Earlier this week, we covered a familiar problem when pairing new processors with older motherboards. Older boards often need firmware updates to properly support new processors, but not every board on the market has been flashed to support new APUs. This means it’s possible for a customer to purchase a new , but end up with a board whose UEFI is . This isn’t a new issue — Intel CPUs have also had this problem in the past — but AMD’s solution is frankly exemplary. AMD’s support page walks through various options available to customers and recommends that customers check with their motherboard vendors for a free replacement or use a previously purchased Ryzen CPU to install the BIOS.
Wireless spectrum in the US is carefully regulated to avoid interference, which is why mobile carriers pay out the nose to license slices of the airwaves. Naturally, T-Mobile was quite perturbed recently when it detected heavy interference with its network in Brooklyn. The , and it turns out the culprit was a Bitcoin mining operation. T-Mobile uses several wireless bands for its nationwide LTE network, but this interference affected its prized 700MHz spectrum. This is known as LTE band 12, and it’s present on all current T-Mobile phones and most unlocked devices. T-Mobile calls band 12 “extended range” LTE because of how well it propagates through obstacles like buildings.
Eased rules meant to help smaller trucking companies compete with the big boys of freight hauling has resulted in a loophole that lets one in 25 trucks sold last year operate with effectively no emissions controls at all. The loophole in federal law lets new, engineless truck bodies, or gliders, be outfitted with old, rebuilt diesel engines — and avoid conforming to current emissions laws in effect for 18-wheelers. By one estimate, non-conforming glider trucks emit 43 to 55 times as many pollutants as a new truck with a new engine. The International Council on Clean Transportation says last year’s run of gliders polluted more than the recalled half-million VW diesels, were the VWs left on the road until they wore out.
AI and machine learning are the hottest topics in computing today. Dozens of companies are attempting to establish themselves in the market, from Google and Amazon to Intel and Nvidia. Now, ARM is throwing its own hat into the ring with its just-unveiled Project Trillium, a new line of processors specifically dedicated to AI. There are to the new processor family. The ARM ML (Machine Learning) Processor is a new mobile chip designed for efficient, low-power machine learning workloads. Here’s ARM’s description: The solution consists of state-of-the-art optimized fixed-function engines to provide best-in-class performance within a constrained power envelope.
Scientists are still puzzling over a detected by the Pan-STARRS (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) observatory last year. Researchers confirmed that ‘Oumuamua was the first interstellar visitor ever discovered, but it was moving too fast for anyone to get a close look at it. Still, scores of instruments were turned toward the alien asteroid to gather study its size, trajectory, and even check to make sure it (). Now, a new analysis suggests that ‘Oumuamua may have . When it was first discovered, astronomers thought 1I/2017 U1 ‘Oumuamua (as it’s now officially known) would turn out to be a comet.
The last week was a smashing success, but not everything went perfectly. While SpaceX was able to recover two of the three first stage boosters, the center core failed to land on the drone ship. CEO Elon Musk has on what went wrong with that part of the flight. It turns out to be a fairly simple fix. The Falcon Heavy is composed of three Falcon 9 boosters. The side boosters used in the Falcon Heavy launch were previously flown and recovered. Several minutes after liftoff, they split off from the core and made their way back down to Cape Canaveral.
Ads are the unfortunate reality of the free and open internet — websites have bills to pay, and users have been more tolerant of ads than paid subscriptions. News website Salon has been nagging visitors about ad blockers for a while, but now it’s giving some people an alternative. Simply opt into the new “Suppress Ads” feature and browse ad-free. The catch: your device’s CPU will be . We’ve seen websites running before, but it’s usually done in a profoundly shady way. You just show up at a website and your CPU usage skyrockets as the site tries to crunch as many numbers as possible on your hardware before you close the tab.
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In increasing interest (and value) of has led some previously rational people to come up with some wacky schemes to get rich quick. Case in point: Several Russian scientists working in one of the country’s most secure research facilities thought they could use the in-house supercomputer to . It was an interesting plan, but the future crypto millionaires were stopped by authorities before their mining operation could get off the ground. The scheme took place at the Federal Nuclear Center in Sarov, just south-east of Moscow. This is one of Russia’s “closed cities” where only authorized personnel are permitted.
