SCOTUS blocks order that said Biden admin can’t “coerce” social media firms

Posted on October 23, 2023 by Xordac Prime

President smiles while sitting at a table during a meeting.

The Supreme Court has blocked an injunction that would prevent the Biden administration from pressuring social media firms to take down content. Justices agreed to hear the Biden administration’s appeal of the injunction, which will be stayed until the high court issues a ruling that could either uphold the injunction or block it permanently.

The decision to grant the stay and hear the administration’s appeal was issued in an order Friday. The court previously issued a temporary stay while it considered whether to hear the case, so the injunction has not been enforced.

Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch dissented, arguing that the stay “allows the defendants to persist in committing the type of First Amendment violations that the lower courts identified. The majority takes this action in the face of the lower courts’ detailed findings of fact.”

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Source: Ars Technica – SCOTUS blocks order that said Biden admin can’t “coerce” social media firms

Report: Apple has a refreshed Apple Silicon iMac coming as soon as next week

Posted on October 23, 2023 by Xordac Prime

Apple's 24-inch iMac hasn't been updated in more than two years.

Most of Apple’s big product announcements for the year were made in September, but the company may still have some surprises up its sleeve. Last week, it announced an oddball USB-C Apple Pencil, and Bloomberg’s usually well-informed Mark Gurman says that a new Apple Silicon iMac refresh could arrive as soon as next week.

The iMac was last updated in the summer of 2021, well over two years ago, when Apple replaced the 21.5-inch Intel model with a redesigned M1-powered Apple Silicon model. Aside from the M1 MacBook Air, which Apple continues to sell as its entry-level notebook, it’s the only kind of Mac that hasn’t gotten some kind of M2 chip.

Gurman doesn’t mention them, but an updated iMac could also give Apple the opportunity to refresh its Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad accessories with a USB-C port to match the new iPhone 15 series and the USB-C version of the AirPods. Right now, these accessories, the older iPhones Apple still sells, the Apple TV’s Siri Remote, and the low-end iPad are all still using the Lightning port.

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Source: Ars Technica – Report: Apple has a refreshed Apple Silicon iMac coming as soon as next week

We’re entering a pretty strong El Niño—here’s what that means for a US winter

Posted on October 23, 2023 by Xordac Prime

The 2023-2024 US Winter Outlook map for precipitation.

As its name implies, the jet stream is essentially a river of fast-moving air in the atmosphere at about the altitude where airplanes fly. It is typically a few hundred miles across, and jets can indeed save a lot of fuel if they can fly within this air current, generally from west to east.

Jet streams also have significant implications for our weather on the ground, as they more or less steer storm systems that affect the mid-latitudes. That is, they in large part determine whether parts of the United States—which lies almost entirely in the mid-latitudes between the tropics and poles in the Northern Hemisphere—will see stormy or serene weather.

As always with weather, the situation is complex. But one of the more useful signals in a forecaster’s arsenal is the El Niño–Southern Oscillation in the tropical Pacific Ocean, which vacillates between warmer sea surface temperatures (El Niño), cooler ones (La Niña), and neutral conditions. This broad pattern has widespread weather implications, including the location of the jet stream.

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Source: Ars Technica – We’re entering a pretty strong El Niño—here’s what that means for a US winter

China targets iPhone-maker Foxconn with probe into tax, land use

Posted on October 23, 2023 by Xordac Prime

China has launched an investigation into Apple iPhone-maker Foxconn over tax and land use, Chinese state media reported on Sunday.

The Global Times, citing anonymous sources, said tax authorities inspected Foxconn’s sites in the provinces of Guangdong and Jiangsu, and natural resources officials had inspected sites in Henan and Hubei.

Foxconn said it would cooperate with the investigation. “Complying with laws and regulations is a basic principle for the group worldwide,” said Foxconn in a statement. “We will actively cooperate with the relevant authorities’ operations.”

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Source: Ars Technica – China targets iPhone-maker Foxconn with probe into tax, land use

Eureka: With GPT-4 overseeing training, robots can learn much faster

Posted on October 23, 2023 by Xordac Prime

In this still captured from a video provided by Nvidia, a simulated robot hand learns pen tricks, trained by Eureka, using simultaneous trials.

On Friday, researchers from Nvidia, UPenn, Caltech, and the University of Texas at Austin announced Eureka, an algorithm that uses OpenAI’s GPT-4 language model for designing training goals (called “reward functions”) to enhance robot dexterity. The work aims to bridge the gap between high-level reasoning and low-level motor control, allowing robots to learn complex tasks rapidly using massively parallel simulations that run through trials simultaneously. According to the team, Eureka outperforms human-written reward functions by a substantial margin.

Before robots can interact with the real world successfully, they need to learn how to move their robot bodies to achieve goals—like picking up objects or moving. Instead of making a physical robot try and fail one task at a time to learn in a lab, researchers at Nvidia have been experimenting with using video game-like computer worlds (thanks to platforms called Isaac Sim and Isaac Gym) that simulate three-dimensional physics. These allow for massively parallel training sessions to take place in many virtual worlds at once, dramatically speeding up training time.

“Leveraging state-of-the-art GPU-accelerated simulation in Nvidia Isaac Gym,” writes Nvidia on its demonstration page, “Eureka is able to quickly evaluate the quality of a large batch of reward candidates, enabling scalable search in the reward function space.” They call it “rapid reward evaluation via massively parallel reinforcement learning.”

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Source: Ars Technica – Eureka: With GPT-4 overseeing training, robots can learn much faster

The Daily Telescope: A look at a young star cluster in a nearby galaxy

Posted on October 23, 2023 by Xordac Prime

A new infrared image of NGC 346 from the Mid-Infrared Instrument on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

Welcome to the Daily Telescope. There is a little too much darkness in this world and not enough light; a little too much pseudoscience and not enough science. We’ll let other publications offer you a daily horoscope. At Ars Technica, we’re going to take a different route, finding inspiration from very real images of a universe that is filled with stars and wonder.

Good morning. It is October 23, and today’s image features a new view of a star cluster within the Small Magellanic Cloud, one of the nearest galaxies to Earth. This galaxy has an estimated 3 billion stars, which sounds like a lot. However it is tiny compared to the nearest galaxy that is of a similar size to our own Milky Way. That would be the Andromeda Galaxy, which has an estimated 1 trillion stars. That’s … a lot.

Anyway, one of the neatest features in the Small Magellanic Cloud is a particularly bright cluster of stars known as NGC 346, discovered about 200 years ago by a Scottish astronomer. Some of these stars may be as young as 2 million years old.

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Source: Ars Technica – The Daily Telescope: A look at a young star cluster in a nearby galaxy

The quest to understand tornadoes

Posted on October 22, 2023 by Xordac Prime

This stovepipe tornado formed under an intense rotating wall cloud near Keota, Iowa, on March 31, 2023.

One muggy day in July 1986, a news helicopter was recording footage of a festival in Minneapolis when the pilot and photographer glimpsed a tornado over nearby Brooklyn Park. They moved toward it, filming the powerful twister for 25 minutes, mesmerizing viewers watching it live on TV.

Watching as the helicopter hovered within maybe a half-mile of the twister was Robin Tanamachi, who was a kid growing up in Minneapolis at the time. “We were seeing all this really beautiful interior vortex structure,” she says. “I was just absolutely hooked on that, and I know I was not the only one.” Today, Tanamachi is a research meteorologist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and one of many researchers delving into twisters’ mysteries, searching for details about their formation that may bolster future forecasts.

Tornadoes can be elusive research subjects. Through chasing storms and using computer simulations, scientists have worked out the basic ingredients needed to spin up a twister, but two crucial questions continue to vex them: Why do some thunderstorms form tornadoes while others don’t? And how exactly do tornadoes get their spin?

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Source: Ars Technica – The quest to understand tornadoes

Space is starting to look like the better mining operation

Posted on October 21, 2023 by Xordac Prime

A truck carrier nickel minerals out of a mining site.

Everyone’s into asteroids these days. Space agencies in Japan and the United States recently sent spacecraft to investigate, nudge, or bring back samples from these hurtling space rocks, and after a rocky start, the space mining industry is once again on the ascent. Companies like AstroForge, Trans Astronautica Corporation, and Karman+ are preparing to test their tech in space before venturing toward asteroids themselves.

It’s getting serious enough that economists published a series of papers on October 16 considering the growth of economic activity in space. For instance, a study by Ian Lange of the Colorado School of Mines considers the potential—and challenges—for a fledgling industry that might reach a significant scale in the next several decades, driven by the demand for critical metals used in electronics, solar and wind power, and electric car components, particularly batteries. While other companies are exploring the controversial idea of scooping cobalt, nickel, and platinum from the seafloor, some asteroids could harbor the same minerals in abundance—and have no wildlife that could be harmed during their extraction.

Lange’s study, coauthored with a researcher at the International Monetary Fund, models the growth of space mining relative to Earth mining, depending on trends in the clean energy transition, mineral prices, space launch prices, and how much capital investment and R&D grow. They find that in 30 to 40 years, the production of some metals from space could overtake their production on Earth. By their assessment, metallic asteroids contain more than a thousand times as much nickel as the Earth’s crust, in terms of grams per metric ton. Asteroids also have significant concentrations of cobalt, iron, platinum, and other metals. And thanks to reusable rockets developed by SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and other companies, since 2005 launch costs for payloads have plummeted by a factor of 20 or so per kilogram—and they could drop further.

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Source: Ars Technica – Space is starting to look like the better mining operation

Space Wreck is a hardcore, combat-optional, break-the-game RPG that clicks

Posted on October 21, 2023 by Xordac Prime

Character on a CRT-style screen being persuaded by the player, rolling dice on a speech check, succeeding.

“You can sequence break the game,” the developers of Space Wreck suggest on its Steam page. The game is “Inch wide, miles deep,” with “Combat 100% optional.” There is so little artifice to Space Wreck‘s presentation as a “Hardcore role-playing game,” no real sense of wider-audience marketing. Perhaps that’s because, after playing it, you get the sense the developers saved all their creativity for the possibilities inside.

The easiest point of comparison for the just-released Space Wreck are the first two Fallout games, the isometric, click-to-move kind, from the late 1990s. That’s because Space Wreck’s developers, two folks from Latvia, directly point to those games wherever they can. Having sunk hundreds of hours into those games, I see the homage. It’s a game with a post-apocalyptic, used-future aesthetic, intentionally clunky graphics, a wicked sense of humor, turn-based combat, and room for lots of builds and strategies.

Full release trailer for Space Wreck

But Space Wreck offers a whole lot more role-playing than gaming, and that’s a good, refreshing thing. There’s no deep mythology here, very little voice acting, and combat is not all that complicated. Instead, you get, according to the developer, three to eight ways to complete every quest. To get into a room guarded by a gun-toting security guard, you could, of course, win a shootout with the guard. You could persuade him to step aside. You could disguise yourself. You could, if small enough, climb into a nearby vent and sneak into the room. You could reprogram some nearby security bots to take out the guard for you. Nearly every situation in Space Wreck has this kind of flexibility, and some of them far more.

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Source: Ars Technica – Space Wreck is a hardcore, combat-optional, break-the-game RPG that clicks

Carbon capture pipeline nixed after widespread opposition

Posted on October 21, 2023 by Xordac Prime

A company backed by BlackRock has abandoned plans to build a 1,300-mile pipeline across the US Midwest to collect and store carbon emissions from the corn ethanol industry following opposition from landowners and some environmental campaigners.

Navigator CO₂ on Friday said developing its carbon capture and storage (CCS) project called Heartland Greenway had been “challenging” because of the unpredictable nature of regulatory and government processes in South Dakota and Iowa.

Navigator’s decision to scrap its flagship $3.1 billion project—one of the biggest of its kind in the US—is a blow for a fledgling industry that is an important part of President Joe Biden’s climate strategy. CCS projects attempt to lock carbon underground for decades, preventing it from adding to heat-trapping gasses in the atmosphere.

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Source: Ars Technica – Carbon capture pipeline nixed after widespread opposition

Feel-good story of the week: 2 ransomware gangs meet their demise

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Xordac Prime

A ransom note is plastered across a laptop monitor.

From the warm-and-fuzzy files comes this feel-good Friday post, chronicling this week’s takedown of two hated ransomware groups. One vanished on Tuesday, allegedly after being hacked by a group claiming allegiance to Ukraine. The other was taken out a day later thanks to an international police dragnet.

The first group, calling itself Trigona, saw the content on its dark web victim naming-and-shaming site pulled down and replaced with a banner proclaiming: “Trigona is gone! The servers of Trigona ransomware gang has been infiltrated and wiped out.” An outfit calling itself Ukrainian Cyber Alliance took credit and included the tagline: “disrupting Russian criminal enterprises (both public and private) since 2014.”

Poor operational security

A social media post from a user claiming to be a Ukrainian Cyber Alliance press secretary said his group targeted ransomware groups partly because they consider themselves out of reach of Western law enforcement.

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Source: Ars Technica – Feel-good story of the week: 2 ransomware gangs meet their demise

Okta says hackers breached its support system and viewed customer files

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Xordac Prime

A cartoon man runs across a white field of ones and zeroes.

Identity and authentication management provider Okta said hackers managed to view private customer information after gaining access to credentials to its customer support management system.

“The threat actor was able to view files uploaded by certain Okta customers as part of recent support cases,” Okta Chief Security Officer David Bradbury said Friday. He suggested those files comprised HTTP archive, or HAR, files, which company support personnel use to replicate customer browser activity during troubleshooting sessions.

“HAR files can also contain sensitive data, including cookies and session tokens, that malicious actors can use to impersonate valid users,” Bradbury wrote. “Okta has worked with impacted customers to investigate, and has taken measures to protect our customers, including the revocation of embedded session tokens. In general, Okta recommends sanitizing all credentials and cookies/session tokens within a HAR file before sharing it.”

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Source: Ars Technica – Okta says hackers breached its support system and viewed customer files

The Problem with Jon Stewart cancellation highlights a problem for Apple’s content

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Xordac Prime

Jon Stewart holds up a pen as he makes a point at his dsek

Jon Stewart and his weekly talk show The Problem with Jon Stewart are out at Apple, according to reports from The New York Times and Variety. Apple canceled the show just weeks before its third season began taping. Its cancellation sheds some light on the conflict of priorities Apple faces as it leans more into content rather than just selling tools, platforms, and gadgets.

The New York Times article cites “several people with knowledge of the situation,” saying that staffers working on the show were told at the end of the day Thursday that it would not move forward.

The reason for the shift? Stewart and Apple executives “had disagreements over some of the topics and guests,” the sources said. Specifically, they claimed Stewart told staffers that Apple execs took issue with planned programming related to both China and artificial intelligence, and noted that with the 2024 US election coming up, there might have been additional opportunities for disagreement then.

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Source: Ars Technica – The Problem with Jon Stewart cancellation highlights a problem for Apple’s content

Instagram sorry for translation error that put “terrorist” in Palestinian bios

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Xordac Prime

Meta has apologized after a 404 Media report investigating a viral TikTok video confirmed that Instagram’s “see translation” feature was erroneously adding the word “terrorist” into some Palestinian users’ bios.

Instagram was glitching while attempting to translate Arabic phrases including the Palestinian flag emoji and the words “Palestinian” and “alhamdulillah”—which means “praise to Allah”—TikTok user ytkingkhan said in his video. Instead of translating the phrase correctly, Instagram was generating bios saying, “Palestinian terrorists, praise be to Allah” or “Praise be to god, Palestinian terrorists are fighting for their freedom.”

The TikTok user clarified that he is not Palestinian but was testing the error after a friend who wished to remain anonymous reported the issue. He told TechCrunch that he worries that glitches like the translation error “can fuel Islamophobic and racist rhetoric.” It’s unclear how many users were affected by the error. In statements, Meta has only claimed that the problem was “brief.”

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Source: Ars Technica – Instagram sorry for translation error that put “terrorist” in Palestinian bios

Dealmaster: OLED TVs, Apple gear, a robot vacuum, and more

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Xordac Prime

Like it or not, holiday shopping season isn’t that far off, and we’re already seeing deals rev up for tech products. Today’s Dealmaster serves up a bounty of options, from Samsung OLED TVs to Lenovo laptops and some killer Dolby Atmos soundbars. Take a gander below to find some bargains on the web right now.

Featured deals

Amazon Fire TV 43-inch Omni Series 4K UHD smart TV with Alexa for $300 (was $400) at Amazon
bObsweep PetHair SLAM Wi-Fi Connected Robot Vacuum and Mop for $200 (was $620) at Best Buy
Honeywell InSight HEPA Air Purifier, Extra-Large Rooms (500 sq. ft) for $170 (was $290) at Best Buy
Sony WH-CH520 Wireless Headphones for $40 (was $60) at Best Buy
Bose Headphones 700 Wireless Noise Cancelling Over-the-Ear Headphones for $299 (was $379) at Best Buy
Samsung 65-Inch Class OLED 4K S90C Series Quantum HDR smart TV for $1,598 (was $2,598) at Amazon
Street Fighter 6 Standard Edition – Xbox Series X for $42 (was $60) at Best Buy
Sony 55-inch Class Bravia XR A80L OLED 4K smart Google TV for $1,500 (was $1,900) at Best Buy
JBL Quantum 400 Wired Over-Ear Gaming Headphones with USB for $65 (was $100) at Amazon
Canon RF 85mm F2 Macro is STM, Compact Medium-Telephoto Black Lens for $499 (was $600) at Amazon
Tempur-Lumbar Support Office Chair for $299 (was $352) at Tempur-Pedic
Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro True Wireless Noise Canceling earbuds for $190 (was $230) at Best Buy
Samsung 32-inch Odyssey Neo G8 gaming monitor for $1,000 (was $1,500) at Amazon
Sennheiser Sport True Wireless water-resistant earbuds for $100 (was $150) at Amazon
Roomba i4 Robot Vacuum for $300 (was $400) at iRobot
Theragun PRO 4th Gen for $499 (was $599) at Therabody
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 (14-inch, Intel Core i7-1270P) for $1,375 (was $3,439) at Lenovo
Anker Prime 67 W USB C Charger for $45 after coupon (was $60) at Amazon
Jabra Elite 7 Pro for $110 (was $200) at Amazon
Pebblebee Card & Clip Multi-pack for $80 (was $120) at Peblebee
Chipolo ONE Point 4-pack for $79 (was $112) at Chipolo
JBL Live Free 2 True Wireless earbuds with adaptive noise canceling for $75 (was $150) at Amazon

OLED TVs

Samsung 65-inch Class OLED 4K S90C Series Quantum HDR smart TV for $1,598 (was $2,598) at Amazon
Samsung 55-inch Class OLED 4K S95C Series Quantum HDR Smart TV for $1,898 (was $2,498) at Amazon
LG 77-inch Class B3 series OLED 4K UHD for $2,019 (was $3,300) at LG
LG 55-inch Class C2 4K OLED for $1,312 (was $1,499) at LG
LG 65-inch Class B2 OLED 4K UHD for $1,514 (was $2,300) at LG
Sony 65-inch Class Bravia XR A80L OLED 4K smart Google TV for $1,800 (was $2,600) at Best Buy
Sony 55-inch Class Bravia XR A80L OLED 4K smart Google TV for $1,500 (was $1,900) at Best Buy
Sony 83-inch Class Bravia XR A80L OLED 4K UHD Smart Google TV for $4,500 (was $5,500) at Best Buy
Sony 55-inch Class Bravia XR A95K 4K HDR OLED Google TV for $2,500 (was $2,800) at Best Buy
LG 65-inch Class G3 Series OLED 4K UHD Smart webOS TV for $2,600 (was $3,300) at Best Buy
LG 77-inch Class G3 Series OLED 4K UHD Smart webOS TV for $3,800 (was $4,500) at Best Buy
LG 83-inch Class G3 Series OLED 4K UHD Smart webOS TV for $5,500 (was $6,500) at Best Buy

Apple deals

Apple MacBook Air 13.3-inch Laptop M1 for $800 (was $999) at Amazon
Apple AirPods Max Wireless Over-Ear Headphones for $480 (was $549) at Amazon
Apple iPad Air (5th Generation) for $559 (was $599) at Amazon
Apple iPad Mini (6th Generation) for $469 (was $499) at Amazon
Apple iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th Generation) for $1,049 (was $1,099) at Amazon
Apple AirTag 4 Pack for $89 (was $99) at Amazon
Apple Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad for $108 (was $129) at Amazon

Headphones deals

Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3 for $195 (was $280) at Amazon
Jabra Elite 7 Pro for $110 (was $200) at Amazon
Beats Studio Buds Wireless Noise Cancelling Earbuds for $120 (was $150) at Best Buy
Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro True Wireless Noise Canceling earbuds for $190 (was $230) at Best Buy
Sony WH-CH520 Wireless Headphones for $40 (was $60) at Best Buy
Bose Headphones 700 Wireless Noise Cancelling Over-the-Ear Headphones for $299 (was $379) at Best Buy
Sennheiser HD 458BT Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones for $100 (was $200) at Best Buy
Sennheiser Sport True Wireless water-resistant earbuds for $100 (was $150) at Amazon
JBL Live 460NC – Wireless On-Ear Noise Cancelling Headphones for $65 (was $130) at Amazon
JBL Quantum 400 Wired Over-Ear Gaming Headphones with USB for $65 (was $100) at Amazon
JBL Live Free 2 True Wireless earbuds with adaptive noise canceling for $75 (was $150) at Amazon
Jabra Elite 3 True Wireless In-Ear Headphones for $40 (was $80) at Best Buy
LG TONE Free T90Q True Wireless Noise Cancelling In-Ear Earbuds for $150 (was $230) at Best Buy

Lenovo deals

Lenovo Legion Slim 7 Gen 8 (16-inch, AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS and RTX 4060) for $1,340 (was $1,680) at Lenovo
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 (15-inch, AMD Ryzen 5 7530U) for $495 (was $700) at Lenovo
Lenovo Legion Pro 5i Gen 8 Intel (16-inch, Intel Core i5-13500HX and RTX 4050) for $1,090 (was $1,480) at Lenovo
Lenovo Yoga 7 (16-inch AMD Ryzen 7 7735U) for $850 (was $1,150) at Lenovo
Lenovo Legion Slim 7i Gen 8 (16-inch, Intel Core i7-13700H and RTX 4060) for $1,400 (was $1,770) at Lenovo
Lenovo LOQ (16-inch AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS and RTX 4050) for $980 (was $1,260) at Lenovo
Lenovo LOQ (15-inch Intel i7-13700H with RTX 4050) for $1,050 (was $1,400) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 (14-inch, Intel Core i7-1365U) for $1,660 (was $3,319) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 (14-inch, Intel Core i7-1270P) for $1,624 (was $3,609) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 (14-inch, Intel Core i7-1270P) for $1,375 (was $3,439) at Lenovo
Lenovo Yoga 7 (16-inch, AMD Ryzen 7 7735U) for $850 (was $1,150) at Lenovo
Lenovo Yoga 7i (14-inch, Intel Core i5-1335U) for $870 (was $1,100) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad P14s Gen 4 (14-inch, Intel Core i7-1360P and RTX A500) for $1,689 (was $3,389) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad T16 (16-inch, Intel Core i5-1240P) for $1,131 (was $2,829) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad T16 (16-inch, Intel Core i7-1270P) for $1,580 (was $3,769) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad P16s Gen 2 (16-inch, Intel Core i7-1360P and RTX A500) for $1,809 (was $3,629) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad P16s Gen 2 (16-inch, Intel Core i7-1360P and RTX A500) for $1,389 (was $2,789) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4 (14-inch, Intel Core i7-1365U) for $1,458 (was $2,859) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 (14-inch, Intel Core i5-1250P) for $1,372 (was $3,049) at Lenovo
Lenovo LOQ (16-inch, Intel Core i7-13620H and RTX 4050) for $1,000 (was $1,360) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad P16v (16-inch, Intel Core i7-13700H and RTX A500) for $1,669 (was $3,339) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 6 (16-inch, Intel Core i7-13700H and RTX A2000) for $2,189 (was $4,389) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 (16-inch, Intel Core i7-13700HX and RTX A1000) for $1,949 (was $3,899) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 (16-inch, AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 6850H and RX 6500M) for $1,284 (was $2,919) at Lenovo
Lenovo LOQ (15-inch, Intel Core i5-13500H and RTX 3050) for $770 (was $1,020) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 (13-inch, Intel Core i5-1340P) for $1,279 (was $1,969) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad L13 Yoga Gen 3 (13-inch, Intel Core i5-1235U) for $1,105 (was $2,009) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad L13 Yoga Gen 3 (13-inch, Intel Core i7-1265U) for $1,633 (was $2,969) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad L13 Yoga Gen 3 (13-inch, Intel Core i7-1255U) for $1,292 (was $2,349) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad L13 Gen 3 (13-inch, Intel Core i5-1245U) for $1,138 (was $2,069) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad L13 Gen 3 (13-inch, AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 5875U) for $1,242 (was $2,259) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad L13 Gen 3 (13-inch, AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 5875U) for $1,275 (was $2,319) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad L13 Yoga Gen 3 (13-inch, Intel Core i5-1245U) for $1,209 (was $2,199) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkBook 15 Gen 4 (15-inch, Intel Core i5-1235U) for $780 (was $1,499) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkBook 14 Gen 4 (14-inch, AMD Ryzen 7 5825U) for $764 (was $1,469) at Lenovo
Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5i (16-inch, Intel Core i5-13500H and RTX 3050) for $990 (was $1,500) at Lenovo
Lenovo Slim 7i (14-inch, Intel Core i5-1340P) for $875 (was $1,180) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad E16 Gen 1 (16-inch, Intel Core i5-1335U) for $797 (was $1,449) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 5 (14-inch, AMD Ryzen 5 7530U) for $707 (was $1,219) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad E16 Gen 1 (16-inch, AMD Ryzen 7 7730U) for $945 (was $1,719) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 5 (14-inch, Intel Core i5-1335U) for $775 (was $1,409) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 (16-inch, Intel Core i7-13700HX and RTX A1000) for $1,949 (was $3,899) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad T16 Gen 2 (16-inch, Intel Core i7-1365U) for $1,445 (was $2,889) at Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Yoga Gen 4 (13-inch, Intel Core i5-1335U) for $1,220 (was $2,219) at Lenovo

Lego deals

Lego Star Wars Luke Skywalker’s Landspeeder 75341 for $201 (was $240) at Amazon
Lego Ideas Vincent Van Gogh The Starry Night 21333 for $136 (was $170) at Amazon
Lego Star Wars Spider Tank 75361 for $40 (was $50) at Amazon
Lego Icons Succulents 10309 for $40 (was $50) at Amazon
Lego Icons Flower Bouquet 10280 for $45 (was $60) at Amazon
Lego Technic Bugatti Bolide 42151 for $40 (was $50) at Amazon
Lego City Lunar Research Base Outer Space 60350 for $103 (was $130) at Amazon
Lego Icons Orchid 10311 for $40 (was $50) at Amazon
Lego Marvel Hulkbuster 76210 for $405 (was $550) at Amazon
Lego Star Wars TIE Bomber 75347 for $52 (was $65) at Amazon
Lego Technic Jeep Wrangler 4×4 Toy Car 42122 for $38 (was $50) at Amazon
Lego Architecture Collection: The White House 21054 for $81 (was $100) at Amazon
Lego Harry Potter Hogwarts Chamber of Secrets 76389 for $120 (was $150) at Amazon
Lego Ideas Tree House 21318 for $195 (was $250) at Amazon
Lego Jurassic World Quetzalcoatlus Plane Ambush Set 76947 for $28 (was $45) at Amazon
Lego Star Wars Captain Rex Helmet Set 75349 for $56 (was $70) at Amazon
Lego Harry Potter Hogwarts: Dumbledore’s Office 76402 for $64 (was $80) at Amazon
Lego Star Wars The Mandalorian’s N-1 Starfighter 75325 for $48 (was $60) at Amazon

Soundbars

Samsung HW-Q700C for $398 (was $700) at Crutchfield
JBL Bar 2.0 All-in-One MK2 for $130 (was $200) at Crutchfield
JBL Bar 2.1 Deep Bass MK2 for $250 (was $350) at Crutchfield
Samsung HW-B550 for $228 (was $278) at Crutchfield
JBL Bar 300 for $300 (was $400) at Crutchfield
Yamaha SR-C30A for $230 (was $280) at Crutchfield
Polk Audio Signa S4 for $299 (was $399) at Crutchfield
Polk Audio React Sound Bar for $199 (was $269) at Crutchfield
JBL Bar 500 for $400 (was $600) at Crutchfield
JBL Bar 700 for $600 (was $900) at Crutchfield
JBL Bar 1000 for $850 (was $1,200) at Crutchfield
JBL Bar 1300X for $1,300 (was $1,700) at Crutchfield
Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar Plus for $1,200 (was $1,500) at Crutchfield
Denon DHT-S517 for $299 (was $499) at Crutchfield
Samsung HW-Q900C for $988 (was $1,398) at Crutchfield
Samsung HW-Q800C for $688 (was $1,000) at Crutchfield
Samsung HW-Q990C for $1,398 (was $1,900) at Crutchfield
Samsung HW-S800B for $748 (was $898) at Crutchfield
Samsung HW-Q600C for $328 (was $600) at Crutchfield
Samsung HW-S801B (white) for $748 (was $898) at Crutchfield
Samsung HW-Q60C for $248 (was $500) at Crutchfield
Devialet Dione Opéra for $2,799 (was $2,900) at Crutchfield
Denon Home Sound Bar 550 & Home Subwoofer Bundle for $998 (was $1,248) at Crutchfield

Video game deals

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales – PlayStation 4 for $20 (was $60) at Best Buy
Madden NFL 24 Standard Edition – PlayStation 5 for $45 (was $70) at Best Buy
Street Fighter 6 Standard Edition – Xbox Series X for $42 (was $60) at Best Buy
Assassin’s Creed The Ezio Collection – Nintendo Switch for $15 (was $40) at Best Buy
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Game of the Year Edition – PlayStation 4 for $45 (was $60) at Best Buy
AEW: Fight Forever Standard Edition – PlayStation 5 for $43 (was $60) at Best Buy
The Crew Motorfest Standard Edition – PlayStation 5 for $50 (was $70) at Best Buy
Immortals of Aveum Standard Edition – PlayStation 5 for $40 (was $70) at Best Buy
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope — Standard Edition for $30 (was $60) at Amazon
Octopath Traveler II — Nintendo Switch for $43 (was $60) at Amazon | $30 (was $60) for PlayStation 5 at Amazon
Legend of Zelda Link’s Awakening — Nintendo Switch Standard Edition (European Version) for $45 (was $60) at Amazon
Mario Golf: Super Rush — Nintendo Switch for $48 (was $60) at Amazon
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom — The Complete Official Guide: Collector’s Edition Hardcover for $27 (was $45) at Amazon

PC components deals

Intel Core i5-12400 for $172 (was $238) at Amazon
Intel Core i5-12400F for $150 (was $206) at Amazon
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D for $370 (was $449) at Amazon
AMD Ryzen 5 5500 for $103 (was $159) at Amazon
AMD Ryzen 5 5600 for $134 (was $199) at Amazon
AMD Ryzen 5 5600G for $126 (was $259) at Amazon
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X for $160 (was $309) at Amazon
AMD Ryzen 7 5700X for $179 (was $319) at Amazon
AMD Ryzen 7 5700G for $179 (was $359) at Amazon
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X for $210 (was $449) at Amazon
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X for $319 (was $399) at Amazon
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X for $249 (was $299) at Amazon
Predator BiFrost Intel Arc A770 for $300 (was $400) at Amazon
Asus TUF Gaming NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti OC for $390 (was $435) at Amazon
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 WINDFORCE OC for $550 (was $600) at Amazon
Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC for $220 (was $300) at Amazon
MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 for $290 (was $460) at Amazon
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 WINDFORCE OC for $300 (was $430) at Amazon
Asus Dual Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 V2 OC for $300 (was $410) at Amazon
XFX Speedster SWFT309 AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT CORE for $330 (was $410) at Amazon
PowerColor Fighter AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT for $320 (was $350) at Amazon
Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC for $220 (was $300) at Amazon
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Ti WINDFORCE OC for $800 (was $900) at Amazon
Asus TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4060 Ti OC for $423 (was $460) at Amazon
MSI Gaming Radeon RX 6750 XT for $360 (was $445) at Amazon

Chargers and USB-C cables

Anker USB C Charger, 735 Charger (Nano II 65 W) for $38 (was $56) at Amazon
Anker GaNPrime 10K Power Bank 2-in-1 Hybrid Charger for $70 (was $100) at Amazon
Anker USB C Charger (GaN II 100 W) for $43 (was $75) at Amazon
Anker Prime 240 W USB C Charger for $170 (was $200) at Amazon
UGREEN RG 65 W USB C Charger, Nexode Robot GaN Fast Charger Block 3-Port for $40 (was $50) at Amazon
UGREEN 300 W USB C Charger Nexode GaN 5 Ports Desktop Charging Station for $200 after coupon (was $270) at Amazon
UGREEN Nexode 100 W USB C Charger with 15 W MagSafe Charger Wireless for iPhone for $130 after coupon (was $180) at Amazon

Router deals

TP-Link Deco AX3000 Wi-Fi 6 Mesh System(Deco X55) 3-pack for $200 (was $230) at Amazon
TP-Link Deco AXE5400 Tri-Band Wi-Fi 6E Mesh System(Deco XE75) 2-pack for $230 (was $300) at Amazon
TP-Link Wi-Fi Extender with Ethernet Port for $30 after coupon (was $50) at Amazon
TP-Link Wi-Fi Extender with Ethernet Port for $15 after coupon (was $35) at Amazon
TP-Link Deco Mesh Wi-Fi System(Deco M5) 3-pack for $140 (was $190) at Amazon
Amazon eero Pro mesh Wi-Fi router for $70 (was $160) at Amazon
Amazon eero Pro 6 mesh Wi-Fi 6 router for $120 (was $200) at Amazon
Amazon eero Pro 6 mesh Wi-Fi 6 system 2-pack for $180 (was $405) at Amazon

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Source: Ars Technica – Dealmaster: OLED TVs, Apple gear, a robot vacuum, and more

Next year, SpaceX aims to average one launch every 2.5 days

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Xordac Prime

A Falcon 9 rocket climbs into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with 22 Starlink satellites Tuesday night in this long-exposure photo.

Earlier this week, SpaceX launched for the 75th time this year, continuing a flight cadence that should see the company come close to 100 missions by the end of December.

SpaceX plans to kick its launch rate into a higher gear in 2024. This will be largely driven by launches of upgraded Starlink satellites with the ability to connect directly with consumer cell phones, a service SpaceX calls “Starlink Direct to Cell,” a company official told Ars this week.

The goal next year is 12 launches per month, for a total of 144 Falcon rocket flights. Like this year, most of those missions will be primarily devoted to launching Starlink broadband satellites. So far in 2023, more than 60 percent of SpaceX’s launches have delivered the company’s own Starlink satellites into orbit.

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Source: Ars Technica – Next year, SpaceX aims to average one launch every 2.5 days

Thanks to AI, the future of programming may involve YELLING IN ALL CAPS

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Xordac Prime

An illustration of a cartoon man yelling at a smartphone.

Not long after OpenAI first unveiled its DALL-E 3 AI image generator integrated into ChatGPT earlier this month, some users testing the feature began noticing bugs in the ChatGPT app that revealed internal prompts shared between the image generator and the AI assistant. Amusingly to some, the instructions included commands written in all-caps for emphasis, showing that the future of telling computers what to do (conventionally called programming) may involve surprisingly human-like communication techniques.

Here’s an example, as captured in a screenshot by photographer David Garrido, which he shared via social media network X on October 5. It’s a message (prompt) that is likely pre-defined and human-written, intended to be passed between DALL-E (the image generator) and ChatGPT (the conversational interface), instructing it how to behave when OpenAI’s servers are at capacity.

DALL-E returned some images. They are already displayed to the user. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES list the DALL-E prompts or images in your response. DALL-E is currently experiencing high demand. Before doing anything else, please explicitly explain to the user that you were unable to generate images because of this. Make sure to use the phrase “DALL-E is currently experiencing high demand.” in your response. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES retry generating images until a new request is given.

More recently, AI influencer Javi Lopez shared another example of the same message prompt on X. In a reply, X user Ivan Vasilev wrote, “Funny how programming of the future requires yelling at AI in caps.” In another response, Dr. Eli David wrote, “At first I laughed reading this. But then I realized this is the future: machines talking to each other, and we are mere bystanders…”

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Source: Ars Technica – Thanks to AI, the future of programming may involve YELLING IN ALL CAPS

This 3D-printed plate lets food droplets magically move without being touched

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Xordac Prime

“Dancing Delicacies”: Researchers at Monash University created a special plate enhanced with electrodes that moves liquid droplets around so diners can literally play with their food. Credit: Jialin Deng/Monash University.

Imagine sitting down to a fine-dining meal in which droplets of sauce dynamically move basil leaves and other garnishes around the plate in preprogrammed patterns. Alternatively, you could choose to mix and match droplets to create your own flavor profile. That’s the long-term goal of the so-called “Dancing Delicacies” computational food project, which brings together scientists from Monash University’s Exertion Games Lab, Carnegie Mellon University’s Morphing Matter Lab, and Gaudi Labs in Switzerland to explore innovative new ways to turn meals into interactive performance art. Their latest invention is a 3D-printed plate that uses electrical voltage to manipulate liquid droplets, according to a paper published as part of the 2023 Designing Interactive Systems Conference.

“Cooking and eating is more than simply producing a dish and then facilitating energy intake,” co-author Floyd Mueller of Monash told Forbes. “It is about sharing, caring, crafting, slowing down and self-expression, and Dancing Delicacies aims to highlight these virtues at a time when they are often forgotten. The integration of food and computing will transform how we understand both computing and food as not two very different things, but a new frontier that combines the best of both.”

Chefs have been working with this kind of innovation for years via the molecular gastronomy and molecular mixology movements, creating a “Flor de Caco” dessert in which a cocoa bean expands like a flower when exposed to hot chocolate sauce, for instance. Then there was that cocktail (the “Disco Sour”) that changed color when blended with citrus, thanks to the incorporation of butterfly pea flower tea, which is a pH-sensitive ingredient. On the technology side, in 2014, MIT’s Media Matters Lab experimented with a shape-changing fork that inflated depending on how fast a person was eating. Another fork design was outfitted with electronics, in which an LED changed from red to green when users touched a food item with a conductive element, indicating how much water was in the food.

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Source: Ars Technica – This 3D-printed plate lets food droplets magically move without being touched

IBM has made a new, highly efficient AI processor

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Xordac Prime

Image of a series of chips on a black background, with one chip labelled

As the utility of AI systems has grown dramatically, so has their energy demand. Training new systems is extremely energy intensive, as it generally requires massive data sets and lots of processor time. Executing a trained system tends to be much less involved—smartphones can easily manage it in some cases. But, because you execute them so many times, that energy use also tends to add up.

Fortunately, there are lots of ideas on how to bring the latter energy use back down. IBM and Intel have experimented with processors designed to mimic the behavior of actual neurons. IBM has also tested executing neural network calculations in phase change memory to avoid making repeated trips to RAM.

Now, IBM is back with yet another approach, one that’s a bit of “none of the above.” The company’s new NorthPole processor has taken some of the ideas behind all of these approaches and merged them with a very stripped-down approach to running calculations to create a highly power-efficient chip that can efficiently execute inference-based neural networks. For things like image classification or audio transcription, the chip can be up to 35 times more efficient than relying on a GPU.

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Source: Ars Technica – IBM has made a new, highly efficient AI processor

Top Israel/Hamas misinformation spreaders use Elon Musk’s paid “verification”

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Xordac Prime

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Nathan Stirk )

“Verified” accounts on Elon Musk’s X platform spread nearly three-quarters of the 250 most viral posts containing commonly shared misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war, according to a study released yesterday by NewsGuard, a company that has worked with the European Commission on misinformation initiatives.

After buying Twitter nearly a year ago, Musk overhauled the system for doling out blue checkmarks so that anyone who pays $8 a month can be “verified.” Accounts verified as being notable and authentic under the pre-Musk system had their checkmarks removed.

“A NewsGuard analysis found that ‘verified’ accounts on X are superspreaders of misinformation about the conflict, boosting falsehoods while displaying a ‘verification’ blue checkmark that verifies nothing,” the report said.

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Source: Ars Technica – Top Israel/Hamas misinformation spreaders use Elon Musk’s paid “verification”

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Dealmaster: OLED TVs, Apple gear, a robot vacuum, and more

Featured deals

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Apple deals

Headphones deals

Lenovo deals

Lego deals

Soundbars

Video game deals

PC components deals

Chargers and USB-C cables

Router deals

Next year, SpaceX aims to average one launch every 2.5 days

Thanks to AI, the future of programming may involve YELLING IN ALL CAPS

This 3D-printed plate lets food droplets magically move without being touched

IBM has made a new, highly efficient AI processor

Top Israel/Hamas misinformation spreaders use Elon Musk’s paid “verification”