Daily Tech News 25 July 2021

• Yesterday's post came with bonus typos thanks to lack of sleep and interruptions from work even on a Saturday afternoon. I have spell check turned on of course, but on these posts it's a sea of red squiggles anyway so it doesn't help as much as you might expect.
  
  But I didn't have as bad a day as some poor Google engineer who pushed an update to the login routine for ChromeOS that prevented anyone from logging in. (Ars Technica)
  
  On the downside, ChromeOS updates itself automatically, so it automatically downloaded and installed the bug and prevented you from logging in. On the upside, ChromeOS updates itself automatically even if you can't log in so the patch will find its way to you... Sometime in the next week.
  
  
  
  

• Nvidia's next generation of graphics cards will be built on TSMC's 5nm process. (WCCFTech)
  
  The current generation - which are great cards, you just can't buy them - is built on Samsung's 8nm process, a couple of steps behind the leading edge, but what was available for mass production. So the new cards, when they arrive, and when you are actually able to purchase them, which are not the same thing, should be a significant advance.
  
  
  
• At the other end of the graphics scale AMD's 5600G and 5700G desktop APUs are starting to show up at retail. (WCCFTech)
  
  Official launch is still a couple of weeks out, I think. Early August.
  
  Ryzen motherboards have HDMI and DisplayPort outputs but there's been a shortage of good processors with integrated graphics to actually drive them.
  
  
  
• China's new Loongson 3A5000 is quite competitive - for 2010. (Phoronix)
  
  Or about one tenth the speed of a modern low-end desktop CPU.
  
  
  
• Apple fixed the WiFiDemon bug that soft-bricked iOS devices if you joined a network called %p%s%s%s%s%n. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  And also another bug that could instantly hack your phone if you joined a network called DDDD%x%x%x%@.
  
  I seem to recall this was an episode of Doctor Who. Ah, right, The Bells of Saint John. That was the first time Clara survived to the end of a story.
  
  
  
• On the other side of the hilarious mess that is operating system security these days you know where you are with a PetitPotam. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  An NTML relay attack allowed hackers to compromise Windows domain controllers.
  
  No, I don't know what that means either.
  
  
  
• Apple's mantra, as always, is Fuck Developers. (Litchie.com)
  
  iDOS - a DOS (and Windows 3.1) emulator for the iPad - has been banned because it potentially allowed for very old software to be installed on an Apple device without Apple getting its 30%.
  
  
  
• Amazon wants the key to your apartment building. (PennLive)
  
  Which they will hand to delivery drivers who are so overworked they have to pee in bottles.
  
  Nothing bad could possibly come of this.
  
  
  
• Amazon says the number of $2000 graphics cards destroyed by its new turkey-smashing simulator New World is relatively small. (GameSpot)
  
  Oh. Well, that's good to know.
  
  
  
• A new bullshit study of an old bullshit study that predicted that everyone was going to die has predicted that everyone is going to die. (LiveScience)
  
  Fifty years on the infamous Limits to Growth is back and we're double-doomed this time unless we all eat bugs and live in pods.

posted by Pixy Misa at 03:06 AM

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