Saturday, January 04
Everything Is On Fire Edition
Tech News
- Did not get a lot done today, because, well, this:
It was just 26C on Sydney Harbour but 44C where I live and a record-breaking 49C in the western suburbs - Penrith in Sydney's west was the hottest place on Earth today.
Also had a migraine, which might not be unrelated. Or maybe that came from eating too much ice cream.
Oh, and the main connection between the NSW and Victoria electrical grids was shut down today due to the ongoing bushfires. Unlike South Australia (which is run by lunatics) both state grids are capable of operating independently and there haven't been any outages as far as I know.
It's expected to be about twenty degrees cooler here tomorrow, so I have that to look forward to.
- I did sign up for a RamNode account to give that a try. It's very cost-effective for smaller apps - a $5 SSD node and a $5 HDD node can take you a long way.
It does start to get more expensive (and less flexible) if you need more than 200GB of SSD on a single server. They do offer sizes up to 800GB though, but there they have less of a price advantage.
- Browsers are interesting again. (Tech Crunch)
Well, shit. The last thing we need is for browsers to be interesting. They should be invisible.
Let's see what the article has to say:
Ah, it says "fuck off".
- Samsung has announced... Announced the announcement of the Galaxy S10 Lite and Note 10 Lite. (Tech Crunch)
Going to be a lot of that this weekend. Actual announcements will all be at CES next week.
- An interview with Ramune Nagisetty on the future of Foveros. (AnandTech)
Foveros is Intel's die-stacking packaging technology, the successor to EMIB. Unless you're interested in die-packing stackaging technology the best part of the interview is probably the name of Intel's Director of Process and Product Integration, which I already mentioned.
- Samsung announced the first test chip built on 3nm GAAFET technology. (Tom's Hardware)
Compared to 5nm - which isn't even out yet - this is 35$ smaller, 30% faster, and uses 50% less power.
You might be wondering how companies can keep producing smaller and smaller chips without running into runaway quantum effects. Well, the answer is that the numbers are a lie and have been for years; nothing about a 3nm chip is actually 3nm.
But - and this is what matters - 3nm is smaller and faster than 5nm.
Because semiconductor manufacturers have been lying about real process sizes for so long we actually have another decade before we hit fundamental limits. At which point the marketing numbers will be smaller than the diameter of an atom.
- A 32" 4K LG VA monitor for $300. (Tom's Hardware)
95% DCI-P3 - which is amazing for the price - FreeSync, and two HDMI and one DisplayPort ports.
Kiwi by Simz
- Sci-Hub may have been naughty. (TechDirt)
They are under investigation by the DOJ for LINKS TO RUSSIA! but the worst thing they seem to have been credibly accused of is using underhanded methods to gain access to some science archives.
That is in itself a criminal offense, though, so if true there could be jail time.
- A look at Lenovo's T490s. (PC Perspective)
It's small, light, reasonably fast, has a battery life up to 20 hours, has dedicated PgUp/PgDn/Home/End keys, and option built-in 4G.
On the other hand, the screen is only 1080p, and it is not exactly cheap.
I took a look on Lenovo's website and you can't get the reviewed configuration in Australia. Not that I was interested, just curious. Here you can have 16GB of RAM or the 4G modem, not both, because the RAM is soldered in.
- Samsung's Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Fold 2 will launch in February unless they don't. (WCCFTech)
Samsung has a big event scheduled for February 11.
- SSD prices could rise sharply this year unless they don't. (WCCFTech)
I'm hoping don't.
- Oracle copied Amazon's API. (Ars Technica)
Time for some goose grease, as the kids say.
- Lenovo's ThinkCentre M90n is a compact NUC-style device that you should absolutely avoid. (Serve the Home)
Because the RAM is soldered in.
- AMD's upcoming Renoir offers insanely faster complex splatting than Intel's Gen12 UHD.
- The Linux Kernel Code of Conduct Committee has started providing regular reports. (Phoronix)
The witch-burnings will begin soon enough.
- Has Google forgotten its original motto? (ZDNet)
Does the Pope shit in the woods?
- Google has disabled Google Assistant and Google Home access for all Xiaomi devices. (Engadget)
This follows some weird shit of people seeing still images from other people's security cameras.
This seems to have been a caching bug on Xiaomi's side that triggered if you had a bad network connection. You have to be very, very careful about caching private data like this - the rule of thumb is, don't.
- If you run Battlefield V on Linux you will get banned for cheating. (Bleeping Computer)
So don't do that.
- Parking meters in NYC went on strike due to a Y2.02K bug. (Gothamist)
They're running MacOS 8?
- Add another one to the Google Deadpool: Google News is shutting down. (CNet)
This was formerly Google Play Magazines, then Google Play Newsstand. Now it's Google Ex-Parrot.
At the current rate by July 2021 Google will have killed more products than it has created.
Other News
Video of the Day
Picture of the Day
Real dangers are present even on the Web. E-commerce is not the mall. It can be, and is, steep, slippery and dangerous. Web features made or enhanced by humans, such as firewalls and spam filters (if any) can break, collapse, or otherwise fail catastrophically at any time. We don't promise to inspect, supervise or maintain them in any way. They may be negligently constructed or repaired. The web is unsafe, period. Live with it or stay away.
Stay on trusted sites whenever possible. The terrain, in addition to being dangerous, is surprisingly complex. You may get lost. Carry food, water and an APU at all times.
Ads for things you don’t want and other objectionable content can arrive from nowhere. This can happen naturally, or be caused by people around you that are being used as bots. Spam and disgusting images of all sizes, including huge images, can arrive, or pop-up with no warning. Use of spam filters is advised for anyone approaching the Internet. They can be purchased or rented from us. They won't save you if you get hit by something big or on a port you left open. A whole DOS attack might collapse on you and squash you like a bug. Don't think it can't happen.
Public opinion can be dangerous, regardless of the forecast. Be prepared with extra damage control, including press releases. Ticking off the blogsphere can kill you. The Streisand effect can turn a simple nastygram into a deathtrap.
If you make hasty comments about those in high places (making unsupported comments that reduce the image of a person, often posted quickly and without thinking) without proper thought and, or allow your employees to do so, you are making a terrible mistake. Even if you know what you're doing, lots of things can go wrong and you may be sued for libel. It happens all the time.
We do not provide rangers or security personnel. The other people on the web, including other visitors, our employees, agents, and guests, and anyone else who might sneak in, may be stupid, reckless, or otherwise dangerous. They may be mentally ill, criminally insane, drunk, using illegal drugs and/or armed with deadly malware and ready to use them. We aren't necessarily going to do anything about it. We refuse to take responsibility.
If you surf at work, you may become pre-occupied with it. This is true whether you are experienced or not, trained or not, equipped or not, though training and equipment may help. It's a fact, surfing at work is extremely dangerous. If you don't like it, surf at home. You really shouldn't be doing it anyway. We do not provide supervision or instruction. We are not responsible for, and do not track how much time you surf at work (although we could if we wanted to.) As far as we know, your employer may find out and send you plunging to unemployment. There are countless tons of loose management staff ready to be dislodged and fall on you or someone else. There are any number of extremely and unusually dangerous conditions existing on and around the Web, and elsewhere on the Internet. We may or may not know about any specific hazard, but even if we do, don't expect us to try to warn you. You're on your own.
Rescue services are not provided by us, and may not be available quickly or at all. Local computer geeks may not be equipped for or trained in hard drive recovery. If you are lucky enough to have somebody try to get rid of a virus or find that deleted file, they may be incompetent or worse. This includes your local computer store. We assume no responsibility. Also, if you decide to participate in a rescue of some other unfortunate, that's your choice. Don't do it unless you are willing to assume all risks.
By entering our site, you are agreeing that we owe you no duty of care or any other duty. We promise you nothing. We do not and will not even try to keep the premises safe for any purpose. The premises are not safe for any purpose. This is no joke. We won't even try to warn you about any dangerous or hazardous condition, whether we know about it or not. If we do decide to warn you about something, that doesn't mean we will try to warn you about anything else. If we do make an effort to fix an unsafe condition, we may not try to correct any others, and we may make matters worse! We and our employees or agents may do things that are unwise and dangerous. Sorry, we're not responsible. We may give you bad advice. Don't listen to us. In short, ENTER AND USE THIS SITE AT YOUR OWN RISK. And have fun!
(From here.)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
11:04 PM
| Comments (3)
| Add Comment
| Trackbacks (Suck)
Post contains 1911 words, total size 16 kb.
Ah--a bunch of new skins on the same engine means more competition!
Also privacy. (That's where the free preview cuts off.)
Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, January 05 2020 06:49 AM (Iwkd4)
Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, January 05 2020 06:54 AM (Iwkd4)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, January 05 2020 10:36 AM (PiXy!)
58 queries taking 0.0996 seconds, 350 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.