Daily Tech News 9 April 2023

• So Substack announced it was launching a Twitter killer, and Twitter got snippy with Substack, and Elon Musk tried the good old modified limited hangout, and got community noted. (The Verge)
  
  
  
  I don't know if he ordered this or even knew about it, since it's the sort of thing Twitter did before he took over, and he's busy electrocuting the world and invading the Moon, but Twitter did block the retweeting of Substack links, at least temporarily.
  
  They're a private company, they can do what they want, yes, but if you want to restore trust this ain't the way.
  
  
  
  

• AI can crack most common passwords in less than a minute, but so can a potato. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  If you use a common password and the attacker has your encrypted password from a data leak and a list of common passwords and a cheap video card, they can crack it in less than a minute with or without AI.
  
  
  
• The 32 core Loongson 3D5000 is, optimistically, nearly one sixth the speed of AMD's current server CPUs. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Could be worse. Could be Russian.
  
  
  
• The Acer Predator X32 is a 32" 4k 160Hz HDR1000 monitor that covers 120% of DCI-P3. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Which used to be a lot.
  
  I've thought of DCI-P3 as an upper bound for the colour range of computer monitors, but it's really not; it's just the colour gamut chosen for digital movie projection. 120% of DCI-P3 is possible just as 95% DCI-P3 monitors are around 120% of SRGB.
  
  I wonder what it looks like. I'm not inclined to pay $1200 to find out, so I'll assume it's similar to an OLED display, something I do have.
  
  
  
• Want a 128 core Arm-based workstation? Yes? Why? (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Anyway, $5658 with 128GB of RAM.
  
  
  
• GraphQL is bad if you don't need it but implement it anyway using unsuitable tools. (Better Programming)
  
  That entire website appears to be trash articles written by idiots.
  
  
  
• Something I didn't realise about the Western Digital hack and subsequent cloud services outage: It locked customers out of their own NASes. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Cloud-managed NASes are trash. Don't. Just... Don't.
  
  
  
• So it seems is Apple's Find My iPhone service, which has been directing people to the door of a family in Richmond, Texas, for years. (ABC13)
  
  Apple is aware of the problem.
  
  
  
• That Chinese spy balloon was spying for China. (NBC News)
  
  Successfully.
  
  And the Biden Administration declined to shoot it down over Montana for fear of it bonking a bison.
  
  
  
• The DOJ has opened an investigation into a series of leaks of classified defense documents. (Washington Post / MSN)
  
  The balloon did it.
  
  Or possibly a bison.
  
  
  
• More on ChatGPT's little libel spree. (MSN)
  
  A decade ago, Brian Hood blew the whistle on corruption and bribery involving Australia's Reserve Bank. Not quite as juicy as it sounds, but still illegal, the bribes were kickbacks to secure contracts for printing polymer (plastic) banknotes, since Australia was one of the first countries to produce plastic banknotes that didn't suck.
  
  Anyway, ChatGPT reported that rather than being a whistleblower, Hood was directly involved in paying the bribes, and was charged with conspiracy to bribe foreign officials, pled guilty, and was sent to prison for two years.
  
  ChatGPT was very specific about all this, only... None of it happened.
  
  So he's suing, and OpenAI - the company behind ChatGPT - isn't speaking to anyone.
  
  Which is the only smart thing they've done.

posted by Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM

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