• Three weeks ago it was the Easter long weekend, I was kicking back, playing some Minecraft, configuring the brand new 128-core Epyc server we got at work...  Then the Fire Nation attacked.
  
  This is the first night I've had off since then.  Tomorrow I'm even planning to go outside.  That will be exciting.

Tech News

• The University of Minnesota takes this situation extremely seriously.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Translation: We got caught.
  
  
  
• The best tablets of 2021.  (TechSpot)
  
  I want a new 7" or 8" tablet.  It's what I use to read books.  I have two Nexus 7 tablets from 2013, and it's nearly impossible to find anything better than that.
  
  There are plenty of 10" and larger tablets, but small tablets are almost extinct.
  
  
  
• Ubuntu 21.04 is out.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  It has stuff.  I'm more interested in the LTS (long-term stable) releases that come out every second year, though.  I've been very happy with 20.04; normally I give new releases a few months to settle down, but I tried 20.04 when if first came out and still have yet to run into any significant issues.
  
  I mean, apart from systemd.  Fuck systemd.
  
  
  
• Out: RGB.  In: LCD.  (WCCFTech)
  
  The Asus ROG Ryujin II AIO - a CPU water cooler - has a built-in 3.5" LCD display.
  
  Why?
  
  
  
• The Post Office is spying on you.  (Yahoo)
  
  I'm so old I still remember when they delivered mail.
  
  
  
• The EFF is suing Proctorio - a company that spies on students during exams - for issuing false DMCA takedown notices.  (EFF)
  
  <mr burns> Excellent.</mr burns>
  
  
  
• 128 cores and four drive bays.  (Serve the Home)
  
  Why would you do that?  Who would buy such a thing?
  
  Your own 128 core Epyc server only has three disk drives.
  
  Well, yes, but we could add more if we wanted.
  
  Speaking of which, 15TB Enterprise NVMe drives are pretty neat.
  
  
  
• Oops, they explained.  (Phoronix)
  
  An IBM engineer was ordered to remove a patch submitted to the Linux kernel because he used his personal email address for work done in his own time.
  
  IBM has now confirmed that this was a mistake, and - though not in so many words - that the manager involved in the kerfuffle is a dumbass.
  
  
  
• Twitter phished its own users.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  They sent out suspicious-looking emails asking you to click on a link to confirm your Twitter account, even though your Twitter account was already confirmed and working fine.  The emails were genuine, though; Twitter is just stupid.
  
  
  
• The new iMac is overpriced.  (ZDNet)
  
  For the same money you could get an overpriced Mac Mini and two 32" 4K monitors.
  
  And it can't be upgraded, repaired, or even recycled.
  
  You buy it, keep it until it dies, then buy a new one.
  
  
  
• Google is updating the UI of their Meet video call app.  (ZDNet)
  
  They say don't fix that which isn't broken, but Google is clear on that score.  The current Meet UI is garbage.
  
  
  
• Honey is now radioactive.  (Motherboard)
  
  The modern era is defined as the period in which carbon dating no longer works.  Not because carbon dating isn't sensitive enough, but because everything since the 1950s is now slightly radioactive, and that's enough to make the measurements meaningless.
  
  
  
• John Deere doesn't let you repair your own equipment, but they do dox their own customers.  (Security Ledger)

  Sick Codes, the researcher, said he created a free developer account with Deere and found the first myjohndeere.com vulnerability before he had even logged into the company’s web site.

  Oops.
  
  
  
• A new Facebook bug exposes millions of email addresses.  (Wired)
  
  Per day.  They estimate they can find five million addresses per day.

  The researcher, whom Ars agreed not to identify, said that Facebook Email Search exploited a front-end vulnerability that he reported to Facebook recently but that "they [Facebook] do not consider to be important enough to be patched."

  I'm sure they don't.
  
  
  
• Even the Stalinists at Slashdot hate the Stalinists at Mozilla.  (Slashdot)
  
  The Stalinist Slashdot Alliance is fighting it out with the Slashdot Alliance of Stalinists in the comments.  The Alliance of Slashdot Stalinists is waiting in the wings to shoot the survivors.
  
  
  
• The Biden Administration is planning to loot the roughly $100 billion in cash held by Big Tech companies in overseas banks.  (Bloomberg)
  
  First helpful or intelligible thing any of them have done all year.
  
  
  

Posted by: J Greely at Friday, April 23 2021 07:25 PM (ZlYZd)

Posted by: normal at Friday, April 23 2021 09:22 PM (obo9H)

Posted by: PatBuckman at Friday, April 23 2021 11:54 PM (6y7dz)

Posted by: Rick C at Saturday, April 24 2021 01:54 AM (2Mei2)

Posted by: normal at Saturday, April 24 2021 04:32 AM (LADmw)

Hide Comments | Add Comment