WMGroomAK

So in an article posted on Motherboard (I originally read it on HardOCP) it turns out that turning off the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth from the new iOS 11 Control Center does not actually turn off the antenna but just disconnects any connections the device has. Apple is implementing this as a feature so that the phone can continue to use AirDrop, AirPlay, Location Services and any other Apple paired device (Pencil/Watch). If you want to turn off the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, you have to do this through the Settings Menu and not the Control Center. My first thought on this is that on my Android device, I'm typically toggling on and off my Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to save on battery when I'm not using it as I find the constant antenna use can drain battery faster. As the article points out though, the other issue is the security aspect in potentially having phone owners thinking their device is secure in not having a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection available when there still is a signal being transmitted and received. https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/evpz7a/turn-off-wi-fi-and-bluetooth-apple-ios-11

Yeah, I had posted this Ars Tech article earlier that covered the Nike Jersey issue... Hadn't heard that the MicroTransaction issue was going to be quite this bad yet though, but not really overly surprised. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/09/nba-nike-team-up-for-smart-fan-jerseys-that-know-you-and-where-you-go/

Don't forget that you can also spend about $200 to get a Nike Jersey that you can scan for in-game boosts if spending money on virtual currency isn't enough for you. Cause you know that spending money is the most fun you can have now, right?

Considering that a lot of kids will probably either be getting these or having their parents get them, it makes me think of the recent debacle that Disney has in the US with the apps that is collecting information on minors... Also, you can only assume that if this is successful for Nike & Take Two in any way that it will eventually make it's way on to the next iteration or as an update to something like FIFA or Madden NFL games.

Well, I honestly think the whole integrated products and mobile age has blasted into a whole new level of creepiness with a new integration from Nike on their NBA Jerseys. According to an Ars Tech article, NBA player replica jerseys being launched on September 29th will have a tag that you can scan using the Nike Connect app in order to provide highlights, stats, player information and all the NBA marketing you could wish for. It will also supposedly let Nike know where you live and where/when the jersey is scanned. In a bid to sell more jerseys to videogamers, they have also decided to work with Take-Two Interactive to provide a 'boost code' in NBA2K18 which provides an in-game boost the to player character associated with the jersey. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/09/nba-nike-team-up-for-smart-fan-jerseys-that-know-you-and-where-you-go/

It would appear that the issue is that they are trying to sell the keyboards with HALO switches through Kickstarter as opposed to being a Massdrop.

So, it's a little bit grey as to who has control over the use and sale of the HALO keyswitches based on an article on Tom's Hardware, where basically the Input Club is in a dispute with Massdrop on being able to use the Halo switches on their latest keyboards being offered on Kickstarter. http://www.tomshardware.com/news/massdrop-input-club-halo-switches,35468.html This morning, September 15, Massdrop posted an official response, which reads in part: Basically, Massdrop is saying that Input Club can only sell key switches outside of Massdrop as replacement parts, standalone switches or from the Input Club's website. What makes this interesting is that I would presume that the Input Club would eventually make any Kickstarter boards available through their website and therefore be meeting the sale from Input Club site... Sounds like both sides could have an argument on this and maybe they just need a mediator.

The Zeppelin die is basically a System on Chip layout with two CCXes for the Zen micro-architecture and each Ryzen processor consists of a single die, while Threadripper has two active dies and two dead/deactive dies and Epyc has four active dies.

Just looking at the numbers, considering that the Zen die yields are over 80% and that Threadripper supposedly is binned from the top 5% of the yield, the other dies on the set are probably from the failed 20% in production... AMD recycling program.

Here's a bloomberg article linked from the HardOCP forum article on this... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-14/bitcoin-tumbles-as-chinese-exchange-says-it-will-halt-trading https://www.hardocp.com/news/2017/09/14/bitcoin_crashes_after_chinese_exchange_says_will_halt_trading

I thought the video was kind of fun to watch so figured I would pass it on... It is good to know that they are not afraid of having failure and using it as a tool for progression... It's also good to know that they can realize their failures and make a good time out of a bad situation. https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/09/spacex-proves-its-not-afraid-to-fail-by-releasing-a-landing-blooper-reel/ Definitely encourage watching the video as it shows the general progression that SpaceX has had from failure to success with their rockets. Also has rocket explosions.

While perusing Bleeping Computers this morning, I saw this article and thought it was interesting and a little bit disconcerting if Zerodium is truly ding this at some governmental request... Essentially, Zerodium has set aside $1,000,000 for a Zero-day bounty program for being able to find security exploits in the Tor Browser to provide Remote Code Execution & Local Privilege Escalation on Linux Tails 3.X & Windows 10 RS2/3. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/exploit-broker-zerodium-offers-1-million-for-tor-browser-zero-days/ While I have no doubts that many criminals end up using Tor Browser to conduct illicit activities, it is also used in countries that have oppressive governments by people who are trying to raise awareness about things like human rights violations. Zerodium Program page: https://zerodium.com/tor.html

I guess Philips will be releasing their own 32-inch 8K (275 PPI) monitor if that helps... Still not scaled down to 24-inches, but at least is a higher resolution than 4K (184 PPI) so you are getting a higher PPI count... http://www.anandtech.com/show/11806/philips-demos-328p8k-8k-uhd-lcd-coming-in-2018

Now that we are beginning to reliably get content and gaming systems that can play 4K content, Sharp has decided to up the ante and will begin to release 8K consumer TVs for the low-low price of only ~$9000.00 USD. While this is a lot more budget friendly from their first announcement of near 8K displays in 2015 being at $130,000.00 USD, it's still quite a bit of cash... https://www.engadget.com/2017/09/01/sharp-ready-sell-8k-consumer-tvs-now-that-we-all-have-4k/ The planned release is for Japan and China to receive sets in December of 2017 with Taiwan in February of 2018 followed by Europe in March. I can't find anything on what size of displays these will be, but I couldn't imagine that they would be smaller than 65-inch displays... At the same time, this either helps to justify those RED cameras or maybe Linus will need to get even higher resolution cameras. Detailed News release: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sharp-aquos-8k-simultaneously-launched-in-four-regions-worldwide-300512873.html Sharp Press Release: http://www.sharp-world.com/corporate/news/170831.html EDIT: I guess it'll be starting at around 70-inches from Tech Spot https://www.techspot.com/news/70822-sharp-announces-70-inch-8k-tv-thoroughly-outdating.html EDIT 2: To add to all of the 8K craze, Philips will also be releasing a 32-inch 8K monitor in 2018 to compete with Dell's 8K monitor... So i guess everyone's 4K equipment is now out of date so if you want to sell it cheap to me, I'll gladly upgrade some of my 1080 and 2160 stuff... As for specs, this one will be a 31.5" IPS panel sporting a 60Hz refresh, 400 nit brightness, 100% AdobeRGB. Input will be by two Displayport 1.3 cables, but it will also have a USB-A and USB-C connector for a hub and two 3-watt speakers. http://www.anandtech.com/show/11806/philips-demos-328p8k-8k-uhd-lcd-coming-in-2018

Probably dating myself as well, but I remember getting the old Flash Cartoons 'Gerbil in a Microwave' and 'Frog in a Blender' to run on the school computers... Back in the good (bad?) old days when computer IT security was a complete joke.

Maybe it's not the communication lines that they are saying is covered under the 1st Amendment, but their right to say 'F-You' to people by not following through on a permit stipulation...

Well, with the comment period closing for the FCC's net neutrality rules and all of the comments and site activity this has received, there is apparently a fairly significant security hole in their Application Programming Interface that allows anyone to upload any type of file to their site... https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/08/fccs-public-comment-api-lets-you-post-just-about-anything-to-gov-website/ I would like to say that I'm surprised by this, but not really... Probably a lowest bidder contract to put together the comment system... If you do end up browsing any of the FCC comments, I would be cautious of any files that someone has uploaded... Seems like it might make for a fairly efficient attack vector with some of the contentious issues that are going on. Word Document that was uploaded: https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/DOC-578d579d1f000000-A.pdf UPDATE: At least it appears someone fixed this in a nearly timely fashion... Don't like that it even existed in the first place as an obvious security hole. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41124831

I figure if they were to put any OS on a pacemaker it would have to be an Apple OS so they could integrate in Beats by Dre...

FYI... This is operating off of an RF communication that would require the attacker to be within a few inches... Read about it earlier on Bleeping Computers: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/welcome-to-2017-pacemaker-patients-told-to-visit-doctors-to-receive-security-patches/

Thinking on this, a couple of things come to mind considering that the only physical difference between the reference Vega 56 & 64 appear to be the 8 compute cores that are disabled on 56... First I think it's interesting that Vega 56 is appearing to be a BIOS reigned in card so it'll be interesting to see how much tweaking AIB partners can make to their own custom BIOS cards... Second, at least where FireStrike Extreme is concerned, the number of CU units available appears to be a lot less of an issue as the Memory and CU speeds when you consider that this Vega 56 with the 64 BIOS is getting to within 2% of the 64 score while having 12.5% less Compute Units available and appears to be scoring 8% higher than a stock Vega 64 when the 56 is OC-ed on the 64 BIOS. If you could get the Vega 56 at MSRP with dual BIOS settings and an EK waterblock (or some other water cooling solution), the BIOS flash, undervolting and OC-ing might make for an interesting setup...

Yeah, I was thinking it would be drawing at least 1350 to 1500+ Watts at full load so might require a small nuclear generator...

One question that comes to my mind is what kind of PSU are they going to put in this monster if you get it at the highest spec with four RX Vega Cards and the 7980XE? Anyone want to guess what that would be on the power draw from the wall?

So at IFA, Acer has announced there new Predator series of products including the Predator Orion 9000 that when max spec-ed out can include up to 128 GB of RAM, an i9-7980XE and either two GTX 1080 TIs or four RX Vega cards as well as tons of storage options. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/08/acer-predator-orion-9000-x35/ Seems like some serious specs that gamer's really don't need except for as bragging rights. Might make an awesome (and expensive) editing rig though... Of course, I do like the take from HardOCP on the specs being advertised as for gaming... https://www.hardocp.com/news/2017/08/30/dumbest_gaming_rig_ever_built Sooo, who has won the lotto recently and wants to shell out for this behemoth? EDIT: As @NumLock21 points out, some of the other new toys that Acer brought to the show include: Predator X35: 35-inch 21:9 curved monitor with a 3440x1440 resolution, 200Hz refresh, 4ms response, G-Sync, HDR, 1000 nit brightness, DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0. Aspire S24: AIO DEsktop with a 24-inch 1080p display running an 8th Gen i5 or i7 in the base with an QI charger supporting up to 32GB of RAM and 2.5-inch and M.2 SSDs/ Acer Swift 5 laptop: 14-inch 1080p IPS laptop with 8th Gen U-Series processors that measures 0.9 cm thick when closed Xtro360: 360-degree camera Pawbo WagTag: Dog fitness tracker All their miscellaneous gaming peripherals known as Predator Gadgets.

So I guess our virtual assistants will be getting friendlier with each other, at least where Amazon and Microsoft are concerned as they plan to have Alexa be able to talk with Cortana and vice-versa. The basic idea is that each of these assistants have areas where they excel at and you can access one of the assistants through the other one. This is planned to roll out by the end of the year so something to look forward to? https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/08/cortana-and-alexa-are-coming-together-in-surprising-microsoftamazon-partnership/ I do like the idea of these assistants integrating together to make a better integrated home experience although I just hope that Alexa won't get jealous at me if I ask to talk with Cortana instead of her ... (I'm sorry Alexa, you truly are the only one for me. Siri and Cortana mean nothing. Don't place that order as revenge...)

If I remember correctly from the Gamer's Nexus video on OC-ing Vega, one of the big issues with OC-ing is that 56 has an upper limit on the amount of power draw that is lower than 64 and less than what the VRM can handle (my speculation is that the Vega 64 BIOS helps to adjust this limit). What this does is get's you to within a percent or two of Vega 64 performance without manually OC-ing the card. If the graph that is on Videocardz/Hexus is correct (which I think it's a cleaned up version of the one above), then it looks like you can further overclock the Vega 56 to outperform a stock Vega 64 using the Vega 64 driver. http://hexus.net/tech/news/graphics/109544-amd-radeon-rx-vega-64-makes-100-loss-msrp-says-report/