Novermber 17th, 2017 - The WAN Show Document

[LinusTech]

https://youtu.be/ddDqmgq0Rs4

 

 

 

 

Main News Topics

1/2 Battlefront II Fiasco

Source 1: posted by shadowbyte https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/860660-ea-turns-off-all-in-game-purchases-in-battlefront-ii-but-with-a-cath/

Source 2: https://www.ea.com/games/starwars/battlefront/battlefront-2/news/pre-launch-update?utm_campaign=swbf2_hd_na_ic_soco_twt_swbfii-prelaunchblog-tw&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&cid=42029&ts=1510883206943

Source 3: https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsBattlefront/comments/7c6bjm/it_takes_40_hours_to_unlock_a_hero_spreadsheet/

 

• The internet lost its collective shit after learning that EA’s new Star Wars Battlefront game - an $80, flagship title- would heavily feature pay-to-win mechanics.

• Players would be encouraged to pay for crystals to unlock heros and gear since, according to certain Reddit users, it would take ~40 hours of gameplay to unlock a hero, essentially making the game Pay to Win.

• NOW Ea has announced that it will be ‘turning off’ all in-game purchases.

• This means that the option to purchase crystals in the game is now offline, and all progression will be earned through gameplay.

• The ability to purchase crystals in-game will become available at a later date, once EA has made changes to the game.

 

2/2 Battlefront II Loot Boxes might constitute Gambling in Belgium

Source 1: posted by NumLock21 https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/860645-belgian-investigates-ea-not-gambling-claim/

Source 2: https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fnieuws.vtm.be%2Fbinnenland%2Fonderzoek-naar-nieuw-star-wars-spel&edit-text=&act=url

 

• The Belgian Gambling Commission is investigating whether BF2’s loot box mechanic counts as gambling.

• Loot Crates that you purchase without knowing what’s inside can be considered gambling because your ability to succeed in the game is dependent on chance.

• This effectively makes it a ‘game of chance’, which would require a permit from the Gaming Commission in Belgium.

• In the worst case scenario, EA could be required to pay a fine of hundreds of thousands of euros or have game removed from shelves.

 

Face ID Hacked within a week of iPhone X Release

Source 1: posted by matrix07012 https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/859293-vietnamese-security-firm-says-theyve-broken-face-id-a-week-after-iphone-x-release/

Source 2: http://www.bkav.com/d/top-news/-/view_content/content/103968/face-id-beaten-by-mask-not-an-effective-security-measure

Source 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=78&v=i4YQRLQVixM

 

• Security researches in Vietnam have cracked Apple’s new Face ID using a composite mask consisting of a silicone nose and paper cut-out eyes mounted on a 3-D-printed plastic frame made from a digital scan of the would-be victim's face.

• All told, the mask cost just $50 to make.

  • At launch, Apple said it worked with professional mask makers and makeup artists in Hollywood to protect against attempts to beat Face ID using masks.

• The researchers’ success was based in part on the realization that Face ID's sensors only check a portion of a face's features

• The researchers concede that their technique requires a detailed measurement or digital scan of the victim’s face but say that future versions of their technique might be performed with a quick smartphone scan of a face, or even a model created from photographs

• The researchers staff could have potentially "weakened" the phone's digital model by training it on its owner's face while some features were obscured, teaching the phone to recognize a face that looked more like their mask

• But the researchers say they first made four other masks that failed—they then re-registered their face on the iPhone X to make sure that the masks hadn't biased the phone's model.

  • After that, they never entered a passcode into the phone.

• Apple patents suggest that Face ID looks for eye movement. If it doesn’t, then attackers could unlock an iPhone X even if the owner is sleeping, restrained, or dead.

Tesla Unveils Fastest production car EVER…+ Semi Truck

Source 1:  posted by aubryscully https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/860718-tesla-unveils-semi-truck-and-next-gen-roadster/

Source 2: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-truck/new-200000-tesla-roadster-speeds-in-front-of-electric-big-rig-truck-idUSKBN1DG1LW

Source 3: LIST of 0-60 speeds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fastest_production_cars_by_acceleration

Source 4: List of fastest production cars by top speed http://www.autosnout.com/Car-Top-Speed-List.php

 

• Last night, after unveiling their new Semi Truck, the truck’s trailer opened-up revealing an update to Tesla’s first ever production vehicle.

• The roadster:

  • Can do 0-60 in 1.9 seconds, making it the fastest production car by acceleration

  • It has a max speed of over 250 mph (400 KM/h)

  • Can go 620 miles (1000 km) on a single charge

  • Seats 4

  • Production begins in 2020

  • The first 1,000 cars will cost $250,000 each, paid in full up-front, with later models starting at $200,000.

    • Presumably the first 1,000 cars are not base models

  • Elon said: “The point of doing this is to just give a hardcore smackdown to gasoline cars. Driving a gasoline sports car is going to feel like a steam engine with a side of quiche,”

• The Semi Truck:

  • Has a center seat for the driver, flanked by two touch screens.

  • can go up to 500 miles (800 km) at maximum weight at highway speed,

    • The heaviest weight class truck can recharge the battery enough in 30 minutes to go 400 miles

      • Current Diesel trucks are capable of traveling up to 1,000 miles (1,600 km) on a single tank of fuel.

  • It will apparently be 20 percent more expensive per mile to operate a diesel truck.

  • Self-driving technology would allow the trucks to travel in convoys, where only the front truck needs a driver, making them cheaper to operate than rail

  • Congress is considering exempting heavy duty trucks from looser self-driving rules in the works, after truckers lobbied that safety, and millions of jobs could be at risk

  • Going into production in 2019

• It’s unclear where these vehicles will be made

  • Tesla is currently spending $1 Billion per quarter trying to manufacture the Model 3

• Tesla's stock price briefly jumped $13 at the announcement

 

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

Rapid Fire

Firefox survey puts AMD GPU market share ahead of Nvidia

Source 1:  posted by KuronoXD https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/860599-firefox-survey-puts-amd-gpu-marketshare-ahead-of-nvidia/

Source 2: https://hardware.metrics.mozilla.com/

Source 3: https://wccftech.com/firefox-hardware-survey-puts-amd-ahead-of-nvidia-in-terms-of-gpu-market-share/

 

• The Firefox Hardware Survey, which uses telemetry supplied by the browser to assess what hardware participants are using, has revealed some surprising usage stats around GPU marketshare:

  • AMD GPUs at 15%,

  • NVIDIA at 14%

  • and Intel at 65%

• This is at odds with the October 2017 Steam hardware survey which reported:

  • NVIDIA GPUs at 81.4%

  • AMD GPUs at 10.84%

  • Intel iGPUs at 7.54%

• The firefox numbers should be a more representative sample

 

Firefox Quantum Brings Huge performance improvements.

Source 1: posted by pyrojoe34 https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/859664-firefox-57-aka-quantum-out-now-huge-performance-improvements/

Source 2: https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2017/11/14/introducing-firefox-quantum/

 

• Mozilla says Firefox Quantum is over twice as fast Firefox from 6 months ago, built on a completely overhauled core engine.

• Quantum boasts a stylish new design, dubbed Photon UI, which streamlines a number of elements included in previous releases.

• Pocket, the read-later client, now enjoys even deeper integration, surfacing recommendations alongside your most visited pages.

• Mozilla says:

  • Quantum is faster to load a number of popular websites than Chrome, including Wikipedia, Bing, Tumblr and Shutterstock.

  • Firefox uses ~30% less memory than Chrome, Edge, and Safari on Windows

  • It’s the technology company’s biggest launch since Firefox 1.0 debuted back in 2004

• Bye Bye Yahoo: Google is the default search engine again — at least if you live in the U.S., Canada, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

YouTube flags official Google Chromebook ad as spam

Source 1: posted by Ralms https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/860636-youtube-flagged-an-official-google-chromebook-ad-as-spam/

Source 2: https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/16/16666156/youtube-google-moderation-flag-spam-chromebook-video-error-machine-learning

Source 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCWADyHh2-U

 

• An official Google ad for their Chromebook was removed “for violating YouTube’s policy on spam, deceptive practices, and scams.

• Google seems to have already fixed the issue, but not before screengrabs and video were captured

• No one seems to know exactly why the ad was flagged.

 

Rumour: Next iPad Pro to be a giant iPhone X

Source 1: posted by InertiaSelling https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/860483-ipad-pro-2018-rumored-to-be-a-giant-iphone-x/

Source 2:  https://www.macrumors.com/2017/11/15/2018-ipad-pro-octa-core-a11x-chip-rumor/

 

• Sources within Apple's supply chain claims that 2018’s iPad pro will have:

  • An 8 core A11X Bionic chip with

    • 3 high-performance "Monsoon" cores

    • 5 energy-efficient "Mistral" cores.

  • TSMC's improved 7nm manufacturing process

  • A next-generation M11 coprocessor and neural engine for artificial intelligence tasks, such as processing facial recognition for Face ID

  • The iPhone X form factor with slimmer bezels and no Home button.

  • However, the tablets will reportedly continue to have LCD displays due to yield rates.

 

Rumour: NVIDIA skipping Volta for gamers?

Source 1:  posted by Banananasplit_00 https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/858468-nvidia-skipping-volta-for-gamers-ampere-might-be-next/

Source 2: https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Nvidia-Milliarden-Umsatz-und-kraeftiger-Gewinnsprung-dank-Gaming-3887633.html

 

• The name of NVIDIA’s next generation GPU architecture for GeForce cards has appeared on German site Heise.de. as “Ampere”, which Nvidia will apparently unveil at GTC 2018.

• The Volta GPU is the official replacement for the Pascal GPU, according to company roadmaps.

• There has been no mention of an Ampere GPU until now, and the road map past Volta has yet to be shown.

 

Z390 to support 8 cores

Source 1: posted by Thinkfreely https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/860076-official-390-chipset-spotted-support-for-up-to-8-core-cpus/

Source 2: https://wccftech.com/intel-z390-motherboard-leak/

 

• We’ve received the first official confirmation that Z390 does indeed exist, and that it will support the 8 core CPUs that Intel will be launching in 2018 to compete against AMD’s Ryzen.

• The chipset is now expected in 2018 Q1, so we may see an update by Intel at CES in January.

 

FDA approves 'trackable' pill

Source 1: posted by arbellason55 https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/859678-fda-approves-trackable-pill/

Source 2: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-41980836

 

• The Abilify MyCite aripiprazole tablets - for treating schizophrenia and manic episodes - have an ingestible sensor embedded inside them that records that the medication has been taken.

• About the size of a grain of sand, the sensor activates when it comes into contact with stomach fluid.

• A patch worn by the patient transmits this information to their smartphone.

• The information can also be sent to the prescribing doctor, if the patient consents to it.

• The pills are not licensed to be used in elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis.

• Experts hope it could improve medication compliance, although the company that makes the tablets says this has not been proved for their product.

 

Apple HomePod Delayed, Missing Holiday Season

Source 1: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-17/apple-delays-homepod-speaker-missing-holiday-shopping-season

 

• Apple’s HomePod speaker which was scheduled to ship in December, is being delayed until early next year.

• Apple will miss the critical holiday season which will see many customers lock-in to rival ecosystems from Amazon and Google.

• HomePod’s most direct competitor, the Google Home Max will be on sale in Dec.

• The delay is unlikely to materially affect Apple’s earnings since Home Pod falls into Apple’s ‘Other Products segment’, which minuscule compared to the iPhone and Services businesses.

• “We’ll start shipping in the U.S., U.K. and Australia in early 2018.”

 

Lucky Linus: Amazon Releases Echo In Canada

Source 1: posted by ThePointblank https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/860189-amazon-releases-alexa-echo-and-prime-music-in-canada/

Source 2: https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/15/16654488/amazon-alexa-echo-prime-canada

 

• Canadians will finally be able to talk to Alexa using the Amazon Echo, Echo Plus, and Echo Dot.

• Alexa will speak English with a Canadian accent and have local knowledge and local skills made by Canadian developers

  • She doesn’t speak French yet.

• Amazon anticipates 10,000 skills will be available for Canadian customers this year, including skills from Air Canada, CBC, the Weather Network, TD Bank, and Bank of Montreal.

• Prime Music is now included with every new and existing Prime membership in Canada.

  • Including Canadian playlists like "Quebec Country Now" and "Chanteuse Québécoise."

• Preorder now, shipping December 5th.

• Amazon is offering them at discounted introductory prices:

  • the Echo will be C$99.99 (usually C$129.99),

  • Echo Dot C$49.99 (usually C$69.99),

  • Echo Plus at C$169.99 (usually C$199.99).

• Echo launched in India last month and Japan last week.

Qualcomm Rejects Broadcom’s first Bid

Source 1: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-13/qualcomm-shuns-broadcom-bid-setting-up-105-billion-proxy-fight

 

• Qualcomm Inc. rejected Broadcom Ltd.’s $105 billion acquisition offer, but Broadcom says it remains “ fully committed” to going ahead with the purchase.

• The rebuff ratchets up pressure on Broadcom to sweeten its offer.

• “Broadcom offered $70 a share in cash and stock for Qualcomm

  • Qualcomm shareholders are likely to hold out for more, but we believe something in the $80-ish range is likely enough to bring most of them around,”

• The combined business would instantly become the default provider of a set of components needed to build each of the more than a billion smartphones sold every year.

  • The deal would dwarf Dell Inc.’s $67 billion acquisition of EMC in 2015 -- then the biggest in the technology industry.

 

Samsung Challenges Optane

Source 1: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/samsung-z-nand-sz985-intel-optane,35956.html

 

• Samsung's new SZ985 Z-NAND SSD uses a special flavor of flash to offer unheard of performance from a NAND-based SSD, with the intention of offering good-enough performance at a much lower price than Intel's DC P4800X Optane SSDs.

• The new drives will be aimed at data center customers first, with consumer SKUs coming later.

• The Z-NAND SSD boasts:

  • up to 3.2 GB/s of sequential read/write throughput

  • 750,000/170,000 random read/write IOPS.

  • 12-20µs latency for random reads and 16µs for random writes

• Unfortunately there’s no pricing yet.

 

Rumour: Xeon Phi is dead

Source 1: posted by patrick3027 https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/859989-xeon-phi-might-be-dead/

Source 2:  https://www.top500.org/news/intel-dumps-knights-hill-future-of-xeon-phi-product-line-uncertain/

 

• Intel announced it is removing its next-generation “Knights Hill” Xeon Phi product from its roadmap

• The chip will be replaced in favor of “a new platform and new microarchitecture specifically designed for exascale.”

• With Knights Hill gone, customers who were planning to upgrade from the current Knights Landing processors, or those who were interested in building Xeon Phi systems for the first time, no longer have much of an option

• Intel said:

  • “With market dynamics changing, Intel re-targeted investment in this program to focus on achieving exascale class computing as soon as feasible to respond to customer needs.

To support this new direction, Intel is focusing resources towards a new platform designed for the global deployment of exascale computing and the convergence of HPC, big data, and AI. This new platform will also be timed for the accelerated DOE timetable of 2021 system availability.”

[Beezohh]

I found the timestamps for the video!
02:09 - EA completely destroys Battlefront II
25:13 - iPhone X Face ID can be tricked
34:12 - Elon Musk unveils Semi-Truck & Roadster
46:33 - Sponsor: IFIXIT
47:55 - Sponsor: Mack Weldon
49:00 - Sponsor: Zotac ZBOX Giveaway
52:02 - Upcoming Floatplane Uploads
53:56 - Firefox Hardware Report
59:07 - Firefox Quantum is released
01:05:54 - Apple Homepod delayed
01:12:03 - Amazon Echo is now available in Canada

[Imbellis]

9:38 PM Hmmm. I'm unable to watch the video. It's probably on my end, so wait a couple minutes before "sending help".

 

Edit: 1:29 AM CST: Still unable on PC/mobile, .If set it to public, it's not showing up on channel.

[Carlos R]

Can’t access the video here’s, also 

=(

[Electronic Nation]

52 minutes ago, CUDA_Cores said:

Here's what I don't understand about star wars battlefront II. 

 

If you don't like it, don't buy the game!

 

Duh!

 

Just speak with your wallet.

It a waste of money.

[Daniel644]

21 minutes ago, Imbellis said:

Hmmm. I'm unable to watch the video. It's probably on my end, so wait a couple minutes before "sending help".

 

Edit: 9:55 CST: Still unable on PC/mobile, .If set it to public, it's not showing up on channel.

 

4 minutes ago, Carlos R said:

Can’t access the video here’s, also 

=(

it's not just you guys, this isn't the first time we've seen this happen with youtube

[Imbellis]

1 minute ago, Daniel644 said:

 

it's not just you guys, this isn't the first time we've seen this happen with youtube

Yeah, I'm just curious as to what the problem is. Youtube's rendering, some auto-takedown-because-of-come-copywrighted-crap, server issues, video just being weird, etc.

[Daniel644]

Just now, Imbellis said:

Yeah, I'm just curious as to what the problem is. Youtube's rendering, some auto-takedown-because-of-come-copywrighted-crap, server issues, video just being weird, etc.

just give it time, it will come back, they always do

[ISpencer97]

Quote

Intel announced it is removing its next-generation “Knights Hill” Xeon Phi product from its roadmap

I thought they were just officially announcing that they are skipping Knights Hill and going straight to Knights Mill (which has been the word ever since around when the US Department of Energy updated us on their Aurora supercomputer) or am I wrong?

[William Payne]

I really hate to sound like a complainer but is there something wrong with todays WAN Show? I can't find it anywhere. 

[Daniel644]

2 minutes ago, William Payne said:

I really hate to sound like a complainer but is there something wrong with todays WAN Show? I can't find it anywhere. 

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/202196058##

[William Payne]

Just now, Daniel644 said:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/202196058##

Cool thanks. 

[fourwordsalluppercase]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X2B-lhtkUfCnk8E864-l0QUNLjwvPJ3y/view?usp=sharing chat archive 

[unijab]

Come on... no one else noticed??

 

[yellow94]

semi truck drives drive in teams sometimes to make up for breaks and sleep so they don't have to stop which tesla's semi would have no chance to charge

[Egg-Roll]

at 1:12:00 in Luke was getting bored of Bixby Talk  The wanting to roll eyes was strong with him.

[HimymCZe]

6 hours ago, unijab said:

Come on... no one else noticed??

 

Not surprised. Last time Luke was in charge he rewrote WAN document from last week... FailFish

[Tech_Dreamer]

really good topics this week. Nice show.

[derraid]

All the Biometric methods for authentication are basically broken. While @Slick might like fingerprints more, TouchID was also broken within the first week of beieng released. Researches already demonstrated how to get fingerprints from reasonably good photos, like the ones take by a good DSLR. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30623611  

 

Same is true for iris scans and other methods. I wonder if methods like this this can be used to create faces that fool FaceID. 

 

 

 

 

 

[DoctorWho1975]

As far as BF2 goes... the whole thing has now blown up so much that as a gamer, if you are not prepared to dump the money.. don't even buy the initial game. It's just not worth it.