April 28th, 2017 - The WAN Show Document

[Slick]

 

 

 

Main News Topics

Announced: The most badass Acer gaming monitor ever

Source 1: posted by SCGazelle https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/772347-the-acer-predator-x27-has-almost-every-feature-you-might-ever-want-in-a-monitor/

Source 2: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/04/acer-predator-x27-price-specs-release-date/

 

The Predator X27 features a 27-inch 16:9 panel

4K UHD resolution

HDR

One hundred and 44Hz refresh rate.

G-Sync

1,000 nits of brightness

4ms response time

The X27 is based on an AU Optronics M270QAN02.2 AHVA panel with "quantum dot" technology

HDR10

96 % of the DCI-P3 colour gamut

A direct LED backlighting system that contains 384 zones, which allows sections of the display to be shut down entirely for better black levels.

At a minimum, it requires a 10-series Nvidia graphics card with a DisplayPort 1.4 connector.

There's no price or release date for the X27 at this time

 

FCC announces plan to reverse Title II net neutrality

Source 1: http://www.theverge.com/2017/4/26/15437840/fcc-plans-end-title-ii-net-neutrality

Source 2: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/04/net-neutrality-rules-took-away-your-internet-freedom-fcc-chair-claims/

 

The Federal Communications Commission Chairman Anjit Pai has tabled a proposal to undo the 2015 rules that implemented net neutrality with Title II classification.

The net neutrality rules passed in 2015 reclassified internet providers as “common carriers” under Title II of the Telecommunications Act, which subject them to tough, utility-style regulation.

the classification was meant to ensure that internet providers would be subject to careful oversight

The new proposal will do three things:

first, it’ll reclassify internet providers as Title I information services;

second, it’ll prevent the FCC from adapting any net neutrality rules to practices that internet providers haven’t thought up yet;

third, it’ll open questions about what to do with several key net neutrality rules — like no blocking or throttling of apps and websites — that were implemented in 2015.

The proposal will be voted on by the FCC at a meeting on May 18th

JON: shouldn’t the FTC be the ones governing net neutrality instead of the FCC?

 

Amazon (don’t say it!) A-l-e-x-a learns to talk like a human

Source 1: https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/28/alexa-learns-to-talk-like-a-human-with-whispers-pauses-emotion/

Source 2: https://www.cnet.com/news/amazons-alexa-just-learned-to-whisper-and-bleep-your-expletives/

 

Amazon announced this week the addition of a new set of speaking skills for the virtual assistant, which will allow her to do things like whisper, take a breath to pause for emphasis, adjust the rate, pitch and volume of her speech, and more. She’ll even be able to “bleep” out swear words

The new tools were provided to third party app developers, allowing them to control the pronunciation, intonation, timing and emotion of their Skills.

2 Awesome things happened in Vancouver TODAY at TED conference:

1- Elon Musk teases Tesla electric semi truck, up to 4 new Gigafactory locations

Source 1:

Source 2:

 

Elon Musk was on stage at the 2017 TED Conference in Vancouver today where he showed a shadowy image that gives us our first look at what his forthcoming electric Semi Truck will look like

smooth continuous design between the windshield and the upper facade.

headlights that resemble the ones used on existing Tesla cars

Musk also said that there will be likely four new Gigafactory sites announced this year!.

the company said in its most recent earnings report that it plans to finalize locations for up to three new Gigafactory sites this year, in addition to the existing Nevada location,

and the New York plant for solar technology it’s operating in partnership with Panasonic.

2-  UK 'Iron Man' demonstrates flying suit

Source 1: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39441825

Source 2: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/04/28/british-military-interested-iron-man-flying-suit/

 

A British inventor, who built an Iron Man-style flight suit, has flown it at the Ted conference in Vancouver.

The suit works using six miniature jet engines, or thrusters, which are attached to a rigid exoskeleton at the back and arms.

It takes off vertically and can be controlled by moving the arms, while a display inside the helmet gives updates on fuel consumption.

In the demonstration, the inventor flew in a circle for nearly one minute, hovering a short distance from the ground.

 

Police to Scan Soccer Fans' Faces

Source 1: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-27/champions-league-final-police-to-scan-soccer-fans-faces

Source 2: https://www.engadget.com/2017/04/26/british-police-to-scan-faces-at-champions-league-final/

 

Security at this year’s Champions League final will be aided by facial recognition technology.

Cameras around both the stadium and Cardiff's main train station will compare the 170,000 soccer fans’ faces against a police database of 500,000 people of interest.

If there's a match, police will get a heads-up that could help them stop a terrorist or frequent hooligan.

According to South Wales police, this implementation should provide a basis for further use of the technology.

South Wales Police will have to honor the country's usage guidelines, only harvesting as much information as they really need, and being transparent with the data they collect. However, there has already been evidence of police forces (both in the UK and abroad) preserving face recognition data for innocent people.

 

Google becomes first foreign internet company to go live in Cuba

Source 1: https://www.engadget.com/2017/04/26/google-becomes-first-foreign-internet-company-to-go-live-in-cuba/

Source 2: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/04/27/525896190/google-spins-up-its-first-servers-in-cuba

 

Cuba's national telecom ETECSA officially inked a deal with Google back in December, and today, they finally switched on the service

The servers Google switched on today are part of a the Google Global Cache (GGC), a global network that locally stores popular content for quick access

Material stored in-country will load much quicker than Cuba's existing setup: Piping internet in through a submarine cable connected to Venezuela

but they don't provide Internet access where it wasn't before:

As few as 5% of Cubans have access to the open Internet

Home Internet connections are rare, and public access Wi-Fi hotspots costs $1.50 an hour — very expensive for most Cubans.

 

Nintendo Launching New 2DS XL Model

Source 1: posted by GoodBytes

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/772556-nintendo-announces-the-new-new-nintendo-2ds-xl-game-console-not-a-joke/

Source 2: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-launching-new-2ds-xl-model-that-has-same-/1100-6449650/

 

Unlike the 2DS, the New 2DS XL features a clamshell design

The system can play 3DS games, but without the 3D effect. It also plays DS games.

It is lighter than the Nintendo 3DS XL but has the same screen size.

According to Nintendo, it "still packs the same power" of the New Nintendo 3DS XL

Nintendo: "This new addition to Nintendo's portable hardware line demonstrates our commitment to the hand-held market,"

Launches in Australia & New Zealand on June 15, US on July 28.

It will cost $150.USD

 

What’s Coming Out on Floatplane? Go Over Current Week.

Rapid Fire

A 3D printer with Tank Treads?!

Source 1: https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/27/mits-giant-mobile-3d-printer-can-build-a-building-in-14-hours-and-some-day-it-may-be-headed-to-mars/

Source 2: https://www.engadget.com/2017/04/27/mit-s-mobile-3d-printer-built-the-largest-structure-to-date/

 

MIT’s giant mobile 3D printer can build a building in 14 hours, and some day it may be headed to Mars

A nozzle is attached to the end of a pair of robotic arms atop a rover-like vehicle outfitted with tank treads.

With the proper combination of sensors, the system can customize a build based on conditions like light and weather and can utilize its own surroundings as the basis of its structures.

The team refers to the machine as a platform, rather than a 3D printer. The goal is to create a robotic system capable of several different functions working in tandem to create a structure, including digging and milling, in addition to 3D printing.

 

AMD making money from ad revenue when you install its drivers!?

Source 1: posted by zMeul https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/772278-amd-making-money-from-ad-revenue-from-installing-drivers/

Installing the new Radeon Software Crimson ReLive 17.4.4 Drivers will stealth-install a desktop shortcut for the Quake Champions Beta on your machine.

The final URL destination includes a referral ID

 

OMG LOL: Anti-Virus software update nukes customer’s machines

Source 1: https://arstechnica.com/security/2017/04/av-provider-webroot-melts-down-as-update-nukes-hundreds-of-legit-files/

Source 2:

 

Antivirus provider Webroot released a signature update that nuked hundreds of benign files needed to run Microsoft Windows, as well as apps that run on top of the operating system.

customers reported that servers and computers alike stopped working

At one company, the update’s false positives quarantined "several hundred" files used by Windows Insider Preview. Hundreds of "line of business" apps, such as those that track patient appointments or manage office equipment, suffered the same fate. Webroot was also flagging Facebook as a phishing site

Webroot officials said the bad definitions were live for only 13 minutes before being taken down

Officials have yet to confirm they would be able to revert all the bad determinations

 

Russian spy ship sunk by sheep barge

Source 1: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/04/russian-spy-ship-sunk-by-sheep-barge-sheep-and-sailors-unhurt/

 

A Russian intelligence collection ship sank on April 27 after a collision with a Togo-flagged livestock carrier carrying sheep from Romania to Jordan.

The sheep-carrying ship suffered only slight damage to its bow, but the Russian warship suffered a rupture in its hull below the waterline, sinking.

The sheep (and sailors) were unhurt

Microsoft to complete Windows Phone wind-down by June

Source 1: posted by Daring https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/772804-press-f-to-pay-respects-microsoft-to-complete-windows-phone-wind-down-by-june/

Source 2: https://9to5mac.com/2016/05/25/microsoft-windows-phone-dead/

 

Microsoft has announced that it is effectively out of the consumer phone business. It is cutting 1,850 jobs, and setting aside almost a billion dollars to cover the costs of exiting the business.

“We are focusing our phone efforts where we have differentiation — with enterprises that value security, manageability and our Continuum capability, and consumers who value the same,” said Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft.

The company recently saw its market share fall below 1%

 

Razer's new Lancehead mouse offers 'tournament-grade' wireless performance

Source 1: posted by SCGazelle https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/772308-razers-lancehead-mouse-claims-to-outperform-every-other-wireless-mouse/

Source 2: http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/4/27/15451048/razer-lancehead-wireless-gaming-mouse-pro-gaming

 

Lancehead uses frequency hopping in the 2.4GHz band to dodge interference, and Razer claims the mouse "outperforms every other wireless gaming mouse" in lag-free performance.

Lancehead has:

a true 16,000 DPI sensor, which can track at 210 inches-per-second and handle an absurd 50G acceleration.

Razer Mechanical Mouse Switches,

dedicated buttons for sensitivity switching, and a few extra programmable buttons.

ambidextrous design

internal memory to save and sync mouse settings offline

Razer's also offering a wired version of Lancehead, named Lancehead Tournament Edition?!?!, which bumps the inches-per-second tracking speed to 450.

Both mice are available for preorder now. The wireless Lancehead will ship in May or June for $139.99, while the wired version ships in April or May for $79.99.

 

Fallout is bringing post-apocalyptic warfare to your tabletop

Source 1: http://www.polygon.com/2017/4/26/15438656/fallout-4-wasteland-warfare-miniatures-game-release-date

Source 2: https://www.cnet.com/news/fallout-is-bringing-post-apocalyptic-warfare-to-your-tabletop/

 

Fallout: Wasteland Warfare is a traditional miniatures-based wargame, along the lines of Warhammer 40,000 or Flames of War.

Groups of units will improve over time with perks, weapons, gear and other upgrades.

The 32 mm-scale game will have a playable campaign arc, random missions, PvP and Tournament modes, solo-play AI decks, and even cooperative missions.

The game will feature iconic characters in highly detailed, cast resin miniatures, as well as terrain, buildings and settlements.

Comes out in November

 

AMD puts 2 GPUs and 32GB of RAM on its latest Radeon Pro Duo graphics card

Source 1: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/04/amd-puts-two-gpus-and-32gb-of-ram-on-its-latest-radeon-pro-duo-graphics-card/

Source 2: http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/graphics/workstation/radeon-pro/duo

 

It has: two separate 14nm Polaris GPUs with 2,304 stream processors, 128 texture units, 32 ROPs, and 16GB of graphics RAM apiece (for a total of 32GB) on a single card

The Duo is aimed primarily at professional users rather than gamers.

The new card only needs two power plugs, uses an air blower typical of most GPUs, and has a rated TBP (typical board power) of 250W.

Dual-GPU are a useful  way to get two GPUs into a computer with a single slot (or four GPUs into a machine with two slots if you don't mind the diminishing returns).

It’s set to launch at "the end of May" for $999

 

 

[Daniel644]

so many videos today

[BastardCookies]

Is it just me, or is this on YouTube, but not showing up in their videos?

[lawrencep93]

12 minutes ago, BastardCookies said:

Is it just me, or is this on YouTube, but not showing up in their videos?

It's unlisted on youtube, I assume because of all the videos they uploaded they will release this one tomorrow and let the other videos settle in

[Daniel644]

27 minutes ago, BastardCookies said:

Is it just me, or is this on YouTube, but not showing up in their videos?

 

14 minutes ago, lawrencep93 said:

It's unlisted on youtube, I assume because of all the videos they uploaded they will release this one tomorrow and let the other videos settle in

they released a Friday Video already, plus an extra video from NAB 2017, to release a 3rd video would totally screw up things with how Youtube algorithms work (according to what Linus says in WAN Shows), this will be Saturdays Video so it will either be switched public about 2 hours (Midnight PST, which we saw like last week or the week befores WAN Show, I forget which) from now or during the day around 14 hours from now (if they delay to there normal targeted posting time of Noon PST).

 

with the exception of Event Coverage like CES, NAB, Computex or any other trade show type event, they typically post the video thread in the forum here while keeping the video Unlisted as a sort of Bonus to forum members, this unlisted period usually doesn't last long (typically 5-15 minutes) then they switch to Published and thats when it shows up in searches and listings on Youtube, since this will be tomorrows video it will have an extra long Unlisted time period.

[Alex Kovacs]

GG WP Luck but you wrote too much stuff rawr

[19_blackie_73]

what's up with the formatting  

[NumLock21]

Did anyone notice the rgb perimeter around the browser when Luke was doing the screen share?

 

[Space Reptile]

[posted 13 hours ago] 

 

BUT STILL UNLISTED 

[Daniel644]

so are we holding this to be Sundays video or something? #StillUnlisted

[leadeater]

Luke's face during the FCC/Net Neutrality at 10:37 was amazing lol. "Oh god what have I done, somebody save me!" 

[yathis]

That British face recognition seems so invasive.

Maybe thats why they wear the burkas to hide from the prying eyes that is everywhere.

 

I think Vancouver transit has the same kind of tech, because their camera's dont look like your normal cameras.

 

 

[KuJoe]

HOLY CRAP! @Slick please try to convince @jmart604 to do a podcast on stuff like Net Neutrality! I could honestly listen to him explain that kind of stuff for hours. Reading documents makes my eyes glaze over and my brain turn off, but listening to him explain things like Title II and various articles was really eye opening and interesting. I know it's not for everybody but I really appreciated him delving into the subject as deeply as he did.

[isavegas]

Hey, @Slick I found a band named Abaci. Here's a link to their original songs. https://abaci.bandcamp.com/album/originals. Make sure you turn down the volume before playing one of the tracks.

[Razor512]

The main issue with this move is that without net neutrality, while the other government protections are in place that prevent competition in the area of ISPs. There is a strong incentive for ISPs to scale back their infrastructure in order to bring up prices for the smaller pool of network capacity. This happened with comcast during the whole netflix dispute. Typically when supply is low and demand is high, some businesses will charge more, this means they are marking a larger profit per item sold. Since in the past they were allowed to discriminate against certain traffic, they were able to double dip on the charges for the traffic, as well as increase profits due to the artificial scarcity.

 

In the case of netflix's ISP and comcast, comcast actually scaled the infrastructure back. In some of the blog posts from companies like level 3, Comcast actually turned off some of the 10GbE ports on their equipment so that the remaining connections would saturate and cause packet loss. Comcast then demanded money to stop the artificial scarcity.

 

 

Overall, what ISPs want to do is sell a fast connection where you only get the speed you pay for when dealing with content owned by the ISP, or dealing with traffic where they double dip.

 

The more scarce the network capacity becomes, the more the ISPs can charge for preferential QOS rules, thus the motivation to ensure that the network is constantly overloaded, as long as there is enough to allow the QOS to support just the traffic that they double dip on. For everything else, the users will likely notice large performance swings, e.g., a streaming service startup performing fine at 3AM but slowing to dialup speeds at 7PM regardless of their server capacity.

 

In a free market, this would not happen as competition would quickly take their business, especially considering that from old articles, we had ISPs like time warner making over 97% profit margin on the internet service, and their prices have gone up significantly since then (in a time when networking equipment and bandwidth has gotten cheaper). This is an industry that is prime for competition, but we get none thanks to them being able to bribe politicians into helping them to keep the competition out.

While I would like for the government to regulate things less, there has to be an order to how the scale back takes place. Many people describe government as an organization which breaks your leg, then hands you a crutch. What the FCC is doing now is continuing to break your leg, but no longer hand you the crutch. While the order needed is more of getting them to first stop breaking your leg before they take the crutch away.

 

[Tech_Dreamer]

Yay , you credited some of the OP's of the news , Kudos .