Daily Tech News 22 April 2023

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The 7730U isn't a 6800U, but a 5800U. We'll get to why that matters in a moment.
Apple isn't planning to release an M2 update to the Mac Studio over worries that it will compete with the Mac Pro. (WCCFTech)
Which doesn't exist. (WCCFTech)

And if and when it does show up, will have RAM soldered in place, making it not so much a professional workstation as a highly polished turd.

Soldered RAM is a disaster in laptops when it comes to any kind of professional use. It's inexcusable in a workstation-class desktop.

Tech News

The Asus Vivobook 15X is almost a very good laptop. (Asus)

It has a 15.6" 120Hz 2880x16201 OLED display covering 100% of DCI-P3 colour, the Four Essential Keys in the form of a three-column numeric keypad, an eight core 15W Ryzen 7730U CPU, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, a 1TB SSD2, a physical webcam privacy shutter (something I appreciate since I work from home and have to join online meetings multiple times a day), one USB-C, three USB-A, HDMI, and a headphone jack (no microSD here either), and a separate power jack if you don't want to charge over USB-C.

There are just a couple of problems with this.

First, the digit 3 in 7730U means it's a Zen 3 chip despite being a 7000-series CPU, and the most recent Zen 3 U-series chip is the 6800U. But the 6800U doesn't work with DDR4 RAM, so either the specs are wrong, or... Well, the specs aren't wrong. The 7730U isn't last year's 6800U, but the previous year's 5800U.

It's not exactly the same; the CPU side of things runs 100MHz faster. But the performance differences between the CPU sides of the three chips are minimal, and all are very strong performers given their minimal power draw.

On the graphics side though the 7730U is a potato compared to the 6800U. Not even half as fast. It's comparable with Intel's Xe graphics at lower power, but that's all.

Oh, and that screen resolution? It's an "up to". An up to that doesn't exist. The 1TB SSD is also an up to, but at least you can upgrade that yourself.

And the RAM is half-upgradeable - 8GB soldered and 8GB in an SO-DIMM. So in theory you can upgrade to 40GB though that will lose dual-channel mode. I'm not sure exactly how bad that would be for performance but it couldn't be worse than running out entirely with 16GB of soldered RAM.

It is cheap, and it's light at 1.6kg, and the screen, whole only 1080p, really is OLED and really does cover 100% of DCI-P3.

I keep mentioning that, and I should explain what it means. DCI-P3 is the colour system used for digital movie projection, so if your screen covers 100% of that, it means it can display every colour visible in an IMAX cinema.

The Acer laptop I mentioned yesterday can't do that. I couldn't find a review of the exact model that measured the screen colours, but two similar models clocked in at 36% and 38% of DCI-P3, which is, um, bad. My current laptop covers 100% of the smaller sRGB colour space, or did before the screen went funny, which was quite acceptable if not startlingly vivid. The Acer screen covers about 54% of sRGB. That's like looking outside on a cloudy day through a dirty window.

The Vivobook can't go all the way to 64GB of RAM and doesn't have a discrete graphics card. On the other hand it should run much cooler and has a vastly better screen, though not as vastly better as Asus tried to make me believe.

It's not much more expensive despite the Acer being discounted by 45% right now and the Asus being at list price.

So maybe.

There's a model that fixes all of these shortcomings: 3200x2000 screen, 13980HX, 32GB RAM upgradeable to 64GB, and an RTX 4060. It does cost A$3399 vs A$1399 though. Also it's not available.
There is no AI, only Zuul. (New Yorker)

The article explains that what is currently being touted as AI is nothing of the sort, just a glorified typeahead tool, and the concerns about its impact are mostly nonsensical.

It then -this is the New Yorker after all - proposes a global totalitarian nightmare state to allay these delusional fears.

Yeah. No.
I'm not sure if all AI ethicists are fascists, but the correlation is unmistakable. (Overcoming Bias)

Build a bridge out of them.
The Atari 800 XL is back. (Revive Machines)

Almost. Well, an FPGA implementation of it.

I only read up on the details of the Atari internals recently. The custom graphics chip was a clear predecessor to the Amiga hardware and much more sophisticated than I had realised.
ChatGPT can write code. The code is terrible. (The Register)

ChatGPT is aware of this, but won't tell you unless you ask. Or possibly even then.
Google's Bard chatbot has also been updated to write code. (The Verge)

Bard is, if anything, less reliable than ChatGPT.
Twitter has stopped labeling state-affiliated media as "state-affiliated media" after the state-affiliated media threatened to leave the platform over being labeled as "state-affiliated media". (The Verge)

The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.

Dear Current Anime Season, What Is Preventing You From Looking Like This Video of the Day

Dirty Pair Flash (the second half of this video) wasn't even good, and it still blows away almost everything airing right now.

(I won't even mention western animation.)

Disclaimer: The Party's lesser known penultimate command was as follows:
Pop a poppler in your mouth when you come to Fishy Joe's
What they're made of is a mystery
Where they come from no one knows
You can pick 'em, you can lick 'em
You can chew 'em, you can stick 'em
If you promise not to sue us you can shove one up your nose.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 G'Day everyone

Posted by: Skip at April 22, 2023 04:02 AM (xhxe8)

2 G'day Skip.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at April 22, 2023 04:02 AM (BLOW1)

3 Dirty Pair is a good Anime series

Posted by: Skip at April 22, 2023 04:05 AM (xhxe8)

4 Dirty Pair could be a good movie but they would wreck it.

Posted by: Skip at April 22, 2023 04:07 AM (xhxe8)

5 The original series yes. The prequel not so much.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at April 22, 2023 04:07 AM (BLOW1)

6 Agree

Posted by: Skip at April 22, 2023 04:14 AM (xhxe8)

7 But certainly a movie potential

Posted by: Skip at April 22, 2023 04:14 AM (xhxe8)

8 https://tinyurl.com/5erfcde9
Bad Blue

There is some good stuff in it

Posted by: Skip at April 22, 2023 04:15 AM (xhxe8)

9 Willowed from ONT:

407 once one loses a presidential election, there is no way back.

Is that so?

Posted by: Zombie Grover Cleveland at April 22, 2023 04:16 AM (y7zkd)

10 hiya

Posted by: JT at April 22, 2023 04:30 AM (T4tVD)

11 It then -this is the New Yorker after all - proposes a global totalitarian nightmare state to allay these delusional fears.

Too be fair, The New Yorker proposes a global totalitarian nightmare state for all occasions. Breakfast, lunch, gay orgies, flying kites, etc.

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at April 22, 2023 04:36 AM (8Sqzu)

12 Thanks Skip !

Posted by: JT at April 22, 2023 04:39 AM (T4tVD)

13
407 once one loses a presidential election, there is no way back.

Richard Nixon had an election stolen from him, then came back to win. Huge Electoral Vote victory, only to get the shiv in the back from his own party over a big nothing.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at April 22, 2023 04:45 AM (enJYY)

14 The vibe coming from the Trump thread is akin to walking through a haunted house with only a flashlight.

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at April 22, 2023 04:48 AM (Mzdiz)

15 All I know of Amane are the waving Hello Kitty gilded plastic models at the cash-registers of my local Chinese restaurants.

Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX

*who wroked way too late into the nte, and now bids y'all zzzzzz*

Posted by: Jim at April 22, 2023 04:51 AM (e6UQI)

16 Happy zzzzzzz's, Jim!

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at April 22, 2023 04:54 AM (Mzdiz)

17
Always nice to start the day with this:

There is a possible risk of severe weather today. Wind and tornadoes are possible, but wind is the greatest threat.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at April 22, 2023 05:00 AM (enJYY)

18 To get up or not to get up
That is the question.

Posted by: Skip at April 22, 2023 05:01 AM (xhxe8)

19 To get up or not to get up
That is the question.
Posted by: Skip

Try getting up. If after 5 minutes you don't like it, go back to bed

Posted by: Bruce at April 22, 2023 05:03 AM (Zrzqo)

20 After all the trans/Lefty boycots failed to hurt the game Hogwarts Legacy, JK Rowling just tweeted something amusing regarding trans/Lefty threats to boycot her upcoming Harry Potter TV series:

Dreadful news, which I feel duty bound to share. Activists in my mentions are trying to organise yet another boycott of my work, this time of the Harry Potter TV show. As forewarned is forearmed, I've taken the precaution of laying in a large stock of champagne.

She's still no conservative, but it is nice to see famous people with "fuck you" money not let the transmafia bully them.

Posted by: Grimmy at April 22, 2023 05:07 AM (NCgXW)

21 "I'm not sure if all AI ethicists are fascists, but the correlation is unmistakable. (Overcoming Bias)
Build a bridge out of them"

Erm, this clod thinks slip and fall lawyers will save us from HAL? Or did I give up skimming too soon?

I still think our best hope is that all the gendertwink dangertards grooming AI will cause our T1000 overlords to devolve to cutting off their robot dicks and shreiking about microaggressions.

Posted by: Drink Like Vikings at April 22, 2023 05:09 AM (7lpUG)

22 To get up or not to get up
That is the question.

Posted by: Skip at April 22, 2023 05:01 AM (xhxe

We can help answer the question.

Posted by: Viagra at April 22, 2023 05:10 AM (emlEe)

23 Erm, this clod thinks slip and fall lawyers will save us from HAL? Or did I give up skimming too soon?

He wants a global government of slip and fall lawyers.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at April 22, 2023 05:12 AM (BLOW1)

24 The vibe coming from the Trump thread is akin to walking through a haunted house with only a flashlight.
Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at April 22, 2023 04:48 AM (Mzdiz)

Same thing happened 2015/2016. A lot of people just left and didn't return until the drama was over Nov 2016.

Some never Trumpers tried to come back but the greeting was a bit frosty, to say the least.

Posted by: Somewhere South of I-80 at April 22, 2023 05:13 AM (89Sog)

25 I was sleeping away and the state figured that I had gotten enough apparently. My phone starts screeching at me with an amber alert at 3 am, ruining the good dream I was having. I hate when they do that.

Posted by: Tinfoilbaby at April 22, 2023 05:14 AM (+coCW)

26
♪ Well I'm not the world's most masculine man
But I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man
And so is Lola ♪

Posted by: Divide by Zero at April 22, 2023 05:18 AM (enJYY)

27 Garrulous krak!

Posted by: San Franpsycho at April 22, 2023 05:20 AM (EZebt)

28 25 My phone starts screeching at me with an amber alert at 3 am, ruining the good dream I was having. I hate when they do that.
Posted by: Tinfoilbaby at April 22, 2023 05:14 AM

If it makes you feel better, dreams are typically only remembered when you wake up in the middle of them. If the government hadn't woken you up at 3am, you'd sleep through the dream, complete your REM cycle, wake up refreshed hours later, and have no memory of your wonderful dream.

You're welcome!

Posted by: Government Assholes at April 22, 2023 05:22 AM (NCgXW)

29
Most of the time in my area the damn 'Amber' alerts are because some parent didn't bring the child back from visitation on schedule.

So wake people up from a sound sleep over that?

Any system designed for the betterment of someone will result in an annoyance to everyone.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at April 22, 2023 05:22 AM (enJYY)

30 Pickup and pray- A reflection on a passage from the letter of Paul to the church at Rome. The devotional is from a woman in rural Virginia:

https://tinyurl.com/3afzt68v

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at April 22, 2023 05:32 AM (z1W79)

31
Dreadful news, which I feel duty bound to share. Activists in my mentions are trying to organise yet another boycott of my work, this time of the Harry Potter TV show. As forewarned is forearmed, I've taken the precaution of laying in a large stock of champagne.

Coincidence? From the song 'Lola':

♪ Well, we drank champagne and danced all night
Under electric candlelight
She picked me up and sat me on her knee
She said, "Little boy, won't you come home with me?" ♪

Posted by: Divide by Zero at April 22, 2023 05:37 AM (enJYY)

32 Waiter - there's a schlong on my girlfriend !

Posted by: JT at April 22, 2023 05:46 AM (T4tVD)

33
♪ How slong has this been goin' on ♪

Posted by: Divide by Zero at April 22, 2023 05:56 AM (enJYY)

34 Good morning hordelings

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at April 22, 2023 06:00 AM (5u1+1)

35 8 https://tinyurl.com/5erfcde9
Bad Blue

There is some good stuff in it
Posted by: Skip at April 22, 2023 04:15 AM (xhxe

Lotta sketchy American politics going on.

Posted by: m at April 22, 2023 06:52 AM (+YA9H)

36 Happy weekend, Pixy!

Posted by: m at April 22, 2023 07:13 AM (+YA9H)

37 Soldered RAM is a disaster in laptops when it comes to any kind of professional use. It's inexcusable in a workstation-class desktop.

Even worse is the soldered SSDs. For that reason alone, I will not consider purchasing another Mac nor will I approve of a procurement of one at work.

Posted by: The FIB at April 22, 2023 08:54 AM (DTX3h)

38 /off Stasi sock

Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at April 22, 2023 09:01 AM (DTX3h)

39 Posted by: Divide by Zero at April 22, 2023 05:22 AM (enJYY)

It's true that most of the alerts are non-custodial parents, but lately we've had a rash of, probably, real kidnapping.

Stereotypical white van and adolescent female
Known 60 year old man and 12 year old girl
Adolescent female and unrelated adult female possibly headed for Mexico.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at April 22, 2023 09:19 AM (nC+QA)

40 You had me at 'foom'.

Posted by: Corona at April 22, 2023 03:27 PM (nakGR)

41 Dude, Pixy, you need to work on your tone man. This whole "I'm smarter than everyone and anything I don't like is garbage" act that you do is getting a bit worn.

I'd also find it more persuasive coming from someone who could build a website that, y'know, doesn't try to load malware or crash a phone.

FFS dude, I was able to submit this comment with a mailinator address. You shouldn't be one to cast stones.

Posted by: SV at April 22, 2023 04:32 PM (AM812)

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