• Twitter is in talks with TikTok to create either TwikTok or Ticker.  (WSJ)
  
  Paywalled, of course, but there's a comment thread at Hacker News.
  
  
  
• Too late though, someone already created it and put it on GitHub.  (TwikTwok)
  
  
  
• Scientists at NASA have demonstrated lattice confinement fusion.  (IEEE Spectrum)
  
  This is the hypothesised mechanism for cold fusion, except that cold fusion didn't actually work, and this is very definitely not cold.  Also right now it's an energy sink rather than a source, and they don't know if or when they'll get it into useful shape.
  
  
  
• A bug has been found in the DSP firmware of Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips that potentially exposes devices to rootkits and worse.  (Gizmodo)
  
  Well, when I say a bug, I mean over four hundred separate bugs.  Which is rather a lot.
  
  Qualcomm have issued a patch, so all that remains is for every single Android device manufacturer and every mobile carrier to work together and oh fuck we're doomed aren't we?
  
  
  
• Making bamboo forests safe for pandas has seriously reduced populations of wolves and leopards which used to prey on the deer that shared those forests.  (UPI)
  
  The deer are now multiplying out of control and wrecking the habitats the pandas need to survive.  This is why we can't have nice things.
  
  
  
• Need a 128-core portable workstation with 2TB of RAM, dual GPUs, and six 24" screen?  (MediaWorkstations)
  
  Shouldn't cost more than around $80,000.  Plus spine insurance.  Starting at 40lbs it's twice the weight of the Osborne 1.

Posted by: Rick C at Monday, August 10 2020 02:26 AM (Iwkd4)

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