September 19, 2014 - The WAN Show Document

[LinusTech]

 

Crowd-sourced table of contents: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BVB46NW2hrHjTYGLUmLMxrfy-01b3-qmneQOpDVgREw/edit?usp=sharing

 

News

 

GTX 980/970 released - pricing and reviews

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: OlekKing

Source 2: ncix.com GTX 980 Canada Pricing

Source 3: ncix.com GTX 970 Canada Pricing

Source 4: newegg.com GTX 980 US Pricing

Source 5: newegg.com GTX 970 US Pricing

- GTX 980 between $620 and $700 in Canada so far, between $550 and $630 in US

- GTX 970 between $380 and $450 in Canada so far, between $330 and $370 in US

- Game24/Mod24 wrap-up/discussion?

 

Microsoft reveals details on DirectX 11.3 and 12

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: GoodBytes

Source 2: anandtech.com

- DirectX (Direct3D) 12 is a low level API

- it’s powerful, but difficult to master and “dangerous” in the hands of inexperienced programmers

- “The development model envisioned is that a limited number of “code gurus” will be the ones writing the engines and renderers that target the new API, while everyone else will build on top of those engines.”

- DirectX (Direct3D) 11 will continue to be developed as a high level API

New Features:

- rasterizer ordered views (ROVs) - focused on giving the developer control over the order that elements are rasterized in a scene so that elements are drawn in the correct order

- volume tiled resources (VTRs) - primarily meant to be used with volumetric pixels (voxels), helps avoid allocating volume tiles that do not contain any useful information

- conservative rasterization - essentially a more accurate but performance intensive solution to figuring out whether a polygon covers a part of a pixel

- typed UAV load - unordered access views (UAVs) are a special type of bufer that allows multiple GPU threads to access the same buffer simultaneously without generating memory conflicts, typed UAV load deals with cases where UAVs are data typed and better handles their use

- it’s speculated that DX12 will have a greater feature set than DX11.3

 

Engineers made a radio the size of an ant that doesn’t require a battery

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: ETRJ

Source 2: theverge.com

- engineering professors from Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley

- radio is the size of an ant

- no battery

- powered by harvesting radio signals and doesn’t require external power

- powerful enough to send and receive transmissions

- goal is to use the chips to facilitate the Internet of Things

- only costs a few cents to produce, so it can be placed in commodity items (example they use in the article is lightbulbs)

 

Microsoft officially acquires Mojang

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: ETRJ

Source 2: theverge.com

- Microsoft paid $2.5 billion to acquire Mojang

- officially announced Sept 15

- Phil Spencer (Xbox Chief) says “we plan to continue to make Minecraft available across platforms - including iOS, Android, and Playstation, in addition to Xbox and PC.”

- Notch will not be joining Microsoft

- “He’s decided that he doesn’t want the responsibility of owning a company of such global significance,” said Owen Hill of Mojang

- apparently the pressure of owning Minecraft was too much for Notch to handle

- he felt his only option was to sell and work on smaller projects

- Notch himself said “If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I’ll probably abandon it immediately. Thank you for turning Minecraft into what it has become, but there are too many of you, and I can’t be responsible for something this big.”

 

VESA releases DisplayPort 1.3 standard

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: qwertywarrior

Source 2: techpowerup.com

- increases the maximum link bandwidth to 32.4 Gbps, each of four lanes running at a link rate of 8.1 Gbps/lane

- 50% increase from DisplayPort 1.2a

- combined link rate delivers 25.92 Gbps of uncompressed video data

- increased bandwidth enables higher resolution monitors including the recently announced 5K (5120 x 2880) through one cable without compression

- also enables higher resolutions when driving multiple monitors through a single connection using DisplayPort’s Multi-Stream feature

- can drive two 4K UHD monitors (3840 x 2160) when using VESA Coordinated Video Timing

- continues to support VGA, DVI, and HDMI

- adds support for HDCP 2.2 and HDMI 2.0 with CEC (Consumer Electronics Control)

- adds support for 4:2:0 pixel structure, a common video format use on consumer digital television interfaces

- enables support for future 8K x 4K displays

- can support a single UHD monitor with 60Hz and 24-bit color over 2 lanes while using the other 2 lanes for alternate data types like SuperSpeed USB data

 

Comcast telling customers to stop using Tor (Comcast has publicly denied this - info below)

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: AndThenThereWas1

Source 2: inquisitr.com

Source 3: deepdotweb.com

Comcast denies - Source 4: corporate.comcast.com

- Comcast agents have allegedly been contacting customers instructing them to stop using Tor (Comcast has publicly denied this - more info below)

- threatening that they risk termination of service by using Tor

- an agent named Jeremy allegedly called Tor an “illegal service”

- said Tor is against usage policies

- repeatedly asked customers to tell the agent what sites the users were accessing using the Tor browser

- one customer spoke to Jeremy, then called back the next day and spoke with an agent named Kelly

- she reiterated that Comcast does not want customers using Tor

- she allegedly said “Users who try to use anonymity, or cover themselves up on the internet, are usually doing things that aren’t so-to-speak legal. We have the right to terminate, fine, or suspend your account at anytime due to you violating the rules. Do you have any other questions? Thank you for contacting Comcast, have a great day.”

- the only way for Comcast to know their customers are using Tor is by monitoring the online activities of its users

- Comcast has a past of being against Tor - listed as a “bad ISP” by the Tor project

- Comcast Acceptable Use Policy for residential customers claims to not allow servers or proxies under “technical restrictions”

- “customers may not use or run dedicated, stand-alone equipment or servers from the Premises that provide network content or any other services to anyone outside of your Premises local area network (“PremisesLAN”), also commonly referred to as public services or servers. Examples of prohibited equipment and servers include, but are not limited to, email, web hosting, file sharing, and proxy services and servers

- Comcast released a statement on Monday stathing that this is inaccurate, these discussions with “Jeremy” and “Kelly” never happened, and Comcast does not monitor its users’ internet usage

 

The NSA is mapping the internet

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: AndThenThereWas1

Source 2: venturebeat.com

- Exposed by Edward Snowden

- NSA has a plan to “map” the entire internet.

- The program would create an interactive map of the global internet in close to real time.

- It would try to identify the devices through which data flows such as routers.

- The program helps in “Computer Attack/Exploit Planning” offering a battlefield map for cyber warfare.

- Targeted companies include Deutsche Telekom, owner of T-mobile the german ISP Netcologne.

 

Apple’s “warrant canary” disappears, suggesting new Patriot Act demands

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: LAwLz

Source 2: gigaom.com

- Apple’s first Transparency Report on government activity in late 2013 included a footnote that stated “Apple has never received an order under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. We would expect to challenge such an order if served on us.”

- writer and cyber-activist Cory Doctorow recognized that language as a “warrant canary” or a way of thwarting the secrecy imposed by the Patriot Act

- companies and publishers have included these “canaries” to signal to their users that, so far, they have not been subjected to a given type of secret subpoena by law enforcement

- when this language is removed, it is likely that the situation is changed and the company has been subject to such a request

- Apple’s Transparency Reports, which cover the second half of 2013 and the first six months of 2014, no longer include the “canary”

- Section 215 of the Patriot Act permits the NSA to demand companies to hand over their business records in secret

- it is believed that this is the legal foundation of the PRISM program

- disappearance of the canary suggests that Apple may now be part of PRISM or FISA Court proceedings (the FISA Court is a body where only the government can speak and whose records are kept almost entirely secret)

 

World’s first fully functional 3D printed car

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: ionbasa

Source 2: wgntv.com

- designed, printed, and driven by Arizona-based Local Motors

- printing, and assembly took just 44 hours - the car was driveable at that time

- named the Strati (Italian for “layers”)

- electric-powered, two-seat compact roadster

- battery motor, wiring, and suspension come from a variety of sources including Renault’s Twizy city car+

- chassis and body are printed from a carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic compound

- has only 40 parts to it, in comparison to a normal car with 20,000 or more parts

- printed, assembled, and driven during the International Manufacturing and Technology Show in Chicago

- concept began just 6 months ago

- only non-printable parts were the engine, lights, and glass windshield

- top speed is 40mph and the range is 120 miles

- initial retail cost will start at $18,000 and will go upwards of $30,000

- cost may seem high, but many of the parts can be reused when you decide to change cars/upgrade

- “Because you can literally print the car any way you want, if your family goes from two to three people, you trade in and recycle the center part of your car” - Jay Rogers, Local Motors

- you print the parts for a sedan and your two-seat roadster becomes a sensible family car

- “Whatever you can imagine is what this process can entail,” said Jay Rogers of Local Motors

- Rogers believes Local Motors could start manufacturing vehicles by 2015, with initial use on city streets before getting approval for highway use at a later date

 

Major Android bug causes privacy disaster

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: Builder

Source 2: community.rapid7.com

- Bug originally found and reported on the 1st of September.

- You can load javascript into any arbitrary frame or window.

- If you prepend a javascpit URL handler you can peek into the contents of any other web page. So if your webmail is open in another window…

- After being submitted by Balcoh there has been no acknowledgement of this bug from Google.

- All Android 4.2 (Jellybean) and below phones are vulnerable.

- Only present in the AOSP (stock) browser before 4.4 and any other apps (and other browsers) that use the system WebView.

- It is important to note that the AOSP browser has been “killed off” by Google in favor of chrome but there are plenty of ways to install back old versions.

- Any Android users on 4.4+ or running Chrome or Firefox are not affected.

Finfisher surveillance malware is leaked

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: Johners

Source 2: wikileaks.org

- Wikileaks release previously unseen copies of weaponized German surveillance malware used by intelligence agencies around to world to spy on people.

- Made by FinFisher; a german company that produces and sells computer intrusion systems, software exploits and remote monitoring systems.

- Capable of intercepting communications and data from OS X, Windows and Linux computers as well as Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Mobile devices.

- The leaked files include FinFisher FinSpy PC spyware for windows which is designed to be installed on windows and silently intercept files and communication.

- This was released to help people find out how this software works and prevent it.

 

AMD asks their fans to crash NVIDIA Game24 event

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: TechFan@ic

Source 2:

- email title “Red-y to Infiltrate Game24”

- mentions the warm reception from enthusiasts about their recent #AMD30Live webcast

- “we’re intrigued that another graphics products company jumped on the #AMD30Live bandwagon this week by announcing a similar event on September 18th and 19th, called #Game24.”

- they “warmly encourage” their fans to attend the events, “proudly wearing your favorite red T-shirt.”

- “Boldly tweet pictures of yourself wearing your colors while at these events, and we’ll send some love your way.”

- might also try to “crash” the NVIDIA launch by launching their own GPU (or GPUs)

- new GPU shroud image leaked - looks like a new version of the 295X2 shroud but is clearly intended to cool a single GPU

 

SanDisk announces world’s biggest SD card - 512GB

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: TehStranger?

Source 2: geek.com

- Write speeds of 90MB/s

- MSRP of $800 (expect lower in store)

- Should be able to hold about 4 hours of 4k footage or 24 hours of 1080p footage depending on settings (says geek.com).

- Will ship later this month.

 

Logitech G910 & Arx Control

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: XTankSlayerX

Source 2: gaming.logitech.com

(Features in source 2)

- Romer-G mechanical switches

• 1.5mm actuation distance, as opposed to cherry’s 2mm

• 45g actuation force (Cherry actuation force)

• Centered backlighting

• 70 million keystroke tested (40% more than cherry)

- Arx Control SDK

• Control your peripherals from your phone screen (DPI, etc)

• Shows system information (CPU/GPU temps and usage)

• Media controls

• For tablet or smartphone.

-  9 G-keys

- Dedicated media controls

- 113 key anti-ghosting

- 2 palm rests, specially designed keycaps, repositioned g-keys.

- 2 year warranty.

 

Bleep; bittorrent’s new secure chat app is out

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: Rafy

Source 2: theverge.com

- The release is a public alpha.

- Bleep’s standout feature is that it doesn’t leave meta data on public servers.

- Even encrypted chat apps could leave unencrypted metadata such as who is sending data to who.

- BitTorrent says that it would be "practically impossible" to gather metadata on who's talking to who.

- Bleep is available for Windows 7, 8, Mac, Android and an iOS client is coming.

 

Pirate Bay founder told he can expect to carry his father’s coffin while wearing handcuffs

Source 1:

Source 2: torrentfreak.com

- named Peter Sunde

- convicted of copyright offenses

- only 50 days left on his sentence

- his brother, Mats Kolmisoppi has spoken out for the first time in his brother’s favor

- “I have deliberately said very little about what happened to my brother… Partly because he can speak for himself… even though he sits in a prison with a high safety rating in Vastervik.”

- Mats says that the problem is that the system has forgotten that its job is to support offenders in order to ensure that they never return to prison

- their father had been seriously ill “for some time” and was admitted to the hospital in the Summer

- suspected cancer in his remaining lung

- Peter was only able to visit his father once in the hospital

- he is allowed to attend his father’s funeral, but 2 guards will accompany him and he will have to wear handcuffs

- “As the Swedish criminal system is designed it punishes not only my brother. It punishes me, it punishes my now dead father, it punishes my mother, my family, my relatives and my friends,” says Mats

 

HP Fined $108 million for violation of Anti-Bribery and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: Johners

Source 2: industryleadersmagazine.com

- HP conceded to charges that it paid off government authorities to secure huge technology contracts

- $108 million will be paid to the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission

- investigation conducted by the Department of Justice, International Law Enforcement Partners, and the FBI

- HP subsidiary ZAO Hewlett-Packard A.O in Russia has been fined $58.8 million after it admitted to bribing Russian government authorities to secure massive contracts from the Russian Prosecutor General’s office

- HP’s Polish and Mexican subsidiaries have also been sentenced for bribery

- the three subsidiaries will pay a combined sum of $76.8 million in criminal punishments and forfeiture

- Russian subsidiary used millions of dollars in bribes from a secret slush fund

- took Russian officials on Luxury trips to Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, bought luxury automobiles, gems, clothing, furnitures, laptops, mobile devices, and other goods

 

Rapid Fire

 

Google ceases Nexus 5 production

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: TopWargamer

Source 2: slashgear.com

- info came from Canadian wireless carrier Wind Mobile’s customer support Twitter

- customer asked why they don’t list Nexus 5 on their devices page

- Wind replied “The device is no longer being made, and we have no more stock.”

- replies have since been deleted

 

AMD to cut R9 290X prices

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: worldwin

Source 2: techpowerup.com

- working with add-in board manufacturers and retailers to bring down prices of the 290X

- currently non-reference designs can be had for as low as $449

- factory-overclocked cards start at a $50 premium ($499)

- prices will likely settle between $450 and $500

 

Samsung to build its own mobile GPU

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: Notional

Source 2: fudzilla.com

- Samsung has managed to hire ex Nvidia, AMD and Intel (, etc.) employees.

- Nothing has been announced yet.

- The development has been going on for at least 2 years.

- AMD’s and Nvidia’s first GPUs weren’t successes.

 

Xbook One - Microsoft’s console in laptop form

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: dochesterton

Source 2: joystiq.com

- modder Ed Zarick wanted a portable Microsoft console

- innards of an Xbox one

- 22 inch Vizio screen

- custom 3D printed parts

- still requires a power outlet

- kinect isn’t integrated

 

[Rumour] ASUS may sue other motherboard manufacturers

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: DuckDodgers

Source 2: techreport.com

- Contention is about the Asus OC Socket on Asus’ X99 motherboards.

- Socket adds extra pins to the socket to stabilize voltage and raise oc headroom.

 

New “Yelp Bill” will protect consumer reviews

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: DuckDodgers

Source 2: arstechnica.com

- legislation being offered by a representative Eric Swalwell of the House of Representatives in US gov’t

- called “The Consumer Review Freedom Act”

- would make it illegal for businesses to take action against consumers who write “honest” negative reviews about products/services

- “It’s un-American that any consumer would be penalized for writing an honest review,” said Representative Eric Swalwell

- similar law passed in California that includes a $10k fine against companies that violate the bill

 

Twitch announces Google Chromecast support

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: Rafy

Source 2: blog.twitch.tv

- send live Twitch video from your Android device, iPhone, iPad or laptop to your TV

- “Any device that is connected to your Wi-Fi turns into a remote control for your TV.”

-  “cast” from multiple devices - you can control what plays on the tv from multiple devices and multiple platforms at the same time (iOS, Android etc)

[Kevinkt]

woohoo time to watch

[NeilFX]

Microsoft should incorporate Minecraft in the next version of Windows as a free game in addition to the pre-existing games. That'd be awesome. (Although highly unlikely)

[Kevinkt]

@LinusTech the video goes dead @ 59:23 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPiE0VQjEqc#t=3593

[Deletive]

can't wait to watch this. I was confused by the live stream times.

[GloriousPain]

Watched it live

[MegaDave91]

11:22 GTX 5960X

[Alec Harpers]

My favorite part was 43 min in. Edit: also 60 min in. 

Exhausted/new environment WANshow was pretty entertaining. Now go to drunk, you're bed.

[Tech_Dreamer]

Good show lList, By the way ,was the 1mil giveaway winner announced? *cough* single poster *cough*

[Syntaxvgm]

Good show lList, By the way ,was the 1mil giveaway winner announced? *cough* single poster *cough*

seems not. their camera died I guess. Watching now.  

Seriously. Chargers people. 

[Constantine]

Saw it live. This one had the best sponsor segment

[evinta]

Pirate Bay founder told he can expect to carry his father’s coffin while wearing handcuffs

Source 1:

Source 2: torrentfreak.com

- named Peter Sunde

- convicted of copyright offenses

- only 50 days left on his sentence

- his brother, Mats Kolmisoppi has spoken out for the first time in his brother’s favor

- “I have deliberately said very little about what happened to my brother… Partly because he can speak for himself… even though he sits in a prison with a high safety rating in Vastervik.”

- Mats says that the problem is that the system has forgotten that its job is to support offenders in order to ensure that they never return to prison

- their father had been seriously ill “for some time” and was admitted to the hospital in the Summer

- suspected cancer in his remaining lung

- Peter was only able to visit his father once in the hospital

- he is allowed to attend his father’s funeral, but 2 guards will accompany him and he will have to wear handcuffs

- “As the Swedish criminal system is designed it punishes not only my brother. It punishes me, it punishes my now dead father, it punishes my mother, my family, my relatives and my friends,” says Mats

 

 

So this made me stop in my tracks when i was watching the WAN show live today. 

 

He doesn't have much days left, his father is dead and even though all he did was break copyright law he can't have the right to go to his own fathers funeral to say goodbye without wearing handcuffs??? arent the guards enough?!!?!

 

#somethingiswrongwiththisworld 

[Jvagle875]

I really liked this live stream. It reminded me of the old streams where it was more of you guys talking. Less professional and more personal.

[The Gaige]

Microsoft should incorporate Minecraft in the next version of Windows as a free game in addition to the pre-existing games. That'd be awesome. (Although highly unlikely)

They should also add controller support!

[NeilFX]

They should also add controller support!

Exactly! Now that they own it, it's a no-brainer for a full controller support. They have no excuse.

[Guest]

The thing about the Apple 'we can't see your data, so we can't hand it over' is that's what Lavabit tried to do.

And it didn't work out too well for them, now did it? And Lavabit was a small operation that didn't fear the government disrupting their business, while Apple has tens, hundreds of millions to potentially lose if they are served orders to stop operating parts of their business that are now not easy to data mine by the government.

[pk-man]

The last 10 min is the best

[hamiltus]

Anyone else noticing that the TOC Doc is locked down. Trying to add content to it and been asked to request access

[Alec Harpers]

Great ending

 

[gligoran]

Great show guys! Especially after all that live-streaming of the MOD24. Watched most of the latter, but fell asleep waiting for the WAN Show, as it was already past 3AM where I'm from.

 

One small thing I've been noticing a lot lately - you keep adding the link to the wrong forum topic in the video description. This WAN Show's link points to the topic from the 22nd of August.

[Trik'Stari]

The thing about the Apple 'we can't see your data, so we can't hand it over' is that's what Lavabit tried to do.

And it didn't work out too well for them, now did it? And Lavabit was a small operation that didn't fear the government disrupting their business, while Apple has tens, hundreds of millions to potentially lose if they are served orders to stop operating parts of their business that are now not easy to data mine by the government.

That's what I was thinking, all the government has to do is make what apple did illegal and bam, no dice, fix it or get shut down.

 

Maybe some day people will learn to stop giving governments so much fucking power, they already do what they want come hell or high water, all they have to do is wait a week or 2 after people get mad, then do it secretly when no one is paying attention or something else is going on.

 

And fuck those assholes not letting that dude go to his father's funeral, that's just shameful, a bigger crime than the one he supposedly committed in the first place.

 

Also how did your batteries die? there had to be an outlet somewhere in that room.

[popman]

Cool story about HDMI;

 

Because sony (probably other companies in the group too, but that's what I've heard) wanted HDCP on all devices in order to close the "analogue hole" and prevent piracy they put a clause into HDMI licensing to prevent analogue outputs, like VGA and cinch connectors on any device created after 2014.

That's the primary reason for the xbone and ps4 to only use HDMI outputs, while every other prior console supported analogue outputs.

 

Displayport gets around this by being a primarily digital connector as far as I know. Or, GPU manufacturers are just ignoring the licence terms because there's little risk of getting sued.

[kadney]

Regarding the new spare CPU power with DX12 / Mantle that could be used for AI.
Why is nobody able to utilize the spare iGPU power we got in 95% of the CPU's for stuff like that? It's already there and most people don't even make use of it since they run at least one dGPU.

Does anyone know if there are any plans from Intel / AMD or who ever would have to address this to be able to use the iGPU and the dGPU at once?

I think we could already see a nice boost for some tasks if developers could share workload among the GPU's.

[JaMGeR]

Regarding the new spare CPU power with DX12 / Mantle that could be used for AI.

Why is nobody able to utilize the spare iGPU power we got in 95% of the CPU's for stuff like that? It's already there and most people don't even make use of it since they run at least one dGPU.

Does anyone know if there are any plans from Intel / AMD or who ever would have to address this to be able to use the iGPU and the dGPU at once?

I think we could already see a nice boost for some tasks if developers could share workload among the GPU's.

 

There was Virtu... ehm... hold on... Virtu MVP from Lucid's software. It tries to do something like what you want i think. Combining both or something like that. But yeah there should be some use for that iGPU nobody uses on intel..

[UrbanTurban]

That spam at the end of the stream. .To all those involved, you should be ashamed of yourself.