Tech News and Miscellany
- Thread starter PatrThom
- Start date
Just learning about this today:
www.bleepingcomputer.com
If true, this means data records for ONE THIRD of the ENTIRE WORLD'S POPULATION have been leaked.
Just another reminder to never give anyone more information than the bare minimum they need to do whatever it is they need to do, and also a good demonstration of how a company that makes it their business to mine/scrape/collect and then collate PII from multiple sources into comprehensive profiles of individuals ALSO creates a very tempting target for people who might want to steal that information for their own nefarious purposes.
--Patrick
Hackers leak 2.7 billion data records with Social Security numbers
Almost 2.7 billion records of personal information for people in the United States were leaked on a hacking forum, exposing names, social security numbers, all known physical addresses, and possible aliases.
Just another reminder to never give anyone more information than the bare minimum they need to do whatever it is they need to do, and also a good demonstration of how a company that makes it their business to mine/scrape/collect and then collate PII from multiple sources into comprehensive profiles of individuals ALSO creates a very tempting target for people who might want to steal that information for their own nefarious purposes.
--Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
It says 2.7 billion records, not 2.7 billion people. Given that the leak apparently targets exclusively US citizens, it stands to reason that it's multiple records per person. Like, a phone bill and a mortgage statement and an insurance card and a credit report are 4 different records that could all be for the same person.
I know there's a strong likelihood of duplicates, but that doesn't make as good of a headline, right?
They're saying the breach covers people from the USA, Canada, and the UK, so I'm assuming the database was their aggregation of "English-speakers."
--Patrick
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Some pages list the amount of vendors whose cookies or "interests" they're asking permission/acceptance for. This often goes into the several hundreds per tick box, and there's often dozens of boxes to untick.
I get that meta and alphabet and whatever want my data, but who the cream are these other literally thousands of companies asking permission or just giving notification or their interest in my info?!
I get that meta and alphabet and whatever want my data, but who the cream are these other literally thousands of companies asking permission or just giving notification or their interest in my info?!
[Brazelton] AnandTech.com
www.anandtech.com
Ten years ago, site namesake Anand Shimpi left the site to go work at Apple, now the site's current "main man" Ryan Smith has announced that the site will receive no more updates. The site was continuously active for 2.7*10^-2 centuries.
I will miss it. It has been one of my main tech sites since I first discovered it.
arstechnica.com
--Patrick
End of the Road: An AnandTech Farewell
I will miss it. It has been one of my main tech sites since I first discovered it.
AnandTech, mainstay of computer hardware reviews, closes after 27 years
Site was founded by a 14-year-old Anand Lal Shimpi in 1997.
arstechnica.com
--Patrick
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Internet Archive’s e-book lending is not fair use, appeals court rules
Publishers prevail despite lack of proof of market harm.
arstechnica.com
"Group of benchwarming judges rules that putting books in front of a camera/OCR and converting them from physical printed media to digital data does not meet the legal definition of 'transformative.'" EXCUSE ME?
--Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
TIL: There is more electricity from clean energy waiting to get connected to the grid than the entire amount of energy on the grid currently, and the hold up is red tape.
So they're reusing the existing interconnects in a retiring coal plant to get their solar on the grid without having to wait for permits and such.
Seasonic is releasing a new "Tim Taylor" power supply (officially named the PX-2200) capable of supplying your sick new build with...2200W.
Yes, that's what the name means. Also this power supply is not likely to be sold in the USA, because the side effect of supplying 2200W to your computer components is that it has to pull THREE THOUSAND WATTS from the wall socket, so it is only available in a 220-240V version (because the most you can push over a standard 120V outlet in the USA is ~20A, and you'd need to push ~30A to run this thing at 120V).
But hey, if you want to try and SLI a triple-RTX4090 rig*, at least they've got you covered.
--Patrick
*NVIDIA doesn't actually support SLI any more, sorry.
Yes, that's what the name means. Also this power supply is not likely to be sold in the USA, because the side effect of supplying 2200W to your computer components is that it has to pull THREE THOUSAND WATTS from the wall socket, so it is only available in a 220-240V version (because the most you can push over a standard 120V outlet in the USA is ~20A, and you'd need to push ~30A to run this thing at 120V).
But hey, if you want to try and SLI a triple-RTX4090 rig*, at least they've got you covered.
--Patrick
*NVIDIA doesn't actually support SLI any more, sorry.
Wasn't Tim Taylor notorious for destroying everything he decided to add needlessly extra power to?
GasBandit
Staff member
MOAR POWER, HOAH HOAH HOAH
The main reason to get one of these power supplies is because you intend to use one (or more!) cards requiring the newer 12VHPWR cables that have recently been burning up the YouTubes, so now you know why I called them that. Rumor is that NVIDIA's upcoming RTX 5090 series might require two such connectors as opposed to the RTX 4090 currently (heh) only requiring one.
--Patrick
figmentPez
Staff member
I haven't installed Inkscape on this new computer yet, so my apologies for the terrible quality of this meme:
Prepare for the price of semiconductors to go up:
Hurricane Helene barreled through a crucial chip mining area in North Carolina
"The devastation also reached the small town of Spruce Pine, which is home to the purest quartz on Earth.
"Spruce Pine’s high-quality quartz is an essential ingredient in the chipmaking process, as it’s the only naturally occurring source of the ultrapure mineral. The quartz mined from this area is used as a crucible to melt polysilicon, which is then used to produce silicon wafers — the base of a semiconductor."
Relevant article, published back in April of this year: Quartz, cobalt, and the waste we leave behind
"Nearly the entire global supply of specialized containers for the CZ dipping process, for example, is produced by two mines in the town of Spruce Pine, North Carolina. 'What if something happened to those mines? What if, say, the single road that winds down from them to the rest of the world was destroyed in a landslide?' asks Conway. 'Short answer: it would not be pretty. 'Here’s something scary,' says one veteran of the sector. "If you flew over the two mines in Spruce Pine with a crop duster loaded with a very particular powder, you could end the world’s production of semiconductors and solar panels within six months." ' (Conway declines to print the name of the substance.) "
Prepare for the price of semiconductors to go up:
Hurricane Helene barreled through a crucial chip mining area in North Carolina
"The devastation also reached the small town of Spruce Pine, which is home to the purest quartz on Earth.
"Spruce Pine’s high-quality quartz is an essential ingredient in the chipmaking process, as it’s the only naturally occurring source of the ultrapure mineral. The quartz mined from this area is used as a crucible to melt polysilicon, which is then used to produce silicon wafers — the base of a semiconductor."
Relevant article, published back in April of this year: Quartz, cobalt, and the waste we leave behind
"Nearly the entire global supply of specialized containers for the CZ dipping process, for example, is produced by two mines in the town of Spruce Pine, North Carolina. 'What if something happened to those mines? What if, say, the single road that winds down from them to the rest of the world was destroyed in a landslide?' asks Conway. 'Short answer: it would not be pretty. 'Here’s something scary,' says one veteran of the sector. "If you flew over the two mines in Spruce Pine with a crop duster loaded with a very particular powder, you could end the world’s production of semiconductors and solar panels within six months." ' (Conway declines to print the name of the substance.) "
Internet Archive hacked, data breach impacts 31 million users
Internet Archive's "The Wayback Machine" has suffered a data breach after a threat actor compromised the website and stole a user authentication database containing 31 million unique records.
You do NOT hack archive.org. That's like stealing Mr. Rogers' car.
--Patrick
Dunno if anyone else has seen this, but:
www.techspot.com
Arm and Qualcomm have been arguing over Qualcomm's acquisition of Nuvia five years ago pretty much since the sale closed. Arm claims that Qualcomm's purchase of Nuvia did NOT include the right to continue to exercise the Arm licensing deal Nuvia already had with Arm, while Qualcomm continues to insist that yeah-huh it totally did and therefore shouldn't have to renegotiate a licensing deal with Arm over any licensing Nuvia already "owned."
So now Arm is threatening to entirely revoke Qualcomm's license to do anything with Arm's IP, which would essentially mean the end of Qualcomm as a company, since a vast majority of Qualcomm's portfolio is Arm-based. This might not sound like much, but try to remember that a vast quantity of Cellular modems and routing equipment out there is based on Qualcomm hardware, and if Qualcomm were to evaporate, a large number of other companies would just...not be able to make their stuff any more--companies like Apple (cell modems), most anything Android- (Snapdragon CPU) or Windows- (Windows on Arm) -related.
--Patrick
Arm vs Qualcomm: mutually assured destruction
Does Arm's latest move – canceling a Qualcomm license – imply they're willing to take the very risky step of pushing this lawsuit all the way to...
www.techspot.com
So now Arm is threatening to entirely revoke Qualcomm's license to do anything with Arm's IP, which would essentially mean the end of Qualcomm as a company, since a vast majority of Qualcomm's portfolio is Arm-based. This might not sound like much, but try to remember that a vast quantity of Cellular modems and routing equipment out there is based on Qualcomm hardware, and if Qualcomm were to evaporate, a large number of other companies would just...not be able to make their stuff any more--companies like Apple (cell modems), most anything Android- (Snapdragon CPU) or Windows- (Windows on Arm) -related.
--Patrick
Big news, if true:
www.techspot.com
Hacking group claims to have cracked Microsoft's software licensing security on a massive scale
Massgrave is a prominent group within the piracy scene, known for creating highly effective scripts designed to activate Microsoft software. These tools have gained significant popularity and...
www.techspot.com
--Patrick
"It's not all bad news, though. The commercial Blu-ray discs you buy movies and games on will still be produced, so there's no need to panic about the death of physical media just yet."
Sony is killing off recordable Blu-ray, bidding farewell to disc burning
In an interview Sony gave to AV Watch recently, the company admitted it's going to "gradually end development and production" of recordable Blu-rays and other optical disc...
So....save the panic for 2025, is what you're saying?
The optical disc onslaught continues, with LG quitting Blu-ray players
Streaming uncertainty has some people clinging to their discs.
arstechnica.com
...almost made it to 2025. They just had to wait a few more weeks. But no.
--Patrick
My PS5 plays 4K movies and that's good enough for me.