Daily Tech News 21 December 2025

Top Story

You know how I said that the Minisforum AI X1-255 mini-PC that I bought cost 60-70% more on Minisforum's US store?

Strike that.

The US store was quoting me prices in AUD, making it just 10% more expensive than from Amazon Australia. (It's also available on Amazon US but they only have one in stock so you'd have to be quick.)

Thanks to Rick C for the correction.
Is AI useful for programming? Maybe. Sort of. (MIT Technology Review)

I used it last week trying to extract information from a thoroughly-but-incorrectly-documented API, with ultimate success. The API was shit but the AI saved me hours of painful iteration trying different functions looking for one that worked.

On the other hand, if you're carrying out a task where you know what to do you are likely better off doing it yourself, because you will end up with fewer and less severe bugs and a much better understanding of what the code is doing.

And it will in all probability save time doing it yourself.

Tech News

In other wonderful AI news Larian, developer of Baldur's Gate III, says the memory drought is already affecting software development. (Notebook Check)

Specifically they need to start optimisation before they even ship an early-access version, because they can no longer just recommend 32GB of RAM when customers can't buy 32GB of RAM.

While Larian themselves have not been guilty of this, I'm not sure being forced to optimise games from the start is a bad thing given the number of titles that have launched recently in a state that left the unplayable on even the fastest available hardware.
PearOS, a long-expired Linux version designed to look like MacOS, has been revived and updated with the latest kernel and KDE desktop. (The Register)

It's incomplete, but interesting.
Privacy is marketing. Anonymity is architecture. (Servury)

The value of your service provider not being able to recover your password is that they can't do anything else to your account either because they don't know who you are.
A newly discovered UEFI flaw allows hackers to break into your system the moment it boots. (Bleeping Computer)

If they can plug directly into your PCIe bus.

Which they can do without opening your system if you have Thunderbolt or OCuLink ports.

The Minisforum AI X1-255, for example, has both.
The best selling console is not what you think. (The Verge) (archive site)

It's an underpowered overpriced gimmick called the Nex Playground aimed squarely at children. It uses motion tracking to let them interact directly with games without needing a controller, or any particular level of hand-eye co-ordination.

Only problem is it kind of sucks.

Musical Interlude

Disclaimer: Don't break a leg. That shit hurts.

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 December 21, 2025 04:00 AM (CNp5O)

2 !!

Posted by: clarence at December 21, 2025 04:00 AM (JUmo3)

3 Morning all.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at December 21, 2025 04:01 AM (BLOW1)

4 Yo!

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent at December 21, 2025 04:11 AM (/HDaX)

5 My CISO called me at 3 AM last Tuesday.

"We caught someone."

I asked, "Caught them doing what?"

He said, "Typing."

Let me explain...

https://tinyurl.com/ww8c897v

So, Pixy, how's latency down under?

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at December 21, 2025 04:15 AM (CNp5O)

6 TESLA'S $2 TRILLION SECRET: THE CARS WERE JUST THE TROJAN HORSE

https://tinyurl.com/5x56he9x

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at December 21, 2025 04:17 AM (CNp5O)

7 Oink!

Did PearOS get updated to mimic that particular Apple feature that locks people out of their computers they spent thousands of dollars on so they can feel smug? Okay, that was cruel, gratuitous, unwarranted, and mostly true. At least Microsoft has the decency to just brick your machine when trying to update it.

Posted by: Alteria Pilgram - My President has convictions. at December 21, 2025 04:18 AM (HTCU3)

8 Mornin'

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at December 21, 2025 04:19 AM (AdHga)

9 Oh oh:

Google just launched a direct attack on Nvidia's most valuable asset.

Not their chips. Their SOFTWARE.

https://tinyurl.com/3u3e7ktj

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at December 21, 2025 04:26 AM (CNp5O)

10 Evening to you late toilers, and early early morning to you insomaniacals! I'm up way earlier than I planned. Not Stirling's fault, not Dagny's, just . . . awake. So you do what you have to: coffee, a MeTV rerun of Time Tunnel (which I never liked much even when it was new and I was a callow yoot), and AoSHQ.

It may rain between four and six, which will knock out my workout and car wash plans. We'll hafta see.

Whassup?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at December 21, 2025 04:28 AM (wzUl9)

11 Re: Tesla

Huge social disruption coming right up.

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent at December 21, 2025 04:31 AM (/HDaX)

12 Good morning.

For some reason, I have trouble keeping Hall & Oates and Siegfried & Roy separate. Have they ever been seen together?

Posted by: Fluffy Nuggets, Jr. at December 21, 2025 04:33 AM (5DkXk)

13 For some reason, I have trouble keeping Hall & Oates and Siegfried & Roy separate. Have they ever been seen together?
Posted by: Fluffy Nuggets, Jr. at December 21, 2025

***
No tigers at a Hall & Oates concert

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at December 21, 2025 04:36 AM (wzUl9)

14 For some reason, I have trouble keeping Hall & Oates and Siegfried & Roy separate. Have they ever been seen together?
Posted by: Fluffy Nuggets, Jr. at December 21, 2025

***
"Siegfried. Or maybe Roy. You know, that gay man whose tiger tried to eat him."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at December 21, 2025 04:36 AM (wzUl9)

15 Re: Tesla

Huge social disruption coming right up.

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent at December 21, 2025 04:31 AM (/HDaX)
-

Now jump from Tesla to another Musk company - Neuralink:

https://tinyurl.com/ycywcdp3

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at December 21, 2025 04:38 AM (CNp5O)

16 Today is the first day of winter? Shortest day of the year?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at December 21, 2025 04:40 AM (wzUl9)

17 G'Day everyone

Posted by: Skip at December 21, 2025 04:41 AM (Ia/+0)

18 Birdbath status?

Posted by: Just Wondering at December 21, 2025 04:47 AM (2Ez/1)

19 Now I'm stuck on the NVidia/Google issue. Boy, talk about damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent at December 21, 2025 04:47 AM (/HDaX)

20 TechnoUtopians have grand idea's and dreams. Also, the money to implement it, one way or another. It's not going to go they way they think. Oh well, sit back and think of THX-1138.

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at December 21, 2025 04:48 AM (AdHga)

21 Stirling is harassing Dagny. Or maybe they're playing. Hard to tell.

She needs to learn to cuff him across the nose if he's bothering her. Once I did see her boff him one when he was trying to force his way to the water tap and she was there first. So she's not a total pushover.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at December 21, 2025 04:51 AM (wzUl9)

22 Odds of when someone hacks the robots?

Posted by: clarence at December 21, 2025 04:51 AM (JUmo3)

23 Odds of when someone hacks the robots?
Posted by: clarence at December 21, 2025

***
Sooner rather than later?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at December 21, 2025 04:57 AM (wzUl9)

24 23 Odds of when someone hacks the robots?
Posted by: clarence at December 21, 2025

***
Sooner rather than later?
----

Before or after they deliver the first one?

Posted by: clarence at December 21, 2025 04:59 AM (JUmo3)

25
Good morning, Hordians.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at December 21, 2025 05:03 AM (tgvbd)

26 The very first episode of The Invaders is on MeTV. Apparently their overnight SF Saturday night lineup is all the Irwin Allen shows, Lost in Space, Time Tunnel, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Land of the Giants, and then this Quinn Martin semi-classic. There was only one season of TT and two, I think, of Invaders, so they repeat pretty often.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at December 21, 2025 05:05 AM (wzUl9)

27
g'mornin', 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at December 21, 2025 05:14 AM (tljrc)

28 Morning, 'rons and 'ettes.

Posted by: olddog in mo at December 21, 2025 05:20 AM (bQ4nt)

29 I use Grok to generate short snippets of Javascript code to do routine tasks that have lots of online examples, for example to send an SMS text message using the Twilio API, or to create a flyout menu using React and Material UI.

For short tasks like that (under 200 lines or so) it usually does a pretty good job. I still check every line of code, and I have to understand it 100% before I use it.

For longer tasks it starts to break down and hallucinate nonexistent APIs and NPM packages.

Posted by: WillowViney at December 21, 2025 05:25 AM (VPL4v)

30 I am finally horizontal

Posted by: Skip at December 21, 2025 05:31 AM (Ia/+0)

31 29 For longer tasks it starts to break down and hallucinate nonexistent APIs and NPM packages.
Posted by: WillowViney

Yeah, that is a very common problem, and not one easily solved.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at December 21, 2025 05:36 AM (BLOW1)

32 One thing I like to do is to have Grok decorate my UI forms for ARIA compliance, which can be tedious to do manually.

Basically I treat Grok like a junior H1B programmer who does all my scut work for me.

Posted by: WillowViney at December 21, 2025 05:40 AM (VPL4v)

33 Morning, Tech Peeps

Posted by: fluffy at December 21, 2025 05:41 AM (AN2gy)

34 Yeah, that is a very common problem, and not one easily solved.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at December 21, 2025 05:36 AM (BLOW1)

Can you break longer tasks into subtasks running independently? My programming training stopped 45 years ago at BASIC in high school so please forgive a stupid question

Posted by: Pete Bog at December 21, 2025 05:45 AM (2AU+F)

35 G'morning Horde.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at December 21, 2025 05:45 AM (O7YUW)

36 What's all this crazy talk about morning?!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at December 21, 2025 05:47 AM (Pmfrl)

37 @Pixy: Thanks for including the BleepingComputer I threw in the Tech discussion yesterday.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at December 21, 2025 05:47 AM (O7YUW)

38
Wife: I don't understand cloning.
Husband: That makes two of us.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at December 21, 2025 05:51 AM (2Ez/1)

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