Daily Tech News 15 August 2026

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Who are you and what have you done with France? France's Constitutional Council has found the French government's plan to block social media access to children under 15 unconstitutional for the burden it would place on everyone over the age of 15. (Reuters)

Kind of obvious but something that entirely escaped both major political parties here in Australia.

Tech News

Intel says that its Raptor Lake CPUs - 13th and 14th generation - aren't going anywhere. (Tom's Hardware)

Because they still support cheaper DDR4 memory. The company hasn't hinted at any new architectures featuring DDR4 support, but it has introduced new configurations in Bartlett Lake chips, which use the same core design but offer up to 12 performance cores on a chip instead of 8.

You can't officially buy them at retail and they require different BIOS code, but they are floating around and so are alternate BIOS files.
If you have kernel level-access to your PlayStation 4, you can now have... Kernel Level Access Plus. (Tom's Hardware)

This also applies to the Xbox One and perhaps more importantly to server ships like the Opteron 6300, which I hope nobody is still running for anything critical.
Why does Claude Fable feel worse than older Claude Opus models? (GitHub)
Selecting for models that do well on benchmarks (and indeed training for them or on RLVR tasks in general) inherently selects for models that make bold, usually-correct assumptions in the face of ambiguity. It penalizes models with a tendency to stop and ask for clarification or direction.
In short, because the incentive was to forge ahead and get things wrong rather than to stop and ask questions.
The weather was cold and cold. (The Register)

Did Claude Fable write that article?
The Ploopy A Plus is here. (Ploopy)

Plooping up your database connection, it would seem.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 cores 20% higher on AnTuTu than Gen 5. (WCCFTech)

That makes it twice as fast on that benchmark as the Gen 3 I have in the tablet I just bought, although given price increases it will likely cost four times as much. The Gen 5 model of that tablet already costs three times what I paid.
Judge James Lemongrab has ordered Google to stop fucking around and make it easier to install alternate app stores on Android. (The Verge) (archive site)

Unacceptable!
Apple also seems fully committed to fucking around. (MacRumors)

The company wants a 15% cut of purchases not made through Apple's servers.
He who represents himself has a fraud as a client. (404 Media)

Ah, the old hide your fraud attempts in white text on a white background trick. And I would have got away with it too, if it weren't for that meddling Select All.

Musical Interlude

Disclaimer: Da da da.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 w00t

Posted by: m at August 15, 2026 04:30 AM (odBC9)

2 G'Day everyone

Posted by: Skip at August 15, 2026 04:31 AM (Ia/+0)

3 5 Mgid visits

Posted by: Skip at August 15, 2026 04:32 AM (Ia/+0)

4 Morning peeps.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at August 15, 2026 04:34 AM (BLOW1)

5 >>>the tablet I just bought ... The Gen 5 model of that tablet already costs three times what I paid.

Yikes.

Posted by: m at August 15, 2026 04:41 AM (odBC9)

6 >>>He he represents himself

He who

Gesundheit.

Posted by: m at August 15, 2026 04:42 AM (odBC9)

7 Mornin'

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at August 15, 2026 04:42 AM (wBh67)

8 No, who's on first.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at August 15, 2026 04:45 AM (BLOW1)

9 No, who's on first.
Posted by: Pixy Misa

Hu is First Secretary

Posted by: Miklos, hey who Xi at August 15, 2026 04:47 AM (XOG/m)

10 " both major political parties"

Only because they keep doing everything in their power to make being "Pauline Hanson" Illegal. Her existence as being a target hatred, I THINK, predates TDS, and she held her positions a fair bit before trump.

Meanwhile read a policy paper by Every political party, and the only one that actually talks about real policies is ONP.

Posted by: wickedpinto at August 15, 2026 04:50 AM (r/8/x)

11 Kind of obvious but something that entirely escaped both major political parties here in Australia.

And the US too...It's always "do it for the children", but it's really "fk you serfs and your rights. We want to monitor you wherever and whenever we want, while you're not allowed to see what we do with your tax monies"

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at August 15, 2026 04:54 AM (l3cgK)

12 Hu was been replaced as First Secretary.

Hu is now Second Secretary of the Peoples' Plenary Consultative Committee, under the Glorious Banner of Eternal Comrade Mao.

We shall calmly deliberate who should be First.

Hu Mi is favoured for loyal adherence and emulation of Lei Feng.

Posted by: Miklos, HU (Third Secretary) at August 15, 2026 04:55 AM (XOG/m)

13 Ah, the old hide your fraud attempts in white text on a white background trick. And I would have got away with it too, if it weren't for that meddling Select All.

Had that happen in a lawsuit. The other side sent a PDF with a list of expenses, but "blacked out" what each expense was specifically for. I was trying to copy it into another document and noticed the "blacked out" text wasn't actually blacked out...he had, for the third time, using yet another lawyer, to have the lawyer investigate his claims, something that had already been proven exactly wrong in court multiple times...

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at August 15, 2026 05:02 AM (l3cgK)

14 from the 404 media (fraud as a client) article:

In October, the person, named Matthew Elliott, sued the New York Bariatric Group, alleging a series of privacy violations, discrimination, and several other claims.

His privacy is kinda moot at this point.

Posted by: m at August 15, 2026 05:05 AM (odBC9)

15 12 Hu Mi is favoured for loyal adherence and emulation of Lei Feng.
Posted by: Miklos, HU (Third Secretary) at August 15, 2026 04:55 AM (XOG/m)

Who, me?

Posted by: m at August 15, 2026 05:08 AM (odBC9)

16 proven exactly wrong in court multiple times...
Posted by: jim

Hey, everybody's got bills to pay

Posted by: yet another lawyer at August 15, 2026 05:09 AM (XOG/m)

17
g'mornin', 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at August 15, 2026 05:11 AM (AMvSw)

18 Have to work today, hopefully morning only, book store om way home, and OT.

Posted by: Skip at August 15, 2026 05:14 AM (Ia/+0)

19 G'morning all, time to do back to sleep after reading the tech news.

Hu are you?

Posted by: Gmac-WTF did you think was going to happen at August 15, 2026 05:16 AM (Q/FnY)

20 from the Reuters France article:

France's Constitutional Council found that the ⁠bill, while requiring everyone to give proof of age, failed "to specify the conditions and limits" under which it should be provided, as well as infringing on freedoms and privacy.

YAY, FRANCE!

Posted by: m at August 15, 2026 05:23 AM (odBC9)

21 19 G'morning all, time to do back to sleep after reading the tech news.

Hu are you?

Posted by: Gmac-WTF did you think was going to happen at August 15, 2026 05:16 AM (Q/FnY)

... "and what have you done with France?"

Posted by: m at August 15, 2026 05:24 AM (odBC9)

22 A great psalm of praise -Psalm
47. One of our posters here appreciates the KJV, so here it is:

https://tinyurl.com/2p9kwkxk

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 15, 2026 05:27 AM (xPsv8)

23 Better get making breakfast
Maybe ham and cheese omelet

Posted by: Skip at August 15, 2026 05:31 AM (Ia/+0)

24
University of Cambridge faculty and staff:

"Say, fellow deans and dons, let's send this Arday chap out onto that thin ice and see how long it takes for him to plunge through it!"

"Oh, I say, that's a capital idea! How about we retire to the faculty lounge for tea now?"

"Uh, he's out there on thin ice, chaps -- shouldn't we get him off it first?"

"Nah, he'll be fine -- how about a round or two of bridge while we're there?

"Jolly good!"

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at August 15, 2026 05:31 AM (ixS3i)

25 LOL the first sentence of the Register article on AI-written text:

In an effort to "watermark" text that Claude has generated and comply with the EU AI Act, Anthropic ib Friday unveiled a plan on Friday to modify its bots' choice of words in a way that would be detectable as the product of an AI.

Wait, what day? And ... ib?

Posted by: m at August 15, 2026 05:31 AM (odBC9)

26 Judge...Lemongrab?

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at August 15, 2026 05:32 AM (zdLoL)

27 >>>In short, because the incentive was to forge ahead and get things wrong rather than to stop and ask questions.

Sort of faking it until you make it.

Posted by: m at August 15, 2026 05:33 AM (odBC9)

28 Evening and morning for this Saturn's Day at the midpoint of August! Howz ever'body doin'? (I watched part of A Face in the Crowd w/ Andy Griffith last night, and it rubbed off on me. I also watched The Awful Truth from 1937, though, and I'm not talking like Cary Grant.)

Anyway! I'm up and sipping coffee.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 15, 2026 05:33 AM (wzUl9)

29
No, who's on first.
Posted by: Pixy Misa

Hu is First Secretary

Posted by: Miklos, hey who Xi

No, Secretariat was first. Who is Hu?

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at August 15, 2026 05:33 AM (ixS3i)

30 "Lost and Found" -Man from
India writes on Luke 15:1-32 as well as his baby chicks:

https://tinyurl.com/3yhyxyyc

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 15, 2026 05:35 AM (xPsv8)

31
Any blog with "mu.nu" as part of its moniker ought to made a wide detour around bringing up "hu".

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at August 15, 2026 05:35 AM (ixS3i)

32
"Oh, I say, that's a capital idea! How about we retire to the faculty lounge for tea now?".

__________

For "faculty lounge," read "high table".

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at August 15, 2026 05:36 AM (O0L8i)

33 There's also the reverse side of the argument... my boss's boss has a motto: "Fail Fast". It's better to just get something done, see what you did wrong, and then fix it immediately, than to dither around and hee-haw doubting yourself and striving for perfection when you don't even know what perfection looks like, and then getting absolutely nothing accomplished in the process.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at August 15, 2026 05:37 AM (Ot/FD)

34 Any blog with "mu.nu" as part of its moniker ought to made a wide detour around bringing up "hu".
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot

Well, Hu Nu?

Posted by: stu-mick-o-sucks at August 15, 2026 05:39 AM (YcOeP)

35 Didn't Nauru decide they don't want to be Nauru anymore, but something achingly close to Nauru that sounds closer to the Nauruninite word for Nauru?

I just hope they don't change their domain name.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at August 15, 2026 05:39 AM (Ot/FD)

36 >>>Judge James Lemongrab has ordered Google to stop fucking around and make it easier to install alternate app stores on Android. (The Verge) (archive site)
Unacceptable!

I can't tell, from the article, if the judge is friend or foe. I can tell that the author needs to check his spellcheck:

Donato ordered Google to carry rival Android app stores inside its own Google Play Store, and to provide rivals with complecte access to Google’s full catalog of apps, for several years.

Posted by: m at August 15, 2026 05:40 AM (odBC9)

37 26 Judge...Lemongrab?
Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at August 15, 2026 05:32 AM (zdLoL)

Maybe it's Yiddish for "lime pit"?

Posted by: Warai-otoko at August 15, 2026 05:41 AM (Ot/FD)

38
Here they come now sayin', "mu nu, mu nu"
Shoot 'em down, turn around, come on, mu nu
Hey, we love the snark and we feel alright now
Yeah, we gotta toss and turn and feel alright, eh, we feel alright

We say, "Yeah" (yeah), "Yeah" (yeah)
Yeah (yeah), yeah (yeah), yeah (yeah), yeah (yeah)

'Cause you make us feel (like a Moron), so good (like a Moron)
So good (like a Moron), so good (mu nu, mu nu)
So fine (mu nu, mu nu), so fine (mu nu, mu nu)
All the time (mu nu, mu nu), well, we feel alright (mu nu, mu nu)
We say, "Yeah" (yeah), "Yeah" (yeah)
Yeah (yeah), yeah (yeah), yeah (yeah), yeah (yeah)

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at August 15, 2026 05:41 AM (ixS3i)

39 Unacceptable!

Posted by: m at August 15, 2026 05:40 AM (odBC9)

That was a Finn and Jake reference, wasn't it?

Posted by: Warai-otoko at August 15, 2026 05:42 AM (Ot/FD)

40 Well, Hu Nu?
Posted by: stu-mick-o-sucks at August 15, 2026

***
Hu nu, brun cuw.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 15, 2026 05:43 AM (wzUl9)

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