Feb 2, 2018 - The WAN Show Document

[LinusTech]

 

 

 

Main News Topics

Counter Strike co-creator suspended after being arrested for child exploitation

Source 1: posted by SC2Mitch https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/892480-counter-strike-co-creator-suspended-after-being-arrested-for-child-exploitation-following-investigation/

Source 2: https://www.polygon.com/2018/2/2/16963890/counter-strike-jess-cliffe-arrested-suspended-valve

 

• Counter-Strike co-creator Jess Cliffe was arrested this week for “sexual exploitation of a child,”

• Police did not immediately release details, and Cliffe was not charged with a crime.

• Police did not say if an actual child was harmed.

• Cliffe does not have a criminal history.

• While it’s not clear what led to Cliffe’s arrest, according to KIRO 7’s televised report, prosecutors say an arrest of this type “typically ... indicates creating child porn.”

• Cliffe also has done level design for Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Left4Dead2, and Portal2

 

AMD suggests profitable mining on Threadripper CPU

Source 1: posted by Porina https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/892484-amd-suggests-profitable-mining-on-threadripper-cpu/

Source 2: https://www.pcgamesn.com/amd-threadripper-cryptocurrency-mining

 

• AMD’s technical marketing manager, Damien Triolet, believes that massive potential for home mining rigs lies within their Threadripper CPUs.

• CryptoNight can be mined with CPUs that have around 2MB of L3 cache per mining thread in use,

  • this rules out almost all ASIC mining machines so far in production

  • but favours CPUs with a high L3 cache per core ratio - which Threadripper is designed for.

• “CPUs could be acceptable for mining if they could handle very few threads, very fast, and that’s exactly what Threadripper is able to do,”

  • “Threadripper comes with 32MB of L3 Cache, and it can keep the dataset in cache, which speeds up cryptomining by a lot.”

• Utilising around 2MB per thread, a Threadripper 1950X could run around 15 active mining threads

  • “that could allow Threadripper to get almost the same ballpark as RX Vega... and it will be much faster than a 1080 Ti for example in CryptoNight.”

• Intel’s HEDT chips run with less L3 cache per core.

  • The Core i9 7900X has 13.75MB of L3, which roughly equates to just under seven threads.

• Triolet believes Threadripper is capable of accumulating around $90 a month through the NiceHash mining platform.

  • This is at the current price, with electricity already accounted for - although this could vary considerably by region

• Using Triolet’s estimated earnings, a Threadripper 1920X chip would see a return beyond its own MSRP of around $760 in just under nine months.

• Is AMD just trying to CACHE in on that crypto money? Does anyone care about CryptoKnight? Monero?

 

Mining for Charity - Unicef Game ‘Chaingers’

Source 1: posted by Pangea2017 and Porina https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/892556-unicef-game-chaingers-mining-for-charity/

Source 2: https://www.techspot.com/news/73084-unicef-launches-gamer-focused-game-chaingers-cryptomining-fundraising.html

Source 3: https://www.chaingers.io/en/index.html

 

• UNICEF has launched a new initiative that looks to target gamers.

  • "Thanks to the solidarity of the PC gaming community, Game Chaingers turns graphics cards into a humanitarian tool

  • the first ever blockchain fundraising by mining Ethereum for UNICEF."

• The organization's goal with this project lies in providing emergency assistance to Syrian children

  • UNICEF's top priorities will be to provide these kids and other Syrians in need with water, hygiene, education, "Children's protection" and medical attention.

• To help, you simply have to download UNICEF's Claymore mining software and turn it on.

  • The software will mine Ethereum without further intervention from you, depositing the resulting currency directly into UNICEF's wallet.

  • You can stop this software at any time

  • The organization claims it will have no impact on your personal energy usage.

 

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

Rapid Fire

Elon Musk Flame Thrower

Source 1: posted by VegetableStu https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/890999-new-product-from-the-boring-company-a-flamethrower-update-sold-out/

Source 2: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/elon-musk-flame-thrower-boring-company-1.4513935

 

• In a media stunt / short term fund raiser extravaganza, Elon Musk, CEO of The Boring Company, announced the sale of a branded flame thrower!

  • The whole thing started when Musk tweeted back in December that if The Boring Company could sell 50,000 hats the firm would start selling the flame-thrower.

• The flamethrowers quickly sold out

  • $500 each x 20,000 units = $10,000,000

• Musk later said each flamethrower would ship with a complimentary Boring Company fire extinguisher.

  • Likely in response to concerns from politicians regarding safety and legality

  • Musk Tweeted:

    • “ATF says any flamethrower with a flame shorter than 10 ft is A-ok. Our design is max fun for least danger. I’d be way more scared of a steak knife.”

 

Apple sells fewer phones but profits rise

Source 1: posted by RorzNZ https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/892445-apple-sells-fewer-iphones-but-profits-rise/

Source 2: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-42909989

 

• The overall number of iPhones sold year-on-year slipped by 1% to 77.3 million, but the average selling price increased by around $100, to $796

  • the iPhone X had been the top-selling Apple handset every week since its launch

• Apple reported a record $20bn in quarterly profits, driven by strong growth in Japan and Europe.

• Quarterly sales at the firm climbed by 13% year-on-year to a record $88.3bn.

• However Apple also issued a weaker-than-expected sales forecast for coming months

  • This follows rumours from an Apple supplier that Apple would be cutting iPhoneX production from 40m to 50m,

  • though another Apple partner has said the cut wasn’t that large

 

Windows 10 Defender to block shady "free PC optimizer" applications

Source 1: posted by Tech_Dreamer https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/892441-windows-10-defender-will-start-removing-shady-free-pc-optimizer-applications-soon/

Source 2: https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/microsoftsecure/2018/01/30/protecting-customers-from-being-intimidated-into-making-an-unnecessary-purchase/

 

• Microsoft is cracking down on Anti-Virus programs that scan your system for free, and then use alarmist language to encourage your to pay for a premium application that will clean or optimize your PC

• “We are updating our evaluation criteria to specify that programs must not use alarming or coercive messaging that can put pressure on customers into making a purchase or performing other actions.

• “We use the evaluation criteria to determine what programs are identified as malware and unwanted software. In the future, programs that display coercive messaging will be classified as unwanted software, detected, and removed.”

 

Zen 2 Will Have Spectre Fix

Source 1: posted by The Benjamins https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/891771-amd-q4-earnings-report-zen-2-will-have-spectre-fix/

Source 2: https://www.pcworld.com/article/3252237/components-processors/amd-will-spectre-proof-the-zen-2-architecture-and-4-other-nuggets-from-its-earnings-call.html

 

• On the AMD earnings call this week, CEO Lisa Su reiterated AMD’s prior position that the company’s chips aren’t vulnerable to Meltdown, nor to some iterations of Spectre exploits.

• “For Spectre variant 1, we continue actively working with our ecosystem partners on mitigations, including operating system packages that have begun to roll out,”

• “We continue to believe that variant 2 of Spectre is difficult to exploit on AMD processors.

  • However, we are deploying CPU microcode packages that in combination with operating system patches, provide additional mitigation steps.

• “Longer term, we have included changes in our future processor cores, starting with our Zen 2 design, to further address potential Spectre-like exploits,”

  • Based on AMD’s roadmap, the next-gen Zen 2 architecture won’t be released until 2019

 

Apple delays iOS features to focus on stability

Source 1: posted by Dr.Macintosh https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-30/apple-is-said-to-push-back-some-key-iphone-software-features

Source 2:

 

• Apple Inc. executives have decided to delay some key features originally planned for this fall’s iOS update, after months of reported quality issues.

  • Calculator bug

  • Messages received out of order

• For iOS 12, Apple has been working on

  • a redesigned home screen app grid,

  • a multiplayer mode for augmented reality games,

  • and a merger of the third-party applications running on iPhones and Macs

• Still on track:

  • The combined apps platform

  • New features for parents to better monitor how long apps are being used for by kids and their overall screen time,

  • Improvements to FaceTime

  • small upgrades to the Photos app

• Delayed until the 2019 update:

  • Redesigned home screen

  • A revamped photo management app that uses new algorithms to better automatically sort pictures

 

Longest-standing video game record thrown out after 35 years

Source 1: https://www.polygon.com/2018/1/29/16944736/atari-dragster-game-world-record-banned

Source 2:

 

• Twin Galaxies, the video game record keeper and official source for Guinness World Records, has declared one of the oldest gaming world records invalid after 35 years.

• After months of debate over his completion time, Todd Rogers has been stripped of his world record for finishing the Atari 2600 racing game Dragster.

• In 1982, Todd Rogers submitted to Activision’s official fan newsletter a time of 5.51 seconds, which the company recognized in print, awarding Rogers a patch.

  • Twin Galaxies later added Rogers to its own leaderboards in 2001,

  • Guinness World Records awarded the player with the honor of holding the world’s longest-standing gaming record in April 2017.

• But Rogers never provided proof of his time in Dragster!

  • His personal website offered a simple explanation of how he achieved his unbeatable time,

  • while maintaining that Activision’s certification of his time — highlighted in one of the company’s newsletters — was enough to cement his place on the gaming leaderboards.

• Twin Galaxies introduced a new process for disputing scores in July 2017, and Rogers’ time in Dragster was one of the first to be challenged.

• A thread on the Twin Galaxies’ forum about how Rodgers’ Dragster time was technically impossible ran for nearly 300 pages and included almost 3,000 posts.

  • Skeptics failed to reproduce Rogers’ time in a tool-assisted run, leading them to analyze the game’s code and conclude that no one could complete the racing game that fast without some cheating.

• But still there was months of pushback from Twin Galaxies owner Jace Hall on the call to strip Rogers of his record, and Activision founder David Crane offering his public support of the player

• A longtime former referee for Twin Galaxies weighed in with a belief that Rogers’ record was illegitimate, finally put the back-and-forth to bed.

  • “We cannot change Activision’s acknowledgement of this score but we have an overall responsibility for gaming achievements and can no longer accept their historical records as the sole justification for scores set at the time.

  • “We were not there, can not find any of the evidentiary materials they used at the time to confirm the score, and could not find anyone who would on-the-record testify that they directly saw the evidence that was presented to Activision.”

• The new top time in Dragster, as recognized by Twin Galaxies, is 5.57, set by several players.

 

Rumour: VMware to buy Dell, making it a Public company again

Source 1: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/29/vmware-could-buy-dell-in-what-could-be-techs-biggest-deal-ever--a-reverse-merger-that-would-bring-dell-back-to-public-markets.html

Source 2:

 

• Dell reverted back to being a Privately owned company in 2013

• In 2015, Dell bought EMC for $67B

  • Dell acquired VMware as part of this deal

    • VMware is a $60B cloud computing company

• VMware is a publicly traded company, but has an 80% majority stake

• VMware buying the larger Dell (called a reverse-merger) would allow Dell to once more be a publicly traded company without going through a formal listing.

  • This would also give investors who backed Dell's move to go private a way to monetize their deal,

  • while helping Dell pay down some of its $50 billion debt.

 

Rumour: Apple to use ARM coprocessors for three updated Mac models

Source 1: https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/29/apple-could-use-arm-coprocessors-for-three-updated-mac-models/

Source 2: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-apple-custom-chips/

 

• Apple could be working on three new Mac models for this year. All three of them could feature an ARM coprocessor to improve security

• The MacBook Pro and iMac Pro both feature ARM coprocessors, the T1 and T2, respectively.

  • On the MacBook Pro, the T1 coprocessor handles the Touch ID sensor and the Touch Bar.

  • The iMac Pro uses the T2 to replace many discrete controllers, controlling the speakers, internal microphone, fans, camera, and internal storage.

    • It can encrypt data in real time.

    • On startup, the T2 first validates the integrity of the system before handing it over to the Intel CPU.

• Apple could add similar coprocessors in the new:

  • Mac Pro

  • MacBook

  • MacBook Air (if there is another one)

 

TiVo will let users auto-skip the football to watch just the Super Bowl commercials

Source 1: https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/02/tivo-will-let-users-auto-skip-the-football-to-watch-just-the-super-bowl-commercials/

Source 2:

 

• TiVo apparently still exists

• And they’ve announced “GameSkip”, which lets you use the “skip” button on your remote generally reserved for skipping past commercials to instead skip to the commercials.

  • In the backend, they’ll be marking the football as commercials, and marking the commercials (plus the halftime show) as the show

• It wont start working until the game is over

  • (at which time you could just go to YouTube, but I’m a cord cutter, so)

• the company is also rolling out support for IFTTT,

  • automatically send a skip command whenever a commercial is detected,

  • use your voice and Google Home/Amazon Alexa to make a lost remote start beeping

 

App you can only use when you have 5% battery or less

Source 1: https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/02/die-with-me-is-a-chat-app-for-sharing-your-phones-last-gasp/

Source 2:

 

• Die with Me is an anonymous chat app that you can only use when your iOS or Android phone has less than or equal to 5% battery.

• When your phone’s about to die, you enter a nickname and are dropped into one big chat room where you can see all the messages from others whose phones died.

  • It’s kind of like the writing on the wall of a bathroom stall

• There are usually about 30 people active in the chat at any given time

• App costs $0.99 because it’s an art project and they need to cover the server cost.

 

YouTube will now label state-funded news broadcasts

Source 1: https://youtube.googleblog.com/2018/02/greater-transparency-for-users-around.html

Source 2: https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/02/to-fight-propaganda-youtube-will-now-label-state-funded-news-broadcasts-in-the-u-s/

 

• Today Youtube began rolling out a new banner system to inform viewers of videos uploaded by news broadcasters that receive some level of government or public funding.

  • “Our goal is to equip users with additional information to help them better understand the sources of news content that they choose to watch on YouTube.”

• The notice will appear below the video, but above the video’s title, and include a link to Wikipedia so viewers can learn more about the news broadcaster.

• The feature will initially be available only to US viewers.

• Seems easy to get around.

 

Judge should order governor to stop using ephemeral messaging app, lawyers say

Source 1: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/02/lawyers-governors-secret-messaging-app-use-violates-public-records-laws/

Source 2:

 

• Two Missouri lawyers have sued the governor’s office over its use of Confide, an ephemeral messaging mobile app, which they say is in violation of state public records law

• encrypted-messaging apps, auto-delete messages after a certain period of time, making automated record-keeping of those messages very difficult, if not impossible.

• Use of such apps by public employees for official business is almost certain to run afoul of transparency laws.

  • "You can't have civil liberties if you don't know what the government is doing with regard to the Fourth Amendment,"

  • “We need a paper trail. That's what we want."

• Opposition lawyers have argued that preventing the use of such apps would "run afoul of these employees' First Amendment right to freedom of speech."

[LienusLateTips]

Looks juicy this week. Hopefully they didn't cut half out like they did a few weeks ago with one of mine in the document.

[Tsuki]

a note on the child exploitation thing,   he apparently found her on an adult website and didnt know she was underage.

 

"Even if the facts are true as claimed, this was a meeting on an adult website," Cliffe's defense attorney Zachary Wagnild said when requesting that no bail be set for his client. "He was not looking for underage women and had no idea this woman was underage." Wagnild confirmed that his client and the witness indeed had sexual relations

-https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/02/a-risk-to-the-community-counter-strike-co-creator-faces-150k-bail-post-arrest/

 

the article also explains the "creation of child porn"  he video taped the encounters(which, since he didnt know she wasnt 18, wouldnt normally have been a problem)

[minermaniac447]

So the real question... what is LTT's coin gonna be called? I vote for Don'tMineCoin AKA DMC (No reference to a Delorean... or is there?) or CoinTips

[Egg-Roll]

In this video:
Linus was mean to Max (at the beginning), yet she returned when his seemed to be dying.

Linus doesn't understand timing is everything (still) for cryptocurrencies, which is likely why the downs are so high (my guess at least 1/3). The second video was good, but it was just too late... Hence no good.

I want to see that 1080pee video...

 

My suggestions

use Doge as your coin base 

someone donate a pizza party to LMG and leave Linus out for being mean to Max 

[Progressor]

In regards to Musk's toy. That is NOT a flame thrower. Flame throwers do not use propane. What Musk is selling is an overpriced propane torch that you can buy/make for less than 50$, basically THIS which is nothing than a bigger version of THIS , shaped like a gun. Unless normal propane torches are illegal in Canada, the Musk one should be perfectly legal. Anyway speaking of flame throwers, apparently they are completely legal in most of the US(exceptions are Maryland and California), and by flame throwers I don't mean the toy Musk is selling but an actual flame throwers, like THAT, yes that's perfectly legal in most of the US. As an European, I'm jealous.   

[AdmiralKird]

Since the response to the ASIC mining video was brought up in the WAN show, or the second GPU one, or one of them (its a long video to rewatch) as one of the people who was kind of perturbed by the ASIC one, I think it kind of goes beyond the distressed gamer as awareness about mining increases. As Luke said, the video was well produced and I enjoyed watching it, and LTT has a sort of duty to explore things all-things-tech, and mining is a huge craze right now, but... The idea of an AISC miner Is essentially... forget everything you know about tech for a minute, forget everything about cryptocurrency...

If I showed up at your doorstep with a bag of seeds and said I had a tree you could plant in your backyard, and in 5 months, it would start sprouting free money, you'd either indulge listening to me for the entertainment value of my crazy, or you'd show me the door. But that's what mining is, especially an all-in-one device like an ASIC miner - it's a money tree - a technological version of it, but the fundamental reality of what-it-is still exists. In order for the ASIC miner to work for a person to benefit, someone down the line will have to be screwed by it. We're at a point before the piper has his due where this stuff is all brand new and exciting that it seems harmless, but there is a reality conservation principle that there is no free lunch because there fundamentally cannot be. In the future, there must be people hurt by things like this financially and emotionally, and as a viewer, it somewhat pains me to see it presented as like a... legitimate thing.

[HimymCZe]

I also wonder why 11 years old code, that you have already purchased 16x for $960 and is running behind 16 threads of DRM do no support SLI ...

... also speedrunners community is so GREAT, that everyone who point out stealing and money loundering at AGDQ is BANNED from all future events.

Luke, Luke, Luke, Luke Luke... where you gonna learn...

[DoctorWho1975]

On 2/2/2018 at 10:32 PM, minermaniac447 said:

So the real question... what is LTT's coin gonna be called?

 

Cunning Linus.

[DoctorWho1975]

Tiki torches are actually fueled by the tears of white supremacists. 

[Sunshine1868]

Linus and Luke are just flaming about the threadripper mining affecting gamers - any gamer who buys a threadripper has more money than sense and will never use all of the power in that chip. That being said, to the people who say this will "trickle down and make the Ryzen 7,5,3 chips more expensive" - they wont be profitable, so miners wont buy them like crazy.