• Tesla is laying off 10% of its workforce - about 14,000 people - amid slowing sales of electric vehicles despite governments everywhere doing everything short of targeting conventional vehicles with drone strikes.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Tesla actually had a record year in 2023 in terms of units sold, but that was with some pretty significant price cuts.
  
  
  
  

Tech News

• Minisforum's V3 tablet is officially here, with preorders open and shipping expected next week.  (Liliputing)
  
  For $1199 you get an eight core Ryzen 8840U processor, a 14" 2560x1600 165Hz display with 100% DCI-P3 colour, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD, a detachable keyboard with the Four Essential Keys, and a touch-sensitive pen.
  
  Ports include two USB4 ports, another USB-C port for video input, a headphone jack, and an SD card slot.
  
  It's not Earth-shattering but it's very good - at least on paper - and half the price of an equivalent Microsoft Surface model.
  
  
  
• If you bought Ubisoft's game The Crew, well, you didn't.  (Tech Spot)
  
  It's gone now.  No, you don't get a refund.  Don't be silly.
  
  This case is a bit different because (a) this is probably illegal in France, and (b) Ubisoft is based in France.
  
  French intellectual property lawyers right now are looking at the holiday homes they'll buy in Santorini when the lawsuit is done.
  
  
  
• Roku is making two-factor authentication mandatory for all accounts after 600,000 customers got hacked.  (The Register)
  
  It doesn't seem that Roku itself was hacked, but that a lot of people still reuse passwords across multiple sites.  Understandable, but not a good idea.
  
  
  
• Meanwhile smart lock company Chirp still hasn't fixed 50,000 locks that it was informed were insecure in 2021.  (Krebs on Security)
  
  Yeah, with one of these here smart locks your home can be even less safe than your television channel.
  
  
  
• 
  

Top Story

• Axios sees artificial intelligence coming, and is shifting its strategy. (Seattle Times) (archive site)

  In the view of Jim VandeHei, CEO of Axios, artificial intelligence will "eviscerate the weak, the ordinary, the unprepared in media."

  Which is all of them. Yes, obviously Axios, but who is there in that industry that doesn't fit at least two out of three of those categories?

  VandeHei says the only way for media companies to survive is to focus on delivering journalistic expertise, trusted content and in-person human connection.

  Stop laughing, this is serious.

  "Fast forward five to 10 years from now and we’re living in this AI-dominated virtual world - who are the couple of players in the media space offering smart, sane content who are thriving?" he added. "It damn well better be us."

  Axios is a money-bleeding garbage mill, and always has been. As competition for stochastic garbage heats up and AI delivers for pennies a year what takes a six-figure salary for pompous overeducated leftists, we can only hope to see the evisceration VandeHei envisages.
  
  I wonder if bidding has opened on the hotdog concession.

  The company has also introduced a $1,000-a-year membership program around some of its journalists that will offer exclusive reporting, events and networking.
  
  "We're not prostitutes," said VandeHei. "Or if we are, we're the kind that expects you to shower first."

Tech News

• The purpose of a system is what it does: Maria Cantwell ran for the Senate promising privacy legislation. She has spent the 24 years since then blocking all efforts towards it. (Washington Post) (archive site)
  
  If you deliver what you promised, they don't need you anymore.
  
  
  
• Is that 368TB portable SSD just not the same as it was yesterday? Here's a 30,000TB tape library. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  That used to be a lot.
  
  The article says 75,000TB, but that includes compression, and I don't know who exactly has 75,000TB of data that isn't already compressed in some manner.
  
  
  
• Minecraft modpack update: The squirrels in Luminous are animated better than the ones in Zoo Architect.
  
  Since both are working I'm not fussed.  Also the ones in Luminous come in four colour variants, which fits the theme of the mod.  There are new variants for almost all the common mobs - sheep, cows, pigs, chickens, cats, and wolves - plus new zombies, skeletons, creepers, endermen, golems, and spiders.
  
  No crashes in the latest test world.  It loads and runs - just - in 4GB of heap.  Looking pretty good at this point.
  
  I put Blue Skies and The Undergarden back in, along with Aether Redux; I'd previously taken them out due to their size but it seems okay now.  That took the base heap size from 3.3GB to 3.6GB; I'm running with a heap limit of 6GB.
  
  
  

• Google just announced at its big annual Cloud event, that it is all-in on ethnically diverse Nazis.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Cloud is old hat.  You don't want cloud.  You want Nazis.
  
  Says Google.
  
  It's no coincidence that one of my projects at work right now is to extricate our app currently running on Google Cloud and move it to old-fashioned dedicated servers that cost one tenth as much.

• Scientists think they have found a way to double the lifespan of lithium-ion batteries.  (Science Daily)
  
  Lithium-ion batteries wear out a little each time they are recharged (and have another flaw that if you keep them on the charger full-time they can swell up and destroy your expensive gadget entirely).
  
  In testing the effects of different charging patterns, researchers found that charging with high-frequency AC power caused half as much wear as regular DC power.
  
  It should be cheap and simple to implement as well.
  
  
  
• Yes, Virginia, the CPI is bullshit.  (Forbes)
  
  Ace might have covered this previously - the Forbes article is undated, but the research paper came out in February.
  
  Calculating the CPI using the same approach used up until 1982, annualised inflation in the US peaked at 18% in 2022, more than double the official number, and worse than the  darkest days of the Carter Era.
  
  So no, you're not imagining it.  Anyone who has been inside a grocery store in the past five years knows that, but some economists now also know it.
  
  
  
• Apple executives have defended the company's practice of selling expensive laptops with just 8GB of RAM and no possibility of ever upgrading that unless you learn surface-mount resoldering techniques and probably not even then.  (WCCFTech)
  
  I looked up the cost of the chips themselves, and the 8GB RAM upgrade that Apple charges you $200 for - only at the time you order the machine, since it can never be upgraded afterwards - appears to cost the company less than $5.
  
  Apple's markup on memory upgrades is between 2000% and 4000%, depending on the model.
  
  That's why they won't let you add memory yourself.
  
  Their markup on storage is tame by comparison - about 600% over retail SSD pricing, likely 1000% on wholesale prices.
  
  
  
• Modpack status: Functional but overweight, with 368 mods and no crashes.
  
  I am deliberately testing on a less-than-ideal system: A laptop with 16GB of RAM, loaded up with background apps that use most of that RAM by the time Windows has booted, with Intel integrated graphics and a high-resolution (2880x1800) display.
  
  I was getting around 60 fps previously, but with the latest additions and changes it's become slower and has noticeably more frame rate hitches.
  
  It also takes a good while to load.
  
  I hope to test it on my new laptop this week.  That probably won't be any faster, but since it has 40GB of RAM it will determine whether that is the limiting factor; if it loads and run smoothly that will be a good sign.
  
  I've set ModernFix to dynamic mode which has let me add Every Compat back in (adding 25,000 new wooden items) without the Java heap exploding - with static allocation, Every Compat would use up 2.5GB of RAM all by itself - but the modpack is still pretty memory hungry.
  
  I've also seen a squirrel and a silk cocoon in the latest test world, which means Zoo Architect and Critters and Companions are working.  And the villagers were shooting back at the nearby pillagers, so Guard Villagers is working too.
  
  
  
• Update 2: Caverns and Chasms has a known incompatibility with Friends and Foes.  They're both open source and the developers have communicated, but there's currently no fix.
  
  That's what was causing those crashes.
  
  I think I want F&F more than C&C, so if there are no other incompatibilities I'll leave C&C disabled.
  
  
  
• Update 3: Slimming it back down now.  One camel, eight penguins, no crashes.

• Google is threatening to stop providing news links to California after California announced legislation charging companies that provide news links to California.  (The Verge)
  
  It's obvious to everyone that this is what will happen if these stupid laws pass, but they still pass these stupid laws.
  
  
  

Tech News

• After winning its antitrust suit against Google over Play Store restrictions, Epic Games has asked the judge to hand them the keys.  (Thurrott)
  
  Basically.
  
  Epic wants Google to allow developers and users to choose their own payment methods.
  
  Google wants to keep taking its cut of every sale, of course.  It's slightly less avaricious on that regard than Apple, but only slightly.
  
  
  
• If a 4TB SD card isn't enough for you Western Digital has announced a 368TB portable SSD.  (Notebook Check)
  
  Well, kind of portable.  It weighs 28 pounds.
  
  
  
• Asus has announced a new 32" 8K monitor.  ( Notebook Check)
  
  It has not announced a price, but the existing 4K model costs $3000, so this one will not be cheap.
  
  
  

• The Humane AI Pin is the solution to none of technology's problems. (Engadget)
  
  Ouch. Well, what about The Verge, they love pointless shiny toys...
  
  
  
• Humane AI Pin review: Not even close. (The Verge)
  
  Maybe those idiots at Wired?
  
  
  
• Humane AI Pin: 4 out of 10. Too bare bones and not all that useful. (Wired)
  
  There's just no pleasing some people, particularly when your product is garbage.
  
  
  

Tech News

• Western Digital has announced its 4TB SD card. (AnandTech)
  
  Full size, not shipping until next year, and definitely not cheap, but still cool.
  
  That's an entire library in the size of a postage stamp - as a consumer item, not a scientific curiosity.
  
  And when I say library, I mean library.
  
  
  
• Intel's brand new Core Ultra 7 155H laptop chip gets put to the test... And meh. (AnandTech)
  
  I mean, it's not terrible, but it's not particularly good either.
  
  In most cases, the AMD chip they compare it with is faster and uses less power.
  
  
  
• Apple is focusing on AI with its upcoming M4 CPU lineup. (Bloomberg)
  
  You will be made to care.
  
  
  
• A look at SpaceX's financials shows a lot of money spent on moonshot bets. (Tech Crunch)
  
  In other industries that might indicate a gamble. Here it's their core business.

Minecraft Modpack Update

Touch Tone Telephone Music Video of the Day

• The SEC is planning to sue crypto exchange Uniswap because.  (CoinDesk)
  
  Because, basically, the SEC can't decide what to do about cryptocurrencies so it is planning to sue every company that doesn't steal all its customers' money and disappear.
  
  The SEC took no action against FTX until after the meltdown, so now they're making up for lost time by taking action against, basically, everyone.
  
  
  

Tech News

• Kobo has announced two new colour e-readers: The 7" $220 Colour Libra and the 6" $150 Colour Clara.  (The Verge)
  
  These offer a resolution of 300 dpi in black and white and 150 dpi in colour - fairly washed-out colour.  But they're e-ink screens, so they'll last a month or more on a single charge.
  
  The more expensive model also supports the Kobo Stylus, and the combination of colour, long battery life, and note-taking make it an interesting option.
  
  
  
• CrystalRuby lets you embed Crystal in Ruby.  (GitHub)
  
  Those are programming languages.
  
  This is kind of neat.
  
  
  
• A record number of books are targeted for bans in the US.  (Sherwood)
  
  The number has increased from one in 2023 to, well, still one.
  
  I'll try to find the title, but as far as I know there only one edition of one book banned in the US, and that was because it contained classified information.  It somehow made it to print before anyone caught on, and was pulled from the shelves and pulped.
  
  It's hard to find the title because every article you see talking about banned books is lying.
  
  
  
• Microsoft is the QNAP of Elasticsearches.  (Tech Crunch)

  The researchers notified Microsoft of the security lapse on February 6, and Microsoft secured the spilling files on March 5.

  Good work, lads.

• Intel has announced the name of its 6th generation Xeon server processors: Xeon 6.  (AnandTech)
  
  That's it.  That's the story.
  
  Slow news day.

• Peter Higgs, discoverer of the Higgs Boson, has passed away at the age of 94.  (The Guardian)
  
  "My greatest achievement", said Higgs in a recent interview, "was pure happenstance - the particle I found had the same name as me."
  
  
  
• Two Bay Area railway workers have been charged for building secret apartments inside disused train stations.  (The Real Deal)
  
  They built two apartments for a total of $50,000.  They shouldn't be arrested, they should be running the state.
  
  Or both.  That works.
  
  
  
• Elon Musk has expanded on his plans to settle Mars, as SpaceX's Starship approaches reality.  (Ars Technica)
  
  The Ars commentariat is absolutely frothing at the thought of someone who even acknowledges fundamental liberties being the one to establish our first interplanetary colony.
  
  
  
• Speaking of the frothing Ars commentariat 90,000 LG smart TVs are vulnerable to hacking attempts.  (Ars Technica)
  
  By users already on your local network.
  
  So...  You, basically.
  
  Don't do that.
  
  Anyway, three of the four "promoted comments" are people who thing connecting your TV to the internet is a wonderful idea, and they've all been downvoted into negative numbers.
  
  
  
• Got a cheap mini-monitor to go with my Beelink mini-PCs, a 14" 2160x1440 display that should fit on a shelf rather than having to sit on the desk.
  
  As things are going it will probably still be in its box in December so I can wrap it and put it under the tree.

Posted by: Kristophr at Thursday, April 11 2024 06:43 AM (hE8ec)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

• TSMC is to receive $6.6 billion in direct funding and $5 billion in loans under the CHIPS Act.  (AnandTech)
  
  In return, the company will be constructing a leading-edge 2nm fab in Arizona and increasing its total US fab investments to $65 billion.
  
  So...  Eh.  Almost everything the government could do with your money, short of not taking it from you in the first place, would be worse.

• Upcoming AMD and Intel CPUs will have less cache and more cash than originally planned.  (WCCFTech)
  
  Instead of using die space on memory, it's been reallocated to provide much faster AI units.  Which, again, is not the worst thing in the world; you can use that extra compute power to do whatever you want, so long as it's low-precision arithmetic.
  
  
  
• Solidigm's new 60TB SSD...  Basically just works.  (Serve the Home)
  
  Instead of having four 20TB 3.5" hard drives in RAID-5, you can use one 2.5" SSD, and get access times measured in microseconds rather than milliseconds.
  
  At around $6000 it's not exactly cheap, though.
  
  
  
• San Francisco is upgrading its light rail system.  (The Register)
  
  From floppy disks.
  
  Which aren't made anymore.
  
  So probably a good idea.
  
  
  
• The Maiyunda M1 is a mini-PC with a difference.  Two, in fact.  (Liliputing)
  
  At the front it has four quick-access drive bays - for M.2 SSDs.
  
  At the back it has four 2.5Gb Ethernet ports.
  
  And USB and HDMI and DisplayPort.
  
  Apparently there's one more difficult-access M.2 slot and one memory slot. 
  
  It's available with Intel's N100 (four core) and N305 (eight core) Atom CPUs, starting at around $190.

• All AIs are racist, but some are more racist than others.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Microsoft's Copilot gives you racial stereotypes in cartoons, which...  They're cartoons, people.  Though the Jewish boss with the bagel hat is certainly something.
  
  Anyway, it gives you racial stereotypes if you specify a race when you're generating a cartoon, so maybe that's your problem.
  
  Midjourney presents us not so much with racial stereotypes as temporal ones; I don't think it's been outside since 1952.
  
  ChatGPT just says fuck you and rewrites your request with a bunch of WASPs plus a token Asian chick.
  
  Meta AI actually does okay with this.  It pushes too hard on the diversity-at-any-cost side, but it also produced a sample image of a Jewish woman that is 100% believable without a single specific marker.  (The picture actually looks like someone I know.)

• AMD's Zen 5 mobile chips are coming this year maybe.  (WCCFTech)
  
  These will feature a mix of full-size Zen 5 and the smaller Zen 5c cores.
  
  Where Intel's smaller efficiency cores are a completely different design to their performance cores, Zen 5c is functionally identical to Zen 5, but squashed down and running at lower clock speeds.  At a given clock speed they perform identically, but Zen 5c is smaller and uses less power.
  
  Replacing mainstream chips with eight Zen 4 cores we can expect four Zen 5 cores plus eight Zen 5c.  Zen 5c could deliver close to the performance of existing Zen 4, so these should be deliver great performance and good battery life.
  
  
  
• Spotify has demonetised all tracks that have been played less than 1000 times.  (DJ Mag)
  
  Spotify says that affects only 0.5% of tracks on the platform, which seems unlikely because (a) power laws don't work like that and (b) if that were the case they wouldn't bother.
  
  The UMAW puts the number at 86% which seems far more plausible.
  
  
  
• The Opera browser now supports running AI locally on your computer.  (Opera)
  
  I don't know if I would trust Opera in its current incarnation.  It used to be good, but then the company was bought by Chinese interests and the entire development team walked out to set up Vivaldi.

Posted by: Rick C at Monday, April 08 2024 10:42 PM (BMUHC)

Posted by: normal at Monday, April 08 2024 11:44 PM (LADmw)

Posted by: PatBuckman at Tuesday, April 09 2024 01:58 AM (rcPLc)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

• Ordered by a Brazilian Supreme Court justice to block access to popular accounts that say things inconvenient to the leftist regime, Elon Musk has responded: Fuck you.  (MSN)
  
  A particular post ordered taken down by Australia's radical left wing censor-in-chief - who is an imported American that you guys can take back at any time - remains invisible, but that had the usual Streisand affect and reposted screenshots of it are all over the place, and have not been restricted at all.
  
  Musk is an imperfect defender of our liberties, but I'll give him credit when he gets it right.

Tech News