Daily Tech News 11 May 2024

• Earth is facing a Category G4 geomagnetic storm. (The Verge)
  
  That's just one rating lower than the Carrington Event which was so energetic it knocked out telegraph lines across Europe and North America - except for some that heeded the warning and disconnected power in advance, which were able to keep operating even without any electricity.
  
  What you can expect: Pretty lights in the night sky. (Axios)
  
  Fiber optics are completely immune to this, satellites are shielded, and it's not strong enough to affect the power grid.
  
  
  

• OpenAI - creator of virtual encyclopedia salesman OpenAI - is not planning to launch it's own search engine next week. (The Verge)
  
  Some positive news for once.
  
  
  
• Just a year after Australian superannuation fund UniSuper migrated all its systems to Google Cloud, Google accidentally deleted them. (The Guardian)
  
  "Oops", said Google.
  
  The company had everything replicated to two geographically separated datacenters, and was safe from everything up to and including a direct meteorite impact... So Google just deleted both copies.
  
  Not being complete idiots, they also had a full backup outside of Google and were able to restore from that.
  
  
  
• The beatings will continue whether morale improves or not: The game Ghost of Tushima has been delisted from Steam in 178 countries and dependencies. (WCCFTech)
  
  That's one more than lost access to Helldivers 2 when Sony demanded users sign up for a PlayStation Network account.
  
  The reason is the same this time, but somehow they also made the game unavailable in Japan.
  
  
  
• In a move evidently designed to make Sony feel better about themselves Electronic Arts is planning to put ads in AAA games. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The company promises to be "very thoughtful" about shitting up the product you paid for.
  
  
  
• A Dell API used by its business partners was hacked and customer details including names and delivery addresses were leaked for 49 million people. (Bleeping Computer)
  
  Ha. I don't live there anymore.
  
  
  
• Intel's 14900KS. 6.2GHz. 400 watts. (AnandTech)
  
  And often slower than the Ryzen 7900, which is 40% cheaper and uses 80% less power.
  
  
  
• Speaking of AMD, the Ryzen 7940HS-powered Minisforum UM790 is on sale at a really good price right now. (Notebook Check)
  
  Not in Australia, but - no, wait, there it is. Damn, that is a good price.
  
  
  

posted by Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM

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