Daily Tech News 14 July 2021

• 83% of software developers suffer from burnout, according to a new study. (Haystack)
  
  The other 17% are dead.
  
  So far I'm grimly holding on to my position in the 83%.

• Give me /events, not webhooks. (Sync Inc)
  
  Webhooks are a great idea: Rather than having to poll an API for your data, it will arrive at your application automatically.
  
  The only problem is everything about this. Now every application is an API provider. Every application has to worry about authentication and message digests and idempotency and a million other layers of poop.
  
  Oh, and your application has to work perfectly 24/7.
  
  Instead, give me a feed API, and a webhook that simply says "there are 5 new items in your feed, go look".
  
  
  
• If you're on the other side of things and need to deliver that events feed you might want to look at RabbitMQ's new Streams (RabbitMQ)
  
  They're like conventional queues except they're append-only: Messages never get deleted in a normal workflow. So if you miss something you can go back and replay it at any time.
  
  That actually simplifies the structure of the data, so that streams are - according to RabbitMQ - orders of magnitude faster than queues.
  
  I like RabbitMQ. Except for its error logs, which are fucking terrifying. It basically just sits there and works, day after day, even on a small virtual server.
  
  
  
• Will Intel's 12th generation parts actually not suck? (WCCFTech)
  
  There are engineering samples out there and leaked benchmarks aren't bad at all. It supports DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 and is supposed to be arriving before the end of the year, long before AMD's next generation chips. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  
  
• On the other hand, if you want a small, fast, general-purpose desktop computer right now AMD is a good choice. (Guru3D)
  
  The Minisforum HM80 uses the Ryzen 4800U laptop chip - 8 cores, 16 threads, and 8 graphics cores - in a box the size of a really good sandwich.
  
  It has room for an M.2 drive and a 2.5" SATA drive and 64GB of RAM. I/O consists of seven USB ports including one USB-C with video support, DisplayPort, HDMI, and separate 1Gb and 2.5Gb Ethernet. Plus built-in WiFi 6 and Bluetooth and 1/8" headphone and microphone jacks.
  
  It's a bit bigger than an Intel NUC but it needs to be to fit that selection of ports.
  
  The 4800U itself is a low-power laptop part so this should run cool and quiet, but it's by no means slow; it's faster than my current desktop.
  
  
  
• China - yes, not Russia this time, but China - has been using the new SolarWinds vulnerability to attack US defense and software companies. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  There was a remote code execution vulnerability in the embedded FTP server.
  
  We went through all that back in the 90s. Why is anyone writing a new FTP server now?
  
  
  
• Amazon is rolling out end-to-end encryption for their Ring video doorbells. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  This means that only you, Amazon, the police of two hundred nations, China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea will have access to your recordings.
  
  
  
• If you are using Windows Hello stop doing that and use a fingerprint scanner and/or a password. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Seriously, image recognition is hard and computers are dumb.
  
  
  
• Adobe has fixed 22 critical vulnerabilities. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Mostly in Fucking Acrobat. That's the official product name now, Fucking Acrobat.
  
  
  
• More Apple products not to buy. (ZDNet)
  
  The list includes all current iPhones, the MacBook Pro, iPad Mini, all models of Apple Watch, and AirPods.
  
  Sure. No problem.
  
  
  
• AT&T plans to let customers on unlimited data plans pay more to download unlimited data. (Ars Technica)
  
  I'm on an unlimited data plan here in Australia. Okay, so my connection is a relatively leisurely 80Mbps, but I can and have downloaded terabytes of data in a single month without anyone saying anything, and without my connection being slowed down.
  
  
  
• Reddit did not order the (very useful) SaveVideo bot to shut down. (TorrentFreak)
  
  Some asshole sent a fake takedown notice, but Reddit confirmed it wasn't them.
  
  If the originator can be tracked down, that's perjury under the DMCA.
  
  
  
• Google has been fined 500 million Euros for (insert made up bullshit euroweenie complaint here). (CNBC)
  
  Good. More of this please.
  
  
  
• How Intel fucked up. (Ineteconomics)
  
  Basically, they were working to make their executives rich, rather than to make the company successful.
  
  And it worked.
  
  
  
• Firefox is updating its ad blocking feature to not break Facebook logins. (The Verge)
  
  No, no, you had it right the first time.
  
  
  

posted by Pixy Misa at 05:33 AM

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