• Thirdripper 3960X and 3970X prices and specs have been leaked by...  Wait, that's an official AMD announcement.  (AnandTech)
  
  3960X: 24 cores, 3.8 / 4.5GHz, 280W, $1399.
  3970X: 32 cores, 3.7 / 4.5GHz, 280W, $1999.
  
  The only really new news is on the platform side.  The TRX40 chipset has an 8 lane PCIe 4.0 uplink to the CPU, providing four times the bandwidth of the previous generation X499.
  
  The CPU itself provides 48 lanes of PCIe 4.0, plus 4 USB 3.2 ports, and either eight more PCIe 4.0 lanes or 8 SATA ports, plus 8 PCIe 4.0 lanes dedicated to the chipset connection.
  
  The chipset provides another 8 USB 3.2 ports, 4 SATA ports, 8 PCIe 4.0 lanes, and either eight more PCIe 4.0 lanes or 8 more SATA ports.
  
  So between 56 and 72 available PCIe 4.0 lanes, with 12 USB 3.2 ports and between 4 and 20 SATA ports.  If you don't want all that SATA you could have three x16 slots and six M.2 slots.  You couldn't run all six M.2 slots at full PCIe 4.0 speed simultaneously, but you could run them all at full PCIe 3.0 speed.
  
  Memory support is up to 256GB of DDR4-3200 unbuffered DIMMs, with or without ECC.
  
  Of interest here is the scrunching up of part numbers.  The previous generation 32 core part was the 2990WX, now that cour count has been moved down to the 3970X.  Expect 48 and 64 cores to show up sooner rather than later.
  
  
• At the other end of the scale AMD also announced the Athlon 3000G, a $49 dual core APU.  (AnandTech)
  
  It's a 3.5GHz 35W part, and comes with a 65W cooler, so you can take full advantage of its unlocked overclocking.  It has 3 Vega CUs, which should be adequate for desktop use and very light gaming.  It certainly stomps on anything else in its price range; last year's Athlon 240GE was roughly equivalent but cost $75.
  
  
• If you were interested in the Ryzen 3900 - 12 cores at 65W TDP - and disappointed when it turned out to be an OEM-only part, well, disappoint no more.  The latest AMD BIOS lets you run any 95W or 105W Ryzen 3000 CPU in a 65W power profile.  (Reddit)
  
  And 65W parts in a 45W profile.
  
  
• Xiaomi's Mi Note 10 has five cameras.  (AnandTech)
  
  
  
  And a 2340x1080 6.4" AMOLED display, 6/128GB or 8/256GB, a 32MP front camera, dual SIM cards, a headphone jack, and no microSD slot because fuck you that's why.
  
  Close.
  
  
• Why xHamster is better at moderation than Facebook.  (Medium)
  
  Orders of magnitude less content.
  
  
• The European Galileo positioning system went offline for a week earlier this year.  We now know what happened.  (BertHub)
  
  Short answer: They lost it.
  
  
• Fitbit is doomed.  (ZDNet)
  
  The article examines the series of train wrecks that have been recent Google acquisitions, but doesn't spend a lot of time on why.  But we know why.
  
  
• Twitter is planning to experiment on methods to control user behaviour.  (Reclaim the Net)
  
  For example, if you disagree with a tweet, which happens sometimes because Twitter is a spectacular aggregation of utter idiocy, Twitter will ask you why.
  
  I somehow doubt that "Because the above user is a fuckwit" will be on the menu.

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