• I have a freezer full of gluten free lasagna and satay chicken.
  
  I also have a new washing machine, because yeah.
  
  Fortunately it was at least a dark-coloured shirt.
  
  
  
• LG has a 32" 1440p 144Hz monitor for under $300.  (AnandTech)
  
  I prefer a 27" 4K monitor, but then I mostly use my PC for work, and I wear prescription computer glasses.  For gaming and watching movies this is pretty clearly a better choice.
  
  (In the comments: Apple fanboys complaining that it's only 2560x1440.  Apple sells exactly one monitor, and it costs $6000.)
  
  They also have a 32" 4K monitor for $350.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  If your video card is very fast - or kind of slow - or you use your computer mostly for work, that's a great option.  It's only 60Hz so not the first choice for FPS or online gaming, but looks like a good all-rounder.
  
  
  
• I might plug in my other 4K display - an older Samsung TN model, one of the first cheap 4K monitors - after I finish upgrading Tohru and Rally.  I swapped it for Rally two years ago and have had each system running as a second screen for the other, but if I'm also running virtual KVM I can add a third screen.
  
  I'm off work next week, which is why I wanted to get the upgrade parts before Christmas.
  
  
  
• My USB drives arrived in Sydney half an hour ago.  Those are the last thing I need.
  
  
  
• Gmail fell over again.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  I'm having trouble with one site because it tried to send a notification to my email account, but it bounced because Gmail was down, and now it wants me to confirm my email address again, but I'm not getting the confirmation email because the mail service has marked my email address as bad because Gmail was down.
  
  I run the servers for that site - this is one of the apps at my day job - and I could just log in, find the right record in the database, and flip the status flag - but this has to be a huge pain for people who can't do that.
  
  
  
• For once it actually was Russian hackers.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  SolarWinds, a network management and monitoring tools provider, got hacked.  They got very hacked.  They've been distributing hacked software for months.
  
  Unless there are mitigating factors, the most serious security breach I know of in recent years.  And a very good reason to use open-source software for this.
  
  And not crap like Node.js, which basically comes pre-hacked.
  
  
  
• Twitter has been fined €450,000 over a bug in their Android app.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  If you "protected" your account - that is, made it so that only followers could read your nonsense - and then changed your email address in the Android app, it would switch off the protection flag.  Probably because it's a REST API and not an RPC-style one.  REST APIs are bad for that.
  
  Twitter was notified of the bug on December 26 2018, fixed it on January 3, and forwarded details to the European Commission for Fucking Everything Up on January 8, but got fined anyway.  Which will totally make companies more open to admitting fault.
  
  
  
• Another review of the Western Digital Blue SN550.  (PC Perspective)
  
  If you can't get a WD Black SN750 on sale, this is still the go-to drive at the low end of the NVMe market.
  
  
  
• A look at the new Arm-based 13" MacBook Pro.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Performance is good - but they only compared it to Intel-based laptops, and AMD is the clear leader there.
  
  Battery life is good - but not outstanding; 16 hours vs. 13 on a cheaper Acer Swift 5.
  
  Display is good - Apple has been shipping good displays for a long time now.
  
  Port selection is garbage.
  
  Price is steep.
  
  Upgrades are zero.  And configurations max out at just 16GB.
  
  
  
• Australia's consumer watchdog is suing Facebook for spying on users.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  In 2016.
  
  
  
• You can now watch HBO Max in full screen mode on an Arm-based Mac.  (Mac Rumors)
  
  That is, if your Arm-based Mac has a 4:3 screen and you're watching a really old TV show.
  
  
  
• Chaos as a service.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Amazon is offering a new fault injection simulator for testing.  You can dial it up anywhere from Sora to Ame.  Setting it to Haachama requires signing a waiver and notifying your next of kin.
  
  
  

Posted by: normal at Thursday, December 17 2020 11:06 AM (obo9H)

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