Daily Tech News 7 August 2021

• Surprised by pushback over their massive violation of the privacy of children, Apple poured oil on troubled waters... And lit it on fire.
  

  Apple distributed an internal memo today which referred to pushback against its new content surveillance measures as "the screeching voices of the minority." I have nothing to add. pic.twitter.com/6R9moiekyN

  — Nadim Kobeissi (@kaepora) August 6, 2021

  
  Dismissing the entire security community, which has universally decried this, and the entire privacy community likewise as "screeching voices of the minority" shows exactly where this is coming from.
  
  They are fully aware that what they are doing is wrong. They know it will harm people. That's why they kept it secret. They just don't care.
  
  This is the end result of intellectual monoculture. To whatever small extent they spoke to any security or privacy advocates about this, their concerns were overridden because by definition anyone objecting to this was evil.
  
  Cupertino delenda est.
  
  Google is no better, except that - well, we'll get to that in a moment.
  
  
  
• The problem with perceptual hashes. (Rent-a-founder)
  
  Perceptual hashes are numbers that are supposed to represent what a picture looks like. They're what Apple plan to use to spy on children. Click through to that link to see what a computer considers a match of perceptual hashes of two images. I won't spoil it for you.
  
  
  

• Tame Apple press regurgitates indefensible press release, gets torn to shreds in the comments. (9to5Mac)
  
  Even Apple fans aren't buying this.
  
  
  
• Tame Apple press says Apple's spying software won't spy on you if you tick the please don't spy on me box. (iMore)
  
  Retards.
  
  
  
• Secure messaging app WhatsApp says Apple is full of shit.
  

  Child sexual abuse material and the abusers who traffic in it are repugnant, and everyone wants to see those abusers caught.

  — Will Cathcart (@wcathcart) August 6, 2021

  
  

  We’ve had personal computers for decades and there has never been a mandate to scan the private content of all desktops, laptops or phones globally for unlawful content. It’s not how technology built in free countries works.

  — Will Cathcart (@wcathcart) August 6, 2021

  
  WhatsApp got bought up by Facebook and has since succumbed to the lure of the sus side of the Force, but he's not wrong here.
  
  
  
• CalyxOS is a de-Googled fork of Android. (CalyxOS)
  
  All the good stuff, none of the bad stuff, which is possible because despite all of Google's flaws (we'd need a bigger blog if we went down that road) Android itself is open-source.
  
  The problem with CalyxOS is that it only supports a handful of devices, mostly Google Pixels. So you're still stuck with Google. There are other projects with similar goals though.
  
  
  
• Intel will be spending up to $120 billion to build a new chip fabrication site. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The site would host six to eight factories to be constructed over ten years.
  
  The company is also spending $20 billion to expand capacity on its Arizona site.
  
  
  
• If you look at an existing Ryzen CPU under a microscope, you can see the connectors AMD will be using to add the extra 64MB of stacked cache. (LinkedIn)
  
  About 23,000 of them. They've been in place on all Ryzen 5000 chips all along.
  
  
  
• The International Wushu Federation, based in Switzerland, is demanding an Australian court force US-based Google to hand over details of a Turkish channel reposting their content and saying mean things about them. (TorrentFreak)
  
  Mostly saying mean things about them.
  
  Can you say venue shopping, boys and girls?
  
  
  
• Gigabyte got hit by a ransomware attack. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  The company said they had restored from backup, but their websites seem to be down right now. Not great if you need a driver update.
  
  
  
• Intel's high-end next-gen NUCs will have discrete Intel DG2 graphics with up to 16GB of VRAM. (WCCFTech)
  
  Not clear why, exactly. The DG2 is not a small chip and should provide decent mid-range gaming performance. But it means these NUCs could draw 300W, as much as my entire desktop system including 4K monitor.
  
  
  
• A battle is raging between two bipartisan groups of idiots over whether the Senate infrastructure bill will be passed as is and destroy blockchain activity in the US or be amended and still destroy blockchain activity in the US only take a few more months to do so. (CNBC)
  
  The bill as written would regulate and tax pretty much anyone and anything related to the blockchain. The proposed amendment would relax these rules but only on proof-of-work blockchains - that is, the ones that have made graphics cards vanish from the shelves and use more electricity than most countries.

posted by Pixy Misa at 02:28 AM

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