Daily Tech News 19 October 2026

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A district court judge in Utah has blocked that state's law requiring magical ponies age restrictions for all websites that somehow stops precisely at the state border. (EFF)

The law covered not only sites operating within the state - which falls under Scalia's "dumb but constitutional" - but sites anywhere in the world accessible from Utah.

Sites were required to either block VPNs (and were forbidden from mentioning the existence of VPNs) or track the precise address of every single IP address in the world of which there are now 2¹²⁸ which is rather a lot.

Tech News

Two RTX 5090s, worth a combined $470,000, went missing from an airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Tom's Hardware)

"Missing."
The new Elizabeth Holmes documentary isn't. (Tech Crunch)

Isn't an Elizabeth Holmes documentary. (Holmes was the "female Steve Jobs" now serving time in prison for defrauding investors in her biotech company, Theranos.)

It may be a documentary on propaganda, or based on the one glowing review I read from an obvious dimwit, it may be slop.
Speaking of slop, LinkedIn is tired of it. (CNN)

Their new "SLOP" for AI post button is being clicked half a million times a week to downvote the content.
New PCs arrived. These are the two I ordered weeks ago - the Minisforum M1-1390 - which I picked up on sale for about $390 including tax and shipping. They cost rather more than that now. And they're also out of stock.

24-core Intel 13900HX and up to 64GB of DDR4 laptop RAM but none installed, making their utility limited unless you already have a lot of DDR4 laptop RAM sitting around from systems you built in 2021 that have now expired... Which I do.

Musical Interlude

Disclaimer: And now sneeze.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 w00t

Posted by: m at October 19, 2026 04:01 AM (odBC9)

2 Morning, all.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at October 19, 2026 04:01 AM (tGVts)

3 G'Day everyone
Its Monday again, isn't it?

Posted by: Skip at October 19, 2026 04:02 AM (Ia/+0)

4 Disclaimer: And now sneeze.

a-choo!

Posted by: m at October 19, 2026 04:03 AM (odBC9)

5 Guten morgen, horde.

Posted by: clarence at October 19, 2026 04:07 AM (bi2Tv)

6 Here’s a tissue.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at October 19, 2026 04:07 AM (tGVts)

7 >>>Speaking of slop, LinkedIn is tired of it. (CNN)
Their new "SLOP" for AI post button is being clicked half a million times a week to downvote the content.

I hope it works.

Posted by: m at October 19, 2026 04:09 AM (odBC9)

8 Hola Techsters,

Busy weeks ahead. Fall is here and year end is rapidly approaching.

Posted by: Pete Bog at October 19, 2026 04:12 AM (gs4+4)

9 Wikipedia
LinkedIn
By early 2026, LinkedIn had more than 1.3 billion registered members. It was available in over 200 countries and territories.

That's ... a lot.

Posted by: m at October 19, 2026 04:12 AM (odBC9)

10 4 Disclaimer: And now sneeze.

a-choo!
Posted by: m at October 19, 2026 04:03 AM (odBC9)

6 Here’s a tissue.
Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at October 19, 2026 04:07 AM (tGVts)

Thank you.

Posted by: m at October 19, 2026 04:14 AM (odBC9)

11
The internet needs a SLOP button for LinkedIn. EasyApply jobs that have 100+ applicants the second they appear already have 1000+ applicants.

I want to find the person who's gotten a job from that site.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at October 19, 2026 04:15 AM (mmrXZ)

12 Mornin'

Posted by: Puddleglum, cheer up for the worst is yet to come at October 19, 2026 04:19 AM (sAmhv)

13 from late in the ONT

340 asmongold

What the f**k is happening in Italy??
(This Is Milan Right Now)

https://tinyurl.com/36ncdmjp

29:56
Posted by: m at October 19, 2026 02:57 AM (odBC9)

Posted by: m at October 19, 2026 04:31 AM (odBC9)

14 > Two RTX 5090s, worth a combined $470,000, went missing from an airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Tom's Hardware)

Two *palettes*. 5090s aren't quite up to $235 grand apiece yet.

Posted by: Bitblt at October 19, 2026 04:34 AM (kj+zZ)

15 Phone saying its 35 degrees here

Posted by: Skip at October 19, 2026 04:38 AM (Ia/+0)

16 Getting sporty in Italy as well, not surprised

Posted by: Skip at October 19, 2026 04:40 AM (Ia/+0)

17 Sites were required to either block VPNs (and were forbidden from mentioning the existence of VPNs) or track the precise address of every single IP address in the world of which there are now 2128 which is rather a lot./i]

I am convinced that there are entities that want their internet wet dream; all users required to have a digital ID from the government to log on to the entire internet, with a specific ID number that will follow them every and identify them as the anonymous poster who made a vulgar, but entirely true, joke about a politician or leftist cause that needs to be protected.

As usual, the tyrants use the "protect the children!!" ruse to get the camel's nose under the tent.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 19, 2026 04:48 AM (6ydKt)

18 G'mornin all y'all
Be safe out there folks !

Posted by: Okjohn at October 19, 2026 04:53 AM (Eby7U)

19 Two RTX 5090s, worth a combined $470,000, went missing from an airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Tom's Hardware)

"Missing."

Could be the Red Command (Comando Vermelho) in Sao Paulo has decided to make their own AI data center?

Or, Lula plans on spending a lot of time playing video games with his friends after he loses the election next week?

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 19, 2026 05:00 AM (6ydKt)

20
g'mornin', 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at October 19, 2026 05:09 AM (AMvSw)

21 Fairly short commute today. Long tomorrow
Have a great day horde

Posted by: Skip at October 19, 2026 05:12 AM (Ia/+0)

22 Devotional "Thanksgiving and praise" on Psalm
100:1-5

https://tinyurl.com/zurkkcwn

Posted by: Reader at October 19, 2026 05:15 AM (JrHfD)

23 New PCs arrived. These are the two I ordered weeks ago - the Minisforum M1-1390 - which I picked up on sale for about $390 including tax and shipping. They cost rather more than that now. And they're also out of stock.

The page is letting me add the 16GB + 500GB @ $599 and the 32GB + 1TB @ $767 to the cart here.

$767 for that PC isn't a bad deal these days.
13900HX is a little workhorse. It's not too power efficient but it will definitely fire on all cylinders with that being one of the last generation of Intel's chips before they went to their newer tiles (chiplet) designs.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 19, 2026 05:15 AM (6ydKt)

24 Isn't an Elizabeth Holmes documentary. (Holmes was the "female Steve Jobs" now serving time in prison for defrauding investors in her biotech company, Theranos.)

It may be a documentary on propaganda, or based on the one glowing review I read from an obvious dimwit, it may be slop.

It looks like a very strange flick just from the trailers.
I also read somewhere that's over three hours long.

I'm not that interested in this chick but I'm sure I'll see some clips online eventually.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 19, 2026 05:17 AM (6ydKt)

25 Sunday morning spouse and are were driving through the countryside and saw lots of beautiful Trees changing. One top of one very tall tee which had died there was a bald eagle perched. It was so majestic.

Posted by: Reader at October 19, 2026 05:18 AM (JrHfD)

26 Oops; Sock off

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 19, 2026 05:21 AM (JrHfD)

27 And Alex Gibney’s four-hour documentary “Musk” — hampered, perhaps, by resistance from social platforms and a four-hour runtime — made only $306,702 this weekend.

- bottom of TechCrunch article

I can't imagine why a four hour flick whining about Elon Musk has only made enough money to buy a house anywhere outside of California.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 19, 2026 05:21 AM (6ydKt)

28 From the eff.org article:

"Because destination websites only see the IP address of the VPN server, they have no reliable mechanism to tell whether a connection originates from Salt Lake City, Seattle, or Shanghai. So, under Utah's current statutory framework, platforms are left with an impossible choice: completely block all VPN traffic nationwide or withdraw access from Utah entirely."

And that last part (bolded) is probably what the lawmakers really wanted, but didn't get.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant, a Moron behind enemy lines at October 19, 2026 05:28 AM (O7YUW)

29 Good morning, All.

Just dreaming of bacon cooked up by a Bacon.Wench. BACON

Posted by: JM in Illinois at October 19, 2026 05:30 AM (PKL0q)

30 This is a nice YouTube channel for those Christians that might have an interest and time to look, because the videos are longer . This is called "Beyond Moment" about Christian transformation. One is about Fanny Crosby who wrote "Blessed Assurance and thousands of other hymns. Another one called "Amazing Grace" contains details about
the life of John Newton the author of that hymn and a slave ship's captain which I was not familiar with:

https://tinyurl.com/3nyd8uuj

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 19, 2026 05:37 AM (JrHfD)

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