Daily Tech News 4 July 2024

• If you were using the Linux distribution NixOS it's time to abandon ship, right now, before communist weirdos take you with them to the bottom of the ocean. (Lunduke)
  
  Some people have criticised that article for being unbalanced so here's a longer, more detailed, and more balanced account that makes things look even worse for the malefactors. (Chris' Blog)
  
  Long story short:
  
  1. Trans activists demanded a board seat on the NixOS foundation reserved for a "sexual minority".
  2. The project founder suggested that your sexual proclivities were irrelevant to running a Linux distribution.
  3. The same activists declared a purge of "Nazis".
  4. The project founder said, have fun with that, I'm out of here.
  5. Other key contributors swiftly followed suit.
  6. The activists don't know how to do, quite literally, anything.
  
  A story as old as time, or Karl Marx, whichever comes first.
  
  
  

• Hackers have stolen 33 million phone numbers of users of the authentication app Authy from parent company Twilio. (Tech Crunch)
  
  They're just phone numbers, right? What's one more scammer in the infinite swamp?
  
  Authy uses your phone number as your login. And millions of people use it as a more secure secondary authentication method than SMS.
  
  Now, not so much.
  
  
  
• Kioxia (nee Toshiba) has new 2Tb QLC flash chips that could make 16TB M.2 SSDs a reality. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Comparing the huge price gap between existing 4TB and 8TB models that seems unlikely though.
  
  
  
• MicroTik has announced a new POE switch. (Serve the Home)
  
  Okay, sure.
  
  
  
• OVHcloud is blaming a 2.5Tbps DDOS attack on a MikroTik botnet. (Bleeping Computer)

  OVHcloud says many of the high packet rate attacks it recorded, including the record-breaking attack from April, originate from compromised MirkoTik Cloud Core Router (CCR) devices designed for high-performance networking.The firm identified, specifically, compromised models CCR1036-8G-2S+ and CCR1072-1G-8S+, which are used as small-to medium-sized network cores.

  Those are higher-end devices than the one above - routers rather than switches - but MikroTik does not have a great track record on security.
  
  
  
• To be fair, does anybody?
  
  
  
• Well, looks like Roll20 rolled a 20 on its perception check. (Tech Crunch)

  Roll20 said that on June 29 it had detected that a "bad actor" gained access to an account on the company's administrative website for one hour, after which the company "blocked all unauthorized access and ended the network breach."

  Catching the bad guys before they get into your system is even better, but one hour is better than a whole long list of much larger and better funded organisations.
  
  
  
• The FDA plans to ban an additive commonly used in food and soda. (Axios)
  
  What, again? Can't you leave people alone?
  
  The additive is brominated vegetable oils.
  
  In front of my Dr Oopsie?!
  
  
  
• Tech layoffs are a thing of the past. (GeekWire)
  
  This time Microsoft firing another thousand people. The pace has certainly slowed down though.
  
  
  
• The 2024 LG Gram Superslim is an $800 15.6" laptop that weighs 2.2 pounds. (Liliputing)
  
  It comes with a 512GB SSD and a second M.2 slot for easy upgrades.
  
  On the other hand, the OLED screen is only 1080p and the memory is 16GB, soldered.
  
  It's almost an amazing device but they just couldn't go the extra millimeter.
  
  I'm pretty happy with my Asus laptop so far. It weighs significantly more than 2.2 lbs, but it has a 2880x1620 screen and 40GB of RAM.
  
  
  
• If you bought an Amazon Astro robot, it looks like you bought an expensive brick. (The Verge)
  
  Amazon is giving full refunds plus a $300 credit.
  
  
  

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— Merryweather Media (@Merryweatherey) October 20, 2023

posted by Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM

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