Interesting Tech Articles

[mevinyavin]

List of reliable brands for MicroSD cards, courtesy of TechRadar:

Should you buy a microSD card, make sure it’s one of these 14 brands: Samsung, Kingston, SP/Silicon Power, Teamgroup, Sandisk, WD, PNY, Lexar, Inland, Gigastone, Patriot, Transcend, Amazon Basics and MicroCenter. We wouldn’t trust any others.

[stooges44]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/02/tech/first-generation-iphone-auction/index.html

[mevinyavin]

[mevinyavin]

In preliminary tests, the RTX 4060 mobile appears to be performing at about the level of the 3070 TI, at least when allowed the maximum 140W. (I have a sneaky suspicion that most of the gains come from the up from 6 to 8GB of VRAM, but fine.)
Based on preliminary 4000 series laptop pricing, though, prices are also on par with the 3070 TI laptops. Hmm... 

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Impressive-RTX-4060-laptop-GPU-performs-on-par-with-RTX-3070-Ti-laptop-and-beats-RTX-3060-mobile-by-27-in-preliminary-review.693503.0.html

[mevinyavin]

Integrated graphics in the new AMD laptop processors are being called "on par with PS4," whatever that means.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Ryzen-7-7736U-integrated-Radeon-680M-achieves-Playstation-4-level-graphics-runs-God-of-War-Horizon-Zero-Dawn-and-Final-Fantasy-XV-at-1080p30.697472.0.html

[aygart]

https://hackaday.com/2023/02/21/youtube-as-infinite-file-storage/

[mevinyavin]

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/potatop-laptop-promises-2-years-of-battery-life

[yuneeq]

https://hackaday.com/2023/02/21/youtube-as-infinite-file-storage/

Reminds me of the gmail invite-only days, when they were offering a whopping 1-2 gb of space (compared to 10x less for yahoo/others), we would upload files to a draft or attachment to use it as free online storage. Using drafts was a bit unwieldy but then somebody built a program that made it much easier to manage. I remembering storing my music library in gmail, which now sounds super weird when I say it.

https://techcrunch.com/2005/07/31/profile-gmail-drive/

[mevinyavin]

https://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Ryzen-9-7945HX-gets-ridiculous-on-PassMark-by-brushing-aside-the-Intel-Core-i9-13980HX-and-squaring-off-against-the-i9-13900KS-instead.700308.0.html

[mevinyavin]

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/10-things-to-know-before-you-buy-refurbished-electronics

[mevinyavin]

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-s-high-end-convertible-Yoga-9-14-would-benefit-massively-from-an-AMD-processor.704376.0.html

Last year we reviewed the Yoga 9i 14 with its 4K OLED screen and it was one of the best convertibles you could buy. However, it also had its weak points, particularly the comparatively high fan activity, which was due to the processor's high power limits. Although performance was good, it often led to the fans firing up during short load peaks. Intel has been able to improve processor efficiency and performance somewhat with the brand new Raptor Lake processor, but the power limits are still very high at up to 64 watts and the high fan activity still remains one of the Yoga 9i 14's biggest problems. Aside from the updated processor, nothing has changed from the previous model and the integrated graphics card hasn't changed either, which is why there has been no progress in gaming performance.

An AMD processor could solve two of these problems, as last year's Zen3+ CPUs such as the Ryzen 7 6800U (or now the Ryzen 7 7736U) would provide decent power limits up to 30 watts and also offer the much faster Radeon 680M iGPU. Thanks to USB 4 support, the omission of Thunderbolt would probably not be a problem for most users. It's possible that Lenovo only wants to install the latest components in its high-end convertible and has thus decided against AMD models, since the new Zen4 chips of the HS and U series are still a long way off. So this leaves only the Raptor Lake chip, even if the "old" Ryzen 7 7736U would bring more advantages for customers.

You should also be careful when choosing a display, as Lenovo offers two different OLED touchscreens. We reviewed the 2.8K model, which we already know from other Lenovo models such as the Yoga 7. The image quality is fundamentally good, but there is a visible raster effect (i.e. moiré effect), which is especially visible on bright surfaces and at short sitting distances. Whether this is bothersome also depends on subjective perception, but we recommend paying the surcharge of around US$120 for the 4K OLED touchscreen, since the effect does not exist here and the subjective image quality is better. However, the 2.8K OLED seems to consume even more power. Nonetheless, we still think it would be best if Lenovo sold its best consumer convertible exclusively with the better 4K OLED.

If you are seriously interested in the Yoga 9i 14, you should opt for last year's model with the Intel Alder Lake processor, as this has no practical disadvantages compared to the new Raptor Lake chip, so you can buy the discounted models without second thoughts. We recommend the 4K OLED and corresponding models are currently available from around US$ 1,400. All further information on the Yoga 9 14 can be found in our detailed review.

[mevinyavin]

MMO players heist a "corporation" and gain in-game items worth about $22000 in real world value.
https://kotaku.com/eve-online-heist-steal-theft-crime-ccp-corporation-mmo-1850330636

EVE Online is, for some, a video game they play. For the rest of us it’s a crime beat, an MMO we only ever read about when someone does something nefarious, and today’s coverage of the game is another shining example in the genre.

As PC Gamer reports, a pair of players recently planned—and successfully pulled off—an enormous heist, netting them control of one of EVE’s corporations, and as a result possession of some in-game items valued at over $20,000. The thing is it wasn’t really a heist at all, since everything the duo did was entirely by the book.

The operation—spelled out in detail in a Reddit post by one of the bandits, Flam_Hill—began when the players teamed up with the ultimate goal of taking down a corporation, and in their research finding that one (Event Horizon Expeditionaires) had a board consisting of a CEO and directors who were “minimally active”.

The game has rules, like actual corporations, where anyone with shares can trigger a vote for a new CEO. So they bought some shares, called a vote and waited to see if anyone would notice. After a 72-hour waiting period, instituted by developers CCP to prevent this kind of thing from happening, the “minimally active” board hadn’t responded or seemingly even noticed the election, and so—as Ars point out, in scenes similar to the Simpsons episode where Bart loses his class election—with just two votes cast, Flam_Hill and their partner had won control of the entire corporation.

They had no intentions of running it, of course, just fleecing it for everything they could, and at the end of their operation they’d looted 130 billion of the game’s ISK in-game currency, and seized assets worth another 2 trillion. That adds up to, Flam_Hill estimates, around $22,309 in actual US dollars, though it’s difficult to put an exact figure on it since there’s no official way to convert ISK into USD (there are, however, some grey market workarounds).

A heist that’s pulled off by...reading the rules of a corporation might not sound like the most exciting in a game like this, but as this shows, why go to all the trouble of going to war and risking everything when you can just take advantage of the fact a bunch of guys didn’t check their emails for three days.

[mevinyavin]

https://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Ryzen-5-7520U-Processor-Benchmarks-and-Specs.654934.0.html
Among other things, this article is quite practical for those considering laptops powered by it.

A few important takeways:
Every Ryzen 5 in the 4-5 generation had six cores. This showed in the benchmarks.
However, this Ryzen 5 7520U only has FOUR. According to this article's writer, that means it has "slightly better performance than a 4000 series Ryzen," without also noting that the processor so compared is a two-year-old Ryzen 3 and that the two year old Ryzen 5's two extra cores probably make it better.
Now, I have read good things about the integrated Radeon 610M, but it seems this version is watered down anyway. Also, it should be better in power efficiency (and that says a lot because the 4000s were already stellar). Physically, the "2" at the end of the ID (7520U) tells you this is Zen 2, aka three year old architecture (think Zen 2 +++ but not quite Zen 3).

As always, feel free to consult with me before buying a laptop.

[mevinyavin]

https://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Ryzen-5-7520U-Processor-Benchmarks-and-Specs.654934.0.html
Among other things, this article is quite practical for those considering laptops powered by it.

A few important takeways:
Every Ryzen 5 in the 4-5 generation had six cores. This showed in the benchmarks.
However, this Ryzen 5 7520U only has FOUR. According to this article's writer, that means it has "slightly better performance than a 4000 series Ryzen," without also noting that the processor so compared is a two-year-old Ryzen 3 and that the two year old Ryzen 5's two extra cores probably make it better.
Now, I have read good things about the integrated Radeon 610M, but it seems this version is watered down anyway. Also, it should be better in power efficiency (and that says a lot because the 4000s were already stellar). Physically, the "2" at the end of the ID (7520U) tells you this is Zen 2, aka three year old architecture (think Zen 2 +++ but not quite Zen 3).

As always, feel free to consult with me before buying a laptop.

Tech journalists are discovering what I had noticed a bit back (was I paying more attention when AMD 7000s were launched?). This article basically says that the only new mobile processors in the new 7000 series lineup are the 45W Ryzen 7 7840H or the Ryzen 9 7945HX.
Those last two are indeed amazing, but they are it. Everything else is equal to the 6000s (or older, as I noted above).
https://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Ryzen-7-6800H-vs-Ryzen-7-7735HS-Don-t-fall-for-the-rebrand.709889.0.html
A few juicy lines:

The problem is that most of the mobile Ryzen 7000 CPUs aren't even utilizing the Zen 4 architecture and are instead built on older designs dating back to Zen 2. Thus, the performance of some of these new 7000 series CPUs can be almost exactly the same as an older processor despite their different names.

An example of this relates to the 2022 Ryzen 7 6800H and 2023 Ryzen 7 7735HS. Both are based on the same Zen 3+ architecture with exactly the same cache sizes, number of cores, and integrated Radeon 680M graphics. The Beelink SER6 Pro, which comes in both 6800H and 7735HS SKUs, would perform almost exactly the same in all benchmarks as shown by our comparison charts below.

One might expect the newer 7735HS to at least offer higher performance-per-watt, but that does not appear to be the case, either. Power consumption would be nearly identical between the two mini PC SKUs when similar loads are introduced.

Now, as I said, I HAVE been paying attention. And I read very many laptop reviews. If you have any questions, just ask.

[stooges44]

https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/1/23706311/hinton-godfather-of-ai-threats-fears-warnings

[mevinyavin]

https://www.pcgamer.com/so-youre-telling-me-that-us-crypto-mining-used-more-power-last-year-than-all-the-computers/

This graph seems so unbelievable it makes the thing a little hard to parse. But basically, cryptocurrency mining in the US sucked down more energy that every computer in the entire country. Every. Single. Computer.

Yes, even Macs.

Hell, at 50 billion kWh, crypto mining in the US almost used more power than all the televisions. And there are quite a few TVs in the States, in case you'd forgotten.

I've seen all the stories about cryptocurrency mining using more power than [insert country here], and those stats are always pretty astounding. But they always relate to the entirety of the global crypto network, or just the bitcoin mining around the world. And it's quite easy to insulate yourself against such broad terms.

But when it's just about the output of a single country—albeit the single largest contributor to the bitcoin mining industry—to me it seems to hit home much harder.

This all comes from a White House report on the proposed Digital Asset Mining Energy (DAME) excise tax(opens in new tab) which uses the graph above to highlight just how much power the useless endeavour actually uses. And it's not just the fact it's using a lot of energy and therefore causing a huge amount of carbon emissions, crypto firms can cause the energy prices of the surrounding area to spike for normal citizens, too.

All for the pursuit of "digital assets whose broader social benefits have yet to materialize."

Here's the full image with all the caveats:

The estimated power consumption of crypto mining in the US compared with other energy usage


(Image credit: The White House)

The cryptocurrency mining figures in the graph have been estimated using both global crypto energy usage and the United States' share of bitcoin and ethereum mining until 'The Merge' happened(opens in new tab). In fairness, as an estimate, the graph shows the potential variation in the overall number, so it could actually be in the low 30 billions kWh used (which still puts it above all those computers) or up to the high 60 billions kWh.

That upper limit then puts it in the same ballpark as the power drawn in total by every light in the entire country for 2022.

Every other thing on that list has at least some benefit, whether in terms of business or merely societal, but neither bitcoin nor ethereum contribute anything for the harm they cause, even now the latter is not actually mined.

It's surely unsustainable, and hopefully punitive taxes such as the DAME levy will make it so unprofitable to mint useless digital assets that the industry grinds to a halt.  But maybe that's just me on my crypto high-horse. Maybe one day it'll actually be worth all the damage it's wrought. Though I kinda doubt that.

[mevinyavin]

This writer argues that laptops with a RTX 4080 are a waste of money.
https://www.laptopmag.com/features/buying-an-rtx-4080-laptop-or-higher-is-setting-your-money-on-fire-heres-why

[stooges44]

https://www.cultofmac.com/815853/apple-busts-major-ios-17-leaker-tipster/

[mevinyavin]

[mevinyavin]

Wasn't sure where to put this. A quiz about how well you know your old phones (as advertised) movies (in actuality). I got 7/10 but I don't think I actually knew more than two of the answers (multiple choice, and three answers at least are given to you automatically).

https://www.techradar.com/news/how-well-do-you-know-the-history-of-mobile-phones