Daily Tech News 23 July 2023

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Gabe Bankman-Fried, brother of failed Ponzi schemer Sam, tried to buy the nation of Nauru as a prepper camp. (CNBC)

"Nauru is not for sale", said Nauru, "at least, not at that price."

(Nauru was briefly prosperous in the 70s and 80s thanks to phosphate mining by British and Australian companies, but the island is only eight square miles and the mining did a lot of damage. At one point Australia offered the much larger Curtis Island as compensation, but the deal would have made them Australian citizens and they declined.)

Tech News

The 16GB model of Nvidia's RTX 4060 Ti is here. Don't buy it. (Extreme Tech)

It averages 3% faster than the 8GB model but is 25% more expensive. Having 16GB of RAM means it will last a lot longer - current generation consoles also have 16GB of RAM so games are written with that in mind, and only having 8GB is already a problem.

But the retail price overlaps that of the much better RTX 4070, which is also overpriced and underpowered but still a clear winner over the 4060 Ti.
If you want to spend just a little bit of money upgrading a PC, the 1TB Intel 670p is now $36. (Tom's Hardware)

This is a QLC drive but has a DRAM cache on board, so it's fine for typical desktop use.

It cost $154 when it first appeared in 2021.
Hundreds of drones gracefully landed in Melbourne's Yarra River when a light show for a women's football game didn't go entirely as planned. (ABC)

And, this being the Yarra River, immediately fossilised.
Which would win, Apple's M2 CPU as found in the MacBook Air, or AMD's Z1 Extreme, aimed at low-power portable gaming devices. (Phoronix)

The tests are run under Linux, and Linux is terrible on current Mac hardware, but these are pure CPU tests and it's shouldn't matter that much.

That said, the AMD chip clobbers the Apple hardware.

Disclaimer: Unless it doesn't.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 BOING!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at July 23, 2023 04:09 AM (tRkUf)

2 Seems like it might be cheaper to hire mercenaries to conquer Nauru than buy it. But either way, you'd own Nauru, which is a pretty weird goal.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at July 23, 2023 04:17 AM (KFhLj)

3 Too early for a Sunday.

Posted by: olddog in mo at July 23, 2023 04:21 AM (lWhli)

4 Looked up that ETIAS EU thing, it even applies to transit passengers. I already can't go anywhere near Canada, so I think 2024 is it for me flying through EU countries.
So if you're like me and on a bunch of watch lists and have a multiple country record, and want to go to EU Europe, better do it now.

Posted by: LenNeal at July 23, 2023 04:27 AM (NdL8w)

5 Pixy, HOI3 on Gog crashed early in the game. What's the best way to get a good 32 bit system? It's not graphics intensive.

Posted by: SFGoth at July 23, 2023 04:31 AM (KAi1n)

6 5 Pixy, HOI3 on Gog crashed early in the game. What's the best way to get a good 32 bit system? It's not graphics intensive.

Windows 10 in VirtualBox maybe. (Or Windows 7.) You can set VirtualBox to create a 32-bit virtual machine.

Windows 11 is 64-bit only. It should be able to run 32-bit software, but some programs are fussy about that.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at July 23, 2023 04:42 AM (BLOW1)

7 What is this, Pixy? From Friday:

1 G'Day everyone TGIF
Posted by: Skip at July 21, 2023 04:19 AM (xhxe

2 FLRGLBLRT
Posted by: Pixy Misa at July 21, 2023 04:23 AM (BLOW1)

Posted by: m at July 23, 2023 05:03 AM (LodBx)

8 It doesn't actually stand for anything.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at July 23, 2023 05:06 AM (BLOW1)

9 hahahahahaha

Posted by: m at July 23, 2023 05:08 AM (LodBx)

10 It's like bait.

Posted by: m at July 23, 2023 05:09 AM (LodBx)

11 The Bankman-Fried boys will just have to wait until all charges are dropped, and the government claims they can only retrieve $13 from them, before they go and build an empire Democrat money laundering built.

Posted by: Rbastid at July 23, 2023 05:10 AM (PTGCv)

12 Spain faces stark left-right divide in hot summer vote

Spot the socialist.

https://www.bbc.com/news/
world-europe-66258206

Posted by: m at July 23, 2023 05:14 AM (LodBx)

13 Looked up that ETIAS EU thing, it even applies to transit passengers. I already can't go anywhere near Canada, so I think 2024 is it for me flying through EU countries.
So if you're like me and on a bunch of watch lists and have a multiple country record, and want to go to EU Europe, better do it now.

Posted by: LenNeal at July 23, 2023 04:27 AM (NdL8w)

Not interested, already done it in the 70s (which was a much better time - Franco was still alive).

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at July 23, 2023 05:16 AM (Mzdiz)

14 Although I guess Sweden is EU, and I did that in the 80s and 90s. I thought, if I ever have a kid, I'm coming back stateside where things are sane. Ha!

My father's been dead for 23 years. I can't imagine what he would say about things today. He'd be 86 and mad as hell.

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at July 23, 2023 05:19 AM (Mzdiz)

15 No, 91. I'm drunk and I can't do arithmetic.

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at July 23, 2023 05:21 AM (Mzdiz)

16 Did I dream that charges against old Sam were quietly dropped?

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at July 23, 2023 05:22 AM (Mzdiz)

17 Well I've killed the thread. Good night!

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at July 23, 2023 05:23 AM (Mzdiz)

18 hiya

Posted by: JT at July 23, 2023 05:24 AM (T4tVD)

19 Evening and morning to all the AoSHQ satellites in space!

Where exactly is Nauru? My first thought was "some tiny and brand-new African nation that will have a new name and dictator in five years." But Pixy's headline implies it's somewhere near AU.

Oddly, it rained last night as Miss Linda and I were coming home from dinner. We almost got caught in a short downpour. It's lowered the outside temp from 84 F. to 79 -- a dizzying drop, I know, try to control your excitement. Hey, in Da Pesthole, every little bit helps.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 23, 2023 05:34 AM (omVj0)

20 Okay, Nauru is 2100 miles from Brisbane. But the article doesn't indicate in which direction, beyond saying the island is "in the Pacific." Is it near New Caledonia, or near New Zealand, or what?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 23, 2023 05:38 AM (omVj0)

21 Nauru is pretty remote. The nearest land is an island called Banaba which is even smaller, and that's 200 miles away.

It's almost on the equator, directly north of New Zealand.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at July 23, 2023 05:52 AM (BLOW1)

22 Nauru is pretty remote. The nearest land is an island called Banaba which is even smaller, and that's 200 miles away.

Banaba ?

Sounds like a banana with a bone in it.

Posted by: JT at July 23, 2023 06:08 AM (T4tVD)

23 Quiet in here....TOO quiet. The Injuns are up to somethin'.

Posted by: JT at July 23, 2023 06:19 AM (T4tVD)

24 Tap-Tap-Tap.....is this thing on ?

Posted by: JT at July 23, 2023 06:20 AM (T4tVD)

25 At one point Australia offered the much larger Curtis Island as compensation, but the deal would have made them Australian citizens and they declined.)

They were holding out for a free hat.

Posted by: JT at July 23, 2023 06:21 AM (T4tVD)

26 4 Looked up that ETIAS EU thing, it even applies to transit passengers. I already can't go anywhere near Canada, so I think 2024 is it for me flying through EU countries.
So if you're like me and on a bunch of watch lists and have a multiple country record, and want to go to EU Europe, better do it now.
Posted by: LenNeal at July 23, 2023 04:27 AM (NdL8w)

I wonder if the EU might elect not to comply.

Posted by: m at July 23, 2023 06:35 AM (30MvH)

27 LOL a takeaway of Oppenheimer, Barbie-style:

https://nitter.net/BobcatneySpears/
status/1682948960263061505#m

Posted by: m at July 23, 2023 06:39 AM (30MvH)

28 I see that krak is up!

Posted by: m at July 23, 2023 06:43 AM (30MvH)

29 Drones. AI. What could possibly go wrong?

Posted by: FINGERS at July 23, 2023 07:38 AM (C8ve7)

30 Pixy, cd burning question? If you can help:
I want to copy a cd with almost 800mb on it to another cd. I have an external cd/dvd drive attached to a mac. Macs apparently only allow burning up to 700 mb on cds.
Should I just attach the drive to a windows machine?
Also, do I need an app / program to "over burn " the cd? Is there w good free one?
And finally, whats a decent brand "high capacity" blank cd brand?

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at July 23, 2023 08:18 AM (c8xsU)

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