Daily Tech News 12 September 2021

• Quick question not relating to computers: What's a reasonable minimum rating of pressure washer for cleaning a modest-sized back deck and front steps? Is 125 Bar going to do a reasonable job or just be a waste of money?
  
  
  
• How to install Windows 11 without an internet connection. (Hot Hardware)
  
  Microsoft really wants to lock your Windows login to an online account. Because fuck you, that's why.
  
  I just got a brand new Windows 10 laptop and didn't have to bother with that, but they seem to be ramping up their efforts with Win 11.
  
  
  

• Epic is appealing the Apple ruling. (Thurrott.com)
  
  There's a lot of argument over what the ruling actually ruled. Many of the claims are patently false - e.g. those claiming that the judge made a positive ruling that Apple was not guilty of anticompetitive behaviour, rather than there just being insufficient evidence presented. The ruling said

  these factors alone do not show antitrust conduct

  Epic is appealing that, but I'm not sure of the details yet since there aren't any details yet.
  
  
  
• If accusing people of copyright infringement doesn't get a site taken down just accuse them of hosting CSAM. (TorrentFreak)
  
  Boom, they're deindexed. And most important, it doesn't matter that it's not true.
  
  
  
• A pro-China misinformation campaign is attempting to exploit political division in the US. (CNN)
  
  Yes, we call that CNN.
  
  
  
• China has banned new video games. (Reuters)

  This story was corrected to say China "slows down" approvals, not "suspended", in headline and paragraph 1 and 2 after SCMP clarifies. Also, corrects paragraph 2 to say China's strategy emerged after a meeting and not at the meeting.

  As I said, China has banned new video games.
  
  
  
• China tells Tencent and Netease to focus less on profit. (CNN)
  
  Reminder: However bad things are where you live, you don't have a monopoly on power-crazed idiot assholes. They're everywhere, ruining everything for everyone.
  
  
  
• The average quality of the information in a social network is inversely proportional to the square of the size of the network. (Meta.Ath0)
  
  And that's being optimistic, excluding deliberate fraud and bias on the part of the network.
  
  Details from Scientific American. They're not what they once were, if they ever was, but at least the authors of this article are aware of the dangers of trying to combat this.

  But who decides what is fake or manipulative and what is not? Information can come with warning labels such as the ones Facebook and Twitter have started providing, but can the people who apply those labels be trusted? The risk that such measures could deliberately or inadvertently suppress free speech, which is vital for robust democracies, is real. The dominance of social media platforms with global reach and close ties with governments further complicates the possibilities.

  
  
  
• AMD expects to grow next year. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  They're likely correct. They'll still be supply-constrained through the end of 2022, but less so than right now as new factories and new processes continue to come. They're switching to 6nm for Rembrandt - which has just started production and will ship in a few months - and 5nm for, um, I think it's Raphael, late next year.
  
  In the meantime they're focusing on profits. Since they sell out of everything they can make, they want to focus on the most expensive parts. The chiplets in a Ryzen 5600X and a Threadripper Pro 5995WX are identical, but the profit margin on the Threadripper is far higher.
  
  
  
• The best budget 4K resin-based 3D printer money can't buy, maybe. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The Elegoo Mars 3 has a resolution of 4098x2560 and can't be yours for just $300. I know Elegoo mostly from their electronics hobby kits which are also perpetually out of stock.

posted by Pixy Misa at 02:51 AM

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