Daily Tech News 18 February 2026

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Had an instructive argument with Grok today.

Someone asked if a video was AI, and Grok said it indeed appeared to be fake. It was overlaid on a web page from The Hill and the article had no reference to the person in the video and indeed no video.

Except the video was right there.

Yet Grok swore blind that it didn't exist.

Why?

Because the video is copy protected and can only be viewed in a browser. Grok literally could not see it. And the reason the copy on Twitter was overlaid on a static web page is that the person who posted it took a screen recording to capture the video.
Meanwhile the third derivative of memory prices appears to be leveling off. (Tom's Hardware)

Actually, more than that: In Germany prices have declined. Slightly. From five times what they were just months ago to, in some cases, as little as four times.

So there's that.

Tech News

In a blind test, audiophiles couldn't distinguish between signals sent through copper wires, a banana, or wet mud. (Tom's Hardware)

Though to be fair one of the tracks was Nirvana and the wet mud improved the fidelity.
Apple plans to release an AI pendant because they're not tired of losing money. (WCCFTech)

They do have plenty of money to lose, but still... Why?
There's a precise technical term for the trend of AI to turn everything into slop: Semantic ablation. (The Register)

For all its impressive tricks, AI is a feed-forward pattern matching network.

Which is also how the human brain works when you're not paying attention. So it's not useless, particularly when you shove the sum total of human knowledge into it except for copy-protected videos.

But since engineers have shoved the sum total of human knowledge into it, they had to smooth out the bumps to make it fit. It always tends toward the middle, by design. The aim is to be acceptable, rather than great, and never to offend anybody, which is a perfect fit for corporate customers.
Discord announced mandatory age checks, pushed by fascist dictatorships like Britain. It did this while promising that ID documents would be secure and would be deleted after they were verified... Immediately after it suffered a major data breach where it admitted to 70,000 such documents being stolen and the hackers claimed many more.

The users revolted and fled, many of them to rival TeamSpeak. (PCGamer)

TeamSpeak has now run out of servers.

Musical Interlude

Disclaimer: I'm Uranus.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:02 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Morning all

Posted by: Tuna at February 18, 2026 04:02 AM (lJ0H4)

2 G'Day everyone

Posted by: Skip at February 18, 2026 04:04 AM (Ia/+0)

3 BOING!

Mid-exercise. Maybe l8r.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at February 18, 2026 04:06 AM (7xyr6)

4 G'mornin' everyone!

Glory! 43 degrees and raining!

Woohoo!

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at February 18, 2026 04:06 AM (Cjt/F)

5 This video is new to me

Posted by: Skip at February 18, 2026 04:08 AM (Ia/+0)

6
Is that an Apple AI pendant that I spy between your pendulous breasts or are you happy to see me?

-- "Still More Failed Pickup Lines That'll Get You Slapped Across the Face, Volume 3"

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at February 18, 2026 04:12 AM (xG4kz)

7 mere lol, even roflmao, cannot express my feelings about the audiophile test results!

for years I have contemplated the insanely inflated claims (and even more insanely inflated prices!) of the dealers in "high end" "audiophile" copper wires.

I knew it was all nonsense (virtually all copper wire is OFHC, f'rinstance), yet ... the madness went on, and on ...

at last, a trace of old school Real Science !

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at February 18, 2026 04:16 AM (Cjt/F)

8
But since engineers have shoved the sum total of human knowledge into it, they had to smooth out the bumps to make it fit. It always tends toward the middle, by design. The aim is to be acceptable, rather than great, and never to offend anybody, which is a perfect fit for corporate customers.

"The (entirely predictable) average score for every survey question rated on a scale from 1 to 5 is 3"

-- Layton's Law of Surveys

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at February 18, 2026 04:17 AM (xG4kz)

9
"Maybe 3.4"

-- Layton's Law of Surveys, Adjusted for Surveys' Results

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at February 18, 2026 04:19 AM (xG4kz)

10
"You'll be hearing from our attorneys."

-- Surveys Rated on a Scale From 1 to 5 - R - Us

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at February 18, 2026 04:21 AM (xG4kz)

11 over at Bugscuffle Gazette, a modest proposal:

https://is.gd/imQDFl

which will not be implemented

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at February 18, 2026 04:23 AM (Cjt/F)

12
"One ought not apply the statistical mean to discrete and non-continuous data!"

-- statistics' pedants

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at February 18, 2026 04:24 AM (xG4kz)

13 Mornin'

Posted by: Puddleglum, cheer up for the worst is yet to come at February 18, 2026 04:33 AM (sAmhv)

14
Tine to catch ninety or so winks ...

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at February 18, 2026 04:40 AM (xG4kz)

15 Isn't there some other law of surveys that they're almost entirely bimodal? You can even use that to check the validity of a survey, because if it looks like there is in fact a single mode around the mid-point/average, instead of two "hot spots" at the top and bottom, the responses are probably inorganic?

Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 18, 2026 04:40 AM (06Hmj)

16
Actually, more than that: In Germany prices have declined. Slightly. From five times what they were just months ago to, in some cases, as little as four times.

So there's that.

Steve at Hardware Unboxed tested some 'KingBank' branded DDR5 RAM (CL 40) that was ultimately made by CXMT out of China.

On a 9800X3D system the results were negligible for most games competing against faster RAM from Crucial and Kingston.

The prices, in Australia at least, were slightly cheaper but he says not to expect it to stay that way now that everybody is looking to get Chinese RAM for that very reason.

https://youtu.be/slWZgehFgQA

Posted by: SpeakingOf at February 18, 2026 04:45 AM (6ydKt)

17 w00t

Posted by: m at February 18, 2026 04:47 AM (+YA9H)

18 The third derivative of position w.r.t. time is called Jerk.

Position. Velocity. Acceleration....

Jerk.

I love The Science.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 18, 2026 04:48 AM (06Hmj)

19 I'm sure somewhere there's A Guy who swears that OFHC copper sounds overproduced, and only uses high oxygen copper for that warm, authentic, vintage sound.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 18, 2026 04:52 AM (06Hmj)

20 >>>Except the video was right there.

Whoa. The article wasn't right there at that The Hill link, for me, though its URL was in the browser bar and so I got it here:

https://archive.is/TM0JR

Posted by: m at February 18, 2026 04:53 AM (+YA9H)

21 Somebody at Apple was a big fan of the Hugh O'Brian and Burgess Meredith series 'Search' as a child.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068131/

The field operatives wore pendants that were tiny cameras and microphones sending back to a think tank lead by Meredith to give real-time advice to the operative on very esoteric areas of expertise. Very ahead of its time in 1972.

Posted by: Epobirs at February 18, 2026 04:57 AM (/0z9K)

22 Birdbath status?

Posted by: Just Wondering at February 18, 2026 05:02 AM (2Ez/1)

23 I gotta give the theme song writers for the old Western TV show "Colt 45" credit.

Anybody that can use the words "Colt Single Action Army revolver" in a song and make it work has my respect.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at February 18, 2026 05:02 AM (6ydKt)

24 G'morning, all!

49.6 degrees out, and seems to be well within the comfort range of the morning walk.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at February 18, 2026 05:05 AM (iMotb)

25 G'morning Horde. Operating on far too little sleep because I was trying to get things done before bed.

Gonna need a significant mid-day nap to catch up and reset.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at February 18, 2026 05:11 AM (O7YUW)

26
g'mornin', 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at February 18, 2026 05:12 AM (tljrc)

27 Somewhere around freezing point and foggy from snow pack
Have a great day horde

Posted by: Skip at February 18, 2026 05:14 AM (Ia/+0)

28 Shocking Blue - Never Marry a Railroad Man

Much marijuana was smoked, is my guess.

Posted by: m at February 18, 2026 05:15 AM (+YA9H)

29 So in an interesting twist for our sleep little town....

Last month there was a shocking fatal shooting of an 18 year old employee at a Sonics in our community at around 8:30 in the morning. We actually were caught up in the police response for it, as there was a lockdown of two nearby schools and a major thoroughfare where the Sonics was located.

Anyhow, just yesterday they announced the arrest of the suspect.

Intercepted at the Bali airport as he stepped off the plane on a temporary passport from the US.

Whatever was going on it involved the FBI, State Department, Interpol and who knows who else.

And the victim?

He was the targeted victim, and had been shot previously at another restaurant in another nearby small town much earlier. Somebody wanted this kid dead, and had the know-how to involve international travel as well.

https://tinyurl.com/35sssd9h

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at February 18, 2026 05:15 AM (iMotb)

30 Yeah, after a review, I got some info wrong.

Steve at HUB tested against G.Skill RAM (CL26), and the CXMT sticks were CL36, the Kingston was CL40.

Not that it matters but I like to be precise if possible.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at February 18, 2026 05:15 AM (6ydKt)

31
Never marry a railroad man
He loves you every now and then
His heart is at his mule train

Well, then.

Posted by: m at February 18, 2026 05:16 AM (+YA9H)

32 Yeah, it was Kingbank being tested against Kingston, so I was confused for a bit as well.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at February 18, 2026 05:17 AM (BLOW1)

33 Shocking Blue - Never Marry a Railroad Man (1970)

Posted by: m at February 18, 2026 05:18 AM (+YA9H)

34 Evening and morning to all the Woden's Day toilers and just plain early risers! Ash Wednesday, innit? I for one welcome a change back to "normal"* from "parade" and "parade" and "too many people galloping through the streets."

Is this Shocking Blue the same group known for the tune "Venus"? I'd never heard anything else by them.

* Whatever "normal" is around here, I suppose.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 18, 2026 05:19 AM (wzUl9)

35 He was the targeted victim, and had been shot previously at another restaurant in another nearby small town much earlier. Somebody wanted this kid dead, and had the know-how to involve international travel as well.

https://tinyurl.com/35sssd9h

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at February 18, 2026 05:15 AM (iMotb)

I'm going to take a completely wild guess and say "Drug Dealers".

I know, I know, hard to believe, but it's all I got.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at February 18, 2026 05:19 AM (6ydKt)

36 Anyway, I be up, I be sippin' coffee, I got cats. 'Bout the usual. Howzabout you?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 18, 2026 05:20 AM (wzUl9)

37 And in another twist of 'things you learn as you go'....

Living within 690 feet of a major cellular tower just might cause your high-dollar digital/communicating heat pump system to transmit corrupted data along it's wires between units and the thermostat.

Let's see if the shielded twisted pairs being installed tomorrow resolve the issue of random brain-farts within the system.

And if the 5G coax filter arriving today helps to resolve the pixilation that crops up occasionally on the TV. From the same said tower.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at February 18, 2026 05:21 AM (iMotb)

38 I gotta give the theme song writers for the old Western TV show "Colt 45" credit.

Anybody that can use the words "Colt Single Action Army revolver" in a song and make it work has my respect.
Posted by: SpeakingOf at February 18, 2026

***
Capped off by a couple of gunshots. Those were the days, huh?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 18, 2026 05:22 AM (wzUl9)

39 For a time, anything labeled Western Electric, the really vintage stuff from the 20s and 30s, got good prices from collectors. Even the solder.

Sometime in the 1990s maybe a couple guys from Japan rented a van in the US, and armed with phonebooks made a roadtrip around the country hitting all the longtime Radio and TV repair shops still in business and cleaned out as many of the desirable audio vacuum tubes, which can garner a stupid money. There was one in my hometown up until the 2000s and he still had quite a bit of swag, though none of the old school audio output tubes.

Posted by: Common Tater at February 18, 2026 05:23 AM (J48Co)

40 32 Yeah, it was Kingbank being tested against Kingston, so I was confused for a bit as well.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at February 18, 2026 05:17 AM (BLOW1)

I looked it up on Amazon here.

2x8 - 16GB kit, 6000MT/s CL36 is going for $265.99
The heat shield is different than what Steve used, but it's got the same specs.

All of their other DDR5 is out of stock, not a 32GB kit in sight.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at February 18, 2026 05:25 AM (6ydKt)

41 " I'm going to take a completely wild guess and say "Drug Dealers".

I know, I know, hard to believe, but it's all I got."

Local news just did a major update to the story on that shooting less than an hour ago.

https://tinyurl.com/7xcbe9vj

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at February 18, 2026 05:25 AM (iMotb)

42 That was not Jasmine Ratchett on that video. That was Jasmine, the lawyer, Coherent on that video.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at February 18, 2026 05:27 AM (MPaMF)

43 Time for the morning walk.
BBIAB

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at February 18, 2026 05:31 AM (iMotb)

44 I need to work out myself. It's 64 F., a bit of wind. Good conditions.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 18, 2026 05:34 AM (wzUl9)

45 URL was in the browser bar and so I got it here:

https://archive.is/TM0JR
Posted by: m
--

Won't open.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at February 18, 2026 05:37 AM (MPaMF)

46 >>> the wet mud improved the fidelity

That could be lyrics.

Posted by: m at February 18, 2026 05:37 AM (+YA9H)

47 Capped off by a couple of gunshots. Those were the days, huh?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 18, 2026 05:22 AM (wzUl9)

Wayde Preston was pretty good in it.

He's in one of my favorite Maverick episodes; "The Saga of Waco Williams" where he plays Waco, who pretty much defeating the town boss (played by the ubiquitous R.G. Armstrong), while killing his son, and in the end impresses the man so much he encourages Waco to marry his daughter (played by a very young and attractive Louise Fletcher) because "I've never seen a man I thought was good enough for my daughter until you".

I'm pretty sure Wayde got the part in Colt 45 because of that one episode, as it's a highly-rated (8.8 on imdb) and the audience at the time loved it.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at February 18, 2026 05:38 AM (6ydKt)

48 Shia Laboeuf, yes, him, the infamous one, was arrested here Tuesday morning about 12:45 on two counts of simple battery.

He was released on his own recognizance.

So his annoying qualities have taken a new turn.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 18, 2026 05:38 AM (wzUl9)

49 Morning, 'rons and 'ettes.

Posted by: olddog in mo at February 18, 2026 05:41 AM (bQ4nt)

50 L

Posted by: olddog in mo at February 18, 2026 05:42 AM (bQ4nt)

51

Local news just did a major update to the story on that shooting less than an hour ago.

https://tinyurl.com/7xcbe9vj

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at February 18, 2026 05:25 AM (iMotb)

Police emphasized that Baker, despite being linked to prior incidents, was a hard-working young man.

“He was working two jobs, trying to make a living. That’s honorable,” Wright said. “This was a tragic situation, and our main focus is bringing closure to the family and the community.”

At another shooting at a Marcos, house was burgalrized, then shot & killed at the Sonic.

He was working, no doubt, but I see a kid dealing on the side, something went down and drugs or money went missing, they're looking for his money or drugs in the house, and then shot him for not paying up.

I could be wrong, but that fits the facts.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at February 18, 2026 05:45 AM (6ydKt)

52 This is cute:

Kevin Dalton@TheKevinDalton . Feb 17

A day after celebrating the high-speed rail that is decades behind schedule and a hundred billion taxpayer dollars over budget with Gavin Newsom, the CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority was arrested for domestic violence.

This may have flown under the radar because this was the same day a large section of the high-speed rail caught fire.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at February 18, 2026 05:48 AM (MPaMF)

53 I'm pretty sure Wayde got the part in Colt 45 because of that one episode, as it's a highly-rated (8.8 on imdb) and the audience at the time loved it.
Posted by: SpeakingOf at February 18, 2026

***
I think I saw it a couple of years back. Heroes & Icons used to have their "Good Guys at Sunrise" block starting at four am, Colt .45 and Maverick included with Cheyenne, Wanted Dead or Alive, Have Gun -- Will Travel, Rawhide, and High Chaparral.

Hartland had their "Gunfighters" series of standing TV Western character figurines, and Preston's Colt character was one of them, along with Paladin, Bret Maverick, Bat Masterson, and others. Looking on eBay, I see there were Johnny Yuma of The Rebel and Lucas McCain of The Rifleman. I never saw or had those!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 18, 2026 05:49 AM (wzUl9)

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