Daily Tech News 26 November 2021

• Kremlin names the internet giants it will kidnap the Russian staff of if they don't play ball in future. (The Register)
  
  Yes, I linked to this yesterday; the difference this time is that's not my wry observation on a straight news article. That's the actual headline.
  
  Nice to see that someone else out there is awake.
  
  
  

• Most of the other tech news is about Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals which is annoying because (a) a lot of the deals suck and (b) my credit card got drained by work expenses this month and I don't get reimbursed until Tuesday.
  
  Fortunately the deals I really want to grab run until Thursday, so I will be picking up some new goodies next week.
  
  
  
• Testing faster, lower-latency DDR5 RAM. (WCCFTech)
  
  Lower latency in this case means 36 cycles instead of the typical 40, but it's 36 cycles at 6000MHz rather than 40 at 4800MHz, so you do win on both counts.
  
  The results are, well...
  
  For some tasks, such as file compression, it can be 50% faster than DDR5-4800, and 60% faster than even high-speed, low-latency DDR4-4400 CL16 modules.
  
  For gaming, the biggest differential between the slowest and fastest RAM tested on any game was a little under 3%.
  
  Also there's the slight problem that you can't get DDR5 memory anywhere.
  
  
  
• PHP 8.1 is out. (PHP)
  
  Why? Have we not suffered enough?
  
  
  
• New Linux malware hides itself in crontabs by setting its execution date to February 31. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Which also means it's doomed to remain a pirate forever.
  
  
  
• Britain has introduced - but not yet passed - legislation to ban default passwords on electronic devices. (BBC)
  
  Good.
  
  
  
• Australia's minister of defense has won a defamation suit against a Twitter bluecheck who called him a "rape apologist". (New York Times)
  
  The article lists a number of number of other cases, several of which seem to be not only clearly what sane people would consider protected speech, but objectively true.
  
  The self-same misbegotten bucket of hyena offal wants public legal funds for politicians to sue their detractors. (Herald Sun)
  
  I think we're gonna need a bigger volcano.
  
  
  
• Walmart pulls children's toy that swears and sings in Polish about doing cocaine. (CTVNews)
  
  What the hell? Mark it up to triple price and you still won't be able to keep it on the shelves.

  "It's about taking five grams of cocaine and being alone... It's a very depressing song," Tanner said.

  A case of Val-u-rite and a stripper who has two vowels where you would normally find only one and you have the makings of a great holiday weekend.
  
  
  

• Hololive just announced holoX, which is their sixth generation of Japanese talents. Where Prism went all Fractured Fairy Tales with their latest generation, holoX is pretty much Gatchaman in Vtuber form.
  
  The usual process is they announce an audition, and then you don't hear anything for five months, then there's a couple of teaser trailers before they announce the new talents and their debut schedule.
  
  This time they just went straight to Z; the announcement was four hours ago and the first debut stream is four hours from now.
  
  
  
  Meanwhile all the other generations are playing Pokemon. They just got surprise blanket permission to stream - apparently - every Pokemon game ever, and they're not looking a gift Ponyta in the mouth.
  
  And yeah, I am thankful for Hololive. They - and Nijisanji, and Prism, and Kson, and Vyolfers' little group - have been all that's kept me sane the past year or so.

posted by Pixy Misa at 03:22 AM

| Access Comments