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• The Linux Foundation has banned the University of Minnesota from committing patches, and is reverting or reviewing all patches they have ever committed.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Because - as some kind of twisted and astoundingly unethical sociology experiment - they were systematically introducing bugs under the guise of fixing other bugs.
  
  They got caught, denied it, got caught again, and are now banned for life.
  
  Hacker News has comments.  1724 of them so far, and still going.

• The Asus ZenBook 13 is a Ryzen 5800U laptop with an OLED screen and the four essential keys.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  That processor has 8 CPU cores and what they call 8 GPU cores - also known as CU for cluster units.  16GB of LPDDR4-3733 RAM, 1TB of NVMe SSD, two USB-C ports, one USB-A, HDMI, and a microSD slot.
  
  What it doesn't have is a headphone jack because there is apparently a requirement carved into the bedrock of the laptop industry that they have to fuck something up on every single model.  It comes with a USB-C audio adapter, which is a pain but less of a problem with a laptop - where you carry it around in a bag anyway - than with a phone.
  
  We might forgive them that defect though because prices end at $999.  Typically laptops in this class start around that price and by the time you get up to the full configuration you're paying 60% more.  $999 is a good price for an 8-core laptop with an OLED screen.
  
  
  
• I've called Docker the world's least efficient package manager, but that's not a fault of Docker's technology, but of it's philosophy.  As an example of how well it can work in the hands of competent people, here's a web server in a 6kB Docker container.  (DevOps Directive)
  
  That's quite small.  The baseline container they started with was 150,000 times larger.
  
  
  
• WSLug lets you run Linux GUI applications on Windows.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  This is currently a preview release but it's promising; as a developer I already find the ability to run Linux console apps on Windows extremely useful.
  
  
  
• Europe is proposing strict regulations on the use of AI.  (New York Times)
  
  In particular they are proposing a ban on the use of facial recognition cameras in public spaces.  By private companies, that is.  The governments will keep right on doing that.
  
  
  
• Russian communications regulator Rozkomnadzor has demanded that Instagram stop blocking the Russian national anthem.  (TorrentFreak)
  
  The DMCA takedown notices were apparently filed by a German TV show.
  
  Meanwhile the same agency has insisted that Google remove the blog page of a Ukrainian political party, because...  You know why.
  
  
  
• Intel has defeated a $3 billion patent lawsuit filed by VLSI Technology.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  This isn't the VLSI Technology, though.  That company - founded back in 1979 - was acquired by Philips in 1999 and later spun off again as part of NXP.
  
  This is a different company with the same name, founded by Japanese investment giant Softbank purely for the purpose of screwing over companies that actually do R&D.
  
  Fuck 'em.
  
  
  

Worst Chemical Video of the Day

Posted by: PatBuckman at Friday, April 23 2021 02:52 AM (6y7dz)

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