Sunday, February 09

Geek

Daily News Stuff 8 February 2020

640 Cores Is Enough For Anybody Edition

Tech News

  • What is going on with the Canadian government's plan to license news organisations?  (Daily Caller)

    Short answer: Nobody knows, least of all the Canadian government.


  • The Threadripper 3990X gets put to the test.  (AnandTech)

    Key stats: 3.45GHz all core frequency, 4.35GHz single core.  The single core performance is actually slightly above the rated speed, which is nice.

    It draws 3W per core at full load vs. 7W for the 3970X, for only a 10% reduction in clock speed.

    Also, it has so many cores that Windows can't recognise it as a single CPU.  Depending on your workload you might need to upgrade to an enterprise version of Windows - or, as a quick hack, disable SMT.


  • No such issues under Linux where it stomps all competition.  (Phoronix)

    Well, a $20,000 dual Xeon Platinum configuration did win one benchmark, but on average the $3990 3990X was 25% faster.


  • But, you ask, how does it compare to a Pentium 4 Celeron?  (Phoronix)

    Okay, maybe you didn't ask that.  But the answer is that it's 11 times faster in single-threaded workloads and around 500 times faster multi-threaded.


  • Facebook's Twitter account got compromised.  (Tech Crunch)

    No word on exactly how, but possibly via a third-party app.


  • There's a critical Bluetooth vulnerability in Android.  (Insinuator)

    It applies to Android 8 and 9, and possibly earlier versions; it Android 10 in will crash Bluetooth instead of compromising your phone, which is an improvement, and suggests Google have implemented OS-level protection of some kind.

    The flaw is fixed in the February 2020 patch release; if you don't have that and aren't actively using Bluetooth, best to turn it off.

    It only works at close range, and probably only works if you explicitly set your device to be discoverable in the Bluetooth options.

    More details will be available once the patch has rolled out to as many devices as possible.  If you have an orphan device - I have several - just disable Bluetooth and leave it off.


  • There's always the Dave Bowman option.  (ZDNet)

    Apparently there's a bug in Windows 7 that results in a message reading:
    You don't have permission to shut down this computer.
    There is a workaround that involves creating a new admin account and switching users to that account and back again, or - bear with me - you can just pull the damn plug.


  • Speaking of which, don't run reboot from the shell on MacOS $last_good_version.  Mojave?  Yes, Mojave.  Because it doesn't, and you'll need to Dave it.


  • One of only two factories in the world producing materials for vinyl records has burned down.  (Loudwire)

    We'll always have Laserdiscs.


Other News

  • Australia is no longer on fire.  Instead, we have this warning from the Bureau of Meteorology:
    Flood Watch for the New South Wales coast from the Tweed to the Bega Rivers
    Doesn't sound too alarming, just some local flooding?

    The Tweed River is the northernmost coastal river in New South Wales.

    The Bega river is the southernmost.

    The entire coast of my state is under flood warnings, including all the rivers in and around* Sydney itself, plus, and I quote:
    HEAVY RAINFALL, DAMAGING WINDS, ABNORMALLY HIGH TIDES and DAMAGING SURF

    For people in Northern Rivers, Mid North Coast, Metropolitan, Illawarra, South Coast and parts of Hunter, Central Tablelands, Southern Tablelands and Snowy Mountains Forecast Districts
    Which is only 15% of the state by land area, but 90% by population, because that's all the good bits.

    This is not a cyclone or even a major storm, it's just a lot of rain.  Up to eight inches predicted for Sydney tomorrow.

    * I say "and around" because the Hawkesbury-Nepean River basically circles the Sydney metro area, starting south of Sydney near the coast, but then flowing inland, looping all the way around, and coming out to sea about twenty miles from where I live.  The Parramatta River that flows into Sydney Harbour, and the Georges River that flows into Botany Bay, both rise entirely within that circle.


Disclaimer: Trust no-one.  Also, remember your umbrella.  The rain is out there.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:55 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Post contains 685 words, total size 6 kb.

1 Everything in Australia is trying to kill you, even the weather.

Posted by: Mauser at Sunday, February 09 2020 03:49 AM (Ix1l6)

2 Yes.  Though the rain is very welcome.  Even if there is rather a lot of it.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, February 09 2020 11:33 PM (PiXy!)

3 400mm in four days.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Monday, February 10 2020 01:24 PM (PiXy!)

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Apple pies are delicious. But never mind apple pies. What colour is a green orange?




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