October 12 2018 - WAN Show Document

[LinusTech]

 

 

 

Main News Topics

Made by Google Hardware Event

Source 1: https://www.businessinsider.com/google-pixel-3-event-best-announcements-highlights-2018-10

Source 2:

 

• Pixel 3:

  • Call Screen feature lets robot answer the phone for you and transcribe dialog on your lock screen (coming to all pixel devices)

  • Has “group selfie cam” so you can zoom out and take 184% wider selfies

  • There will be an upcoming feature called Night Sight which uses a longer exposure to fuse together multiple photos for low light photos that don’t look like trash.

  • Google lens can recognize clothing now

  • Portrait mode lets you change the depth of field or the focal subject

  • Super res zoom takes advantage of the natural tiny movements of your hand to merge photos together so you don’t lose so much res when zooming in

    • This technique has been used in advanced astronomy research to image the surface of Mars.

  • "Flip to Shhh": if you put your phone face-down on a table, it will automatically mute sounds and notifications.

• Google Home Hub:

  • Google home with a screen

  • Lets you see the status of all your connected devices - one app to rule them all

• Pixel Slate:

  • Google’s Chrome OS tablet - like a Microsoft Surface

  • Starts at $600 goes up to $1600

  • Keyboard is $200

  • 3000x2000 resolution

 

Intel 9th Gen Benchmarking scandal

Source 1: Carclis https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/980997-intel-9th-gen-paid-benchmarks-take-advantage-of-nda-periods/

Source 2:

 

• As Intel’s new 9th gen chips became available for pre-order, there were no benchmarks available as tech journalists were under embargo.

• However, one publication, PCGamesN published benchmarks conducted by Principled Technologies

• Their results claimed the 9900K was up to 50% faster than the Ryzen 7 2700X in gaming.

• Steven Walton of TechSpot immediately thought the data looked suspicious, and eventually uncovered a series of steps taken to handicap the AMD chip in order to present the intel cpu in the best possible light.

  • they used Corsair Vengeance memory without loading the extreme memory profile or XMP setting, setting the frequency to 2933 and leaving the loose default memory timings in place.

  • AMD system used stock cooler while Intel used NH-U14S

  • Game Mode enabled on AMD system (disables 50% of cores)

  • And more!

• Intel responds:

  • We are deeply appreciative of the work of the reviewer community and expect that over the coming weeks additional testing will continue to show that the 9th Gen Intel Core i9-9900K is the world’s best gaming processor.

  • Principled Technologies conducted this initial testing using systems running in spec, configured to show CPU performance and has published the configurations used.

  • The data is consistent with what we have seen in our labs, and we look forward to seeing the results from additional third-party testing in the coming weeks.

 

Google+ hack and EoL

Source 1: D13H4RD2L1V3 https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/980747-scroogling-elgoog-google-reportedly-hid-a-major-security-bug-with-google-and-google-is-dead-for-consumers/?tab=comments#comment-11833825

Source 2: https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/8/17951914/google-plus-data-breach-exposed-user-profile-information-privacy-not-disclosed

Source 3: https://www.blog.google/technology/safety-security/project-strobe/

 

• Google has announced that their social network, Google+, will be shut down for consumers, following a previously undisclosed data leak the company discovered back in March

  • Google will re-focus Google+ toward enterprise use cases.

• Google+ profile information like name, email address, occupation, gender, and age were exposed by an API bug- even if that data was listed as private and not public by the user

  • About 500,000 user profiles were affected by the breach.

• Google says that it has no evidence to suggest any third-party developers were aware of the bug or abused it.

  • However, Google only has the initial 2 weeks of data from each developer

• The bug, affecting an API that was accessed by hundreds of developers, appears to have been active between 2015 and March 2018 when it was fixed

• Google chose not to disclose the bug when found because at the time, Facebook was embroiled in its Cambridge Analytica scandal.

• The Google+ shutdown will take place over the course of the next 10 months, concluding in August of 2019.

  • Google noted that 90 percent of Google+ sessions lasted less than five seconds.

 

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

Rapid Fire

Apple insisting on replacement over repair?

Source 1: Jack_of_all_Trades https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/981216-apple-under-fire-for-allegations-of-controversial-business-practices/

Source 2: https://youtu.be/_XneTBhRPYk

 

• A CBC investigator took a broken Macbook into the Apple store and was told the repairs would cost between $1200 and $1900.

• The Genius said the cost is close to simply buying a new machine

• The reporter took the machine to Louis Rossman who fixed it in under 2 mins

  • He said he wouldn’t even charge for such a repair.

• Should Canada get Right to Repair?

 

Microsoft joins OIN, open-sources 60,000 patents

Source 1: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/981841-microsoft-slightly-less-evil-makes-huge-patent-contribution-to-oss/

Source 2: https://www.fastcompany.com/90249831/microsoft-just-open-sourced-60000-of-its-patents

Source 3: https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-the-experts-make-of-microsoft-opening-its-patents-with-the-open-invention-network/

 

• Microsoft has announced that it has joined the Open Invention Network (OIN), a community that is dedicated to protecting open- source software from patent lawsuits

• The move demonstrates Microsoft’s changing attitude toward open source since the Steve Ballmer “Linux is a cancer” days

• Before microsoft’s contribution of 60,000 patents, the OIN only had ownership of 1,300 global patents.

• while there are a few people who think Microsoft is up to no good, overall people agree this is a major step forward for Microsoft, Linux, and open-source intellectual property law regulation

 

FCC must stop Robocalls

Source 1: posted by rcmaehl https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/981425-robocall-reaming-35-state-attorney-generals-slam-fcc-over-robocalls/

Source 2: https://gizmodo.com/35-states-tell-the-fcc-to-get-off-its-ass-and-do-someth-1829637040

 

• A bipartisan coalition of 35 attorneys general signed a formal request today for the FCC to do something about the epidemic of robocalls

• Last November, the FCC created the 2017 Call Blocking Order to provide phone companies a means of identifying and blocking robocalls.

• Despite the order, the problem has gotten worse:

  • In 2017, the FCC received 4.5 million complaints about robocalls.

  • there were an estimated 30.5 billion illegal robocalls made to cellphones and landlines last year.

• The most effective robocalls are those that appear to come from a local area code

  • The new document calls upon the FCC to create new rules that would let telephone service providers block these “neighbor spoofing” calls.

 

(Officially Licensed) Wireless GameCube Controllers Coming to Switch

Source 1: posted by handymanshandle https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/981844-officially-licensed-wireless-gamecube-controllers-coming-to-the-switch-for-smash-bros-ultimate/

Source 2:

 

• PowerA is releasing an officially licensed wireless (bluetooth) GameCube-inspired design for the Nintendo Switch

• Releasing just in time for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in Dec

  • Available for pre-order now

    • $50

• These controllers have all of the buttons available on the original GameCube controller while adding all of the extras necessary for playing on Switch

  • the extra left shoulder button, a capture button, and the home button.

  • Also offer motion controls

• Downsides:

  • don't support HD rumble, IR, or amiibo NFC

  • Require AA batteries

• There are official Nintendo GameCube controllers for Switch on the way but they’re wired

 

Facebook releases details on Sept Hack

Source 1: rcmaehl https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/982186-facebook-releases-details-on-sept-hack-30-not-50-million/

Source 2: https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/10/update-on-security-issue/

Source 3: https://www.facebook.com/help/securitynotice

 

• Attackers exploited a vulnerability in Facebook’s code that existed between July 2017 and September 2018.

• Fewer people were impacted than originally thought.

  • Of the 50 million people whose access tokens we believed were affected, about 30 million actually had their tokens stolen.

• Here’s how it happened:

  • First, the attackers already controlled a set of accounts, which were connected to Facebook friends.

  • They used an automated technique to move from account to account so they could steal the access tokens of those friends, and for friends of those friends, and so on, totaling about 400,000 people.

  • this technique automatically loaded those accounts’ Facebook profiles, mirroring what these 400,000 people would have seen when looking at their own profiles.

    • Message content was not available to the attackers, with one exception. If a person in this group was a Page admin whose Page had received a message from someone on Facebook, the content of that message was available to the attackers.

  • The attackers used a portion of these 400,000 people’s lists of friends to steal access tokens for about 30 million people.

  • For 15 million people, attackers accessed two sets of information – name and contact details

    • (phone number, email, or both, depending on what people had on their profiles).

  • For 14 million people, the attackers accessed the same two sets of information, as well as other details people had on their profiles.

    • This included username, gender, locale/language, relationship status, religion, hometown, self-reported current city, birthdate, device types used to access Facebook, education, work, the last 10 places they checked into or were tagged in, website, people or Pages they follow, and the 15 most recent searches.

  • For 1 million people, the attackers did not access any information.

• In the coming days, Facebook will send customized messages to the 30 million people affected to explain what information the attackers might have accessed, as well as steps they can take to help protect themselves

• This attack did not include Messenger, Messenger Kids, Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, Workplace, Pages, payments, third-party apps, or advertising or developer accounts.

• Best comment: “hey Facebook, go do a Google+”

  • Posted by VegetableStu

 

Sony Confirms they’re Working on PS5

Source 1: Shreyas1 https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/981202-sony-confirms-its-working-on-ps5/

Source 2: https://www.cnet.com/news/sony-says-playstation-4-successor-is-coming-but-doesnt-call-it-ps5-yet/

 

• Oh wait nvm they didn’t confirm anything

• Sony's president reportedly has confirmed the company is working on the next PlayStation, but he stopped short of calling it "PlayStation 5."

  • "At this point, what I can say is it's necessary to have a next-generation hardware,"

• sources suggested it wouldn't be a major departure from the PS4 and that its fundamental architecture would be similar.

  • The report suggests Sony isn't ready to jump from consoles to cloud-based gaming

• Industry rumors hint that Sony may be planning a tablet or multiple devices and it could be waiting for 5G data connectivity to become widespread to ensure fast game downloads

 

People Are Putting Fitness Trackers on Toilet Paper in China

Source 1: https://gizmodo.com/why-people-are-putting-fitness-trackers-on-toilet-paper-1829622767

Source 2:

 

• Owners of the Xiaomi Mi Band 3 fitness tracker have discovered that the band will display a heart rate when attached to a roll.

  • It’s also been tested with bottles, cans, and even the appendage of a stuffed animal—all of which showed the mysterious phantom heart rate.

• But coffee mugs and bananas are the best, registering heart rates of 72 and 77 BMP, respectively.

• the same experiment using an Apple Watch Series 4 and an Android Wear smartwatch yielded similar results, albeit it with a lower heart rate.

• WHY?

  • To detect heartbeat, trackers beam a green light at a user’s wrist.

  • Blood absorbs green light, so when blood flows faster it absorbs more green light.

  • This process is known as photoplethysmography (PPG)

  • Since bananas and mugs have surfaces that are more reflective than toilet paper, it makes sense that they would provide a “heart rate” more quickly and consistently than toilet paper.

[Canada EH]

LOL at the facial expressions LOL

 

I dont watch but I read your post for whats new.

Faceplant is a joke, I was never into it. So they got hacked, no big deal, last time I was on was 3 months ago because I wanted someones phone #

 

I think Microsoft has an evil plan for open source. Is Billy feeling alright LOL

[Cereal5]

No one doubted the 9900K would be the "best gaming processor in the world" (ok maybe a bit of an exaggeration but better than the 2700X), there's no need to go that low to prove it. There's a reason it's releasing at 400 some odd dollars US. I feel sorry for you Canadians.

[JoostinOnline]

I haven't been getting email notifications anymore when you go live on Twitch. Does anyone else have that issue?

[HimymCZe]

I kinda don't understand the Linus POV.
I expect all companies having exaggerated number in THEIR press conference.

and I don't feel that hiring 3rd party (with unclear ties with Intel) to publish this fake data while every other publisher is under NDA, is the same thing.

or am I missing something?

[MattMatt]

A lot of people seem to be upset at Linus over the intel thing but my take on it is that we've all been burned so many times by misleading advertising and lies that many of us have come to accept what we can't control and not trust anything they say so why even bother trying to critique in house benchmark results, history tells us not to trust them so why are people surprised, just wait for the actual release.

 

If you want to get upset, sure, it is wrong that manufacturers can do this but perhaps frustration would be better directed towards advertiser regulation.

[TetraSky]

5 hours ago, HimymCZe said:

I kinda don't understand the Linus POV.
I expect all companies having exaggerated number in THEIR press conference.

and I don't feel that hiring 3rd party (with unclear ties with Intel) to publish this fake data while every other publisher is under NDA, is the same thing.

or am I missing something?

It's called a conflict of interest.

They are paid by Intel, so they will skew the result in their favor. Even if they are a third party.

The same reason why most studies out there that are paid by a company, will show the product of that company being better than everything else.

 

To be honest, what I don't get is all the youtube comments attacking Linus as being an Intel shill, when he basically called them incompetent for this. It's like I've watched a whole different video.

Heck, I went and did a timestamp with a small snippet of what was being talked about, none of it would make me believe Linus is an Intel shill.

Yes, he's downplaying it a little, but he also gives a reason for that, it's basically the same as what Intel, Nvidia and AMD have always done in the past prior to the release of their latest products.
What he does fail to mention, is that the excessive amount of RAM used didn't help, he simply glossed over it, but other than that, it's pretty much just fine.

 

• 44:06 to 44:40 You shouldn't pre-order products that haven't been independently evaluated by third parties.
   
• 45:35 to 45:45 AMD system using stock cooler really doesn't matter. AMD stock cooler is MUCH better than Intel's stock crap, it wouldn't throttle itself with that. Even if the case is garbage.(Was the CPU even overclocked? Didn't look too much into it. If it wasn't, it truly wouldn't matter)
   
• 45:46 to 46:10 Linus Bash PT about how anyone who knows anything about benchmarking should've known not to enable GameMode.
   
• 46:10 to 47:05 Linus explains why companies contract "third parties" to evaluate their products.
   
• 47:10 to 48:25 We don't know if PT and Intel did this out of malice, which is true. No one knows. It's all conjecture. That pre-order sales of CPUs is negligible at best, it's hardware, not many people pre-order hardware, this ain't the same thing as a game.
   
• 48:26 to 48:57  Linus shows his insight of things from when he worked at NCIX about hardware launch. It's not about getting those pre-order, the money to be made is after launch.
   
• 48:57 to 49:45 Malice or Incompetence? And Intel might not be able to deal with the demand and run out of stock.
   
• 49:46 to 50:05  Intel had to know this was going to come back and bite them in the ass. Hence adding credibility to the Incompetence side of things.
   
• 50:05 to 51:19 Linus doesn't understand why anyone, consumers or techfolks, paid any attention to paid numbers in the first place. Which is correct, even AMD did the same crap, yet we've ignored them and waited for actual reviews. Not any different than what Intel has done in the past either.
   
• 51:20 to 52:18 IT'S MARKETING FLUFF. Why are "we" making a fuss over this when no on complained about every other marketing fluff in the past. Where every reviewers look at the numbers, think they are ridiculous and warn people, but noooo we just had to make a witch hunt out of it.
   
• 52:19 to 53:14 Linus says that you should wait for independent reviews and then cross reference them to see if there's an anomaly or not. Mistake can also happens when reviewing. Even LTT made mistakes.(as we know)
   
• 53:15 to 53:57 the testing methodology was flawed, they didn't list GTA5 settings and what not. They may not be educated on how to review stuff. Intel choose poorly by contracting them for this and Intel is not blameless in this, as Linus said.
   
• 53:57 to 54:40 The argument Linus is making and that Luke agree on, is that it doesn't matter. You should be mad when manufacturer mislead you, yes. But this particular instance isn't any different than what Intel, AMD and Nvidia showed in the past.
   
• 54:41 to 55:05 Remember Game Mode that Microsoft was shilling hard, yet it it did next to nothing? The community said it would be fixed overtime, but did it? Linus gets a video idea to see if it did get fixed over time.
   
• 55:07 to 55:20 we should always take manufacturers claims with a grain a salt, that's the lesson here. End of that part of the show, people in the comments are insane.

[Lathlaer]

13 hours ago, TetraSky said:

It's called a conflict of interest.

They are paid by Intel, so they will skew the result in their favor. Even if they are a third party.

Exactly. People are so hung up on the fact that it's "different because it's 3rd party" that they are ignoring that it's essentially the same.

 

They wouldn't trust Linus or any kind of techtuber if they said they got paid by Intel for their reviews but suddenly PT is a "3rd party!".

 

Anyway, my guess is that people need to be salty because Linus didn't yell as much as Steve or did not show middle finger.

[whoislinus]

Really disappointing show and for that reason I've unsubscribed.

 

I would suggest LTT and others have become too close to such companies to be objective. To quote Steve from Hardware Unboxed, you and other large tech YouTubers have copped out over this saga.

 

This was blatant from Intel which makes me question what else they're doing against AMD. It's even harder to swallow given how AMD conduct themselves - no PR smokescreen, just honest business and a solid road-map. Do you want such dirty tricks to be the downfall of AMD? Do you want to return to the days of an Intel monopoly? We'd still be playing on $1000 quad cores had it not been for Ryzen and other AMD products. I mean do you have a penchant for quad cores Linus?

 

Linus you needed to step up on this one. Just like Intel, your ivory tower can also fall. This could have been your defining moment but you fucked it up. Where has the Linus of old gone, the guy who'd bring us pieces like this (below) - videos which help keep this industry in check and ensure companies serve their customers, not their shareholders. You know you can do better - my question is why you didn't?

 

 

[TetraSky]

5 hours ago, whoislinus said:

-snip-

Yet someone else who seems to have watched an entirely different video.

Just because AMD is somewhat competing today, doesn't make them a saint that never did this kind of crap before in the past.

Linus did NOT in fact "defend" Intel over this, he's even calling them incompetent. 

 

This is the same kind of crap we've seen before nearly every CPU launch.

AMD is just as guilty of it as Intel, can you look at these graphs from an AMD press conference and genuinely tell us that AMD never pulled that kind of crap?
https://www.anandtech.com/show/7643/amds-kaveri-prelaunch-information

Even their synthetic results are a lie and do not match up to the 4750k at all.

And guess what, at the time, publications told us the same thing as they usually do today, "maybe don't trust those numbers".
https://www.chiploco.com/amd-a10-7850k-3dmark-31044/

 

 

And please don't reply with something dumb like "well that was AMD themselves, Intel hired a third party", because they are equally bad. Intel PAID to have those scores, of course they will be skewed in their favor, that's always how it is. Look up Conflict of Interest. That they are a "third party" means nothing if they ones paying their bill is Intel themselves.

 

What Linus and Luke are saying in the WAN show is that; 

• THIS DOESN'T MATTER.
• Never Pre-Order.
• Wait for independent reviews.
• Same thing that has happened times and times again, that both AMD and Nvidia are also guilty of. 
• Always take the information that comes before release, when there's an NDA on reviews, with a grain of salt.
• Acknowledge that their(PT's) testing methodology is flawed.

And more! It's like you've only looked at the comments saying Linus is an intel shill and didn't even watch the video to form your own opinion!

 

 

Here's one of the reply from Linus to such comments on Youtube which pretty much confirm this:
 

Quote

The fact you didn't understand his point, just shows you either didn't listen or already had your opinion formed before even listening. (Which is likely considering you said "To quote Steve from Hardware Unboxed, you and other large tech YouTubers have copped out over this saga.")

[Canada EH]

On 10/12/2018 at 7:29 PM, Cereal5 said:

I feel sorry for you Canadians.

Dont, because most just shop over the border, but they have to buy supplemental health care and a vest just to step foot in the good ole amurika

 

Besides its only $400usd

Then my kids would just spend all friggin day inside.

[MihaiH]

Linus, i have a question.

 

OK so i saw during the wan show that you at some point decided to root your pocophone to lineage OS. If you do it could you test something for me, mainly the camera? I have a one plus one (yeah i know old phone, but the battery still lasts the day, even two days sometimes and the performance hasn't dropped that much, BTW i am not a power user) for 4 years now, using it daily until at some point it decided do start getting extremely hot, i had some screen burn in, and the battery drained like 40% in half an hour. So i decided to root it from Cyanogen OS to Oxygen OS. After almost bricking it, my only solution was lineage OS. Ever since i "upgraded" my phone seems to be working fine, battery lasts me a day, day and a half, performance is great, no lag, no stuttering, no overheating, no bugs, no intrusive background processes, everything you want in a phone. However the camera is the most inconsistent thing ever. it sometimes takes pictures that are on par with first gen pixel(i have a friend to compare pics taken at the same time), while at other times, particularly low light the pictures look like they are taken with the first ever camera, in 1903. The HDR mode opens two camera apps, and overexposes one shot and under exposes the other. I have to say that the pictures do not get combined post shooting, they are just left as they are. On the forums it said that the phones with 2 cameras open 4 camera apps, and each takes simultaneously 4 pictures, but those pictures do not get combined. If i pick panorama, it said that connection to the camera cannot be established and it shuts off. Could you investigate please and awesome content lately, keep it up!!!

[whoislinus]

On 10/14/2018 at 1:05 PM, TetraSky said:

Hot air...

Oh, will you look at that...

 

 

[TetraSky]

7 hours ago, whoislinus said:

Oh, will you look at that...

 

 

What's your point here exactly? You didn't prove anything, Linus told the news in a somewhat objective way. 
Or what, you wanted him to dump a bucket of shit on Intel for this like every other tech tubers that you seems to follow, on a NEWS show?

You don't have any leg to stand on here for your unjustified "disappointment" caused by your own misunderstanding of Linus's words during a LIVE show, just because he didn't outright confirm your existing bias in this whole story, he still called them incompetent. 

[Ross Siggers]

On 10/14/2018 at 9:49 AM, whoislinus said:

Really disappointing show and for that reason I've unsubscribed.

 

You and other large tech YouTubers have copped out over this.

 

Your ivory tower can also fall. This could have been your defining moment but you fucked it up.

Where has the Linus of old gone. You know you can do better - my question is why you didn't?

 

 

^Is it just me that finds the language in these posts needlessly confrontational/derogatory? Particularly the latter snippets.

If you wanted to make a stronger point, you could have A. tagged Linus himself and B. toned back the potentially offensive comments.