Daily Tech News 9 June 2021

• Like the first episode of James Burke's Connections, one customer changed one parameter on one account at one CDN and within seconds the entire eastern seaboard lost power internet was toast. (Fastly)
  
  
  
• Reddit, Twitter, the BBC, the UK government, and amusingly, Amazon were among those who experienced sudden plagues of unhelpful error messages. (Online or Not)
  
  It's harder for Fastly to tailor their errors in a completely friendly way for end users, but the default error messages that come out of tools like Nginx and Varnish are so abstruse that even people who work with them daily complain.
  
  
  
• Just a comment on that story about the FBI reclaiming millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin from the Darkside hacking group:
  
  What almost certainly happened is the hackers used an online wallet so they could easily share access to the funds. Problem is, that's not remotely as secure as a local wallet. The feds knew what wallet address the money was in, so they just had to ask all the major exchanges whether they managed that address, and serve a warrant on the one that did.
  
  If the online wallet was properly secured it would still have needed the hackers to log in before the key could be retrieved, and that's quite likely what happened. They logged in, the key was decrypted, and before they could do anything else there was this huge sucking sound and all the money disappeared into the coffers of the federal government never to be seen again.
  
  Which I'm sure is a metaphor for something. Just can't think what.

• The chip shortage continues to bite: Now there aren't enough power management chips to keep up with demand for Thunderbolt ports on notebooks. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Thunderbolt ports can draw and supply up to 100W - you can charge your laptop that way, or plug in another device to charge from your laptop. So they need fairly capable power management, and the chips certified for the task are out of stock.
  
  Intel has temporarily certified compatible but not technically compliant chips, which will work fine, probably.
  
  Reportedly Intel is also short of power management chips for their enterprise SSDs, which isn't great at a time when a certain blockchain is chewing up all the non-enterprise storage the industry can produce.
  
  
  
• Why is everything in short supply? A lot of it is the blockchain bubble in GPUs and (more recently) storage. GPU sales spiked by 40% between Q1 last year and Q1 this year. (WCCFTech)
  
  Yes, there were somewhat more people playing games during the two week lockdown. Yes, there are new cards out. But are there really that many more new computers being sold?
  
  
  
• As it happens... Yes. In fact, overall US PC shipments are up 73% in the same timeframe. (Tech Crunch)
  
  HP in particular grew by 122%. Which is kind of a lot.
  
  
  
• The state of Ohio has filed a suit seeking to regulate Google as a public utility. (Columbus Dispatch)
  
  Good luck, guys. Don't think it will fly, but worth a try.
  
  
  
• Patch your Adobe stuff. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  I'm not sure if I still run any Adobe stuff. I used to have the entire Creative Suite but that expired long ago. I've replaced Photoshop with Affinity Photo, which might not be quite as good but is a hell of a lot cheaper.
  
  Anyway, they've patched 41 vulnerabilities as well as the usual raft of bugs.
  
  
  
• Patch your Windows stuff. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  I do still run Windows. The latest update patches seven actively exploited vulnerabilities and 43 that aren't actively exploited yet.
  
  
  
• Graphene could boost hard drive capacities by a factor of ten. (ZDNet)
  
  They're not making the drives out of graphene, just coating the platters with it. It's thinner than current protective coatings, which means the drive heads can be closer the the surface of the disk, which means higher densities.
  
  Or possibly not. It's not quite as bad as predictions about new battery technology but it's not far off.
  
  
  
• Why is Verizon blocking Nyaa and Mangadex? (TorrentFreak)
  
  Someone asked me recently if I'd had any trouble accessing Nyaa, and I hadn't, mostly because I'd been too busy to try. Also because I don't use Verizon.
  
  Also, it's kind of pointless blocking Mangadex, because it got hacked and it's been down for weeks while they rewrite the software.
  
  
  

• Kiryu Coco of Hololive announced her graduation - that is, retirement - today. (Reddit)
  
  The Hololive fanbase kind of exploded over this because she's the first established member of any of the main Hololive branches to leave. There were a couple who flamed out in their first month, and the regrettable West Taiwan episode, but she's the first mainstream talent to quit.
  
  We'll miss our foul-mouthed shit-posting drug-dealing Yakuza dragon, and wish her the very best in whatever strange incarnation she finds herself in coming months.
  
  Her final stream is on July 1. Unusually for the industry, and commendably, her channel and all her existing content will remain active, though members-only streams will expire automatically three months after she leaves YouTube.
  
  
  
• The Minecraft Caves and Cliffs Part One update is out. (Hot Hardware)
  
  This part doesn't actually have any caves or cliffs. It does have goats, axolotls, and glow squids though.

posted by Pixy Misa at 05:22 AM

| Access Comments