Daily Tech News 20 March 2022

Top Story

• Now that the Mac Studio is actually selling to customers we don't need to rely on Apple's own benchmark results anymore and it's not all that pretty for Apple. (WCCFTech)
  
  On the CPU side it does very well on Geekbench if you spend a lot of time running Geekbench. On Cinebench R23 the very expensive M1 Ultra comes in behind Intel's 12900K and AMD's 5950X. Intel's latest mobile chip, the 12900HK, is faster than the M1 Max.
  
  On OpenCL benchmarks the M1 Ultra is technically something that can run OpenCL. it comes in somewhere after AMD's 5700 XT and the Max-Q (low-power) version of the RTX 2070 Super mobile.
  
  And if you want to play a less graphics-intensive game like Civilization 6, the M1 Ultra is slower at 1440p than a ThinkPad P1 Gen 4 is at 4k. (Tom's Guide)
  
  Markedly slower. In fact, it may be slower on that than my own laptop, which only has an RTX 3060.

Questions and Answers

• From Brickmuppet:

  I've often heard it said that "All the chips not made in China are made in Taiwan", but how true is that?

  Taiwan's TSMC is the world's largest chip manufacturer, but there are major factories operated by various companies in Japan, South Korea, Germany, and the United States. In fact, China produces 0% of leading-edge chips - their latest production lines are at 14nm where TSMC and Samsung are already at 4nm.

  Can anyone recommend a good pre-built gaming/streaming PC?

  I'd suggest checking out Gamers' Nexus series of reviews on YouTube. At least they weed out the worst pre-builts. Some of them aren't terrible.

  However, the tech sector logistics problems seem to be continuing and have multiple second order effects. Does anyone see any light at the end of the tunnel this year regards things like appliances and cars?

  I don't expect things to return to normal until 2024. Some particular areas are improving - DDR5 RAM, for example, and Nvidia graphics cards - but overall everything is still in short supply and all the factories are running 24/7.
  
  Which means that some parts of the economy are working, and if you're in one of those parts you're doing great (so long as you don't need to work 100 hours a week yourself).
  
  
  
• From sock_rat_eez:

  What are your thoughts on the whole search - engine thing ?
  
  Do you have a preference ? Which one do you use ?

  I use DuckDuckGo, and it's mostly okay. Learning how to use the custom search extensions helps (enter ! and one or more letters at the end of your search query and it will use a different search index - and there are thousands supported).
  
  
  
• From Legion of Boom:

  I am looking for a 12 to 16 port 2.5 GB ethernet switch for a central residential. PoE not needed, but would be useful.

  The most cost-effective option I know of would be to use two TP-Link SG-108 8-port 2.5GbE switches. But it might be worth looking at the Ubiquiti - they have a 26-port model (12 x 2.5GbE, 12 x 1GbE, 2 x 10Gb SFP+) with 400W of PoE and Layer 3 management that's about twice as much as the two cheap unmanaged TP-Links.
  
  I'll take a closer look at that one for my new house.
  
  
  
• From flounder, wrecker, hoarder, saboteur:

  Modern (mostly for newer OS releases) Android smartphone with decent size screen and decent enough memory size and CPU speed, SD card, and headphone jack.
  
  Can be a few years old. Does such exist?

  I recently got the Samsung A52S which ticks all those boxes. The just-announced A53 model removes the headphone jack, because of course it does.
  
  
  
• From Honkeysuckapigheadedjiveturkeyfool:

  I have a 1050 Ti. Is there a newish significant upgrade for $200-$250ish USD?

  Maybe the RTX 3050? I tried to check US pricing on Newegg but the site is not talking to me right now - more the fault of my internet than Newegg, I think.
  
  Update: Nope, not even close. You might find a GTX 1650 in that price range if you are lucky.
  
  
  
• From Ex-CopyEditor:

  I have a TP-Link AC1900 router at home, purchased in 2016. No firmware updates released since mid-2016. It works fine and I have no WiFi 6 devices yet. Upgrade or not? New router or reasonable hardware firewall, if such a thing exists? And does any soho company actually patch firmware after the device is sold?

  I have a TP-Link AC1600 provided by my ISP. Wasn't using it except to provide the basic wired internet connect until my own Asus router caught fire. I've replaced it with a Netgear model, though when I say replaced I mean the new one is currently sitting in a box.
  
  As to the hardware firewall - one popped up in the roundup today.
  
  
  

• Good news: It's a convenient and fairly powerful four-port 2.5GbE hardware firewall running pfSense at a not too crazy price. (Serve the Home)
  
  Bad news: It's a guessing game as to who actually makes it. Some small company in China.
  
  
  
• Why America can't build quickly anymore. (Full Stack Economics)
  
  In 2080, the average - the average environmental impact study takes longer to complete than the original 1904 28-stop New York Subway.
  
  
  
• The RTX 3090 Ti will be 10% faster than the current 3090 for just 50% more money. (WCCFTech)
  
  Sure, sounds great.
  
  Probably not the best time to buy massively expensive graphics cards with both Nvidia and AMD promising next-generation hardware this year.
  
  
  
• Belarusian rail workers allegedly cut off rail links to Ukraine. (Deutsche Welle / MSN)
  
  Which is an interesting article because it tells you absolutely nothing about what actually happened. There's no rail traffic between Belarus and Ukraine, but that was already true because the Ukrainians aren't idiots and cut the lines on their side of the border.
  
  
  
• Dark matter and cosmic inflation could be explained by an evil twin universe running backwards in time. (Live Science)
  
  This explanation also works for CNN and Twitter.