Speakers don’t always need to fit in a backpack or provide a lot of chatter, but you do want them to offer big sound and quality audio output at a decent price. Fluance’s $200 Fi50 Bluetooth speaker is a great example of those core basics. This speak…
Source: Engadget – Engadget giveaway: Win a Fluance Fi50 Bluetooth speaker!
Monthly Archives: October 2017
AMDGPU+RadeonSI Is Much Faster Than The Old Proprietary Fglrx Driver
With going back to test Ubuntu 14.04 through Ubuntu 17.10’s Radeon OpenGL performance as part of marking AMD’s open-source strategy turning a decade old, I also took this opportunity while having an old Ubuntu installation running to also re-test the former Catalyst/fglrx driver stack that’s since been succeeded by AMDGPU-PRO and AMDGPU+RadeonSI.
Source: Phoronix – AMDGPU+RadeonSI Is Much Faster Than The Old Proprietary Fglrx Driver
Apple's iPhone 8 Already Discounted By Chinese Retailers Due To Poor Demand
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Apple’s decision to launch three different iPhone models has been met with a bit of intrigue since the plan originally came to light. Many figured that iPhone 8 sales might be sluggish as people held off for the fancier iPhone X. In China this has proven particularly true, as two major online retailers in China are already offering big discounts
Source: Hot Hardware – Apple’s iPhone 8 Already Discounted By Chinese Retailers Due To Poor Demand
Negligent Employees Are Stoked About Facial Recognition

A recent survey reveals why corporate password policies are doing very little to stop employees from mishandling their passwords. It also finds most employees favor biometric security and that Apple’s new Face ID feature is widely trusted—even though almost no one has actually used it yet.
Source: Gizmodo – Negligent Employees Are Stoked About Facial Recognition
TSA Precheck will let you into some NFL stadiums faster
TSA’s Precheck clearance isn’t just useful for getting around the security theater at airports. Idemia has started making deals with NFL teams to use Precheck as a “fast pass” for stadiums, starting with the San Francisco 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium and t…
Source: Engadget – TSA Precheck will let you into some NFL stadiums faster
'Daylight Savings' Is Grammatically Incorrect
A reader shares a report: We talk about time like it’s money, and that may explain why we say “Daylight Savings Time,” capitalizing the concept to emphasize its awesomeness. After all, who wouldn’t want to be able to save hours like cash? The phrase “Daylight Savings Time,” though commonly used in Australia, Canada, and the US, is technically incorrect. Time and Date, a website devoted to all things chronological, posits that the plural “savings” became popular because it’s used in everyday contexts, like “savings account.” The grammatically correct usage is “daylight saving time.” The expression is singular and not capitalized, according to the US Government Publishing Office style guide. The GPO provides the guidance, “d.s.t., daylight saving (no ‘s’) time.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – ‘Daylight Savings’ Is Grammatically Incorrect
France struggles with lack of butter

But as the BBC explains, the butter is there; it’s just not accessible to the French.
Source: TreeHugger – France struggles with lack of butter
Watching This Guy Race a Bike Down a Mountain Gave Me a Panic Attack

I can’t even hop a curb on my bike without feeling like a Hollywood stuntperson risking their life for a shot, so watching biker Antoine Bizet careen down a mountain in the deserts of Utah leaves me sweaty, short of breath, and happy to be safely perched in my office chair.
Source: Gizmodo – Watching This Guy Race a Bike Down a Mountain Gave Me a Panic Attack
Report: Hundreds Feared Killed Following Tunnel Collapse at North Korean Nuclear Test Site

As many as 200 workers were killed after a tunnel collapsed at North Korea’s underground nuclear test site, according to unconfirmed reports by Japanese broadcaster TV Asahi. The accident is presumed to have happened in early September following the country’s most recent test of a hydrogen bomb, which may have…
Source: Gizmodo – Report: Hundreds Feared Killed Following Tunnel Collapse at North Korean Nuclear Test Site
Waymo has a big lead in driverless cars—but here’s how they could lose it
Enlarge (credit: Getty / Aurich)
Waymo has long had a sizeable lead in self-driving technology, and recent reports indicate that Larry Page, CEO of Waymo parent company Alphabet, is determined not to let it slip away. According to The Information’s Amir Efrati, Waymo CEO John Krafcik is under pressure to launch a commercial service in the Phoenix metro area as soon as this fall.
But at a Monday event with reporters at Waymo’s Castle testing grounds in California’s Central Valley, Krafcik was non-committal about the company’s launch plans. In fact, he cast doubt on whether a driverless taxi service would even be Waymo’s first product, as almost everyone has assumed it would be.
“We’ll have to see,” Krafcik said, noting that the company was also working on self-driving truck technology. “We’re also considering working directly with cities.”
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Source: Ars Technica – Waymo has a big lead in driverless cars—but here’s how they could lose it
Let Teens Trick-or-Treat

This Halloween, a Canadian town has banned trick-or-treating for anyone over 16, a “relaxed” update to its previous age limit of 14. Those who break the rule could be slapped with a $200 fine, though how that will ever be enforced remains unclear. (“ID, please.” Looks Batman up and down. “Okay, here is your packet of…
Source: LifeHacker – Let Teens Trick-or-Treat
AI can write surprisingly scary and creative horror stories
Writing and creativity may be traditionally thought of as the domain of humans, but AIs are making strides in this area. We’ve previously covered how the UK Press Association is handing off writing duties in newsrooms to robots, thanks to Google, and…
Source: Engadget – AI can write surprisingly scary and creative horror stories
iPhone X Unboxing Suggests That Pixel 2 May Have the Better Camera
Marques Brownlee has uploaded an unboxing video of Apple’s iPhone X: at around 4:21, he compares its photo quality with that of the Pixel 2, which appears to offer superior sharpness and a more pleasing white balance. Some say that this is a focus issue that can be easily fixed in short time via software update.
Discussion
Source: [H]ardOCP – iPhone X Unboxing Suggests That Pixel 2 May Have the Better Camera
Microsoft Employee Installs Chrome Mid-Presentation Because Edge Keeps Crashing
A Microsoft employee was forced to pause his Azure presentation in the middle of a live demo session in order to install Google Chrome, as the company’s own Edge browser kept crashing. The comical occurrence was recorded and later uploaded to YouTube by none other than Microsoft itself.
The presentation in question aims to show potential customers how to migrate their applications and data to Redmond’s cloud service. But midway through the session, Edge crashes. This is when after a brief moment of hesitation, the employee finally gives up and charmingly informs the audience that he’ll be taking a moment to install Chrome in order to finish the demo session, which he then goes on to do.
Discussion
Source: [H]ardOCP – Microsoft Employee Installs Chrome Mid-Presentation Because Edge Keeps Crashing
Purdue Develops "Intrachip" Micro-Cooling System
Conventional chip-cooling methods use finned metal plates called heat sinks, which are attached to computer chips to dissipate heat. Such attachment methods do not remove heat efficiently enough for an emerging class of high-performance electronics, however, so researchers have developed a new type of cooling system that circulates a liquid coolant directly into electronic chips through an intricate series of tiny microchannels.
“You can pack only so much computing power into a single chip, so stacking chips on top of each other is one way of increasing performance,” said Justin A. Weibel, a research associate professor and co-investigator on the project. “This presents a cooling challenge because if you have layers of many chips, normally each one of these would have its own system attached on top of it to draw out heat. As soon as you have even two chips stacked on top of each other, the bottom one has to operate with significantly less power because it can’t be cooled directly.” The solution is to create a cooling system that is embedded within the stack of chips.
Discussion
Source: [H]ardOCP – Purdue Develops “Intrachip” Micro-Cooling System
Razer Phone leak suggests it's made for the gamer faithful
We knew that Razer was working on a high-end gaming smartphone, but a leak from one of its partners shows just how powerful it might be. According to a (since deleted) page from a UK mobile plan reseller called 3G, the Razer Phone will have a 5.7-inc…
Source: Engadget – Razer Phone leak suggests it’s made for the gamer faithful
HTTP 103 – An HTTP Status Code for Indicating Hints
The Internet Task Engineering Group (IETF) has approved the new HTTP status code 103. The new status code is intended to “minimize perceived latency.” From the circular: It is common for HTTP responses to contain links to external resources that need to be fetched prior to their use; for example, rendering HTML by a Web browser. Having such links available to the client as early as possible helps to minimize perceived latency. The “preload” ([Preload]) link relation can be used to convey such links in the Link header field of an HTTP response. However, it is not always possible for an origin server to generate the header block of a final response immediately after receiving a request. For example, the origin server might delegate a request to an upstream HTTP server running at a distant location, or the status code might depend on the result of a database query. The dilemma here is that even though it is preferable for an origin server to send some header fields as soon as it receives a request, it cannot do so until the status code and the full header fields of the final HTTP response are determined. […] The 103 (Early Hints) informational status code indicates to the client that the server is likely to send a final response with the header fields included in the informational response. Typically, a server will include the header fields sent in a 103 (Early Hints) response in the final response as well. However, there might be cases when this is not desirable, such as when the server learns that they are not correct before the final response is sent. A client can speculatively evaluate the header fields included in a 103 (Early Hints) response while waiting for the final response. For example, a client might recognize a Link header field value containing the relation type “preload” and start fetching the target resource. However, these header fields only provide hints to the client; they do not replace the header fields on the final response. Aside from performance optimizations, such evaluation of the 103 (Early Hints) response’s header fields MUST NOT affect how the final response is processed. A client MUST NOT interpret the 103 (Early Hints) response header fields as if they applied to the informational response itself (e.g., as metadata about the 103 (Early Hints) response).
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – HTTP 103 – An HTTP Status Code for Indicating Hints
Tuesday's Best Deals: B2G1 Board Games, Citizen Watches, OLED TVs, and More

Happy Halloween! Let’s start off your day with some ghoulishly-good deals on buy two board games, get one free, a Citizen watch Gold Box, OLED TVs, and more.
Source: LifeHacker – Tuesday’s Best Deals: B2G1 Board Games, Citizen Watches, OLED TVs, and More
How to Watch Facebook, Google, and Twitter Testify Before Congress This Week

Three of Silicon Valley’s biggest tech companies will speak to three different congressional subcommittees on Tuesday and Wednesday to finally get to the bottom of, well, a lot of issues. Top priority is to discuss Russia’s use of online ads and social media to influence the 2016 US election. Here’s how you can watch…
Source: Gizmodo – How to Watch Facebook, Google, and Twitter Testify Before Congress This Week
Jezebel Suspiciously Timed Arrest Warrant Issued for Rose McGowan Over Felony Drug Charge | Deadspin
Jezebel Suspiciously Timed Arrest Warrant Issued for Rose McGowan Over Felony Drug Charge | Deadspin The Broncos Might’ve Had Enough Of Trevor Siemian’s Terrible Picks | The Root Tomi Lahren’s Disrespectful Flag Costume Highlights the Hypocrisy of Whiteness | Splinter Old Man Shouts at TV | Earther Solar and Wind…
Source: LifeHacker – Jezebel Suspiciously Timed Arrest Warrant Issued for Rose McGowan Over Felony Drug Charge | Deadspin

