Daily Tech News 13 April 2026

Top Story

DC. Suicide Squad is a DC property, not Marvel.
The peril of laziness lost. (Dtrace)

AI makes it easy to generate millions of lines of code.

What it doesn't make it is a good idea.

It used to be that laziness by itself placed a brake on the wheel of code churn. Now you also need to know what you are doing. And that is hard work to begin with.

Tech News

Don't buy the Ultra 7. (Notebook Check)

Dell's new XPS lineup comes in Ultra 5, Ultra 7, and Ultra X7 models.

The Ultra 5 and 7 have almost indistinguishable performance. The X7 is significantly faster for CPU-intensive tasks, and enormously faster for graphics.
Twitter is cutting payments by 60% or more to clickbait accounts. (Tech Crunch)

Good.
Europe is not a serious country. (Hacker News)

In this case, a programmer in Spain couldn't access Docker images on Cloudflare because a football match was on.
If you wanted to play the new game Crimson Desert but couldn't because it didn't run on Intel graphics, now you can. (WCCFTech)

They fixed it.

...

Yeah, that's about it, really. They've released three major updates - including Intel graphics support - in four weeks.

Musical Interlude

Disclaimer: More pfft.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 w00t

Posted by: m at April 13, 2026 04:33 AM (fNISR)

2 YAY! It's gonna be a bright (bright, bright) sunshiny day!

Posted by: m at April 13, 2026 04:33 AM (fNISR)

3 G'Day everyone
Its Monday again, isn't it?

Posted by: Skip at April 13, 2026 04:33 AM (Ia/+0)

4 Morning, Tech Peeps

Posted by: fluffy at April 13, 2026 04:34 AM (AN2gy)

5 Morning, 'rons and 'ettes.

Posted by: olddog in mo at April 13, 2026 04:35 AM (bQ4nt)

6 Cowboy Bebop is a awesome series, would be a good movie

Posted by: Skip at April 13, 2026 04:35 AM (Ia/+0)

7 Mornin'

Posted by: Puddleglum, cheer up for the worst is yet to come at April 13, 2026 04:35 AM (sAmhv)

8 "DC. Suicide Squad is a DC property, not Marvel."

There's a back story here I must be missing...

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent at April 13, 2026 04:37 AM (/HDaX)

9 Good morning! Waiting for the sun to rise and the birds to come to the feeders. The morning cup is loaded with Chiapas Altura.

Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at April 13, 2026 04:37 AM (3Ope8)

10 X says it’s reducing payments to clickbait accounts

Oh no! What will Cernovich do now!! Ok, I kid, sort of. This is good. I hate clickbait.

Posted by: Puddleglum, cheer up for the worst is yet to come at April 13, 2026 04:39 AM (sAmhv)

11 https://tinyurl.com/3xaaerad
20 Posts from Doug Ross journal

Haven't had one of these in awhile, he seems fascinated with AI recently

Posted by: Skip at April 13, 2026 04:40 AM (Ia/+0)

12 Espresso is not a completely acceptable substitute for a large cup of strong coffee.

It's pleasant, but one cannot linger over an espresso.

One more data point in the huge dataset demonstrating America's superiority over Europe.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at April 13, 2026 04:41 AM (g0MSz)

13 Cowboy Bebop is the only anime I own. Its outstanding!

Posted by: Puddleglum, cheer up for the worst is yet to come at April 13, 2026 04:42 AM (sAmhv)

14 Cowboy Bebop is a awesome series, would be a good movie

Yeah, they (Hollywood) tried that; it was shit. Maybe AI could do a better job; at least AI would make Faye look like herself, if not more giggity.

Posted by: Richard Cranium at April 13, 2026 04:46 AM (u5xQp)

15 8 "DC. Suicide Squad is a DC property, not Marvel."

There's a back story here I must be missing...
Posted by: Additional Blond Agent

Yesterday's musical interlude was a song from the anime adaptation of Suicide Squad, and I misidentified the franchise.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at April 13, 2026 04:46 AM (BLOW1)

16 Guten morgen, horde.

Posted by: clarence at April 13, 2026 04:47 AM (H1EjZ)

17 Ahhh, got it.

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent at April 13, 2026 04:49 AM (/HDaX)

18 Posted by: Puddleglum, cheer up for the worst is yet to come at April 13, 2026 04:39 AM (sAmhv)

I am woefully ignorant of how to discern between bot-heavy or Paki-heavy accounts and ones with real followers.

That would be a marvelous upgrade to X!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at April 13, 2026 04:50 AM (g0MSz)

19 No country for old programmers: I came up in an era when "dupe the deck" meant reusing, for another purpose, software already written and tested. I cannot imagine generating 37,000 lines of NEW code a day. I'm sure it's all good.

the "deck" was a bunch of punch cards.

Posted by: JM in Illinois at April 13, 2026 04:58 AM (DGAza)

20 One comment on the Spin thread was right on: people don’t know the difference between an app and the internet.
We will be regulated via apps, our corporate partner for consumer safety.

Posted by: Accomack at April 13, 2026 05:01 AM (AZXeW)

21 I remember Michigan State was just starting to switch over to terminals from cards when I was learning FORTRAN.

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent at April 13, 2026 05:03 AM (/HDaX)

22 >>>Disclaimer: More pfft.

Why pfft and more pfft.

Posted by: m at April 13, 2026 05:04 AM (fNISR)

23 Good morning!

Let's smile & be happy & strike fear in the hearts of killjoy leftists everywhere.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at April 13, 2026 05:06 AM (u82oZ)

24 Have a great day, everyone.

Taxes almost organized from the pile of stuff I tossed in a pile.

May you be enjoying your refund.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at April 13, 2026 05:08 AM (u82oZ)

25 11 https://tinyurl.com/3xaaerad
20 Posts from Doug Ross journal

Haven't had one of these in awhile, he seems fascinated with AI recently
Posted by: Skip at April 13, 2026 04:40 AM (Ia/+0)

‐--

Wow!

Posted by: JM in Illinois at April 13, 2026 05:09 AM (Rsf1e)

26 Lots of Echo and the Bunnymen on the ONT.

Off to work.

Posted by: fluffy at April 13, 2026 05:11 AM (AN2gy)

27
Daily Tech News 12 April 2026
Disclaimer: Pfft.

Daily Tech News 13 April 2026
Disclaimer: More pfft.

What could it be?!

Posted by: m at April 13, 2026 05:11 AM (fNISR)

28 Evening and morning to the AoSHQ outposts across the system and beyond!

Yes. It's . . . Monday. But remember:

"Compared to being on the wrong side of the ground, even a bad Monday is pretty small kumquats, nicht wahr?"

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 13, 2026 05:12 AM (wzUl9)

29 No country for old programmers: I came up in an era when "dupe the deck" meant reusing, for another purpose, software already written and tested. I cannot imagine generating 37,000 lines of NEW code a day. I'm sure it's all good.

the "deck" was a bunch of punch cards.
Posted by: JM in Illinois at April 13, 2026

***
If I'd gone into computers at college in the early '70s, I'd have had to deal with those. Brrrrr.

(On the other hand, I'd have made a lot more money a lot earlier in my life, so there would have been that.)

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 13, 2026 05:14 AM (wzUl9)

30 Wouldn't say rain more than heavy due
Have a great day horde

Posted by: Skip at April 13, 2026 05:15 AM (Ia/+0)

31 24 Have a great day, everyone.

Taxes almost organized from the pile of stuff I tossed in a pile.

May you be enjoying your refund.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at April 13, 2026 05:08 AM (u82oZ)

----

This year I'm paying for Turbo tax's "Audit insurance" option. My taxes are still pretty simple (income from retirement), but the questions being asked are much more complicated. I can't answer them. Wish me luck.

Posted by: JM in Illinois at April 13, 2026 05:15 AM (1SgbD)

32 Watching the final round of The Masters (recorded it). I know McIlroy won. Scheffler was thisclose to winning. He had one bad day, Friday. He lost by one shot. Love Augusta National. Beautiful golf course doesn't describe it properly. I'd love to play there, even though I'd shoot in triple digits there. Alas, I'm poor white trash, so that ain't happening.

Posted by: Puddleglum, cheer up for the worst is yet to come at April 13, 2026 05:16 AM (sAmhv)

33 Mornin' Horde. Time for bacon, eggs, and most importantly, coffee.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at April 13, 2026 05:17 AM (O7YUW)

34 Just about 45 minutes until the Persian gulf embargo starts. Gonna be interesting to see how Iran reacts.

Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at April 13, 2026 05:20 AM (3Ope8)

35 Temp of 69 F., 80% humidity. Gah.

I don't *have* to work out this morning. I can go tomorrow. When it will no doubt be just as bad.

The temp and humidity in Salina, KS, right now, is . . . exactly the same. Looks like temps will be about 72-80 as a high and 47-57 overnight during the first part of my Salina visit.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 13, 2026 05:24 AM (wzUl9)

36 Yeah, they (Hollywood) tried that; it was shit. Maybe AI could do a better job; at least AI would make Faye look like herself, if not more giggity.

My joke about it went like this:

"OK, Netflix. This is Cowboy Bebop. You are being handed a platinum mine because of how well loved the series is."

"Cool! I'm gonna wokeify the shit out of it!"

"What? NO! That is exactly what you should not be doing. You can't-"

"Oh come on! A palette swap here, a gender change here and ooh! This character can be a they/them. And if it fails, we'll just blame the patriarchy!"

Posted by: NR Pax at April 13, 2026 05:25 AM (RjOoY)

37 I come from a family of golfers, but I'm pathetic. As the lame old joke goes, i play in the low eighties; if it gets any hotter, I won't play.

Posted by: JM in Illinois at April 13, 2026 05:25 AM (JbPL7)

38 And in other news: I went to the Red Cross on Sunday to donate platelets. This was going to be a longer session where I was donating three units.

Yeah...mistakes were made and the machine took out four units. I was feeling a bit woozy for a while.

Posted by: NR Pax at April 13, 2026 05:26 AM (RjOoY)

39 (AMV) Cowboy Bebop 007 - Cowboy Bebop

"Do you expect me to talk?"

Posted by: m at April 13, 2026 05:32 AM (fNISR)

40 I dreamed two things: I was trying to shave, but my beard had unexpectedly turned much stiffer. Water and soap seemed unable to soften it, and I was scraping away at it like you'd scrape toast. Unpleasant.

Somewhere later, I was going to a Saturday morning college class. Dan Aykroyd was a classmate, and left his books on a table outside the classroom while he headed off to the men's room. Our teacher showed up and told me that I no longer had my tuition waiver because the class had a new textbook and I wasn't qualified on it (?). I complained that nobody had told me, and she apologized.

Then I blinked awake.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 13, 2026 05:35 AM (wzUl9)

41 >>In this case, a programmer in Spain couldn't access Docker images on Cloudflare because a football match was on.

I'm routinely on all-day Sat/Sun conference calls.

The other problem with having European vendors is, the one guy who knows how to do the thing, is always on holiday in some unreachable location, usually Bornio or Tonga-Tanga.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at April 13, 2026 05:38 AM (XV/Pl)

42 And sweet fancy Moses, I just shutdown Windows and it didn't have to perform a mandatory 10 minute update.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at April 13, 2026 05:39 AM (XV/Pl)

43
I'm routinely on all-day Sat/Sun conference calls.

The other problem with having European vendors is, the one guy who knows how to do the thing, is always on holiday in some unreachable location, usually Bornio or Tonga-Tanga.
Posted by: Thomas Bender at April 13, 2026 05:38 AM (XV/Pl)

------

Well, that refutes the claim that europeans don't work; they're in on weekends. Except the one you need is in Tonga-Tanga

Posted by: JM in Illinois at April 13, 2026 05:42 AM (D/9SZ)

44 Today I need to lay in some cat food supplies; print out maps of various interchanges along my route; and wash the car. At this time of year the damn birds are having diarrhea, it seems, and I found my car's trunk and rear fenders splashed yesterday. I cleaned it up and moved it to a place with fewer overhanging branches. This morning I'll polish it up a little and make sure the tires are properly aired up.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 13, 2026 05:43 AM (wzUl9)

45 If I'd gone into computers at college in the early '70s, I'd have had to deal with those. Brrrrr.

Most edits of card punching errors are simply throw the bad card away and make a new one.

There were keypunch machines that had a one-line buffer that you could modify and create a new card, so on those machines you could fix a fuck up versus retyping the whole damned thing.

The US Army used card decks up to the mid 1980s; I had to get my brigade's unit status report punched onto a card deck from a hand filled out data sheet. The keypunch operators were pretty fucking good and would point out where I fucked up filling out the form and offered to fix it on the fly versus making me redo the form.

Posted by: Richard Cranium at April 13, 2026 05:45 AM (u5xQp)

46 G'morning, all!

Finally completed changing out the turbo and the left front wheel bearing on the Volvo V70.
Now, as soon as the dealership gets the replacement right front axle and installs it under warranty, and completes the wheel alignment, she should be good to go for quite some time.

While not tremendously difficult, changing the turbo requires some serious gymnastics and contortions in order to move all the fiddly bits around to remove and reinstall them from both above, and below the vehicle.

So.....I'm stiff all over right now.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 13, 2026 05:51 AM (iMotb)

47 “ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Ephesians 2:8-9

Posted by: Marcus T at April 13, 2026 06:00 AM (u/66v)

48 @46

>>So.....I'm stiff all over right now.

Yes, but you did a man's job sir.

And probably saved a crap ton of money.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at April 13, 2026 06:00 AM (MmBzz)

49 . . . The keypunch operators were pretty fucking good and would point out where I fucked up filling out the form and offered to fix it on the fly versus making me redo the form.
Posted by: Richard Cranium at April 13, 2026

***
All I knew, and know, of keypunch is that in the early '70s, the local newspaper was filled with ads for keypunch operators, touting "$200/weekly" pay. That sounded to me like a dream, but I had no idea what a "keypunch operator" did.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 13, 2026 06:01 AM (wzUl9)

50 The US Army used card decks up to the mid 1980s; I had to get my brigade's unit status report punched onto a card deck from a hand filled out data sheet. The keypunch operators were pretty fucking good and would point out where I fucked up filling out the form and offered to fix it on the fly versus making me redo the form.
Posted by: Richard Cranium at April 13, 2026 05:45 AM (u5xQp)

-----

Those were also the days of card sorting machines; you may have seen them in old black and white movies. There's a story, probably apocryphal, of a guy who got out of the army claiming data processing experience. When they asked him to talk. about it, he said, I sorted cards on column 37.

Posted by: JM in Illinois at April 13, 2026 06:09 AM (ZQOYp)

51 "And probably saved a crap ton of money."

Probably one $300.00 on the wheel bearing.

And over $1,000.00 on the turbo.

As my local head Volvo service department guy, who is another Volvo P-2 platform fan, says...

You can't afford to pay us to keep this one on the road. But you don't want to replace it, cause nothing we make currently will outlast it..

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 13, 2026 06:11 AM (iMotb)

52 You can't afford to pay us to keep this one on the road. But you don't want to replace it, cause nothing we make currently will outlast it..

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 13, 2026

***
Sounds like my old Mercedes W126 sedan.

I saw one of those old S-Classes on the road yesterday. The paint had seen better days, but it was still running well and serving its current owner. He was pulling into Aldi's parking lot as I was leaving. I wanted to stop and ask what year it was, but I didn't have time to go back.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 13, 2026 06:15 AM (wzUl9)

53 @51

>>cause nothing we make currently will outlast it..

At a minimum, any non-rust belt vehicle made between 95 and 2010, should last at least 20 years or more.

Any more than 20 is gravy.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at April 13, 2026 06:17 AM (MmBzz)

54 Looks like the Democrats have officially determined that Eric Swalwell is too morally and ethically damaged to run for Governor.

But oddly enough, is fully qualified to remain in Congress.

Different qualifications for different positions, I guess.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 13, 2026 06:17 AM (iMotb)

55 Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.

Rejoinder: grempht^2

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at April 13, 2026 06:18 AM (mtevP)

56 A ratter long.. but good as well as honest opinion piece on why God sometimes seems absent:

https://tinyurl.com/2s3jasrd

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at April 13, 2026 06:18 AM (rZCVI)

57 "At a minimum, any non-rust belt vehicle made between 95 and 2010, should last at least 20 years or more."

It's an 06, so it just turned 20 years old.
Around 280,000 on the odometer.
No real rust, despite spending the first 14 years on Maryland roads.

And believe it or not....it's the original windshield. Micropitting all over it, but it's still hanging in there.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at April 13, 2026 06:21 AM (iMotb)

58 Birdbath status?

Posted by: Just Wondering at April 13, 2026 06:22 AM (2Ez/1)

59 covfefe

Posted by: m at April 13, 2026 06:32 AM (fNISR)

60 All I knew, and know, of keypunch is that in the early '70s, the local newspaper was filled with ads for keypunch operators, touting "$200/weekly" pay. That sounded to me like a dream, but I had no idea what a "keypunch operator" did.

Well, it's close to having a typist that can accurately and consistently type an 80 character line with no errors; unlike a typewritten page, you can't remove a hole in a punch card.

That's a real skill, IMO. I had punched up a card deck for a FORTRAN program back in the late 1970s just to see what it was like. Once. Never wanted to or did do that shit again.

A typist would have had to do something like that only for an entire page of text prior to the invention of "Liquid Paper" or other correction fluids/tapes; those tech improvements for normal typing happened between ~1960 and ~1975.

Posted by: Richard Cranium at April 13, 2026 06:34 AM (u5xQp)

61 60 "Liquid Paper" or other correction fluids/tapes; those tech improvements for normal typing happened between ~1960 and ~1975.
Posted by: Richard Cranium at April 13, 2026 06:34 AM (u5xQp)

I've seen those used on file cards and--bad idea after the cards have been filed away for a while.

Posted by: m at April 13, 2026 06:45 AM (fNISR)

62 from The Peril of Laziness Lost:

"Laziness drives us to make the system as simple as possible (but no simpler!)"

KISS!

Posted by: m at April 13, 2026 06:48 AM (fNISR)

63 A typist would have had to do something like that only for an entire page of text prior to the invention of "Liquid Paper" or other correction fluids/tapes; those tech improvements for normal typing happened between ~1960 and ~1975.
Posted by: Richard Cranium at April 13, 2026

***
I remember the little white tapes for typing correction. My typewriter for many years was a big standard Underwood, and i was not a touch typist then. So I had lots of corrections to make.

You could still buy the ribbons for the Underwood at Woolworth's then.

I still have the Underwood, but I despair of finding someone local who could repair it to operating condition. So I may not keep it.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 13, 2026 06:48 AM (wzUl9)

64 G'mornin' everyone!

keypunch, lol, ditto Fortran, shades of the Good Old Days ...

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at April 13, 2026 06:49 AM (MIIRH)

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