Daily Tech News 20 September 2022

• I managed to snag an Xbox Series X. The local electronics store - local to my old place in Sydney, that is - had it in stock a week after I handed in the keys, but only for in-store purchases. But the "notify me" button on the Microsoft store had changed to a "buy now" button when I checked today. The buy now button didn't work, but when I logged in and went back through the Xbox page I was able to add it to my cart and check out.
  
  Since I am now moderately far from the madding crowd, I should have it in two weeks.
  
  
  
• I also managed to snag the cord for my new electric mower, something I somehow avoided for 15 years with the previous one. So into town I went for some pliers and electrical tape. I have pliers and electrical tape... Somewhere. Easier to go into town.
  
  
  
• I've been hearing what sounded like ducks out the back of the house the past couple of weeks, but never caught sight of anything duck-like. Until today, walking back from the shops (which is quite a hike - there's a 400 foot elevation difference) I came across a herd of wild ducks crossing the street a couple of blocks from my house.
  
  So, yes. Ducks.
  
  
  
• Australian mining company Fortescue Metals Group plans to spend $6 billion on "Net Zero" investments by 2030 - including hydrogen. (Financial Times)
  
  Hydrogen is useless as a mainstream fuel. The energy density is terrible and it leaks through everything. Anyone pushing it as a fuel is trying to sell you something.

• Ethics schmethics: With sanctions set to be enforced preventing Nvidia selling high-end hardware to China the company has placed a rush order with TSMC to sell everything they can before the sanctions kick in. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  China is littered with mid-range GPUs from shuttered mining operations, so surely they could just use those.
  
  
  
• Intel's Arc A770 graphics card is coming to retail. (Tom's Harwdware)
  
  Somewhere. Sometime. Really. Trust me.
  
  
  
• Society is to blame: Nvidia isn't the only cause of EVGA's problems; some of them were self inflicted by trying to do the right thing. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  EVGA was well-regarded for having far better warranty support than other graphics card makers, but that of course costs money. And as the chart in that article shows, graphics card makers don't make money anymore. Nvidia makes money.
  
  
  
• Do not read this article. (Substack)

  Whatever it is I'm doing here, you should not be part of it. Do not click the button below this paragraph, do not type in your email address to receive new posts straight to your inbox, and for the love of God, if you have any self-respect, do not even think about giving me any money. There is still time for you to do something else. You can still unchain yourself from this world that will soon, very soon, mean absolutely nothing.

  Stop fetishising psychosis, as a friend of mine likes to say.
  
  
  
• Adobe's $20 billion acquisition of design collaboration startup Figma is likely illegal under antitrust law, experts say. (Axios)
  
  Does "experts say" plus Axios count as a double negative, or just as emphasis?
  
  
  
• Earth has 20 quadrillion ants. (Washington Post)
  
  They counted. Had to kill them all first 'cause the little buggers wouldn't keep still.
  
  
  
• But first they put a billion or so in each iPhone 14 Pro Max camera module.
  
  

  So uh, we’re having some issues with the 14 Pro Max camera pic.twitter.com/7HH1wLFjdF

  — Luke Miani (@LukeMiani) September 16, 2022

  
  
  That's not good. Probably more expensive to repair than a cut power cord too.

posted by Pixy Misa at 05:38 AM

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