Topps Blog: 2023

Friday, 10 March 2023

Meta May Take on Twitter with Decentralized, Text-Based Social Network

Ever since Elon Musk bought Twitter, there’s been a lot of chatter on the platform about one specific topic: where to go when Twitter dies. That’s primarily due to his decision to fire most of the staff, an ongoing theme of his rule. The site has also experienced a host of technical issues lately. This has led people to consider sites like Post or Mastodon, which are mere shadows of Twitter’s size. Now Meta might be stepping into the fray with its own solution. It’s confirmed it’s working on a standalone app to allow text-based updates among friends and followers.

A Meta-sized company stepping into this space is indeed big news. A spokesperson told Platformer in an email, “We’re exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates. We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests.” The site reports that the project, P92, is run by the current Instagram head, Adam Mosseri. The app will reportedly be Instagram branded and use that platform’s credentials to log in.

What will differentiate this service from Twitter, as well as Meta’s existing services, is its decentralized nature. In that scenario, the users can make their own servers and set moderation rules, like how Reddit allows anyone to create their own subreddit. Everyone must still follow baseline rules, but they can be tweaked for individual topics according to the moderators’ preferences. According to Moneycontrol, Meta wants to use ActivityPub for its app, a decentralized social networking protocol that Mastodon is currently using.

Twitter is funding a small independent team of up to five open source architects, engineers, and designers to develop an open and decentralized standard for social media. The goal is for Twitter to ultimately be a client of this standard. 🧵

— jack (@jack) December 11, 2019

Former CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, called for a decentralized version of Twitter in 2019 (above). His prime motivator was that centralized control over abuse and misinformation couldn’t scale without requiring too many moderators. Also, since leaving Twitter, he has begun working on his own “decentralized Twitter,” which just came out a week ago. His new App, Bluesky, is now available in beta form but is invite-only.

As far as Meta’s plans go, it’s unclear if it’s just an idea or if there’s code being written. However, unbeknownst to us, in December, Instagram rolled out a feature called Notes. According to Instagram, it is “a new way to share your thoughts using just text and emojis.” It’s thought that this may be fleshed out into the Twitter competitor.

When (or if) the app launches, users can transfer all their bio data from Instagram and share data between accounts. Over time there will be a “fork” where the two apps disconnect from each other. However, this could allow Meta to launch with a privacy policy and moderation teams already in place. Instagram also operates globally, making it a more attractive alternative to Twitter than competitors like Mastodon.

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Backblaze Publishes Lifetime Failure Rates for SSDs

(Credit: Backblaze) Cloud backup company Backblaze has become well-known for its hard drive and SSD failure rate reports. The interval of time it uses for its reports varies, as sometimes it’s quarterly, annual, or both. The company is using the longest reporting timeline we’ve ever seen this time. It’s shown the failure rates of all its SSDs since it began using them in 2018. It’s also offering insight into the SSDs’ operating temperatures over time. This answers the question of whether they run cooler than HDDs. Most of the SSDs fared quite well, with an annualized failure rate of less than 1%.

The report shows the lifetime failure rates of 2,906 SSDs in use as of the end of 2022. The company uses them as boot drives in its storage servers. Despite the “server” environment, Backblaze uses 13 different consumer SSDs. Also, the drives function like a consumer SSD as well. In addition to booting the OS, they read, write, and delete log files all day. The SSDs in its pods have the same workload too, making results directly comparable. One standout drive is an M.2 model mounted on a PCIe card, but the rest are SATA drives.

Lifetime failure rates for all 2,096 SSDs under Backblaze’s control. (Credit: Backblaze)

As you can see at the bottom of the chart in bold, the overall lifetime annualized failure rate (AFR) is 0.89%. That’s for all 2,096 drives since 2018, so pretty much what we expected in that they’re very reliable. For comparison, its lifetime AFR for hard drives is 1.39%. However, only three drives have seen enough usage to give Backblaze confidence in their failure rates. Of those three, the DellBOSS VD is the clear champion. For that drive, BOSS stands for Boot Optimized Storage Solution. With 411 running for over 230,000 days, the failure rate was 0.0%.

The runner-up is Seagate model ZA250CM10003, a 250GB SATA drive. It suffered an AFR of just 0.66% over 1,104 drives running for 724,240 days. The third place on the podium goes to the Seagate ZA250CM10002. This is also a meager 250GB SATA SSD with an AFR of 0.96% over 568,911 drive days. Both drive families showed failures over time. The Seagates suffered 13 and 15 failures over the four years, respectively. That directly correlates to how they were also the two drives with the most drive days. Most of the other drives with a 0.0% failure rate (Dell aside) either haven’t been running long enough, or there are not enough drives to give them confidence in their longevity rating.

(Credit: Backblaze)

Backblaze also looked at drive temps throughout 2022. As far as we can recall, this is a first for the company. Notably, the chart’s Y axis begins at 34C and ends at 36C. In other words, not much to see here, folks. The drives remain cool, and that barely changes. The report shows the drives changed by one degree Celsius all year, from 34.4 to 35.4. Interestingly Backblaze says the average temperature of its HDDs is just 29C. However, it thinks this is due to the placement of the drives in the system. Its pods full of hard drives receive the cool air first, so the SSDs are left to fend for themselves. It doesn’t mention if there’s any cooling directed at the SSDs, but given the temps, it seems like it doesn’t matter.

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HP Updating Printers to Block Third-Party Ink Cartridges

Our connected world makes it simple to send documents around the world in the blink of an eye, but heaven have mercy if you ever need to print one of them. Printers are perhaps even more frustrating than they were in the pre-internet era, thanks to the way companies like HP have chosen to increase profits. Despite customer backlash and a series of lawsuits, HP has stepped up the rollout of “Dynamic Security” features that block printing with third-party ink cartridges.

According to HP, Dynamic Security is all about “[protecting] the quality of our customer experience.” What it actually means is that an affected printer will check for an HP authentication chip in the cartridge, and if it’s not there, your printer will refuse to work. HP introduced Dynamic Security in 2016, and it has been forced to pay out several class action lawsuits in the intervening years. And yet, HP is still adding Dynamic Security to printers via firmware updates.

Reports of HP printers suddenly rejecting ink cartridges began increasing late last year as the company rolled out firmware updates. One Reddit user spurred a 1,000-comment discussion in recent days when they posted an image of an error message (see below) that appeared after a firmware upgrade. According to user /r/grhhull, their 3.5-year-old printer used to merely warn about potential quality issues with the cheaper third-party carts it was running. After the update, Dynamic Security refused to print without an authentic cartridge.

HP Dynamic Security error. Credit: /u/grhhull

The issue is all the more infuriating because it’s impossible to know which printers are affected. According to HP, its security updates may “block cartridges using a non-HP chip or modified or non-HP circuitry from working in the printer, including cartridges that work today.” Emphasis ours. This information is conveniently contained in a support article that no one is going to read before buying a printer. Although, HP slyly reminds Ars Technica that Dyanamic Security is mentioned on the printer box, implying that it’s on consumers to investigate this innocuous-sounding term.

Despite hints of a new approach, HP is still entrenched in the decades-old printer business model of losing money on the hardware to sell expensive ink cartridges, and it’s making its customers’ lives miserable as a result. For most machines that get a Dynamic Security update, you’re out of luck. The only way to continue using the printer you bought is to pay HP’s inflated price for ink or pay for a silly printing-as-a-service subscription. Some printers can circumvent the block, but only if they were manufactured before Dec 1, 2016. The overwhelming majority of replies in the Reddit thread suggest a different fix: stop buying HP printers.

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PS5 Sales Up 450%, Beating the Nintendo Switch in Japan

(Credit: Triyansh Gill/Unsplash) February 2023 was a good month for Sony. It smashed its PlayStation 5 sales total from February 2022 and kicked the Nintendo Switch out of its top-selling console spot in Japan, where Nintendo consoles have almost always dominated.

Japanese video game magazine Famitsu shared Wednesday that 366,982 PS5s sold in February 2023, up 457% from its comparatively measly 65,772 units sold in February 2022. This means Sony is well on its way to smashing FY2022’s sales to smithereens; February 2023 saw more unit sales than all of Q12023 saw, and FY2022 only sold 1,154,050 PS5s.

Why the contrast? Whether or not we wanted one, most of us remember how difficult it was to find a PS5 last year…or the year before that…or the year before that. The global chip shortage limited Sony’s ability to churn out its new console, and combined with high demand, that made retailers’ shelves barren. Sony even extended the PlayStation 4’s time on the assembly line to compensate for the PS5 shortage. It took until this year for Sony to declare the shortage over, and clearly, it wasn’t messing around.

(Credit: Alvaro Reyes/Unsplash)

The PS5’s success also means the Nintendo Switch may have finally met its match—at least in sales. Sony’s latest console has never beaten the Switch in Japan. It hasn’t even come close; despite landing in second place last year, the PS5 was miles behind the Switch at 942,798 and 5.3 million units, respectively. Sony fans got excited in early February after the PS5 stole the Switch’s leading spot in Japan, but few expected it to last as long as it did. Some think the PS5’s relative novelty, compared with the Switch’s age, might make it a more appealing console option for gamers who are choosing between one or the other.

It’s hard to say how long Sony’s victory over the Switch will last. In the meantime, Nintendo can wipe its tears because its software is still number one in Japan, at least for now. Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe topped 189,031 unit sales in Japan in February, while the controversial Hogwarts Legacy (only available on PS5 and Xbox) was the top-selling non-Nintendo title at 126,086 unit sales.

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Scientists Produce Healthy Mice Using Exclusively Male Cells

(Credit: Sangharsh Lohakare/Unsplash) Same-sex reproduction has historically required donor cells, as is the case with egg implantation and some instances of in-vitro fertilization (IVF). Thanks to genetic engineering, however, this might not always be the case. Scientists in Japan have successfully created eggs using male cells, resulting in the birth of several mice that were produced without mothers.

Renowned Kyushu University stem cell researcher Katshuhiko Hayashi presented his team’s achievement this week at the Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing in London. Hayashi had led his colleagues through “reprogramming” a male mouse’s skin cells into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, or former non-reproductive cells that can be engineered into various cell forms. Because male cells contain the XY chromosome combination, Hayashi had to remove the Y chromosome and replace it with an X chromosome from another cell. (Hayashi’s team attempted to devise a way to duplicate the first cell’s X chromosome but was unsuccessful, resulting in the need to pull from a donor.)

(Credit: Rama/Wikimedia Commons)

Hayashi implanted the makeshift eggs inside a mouse ovary organoid, a ball of tissues that function similarly to a natural ovary. After fertilizing the eggs with sperm, his team implanted the resulting 600 embryos into surrogate mice. Seven of these embryos became mouse pups, which grew into adults with normal lifespans and successful mating routines.

This research, which Hayashi has since submitted to scientific journals, is just the beginning. His team is now working to replicate their achievement using human cells, which they hope to turn into lab-created eggs. Scientists have made similar attempts before, but their cells have failed to advance past the meiosis stage, which is necessary for the development of eggs and sperm.

Should Hayashi and his colleagues successfully produce eggs in the lab, it could pave the way for novel infertility treatments and for same-sex procreation that incorporates both partners’ genes. Male couples who wish to produce children currently have to choose whose sperm will fertilize a donor egg, which is implanted in a surrogate mother for gestation. Developments like this one, however, could allow couples to use one person’s sperm to fertilize an egg made from the other person’s cells, or even allow a single person to produce a child using only their genes. Hayashi says this could be possible within a decade—but other scientists think that’s a bit optimistic.

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Researchers Develop Nanoparticle Paint Inspired by Butterfly Wings

Plasmonic paint applied to the wings of metal butterflies (Credit: University of Central Florida) Every paint in the world today takes on a specific color due to the presence of pigment molecules. They absorb some wavelengths of light and reflect others, but University of Central Florida researcher Debashis Chanda has devised an entirely new kind of paint inspired by butterfly wings. The so-called plasmonic paint uses nanoscale particles to create different colors without requiring multiple pigments.

Some pigments have been used for thousands of years, and others are more recent synthetic creations. The main drawback to this kind of coloration is that you need a new molecule for every color. In addition, some pigment molecules are rare or even toxic. For example, Cobalt Blue is one of the most popular shades of blue, but this mix of cobalt oxide and aluminum oxide is dangerous if ingested or inhaled.

Chanda based the plasmonic paint on butterfly wings, which have a property known as structural color. In butterflies, the geometric arrangement of colorless materials can reflect, scatter, and absorb light to produce different colors. The paint works in a similar way using aluminum and aluminum oxide nanoparticles. Chanda and his team created the starting material by coating a mirror with nanoparticles. The distance between the particles determines how it interacts with light and, therefore, the color we perceive when looking at it. To turn those surfaces into paint, the team chipped the nanoparticles off and mixed the flakes with a commercial binding agent.

Traditional paint fades over time due to the pigment molecules losing their ability to absorb photons. That’s not a problem with the nanotech paint described in the new study. The nanoparticles don’t change over time — they always refract light the same way. “Once we paint something with structural color, it should stay for centuries,” says Chanda.

Color flakes are mixed in a solution to create paint (Credit: University of Central Florida)

Photonic paint has some other useful qualities. Because it has a large area-to-thickness ratio, you need less paint to get the job done (a layer about 150 nanometers thick). Chanda estimates you’d need just three pounds of plasmonic paint to cover a Boeing 747, which usually requires more than 1,000 pounds of standard paint. That could mean major fuel savings. Plus, plasmonic paint reflects the entire infrared spectrum, keeping the material underneath 25 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit cooler compared with commercial paint, reducing energy usage on cooling.

Next, the team plans to conduct more research on the potential energy-saving properties of the paint and prove that it can be a viable commercial product. Currently, plasmonic paint can only be made in small batches with laboratory equipment, but commercial paint needs to be produced in much larger quantities.

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Thursday, 9 March 2023

Intel Asks Germany for Another $5 Billion to Build Megafab

(Credit: Intel) Over the past year, Intel has announced aggressive plans to increase the number of fabs it operates while spreading them across Europe (and America). This plan would help it achieve its “five nodes in four years” IDM 2.0 goal and offer the company some resiliency. Intel announced plans for new or expanded fabs in Italy, Ireland, Germany, France, and back home in Ohio. But unanticipated factors, such as continuing inflation and the war in Ukraine driving up energy costs, have made building costs skyrocket. Now Intel is telling the German government it still wants to build a fab there but will need more subsidies. The government already agreed to $7 billion, and Intel is asking for $4 to $5 billion more.

Word of Intel’s dilemma over its new fab in Magdeburg comes from Bloomberg. It notes Intel paused its construction plans at the end of last year when economic headwinds were affecting the PC industry. Several months later, it says it needs the government to pitch in more if it’s to begin construction soon. The site in Magdeburg was initially projected to cost around $17 billion. That cost has now reportedly ballooned to a staggering $30 billion. Luckily for Intel, the EU has its own version of the CHIPS Act, meant to spur semiconductor business across the region. Intel expects up to 40% of its fab costs to be covered by subsidies. Now that its prices have increased, it’s only right the government ponies up more cash, so the thinking goes. The EU bill earmarks $43 billion for semiconductor business expansion. The US version is around $52 billion.

Intel’s proposed site in Germany is in budgeting limbo. (Credit: Intel)

Intel had planned to produce Intel 18A (1.8nm) chips at the German location, according to Wccftech. It was also going to expand its fab in Ireland to handle the production of Intel 4 silicon (formerly 7nm). Additionally, it planned to build a new Italian site to manage back-end production and build a research center in France. Intel had budgeted up to $33 billion for all these sites across Europe. Now those funds will only cover one site, given the current costs.

Bloomberg’s sources indicate the plans for its Ireland and French facilities are still on track, but the German and Italian sites are now on hold. It will likely remain that way until Intel can secure new government funding. That could be more money or related infusions such as tax breaks or energy subsidies.

Intel hit a similar financial snag last year with its new fab in Ohio. It had to delay the facility’s groundbreaking, as the CHIPS Act hadn’t yet passed due to legislative wrangling. That bill did finally pass in July with bipartisan support. Intel formally broke ground on the site in September, and it’s expected to be online in 2025. The state of Ohio is giving Intel up to $2 billion in subsidies for the megafab.

The background to this sudden changing of plans is the horrid condition of the PC market. Intel has felt the brunt of it and posted its worst earnings in 20 years recently. Because of its current prospects, it’s begun tightening its belt to reduce costs by $10 billion annually by 2025. In the short term, it’s already cancelled an advanced sustainable Data Center R&D facility in Oregon.

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Scientists Revive 50,000-Year-Old Virus Frozen in Permafrost

Scientists have been digging up the remains of ancient plants and animals since time immemorial, but viruses? Jean-Michel Claverie from the Aix-Marseille University School of Medicine has spent the last 20 years searching deep permafrost deposits for preserved ancient viruses. His team recently revived a virus that had been dormant for almost 50,000 years. It might sound like the setup for a post-apocalyptic movie, but Claverie believes it’s in our best interest to know what’s lurking down there.

This isn’t the first time Claverie has awoken an ancient virus. He and his team first managed this in 2014 when they isolated a 30,000-year-old virus from permafrost and infected cultured cells. For safety, Claverie has focused on viruses that only infect single-celled amoebas. The following year, the team did the same with another viral strain. The most recent publication from Claverie’s team details 13 newly isolated viruses, including the oldest ever revived.

Most of the viruses in the study are extremely large by viral standards, some up to two micrometers in length (the same size range as an E. coli bacterium cell). They belong to genera, including Pandoravirus (like the one above), Megavirus, and Pacmanvirus. The oldest organism was Pandoravirus yedoma, which was frozen in permafrost for 48,500 years according to radiocarbon dating of the surrounding soil. The viruses infect even bigger amoeba cells, which the team provided to see if the particles were viable. The study describes how the thawed viruses happily invaded the cultured amoeba cells and, in hours, turned them into factories to produce more ancient viruses.

The researchers used Acanthamoeba cells like this one to incubate the viruses.

Claverie tells CNN he worries that people see his research on ancient viruses as a curiosity, but there’s a lesson here. This research focuses on viruses that only infect amoebas rather than plants or animals, but there are undoubtedly viruses preserved in permafrost that would love to set up shop in animal cells — possibly even humans. Claverie’s samples come from Siberian ice cores, many gathered at more than 50 feet (16 meters). However, permafrost is much less permanent in the face of climate change.

As Earth warms, we are losing permafrost across higher latitudes. It’s plausible that viruses preserved in permafrost could become active again without a scientist’s help — a so-called “spillover event.” The new study shows us that a 50,000-year-old virus is still viable. Perhaps even older viruses could awaken as permafrost thaws, which could have unknown consequences for an ecosystem that hasn’t seen these organisms in thousands of years. So, add that to the list of potentially catastrophic outcomes of climate change.

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Relativity Space Prepares to Launch First 3D Printed Rocket

(Credit: Relativity Space) From bodily organs to entire houses, it’s now possible to 3D print just about everything—and now an aerospace startup is adding rockets to that list. California-based Relativity Space is preparing to launch the first 3D-printed orbital rocket this month after six years of work.

Relativity Space initially planned to launch the rocket Wednesday, March 8. Observers eagerly watched the company’s YouTube livestream, vapor swirling around the 35-meter rocket. After an hour and 40 minutes, however, Terran 1 was still sitting atop its Cape Canaveral launchpad, and commentators announced Relativity Space’s decision to push back the launch.

“As you saw, we unfortunately scrubbed for today,” one commentator, Relativity Space infrastructure project manager Arwa Tizani, said. “While we obviously had high hopes for sending our Terran 1 off today, we’re going to continue to take a measured approach so we can ultimately see this rocket off to max q and beyond.”

Relativity Space quickly followed up with a tweet saying it had been forced to push back Terran 1’s launch after it exceeded Stage 2’s launch commit criteria limits for propellant thermal conditions. “When using liquid natural gas, the methane needs time to get to the right concentration,” Relativity Space explained. “This is why our next attempt will be a few days from now.” The company now plans to attempt the launch between 1 and 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 11.

Today’s launch attempt for #GLHF Terran 1 was scrubbed due to exceeding launch commit criteria limits for propellant thermal conditions on stage 2. The team is working diligently toward our next launch window in the coming days. Check back here soon for updates on the launch… https://t.co/LxWJzfZ9BI pic.twitter.com/M4RVu6EkR8

— Relativity Space (@relativityspace) March 8, 2023

Relativity Space first began developing Terran 1 back in 2017. Today, the expendable two-stage small-lift launch vehicle is capable of lifting up to 1,250 kilograms (2,755 pounds) into low-Earth orbit (LEO). But its first flight won’t carry a payload: Relativity Space just wants to see Terran 1 touch space to consider the rocket a success.

What makes Terran 1 so special, though, is how it’s manufactured. Relativity Space says 85% of the rocket by mass is 3D printed, including its engines, which run on liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid natural gas (LNG). The company’s printers, collectively called Stargate, are said to be the biggest metal 3D printers in the world and can bring Terran 1 from raw material to flight in just 60 days.

Once Terran 1 finally gets off the ground, Relativity Space plans to shift its focus toward Terran R, an entirely 3D-printed rocket that can be reused. Terran R, which will be capable of bringing 20,000 kilograms to LEO, will hopefully launch from Florida’s Space Coast sometime in 2024.

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NASA Revives 15-Year-Old IBEX Probe After Recent System Reset

Launching something into space isn’t easy — even small payloads like the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), which weighs as much as the average 7-year-old child, are costly and complex. That’s why NASA and other space agencies design spaceflight hardware to last. The IBEX probe was launched 15 years ago, and there was some concern last month that the mission had reached the end of the line. However, NASA now says IBEX has been resurrected and is back at full operational capacity.

The problems started on Feb. 18 when a routine system reset caused the spacecraft to stop operating. NASA eventually learned that a flight computer error caused the satellite to enter safe mode. So, uploads reached the probe but were not being processed. Initial attempts to reset the spacecraft were unsuccessful.

NASA suspected that IBEX might come back online after an automatic system reset scheduled for March 4, but the agency opted to speed things up. IBEX is in a highly eccentric orbit around Earth, reaching a maximum altitude (apogee) of 220,866 kilometers (137,252 miles) and a minimum (perigee) of just 7,000 kilometers (4,300 miles). It hit perigee on March 2, and the team felt that was their best chance to restart the probe. The “firecode reset” command worked, and IBEX is again online.

IBEX was launched in 2008 to map the edge of the solar system. Engineers equipped it with two energetic neutral atom (ENA) imagers, IBEX-Hi and IBEX-Lo. Both instruments allow the probe to collect and separate ions of different energy levels. During its lifetime, IBEX has reported that the heliosphere has no bow shock, an area of higher density and energy where the sun’s magnetic field encounters interstellar plasma. It also found the relative speed of the heliosphere was 23.2 km/s, about half of the previous estimates. In 2013, IBEX revealed the heliosphere has a four-lobed tail on its trailing end.

A map of the heliosphere from the IBEX-Hi instrument showing an expected ribbon of brighter ENAs. Scientists believe this ribbon may shift as the solar system moves through the interstellar medium.

In 2008, NASA only needed IBEX to last for two years, but it has long since surpassed that. As it comes up on 15 years in space, IBEX is still ready to make discoveries about the border of our solar system.

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Asus to Allow 192GB of DDR5 Memory on 600 and 700 Series Motherboards

(Credit: Asus) If you’re a hardcore multitasker, Asus has some good news: The company has partnered with Corsair to allow up to 192GB of DDR5 to run in all of its high-end Intel motherboards. The support comes via updated BIOSes for its Z690 and Z790 motherboard that allow using Corsair’s new 24GB and 48GB DDR5 modules. If you have an Assus board, you can now set up RAM parings that equal 48GB, 96GB, or 192GB. That’s a lot of RAM, but now you have options if 128GB isn’t enough.

Asus announced the news along with Corsair as part of a marketing campaign via Techpowerup. Corsair first spoke of its new UDIMMs in late February, but now it’s officially selling them on its website. Asus is the first company we know to announce support for these capacities. The memory kits range in speed from DDR5 5200 to 7000 MT/s. Asus has already released BIOS updates for its range of Z790 boards, and it says it’ll do the same for B760, H770, and 600 series shortly. It’s currently available for ROG Maximus, ROG Strix, ProArt, and Prime 700-series boards. The new memory kits are available in RGB and non-RGB versions.

The new capacities allow 96GB of DDR5 on ITX boards with only two RAM slots. (Credit: Corsair)

One unsurprising detail is the 192GB package is crazy expensive. Corsair’s website lists the RGB version at $750, with the non-bling version at $725. There’s also a 48GB kit for $275 or $284 without or with RGB. The 96GB kit will set you back around $400, depending on which sticks you prefer. The 96GB kit might be hard to find, though, as Corsair isn’t selling it in its web store.

Asus says you can run 48GB kits at 7000 MT/s or 192GB kits at 5,200 MT/s. Intel’s 12th or 13th gen CPUs also support slower-speed kits. However, you’ll need a Raptor Lake CPU to run DDR5 7000 MT/s modules at full speed. The Corsair memory kits also support Intel XMP 3.0 for one-click overclocking.

The move by Corsair and Asus comes as the market is seriously moving to DDR5. Intel’s Raptor Lake platform supports DDR4 and DDR5, but AMD’s AM5 is DDR5 only. It’s also been rumored that Intel’s Meteor Lake will only support DDR5. That would make sense, as DDR5 is now easy to acquire, and its performance benefits are non-trivial depending on the application. For example, it’s been shown that DDR5 can increase performance on Raptor Lake by up to 20% in some applications. AMD is also pushing DDR5 adoption by adding EXPO overclocking to its newest platform. Sadly, AMD seems to have been left out of Asus’s update, but perhaps that will change.

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Wildfire Smoke Eroded Ozone Layer By 10 Percent In 2020: Study

(Credit: Ross Stone/Unsplash) The havoc wreaked by wildfires isn’t just on the ground. Researchers at MIT have found that wildfire smoke particles actively erode Earth’s protective ozone layer, thus widening the gap we’ve been spending the last decade trying to close.

When something burns and produces smoke, those smoke particles—otherwise called wildfire aerosol—can drift into the stratosphere, where they hang out for a year or more. According to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, chemists and atmospheric scientists have found that suspended wildfire aerosol sparks chemical reactions that ultimately degrade the ozone layer, or the thin atmospheric layer responsible for shielding Earth from the Sun.

The newly-discovered chemical reaction increases hydrochloric acid’s solubility. While hydrochloric acid is already present in the atmosphere, MIT found that larger hydrochloric acid quantities activate chlorine in the air and increase ozone loss rates when warmer temperatures strike. This spells danger for the storied hole in the ozone layer, which environmental activists, scientists, and policymakers have been fighting to shrink for several years.

Wildfire smoke was particularly destructive in 2020, when near-constant blazes caused more than $4.5 billion in damage globally. Many of these wildfire woes occurred in Australia, where the “Black Summer” megafire burned from December 2019 through January 2020. According to MIT’s research, wildfire aerosols released during this period widened the ozone hole over Antarctica by 2.5 million kilometers by the end of the year. That’s a 10% size increase.

The Antarctic ozone hole in 2022. (Credit: NOAA)

This research unintentionally complements another study we covered this week, in which an international team of scientists showed that multiple environmental positive feedback loops exacerbate climate change. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that holes in the ozone layer can lead to changes in plant metabolism and aquatic food webs. Ozone erosion can also spur changes in terrestrial and aquatic biogeochemical cycles, potentially resulting in biosphere-atmosphere feedbacks that feed atmospheric warming. Studies show that atmospheric warming can trigger wildfires, resulting in a nasty cycle.

Thankfully, recent attempts to mitigate damage to the ozone layer have been quite successful. International treaties like the Montreal Protocol have helped phase out the use of ozone-depleting pollutants. The world’s gradual adoption of electric vehicles might have also helped. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration even found that the Antarctic ozone hole was slightly smaller in 2022 than in 2021 and far smaller than in 2006 when its size peaked. That said, it’s difficult to know right now whether these efforts are enough to compensate for the ozone damage caused by wildfire smoke.

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NASA Confirms Artemis 2 for Late 2024 After Successful Artemis 1 Mission

It’s been a long road, but NASA finally launched the first Artemis lunar mission late last year. The flight appeared to go off without a hitch from launch, to lunar orbit, to splashdown. The data NASA gathered from the uncrewed mission has been scrutinized over and over for the past few months, and now the agency can confirm Artemis 1 was a smashing success. The team plans to move forward with Artemis 2 in late 2024.

The Space Launch System (SLS) took years longer to develop than NASA initially projected, and the cost ballooned to more than $23 billion (about $5 billion more than early estimates). According to the analysis, the SLS flew precisely as designed. All its systems met and, in some cases, exceeded performance expectations. This rocket delivered the Orion capsule into the perfect orbit to get it to the moon.

Orion collected an impressive 155GB of data during the weeks-long mission. NASA says Orion successfully completed 161 test objectives while it looped around the moon. The ESA-built service module also passed the test with flying colors, generating 20% more power than expected while using 25% less. NASA plans to reuse some avionics components from Artemis 1 on Artemis 2. All these devices, including phased antenna arrays and GPS receivers, were successfully extracted and refurbished. These parts have now been loaded into the Artemis 2 Orion.

Engineers also took a close look at the Exploration Ground Systems, which includes the mobile launcher and tower that stabilize the rocket during launch. NASA reports that the launcher sustained more damage than expected from the 8.8 million pounds of thrust, but work is already underway to repair and strengthen the structure for Artemis 2.

Artemis I Post-Flight Heat Shield Inspections. Credit: NASA

NASA is still looking at two minor issues from Artemis 1, neither of which threatens the timeline for Artemis 2. First, Orion’s heat shield (see above) showed evidence of uneven wear. The team is examining the shield itself as well s data from hundreds of onboard sensors to understand the phenomenon. Orion also experienced some glitches in the power system, which caused current limiters to engage on their own. These parts are responsible for transferring power from the solar panels to other systems. Again, engineers are checking flight data in search of a cause.

Artemis 2 could launch as soon as November 2024. This will be the first crewed Artemis mission, featuring a lunar orbit but no landing. If all goes as planned. Artemis 3 will deliver the first humans to the lunar surface in more than 50 years when it launches in 2025.

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Wednesday, 8 March 2023

New Asus Retail Motherboard Has All the Connectors on the Back

(Image: Asus) Since the first transparent side panel appeared on a PC case, some people have wanted their PC’s wires to remain out of sight. That movement gained strength when RGB lighting became a thing. However, it’s not easy in the cramped quarters of a PC case to perfectly tuck the cables out of the way. To combat this scourge on our glorious rigs, hardware manufacturers have developed custom hardware that makes it easier to hide cables. Previous attempts by motherboard manufacturers were usually prototypes, but Asus has announced a real product you can (theoretically) buy. It’s an Intel-based B-760 motherboard with all connectors on the back.

Asus has even given this new kind of motherboard a moniker: BTF. According to its website, “BTF” means “Back To (the) Future” for a new era for all PC DIY gamers. The BTF series hides all its connectors on the underside of the motherboard for clean cable management and a minimalist build appearance.” The Asus TUF GAMING B760M-BTF WIFI D4 is a micro-ATX board with every cable connector on the back. That includes the CPU/AIO fans, power cables, SATA, and front I/O:

The backside of the TUF GAMING B760M-BTF motherboard. (Image: Asus)

One notable feature is an M.2 SSD port on the back. Though it seems part of the “wire hiding” agenda, Wccftech notes it’s also on the non-BTF board. It’s just due to the small footprint of the mATX motherboard. The front holds PCIe lanes, two M.2 ports, RAM slots, the chipset heatsink, and the CPU socket. It is incredibly clean, and we’d love to see what it looks like with all the hardware installed.

(Image: Asus)

This isn’t Asus’s first time trying this. Back in October, it showed off similar motherboards it branded DIY-APE Revolution. At the time, it tried to get case manufacturers such as Lian Li and Cooler Master on board its “revolution.” The reason is apparent; these motherboards require a compatible case. As far as we know, that doesn’t exist yet. We don’t think Asus even has a case that will support this BTF motherboard. All Asus says about that is, “This motherboard is compatible with specific case models.” Thanks for the news flash, Asus, but it would be helpful to know which ones it is compatible with. Looking on the Asus website, we don’t see anything that’s labeled BTF or looks compatible.

This is also not the first hardware designed to hide PC cables. Both MSI and Gigabyte have shown off similar projects in the past. MSI’s motherboard was just a prototype and, from our recollection, never came to market. Gigabyte did sell something similar to customers, though. The company’s Project Stealth was a cable-hiding DIY PC kit. It included a custom motherboard, chassis, and GPU. Though it is a stealth PC, the lack of options is a big drawback. You can only buy those specific parts, and there are no AMD options for the motherboard or GPU.

Now that Asus has made an official product, it’s unclear if other companies will join its revolution. We’re not even sure if a single case is compatible with it. We did reach out to an Asus rep and will update this if we get an answer. We need an ecosystem of cases and a variety of motherboards that offer similar features. On a related note, Corsair’s new Shift PSUs would work well with this motherboard. Unlike standard power supplies, its connectors are shifted to the left, facing the motherboard panel.

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Nvidia Allegedly Planning a Fourth RTX 3060 With New GPU, GDDR6X

(Credit: RTX 3060 via Nvidia) Nvidia went a bit crazy in the Ampere era, trying to capitalize on the GPU shortage. There were endless variants of its GPUs, with every card getting a Ti version. This allowed for small differences between the Ti card and the next card in the stack, such as the RTX 3080 Ti and the RTX 3090, for example. However, the cards it sells the most are always the x60 variants. As such, it created three GPUs: the RTX 3060 8GB, the 3060 12GB Lite Hash Rate (LHR), and the 3060 12GB. Now it’s reportedly considering adding a fourth version to the lineup with a new GPU and faster memory. This could be viewed as an RTX 3060 Super.

The person who runs Techpowerup’s GPU database posted news of this rumored GPU. This is a comprehensive listing of GPU specs that are widely used and reliable. The site is also responsible for the popular GPU-Z video card utility. Therefore, it’s possible this person saw this GPU pop up in some validation test for the utility. They go by T4C Fantasy on Twitter and flagged the GPU with little context. However, they noted it would use GDDR6X memory, which is faster than the GDDR6 used in current RTX 3060s. They also note it’ll use a new GPU, the GA104 currently in the RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070. All current RTX 3060s use GA106.

The RTX 3060 Ti might be getting a competitor from below soon. (Credit: PCMag)

The difference between the two dies is not insignificant. GA106 has 12 million transistors and is 276mm². GA104 has over 17 million transistors and is 392mm². By granting this card the RTX 3060 Ti’s GPU and faster memory, it’ll create the most powerful “regular” RTX 3060. However, one facet of this alleged card is genuinely confusing. Previously Nvidia added GDDR6X memory to an upgraded RTX 3060 Ti, which has the same GPU, GA104. Therefore, the two cards would have identical specs but different names. Though it sounds confusing, Nvidia might be making this GPU just for one specific market, such as China, according to Videocardz.

Last week we reported on Nvidia’s desire to clear the channel of existing RTX 3060 and 3060 Ti GPUs to make way for the RTX 4060. Given the news of this rumored GPU, it may have a bunch of GA104 dies sitting around. If it can wedge them into an RTX 3060 at an affordable price, it won’t have much trouble selling them. It’ll make the RTX 3060 Ti redundant, but maybe Nvidia doesn’t mind at this game stage.

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US Investigating Tesla Following Reports of Steering Wheels Falling Off

Tesla has shot to the top of the auto industry on the strength of its battery technology, but it still gets some basic “car things” wrong. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened yet another investigation into the company following two reports of steering wheels coming off while being driven.

The NHTSA says the inquiry includes 120,089 Model Y vehicles produced in the 2023 model year. In both reported cases, the electric cars were new and had very few miles. Mere days after delivery, both owners experienced sudden steering wheel detachment while driving.

Prerak Patel owns one of the defective Teslas and posted images on Twitter following the steering wheel detachment. The Patels received their Model Y just a few days before the incident in late January, when the steering wheel detached while driving on the highway. Luckily, there were no vehicles behind the Model Y, and Patel was able to make a safe stop. Initially, Tesla refused to repair the car under warranty, asking for $103.96 to fix the wheel. After making a fuss, Patel was offered a free repair and later was upgraded to an entirely new vehicle to replace the defective one.

@elonmusk @TeslaOwnersWW @BLKMDL3 Family was excited to receive Tesla Y delivery on 1/24/2023. Was driving on highway and all the sudden steering wheel fall off, was lucky enough there was no car behind and I was able to pull on devider #SafetyFirst #Fixit #TeslaModelY #help pic.twitter.com/4UMokFA2cv

— Prerak & Neha Patel (@preneh24) January 30, 2023

There have been a handful of issues with steering wheel detachment in the auto industry, most recently affecting Ford and Nissan. However, these problems were traced to loose bolts in the steering column that became progressively looser and reduced turning performance before separating. The situation with Tesla is a bit different. According to the NHTSA’s preliminary report (PDF), both affected vehicles had a missing bolt that was supposed to hold the wheel in place. Tesla uses a friction-fit steering column that keeps the wheel in place until the driver exerts enough force to overcome the friction mount’s resistance. That’s what caused the wheel to pop off without warning.

The NHTSA investigation will explore the problem’s scale and how multiple vehicles could make it out of Tesla’s factories without a crucial component. This could lead to a recall, requiring Tesla to inspect all those cars physically. Some other recent Tesla recalls have related to self-driving software, which the company can update remotely. In the meantime, anyone with a new Model Y might want to give the steering wheel a good yank while the vehicle is safely parked.

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Chuck E. Cheese Is Still Using Floppy Disks to Control Animatronics

(Credit: Eteixido/Wikimedia Commons) Whether you frequent Chuck E. Cheese or haven’t had to think about the sticky children’s arcade chain for a while now, you’ll probably be surprised to learn that what’s bossing around those creepy animatronics isn’t a digital file or even a CD—it’s a floppy disk. A Chuck E. Cheese employee has shared that 20-year-old technology is powering every move made by the mouse from your nightmares.

Stewart, a young employee with the username @showbizpizzaman on TikTok, often shares behind-the-scenes videos at Chuck E. Cheese. Combined with his mullet and mustache, Stewart’s videos at the children’s arcade and eatery are pure nostalgia: checkered floors, neon booths, and greasy cheese pizzas abound. But based on the comments on one of his recent videos, few people seem to have expected that nostalgia to go a step further by way of the floppy disk. In a video from January, Stewart demonstrated how to “install a new show” on Chuck E. Cheese’s animatronics system. Just seconds in, he picked up a floppy disk and showed it to the camera.

“Can you believe it? We’re still getting [floppy disks] in 2023,” Steward commented before popping the disk into a computer behind him.

@showbizpizzamanHow to install a new show at Chuck E. Cheese♬ original sound – Stewart

Steward said this was his location’s last floppy disk show “before the remodel,” suggesting that the chain (or at least his arcade) is finally transitioning toward more modern hardware. That’ll probably relieve employees like Stewart, who had to wait a solid minute for the arcade’s bulky computer to download the commands on the floppy disk. According to the video, these commands translate to the animatronics’ movements onstage. Every time Chuck himself, his bird friend Helen, or Pasqually the pizza chef sing or dance, it’s because the floppy disk told them to.

This means Chuck E. Cheese is officially joining a pile of organizations still clinging to floppies like they’re some sort of ancient life raft. A few years ago, Boeing was found to have performed software updates via floppy in its 747s; while some of the jets were transitioned to more modern systems, others stuck with their decades-old hardware. In 2016, Americans were horrified to learn that the US nuclear force system still ran (in part) on floppies. The program allegedly took until 2019 to finally ditch floppies entirely.

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8 of the Top 10 Best-Selling Phones Last Year Were iPhones

Apple’s march towards world domination continues apace with the results from an annual survey of smartphone sales. Market analysis firm Counterpoint Research has compiled its list of the top 10 best-selling phones of 2022. The list is almost all iPhones, marking the first time Apple has taken 8 of the top 10 listings. Samsung took the other two, and these 10 phones alone accounted for 19% of global smartphone sales.

The report by Counterpoint via Techspot looks at global phone sales, and there’s one clear blockbuster product: the iPhone 13. Not only was it the best-selling phone of the year, but it held that title from when it was launched in September 2021 until August 2022, right before the iPhone 14 was announced. That one model was responsible for 28% of all iPhone sales. Once the iPhone 14 was available, Apple cut the iPhone 13’s price, driving even more sales in developing markets. The iPhone 13 was eventually dethroned by the iPhone 14 Pro Max. That flagship handset was the top seller for the following two months before it was taken out by the iPhone 14.

The surging sales of the iPhone 14 Pro Max were also a phenomenon. It marks the first time a Max model had outsold the Pro and standard models. That helped it become the third most-selling phone of the year. People were happy with the notch being transformed into a Dynamic Island. The second-highest volume phone was the equally large and expensive iPhone 13 Pro Max.

Samsung had two phones on the list, and both were budget-friendly models. Those are the A03 and the A13, the only non-5G phones on the list. Both phones sold well in specific markets such as India, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Latin America. Overall the A13 was the fourth highest-selling phone, with the A03 taking the 10th spot with 1.1% of the overall market.

Looking back, it’s possible Apple saw such strong sales of the iPhone 14 Pro max as proof people wanted bigger phones. That might have caused it to replace the Mini with the iPhone 14 Plus. However, that gamble never paid off, and that model is unsurprisingly not on the list. It’s expected that for the iPhone 15, Apple will keep it in its lineup and continue to put more distance between its products, so they don’t cannibalize each other. Apple only included the latest A16 Bionic in its Pro phones this year, giving the regular phones last year’s A15 SoC. For the iPhone 15, Apple is expected to take this further by giving its Pro models even more exclusive features.

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Tuesday, 7 March 2023

Curiosity Rover Spots First-Ever ‘Sun Rays’ on Mars

A murky vista starkly contrasts the shining rays of dying light; they spill over the horizon and illuminate the clouds. It could be an idyllic scene in many places on Earth, but it didn’t even happen on this planet. NASA has released new images from the aging but seemingly unstoppable Curiosity rover, captured during a recent cloud-imaging campaign. Among them is the first detection of sun rays on another world.

Most of the robotic exploration on Mars focuses on the surface and the search for evidence of life, but NASA has been looking skyward lately. Curiosity arrived on Mars in 2012 and began conducting a cloud survey in 2021 using its monochrome navigation cameras. These cameras are adept at following cloud structures as they drift across the horizon. More recently, NASA has tasked the color Mastcam with tracking clouds, which is ideal for analyzing particle size.

The image above shows rays of sunlight, also known as crepuscular rays, spreading through the wispy clouds. Mars’s atmosphere is just 1% as dense as Earth’s, but it still produces the occasional cloud. Most Martian clouds hover at an altitude of 37 miles (60 kilometers) or lower. The new images from the Mastcam appear to show cloud formations much higher. That suggests they are composed of carbon dioxide ice rather than water ice like the lower ones.

The second image shows a bright feather-like cloud. There are no visible crepuscular rays, but the fading sunlight has illuminated the cloud and been scattered into an iridescent rainbow. This is one reason NASA uses the Mastcam instead of the navigation cameras. Iridescence means the cloud’s particles are the same size in that part of the cloud. So, tracking the changing colors across the cloud can illustrate the changing particle sizes.

The Mastcam has a total resolution of under 2MP, but the cloud panoramas are much larger. NASA captured 28 frames for each panorama and then stitched them together to create the full-resolution image. The sunset happened on Feb. 2, 2023, the mission’s 3,730th Martian day (or Sol), and the feathery cloud appeared on Jan. 27 (Sol 3,724). NASA only designed Curiosity to last a few years, but there’s no end in sight for this intrepid robotic explorer.

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Latest Nvidia GeForce Driver Causing High CPU Usage, Fix Incoming

PC gamers know the risk and rewards of downloading the latest graphics drivers. On the one hand, you want them because they are designed to offer the best performance possible at the time. However, sometimes they can also cause unanticipated issues. Though Nvidia is generally held in high esteem on this front, its latest GeForce driver should be avoided. That is, if you care about it eating up CPU cycles until you reboot. Nvidia should be posting a hotfix today for the issue, however.

Nvidia has confirmed the problem with its latest 531.18 GeForce driver. It was released on February 28th and brought DLSS 3 to Atomic Heart, among other updates. However, it is causing CPU usage to spike after closing a game. The amount of CPU cycles it munches on varies, but according to PCWorld, it’s between 10-15%, which is not nothing. Nvidia’s feedback post on the driver highlights several outstanding issues. The CPU usage issue is just one of them, and it’s described as “Higher CPU usage from NVIDIA Container might be observed after exiting a game.” It appears the only way to end the CPU pillaging is to reboot. If you’re like this writer, you never even think about rebooting your PC, so this is an annoyance.

Check your Task Manager if you’re running the latest drivers. Luckily, this issue isn’t affecting your humble author.

Thankfully, Nvidia is aware of the issue. In a statement to the aforementioned world of PCs, it says it will be deploying a hotfix today (Tuesday). By the time you read this, it might already be available. If you don’t want to wait, you can either roll back your driver or download the previous 528.49 version.

Though this seems like a tiny bit of egg on Nvidia’s face, AMD’s latest drivers are not without issues either. The same site has been working with AMD on an issue that can brick your OS installation. It’s not precisely AMD’s fault, but it can occur if you try to install the latest Radeon drivers while Windows Update is active in the background. In a statement, AMD said, “We have reproduced an issue that can occur in an extremely small number of instances if a PC update occurs during the installation of AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition, and we are actively investigating. We recommend users ensure all system updates are applied or paused before installing the driver, and that the ‘Factory Reset’ option is unchecked during the AMD driver installation process.”

What’s surprising is PCWorld says the latest issue is due to Adrenaline driver 23.2.2, and the previous version was also causing some problems. As we wrote, it changed the boot order on some PCs after installation. This only affected folks with an AMD CPU and GPU, but it did cause some havoc.

For now, the lesson seems clear, regardless of which team you’re on: When a new graphics driver drops, be patient. Let others be guinea pigs before you install it, assuming you don’t need whatever the update provides.

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