May 11, 2018 - The WAN Show Document8

[LinusTech]

 

New Google Glasses

Source 1: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/5/18/17368624/google-ar-headset-qualcomm-chips

Source 2:

 

• Google is reportedly working on a standalone augmented reality headset codenamed Google A65

• It will

  • be self-contained rather than tethered to another device

  • Have cameras and microphones

  • use the same new Qualcomm chips as the upcoming HoloLens

    • Qualcomm QSC603 four-core chips, based on ARM architecture.

  • be built by Taiwanese computer maker Quanta.

• The product is still in the prototyping stage

 

EVGA ditches CDs for USB sticks

Source 1: VegetableStu https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/928292-evga-does-what-the-physical-media-distributors-should-have-done-a-long-time-ago-ditch-cds-for-usb-sticks/

Source 2: https://www.anandtech.com/show/12779/evga-forgoes-driver-dvds-with-future-motherboards-its-all-about-the-usb-flash-drive

 

• EVGA has announced that in the future, their motherboards will not come with driver disks, but with an 8GB USB Flash drive containing all the needed drivers and software.

  • Drivers used to come on floppies then moved to CDs, then to DVDs

• This includes H370 based boards now and others moving forward.

• EVGA has confirmed the USB 2.0  drive costs about twenty times more than an optical disk.

  • EVGA says the cost increase will not trickle down to the consumer

 

Dozen employees quit Google in protest against military project.

Source 1: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/927968-dozen-employees-so-far-at-google-quit-in-protest-as-company-continues-with-project-maven-military-project/

Source 2: https://gizmodo.com/google-employees-resign-in-protest-against-pentagon-con-1825729300

 

• Despite protests from employees, Google is still charging ahead with a Department of Defense collaboration to produce machine-learning software for American military drones.

• “Project Maven” aims to speed up analysis of drone footage by automatically classifying images of objects and people.

• Now, about a dozen Google employees are resigning in protest over the company’s continued involvement

  • nearly 4,000 Google employees have voiced their opposition to Project Maven in an internal petition that asks Google to immediately cancel the contract and institute a policy against taking on future military work.

• The resigning employees’ are concerned about:

  • particular ethical concerns over the use of artificial intelligence in drone warfare

  • the erosion of user trust that could result from these actions.

• Many of them have written accounts of their decisions to leave the company, and their stories have been gathered and shared in an internal document

• Historically, Google has promoted an open culture that encourages employees to challenge and debate product decisions. But some employees feel that their leadership no longer as attentive to their concerns, leaving them to face the fallout.

• But the company has defended its work on Maven and is thought to be one of the lead contenders for another major Pentagon cloud computing contract, the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, better known as JEDI, that is currently up for bids.

• Google claims it is only providing open-source software to Project Maven, which means the military would be able to still use the technology, even if Google didn’t accept payment or offer technical assistance.

  • Google has emphasized that its AI is not being used to kill

  • “The technology is used to flag images for human review and is intended to save lives and save people from having to do highly tedious work.”

• In addition to the petition circulating inside Google, the Tech Workers Coalition launched a petition in April demanding that Google abandon its work on Maven and that other major tech companies, including IBM and Amazon, refuse to work with the U.S. Defense Department.

  • But don’t they think that the US should remain competitive against other state actors? Are engineers at Baidu or Yandex resigning?

• Another point: Although Google is based in the U.S., it has an obligation to protect its global user base that outweighs its alignment with any single nation’s military

 

ASUS Killing AREZ brand?

Source 1: jooroth18 https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/927177-asus-killing-arez-brand-rog-is-back-updated-article/

Source 2: https://twitter.com/ASUSUSA/status/996179635158339586?s=09

 

• This week ASUS advertised ROG Radeon cards, suggesting that they are NOT moving forward with AREZ branding.

 

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

Rapid Fire

LOL: US Gov Trolls crypto Investors

Source 1: WMGrookAK https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/927930-us-sec-begins-offering-the-howeycoin-ico/

Source 2: https://www.techspot.com/news/74671-sec-launched-fake-cryptocurrency-educate-investors-dangers-ico.html

Source 3: https://www.howeycoins.com/index.html

 

• The US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) has launched a fake initial coin offering (ICO) website promoting what they call "HoweyCoins"

• On the HoweyCoins website, the SEC claims the fake currency is "officially registered" with the US government and will trade on an "SEC-compliant exchange"

  • The site has a HoweyCoins logo, a ‘Meet the Team’ page, fake user testimonials, and even a large "15% bonus" countdown timer.

• If you click any of the "Buy Coins Now!" buttons, you'll be taken to an informational SEC page where the they  offer tips to dodge real scams in the future.

 

Rumour: GTX 1170 Leaks

Source 1: BuckGup https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/926198-wccf-gtx-1170-specs-price-performance-release-date/

Source 2: https://wccftech.com/873853-2/

 

• According to the leaks, the GTX1170:

  • is powered by a 104 class GPU, codenamed GT104 that measures around ~400mm²

  • 2688 CUDA cores,

  • 256-bit GDDR6 memory interface

  • 8 to 16 gigabytes of 12Gbps GDDR6 memory

  • core clock of around ~1.5GHz and a boost clock of around ~1.8GHz.

  • TDP is unconfirmed, but is expected to be 140-160W

  • Peak FP32 compute performance is expected to be around 9.75 TFLOPS,

    • puts it in the same league of NVIDIA’s existing GeForce GTX 1080 Ti.

• expect the GeForce GTX 1170 to be released in the summer (july)

• Maybe $499

 

Porn Pass (age verification in UK)

Source 1: mr moose https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/927037-porn-pass-age-verification-in-the-uk/

Source 2: http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/brits-faced-with-prospect-of-buying-porn-pass-at-corner-store/news-story/2cda959cb0980c6f73afba401fa30e59

 

• In an attempt to prevent the access of online pornography by children, the UK government is proposing an age verification system that uses a special “porn pass”

• Passes would be bought from convenience stores - as long as you can provide government ID to verify your age.

• The cards will have a 16 digit code meaning users would not need to provide their own personal info online.

• New laws require websites to verify the age of users, or face stiff penalties like being blocked by internet service providers or face fines of up to $448,000.

• industry will be responsible to create the verification software

 

Google Duplex Update

Source 1: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-18/google-s-duplex-ai-robot-will-warn-that-calls-are-recorded

 

• At Google’s weekly TGIF staff meeting on Thursday, executives gave employees their first full Duplex demo and told them the bot would identify itself as the Google assistant.

• It will also inform people on the phone that the line is being recorded in certain jurisdictions

 

real-time location of most US cell phones leaked

Source 1: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/05/service-leaked-locations-of-us-cell-phones-for-free-no-password-required/

Source 2:

 

• A service called LocationSmart has been leaking the real-time locations of US cell phone users to anyone who takes the time to exploit an easily spotted bug in a free trial feature.

• The service identifies the locations of phones connected to AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, or Verizon, often to an accuracy of a few hundred meters

• A demo tool on the LocationSmart website allowed prospective customers to see the approximate location of their own mobile device.

  • It required interested people to enter their name, email address, and phone number into a Web form.

  • LocationSmart would then text the phone number and request permission to query the cellular network tower closest to the device.

  • However, simple changes to the demo's Web requests were able to bypass the phone verification requirement a location

• By pinging a phone’s mobile network multiple times over several minutes, researchers were able to plug the coordinates into Google Maps and track the friend’s directional movement.

• cellular carriers by law are required to know the approximate location of customers in the event it’s needed by emergency 911 services.

  • Whether the carriers are permitted to sell or otherwise provide the information to third parties is less clear.

 

Researchers create a real cloaking device (sound)

Source 1: https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/10/researchers-create-a-real-cloaking-device/

Source 2:

 

• Researchers at Pennsylvania State University have created a real cloaking device that can route sound waves around an object, making it invisible to sonar

• The team set out to engineer a metamaterial that can allow the sound waves to bend around the object as if it were not there.

• To work, the unit cell — the smallest component of the metamaterial — must be smaller than the acoustic wavelength in the study.

• They created an acoustic metamaterial that deflects sound waves underwater

• The team was able to place the material in water and measure sound waves pointed at it.

  • The resulting echoes in the water suggested that the sound waves did not bounce off or around the material.

 

International Olympic Committee to host a esports summit

Source 1: SC2Mitch https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/927843-international-olympic-committee-ioc-to-host-a-esports-summit-in-lausanne-in-july/

Source 2: https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1065131/ioc-to-host-esports-summit-in-lausanne-in-july

 

• An esports summit is due to be hosted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne in July, to continue the organisation's "dialogue" with the gaming industry.

  • It’s a one-day meeting

• "The idea [of the Summit] is to enter into a dialogue with the gaming industry and the athletes and, in due course, approach the stakeholders of the Olympic Movement again."

• competitive esports "could be considered as a sporting activity, and the players involved prepare and train with an intensity which may be comparable to athletes in traditional sports".

• Heathstone, Starcraft II, Pro Evolution Soccer, Clash Royale and Arena of Valor are the other five games set to be contested.

  • "We need to draw a red line and make it clear that killer games can never be part of the Olympic Movement,"

    • LOL

 

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4... Battle Royale !!!

Source 1: GamingMemeKing https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/927945-call-of-duty-black-ops-4-battle-royale/

Source 2: https://kotaku.com/nobody-is-saying-how-many-people-call-of-dutys-battle-r-1826146985

 

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will bring a new Battle Royale mode known as 'Call of Duty: Blackout'.

• It will be a simple last man standing game mode in a large open world, with sea, air and land vehicles, as well as characters from previous games.

• Treyarch isn’t saying how many players Blackout will support.

  • Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds both support 100 players per match.

• “Blackout delivers an experience that’s uniquely Black Ops featuring characters, weapons and gear from across the series on the biggest map ever in the franchise — over 1,500 times greater than Nuketown and a player count that is an order of magnitude above anything previously in Call of Duty. “

• Is Battle Royale simply a new format that all games will feature in the future? Like deathmatch or capture the flag?

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_the_Flag_(video_game)

[Dankk]

Lovely! Thanks, Linus for informing us, fellow kids!

[Rune]

May 11th?

 

Okay Google, travel back in time and post this wan show.

[captain_to_fire]

@LinusTech @James The last time I checked, the date in UTC/GMT-7 when the WAN show aired is the 18th of May 2018.

[Egg-Roll]

Apparently this was the 8th Wan show document on that day too

 

"May 11, 2018 - The WAN Show Document8"

 

Pre-recorded WAN show confirmed 

 

Tho correct me if I'm wrong but Linus might have just got off a plane right? If so... @CPotter should have posted this one  Also the show is "unlisted" Opps  which explains why I never got my usual notification

 

Edit: I don't think this was supposed to be here either

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

[LudwigVonSneider]

To answer their "What feature would make you buy the new google glasses": 

 

Google Translate (that works flawlessly).

If you haven't tried it or seen it, it's pretty cool how it overlays translated word over the original with similar font.

Imagine to be in a foreign country, put on glasses and see everything in English (or what ever). 

 

I don't think this generation of hardware will give the performance that would make me buy them though.

[Egg-Roll]

Why not permit computer games into the olympics after all they have brought in many "sports" that don't belong in the system like:

 

• Badminton (the boring Tennis, to watch)
• "Beach" volleyball (one's enough)
• Boxing (it's not a sport, I don't care)
• All Equestrian
• Golf (not really a sport)
• Handball
• Table Tennis (you mean ping-pong)
• Water Polo
• Weightlifting
• Curling (the dysfunctional family game, sweeping and yelling while the kid throws stuff on the ground demanding the parents to clean up after them)

While most are technically sports imo shouldn't be in the olympics.

[Yesat]

The issue for video game is really in the "commercial" aspect of video games. FIFA isn't like Blizzard or Riot. They don't own the game, they just are responsible of its structure.