• Gas has hit $1 per gallon for the first time since the last time that happened.  (Bloomberg)
  
  In London.  
  
  London, Kentucky.
  
  Unlikely to happen in, say, California.  Or London London.  Where the gallons, back when they had gallons, were 25% larger.
  
  
  
• Want a 64GB microSD card with a 140TB write endurance rating?  (AnandTech)
  
  Yes?
  
  Why?
  
  I mean, just curious.
  
  Anyway, Transcend has a new range of microSD cards with SLC caching, just like recent SSDs.  They don't have remarkable performance but you can overwrite the entire drive a couple of thousand times worst case.
  
  
  
• AMD's 35W Ryzen 4900HS laptop APU delivers 96% of the single-threaded performance and 90% of the multi-threaded performance of Intel's 127W i9-9900KS desktop part.  (Reddit)
  
  Admittedly that's on one benchmark - Cinebench R20 - but most benchmarks show similar results.  There are a couple where the 4900HS does fall behind a little, possibly because it has half the cache of the Intel chip (and one quarter the cache of a desktop 3700X).
  
  This is the most detailed review I've seen so far, including a look at integrated graphics performance.  But this particular laptop might not be the best showcase for that - to really shine the chip needs LPDDR4X memory, and the Asus Zephyrus uses standard DDR4.
  
  
  
  
  
• More Ryzen Mobile 4000 stuff from Hardware Unboxed.  Like, an hour more.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Other Linus is in on the action too.
  
  
  
  He had to drag out a huge overclocked laptop with a 120W CPU TDP to compete with the 35W 4900HS.
  
  
  
• If you'd rather read words than listen to them, PCWorld's review is quite good  (PCWorld)
  
  Money quote:

  It takes a desktop Core i9 and 10-pound chassis to beat a 3.5-pound laptop with AMD’s Ryzen 9 4900HS in it.

  The article also notes that the Ryzen 4000 APUs have a total of 20 PCIe 3.0 lanes, which wasn't clear from the original AMD presentation.  8 lanes are available for a dedicated graphics chip, two 4-lane ports for NVMe SSDs (which can alternately be configured to 4 SATA ports), and 4 lanes to be assigned as the vendor sees fit.
  
  
  
• If you don't need that much performance, Ryzen 4000U systems are on the way as well.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The Acer Swift 3 and Aspire 5 are due out in April and June respectively, starting at $629 ad $519 also respectively.  Exact specs and price points are not yet specified, with the phrase "up to" getting a lot of work.
  
  
  
• While everyone else is jumping on the 4900HS some guy in Romania managed to get hold of the 4500U, 4700U, 4600H, 4800H, and 4800HS.  (Reddit)
  
  The Reddit summary links to three reviews covering a total of five different models...  But they're all in Romanian.
  
  
  
• Sudden outbreak of sanity, no film at eleven.  (TechDirt)
  
  The Spanish copyright license collection agency SGAE has formally announced that no, don't be silly, you don't need to license a song to sing it from your balcony while the country is in lockdown due to the depredations of Wuhan Bat Soup Death Plague.
  
  
  
• ACM's digital library is freely accessible until June 30 or we all die from the plague, whichever comes first.  (ACM)
  
  Their website is terrible.
  
  
  
• LG is apparently rebranding itself to just L.  (9to5Google)
  
  L's official statement clarifies the change:

  For eight generations, the LG G Series has introduced bleeding-edge technology to consumers around the world. From super wide-angle cameras to flexible displays to high-fidelity audio and the Quad DAC to 1440p displays, the G Series has consistently been at the forefront of smartphone innovation since 2012. We look forward to sharing more details soon.

  Or maybe not.
  
  
  
• General Electric aviation workers are demanding the company convert manufacturing over to ventilators.  (Vice)
  
  Just what the world needs: A 115,000 foot-pound ventilator.
  
  
  
• No paper towels at the store.  (I'm fine on toilet paper.)  Picked up three boxes of my favourite gluten-free chicken nuggets and a pack of 200 paper napkins, which are really just paper towels with delusions of grandeur.
  
  
  
• Reportedly Australia has reached peak loo paper.  (Sydney Morning Herald)
  
  
  
• And people have turned to panic buying....  Other non-perishable items.  (Sydney Morning Herald)
  
  
  
• A total of 19 people have now died of WBSDP across Australia, and my entire fucking state is in lockdown, with up to six months in jail for people who leave their homes "without a reasonable excuse".  (Sydney Morning Herald)
  
  They haven't started welding people's doors shut, but a government of a nominal democracy should not have this much power.
  
  These rules are being enforced by the same cretins who recently let 3000 passengers disembark from a cruise ship and simply wander off.
  
  It does appear to be working.  (US News & World Report)
  
  But the cure can indeed be worse than the disease.

Posted by: Jay at Wednesday, April 01 2020 04:48 AM (vuQH5)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, April 01 2020 07:38 AM (PiXy!)

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