data/2024-08-19 - Microsoft Slams the Door.en.txt

[0.16] Well, well, well. [1.1]
[1.62] Look what the cat dragged in. [3.1]
[3.44] I'm just kidding. [4.8]
[5.08] It's great to see you. [5.66]
[5.88] Also, [6.06]
[6.1] that's a weird insult. [6.74]
[7.12] Microsoft has apparently patched a popular loophole [9.86]
[9.86] that allowed users to install Windows 11 on PCs [12.56]
[12.56] that don't meet the outlandish hardware requirements. [15.42]
[16.08] Why convince people to download your OS [17.62]
[18.18] when you can just make it harder to upgrade [19.78]
[19.96] for those who actually want to? [21.42]
[21.88] This particular trick allowed anyone to bypass [24.1]
[24.1] the TPM 2.0 chip requirement of Windows 11 [27.16]
[27.66] by tricking the OS's setup file into thinking your machine was a server. [31.98]
[33.24] Not a host. [33.76]
[35.3] That's another computer and restaurant word. [36.88]
[37.16] Unfortunately, Twitter user TheBobPony [39.46]
[40.0] discovered that the most recent insider build of Windows now [42.92]
[43.16] also requires servers to have TPM 2.0 support. [45.98]
[46.68] This isn't the case in normal Windows yet, [49.2]
[49.74] but chances are they'll be rolling out an update soon. [52.36]
[52.82] And that could leave you with a non-functional system [54.68]
[54.68] if you use this workaround to install Windows 11. [57.22]
[57.68] There are still other methods to install Windows 11 without having TPM 2.0. [62.02]
[62.3] For example, open source utility [63.84]
[64.36] Rufus apparently has its own workaround too. [66.32]
[66.48] I doubt Microsoft is going to succeed at patching every method for bypassing the hardware requirements, [71.02]
[71.26] but I'm happy to have them try. [72.74]
[73.38] That means less time for them to program more ads into Windows 11. [76.04]
[76.38] Just kidding. [77.76]
[77.8] They'll make time. [78.14]
[78.36] Procreate, the company behind the popular art app for iPad, [81.66]
[82.05] has pledged to never add AI to their products [85.7]
[85.7] This is despite the existence of the 2010 song Never Say Never by Justin Bieber [90.75]
[90.75] In a video posted by the company's Twitter account Ceo Jason Cuda said [94.12]
[94.12] I really f**king hate generative AI [96.76]
[96.76] Procreate's website features a page dedicated to their anti-AI stance. [101.32]
[101.5] As a result, the company has received a lot of love [103.88]
[103.88] from digital artists who probably are tired of having generative AI trained on their work without consent. [108.58]
[109.08] But painters and illustrators aren't the only ones [111.16]
[111.16] seemingly becoming tired of the onslaught of AI tools. [113.82]
[114.31] AI photo Editing and image processing features are starting to raise questions about when a photo stops being a photo. [121.28]
[121.92] Just last week, award-winning iPhone camera app, Halide, [124.8]
[125.28] has introduced a new feature called Process Zero, [127.74]
[128.38] allowing users to take photos without any AI or image processing at all. [132.36]
[132.56] Of course, Halide costs $20 a year, [134.48]
[134.6] so now, [134.94]
[135.34] ironically, you need to pay a subscription to not use AI. [138.36]
[138.94] National Public Data [139.98]
[140.12] or NPD for short, [142.0]
[142.06] has finally confirmed it had a data breach. [144.52]
[144.98] Though they don't actually seem too sure. [147.2]
[148.0] In their official statement, the data aggregator says, [150.16]
[150.58] there appears to have been a data security incident. [153.36]
[153.92] As if hundreds of millions of people's data ending up on the dark web was somehow not definitive proof enough. [158.54]
[159.14] While many reports claim that 2.7 billion people's data was exposed, [162.6]
[163.12] that's apparently not quite true. [164.46]
[164.88] Web security consultant, Troy Hunt, [166.42]
[166.54] investigated and found there were about 134 million unique email addresses. [170.92]
[171.6] Yet NPD told the main attorney general's office [174.02]
[174.02] that 1.3 million people were affected, [176.54]
[177.04] which would imply that [177.86]
[177.86] they all have about 100 emails. [180.26]
[182.78] It was also discovered by a company [184.2]
[184.2] called Atlas Data Privacy [185.94]
[185.96] that the leaked data contained 272 million unique social security numbers. [190.4]
[190.4] So every person affected by the breach [192.22]
[192.22] must have also been born roughly 200 times. [195.18]
[195.6] Now, to be fair to NPD, [196.86]
[197.08] millions of these records are for people who no longer are alive. [200.34]
[200.82] So maybe they weren't included in the 1.3 million figure. [204.04]
[204.98] It's hard to cut them slack when the hackers may have gotten all this data because an NPD sister site [211.54]
[211.54] published a file containing admin passwords on its homepage [214.76]
[215.62] that was only removed today. [216.9]
[217.34] Sure, we've been hacked before, [218.76]
[219.18] but the hackers still had to put in some effort. [221.98]
[222.3] But do you know how much effort our sponsor, War Thunder, [224.78]
[224.94] had to put into their free-to-play vehicular combat game [227.34]
[227.34] to make it so, [228.02]
[228.12] so historically accurate? [229.54]
[229.8] Neither do I, but it seems like a lot. [231.4]
[231.72] Especially since the game allows you to pilot 2,000 different vehicles [234.92]
[235.0] into combat. [236.18]
[236.28] We're talking planes, tanks, boats. [237.96]
[238.1] Oh my. [238.36]
[238.58] Plus, War Thunder's in-depth customization allows you to fine-tune your vehicles to adapt to any battle because you deserve to have the tank you always wanted. [247.14]
[247.4] Click the link below to start playing on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox, [250.66]
[250.74] and you'll get some extra goodies too. [252.6]
[253.02] How do you summon Quick Bits? [253.98]
[254.08] Easy. [254.62]
[255.12] You just go psst, psst, psst, psst, psst. [256.62]
[256.72] Wait, no, that's cats. [257.94]
[258.38] Intel's upcoming Arrow Lake S desktop CPU lineup is expected to arrive in October, [262.64]
[262.8] a little fuller than anticipated. [264.82]
[265.34] A little healthier, girthier. [266.82]
[267.46] A leak, courtesy of Jakin on Twitter, [270.3]
[270.4] lists 14 SKUs with two previously unseen [273.24]
[273.78] Core Ultra 5 models, the 235 and 225. [277.24]
[277.54] Another, more different tweet from fellow leaker, OneRaiChu, [281.22]
[281.34] points to the lineup including one or more additional Core Ultra 3 models with eight cores, [286.52]
[286.92] likely four P-cores and four E-cores. [288.6]
[288.66] Although, depending on who you're talking to, [289.82]
[289.88] these aren't real E-cores. [291.92]
[292.26] Those have all gone to join hyper-threading [293.84]
[293.84] in the great outdated tech glossary in the sky. [296.4]
[297.18] Raspberry Pi, the company whose entire raison d'etre [300.18]
[300.64] is hyper-affordable mini PCs, [302.1]
[302.62] has launched a new, even lighter, [304.04]
[304.14] two-gigabyte version of the Pi 5, down from four gigabytes [307.14]
[307.88] Beyond the two-gigabyte drop in memory and a newly optimized SOC, [310.92]
[311.04] the rest of the Pi specs remain unchanged. [312.88]
[313.4] It's also for just 50 bucks, [315.64]
[315.9] down from 60, [316.58]
[317.0] for consumers who would rather buy a box of nice popsicles than double their available RAM. [321.82]
[322.34] Yet unclear is whether Raspberry Pi will follow this up with a one-gigabyte version [325.68]
[325.84] or whether they'll follow that with an infinite number of Pis, [329.24]
[330.06] each with half the memory of the previous model, [332.04]
[332.4] Zeno's Paradox style. [333.12]
[333.82] Ask them Total Pies. [334.58]
[335.18] Comment if you're nerdy enough to get that reference. [336.96]
[337.16] The Zotac Zone, [339.06]
[339.16] has now gone up for pre-order in select regions, [341.8]
[342.02] hoping to entice foolish gamers into buying what looks like a Steam Deck, [345.76]
[346.32] thanks to its dual touchpads, [347.8]
[347.9] but is actually an $800 Windows handheld with a 120-hertz OLED screen, [352.8]
[353.5] hall effect sticks, a selfie camera, and a kickstand. [355.7]
[356.22] The real kicker, though, is the RGB strip on the back. [359.4]
[359.56] Valve wouldn't do this to us. [360.76]
[361.04] The Zone reportedly officially launches in September, [362.88]
[363.04] but I don't know who to trust at this point. [364.7]
[364.98] According to TechRadar, [365.72]
[365.76] Google has quietly confirmed that there [367.82]
[367.82] will be no more Fitbit smartwatches produced. [371.0]
[372.42] No one was more shocked by the story than Google, [374.38]
[374.42] as the spokesperson then told Ars Technica [376.74]
[376.74] that TechRadar's article was not correct, [378.72]
[378.84] but did not elaborate on any potential new Fitbit smartwatch products. [382.54]
[382.94] This confuses us, because last week, [385.24]
[385.3] the senior director of product management for Pixel Wearables told Engadget that moving forward, [388.98]
[389.06] Fitbit will be focusing on trackers, not smartwatches. [392.06]
[392.46] So I feel like not even Google knows what Google is doing. [395.26]
[396.14] That's fun. [396.42]
[396.8] And Tesla is hiring workers to train its humanoid robot, Optimus, [401.2]
[401.24] using mo-cap suits. [402.44]
[403.2] Candidates must be reasonably fit and between 5'7 and 5'11. [406.46]
[407.06] No big boys or short kings allowed. [408.6]
[408.9] Unfortunately, this training might take millions of hours of data, [412.28]
[412.4] meaning that the first sign of the robot apocalypse [414.54]
[415.0] may be an epidemic of repetitive strain injuries. [417.98]
[418.78] By contrast, Chinese company Unitree says it has a $16,000 mass production ready bot [424.56]
[424.56] that can jump, jog, withstand kicks, [426.42]
[427.28] solder electronics, [428.06]
[428.52] and flip pancakes with training. [430.14]
[430.56] It'll be the perfect bodyguard slash butler [432.26]
[432.26] for all those average-sized men with debilitating carpal tunnel. [434.78]
[435.24] But it would be even more debilitating if you didn't come back on Wednesday for more tech news. [439.28]
[439.62] I know when you aren't here, and frankly, it hurts. [443.36]
[444.98] I'm a carpal tunnel. [445.36]