Daily Tech News 17 September 2021

• Australia is acquiring a fleet of nuclear submarines specifically to counter the growing threat of China. (ABC - ours, not yours)
  
  This makes so much sense that I'm shocked it was even considered.
  
  The usual suspects are apoplectic:
  
  

  This dangerous nuclear submarines move puts floating Chernobyls in the heart of Australia's cities.
  
  It makes Australia less safe, increases the risk of conflict in our region & puts us in the firing line.
  
  Greens will fight this tooth and nail.

  — Adam Bandt (@AdamBandt) September 15, 2021

  
  
  Just gravy on the cake really.
  
  
  
• Meanwhile China's property market - the scam that supports the rest of the economy - is busily imploding. (CNBC)
  
  Sometimes literally.
  
  

• Slot machine chain Dotty's suffered a data breach. (ZDNet)
  
  Among the customer data leaked is (deep breath) social security numbers, drivers license and state ID numbers, passport details, financial account information, health insurance, treatment information, biometric data, MEDICAL RECORDS, tax details, and credit card numbers and expiry dates.
  
  IT'S A FUCKING SLOT MACHINE. YOU PUT YOUR MONEY IN, IT SPINS AND BEEPS, AND YOU LOSE YOUR MONEY. WHY THE FUCK DO THEY HAVE YOUR MEDICAL RECORDS?
  
  
  
• Ahem.
  
  
  
• USB SSDs are almost here. (AnandTech)
  
  Yes, you can already get SSDs with a USB interface, but they are internally either SATA or NVMe drives with an adaptor. These new controllers connect the flash storage directly to a USB-C port.
  
  I've been saying for a few years now that it's time for USB to replace SATA. USB 3.2 is four times as fast as SATA, and USB 4 is twice that again. It provides power and data over a single convenient cable, it works the same for internal and external drives, and it supports hubs to easily expand your ports.
  
  
  
• The Solana blockchain crashed. (Bloomberg)
  
  This is not something that blockchains are supposed to do, but it did.
  
  On the other hand:
  
  

  1/ Solana Mainnet Beta encountered a large increase in transaction load which peaked at 400,000 TPS. These transactions flooded the transaction processing queue, and lack of prioritization of network-critical messaging caused the network to start forking.

  — Solana Status (@SolanaStatus) September 14, 2021

  
  
  400,000 TPS is a lot. Ethereum does 14. Not 14,000, 14.
  
  
  
• I think I mentioned a partial leak of this before but pricing and specs are out for AMD's full Milan-X lineup. (WCCFTech)
  
  These are the same CPU cores but with extra memory stacked on top of them so that they have between 3 and 6 times as much cache. All models of Milan-X have 8 CPU chiplets, where low-end Milan-non-X have only four, so while there are low-end Milan-X models they are far more expensive than their non-X counterparts.
  
  At the high end the difference is only around 10%, which is promising for the desktop versions expected shortly.
  
  
  
• The entire network of South Africa's Department of Justice got encrypted by a ransomware attack. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  How? How can a network of that size be so homogenous that a single attack can encrypt it all? From what I've seen of government systems, 80% of the data would survive because the servers were too old to run the virus code.
  
  
  
• Microsoft Office 2021 is out - sort of, if you're not a big corporate customer it's another couple of weeks. But if you prefer to buy it outright rather than pay a subscription you'll... Oh. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  If you prefer to buy it outright you'll find Microsoft happy to take your money, it turns out.
  
  I do want Visio Pro.
  
  

posted by Pixy Misa at 05:04 AM

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