Daily Tech News 18 July 2021

• Why Though Part 1: How to make Windows 11 look and feel like Windows 10. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  It seems to me that you could achieve the same result by not installing Windows 11.
  
  
  
• Why Though Part 2: Qnap has launched a NAS using the Chinese Zhaoxin CPU. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  These chips are designed in China for the Chinese market with embedded support for Chinese encryption standards, which is to say, broken ones.
  
  This is not a reassuring move from Qnap.
  
  
  
• Why Though Part 3: Prosegur has built a bunker to protect crypto assets. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Which are stored publicly on the blockchain, making this not merely useless, but retarded.
  
  
  

• HP makes some nice laptops that fit my needs perfectly. Four essential keys, 4K displays, 8 core Intel or AMD CPUs, dedicated graphics, upgradeable memory. A fully-upgraded* Envy 15 for example runs about $2400.
  
  
  
  In Australia the best I can get is last year's model, in just one configuration, at A$6000 - close to $4500.
  
  Because fuck you, that's why.
  
  * Or almost - you can get another 300MHz on the CPU boost clock for $260 more, but that's the only hardware option I left out.
  
  
• Lenovo's new Yoga AIO 7 will feature Radeon 6600M graphics. (WCCFTech)
  
  With a 4K screen - that even pivots to vertical if you want - covering 99% of DCI-P3, and an 8 core AMD laptop CPU, it looks like it could be a great replacement for my aging twin Dell Inspiron 27s. And with laptop components replacing the desktop parts it should run cool and quiet.
  
  Can I actually get one in Australia? Or even last year's model?
  
  Don't be silly.
  
  
  
• AMD will be launching Epyc Genoa parts with integrated HBM (high bandwidth memory) unless they won't. (WCCFTech)
  
  This is aimed at upcoming Intel CPUs which are in turn aimed at the supercomputer market.
  
  The article also mentions the reason for the confusion as to whether next-gen Epyc CPUs would have 96 or 128 cores is that the answer is yes. Genoa models will go up to 96 cores, and Bergamo up to 128. Same socket and same CPU chiplets, just more of them squeezed in on Bergamo.
  
  There are also stacked-cache versions coming of both of those, and the upcoming Chagall Zen 3 Threadrippers as well, so up to 1.5GB just of cache on the highest-end parts.
  
  
  
• A review of the great UK Post Office "embezzlement" debacle. (ACM)
  
  700 Post Office workers were prosecuted because of a buggy accounting system.

  They were sentenced based on evidence from an IT system, which... ehhh... to be honest, we don't actually know what that IT system did, except we know it did it really, really badly.

  The article argues for IT review boards similar to those for plane crashes, and while I'm against new government agencies generally, when a public system fails this badly, I support the idea of an equally public tarring and feathering.
  
  
  
• Installing z/OS on your laptop. (Colin Paice)
  
  Step 1: Fork over $5000 for a single-user developer license.
  Step 2: Wait two weeks for your USB security key to arrive.
  Step 3: Wonder why you didn't just go with BSD.
  
  
  
• Hello Kitty is attacking SonicWall. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Even the US government is now heeding my advice: Unplug that shit now.
  
  

  Upgrade to the newest SonicWall firmware and disconnect EOL SonicWall appliances ASAP. Failing to follow SonicWall guidance may lead to targeted ransomware attacks. Read more at https://t.co/ji96tw5Md4 #Cybersecurity #InfoSec #Ransomware

  — US-CERT (@USCERT_gov) July 15, 2021

  
  
  
  
• Google has extended its deadline for forcing apps to use their in-house payment processing for all in-app purchases after getting hit with an anti-trust lawsuit over exactly that sort of shit. (Thurrott.com)
  
  Note that Apple does this already.
  
  
  
• Fascism is the marriage of government and corporate power to produce a single authoritarian entity.
  
  Not all marriages run smooth, though. (The Verge)

  Reached for comment, a Facebook representative defended the platform's record of fighting vaccine misinformation. "We will not be distracted by accusations which aren't supported by the facts," said a Facebook spokesperson. "The fact is that more than 2 billion people have viewed authoritative information about COVID-19 and vaccines on Facebook, which is more than any other place on the internet. More than 3.3 million Americans have also used our vaccine finder tool to find out where and how to get a vaccine."

  "The facts show that Facebook is helping save lives," the spokesperson continued. "Fuck you, Joe, you senile old bastard. We made you. We can unmake you. Don't print that."

  
  

• Rumours of our doom are greatly exaggerated. (IEEE Spectrum)
  
  We might not be about to be wiped out by climate change after all. Huh. Who'da thunk. I mean, except everyone.
  
  
  

• The Freedom Phone is an Umidigi A9 hastily rebadged. (PC Magazine)
  
  And marked up 300%.
  
  Yeah, the guy who wrote the article is an asshole, but so is the guy hawking fake phones.
  

posted by Pixy Misa at 03:53 AM

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