Liru's recent activity

  1. Comment on The nVidia AI GPU black market: investigating smuggling, corruption, and governments in ~tech

    Liru
    Link Parent
    The USB sticks aren't anywhere near ready to be sent out, though, since there were a lot of people who bought them and it needed to be uploaded to a lot of individual keys.

    EDIT: Steve encouraged people who got the video on USB stick (via some purchase on GN store) to upload it if his one was brought down and I've seen the video online somewhere else (don't have the link, sorry). What a great fanbase!

    The USB sticks aren't anywhere near ready to be sent out, though, since there were a lot of people who bought them and it needed to be uploaded to a lot of individual keys.

    4 votes

  2. Comment on iOS 26 is here in ~tech

    Liru
    Link Parent
    I remember heavily complaining about this on Tildes a few years ago when an Android update did the same thing to my Pixel 5a. (I distinctly remember using the phrase "Fisher-Price phone".) Not...

    It makes my device feel smaller and kinda childish? Like those toy phones with huge icons that make animal noises when pressed.

    I remember heavily complaining about this on Tildes a few years ago when an Android update did the same thing to my Pixel 5a. (I distinctly remember using the phrase "Fisher-Price phone".) Not glad to see another awful thing iPhone "stole" from Android.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on HELP: Suddenly seeing a huge influx of ethernet devices on my network in ~tech

    Liru
    Link
    It looks like the last blacked out machine has a similar MAC address as the new ones, from a quick check.

    It looks like the last blacked out machine has a similar MAC address as the new ones, from a quick check.

    12 votes

  4. Comment on The nVidia AI GPU black market: investigating smuggling, corruption, and governments in ~tech

    Liru
    Link
    From the video description: Steve teased this as a feature length video, and it didn't really disappoint in that regard. Strap yourselves in, since this is three and a half hours long. It gets...

    From the video description:

    NVIDIA (NVDA) GPUs have become so in-demand for so-called "AI" workloads that a black market has emerged around them. Where there's prohibition, there's smuggling, and there's money to be made for everyone in the chain. We found smugglers, users, fences, middlemen, and institutions in China, Taiwan, and the US involved in this pipeline flowing export controlled GPUs to China. This is in violation of US Government law, which now includes imposed numerous restrictions on semiconductor processing capabilities, making legitimate export of high-end GPUs to Chinese companies or governments impossible without rarely-granted licenses. But while this is going on, the US Government, NVIDIA, and AMD have been negotiating a cut of sales of two specific models of GPU in order to unblock over $6 billion in combined lost revenue between the companies.

    Steve teased this as a feature length video, and it didn't really disappoint in that regard. Strap yourselves in, since this is three and a half hours long. It gets pretty hands-on and more concrete than most investigations, going so far as to buy an export-controlled 5090 to see if it's actually possible, and even MacGyvering a 4090 with 48GB of VRAM from used parts.

    7 votes

  6. Comment on What is the most insane, tedious, difficult, and/or noteworthy gaming achievement you have completed or given up on? in ~games

    Liru
    Link Parent
    I'm curious, did you not do manual saves?

    and then the game auto-saved, so I couldn't roll back

    I'm curious, did you not do manual saves?

    3 votes

  8. Comment on How electric scooters are driving China's salt battery push in ~transport

    Liru
    Link Parent
    If anything, it feels like this would combine well with desalination plants that have difficulty getting rid of concentrated brine due to environmental concerns. If done in an environmentally...

    If anything, it feels like this would combine well with desalination plants that have difficulty getting rid of concentrated brine due to environmental concerns. If done in an environmentally conscious way, enough salt can be extracted in the process so that the salt inputs and outputs are the same.

    8 votes

  9. Comment on systemd has been a complete, utter, unmitigated success in ~comp

    Liru
    Link Parent
    As much as I like to poke fun at systemd for being "Microsoft Linux", this isn't really substantiative, since a lot of people on Microsoft work on Linux, directly or indirectly. For instance, the...

    As much as I like to poke fun at systemd for being "Microsoft Linux", this isn't really substantiative, since a lot of people on Microsoft work on Linux, directly or indirectly. For instance, the guy that found the xz backdoor attempt also works for Microsoft.

    6 votes

  10. Comment on Red Bull sack team principal Christian Horner in ~sports.motorsports

    Liru
    Link
    Me, three and a half months ago: ...worth a shot: at the rate things are going, I won't win the lottery by Abu Dhabi? But seriously, this could be fuel for the speculation that Mercedes have...

    Me, three and a half months ago:

    At the rate things are going, we'll probably have Horner in the 2nd Red Bull seat by Silverstone.

    ...worth a shot: at the rate things are going, I won't win the lottery by Abu Dhabi?

    But seriously, this could be fuel for the speculation that Mercedes have signed Max behind the scenes, or whether this will ultimately spur that. It seems silly season has started early this year, and it may be bigger than Vettel's retirement announcement a few years back.

    I wonder if Laurent Mekies has what it takes to "get promoted from the junior team", or if it's going to end up like almost everyone else who had that happen.

    9 votes

  11. Comment on Formula 1 British Grand Prix 2025 - Race Weekend Discussion in ~sports.motorsports

  12. Comment on Formula 1 British Grand Prix 2025 - Race Weekend Discussion in ~sports.motorsports

    Liru
    Link
    NICO HULKENBERG PODIUM THIS IS NOT A DRILL I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL THE CURSE IS BROKEN

    NICO HULKENBERG PODIUM

    THIS IS NOT A DRILL

    I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL

    THE CURSE IS BROKEN

    19 votes

  13. Comment on The America Party in ~society

    Liru
    Link Parent
    You joke, but I know of at least two people that voted for the New Blue Party in our provincial elections not too long ago, solely because of the name/colour.

    You joke, but I know of at least two people that voted for the New Blue Party in our provincial elections not too long ago, solely because of the name/colour.

    3 votes

  14. Comment on Studios decry cinemas’ ad-filled preshows as AMC warns of “25-30 extra minutes”: Here are the consequences for movie biz in ~movies

    Liru
    Link
    When I went to the movies when I was younger, the ads were fairly predictable: there were miscellaneous commercials at the beginning, followed by trailers, followed by the actual movie. I remember...

    When I went to the movies when I was younger, the ads were fairly predictable: there were miscellaneous commercials at the beginning, followed by trailers, followed by the actual movie. I remember timing it out and coming when the trailers started, since the other ads were basically things you'd see regularly on TV anyway.

    When I went to see F1 and Mission Impossible this week, the commercials and trailers were interleaved, basically making that strategy moot, which was frustrating.

    The only thing that really "saved" that was that we were in a "VIP" cinema where you could order food to your seat. You didn't really have to pay attention either way.

    7 votes

  15. Comment on I've always found the common approach that websites take to changing the email associated with an account iffy but I am not sure if I am wrong in ~tech

    Liru
    Link Parent
    Hot take: Engineers abdicating their engineering responsibilities and giving them to people who don't understand what they're doing falls under the "don't really understand what they're doing"...

    it's how modern engineers are told by marketing and sales, and therefore the business as a whole, [...] add the feature or be replaced by someone who will.

    Hot take: Engineers abdicating their engineering responsibilities and giving them to people who don't understand what they're doing falls under the "don't really understand what they're doing" umbrella.

    5 votes

  16. Comment on I've always found the common approach that websites take to changing the email associated with an account iffy but I am not sure if I am wrong in ~tech

    Liru
    Link
    No, you're correct, and for the reasons you've outlined. Most websites these days don't seem to understand what an identifier (or even an identity) is, in one way or another; it's just "one thing...

    No, you're correct, and for the reasons you've outlined. Most websites these days don't seem to understand what an identifier (or even an identity) is, in one way or another; it's just "one thing our products users need to provide so they can log in," and not much beyond that. Most companies don't think about what it means to update an email.

    Hell, one thing that I've noticed is that a lot of companies are beginning to not even require email confirmation for registration. I've got a lot of spam messages from people registering with an older email of mine, and the services actively allowing it and letting them use it despite no confirmation on my end. (Cloudflare, Duolingo, Match, and some cryptocurrency-related sites are the ones that immediately come to mind, but I can probably search for more.) I feel like it's part of the decline of modern software development, and how modern engineers don't really understand what they're doing.

    16 votes

  17. Comment on Generals Zero Hour vs Red Alert 2 in ~games

    Liru
    Link
    Zero Hour, solely because of Pure Pwnage.

    Zero Hour, solely because of Pure Pwnage.

  18. Comment on Explain Linux controversies to me in ~tech

    Liru
    Link Parent
    archinstall is a thing now.

    archinstall is a thing now.

    2 votes

  19. Comment on E-bikes make your city smaller in ~transport

    Liru
    Link Parent
    I have a pedal assist bike. Some of us like to pedal and work out, even if it's "cheating" in some way.

    I have a pedal assist bike. Some of us like to pedal and work out, even if it's "cheating" in some way.

    5 votes

  20. Comment on The Great Tildes Archipelago Randomizer - May 8th YAML thread in ~games

    Liru
    Link
    As seems to be tradition for Tildes community events (ffs), I'm probably going to drop out from this. I have to attend a destination wedding for about a week soon after this begins. If this is...

    As seems to be tradition for Tildes community events (ffs), I'm probably going to drop out from this. I have to attend a destination wedding for about a week soon after this begins. If this is expected to last longer than a week, I can pop in later, but I won't be able to participate for a good chunk of this.

    4 votes