Daily News Stuff 13 August 2026

Top Story

The "Godmother of AI" says the biggest risk to AI is students losing the desire learn. (Tech Spot)

Don't know how to tell you this, Fei-Fei...

Tech News

If you want to buy Nvidia's RTX 600 Pro Blackwell graphics card, it will now cost you $16,000. (Tom's Hardware)

Which is a lot.
Intel says, hey, maybe there's money to be made in the memory business. (Tom's Hardware)

As the article notes, Intel's first product was memory - specifically a 64-bit SRAM module.
Some Claude users are mad that Claude will catch them using Claude. (Tech Crunch)

Claudes don't let Claudes Claude Claudes.
Thing 4.6 is here, nearly as good as Other Thing 5 but 80% cheaper. (WCCFTech)

Save big with New Thing 3.14 Flash: It's digestible.

Musical Interlude

Disclaimer: Don't lesnerize!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 G'Day everyone

Posted by: Skip at August 13, 2026 04:32 AM (Ia/+0)

2 Rise and shine!

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent at August 13, 2026 04:33 AM (/HDaX)

3 Top 5?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 13, 2026 04:33 AM (wzUl9)

4 w00t

Posted by: m at August 13, 2026 04:33 AM (odBC9)

5 BOING!

Busy.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 13, 2026 04:33 AM (yMCWt)

6 I forget who wrote the story about "lesnerize." Robert Sheckley?

And "Superstition" is one of the great songs of the '70s. There, I said it.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 13, 2026 04:34 AM (wzUl9)

7 I'm reposting this over here because it's a nice story:

Four teens from Florida help push an elderly woman's broken down mobile wheelchair in the rain. Faithpot site:

https://tinyurl.com/vpxcte5m

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 13, 2026 04:36 AM (W90Ou)

8 I've always thought that if someone did a movie of Robert Heinlein's Friday, "Superstition" should be the intro over credits music.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 13, 2026 04:36 AM (wzUl9)

9 >>>Some Claude users are mad[e] that Claude will catch them using Claude.

Old man yelling at Claude!

Posted by: m at August 13, 2026 04:37 AM (odBC9)

10 As the article notes, Intel's first product was memory - specifically a 64-bit SRAM module.

I note that the Man who Made Intel (Engineer, not MBA) was Grof Andras, better known as Andy Grove.

To the end of his days, he spoke English with a thick layer of Hungarian.

Posted by: Mere Murican Magyar Miklos at August 13, 2026 04:41 AM (XOG/m)

11 Anyway! Evening and morning, fellow satellites and satraps of the vast AoSHQ Empire on this Thor's Day.

Last night I dreamed that I had gone away to college, an Ivy League or similar place, and was in a "temporary" dorm suite with a number of other guys. Two of them woke us all at 6:30 am, saying, "We need to smoke." Which made me realize that I had not brought a pipe or tobacco with me. Nor, it seemed, had I brought more than one change of clothing; I thought in the dream that I'd have to have my mother ship a *lot* of stuff to me. Plus there were no branches of my bank in this college town.

My suitemates began to head out -- we were all moving to our permanent dorms, it seemed. I was trying to pack when a young girl about five feet tall knocked at the door, and asked me, "Have you heard about Janix?" Before she could explain whether that was a person, a product, or a movement, I woke up.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 13, 2026 04:42 AM (wzUl9)

12 Mornin'

And, later. Going to take a nap.

Posted by: Puddleglum, cheer up for the worst is yet to come at August 13, 2026 04:42 AM (sAmhv)

13 Finally, 4 Mgid ads and got comment block open
If not back again before I go
Have a great day horde

Posted by: Skip at August 13, 2026 04:43 AM (Ia/+0)

14 Four teens from Florida help push an elderly woman's broken down mobile wheelchair in the rain. Faithpot site:

https://tinyurl.com/vpxcte5m
Posted by: FenelonSpoke

How did they know it was a "woman"?

Are they teen biologists?

Posted by: Associate Justice Ketanji Jackson-Browne at August 13, 2026 04:43 AM (XOG/m)

15 10 As the article notes, Intel's first product was memory - specifically a 64-bit SRAM module.

I note that the Man who Made Intel (Engineer, not MBA) was Grof Andras, better known as Andy Grove.

To the end of his days, he spoke English with a thick layer of Hungarian.
Posted by: Mere Murican Magyar Miklos at August 13, 2026 04:41 AM (XOG/m)

Looking him up online; he sounds amazing.
(1936-2016)

Posted by: m at August 13, 2026 04:48 AM (odBC9)

16 Claudes don't let Claudes Claude Claudes.

How much code could Claude Code code if Claude Code could code code?

Posted by: mikeski at August 13, 2026 04:48 AM (VHUov)

17 Superstition has good music .As a person of faith ( and older ) I question some of the lyrics. Believing that there is a devil is "superstitious "? Then again, I don't make Stevie Wonder my spiritual guide .

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 13, 2026 04:49 AM (wmzkx)

18 Willowed: On the topic of Buicks-

Mine (inherited) has never had ballots in the trunk, to my knowledge.

But it is a 2010 LaCrosse with 53k on the clock.
Posted by: Miklos don't get around much at August 13, 2026

***
One of the first generation, then, when LaCrosse was the mid-level car, the replacement for LeSabre? Later, after the demise of the model that replaced the much-missed Park Avenue, LaCrosse moved up to become the top-level car.

No, wait. 2010 was the first year of the big flagship LaCrosse, the generation I have (mine is a 2016).

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 13, 2026 04:50 AM (wzUl9)

19 Disclaimer: Don't lesnerize!
Posted by: Pixy Misa

I guess Martinizing is still OK

Posted by: Miklos also did the de-lousing part at August 13, 2026 04:50 AM (XOG/m)

20 With only about 4.5 hours of sleep, I'm not sure I have the energy to work out. Which might be Sheer Laziness whispering in my ear, of course.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 13, 2026 04:52 AM (wzUl9)

21 Post card from parents arrives 26 years later. Sunny Skyz site:

https://tinyurl.com/yyj27p2a

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 13, 2026 04:52 AM (wmzkx)

22 No, wait. 2010 was the first year of the big flagship LaCrosse, the generation I have (mine is a 2016).
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming

Only nine years until I can register it as a Classic (cheaper insurance).

Posted by: Miklos plans ahead at August 13, 2026 04:52 AM (XOG/m)

23 Disclaimer: Don't lesnerize!
Posted by: Pixy Misa

I guess Martinizing is still OK

Posted by: Miklos also did the de-lousing part at August 13, 2026 04:50 AM (XOG/m)
-

Anyone here still Simonize?

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 13, 2026 04:52 AM (yMCWt)

24 Anyone here still Simonize?
Posted by: Biden's Dog

I've never even considered buying an ecclesiastical office.

Posted by: mikeski at August 13, 2026 04:55 AM (VHUov)

25 Alternate musical interlude:

https://tinyurl.com/47ru8rws

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 13, 2026 04:57 AM (yMCWt)

26 6 I forget who wrote the story about "lesnerize." Robert Sheckley?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere

Yes, the short story "Protection", about the overly helpful validusian derg.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at August 13, 2026 04:57 AM (BLOW1)

27 Disclaimer: Don't lesnerize!
Posted by: Pixy Misa

WNBA has enough of them already.

Posted by: mikeski at August 13, 2026 04:57 AM (VHUov)

28 At the Book Club at the library last night, the genre under discussion was the "cozy" mystery. As usual, I was the only guy there, and so the only one to dislike the genre -- at least the ones I've read. The others did admit that the genre was kind of like cotton candy or M & Ms; you wouldn't want to make a steady diet of any of them.

I touted the virtues of Josephine Tey's last novel, The Singing Sands. It has "cozy" elements: no gore or explicit language or sex; it takes place mostly in small communities in Scotland; and the sleuth, even though he's a Scotland Yard inspector, is on medical leave (an attack of claustrophobia!), so he's sort of an amateur detective in this story.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 13, 2026 04:57 AM (wzUl9)

29 Anyone here still Simonize?
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs

Says who?

Posted by: Miklos awaits prompt at August 13, 2026 04:58 AM (XOG/m)

30 Sorry to repeat but Philistines upon you, America:

https://tinyurl.com/yx2pur6t

https://tinyurl.com/4ze7r2bh

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 13, 2026 05:00 AM (yMCWt)

31 Anyone here still Simonize?
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs
-

Says who?

Posted by: Miklos awaits prompt at August 13, 2026 04:58 AM (XOG/m)
-

Ize said.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 13, 2026 05:01 AM (yMCWt)

32 The Google introduced its Pixel 11 phones and related products yesterday. A few things I noticed.

Trevor Noah, The event MC, is a tech illiterate who probably carries an iPhone.

Cell phone design and implementation maxed about 5 years ago, it seems, and has barely advanced since then. For example, a Pixel 11 key feature is an LED on the back camera bar that lights up when one of your favorites calls you. Yeah! Somehow this is supposed to make it easier for cell phone addicts to not interact with their phone.

AI jammed into every conceivable nook and cranny of these electronic surveillance devices now makes electronic surveillance acceptable.

Plus the prices are higher.

Posted by: Alteria Pilgram - My President has convictions. at August 13, 2026 05:01 AM (JUTN6)

33 I forget who wrote the story about "lesnerize." Robert Sheckley?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere

Yes, the short story "Protection", about the overly helpful validusian derg.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at August 13, 2026

***
Sheckley was kind of a gadfly of SF magazines in the '50s -- very prolific, using at least one pen name, and producing a raft of stories with his brand of poker-faced humor. Sort of like William Tenn.

One Sheckley story in Galaxy, "A Wind Is Rising," features humans stationed on a planet where the winds blow at over 100 miles per hour nearly all the time. A very tense story that would have made a fine Outer Limits, old or new, had they possessed the budget for it.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 13, 2026 05:01 AM (wzUl9)

34 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 13, 2026 04:57 AM (wzUl9

And did Tey sound like someone they would like to read or had anyone?

If you were going to start a book club for men how would you advertise that, and what would you choose?

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 13, 2026 05:02 AM (wmzkx)

35 Ize said.
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs

An Ize-ly Brother!

Posted by: Miklos wants to SHOUT at August 13, 2026 05:03 AM (XOG/m)

36 Posted by: mikeski at August 13, 2026 04:55 AM (VHUov)

LOL.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 13, 2026 05:03 AM (wmzkx)

37 Good morning!

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

Posted by: NaCly Dog at August 13, 2026 05:04 AM (u82oZ)

38 The ghetto ride of choice in northern Minnesota is the 2000 to about 2005 Buicks.

Posted by: Alteria Pilgram - My President has convictions. at August 13, 2026 05:04 AM (JUTN6)

39 Thursday on Movies! is Noir and Mystery Day. They start off today with Joan Crawford in Flamingo Road -- the basis, I guess, for the nighttime soap in the '80s with Morgan Fairchild -- and progress through three Hitchcock films and two Michael Shaynes, before climaxing with Sunset Boulevard in prime time.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 13, 2026 05:06 AM (wzUl9)

40 FenelonSpoke

Military Sci-Fi Book Club: Finding the plot holes.

Many men, few women readers.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at August 13, 2026 05:06 AM (u82oZ)

41 If you were going to start a book club for men how would you advertise that, and what would you choose?
Posted by: FenelonSpoke

Jack London, Mark Twain, Chaucer

Evelyn Waugh and Winston Churchill for the advanced members

H.L. Mencken required for entry

And some things to laugh at and make fun of in a guy way because famous but why?

Posted by: Miklos has opinions at August 13, 2026 05:07 AM (XOG/m)

42 Happy Birthday, Annie Oakley!

https://tinyurl.com/4zakrndb

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 13, 2026 05:08 AM (wmzkx)

43 Friday I am going to show Monty Python and the Holy grail to a widow who has never seen it. She claims to like British humor.
We shall see.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at August 13, 2026 05:08 AM (u82oZ)

44 If I was to start a book club for men I would republish all the popular mechanics from the 1940s and '50s and the 1960s " men's magazines" that had a busty woman on the cover and endless articles about how Hitler escaped Argentina.

Posted by: Alteria Pilgram - My President has convictions. at August 13, 2026 05:09 AM (JUTN6)

45
g'mornin', 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at August 13, 2026 05:10 AM (AMvSw)

46 And did Tey sound like someone they would like to read or had anyone?

If you were going to start a book club for men how would you advertise that, and what would you choose?
Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 13, 2026

***
The librarian who runs the thing, who seems to have eclectic tastes, wrote down the title in her notebook, so maybe she'll look the author up.

For men? Adventure and crime stories. Some Alistair Maclean spy tales, the Bond books, Elmore Leonard's and Loren Estleman's Westerns and some of their crime/mystery stories, etc. Herman Wouk's Caine Mutiny and maybe his story of a young writer, Youngblood Hawke.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 13, 2026 05:10 AM (wzUl9)

47 Posted by: Miklos has opinions at August 13, 2026 05:07 AM (XOG/m)

Ive read most of those folks and I like them, but since men are sometimes lamenting the loss of male only spaces ( and I agree with them) they would have to advertise it surreptitiously , I suppose.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 13, 2026 05:11 AM (wmzkx)

48 How did they know it was a "woman"?

Are they teen biologists?
Posted by: Associate Justice Ketanji Jackson-Browne

They were homeschooled so that complicated question was already figured out by the time they were ten.

Posted by: NR Pax at August 13, 2026 05:11 AM (jjoN6)

49 The ghetto ride of choice in northern Minnesota is the 2000 to about 2005 Buicks.
Posted by: Alteria Pilgram - My President has convictions. at August 13, 2026

***
Park Avenues and LeSabres, I'll warrant, with yellow-ringed whitewalls on big sparkly rims, and paint jobs that have seen better days.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 13, 2026 05:12 AM (wzUl9)

50 Miklos has opinions

An alternative is Heinlein, The Asimov Robot stories, Matthew Hughes for his tales of the Archonate, and Ryk E. Spoor for his Grand Central Arena stories.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at August 13, 2026 05:13 AM (u82oZ)

51 Actually the Book Club is going to concentrate on Westerns next month. I've got a couple of Leonards and Estlemans that I can opine about.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 13, 2026 05:13 AM (wzUl9)

52 21 Post card from parents arrives 26 years later.

Thank you, Fen. Sending that along to my mom. She'll love it.

Posted by: NR Pax at August 13, 2026 05:13 AM (jjoN6)

53 8 I've always thought that if someone did a movie of Robert Heinlein's Friday, "Superstition" should be the intro over credits music.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 13, 2026 04:36 AM (wzUl9)

It has occurred to me, as a fan of LitRPG, that if a movie is to ever be made of one of my faves, it would fall to me to learn how to use GenAI for video. My experience of creative endeavors tells me that there would be very limited benefit from learning how to do short-form works like music videos; once the tools were mastered (after the first one or three), the workflow would be so different, it would be time do dive straight in to the deep end.

Posted by: SciVo at August 13, 2026 05:14 AM (Sy6m/)

54 Park Avenues and LeSabres, I'll warrant, with yellow-ringed whitewalls on big sparkly rims, and paint jobs that have seen better days. Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius,

You overlooked the rust holes in the in the body from the road salt.

Posted by: Alteria Pilgram - My President has convictions. at August 13, 2026 05:17 AM (JUTN6)

55 Posted by: NR Pax at August 13, 2026 05:13 AM (jjoN6)

You are most welcome!

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 13, 2026 05:18 AM (xPsv8)

56 Happy Thursday, everyone! I have an appointment this afternoon to get an MRI done on my knee so my PA can get an idea of what is wrong and what needs to be done. My sister in law has offered to look at the images as well because as a former ER doc, she was annoyed that my follow up appointment isn't until next week.

Posted by: NR Pax at August 13, 2026 05:18 AM (jjoN6)

57 We shall see.
Posted by: NaCly Dog

The Kollidge that I attended brought in people (for a fee) to speak and inform/entertain. The contracts said that they had to spend an hour after with the student speakers' committee in a kind of reception. I was never a member, but disregarded the student committee pissants who tried to keep me out.

One was Graham Chapman of the Pythonites. The students were always shy about approaching the Famous People, I wasn't, so Mr Chapman and I were having a conversation in which I knew not to ask about Monty Python, or repeat any usual question.

Then two from the Official Committee came over and said "we love your British humour, more sophisticated than American".

Chapman looked at them and said "we did fart jokes, you know"

Posted by: Miklos well remembers at August 13, 2026 05:19 AM (XOG/m)

58 The first time I heard Superstition was at 71 or 72 Rolling Stones concert. Stevie Wonder opened for the Stones. I can barely remember what the stoves played, but I remember nearly every note Stevie Wonder played.

Posted by: Alteria Pilgram - My President has convictions. at August 13, 2026 05:19 AM (JUTN6)

59 Miklos well remembers

You are most fortunate.

What questions did you ask?

Posted by: NaCly Dog at August 13, 2026 05:23 AM (u82oZ)

60 >>>The "Godmother of AI" says the biggest risk to AI is students losing the desire learn. (Tech Spot)
Don't know how to tell you this, Fei-Fei...

Indeed!

Posted by: m at August 13, 2026 05:23 AM (odBC9)

61 My book club would spend months on the Bronte Sisters, if we have enough Bourbon and cigars, and PBR.

We would take turns reading passages in exaggerated girl voices while tending to the grill and smoker, and trying to get Earl's truck fixed.

Posted by: Miklos thinks hell this might work at August 13, 2026 05:24 AM (XOG/m)

62 Posted by: NR Pax at August 13, 2026 05:18 AM (jjoN6

Will keep you in prayer and I'm glad your SIL can look at the images.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 13, 2026 05:25 AM (xPsv8)

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