Monday, June 08
Daily News Stuff 8 June 2026
Apocryphal Anomalies Edition
Apocryphal Anomalies Edition
Top Story
- The Sound Blaster Katana V2X is a walking disaster. (Ars Technica)
It's a USB speaker. How bad can it be?
Well, it is a USB speaker, yes. It also supports Bluetooth connectivity for your mobile devices. At the same time.
And it makes it easy to upgrade the firmware should you need to do so.
Over Bluetooth. Without authentication. While it is plugged into your PC.
Meaning that anyone within Bluetooth range can reprogram it with arbitrary functionality. Make it open Powershell and wipe your hard drive? Sure. The only problem there is the lack of imagination.
Oh, and Bluetooth is always on, even when the device is powered down to "sleep" mode, so just turning it off won't save you.
Creative - the company that sells Sound Blaster devices - states that it does not regard this as a vulnerability, which leaves me to wonder what kind of creeping cosmic horrors they would regard as vulnerabilities.
Tech News
- AMD's next-generation RDNA5 graphics cards are expected in the second half of next year. (Tom's Hardware)
A little over two years after we first saw RDNA4.
We may see RTX 6000 series cards from Nvidia around the same time, but that's a fuzzier prediction.
- Suffering from the memory drought? Retropad is a Windows Notepad clone that weighs in at 2794 bytes. (Tom's Hardware)
Which was honestly never a lot.
- ASML is now Europe's most valuable company at around $650 billion. (Tom's Hardware)
That's actually respectable, though it would only rank 15th on the US stock market - between AMD and Exxon Mobil.
Musical Interlude
Disclaimer: Two days, one night, complimentary late checkout. It's a package deal.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
05:29 PM
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1
If I remember correctly, Raymond Chen once said that Notepad was a thin wrapper around an edit control, and that's why it's so small: all it does is add a window and a menu, and all the functionality is inside Windows itself.
Posted by: Rick C at Monday, June 08 2026 09:50 PM (1zWbY)
2
My last updated in 2017 windows 10 machine uses 1 gb of 2 gb of ram after I am logged in.
My last check of the patched last year windows 10 machines was 4gb in use after log on.
So shrinking a wrapper around windows down to 3k is worth noting (article seems to confirm Rick C's story), but using it may not be productive.
My last check of the patched last year windows 10 machines was 4gb in use after log on.
So shrinking a wrapper around windows down to 3k is worth noting (article seems to confirm Rick C's story), but using it may not be productive.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Monday, June 08 2026 11:10 PM (s6adZ)
3
"using it may not be productive."
Well, it'd be about as productive (in multiple senses) as using the original Notepad, I guess.
The biggest issue I have with my Snapdragon laptop is that it only has 16GB of RAM and that it boots up with about half of that in use. I have done a little searching but haven't come up with an answer; I wonder if the RAM can be replaced. It's tricky to do but lots of laptop repair shops already do that kind of thing as replacements, and there have been stories about people doing it to (for example) video cards or the SSDs on Macs. So it's probably technically possible but the question would be whether Windows would recognize the extra memory or not.
Well, it'd be about as productive (in multiple senses) as using the original Notepad, I guess.
The biggest issue I have with my Snapdragon laptop is that it only has 16GB of RAM and that it boots up with about half of that in use. I have done a little searching but haven't come up with an answer; I wonder if the RAM can be replaced. It's tricky to do but lots of laptop repair shops already do that kind of thing as replacements, and there have been stories about people doing it to (for example) video cards or the SSDs on Macs. So it's probably technically possible but the question would be whether Windows would recognize the extra memory or not.
Posted by: Rick C at Monday, June 08 2026 11:45 PM (Ub8u0)
4
So if, at this point, your computer gets nuked through your Soundblaster speakers, one imagine lawyers would line up to represent you as you go after them for huge damages? Maybe their "this is not a vulnerability" support team should consult their legal dept?
Posted by: David at Tuesday, June 09 2026 12:34 AM (FAnMG)
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