Summary of week 48 of 2019

[cobito]

SSDs need to be periodically powered to avoid data loss

Although it seems like the topic is quite old, I've seen it today for the first time. If you have an SSD for several months without using it, data loss can occur. Regarding the periodicity of power supply, reading around throws up different times, from a few months to a year. That period can be extended if the drive is kept refrigerated when not in use.

Zen 3 ready for production

The new generation of Ryzen processors would bring a 15% increase in instructions per cycle, which would accumulate an improvement of nearly 40% compared to the first generation.

Windows on a calculator

It's normal to find things like "someone has installed Linux on a toaster", but this time it's Windows' turn in its edition compiled for ARM. It's also true that the calculator is no small feat: an HP Prime G2 that comes with an ARMv7 at 400MHz, 256Mb of RAM and 2Gb of storage, specifications that remind us of the more modest Raspberry Pis.

Linux 5.4 available

For a few hours now, this version of the kernel has been available, which, among many other things, brings support for exFAT, important performance improvements on AMD hardware, and support for the Navi 12/14 GPUs that are still to come out.

On the third-generation Threadrippers

AMD has revealed one of the big differences between the first two generations and the new one. Apart from a new architecture, there will be interconnection between all the cores. Until now, what was basically done was to unite several processors in a single socket, so there were cores isolated from others.

Public money, public code

The initiative consists of the fact that if a software project is funded with public money, its code must be published. For intentions, in Germany they are one step closer to putting it into practice, although we'll have to see what it all ends up being.

List of reviews of the Threadripper 3960/3970X

Someone has posted a list of reviews of AMD's new processor, the Xeon equivalent, on Reddit.

The expiration date of HP's SSDs

Some models of HP's SSD drives will stop working after 32768 hours have passed. To solve this, the company has updated the firmware of these models.

Mozilla will block browser identification

What is called "fingerprinting" in English consists of identifying a web browser through parameters that it sends to the sites it visits, such as the version of the same, the operating system, the activated plugins, language, time zone, screen resolution and other data. In reality, this method does not guarantee a unique identification because it is possible that there are multiple users with exactly the same parameters, but it helps to identify a browser when cookies are deactivated. The function, which will come by default in Firefox 72, comes from a request from the people of Tor Browser.

Game Ready Driver 441.41

The new version of Nvidia's driver comes with performance improvements in Halo Reach and support for Quake II RTX v1.2, the game from 97 to which raytracing has been added.

Joled begins production of printed screens

The company began manufacturing printed OLED screens this Monday. For now, they are releasing experimental screens, although at some point in 2020, mass production will begin.

Panasonic abandons the LCD business

It seems that manufacturing liquid crystal screens is becoming a difficult business. After Samsung has thrown in the towel, Panasonic's turn has come and it will abandon production in 2021.

PC manufacturers see dark clouds on the horizon

They predict that their profits will decrease, not because of a drop in demand but because of the scarcity of Intel processors. In addition, AMD continues to distribute processors prior to Zen, so laptops with their micros do not enjoy the best reputation.

Eternal Terminal reconnects when the connection is lost

One of the great inconveniences of SSH is the fact of losing the session when the connection is lost, that is, any program that was being executed will close. There are alternatives such as using screen but Eternal Terminal automates the task. If you have to manage remote machines with unstable connections, this program will make your job easier.

Panasonic continues to withdraw

This is the second news this week about Panasonic's abandonment of some area of electronics. This time it's the turn of the integrated manufacturing it did for assemblers like HP, Dell and Microsoft.

The expiration date of Chromebooks

Laptops powered by Google's operating system have an expiration date for support. When that date passes, they stop receiving updates. You have to be careful with this detail because it is quite likely that on Black Friday, laptops that are a bit past their prime will come out with substantial discounts.

Redox on real hardware

It's quite common to see operating systems in development or experimental that run only on virtual machines. If you try to start them on a physical computer, it's rare that they work. The people from Redox (a Unix-like system written in Rust) have started working to make their system work on real PCs and they have started with a System76.