March 16, 2018 - The WAN Show Document

[LinusTech]

 

Main News Topics

GeForce Partner Program Shenanigans

Source 1: WMGroomAK https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/903857-nvidia-geforce-partner-program-well-intention-marketing-or-anti-competitive/?page=11&tab=comments#comment-11144365

Source 2: https://www.hardocp.com/article/2018/03/07/geforce_partner_program_impacts_consumer_choice

Source 3: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2018/03/01/geforce-partner-program/

 

• This was news last week but we avoided talking about it because we didn’t want to speculate before getting some concrete information ourselves.

• The story began when several websites- including HardOCP- were alerted to the goings-on by AMD

• In a blog post, from March 1st, NVidia outlined their new GeForce Partner Program, which ostensibly helps consumers identify brands that deliver the “GeForce Promise” of delivering the best PC gaming platform bar-none.

• HardOCP began interviewing AIB and OEMs, who communicated that the GPP:

  • 1.) has terms that are likely illegal.

  • 2.) GPP is likely going to tremendously hurt consumers' choices.

  • 3.) It will disrupt business with the companies that they are currently doing business with, namely AMD and Intel.

• In order to have access to the GPP program, its partners must have its "Gaming Brand Aligned Exclusively With GeForce."

• Even though Nvidia’s blog post says “Partners continue to have the ability to sell and promote products from anyone”, the GPP documentation says those who do not participate will lose benefits such as:

  • high-effort engineering engagements

  • early tech engagement

  • launch partner status

  • game bundling

  • sales rebate programs

  • social media and PR support

  • marketing reports

  • Marketing Development Funds (MDF)

• HardOCP has been told that if a company does not participate in GPP, those companies feel as if NVIDIA would hold back allocation of GPUs from their inventories.

  • This has not been spelled out contractually, but is rather done on a wink and a nod.

• It was expressed to HardOCP that publishing their article "could damage the relationship" between HardOCP and NVIDIA

 

Security flaws discovered in AMD zen processors

Source 1: Coaxialgamer https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/905422-update-security-flaws-discovered-in-amd-zen-processors-amds-meltdown/

Source 2: https://www.cnet.com/news/amd-has-a-spectre-meltdown-like-security-flaw-of-its-own/

 

• CTS-Labs, a security company based in Israel, announced Tuesday that its researchers had found 13 critical security vulnerabilities that would let attackers access data stored on AMD's Ryzen and EPYC processors, as well as install malware on them.

  • The vulnerabilities have been put into four groups, called

    • Master Key

    • Ryzenfall (lol)

    • Fallout

    • Chimera

• Thankfully, nearly all of the vulnerabilities require root access in order to be exploited.

• But it gets sketchy:

  • The researchers gave AMD less than 24 hours to look at the vulnerabilities and respond before publishing the report.

    • Standard vulnerability disclosure calls for at least 90 days notice so companies have time to address flaws properly.

      • Google gave Intel six months to fix issues related to Spectre and Meltdown.

  • The researchers pre-briefed media AND a company that makes money by shorting the stock market

    • Viceroy Research published an “obituary” for AMD just 30 mins after CTS-Labs publicized the vulnerabilities.

 

LEAK: NVIDIA to announce RTX Technology

Source 1: Razor01 https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/906478-raytracing-api/

Source 2: https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-to-announce-rtx-technology

 

• Rumour has it a new NVIDIA GameWorks Ray Tracing feature will be announced on Monday, enabling real-time effects such as Glossy Reflections, Area Shadows and Ambient Occlusion.

• This technology is going to be “highly optimized” on the upcoming NVIDIA Volta GPUs, presumably at a hardware level.

• NVIDIA has partnered with Microsoft to create a DirectX Ray Tracing API;

  • this is already being used by major publishers and developers like

    • Electronic Arts,

    • 4A Games (who are making Metro Exodus, due for release this year)

    • Remedy Games (now at work on Project 7, due in 2019).

• The API is said to be supported by the most popular game engines,

  • Unreal Engine 4

  • Unity 5

  • DICE’s Frostbite engine, now used in almost all the games made by Electronic Arts.

 

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

Rapid Fire

Sony removes headphone jack because it looks better

Source 1: posted by D13H4RD2L1V3 https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/905996-sony-we-removed-the-headphone-jack-due-to-the-xz2s-design/

Source 2: https://blogs.sonymobile.com/2018/03/04/sony-mobile-mwc-2018-faq/amp/

 

• In their own blogpost about their Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact phones, Sony outlines possibly the WORST two reasons for removing the headphone jack:

  • It looks more sleek without it

  • Other companies are doing it

 

Intel announces hardware fixes for Spectre and Meltdown on upcoming chips

Source 1: https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/15/intel-announces-hardware-fixes-for-spectre-and-meltdown-on-upcoming-chips/

Source 2: https://newsroom.intel.com/editorials/advancing-security-silicon-level/

 

• Intel has moved faster than most predicted, announcing that chips coming out later this year will include improvements at the hardware/architecture level that protect against the Meltdown and Spectre

• While Variant 1 will continue to be addressed via software mitigations, Intel is making changes to their hardware design to further address the Variants 2 and 3.

  • We have redesigned parts of the processor to introduce new levels of protection through partitioning

  • Think of this partitioning as additional “protective walls” between applications and user privilege levels to create an obstacle for bad actors.

• These changes will begin with their next-generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors (code-named Cascade Lake) as well as 8th Generation Intel® Core™ processors expected to ship in the second half of 2018.

• In the meantime, Intel has now released microcode updates for 100 percent of Intel products launched in the past five years that require protection against the side-channel method vulnerabilities discovered by Google.

 

Drake & Ninja breaks twitch.tv's highest viewer count

Source 1: Dougaroo https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/905998-drake-ninja-breaks-twitchtvs-highest-viewer-count/

Source 2: https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/15/17123424/ninja-drake-fortnite-twitch-stream-record-travis-scott-juju

 

• On Wednesday, Twitch broke its record for most-viewed stream by a single player when pro-gamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins assembled played Fortnite with

  • NFL rookie JuJu Smith-Schuster (FaZeJuJu_19),

  • rapper Travis Scott (cactus_jackk92),

  • And pop superstar Drake (TheBoyDuddus)

• At its peak, the stream was trending on Twitter and hit 628,000 concurrent viewers, smashing the previous record of 388,000 viewers for a single-player stream.

  • Ninja usually gets around 70,000 live viewers per stream, and will earn at least $350,000 this month

• Fortnight has overtaken PUBG in active players, mostly because it’s free to play.

 

Apple supplier accused of using unauthorized parts

Source 1: DrMacintosh https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/906288-apple-supplier-accused-of-using-unauthorized-parts-in-iphone-8-plus/

Source 2: https://9to5mac.com/2018/03/15/wistron-unauthorized-components-denial/

 

• Chinese news site Commercial Times has claimed that iPhone supplier Wistron was caught using ‘unauthorized components’ in its production of the iPhone 8 Plus in China.

• The report says that Apple ordered the company to halt production when the issue came to light, with assembly suspended for two weeks

  • Wistron has issued a statement saying “there was not a “two-week production suspension” and that production remains completely normal.

    • ...but they didn’t deny using unauthorized parts

• The issue concerns the use of waterproof components not certified by Apple.

• Wistron is said to have ‘penalized’ a number of mid- and high-level executives as a way of demonstrating to Apple that it takes the matter seriously.

• Wistron is only a secondary supplier to Apple in China, with Foxconn picking up the bulk of iPhone orders, but is a major iPhone assembler in India.

 

EA is turning Star Wars Battlefront II into a real video game

Source 1: TimeOmnivore https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/906487-ea-is-turning-star-wars-battlefront-ii-into-a-real-video-game/

Source 2: https://battlefront-forums.ea.com/discussion/102520/revamped-progression-is-coming-soon

 

• In a blogpost, EA announced a complete re-design of the in-game progression system for Star Wars Battlefront II to be launched on March 21st.

• Progression is now linear.

  • Star Cards, or any other item impacting gameplay, will only be earned through gameplay and will not be available for purchase.

  • Instead, you’ll earn experience points for the classes, hero characters, and ships that you choose to play in multiplayer.

  • If you earn enough experience points to gain a level for that unit, you'll receive one Skill Point that can be used to unlock or upgrade the eligible Star Card you'd like to equip.

• You'll keep everything you’ve already earned and unlocked.

  • You will keep all of the Star Cards, heroes, weapons, or anything else you have already earned.

  • What you have earned will still be available to use with this update regardless of how much or little progress you have already made.

• Crates no longer include Star Cards and cannot be purchased.

  • Crates are earned by logging in daily, completing Milestones, and through timed challenges.

  • Inside of these crates, you'll find Credits or cosmetic items, such as emotes or victory poses, but nothing that impacts gameplay.

• Starting in April, you’ll be able to get appearances directly through in-game Credits or Crystals.

• They’re also going to be rolling out a bunch of new mods over the coming months.

 

California proposes the toughest net neutrality law in US

Source 1: AluminiumTech https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/906054-california-bans-paid-zero-rating-and-proposes-the-toughest-net-neutrality-law-in-us/

Source 2: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/03/att-and-verizon-data-cap-exemptions-would-be-banned-by-california-bill/

 

• A proposed net neutrality law in California would replace the repealed federal regulations, and even go beyond them by banning payments for data cap exemptions.

• If passed, the bill would ban AT&T's Sponsored Data and Verizon's "FreeBee" data

• "The [California] bill prohibits ISPs from blocking, speeding up or slowing down websites, applications, and services; charging online companies for access to an ISP's customers and blocking those that do not pay; and from entering into deals with online companies to put them in a fast lane to the ISP's customers,"

• The California bill is notable for prohibiting ISPs from charging "access fees" that online services would have to pay in order to send data to broadband consumers.

  • "None of the other [state] bills have done this and it's one of the loopholes that ISPs will use (if it’s not closed) to extract payments from edge providers,"

 

Twitch Prime now offers Free Games every month!

Source 1: suicidalfranco https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/906097-amazon-going-up-against-xbox-gold-and-ps-with-its-new-twitch-prime-initiative/

Source 2: https://www.tomshw.it/amazon-giochi-gratis-mese-gli-utenti-twitch-prime-92285

 

• Starting this month, Twitch Prime members will get five free PC games each and every month.

• Just claim the games during the window they’re available and you’ll be able to access them as long as you have a Prime account.

  • Twitch desktop app is required.

• Games for March 6th to April 3rd:

  • Superhot

  • Oxenfree

  • Shadow Tactics

  • Mr. Shifty

  • Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation

• Next month: Tales from the Borderland, SteamWorld Dig 2 , Kingsway , Tokyo 42 and Dubwars

• You also get some free in-game items and no ads.

• Twitch Prime is included with Amazon Prime

 

Bitcoin Mining Banned in Upstate New York Town

Source 1: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-16/bitcoin-mining-banned-for-first-time-in-upstate-new-york-town

Source 2:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/03/new-york-power-companies-can-now-charge-bitcoin-miners-more/

 

• Plattsburgh NY has put an 18-month moratorium on commercial cryptocurrency mining in order to preserve natural resources, the health of its residents, and the “character and direction” of the city.

• Plattsburgh gets cheap power from the St. Lawrence River, driving down electricity costs for residents, but it exceeded its allotted amount of hydropower in December and January, according to a local newspaper.

  • Some complained that their bills surged as much as $300.

  • - i’ve also read monthly bills increased $10

• During the moratorium, the city will not consider new applications for commercial cryptocurrency mining.

• Those who break the rules face up to $1,000 for each day of violation.

• Local power companies in NY are now allowed to raise electricity rates for cryptocurrency miners.

• In the Village of Akron, a cryptocurrency mining operation requested a 5 MW increase in electricity delivery.

  • "If Akron were to comply with the request at existing rates, Akron’s annual average bulk power supply costs would have increased 54 percent with a direct impact on retail rates,"

 

Steve Jobs’ 1973 job application fetches $174,000 at auction

Source 1: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/03/steve-jobs-1973-job-application-fetches-174000-at-auction/

Source 2:

 

• A handwritten job application from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has sold for more than $174,000 to an Internet entrepreneur from England who doesn't want to be publicly identified.

• The 17 or 18 year old Jobs  identified himself as an English literature major at Reed College with experience in both computers and calculators.

• Under "special abilities," he wrote "electronics tech or design engineer. digital." He added, "From Bay near Hewlett-Packard."

• The auction house initially estimated the letter was worth $50,000.

• Two other bits of Jobs memorabilia were also sold in the auction.

  • A Mac OS X manual signed by Jobs sold for $41,806,

  • A newspaper clipping signed by Jobs sold for $26,950.

• The year after filling out this application, Jobs found a job at Atari, then a two-year-old startup.

 

LEAK: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X/2700 and Ryzen 5 2600X/2600 benchmarks

Source 1: https://videocardz.com/75305/amd-ryzen-7-2700x-2700-and-ryzen-5-2600x-2600-benchmarks-leak-out

Source 2:

 

• Multiple leaks have appeared this week at various benchmarking databases- and they align with an AMD slide deck that leaked last week.

• See chart, linked.

 

Samsung Power Outage Damages 60,000 wafers

Source 1: https://technews.tw/2018/03/13/samsung-nand-flash-factory-power-failure/?id=ecmy1432018

Source 2:

 

• A 30-minute power outage at Samsung’s NAND Flash plant in Pyeongtaek on March 9th has damaged 50-60,000 wafers.

• That’s about 11% of Samsung’s production for March, or 3.5% of the global supply for the month.

• The market impact is expected to show up gradually over the coming weeks.

 

Broadcom officially ends bid for Qualcomm

Source 1: http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/14/news/companies/broadcom-qualcomm-deal-trump/index.html

Source 2:

 

• Broadcom has rescinded its $117 billion offer to buy Qualcomm two days after President Trump stopped the deal, citing national security concerns.

  • Broadcom also pulled its proposed nominees to Qualcomm's board of directors.

• The US Committee on Foreign Investment advised the president to block the deal under the contention that Broadcomm’s acquisition of Qualcomm would leads to less investment into the development of 5G in the US

  • Without Qualcomm leading the charge, the committee fears Chinese companies like Huawei would gain dominance

 

SpaceX trying to reach Mars in 2019

Source 1: https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/11/spacex-may-test-bfr-rocket-in-first-half-2019/

Source 2:

 

• In a talk at SXSW, Elon Musk said he expected the spacecraft's first "short up-and-down flights" by the first half of 2019, being sure to note that timelines tend to be "optimistic"

  • Falcon Heavy was supposed to launch in 2013

• The BFR spacecraft would use a total of 37 Raptor engines, is meant to be completely reusable, and would be SpaceX's first vehicle designed for missions beyond Earth.

• It can carry about 150 tons, or five times as much cargo as Falcon Heavy

[lewdicrous]

TL;DR? just watch the damn thing lol

[Canada EH]

LEAK: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X/2700 and Ryzen 5 2600X/2600 benchmarks

 

This is the only one I am interested in.

 

RUMORED AMD Ryzen Desktop 2000 Series Specifications
Model	Cores/Threads	Base Clock	Turbo Clock	TDP	Price
Ryzen 7 2700X	8C/16T	3.7 GHz	4.35 GHz	105W	369 USD
Ryzen 7 2700	8C/16T	3.2 GHz	4.1 GHz	65W	299 USD
Ryzen 5 2600X	6C/12T	3.6 GHz	4.25 GHz	95W	249 USD
Ryzen 5 2600	6C/12T	3.3 GHz	3.9 GHz	65W	199 USD
Ryzen 5 2400G	4C/8T	3.6 GHz	3.9 GHz	65W	169 USD
Ryzen 3 2200G	4C/4T	3.5 GHz	3.7 GHz	65W	99 USD

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thumbnail states

NVIDIA Allegedly F***ing Everyone - WAN Show Mar. 16 2018

 

but you took that part out as the NVIDIA topic doesnt state the thumbnail?

only rtx

 

 

 

[Mash Tatoes]

So, you mentioned that hardware that is branded as for gamers sells more products, you think that nvidia should brand for mining? Do you think this would lower the flood towards other hardware as it would induce the belief that there is specialized gear and other hardware is lesser for those uses?

[wutno]

@LinusTech, just wanted to let you know Intel have been pushing out microcode updates with regards to spectre and meltdown going back to Westmere. However most OEMs haven't or aren't going to push BIOS updates to support this.

 

The PDF goes over what SKUs they have and haven't patched yet.

https://newsroom.intel.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2018/03/microcode-update-guidance.pdf

[Paranoid Kami]

Luke looks like an old man in that shirt.

[PushForMusic]

@ 19:52, Luke mentions not recommending installation of the Geforce Experience app; referencing talking about it on a different episode. Does someone remember which episode that was or where I can find more information? Thanks!

[Rambo]

Allegedly™

[GPapageorgopoulos]

NVidia is dead to me.

[GPapageorgopoulos]

https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3028437/amd-ryzen-epyc-cpus-critical-flaws-linus-torvalds-fake

[Hans Power]

Who in their right mind ever thought that Linus was in Nvidias pockets? I mean, you hear a lot of shit about someone being in the pocket of some company but Nvidia of all things!? People might wanna keep their paranoia in check.

[TechyBen]

Bitcoin mining banned on the power grid (good thing IMO!)?

 

[Guitarpunkmasta]

umm i dont get what the nvidia partner program is and why its bad can someone explain it in a dumb way

[porina]

14 minutes ago, Guitarpunkmasta said:

umm i dont get what the nvidia partner program is and why its bad can someone explain it in a dumb way

You sign up, and nvidia give you more "help" than otherwise. Basically, if you don't join, you will be at a disadvantage to those who do. The part that is causing problems is a clause they put in saying the gaming brand needs to be nvidia exclusive, which would then put AMD offerings at a disadvantage if it were to happen. It doesn't mean they can't sell AMD cards, but they can't be the same gaming brand as nvidia ones.

[natsuu]

whats the hoodie luke is wearing? @luke

[Zodiark1593]

That facepalm when Linus read Ryzenfall. My sentiments exactly.

[Zodiark1593]

1 hour ago, porina said:

You sign up, and nvidia give you more "help" than otherwise. Basically, if you don't join, you will be at a disadvantage to those who do. The part that is causing problems is a clause they put in saying the gaming brand needs to be nvidia exclusive, which would then put AMD offerings at a disadvantage if it were to happen. It doesn't mean they can't sell AMD cards, but they can't be the same gaming brand as nvidia ones.

So long as the company runs a seperate gaming brand between GeForce and Radeon cards, then the company gets Nvidia's blessing, correct?

 

This would royally screw over those with an already established gaming brand, such as Asus's Republic of Gamers, unless they wish to fork the brand, perhaps. (Republic of Gamers: Manticore Series, referring to the fact that the gpu vebdor is, in fact, a Manticore.)

[porina]

14 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

So long as the company runs a seperate gaming brand between GeForce and Radeon cards, then the company gets Nvidia's blessing, correct?

I don't know if that'll be enough, as I'm not sure we have enough detail to know what is required exactly.

[fapoulous]

So, I know Linus said he wouldn't (be able) to acquire NCIX but you guys probably also saw the two documents in the downloads right?Source: SealandStronk on r/LinusTechTips

The thing is, http://ncix.com seems to be online again and was last updated today according to the bottom of the page.

soooo...maybe he did acquire the, or at least parts, of the IP ?

 

Update:

According to a whois on ncix.com it's still registered to the former owner

Quote

Domain Name: NCIX.COM
Registry Domain ID: 2581552_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.enom.com
Registrar URL: www.enom.com
Updated Date: 2017-12-21T06:41:10.00Z
Creation Date: 1997-01-28T05:00:00.00Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2021-01-29T05:00:00.00Z
Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Registrar IANA ID: 48
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Registry Registrant ID: 
Registrant Name: STEVE WU
Registrant Organization: NETLINK COMPUTER INC.
Registrant Street: 13720 MAYFIELD PLACE
Registrant City: RICHMOND
Registrant State/Province: BC
Registrant Postal Code: V6V 2E4
Registrant Country: CA
Registrant Phone: +1.6042888080
Registrant Phone Ext: 
Registrant Fax: +1.6042888031
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: STEVE@NCIX.COM
Registry Admin ID: 
Admin Name: STEVE WU
Admin Organization: NETLINK COMPUTER INC.
Admin Street: 13720 MAYFIELD PLACE
Admin City: RICHMOND
Admin State/Province: BC
Admin Postal Code: V6V 2E4
Admin Country: CA
Admin Phone: +1.6042888080
Admin Phone Ext: 
Admin Fax: +1.6042888031
Admin Fax Ext:
Admin Email: STEVE@NCIX.COM
Registry Tech ID: 
Tech Name: STEVE WU
Tech Organization: NETLINK COMPUTER INC.
Tech Street: 13720 MAYFIELD PLACE
Tech City: RICHMOND
Tech State/Province: BC
Tech Postal Code: V6V 2E4
Tech Country: CA
Tech Phone: +1.6042888080
Tech Phone Ext: 
Tech Fax: +1.6042888031
Tech Fax Ext: 
Tech Email: STEVE@NCIX.COM
Name Server: ARAGORN.NS.CLOUDFLARE.COM
Name Server: MARGE.NS.CLOUDFLARE.COM
DNSSEC: unSigned
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@enom.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.4252982646
URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System: http://wdprs.internic.net/
>>> Last update of WHOIS database: 2017-12-21T06:41:10.00Z <<<