Daily Tech News 14 December 2021

• News continues to be quiet, which reminds me of what I did this time last year.
  
  And I'll do it again if you're not careful.
  
  Only one of the videos in the December 31 post is dead, and I know which it is, and I think there's an alternate source.
  
  
  
• Open source is not broken. (Nadh.in)
  
  The argument is not wrong in itself but it doesn't really address the claim. The author is trying to say that just because the cause of open source software's breakage is outside of open source that open source is not broken, but that's nonsense.
  
  It's important to identify the cause, but it's just as important to recognise the wreckage.
  
  (This is in response to an earlier article in response to the Log4j debacle.)

• AMD Navi 12 crypto mining cards are on sale in China. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  
  
• Where crypto miners face prosecution, and likely persecution, by the country's consistently dictatorial and increasingly Marxist government. (Coindesk)
  
  This makes sense.
  
  
  
• Progressive utopias are invariably miserable shitholes. (The Atlantic)
  
  Nothing new here except the source.
  
  
  
• There is no HDMI 2.0, only HDMI 2.1. (WCCFTech)
  
  They've done the same stupid thing as USB, where 3.0 got relabeled 3.1 Gen 1, then 3.2 Gen 1. USB4 at least mandates the USB-C connector and 20Gb data transfers; it's backwards compatible but all USB4 devices must support at least 20Gbps.
  
  HDMI 2.1 supports variable refresh rates and HDMI 2.0 does not, but now that there is no HDMI 2.0 you have to stop and read the product manual - if you can even find one - to figure out if it's supported on any given display.
  
  This is known as progress.
  
  
  
• Attackers can get root access to Ubuntu desktop systems by crashing the login screen. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  This is not good.
  
  Do not - ever - install the Linux desktop on a public server.
  
  
  
• Google has patched Chrome. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  There's a thing. They're not saying anything about the thing so you can assume that it's really bad.
  
  The update also patches 15 other things that have been discussed. And are also bad.
  
  
  
• If your employer uses Kronos for payroll - and organisations including Tesla and and the San Francisco MTA do so - you might be in for a bad Christmas. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  The servers at Kronos got breached and hit with ransomware. Kronos is advising customers to

  evaluate and implement alternative business continuity protocols related to the affected UKG solutions.

  Which is a rather sesquipedalian way of saying that you're basically rooted.
  
  
  
• Speaking of rooted, Bluetooth. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Millions of devices have potentially insecure WiFi because the WiFi chip also implements Bluetooth.

  Bleeping Computer has reached out to all vendors and asked for a comment on the above, and we will update this post as soon as we hear back.

  In the meantime, and for as long as these hardware-related issues remain unpatched, users are advised to follow these simple protection measures:
  
  1. Encase your digital devices in concrete, dump the concrete in the ocean, and consider moving to another planet entirely.

  Evergreen advice.

posted by Pixy Misa at 03:18 AM

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