Time to break out the violins folks, because the world’s largest motherboard manufacturers have a tearjerker of a tale to tell. Both Asus and Gigabyte are projecting significantly lower motherboard shipments for the rest of 2022. In fact, the companies will likely ship 25 percent fewer mainboards this year than in 2021. The big disruptor here isn’t the chip shortage. It’s due in part to the fact they can no longer bundle motherboards with formerly-hard-to-find GPUs. Now that the GPU crisis is effectively over, nobody in their right mind would pay for a bundle like that if they only wanted the GPU. The same goes for pre-built PCs as well.
This unnecessary bundling was what fueled things like the Newegg shuffle last year. People would buy the bundle, then sell the motherboard, or monitor, or AIO. Some people even went so far as to buy an entire system. Then they would take out the GPU, motherboard and CPU, and sell the rest. We won’t name names here, but your humble author is very close to someone who did exactly this. Cough. The report says Asus shipped 18 million motherboards in 2021, but projects it’ll only ship 14 million this year. Gigabyte is expecting a similar decline, going from 13 million last year to 9.5 million for 2022. The report notes these two companies control over 70 percent of the global motherboard market.
Some of the ridiculous combos Newegg used to sell. (Image: @Ryugtx)
Overall, the entire motherboard industry will likely ship 10 million fewer motherboards this year. That’s according to a summary of the paywalled article posted by Tom’s Hardware. Digitimes sources say even something as exciting as the upcoming CPUs from Intel and AMD won’t be enough to change this outlook. That’s despite the fact that a lot of gamers are eagerly anticipating both Zen 4 and Raptor Lake. The article says the only forces that could boost sales would be the return of crypto mining, the end of the Russia/Ukraine war, or if inflation eases up.
Right now, it doesn’t seem like crypto mining will ever go back to what it once was. We know, famous last words. However, people have coined the term “Crypto Winter” to describe the currently bleak situation, suggesting it will be with us for some time. Also, it seems doubtful that miners who have thrown in the towel and also lost money will be eager to touch that stove a second time. Inflation is showing no signs of easing up either, and the same goes for the conflict in Ukraine. All that is to say it looks like we will be back to normal as far as components go, for the foreseeable future. To clarify, we don’t delight in any earnest endeavor experiencing a difficult time in business. However, those bundles were pure bull pucky, to be charitable. Hopefully as the market returns to normal, those types of bundles won’t darken our inbox again.
Valve has fiddled with its own gaming hardware over the years, but neither the Steam Boxes, nor the Steam Controller, nor the Index VR headset have garnered the same praise as the Steam Deck. Even in the era of the Nintendo Switch, the Steam Deck is back-ordered into next year. One of the oft-cited advantages of the Deck is its high repairability and modding potential. However, one of its designers is now warning against a newly popular mod, saying it could cause the console to overheat.
The Steam Deck is essentially a compact Linux computer that (more or less) fits in your hands. Valve designed the hardware to be easily repaired, and it plans to make all the parts available for purchase. That’s a pleasant departure from the standard 2022 approach of making disposable hardware that’ll go in the trash in a few years. Whereas the interior of the average smartphone is little more than metal spaghetti, the Steam Deck has modding potential.
The pcb appears to work fairly well for adapting a 2242 m2 to the steam deck, it doesn't collide with anything on the motherboard or put any extra strain on any cables. However, it does make the heat spreader bow a tiny bit. The back plate reassembled without issue. pic.twitter.com/4j4LVbS0NG
Several days ago, a Twitter user posted details of a particularly interesting mod that involves swapping the 2230 model SSD with a larger 2242 drive. The 2242 form factor is more common, making it cheaper and easier to bump your Steam Deck’s storage to a whopping 1TB — the device tops out at 512GB as purchased from Valve. While the mod is reportedly quite easy, it’s not necessarily something you should do, according to Valve designer Lawrence Yang.
Hi, please don’t do this. The charger IC gets very hot and nearby thermal pads should not be moved. In addition, most 2242 m.2 drives draw more power and get hotter than what Deck is designed for. This mod may appear to work but will significantly shorten the life of your Deck. https://t.co/Kmup7Zov13
According to Yang, this part of the Steam Deck is not the best area to be tinkering. The SSD is adjacent to several very toasty components, for example, the power control IC. The larger drive could draw more power, causing temperatures in that area to reach unsafe levels, thus reducing the longevity of the hardware. Yang says the effect could be “significant.” The original modder also notes that some of the thermal pads need to be removed to fit the larger 2242 drive. Again, that’s not a good idea in an area where temperatures are already high.
Let this serve as a reminder that even if a device is built for tinkerers, that doesn’t mean every mod is a good idea. The Steam Deck starts at $400, and you’ll have to wait months for a replacement if you kill yours. Currently, Valve promises shipping at the very end of 2022 for new orders.
There are billions of Android devices in the world, and that makes it a target. So, online fraudsters and scammers constantly create malware in an attempt to infiltrate the Android OS. Some of the more nasty malware can definitely, 100 percent wreck your phone. The reporting on these threats is base don fact, but they can overstate the real risks of picking up a piece of malware, and the definition of malware can be quite vague. Security firms are usually pushing a virus scanning app of some sort, but Android is by its very nature more secure than a desktop computer. Odds are, you don’t need to pile on security apps because you’ve probably already got what you need.
The Scare Tactics
In a 2019 report from AV-Comparatives, we learned that most of the antivirus apps on Android don’t even do anything to check apps for malicious behavior. They just use white/blacklists to flag apps, which is ineffective and makes them little more than advertising platforms with some fake buttons. Shocking and upsetting, right? They can get away with it because true Android viruses that take over your device are not as common as you’d expect. “Malware” can encompass milder threats like apps that harvest personal information or trigger pop-up ads. You still want to avoid those, of course, but malware scanners aren’t going to help apps that simply abuse the established Android permission architecture.
Android and other mobile platforms have their roots in the modern era when programmers understood the dangers of the internet. We’ve all been conditioned what to expect by PC malware, which can sneak onto your system simply because you visited the wrong website with a vulnerable browser. These “drive-by downloads” aren’t feasible on Android without a pre-existing infection. On Android, you have to physically tap on a notification to install an APK downloaded from a source outside the Play Store. Even then, there are security settings that need to be manually bypassed. That’s not to say it’s impossible for Android to have a severe zero-day bug that allows someone to sneak apps don’t your phone, but that would have to be an extremely delicate, costly operation. Unless you have high-level security clearance or a zillion dollars worth of cryptocurrency, it’s unlikely anyone would bother with such a scheme.
So, what about malware on the Play Store? Again, that depends on what you mean by malware. The most severe security risks will never make it into the store — Google’s platform has the ability to scan for known malware when it’s uploaded. There’s also a human review process in place for anything that looks even a little bit questionable. You might occasionally hear about some “malware” apps in the Play Store, usually related to information harvesting or advertising shenanigans. Google deals with these quickly, but anti-malware apps won’t catch this sort of thing.
The solution pushed by AV companies is to install a security suite that manually scans every app, monitors your Web traffic, and so on. These apps tend to be a drain on resources and are generally annoying with plentiful notifications and pop-ups. You probably don’t need to install Lookout, AVG, Norton, or any of the other AV apps on Android. Instead, there are some completely reasonable steps you can take that won’t drag down your phone.
What You Should Do to Stay Safe
Your phone already has antivirus protection built-in. Your first line of defense is simply to not mess around with Android’s default security settings. To get Google certification, each and every phone and tablet comes with “Unknown sources” disabled in the security settings. If you want to sideload an APK downloaded from outside Google Play, your phone will prompt you to enable that feature for the originating app. Leaving this disabled keeps you safe from virtually all Android malware because there’s almost none of it in the Play Store.
There are legitimate reasons to allow unknown sources, though. For example, Amazon’s Appstore client sideloads the apps and games you buy, and some reputable sites re-host official app updates that are rolling out in stages so you don’t have to wait your turn. Along with the Play Store, you also have Google Play Protect, which scans your apps for malicious activity. Updates to Play Protect roll out via Play Services, so you don’t need system updates to remain protected. In the best case, installing a third-party AV app just duplicates the work of Play Protect.
Users have been rooting their Android phones ever since the first handsets hit the market, but it’s less common these days. The platform offers many of the features people used to root in order to acquire. Using rooted Android is basically like running a computer in administrator mode. While it’s possible to run a rooted phone safely, it’s definitely a security risk. Some exploits and malware need root access to function and are otherwise harmless even if you do somehow install them without root. If you don’t have a good reason to root your phone or tablet, just don’t open yourself up to that possibility.
Another thing you can do is pay attention to app permissions. Some Android apps may not be “malware” per se, but they still snoop through your data. Most people don’t read the permissions for the apps they install, but the Play Store does make all that information available. As of Android 6.0 and later, apps need to request access to sensitive permissions like access to your contacts, local storage, microphone, camera, and location tracking. If an app has reason to access these modules (like a social networking app), you’re probably fine. If, however, a flashlight app is asking for your contact list, you might want to think again. The system settings include tools to manually revoke permissions for any app. Android will even alert you if an app started requesting your location in the background so you can disable it.
It really just takes a tiny bit of common sense to avoid Android malware. If you do nothing else, keeping your downloads limited to the Play Store will keep you safe from almost all threats out there. The antivirus apps are at best redundant and at worst a detriment to your system performance.
Many of us share a sense of awe at reptiles’ and amphibians’ lengthy lifespans. If you haven’t peered over the fence at a zoo’s desert tortoise while trying to absorb the fact that they’re a cool 93 years old, you’ve probably read about similarly “ageless” creatures, whose scales and slippery skin seemingly ward off the effects of time. But despite our general knowledge that these animals enjoy long lives, most of what we know about their lifespans is anecdotal; few studies have inspected reptiles’ and amphibians’ virtual lack of senescence.
One recent study defies that. An international team of 114 researchers recently worked together to conduct the largest known study of reptile and amphibian aging. Led by scientists from Northeastern Illinois University and Penn State, the research spans 107 populations of 77 species known for their longevity. Apaperpublished last week in the journal Science details their findings.
The encompassing goal of the study was to compare non-avian ectotherm (i.e. “cold-blooded” animals) aging with endotherm (“warm-blooded” animals) aging, the latter of which is far more documented. The researchers captured, tagged, and released reptiles and amphibians back into the wild and engaged evolutionary data to test several longevity hypotheses, including what are known as the “protective phenotypes hypothesis” and the “thermoregulatory mode hypothesis.”
Freddy the desert tortoise is about 30 years old, meaning his life is just getting started. (Photo: Renee Marshall)
The protective phenotypes hypothesis contemplates whether animals with physical or chemical protective traits (like spines, shells, or venom) live longer than their unprotected counterparts. The idea behind this hypothesis is that protective traits have “contributed to the evolution of [species’] life histories, including negligible aging—or lack of demographic aging—and exceptional longevity,”accordingto biologist and co-senior study author Anne Bronikowski. The massive study did end up finding that protective traits reduce animals’ mortality rates and decrease the biological “pressure” to age. This was most visible in turtles.
The thermoregulatory mode hypothesis suggests ectotherms’ slower metabolisms (which are a product of their unique temperature regulation mechanisms) result in slower aging. But after controlling for phylogeny and body size, the researchers found that thermoregulation and metabolism didn’t have much of an effect on senescence, or the process of age-related biological deterioration. The only group the thermoregulatory mode hypothesis could relate to was, again, turtles.
The study’s findings bring researchers closer to understanding “negligible aging” (which is essentially the term for our understanding of ectotherms’ ultra-long lives). “Negligible aging means that if an animal’s chance of dying in a year is 1 percent at age 10, if it is alive at 100 years, its chance of dying is still 1 percent,” said senior author and ecologist David Miller. “By contrast, in adult females in the US, the risk of dying in a year is about 1 in 2,500 at age 10 and 1 in 24 at age 80. When a species exhibits negligible senescence (deterioration), aging just doesn’t happen.”
The “secrets” of reptile and amphibian aging might also help scientists better navigate human aging. Further research might reveal flexible traits that would boost researchers’ odds of conducting successful “age-defying” biomedical studies, the likes of which are alreadyunderway.
At the beginning of the year, we reported on an exciting yet precariousxenotransplantation procedure: the transplant of a pig heart into a human patient. The experiment unfortunately didn’t end as optimistically as it started, with the recipient showing “signs of acceptance” in the first few days but passing away two months later. Researchers immediately got to work determining what went wrong. Now, the potential reasons for the transplant’s failure are detailed in a paper published Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
David Bennett, a 57-year-old man with terminal heart disease, was considered an appropriate xenotransplantation recipient because of (not despite) the rapid and aggressive progression of his illness. Bennett’s medical state prevented him from being eligible for four individual human heart transplant programs. What appeared to be a hopeless situation became a bit more promising when scientists deemed Bennett—who was, at the time, kept alive through an external blood oxygenation device—eligible for the pig heart experiment.
The pig heart in question was a product of Revivicor, a firm that genetically engineers “xeno-organs” for medical transplants. Revivicor modified 10 of the pig hearts’ genes prior to the procedure. In the realm of xenotransplantation, genetic modification has two primary goals: to boost the likelihood of organ acceptance and to eliminate room for viruses (in this case, porcine endogenous retrovirus C, or PERV-C). Revivicor allegedly verified that the organ was free of PERV-C prior to transplant; Bennett likewise did not show signs of the virus after surgery.
(Photo: Piron Guillaume/Unsplash)
Bennett showed “signs of acceptance” in the days following the transplant, and both researchers and Bennett’s family were optimistic that his health was taking a positive turn. Weeks later, however, Bennett’s lungs began collecting fluid. His blood pressure dropped and he struggled to stay awake. Worst of all, capillaries in the transplanted heart appeared to be leaking, which allowed blood cells into the heart tissue and resulted in severe swelling. Bennett was removed from life support in early March, and the transplant was deemed a failure.
An autopsy revealed that Bennett’s new heart had doubled in weight prior to his death, mostly as a result of the capillary leaks. Scientists identified “scattered myocyte necrosis,” or the death of heart muscle cells, though the sporadic nature of this complication indicated it wasn’t solely responsible for the failure. The heart’s state wasnotconsistent with typical immune rejection, which would have been apparent if viral (PERV-C) takeover had occurred. With this information, it’s now up to the researchers to investigate the reasons for the heart’s capillary leaks and cell death.
While at first thesefindingsappear to constitute a non-answer, they resolve a crucial question regarding immune rejection’s potential part in the transplant’s failure. Up to athirdof organ transplants fail because of immune rejection; if this wasn’t the core reason for Bennett’s death, researchers might be able to “iron out the kinks” so that future iterations of the procedure are effective long-term.
Sending something to Mars is a major undertaking even today, and decades ago it was even harder. That’s why you have to build space hardware to last, and the European Space Agency (ESA) certainly did that with the venerable Mars Express probe. After almost 20 years, this mission is still going strong, and it’s even gaining new capabilities. But to get there, the ESA had to replace the probe’s ancient software, which was based on Windows 98.
Mars Express reached the red planet in 2003, equipped with a raft of atmospheric and surface sensors, as well as the Beagle 2 lander. Unfortunately, the lander never phoned home after deployment. It was unclear what happened to it until NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted it in 2015. Its solar panels failed to deploy, blocking the antenna array. Still, Mars Express has more than pulled its weight. The Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) instrument has been particularly important. It previously helped scientists discover signs of liquid water buried under the dusty plains of Mars.
After all these years, the ESA team is interested in pushing MARSIS to the limit, and that means it needs a software update. However, the Windows 98 code on the embedded system is not up to the task. But how do you change Windows 98-based software from 120 million miles away? Not easily. Just designing a Windows 98 development environment on Earth that could talk to the probe’s computer was a two-month endeavor.
The new probe software was built at Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) in Italy and is now being deployed by the ESA. Once fully installed, MARSIS will be able to study important features on Mars and its moon Phobos that were previously too complex to tackle. The new software will allow MARSIS to get more data from the surface and process it more efficiently, whereas before it would run out of memory very quickly. Essentially, the computer will be able to discard unneeded data, which means more value from each and every transmission to Earth.
The team hopes that the refreshed Mars Express will be able to identify more potential sources of water on the red planet. As humanity barrels toward a potential multi-planetary future, it will be vital that we know where we might find water. Not only could it sustain human explorers, but water can also be turned into fuel for rockets that bring people back to Earth or even send them farther out into the solar system.
Bacteria are all around (and even inside) us, but you can’t see them with the naked eye. Unless, however, you’re looking at a newly discovered bacterium calledThiomargarita magnifica. Unlike other bacterial cells, this monster can be a centimeter long. It’s by far the largest bacterial species ever found, but there’s plenty we don’t know about how and why it got so huge.
Scientists foundThiomargarita magnificaclinging to sunken leaves in Caribbean mangrove swamps, but no one on the team even knew the white filaments were bacteria at first. At Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), researchers analyzed the structures, finding they were actually enormous single-celled organisms. While they have some unusual internal features, they are clearly in the bacterial kingdom based on genetic analysis.
At one centimeter, the new organism is about 5,000 times larger than other bacteria. Most bacterial cells are measured in micrometers — the omnipresentStaphylococcus aureusis only about one micrometer across. LBNL scientist Jean-Marie Volland tells NPR that it would be as if we suddenly discovered a humanoid species the size of Mount Everest.
These are not simply blown-up bacterial cells — there are internal structural differences compared to other bacteria. While smaller prokaryotic cells (e.g. bacteria) allow their genetic material to float freely,Thiomargarita magnificahas it bound up inside a membrane like eukaryotic cells (plants and animals). They also reproduce more like eukaryotic cells, budding to produce new organisms rather than dividing in half like other bacteria.
It is not yet possible to cultureThiomargarita magnifica, so they cannot be grown in the lab. That makes it hard to understand their life cycle and what evolutionary advantage might be conferred by their large size, and how that might expand our understanding of the microbial realm. For instance, the researchers were surprised to find the huge surface area ofThiomargarita magnificawas not covered with lesser bacteria. That might suggest it has antimicrobial properties that could be of use to fight disease.
The full report in Science does not imply these advanced structural features have any connection to the development of eukaryotic life like us — it’s not a missing link. However, understanding the evolutionary origins ofThiomargarita magnificacould help us understand how membrane-bound organelles evolved in the distant past, eventually giving rise to life as we know it today.
