Daily Tech News 2 December 2021

• Qualcomm has announced the 8cx Gen 3, its new Arm-based chip for PCs. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Unlike the 8cx Gen 2, this actually seems to be a new chip - the Gen 2 was exactly the same silicon as the Gen 1, and both were, to put it mildly, bad.
  
  The Gen 3 is supposedly 85% faster and built on a 5nm process, which is interesting because that means it's not the same device as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 announced yesterday. In fact, it is most likely last year's Snapdragon 888, which - if true - would further cement the fact that Qualcomm just doesn't give a shit about the PC market. PCs need more power, not less, and last year's chips just don't cut it.
  
  The 888 and also the newer 8 Gen 1 are also limited to 16GB of RAM, which also doesn't cut it. That's enough for many users, but it's not enough when it's the maximum your chip can support.
  
  This being a Qualcomm announcement, there is no specific information about anything. There never is.
  
  
  

• This shouldn't have happened. (Project Zero)
  
  Mozilla's NSS library had a 2k buffer for digital signatures. What happened if you gave it more than that?
  
  If you think the answer is memory corruption and a security nightmare, you win a kewpie doll. (Horrible things, kewpie dolls.)
  
  The bug was there for 9 years before being discovered, despite extensive testing.
  
  Stop writing code in a language best described as a portable PDP-8 assembler and start using something modern, well-designed, and with a solid team behind it like...
  
  Okay, yeah, point taken. Keep using C, but treat any fixed-length buffers as radioactive waste.
  
  
  
• Nvidia has confirmed the RTX 2060 will be available soon. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Yes, the 2060 launched more than three years ago. It will also be available soon.
  
  
  
• Intel's entry-level Alder Lake i3-12100 is faster than AMD's 2019 entry-level Ryzen 3300X. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  I mean, it would be kind of embarrassing if it weren't.
  
  
  
• Making websites small. (Santurce Software)
  
  Not every image needs to be 2 megapixels.
  
  And not all text needs to be font-weight: 500.
  
  Why is it that sites espousing a faster, lighter web are so often themselves fucking awful?
  
  
  
• The hack is coming from inside the house. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Networking company Ubiquiti was the target of a hacking and extortion attempt earlier this year, with the hacker leaking damaging information to the media in an attempt to get the company to pay up.
  
  It was one of their own staff.
  
  Not only did he allegedly hack the company, steal confidential data, and attempt to extort them out of $2 million, the FBI claims he doubled down on this activity after they raided his home and seized evidence of his crimes thus far.
  
  Ten out of ten for determination but minus several million for good thinking.
  
  Of course, this is the FBI, so there's at least an even-money chance they did it all themselves.
  
  
  
• Square is now Block. (BusinessWire)
  
  Jack Dorsey's other company, which owns Cash App, TIDAL, and TBD54566975, has a new name.
  
  That's it. That's the story.
  
  
  
• Qualcomm and Razer are partnering in a new Android-based handheld gaming device. (Hot Hardware)
  
  The device is based on the all new Snapdragon G3x Gen 1, which, this being a Qualcomm announcement, we know absolutely nothing about.
  
  
  

posted by Pixy Misa at 03:29 AM

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