Daily Tech News 14 November 2026

Top Story

Look out, there were llamas: Outlook did a thing. (Ars Technica)

Or more precisely, didn't do a thing.

Microsoft themselves explains:

While we're working to mitigate impact, we've confirmed the issue may affect Microsoft 365 service connectivity for users in any region, more information will be provided in the Microsoft 365 admin center under EX1550543.
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) November 12, 2026

What does that mean? Nobody knows. Here is a public replica of that admin center feed which many people could not access during the outage (or at all).

Does it explain what the problem was?

No. The most detail it gives is this:
This was a technical issue not related to cyber or AI / agents. The incident was introduced by an issue during an earlier network capacity upgrade that surfaced following a recent network change. We have addressed the underlying issue and continue to restore service to remaining customers and regions.
Some people did something.

Reading between the lines, Microsoft fucked up monitoring so that a lot of healthy servers were automatically rebooted, dumping the load on other servers, which were then marked as unhealthy in turn and rebooted, leading to a circular wave of failures spanning the entire planet for 18 hours.

Tech News

Nvidia chips banned from export to China by the US - and banned from import into China by China - were used to train China's leading AI models. (Tech Crunch)

Things that make you go Yeah, Gamer's Nexus covered that a year ago. (YouTube)
Schools that banned Google's AI services are upset that they banned Google's AI services. (The Guardian)

Google Search may be terrible and filled with AI these days, but if you ban it you don't get to complain that you banned it.
The ESA has suffered a 1.7 petabyte data breach, covering 900 million... Oh. (Reuters)

It's an astronomical survey covering 900 million galaxies. Paid subscribers can also request the data on 1.2 billion floppy disks.
Intel has shipped the Core Ultra 7 260k processor, which drops into their lineup between the 250k and the 270k. (Tom's Hardware)

Can't really fault their arithmetic.

It has 8 performance cores and 12 efficiency cores. The 250k is a 6P / 12E chip; the 270k is 8P / 16E.

Not available as a boxed CPU; only to OEMs for prebuilt systems.
The Beelink GTR9 Pro looks like a Mac Studio and runs like a Mac Mini. (Notebook Check)

To be fair, the CPU-side is faster than any Mac Mini and even beats a M5 Max Mac Studio, losing out only to the very expensive M5 Ultra. And it comes with up to 192GB of RAM on board, three times the Mac Mini's limit.

Where it falls down is memory bandwidth, which is a little less than the M5 Pro Mac Mini and only half of the Mac Studio. And that's pretty important for AI tasks, this system's target market.

It would make a very nice desktop PC, though... If it cost one fifth of its $8099 MSRP.

Musical Interlude

Disclaimer: Oif.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 w00t

Posted by: m at November 14, 2026 04:00 AM (odBC9)

2 No comments yet?

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at November 14, 2026 04:04 AM (l3cgK)

3 Shy comment syndrome.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at November 14, 2026 04:05 AM (BLOW1)

4 Damn, I just pulled up comments and there were none...now it says I was 4 min late...

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at November 14, 2026 04:05 AM (l3cgK)

5 Mornin' Horde.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant, a Moron behind enemy lines. at November 14, 2026 04:06 AM (O7YUW)

6 Microsoft issue sounds like modern-day dominoes...

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at November 14, 2026 04:06 AM (l3cgK)

7 jim - naw, he just hung out there, I think. Presumably he's either still there or wandered off... it's the time of year for everything to try to come indoors, at least he'll eat bugs, but I do wish he wouldn't sit on my clothes, and I hope he leaves in the spring. Or she. Little thing only a couple of inches long.

I've seen the semi-translucent ones back when I was in an apartment. First of these I've seen in the house.

Posted by: RandomDave at November 14, 2026 04:08 AM (aJQbY)

8 7
For reference from the last thread:
301 297 house gecko spotted. In my house.

Posted by: RandomDave at November 14, 2026 03:59 AM (aJQbY)

Did it say it could save you money on auto insurance?

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at November 14, 2026 04:01 AM (l3cgK)

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at November 14, 2026 04:11 AM (l3cgK)

9 Time to sleep now...night all.

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at November 14, 2026 04:12 AM (l3cgK)

10 Good Morning all.

I miss Pine, not so much Outlook.

Posted by: Gmac-WTF did you think was going to happen at November 14, 2026 04:14 AM (Q/FnY)

11 >>>Google Search may be terrible and filled with AI these days

Google Search is training me to like Google Search. Instead of entering a search term or two and hoping to get some site-rankings displayed, I'm writing long queries and learning to love the AI summary. Like:

mmorpg is there anything anybody can do about asmongold not being nominated for next year's streamer awards

Posted by: m at November 14, 2026 04:25 AM (odBC9)

12 @10/Gmac: "I miss Pine"

I fondly remember using Pine. Apparently Pine's successor is Alpine and just checking Linux Mint 22.3: Yup, it's available in the Software Manager to install.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant, a Moron behind enemy lines. at November 14, 2026 04:25 AM (O7YUW)

13 1 w00t
Posted by: m at November 14, 2026 04:00 AM (odBC9)

2 No comments yet?
Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at November 14, 2026 04:04 AM (l3cgK)

Heyyyy!

Posted by: m at November 14, 2026 04:26 AM (odBC9)

14 Mornin'

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at November 14, 2026 04:28 AM (6PUpl)

15 G'Day everyone

Posted by: Skip at November 14, 2026 04:31 AM (Ia/+0)

16 I watched the 2026 Streamer Awards
at asmongold's youtube site
3:11:26

https://tinyurl.com/zuez5arp

Posted by: m at November 14, 2026 04:31 AM (odBC9)

17 I still see the word "streamer" and immediately think of the shiny ribbons that the color guard girls would swing around when I was a little kid.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at November 14, 2026 04:56 AM (aKiSo)

18 Data Centers once the Marxists are running the country will be all the rage, unless Peking wants to have them all to themselves.

Posted by: Skip at November 14, 2026 05:02 AM (Ia/+0)

19 G'morning, all!

37.6 degrees out.

And apparently it is safe to fly again.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at November 14, 2026 05:05 AM (iMotb)

20 Eric Clapton - Layla (1972)
8:37!!!

Posted by: m at November 14, 2026 05:09 AM (odBC9)

21
g'mornin', 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at November 14, 2026 05:11 AM (AMvSw)

22 Data Republican wins the Citizen Journalist award!

https://instapundit.com/835829/

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at November 14, 2026 05:11 AM (iMotb)

23 Morning, 'rons and 'ettes.

Posted by: olddog in mo at November 14, 2026 05:11 AM (Hbeqj)

24 That's Phil Collins on drums!!!

Posted by: m at November 14, 2026 05:17 AM (odBC9)

25 Eric Clapton - Layla

At the youtube link, a commenter says:

This is from Eric Clapton & Friends in Birmingham, England 1986...not 1972 like the title says

Posted by: m at November 14, 2026 05:28 AM (odBC9)

26 Well, to be fair, the titles and subtitles are:

Eric Clapton - Layla (1972)
Solo musica

645K views 10y ago
Eric Clapton - Layla live 1986

Posted by: m at November 14, 2026 05:30 AM (odBC9)

27 Wasn't Clapton one of the few big name entertainers that refused to give in to the covid nonsense?

Posted by: Florida Peasant at November 14, 2026 05:32 AM (cr06p)

28 Good morning!

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

Posted by: NaCly Dog at November 14, 2026 05:32 AM (98Ofx)

29 "That's Phil Collins on drums!!!"

Another one that I expect to pass in the middle of the night sometime soon.

The ravages that his body are taking are terrible to see.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at November 14, 2026 05:33 AM (iMotb)

30 moar from the youtube comments:

The Eric Clapton Concert
(Birmingham England July 1986)

Guitar, Vocals – Eric Clapton
Keyboards, Vocals – Greg Phillinganes
Bass, Vocals – Nathan East
Drum, Vocals – Phil Collins

Posted by: m at November 14, 2026 05:33 AM (odBC9)

31 Salty!

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at November 14, 2026 05:33 AM (iMotb)

32 Off to see if the FAA ground stop has changed flight info for someone I know.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at November 14, 2026 05:35 AM (98Ofx)

33 Village Idiot's Apprentice

Top o' ta mornin to ya.

Been behind enemy lines for a bit.
We shall see if my rural area in Kansas is in trouble, as there was a clean sweep of elected offices. One County Commissioner I helped get in office is devastated.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at November 14, 2026 05:38 AM (98Ofx)

34 AI:

Phil Collins (age 75) is being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist on November 14, 2026, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, following his 2010 induction with Genesis.

• Health Struggles: Collins has faced severe physical and mobility challenges due to a 2007 spinal/neck injury that left him with nerve damage and made drumming impossible.

• Recent Hospitalization: He revealed a critical health scare from April 2024 involving severe organ and kidney failure linked to a struggle with alcoholism. He has since been sober and recovering.

Touring & Music: ... he wrapped up his final tour with Genesis in 2022 (performing seated while his son Nic played drums)

Posted by: m at November 14, 2026 05:39 AM (odBC9)

35 Salty...stay safe.

Good luck with the travel impacts from yesterday.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at November 14, 2026 05:40 AM (iMotb)

36 One of the signs of decay in the Roman Empire was the decay of road maintenance. you could not get there from here syndrome.

Maybe the IT Tech Lords could make the common internet experience as reliable and long-standing as a Roman road. Have we no schools to teach maintenance?

At this point, I would settle for eradication of robo-callers.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at November 14, 2026 05:42 AM (98Ofx)

37 Face Value, 45 years later: Phil Collins in conversation with Steven Wilson

44:06

https://tinyurl.com/4zkt5uxt

Posted by: m at November 14, 2026 05:43 AM (odBC9)

38 Have a great day, everyone.

May your computer be able to do more than Minesweeper.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at November 14, 2026 05:44 AM (98Ofx)

39 Morning, Tech Peeps

Posted by: fluffy at November 14, 2026 05:47 AM (V0/Sp)

40 Sometimes, Minesweeper is enough

Posted by: fluffy at November 14, 2026 05:50 AM (V0/Sp)

41
Rain expected tomorrow, so I'll try to get the acreage taken care of today. It would be nice if I could put things away for the year, so to speak.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at November 14, 2026 05:51 AM (eRlcH)

42 I first cup of coffee is cold, spider solitaire will do that

Posted by: Skip at November 14, 2026 05:54 AM (Ia/+0)

43 42 I first cup of coffee is cold, spider solitaire will do that
Posted by: Skip at November 14, 2026 05:54 AM (Ia/+0)

sad

Posted by: m at November 14, 2026 05:54 AM (odBC9)

44 moar from the youtube comments:

The Eric Clapton Concert
(Birmingham England July 1986)
8:36

I love how every time he plays this song he disguises the intro

hahahaha he does; for a whole minute

Posted by: m at November 14, 2026 06:02 AM (odBC9)

45 Woman reflects on "Light in the darkness", and recovering from an illness: Isaiah 60:19-21
An "Upper Room" devotional:

https://tinyurl.com/553uy56p

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at November 14, 2026 06:06 AM (JrHfD)

46 Another old time hymn written by an Anglican minister in the 1860's, "the King of Love my shepherd is" based on psalm 23:

https://tinyurl.com/mtc3udpk

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at November 14, 2026 06:12 AM (JrHfD)

47 “Some people did something” is right. Gotta love the vague, 3rd person reportage. It just … happened. “We” are working the problem, though.

Posted by: Common Tater at November 14, 2026 06:12 AM (V73VQ)

48 Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.

Rejoinder: Fio.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at November 14, 2026 06:20 AM (amcLV)

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