Okay, hey, sorry, yeah.
I got winded from jogging over here because I stuffed myself fuller
than a deep fried American turkey. And now I got sugar plums dancing in my tumtums.
Anyway, here's the tech news. Custom PC company, Main Gear,
has launched a bring your own RAM program, letting customers buy fully built gaming PCs
without memory installed as a practical solution
to the ongoing RAM crisis. We can call it a crisis.
Yup, I'm crisis-ing. Hey, RAM's expensive.
Have you considered not buying it? The idea is simple.
DDR5 prices are high, availability is inconsistent,
and a lot of buyers already have RAM on hand or want to shop around for a better deal.
Instead of forcing customers to overpay or wait,
Main Gear builds a system, tests it, and then leaves the memory slots empty
for you to slide in and push until they click
and finish the job. For people upgraded from an existing system,
or for those willing to hunt for deals, it's a rare bit of flexibility in a PC market
that usually insists you pay the markup or wait in line.
Or, I suppose you could build your own RAM?
The box of scraps. Some Russian enthusiasts are crazy over there.
Reportedly started building their own DDR5 sticks by soldering memory chips onto blank PCBs.
They may not be the fastest, and they definitely do not come with a warranty.
But I feel like we're onto something with this. Scrappyard Wars with DIY memory, anyone?
Samsung is dealing with a bunch of their ex-employees leaking trade secrets to China.
One engineer is accused of smuggling handwritten notes to a competitor in China,
though South Korea prosecutors could not confirm whether the note contained details
about the company's DRAM tech, or simply a message reading,
do you like me, circle yes or no? This alleged leak is part of a broader case
where 10 ex-Samsung employees have been indicted for industrial espionage.
Love that word. That prosecutor's claim enabled CXMT
to mass produce 10 nanometer class DRAM,
which may have cost Samsung and South Korea tens of trillions of won in lost revenue
and national economic damage. That's a lot of won, but not a lot of winning.
Ow! Yeah, you just- Ow!
Samsung appears to be dealing with all kinds of corruption issues as the company is reportedly internally investigating claims
that some of its staff may have taken kickbacks to steer memory chip orders and allocations
with the company interviewing employees in Taiwan and reshuffling some sales and marketing personnel
as part of the review. The RAM shortage is nuts,
but hey, if enough information leaks, maybe China will help pull us out of these troubles.
Or maybe they'll just take a bunch of money for their own AI data centers
and set their robot army to auto invade. Who knows?
There's no way to predict. They got robots and people. We'll take either of those.
Best in both worlds. Speaking of AI, NVIDIA has dropped $20 billion
to buy GROC without actually buying GROC.
This is like that TikTok deal all over again. They're not actually buying it, one,
because it's not the Twitter chatbot, but an AI hardware company called GROC with a Q.
And two, because the deal brings GROC's founder and president, Jonathan Ross,
along with other key engineers over to NVIDIA while GROC stays an independent company.
They're kind of like a gelatinous Q rolling over GROC.
The move effectively gives NVIDIA access to cutting edge AI inference chips
and talent without formally buying the whole company. According to WCCF tech,
this deal is a surgical masterclass on NVIDIA's part, but other analysts say the deal is just structured
to keep the fiction of competition alive while sidestepping at Josh scrutiny,
which just seems to be easier and easier every day. Now I'm imagining Jensen as some sort of cannibal war chief
in a Mad Max scenario, cutting away the meat from other companies
for NVIDIA to devour. You think his leather jacket is useful or too warm in that situation?
Let us know in the comments. Probably not as useful as our sponsor would be.
The quick bits ate so much Christmas dinner, but I think they could have kept going personally.
Those freaks have got a faster metabolism than the Kobayashi or Joey Chestnut combined.
Famous for their hot dog swallowing. Yes.
ASUS was rumored to be planning to build its own DRAM memory chip fabs
to help ease the global memory shortage, but those rumors have officially been shot down.
Sorry y'all. ASUS told Taiwanese media outlets, CNA it has no plans to invest in memory
wafer fabrication and will instead work with existing suppliers and tweak its product mix.
CNA noted that building a fab takes at least two years
and at least tons of money. So ASUS is sticking to its core strengths
rather than trying to solve today's supply crunch itself,
which is too bad ASUS, because we would really like it
if you could have solved today's supply crunch. That would have actually been helpful.
By the time it got solved. Making more X-box. There'd be a new crunch.
Google is finally preparing to let users change their old at gmail.com email addresses.
Something that's basically been impossible since Gmail first launched.
The option will allow users to adopt a new Gmail username while keeping the old address as an alias.
So you won't lose emails or account access. The feature was spotted early on a Google support page
that appears only in Hindi, suggesting that this should be something on the way soon.
Although why it appears in that language, God only knows.
I'm just concerned that I'll never again get an email from adults still using addresses like Mel Gibson fan 99
or the underscore thunders pants.
Thunder Spants? It's what Mel Gibson wore in the Mad Max movie
in the Thunderdome. The Spants.
They can change our names, but they'll never take our memories.
Different Mel Gibson movie, but yeah. AI data centers are getting so power hungry
that US company HGP Intelligent Energy wants to repurpose retired Navy nuclear reactors
from submarines and aircraft carriers to power them.
The proposal could deliver roughly 450 to 520 megawatts
of constant electricity, enough for about 360,000 homes
and would rely on the Department of Energy support to get that off the ground.
Finally, a solution that makes sense. And if nuclear warship leftovers isn't enough
to roger your jollies, data center demand is also reportedly bringing back
the use of fossil fuel peak or power plants to help alleviate the load.
There's also rumors of an expedition to the bottom of the sea
to acquire the mystical gems that powered Atlantis in the Disney movie,
which sounds promising and James Cameron will probably be there.
And will the hot girl be there too? Apple is allowing third party earbuds
to use AirPod style proximity pairing with iOS 26.3,
meaning you can just bring them close to your iPhone
and tap to connect. At least in the EU, where the Digital Markets Act has forced Apple
to open up its ecosystem just a little bit. Ah, the land of milk and honey.
Watches from other companies will also be gaining limited notification support.
So Luddites who insist upon circular watches can receive notifications on either their iPhone
or their watch, but not both. You wanna round the corners
of a much more functional square shaped watch? And for what?
Nostalgia, tradition? You'll be tied to the tracks and trampled under
the relentless engine of progress, you sad fool.
Ha, ha, ha. And here's some bad news for Ubisoft.
Apparently hackers massively abused Rainbow Six Siege taking over parts of Ubisoft systems
to ban and unban players, unlock rare items,
boost players' renown and inject accounts with roughly 2 billion R6 credits,
valued at roughly $13.3 million. The hack forced Ubisoft to shut down the game
and marketplace and roll back recent transactions.
But they clarified that players won't be punished for using the bogus credits.
They're like a bank. Ubisoft has denied any large scale leak of user data
or source code, making it seem like this hack comes from an in-game exploit, which is ridiculous
because isn't this the company that made Watch Dogs? The ultimate hacker game?
They made Watch Dogs. And you should come back on Wednesday to watch these dogs hack your brain with more tech news.
In the meantime, I've gotta finish this jog
because I got more Christmas leftovers to work through before they spoil.
Potatoes, baby!