Daily Tech News 11 October 2021

• DiGi, the industry association formed by all the big tech companies we love to hate and something called Redbubble to manage the new and stupid proposed Australian rules on misinformation before our stupid government turns them into stupid laws has created a new subcommittee to police the voluntary code for policing misinformation. (ZDNet)
  
  Which is a good way to guarantee that nothing ever gets done.
  
  Meanwhile Australian Communications and Media Authority Oberstleutnant Nerida O'Loughlin said she was still concerned about the voluntary and opt-in nature of the code. "Everything mandatory is forbidden. Everything forbidden is mandatory."
  
  
  

• Public hearings* in a major corruption investigation of the Victoria state government are under way. It turns out that people who will pepper-spray children, violently assault the elderly, send in air support over the report of two people in hi-vis jackets in a local park, and kick down doors over a Facebook post might have other nasty habits.
  
  

  'Luke Donnellan has resigned from the Victorian cabinet following allegations during anti-corruption hearings. Mr Donnellan has stood down from his portfolio of aged care and disability but will remain on the backbench.'https://t.co/Lg9jgqtTrS

  — Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) October 11, 2021

  
  

  I think I need a flow chart…

  — James Newburrie (@DifficultNerd) October 11, 2021

  
  
  If you know of the old-school Democratic vote-buying schemes, that's pretty much what's going on here. And there's a lot of it, and it's been going on a long time.
  
  * As you might imagine, given these are the same mob who banned aerial footage of the recent anti-lockdown protests, the moment something juicy threatened to bubble up in the public hearings, the live feed cut out. Testimony entangled not only the entire government but most of the political party, but when the investigators pressed for names, the public suddenly got static.
  

  The question immediately before the feed was cut was "Do you know of any other MPs family members who were given jobs as electoral officers [under this scheme]?"

  — James Newburrie (@DifficultNerd) October 11, 2021

  
  
  
  
  
• The major change coming with Intel's 12th generation Alder Lake - that's right, isn't it? Yes, Alder Lake parts, is that they have low-power Atom cores in addition to the high performance Core cores. (Don't look at me, that's what Intel calls them.)
  
  Since AMD already has desktop chips with 16 fast cores and Intel will have at most 8 fast and 8 slow cores, a lot is riding on how fast the slow cores are.
  
  Signs are they'll be at least respectable. (Serve the Home)
  
  I checked and there hasn't been an architecture update to Atom since Gemini Lake was announced in 2017. Those chips, which commonly lurk inside budget laptops, are, well, not terrible. That's in contrast to early Atom chips that were terrible.
  
  There are a lot of updates to the design of the new cores, which could potentially lift performance from not terrible to adequate.
  
  I suspect the low-end parts with just two fast cores will prove to be a costly mistake, though.
  
  
  
• NEC is building a half-petabit transatlantic fiber link - for Facebook. (ZDNet)
  
  Whatever you are doing that needs half a petabit of bandwidth, please do less of that.
  
  
  
• Can Bitcoin save an aging, broke, and scandal-ridden nuclear power station? (Gizmodo)
  
  Probably not. But they're sure gonna try.
  
  
  
• HP leaked some details of its upcoming all-in-one desktop systems including 12th generation Intel and Ryzen 7000 CPUs. (WCCFTech)
  
  AMD's Ryzen 7000 range will make great chips for all-in-one desktops with their updated RDNA 2 graphics. The other specs on these all-in-ones say that they come with 1080p screens, which is pretty sad compared to any iMac from recent years.
  
  
  
• The new PCIe 5 power connector - the cable, not the slot - can deliver up to 600W. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  I believe the slot itself remains at 75W. The new high-power cable is designed to replace the current trend of multiple six and eight-pin cables with one new 16-pin cable.
  
  
  

posted by Pixy Misa at 04:27 AM

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