1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000 Somewhere in the multiverse, there is an alternate dimension where I know nothing of tech news 2 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:08,000 and only report on recent developments in nearby clouds. 3 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:10,000 Look, that one shaped like a graphics card. 4 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:17,000 Intel's hot new Meteor Lake CPUs might actually perform worse on single core tasks, 5 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:24,000 with lower instructions per clock, or IPC, than their predecessors from the 14th and 13th gen lineups. 6 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:28,000 And that's... That's just not right. 7 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:31,000 These benchmarks come from hardware tester David Huang, 8 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:37,000 who compared the Core Ultra 7 155H to Apple's M2 Pro and M3 Pro, 9 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:41,000 AMD's Ryzen 7 7840U and 7840HS, 10 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:49,000 and Intel's own Core i7-13700H by testing a single core using the spec CPU benchmark, 11 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:55,000 and after some quick maths. He concluded that the 155H was at the bottom, 12 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:58,000 though it was at least within striking distance of the two Ryzen chips. 13 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:05,000 Huang notes that the comparison between the 155H and the 13700H might be somewhat distorted, 14 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:11,000 because the 155H uses LP DDR5 memory instead of regular DDR5 memory. 15 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:17,000 But that increased margin of error wouldn't account for the gap in performance between the two chips. 16 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:21,000 It's a bit like if I lost a race and blamed it on the fact that the winner was clean shaven, 17 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:24,000 and thus more aerodynamic. This brings the memories back. 18 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:31,000 Yet not clean shaven. To be clear, IPC isn't the only metric to measure a chip's performance, 19 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:34,000 and it doesn't mean that these chips haven't improved at all, 20 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:42,000 especially given recent BIOS updates. But it might indicate that Intel made significant compromises when optimizing its chips for AI acceleration 21 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:48,000 and beefing up its integrated GPU. Turns out there just wasn't enough beef to go around. 22 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:53,000 Where's the beef? A hacking group believed to have ties to the Iranian government 23 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:59,000 has targeted local American water utilities in a series of brazen cyber attacks. 24 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:03,000 One target was the Alequipa Water and Sewer Authority, 25 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:07,000 which is responsible for the needs of around 22,000 Pennsylvania residents. 26 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:13,000 Hackers shut off a remote monitoring device that regulates water pressure at one pumping station. 27 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:17,000 Luckily, an alarm alerted the station's crew, and they switched over to manual operation. 28 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:20,000 Also, luckily, the systems hackers accessed 29 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:23,000 wouldn't have allowed them to control the chemicals used in drinking water 30 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:26,000 and, you know, poison the water supply. 31 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:31,000 So that's good. The problem is that small public utilities are typically underfunded 32 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:36,000 and understandably ill-prepared to deal with sophisticated international cyber criminals. 33 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:40,000 Even worse, these attacks weren't actually all that sophisticated. 34 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:43,000 Experts believe the hackers probably broke into these systems 35 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:47,000 through remote devices that were still using the default password. 36 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:51,000 Many of these utilities are also struggling to deal with the far more pervasive problem 37 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:55,000 of preventing leaching from decades-old lead-service lines. 38 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:58,000 Yeah, remember that? Keep forgetting about that story. 39 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:03,000 They're putting something in the water. So, when you think about it, who are the real terrorists? 40 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:06,000 International cyber criminals or elderly plumbers? 41 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:13,000 That's what I thought. On Tuesday, SpaceX launched the first Starlink satellites 42 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:16,000 with the ability to communicate directly with cell phones. 43 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:22,000 These satellites will be used to provide text messaging and, eventually, voice and data services to T-Mobile US customers. 44 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:28,000 SpaceX will also be working with providers in Australia, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand. 45 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:32,000 A primary goal is to reduce dead zones and provide consistent service 46 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:36,000 even in rural and remote areas, which is yet another nail in the coffin 47 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:42,000 for Cabin in the Woods horror movies. Somebody please call the police. My suspension of disbelief is evaporating. 48 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:48,000 It's been a good year for SpaceX. They seriously expanded their total number of successful launches in 2023 49 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:53,000 with a record 96 missions compared to just 61 in 2022. 50 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:59,000 The company likewise closed out the year with two back-to-back launches in one night on December 28. 51 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:06,000 Get your tickets now. It's in the past. Sadly, they also lost their oldest reusable rocket, booster 1058, 52 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:10,000 which tipped and fell during transport through rough seas 53 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:13,000 after completing its 19th successful mission. 54 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:15,000 You can finally vote, and now this happens. 55 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:25,000 It's just getting on the dating scene. In a tweet mourning the loss, SpaceX VP of launch, Kiko Donchev noted that 56 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:31,000 the design flaw that led to 1058's demise was fixed in later models with self-leveling legs, 57 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:34,000 but 1058 was never retrofitted due to age. 58 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:42,000 It's an end we should all aspire to. A long life of service and adventure only to trip and die by brutal belly flop. 59 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:46,000 Is this how I'm gonna go? I wish I could survive on QuickBits alone. 60 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:50,000 Sadly, QuickBits are devoid of nutrition and mildly poisonous. 61 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:55,000 Please enjoy. An entire legal industry has been spawned to help independent Amazon sellers 62 00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:58,000 get their accounts reinstated on the platform. 63 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:02,000 Amazon generally withholds any money when a seller's account is suspended 64 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:09,000 and, according to many sellers, the company will often also withhold the reason for suspending the account. 65 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:12,000 Get your money, you don't get to know why. We're banning you, why? 66 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:16,000 Shut up, get out of here. And if that weren't enough for sellers to deal with, 67 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:24,000 Amazon's new AI review summaries will helpfully highlight complaints made by a very small number of buyers. 68 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:30,000 For example, according to the AI, customers say this particular shelf is a great addition to their bathroom 69 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:33,000 and also a complete waste of money. 70 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:37,000 Frankly, that sounds a bit too much like my parents discussing renovations. 71 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:46,000 Because they have a rebranding problem, Microsoft is rebranding Edge on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store as Microsoft Edge AI Browser. 72 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:48,000 It needs a theme song. 73 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:55,000 Let's browse. That sounds like the title of a gritty action movie, at least grammatically. 74 00:05:55,000 --> 00:06:01,000 The Edge mobile app's description now heavily focuses on its GPT-4 and Dolly 3-powered features 75 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:04,000 and mentions AI a total of seven times. 76 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:09,000 Notably, if you look up Edge on the Microsoft desktop store, you won't find any of this new branding. 77 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:15,000 Probably because most people who use Edge on desktop do so because either it came pre-installed on their computer 78 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:18,000 or they're not on speaking terms with Chrome right now. 79 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:25,000 It's a little awkward. Has blocked another two states, Montana and North Carolina, 80 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:31,000 in response to the passage of age verification laws that the website's parent company, ILO, 81 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:38,000 says endanger privacy by requiring citizens to hand over their government-issued IDs to random internet smut peddlers. 82 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:42,000 This is clearly going to affect a lot of people in North Carolina, 83 00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:45,000 but it's unclear as of yet how it will affect Montana, 84 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:50,000 which I am given to understand is primarily populated by flags and cattle. 85 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:03,000 A woman in Delaware is crediting her Apple Watch with saving her life and that of her cat 86 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:08,000 after a broken heater started leaking carbon monoxide in her apartment. 87 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:13,000 Natalie Nesatka had a sudden dizzy spell and found herself unable to stand, 88 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:18,000 so she activated her watch's SOS feature, summoning emergency services in the nick of time. 89 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:22,000 While we're glad Natalie's okay and this is obviously great PR for Apple, 90 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:26,000 if you don't have an extra few hundred dollars just lying around to buy a new watch, 91 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:29,000 you could also just shell out for a carbon monoxide detector. 92 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:32,000 Seriously, they're only like thirty dollars and your cats will thank you. 93 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:36,000 At least they should thank you, but what can you expect from a carnivorous squirrel that poops in a box? 94 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:43,000 They will eat you when you die. And we've got new hyper detailed photos of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io 95 00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:48,000 after NASA's Juno spacecraft passed within 930 miles of the moon 96 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:51,000 during its 57th flyby of the gas giant. 97 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:56,000 This is the closest any mission has flown to Io's surface in 23 years 98 00:07:56,000 --> 00:08:01,000 since NASA's Galileo craft passed within 112 miles of Io's southern pole. 99 00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:06,000 The images have been called beautiful and magnificent by astronomers 100 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:11,000 and like a macro shot of a dramatically lit chocolate truffle by me just now. 101 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:16,000 Now, not to be dramatic, but it would also be lit 102 00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:19,000 if you came back on Friday for more tech news. 103 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:22,000 I promise I won't make jokes like that.