trims).

    I do also lose the 1.20 updates...  Which were kind of underwhelming.  I'll need find a mod that adds back the cherry tree biome; I've already reinstated camels and the bamboo upgrades.


Disclaimer: Which would be less damaging to my career prospects, putting down a decade in a Turkish prison or at the DMV?

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:29 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Post contains 661 words, total size 5 kb.

1 A $2000 bicycle, even without an electric motor, isn't a particularly expensive bicycle.  Of course, I use a $25 bicycle to commute, but that's my fault.

Posted by: normal at Saturday, April 06 2024 10:12 PM (bg2DR)

2 I was once invited to apply for a job at Mitre, but declined when I learned that I would be joining a project that had been underway for more than 15 years. I'm certain that it had released something, and was in maintenance and enhancement mode, but the job didn't sound at all appealing.

Posted by: wheels at Sunday, April 07 2024 01:04 AM (wBT5j)

3 I am skeptical that the California law is legal.  According to the linked article, the FCC said that federal pre-emption isn't an issue because the California law mostly parallels the FCC's net neutrality regulations.  But those regulations, as you point out, are likely themselves illegal, so federal pre-emption should block the California law.

Posted by: three-humped camel at Sunday, April 07 2024 09:27 AM (Ncog+)

4 I am skeptical that the California law is legal.  According to the linked article, the FCC said that federal pre-emption isn't an issue because the California law mostly parallels the FCC's net neutrality regulations.  But those regulations, as you point out, are likely themselves illegal, so federal pre-emption should block the California law.

Posted by: three-humped camel at Sunday, April 07 2024 09:27 AM (Ncog+)

5 Gak!  My apologies on the double post.

Posted by: three-humped camel at Sunday, April 07 2024 09:27 AM (Ncog+)

6 Yeah, the thing is, while the FCC probably can't pass such regulations, Congress could.  So it would follow that state legislatures could pass similar laws that are applicable locally, so long as they don't interfere with the commerce clause.

Of course the commerce clause since Wickard v. Filburn has been whatever Congress says it is, so who knows?

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, April 07 2024 08:11 PM (PiXy!)

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Apple pies are delicious. But never mind apple pies. What colour is a green orange?




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