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Rumor on the street (I know, I know, slowpoke.jpg meme goes here) is that a bunch of Trump's drooling zombie supporters are planning on starting the "Patriot Party" because the GOP isn't, surprisingly, 100% all-in on utterly subverting the Constitution and going full-on banana republic juuuuust yet. Shocking, given their past behavior, but apparently some of them are just bright enough to realize that societal collapse is bad for their stock portfolios?

We've always heard that forming a third party in the US is de facto impossible given how our system so strongly encourages the two-party system due to its first past the post and winner-take-all voting allocation. Thing is, this Trump plague that's convinced a good 70 million Americans (aaaaaaaaaaaagh!) that up is down, north is south, and Trump is qualified or even sane, might just give this enough of a push to make it happen. It's not so much grassroots as it is a kudzu infestation, the "meme that ate the South" if you will, but it may actually happen.

And anyone who's interested in joining the civilized world should be all over this.

Now you're probably reading that last line and going "hold on a minute, what? Hazuki is about as fond of Trump as a marathon runner is of ingrown toenails." Very true, very true. But with enough of these hyper-partisan nuts, these baby fascists, these fanatical, lunatic cultists, *this could split the previously rock-solid GOP base right down the middle.* And what that means is, *neither* of these two factions will be able to win elections, meaning we may actually get the 50-100 years necessary to clean up the mess the GOP has inflicted on us from Nixon to Trump.

See, the GOP is very much a party of the lowest common denominator. They have a kind of unity the Democrats don't because, to put it bluntly, their base is fucking dumb and easily-manipulable. Liberals tend to be harder to corral because the entire point is to question authority and look for better solutions to existing problems, whereas the conservative mindset by definition follows the path of least resistance and least change. So the unity on the GOP side is no surprise, but it also comes with a built-in self-destruct switch: there is no negotiating with a fanatic, so when inevitably the base fractures, it breaks into *two* fanatical frothing mobs, which will then proceed to tear one another to bloody shreds.

I am all for it. Nothing, *nothing,* could be more poetic than the very pathologies the GOP has inflicted on the nation and the world coming back to destroy them from the inside, in as painful and humiliating and bloody a manner as possible. Hope they call ahead and rent a big convention center in Hell so they can save on expenses!

Every year or two I'll do a search to find out if the damnable 16:9 fad is going away yet. This time I got some hits!

4:3 movies? https://noamkroll.com/why-the-old-school-43-aspect-ratio-is-coming-back-with-a-vengeance-right-now/
This horrendous article informs me that 3:2 laptops exist: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/are-16-9-laptops-on-their-way-out/
Microsoft is even pushing 3:2? https://www.windowscentral.com/pc-makers-need-shift-32-aspect

Huawei is selling 13" and 14" laptops with 2160x1440 resolution. Nice! Too bad about the keyboards and near total lack of ports though.

I don't know if 2160x1440 desktop monitors exist, since when I search for that term I get results for 2560x1440 instead because search engines suck.

BTW, there seems to be a minor bug in SoylentNews. The upper left of the page above "SoylentNews Journal System" still displays "~cafebabe (894)" whose journal I viewed previously, while I'm writing in my own journal.

AMD APU Roadmap For 2021 And 2022 Has Leaked – Zen3+ 6nm Rembrandt Flagship APU With Navi iGPU Landing In 2022

[AMD APUs for 2021] ?

Cezanne-H | 45W | Zen3 | Vega 7 | 7nm
Cezanne-U | 15W | Zen3 | Vega 7 | 7nm
Lucienne-U | 15W | Zen2 | Vega 7 | 7nm
VanGogh | 9W | Zen2 | Navi2 | 7nm | LPDDR5
Pollock | 4.5W | Zen | Vega | 14nm

[AMD APUs for 2022] ?

Rembrandt-H | 45W | Zen3+ | Navi2 | 6nm | LPDDR5/DDR5
Rembrandt-U | 15W | Zen3+ | Navi2 | 6nm | LPDDR5/DDR5
Barcelo-U | 15W | Zen3 | Vega 7 | 7nm
DragonCrest | 9W | Zen2 | Navi2 | 7nm | LPDDR5
Pollock | 4.5W | Zen | Vega | 14nm

(Assuming it's correct)

1. AMD is doing a lot of refreshes, starting with Lucienne as a Renoir replacement. Barcelo-U looks like a refresh of Cezanne-U, and Dragon Crest is a refresh of Van Gogh. They can bump clocks, shift prices around, get rid of old stock, etc.

2. Dragon Crest is a disappointment. I thought it could use Zen 3 and RDNA 2+/3. It will no doubt top out at 4 cores, the same as Van Gogh. Now we'll have to see how good and expensive Van Gogh is.

3. No use of "5nm" anytime soon. There was some speculation that some APU products could use it sooner. TSMC "6nm" is a refined "7nm" with only a somewhat smaller die area.

4. Pollock is probably made due to contractual obligations with GlobalFoundries. It's probably a dual-core. It will be found in dirt cheap devices.

None of the existing Zen/Zen+ APUs target that low of a TDP:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_(first_generation_microarchitecture)#Mobile_APUs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen%2B#Mobile

It should replace the likes of the Excavator-based A6-9220C in $100 laptops. It will outperform that chip while using less power (4.5 Watt vs. 6 Watt TDP).

Years ago I thought it would be fun to do some 3D graphics completely from scratch in C, using SDL for output. I wrote some code to do basic vector and matrix functions (single- and double-precision). I wrote functions to draw lines and so on, to project vertices from 3D to 2D, to scale them and to render them on the screen.

I got a 64-bit computer and it still worked.

A couple of years ago I bought an AMD Ryzen 7 2700U laptop which is running Slackware. I had all sorts of trouble with it, particularly with the integrated graphics which was causing it to hang.

I tried my old code on it, though, and was pleased to see it run. The second time I ran it, it didn't work. My code checks for pixels that are off screen and doesn't try to plot them, and outputs an error message to the console. I was getting thousands of them. So I figured that there was something wrong with the machine. Computers are supposed to be deterministic. You should get exactly the same results each time you run a program.

This summer I built a new PC with an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CPU and an nVidia GTX 1650 graphics card, running Slackware. Today I thought I'd try my old code. It ran perfectly first time. The second time, I got thousands of error messages about the pixels being out of range.

What's going on? What subtle bug has it revealed in my (very simple) code? On other machines it didn't have this problem.

Could it be that the ancient version of SDL that I'm using does something weird to the state of the hardware?

Update: Fixed it. It was an uninitialised local variable which just happened to be zero when it was supposed to some of the time.

I had a line of code at the end of the loop which updated the camera (view point) position so that I could have it "flying forward" each frame, but I had decided to stop the flying at one point many years ago. I forgot to assign (0,0,0) to the increment vector. Sometimes it was getting random garbage in it and when the vertices were getting translated, they were getting ludicrous values.

It wasn't my multi-threading (I commented that out).

It's funny how a change of CPU revealed that bug.

Remember Creepy Joe?

I was originally, as a Canadian with little stake in the election, hoping someone else would take the leadership of the Dems, but was gladdened (gladdened? Is that a word?) when the Dems won: I'm not a fan of drama drama drama and that is ALL Trump seemed to have as his one trick pony. but.....

.....Creepy Joe? Remember the videos of him smelling girls and womens hair? Him grabbing the hand of that (Grand-daughter?) girl and bumping it against his crotch while she desperately tried to get away?

Man.... I think the drama will die down and SOME things will be better, but man...Creepy Joe...

Almost as bad as NeverHillary, in a way....

Maybe Joe will die and Kamala will take over. Will that be better?

Looking for Americans with knowledge of politics.

I have a Roku -- the ads on youtube are getting unbearable -- every 10 minutes or so two ads. On my android phone, the ads are insufferable as well. But when I watch youtube on my linux desktop, I never see any ads at all. Zero.

This has me thinking I want to buy a fanless mini-pc and use that with my TV instead of the Roku, at least for youtube. Before I do that though, I'd like to know if my experience is unique and whether others have noted the same phenomenon, i.e., no youtube ads with Linux.

Report: Trump Floated Not Leaving White House on January 20

Trump Has Reportedly Considered Just Not Leaving The White House On January 20, And People Are Okay With Him Getting Dragged Out

Trump is telling advisers he'll REFUSE to leave the White House on January 20, is 'throwing a tantrum' and is plotting revenge on Republicans who turned on him, report claims

I also just love that temper tantrum picture.

I'm going to hold my breath until I get my way! So there!

Oh please, God, please let Trump refuse to leave the white house.

That would be the best thing ever. It would go down in history. There could be no denying it. No calling it "fake news" or "liberal bias" or like all of science: "a vast left wing conspiracy". It would be the crowning achievement of his reign.

I can't wait to hear the Trumpers try to defend this. Fascism. Tyranny. But then I've seen both of those defended on SN already.

(Also: the lie of falsely claiming he won the election at the end of his reign is the perfect bookend and perfect symmetry to the lies at the start of his reign that he had won the popular vote and had won the electoral college by the biggest margin evar!)

Tough times ahead for Intel: industry insiders spill the beans on subpar 10 nm yields, server CPU plus 7 nm delays, production outsourcing and more

Industry insiders reveal that Intel's current 10 nm yields are nowhere near viable for “full production” and even with the SuperFin tech, 10 nm production may never match that of the 14 nm nodes. Plus we get more details about the performance issues with the upcoming server-grade CPUs, even more delays for the 7 nm nodes and new details about the product outsourcing plans.

[...] Thanks to a transcript of a recent Susquehanna International Group call provided by Reddit user uzzi38, we now get even more details regarding delays, unsatisfactory yields and production outsourcing.

[...] Upcoming SuperFin 10 nm nodes are “unquestionably far better than base 10nm. Better in just about every way. Yields are better (50+%), but still not as good at the 14 nm nodes.

Cannon Lake (the first processors to be produced on the base 10 nm node launched 2 years ago) had yields lower than 25% even with iGPU disabled.

[...] Backporting the upcoming Rocket Lake processors was not a good move: the new models ended up too big and are expected to be power hogs.

[...] The delays are problematic: “Ice Lake was supposed to compete with [AMD’s] Rome (and it would still lose even with the on-paper and significantly better specs than reality). [AMD’s] Milan is going to likely beat Sapphire Rapids over a year earlier and before Ice Lake rolls out. By the time Sapphire Rapids releases, [AMD’s] Genoa will be here or right around the corner. Genoa was supposed to compete with Granite Rapids which is late 2023 now.”

“If both companies iterate perfectly on their roadmaps as planned (much easier on AMD's side right now), Intel can not catch up to AMD until late 2024 or early 2025.”

Susquehanna International Group

Susquehanna International Group, LLP (SIG) is a privately held, global trading and technology firm. SIG comprises a number of affiliated entities specializing in trading and proprietary investments in equities, fixed income, energy, commodity, index and derivative products, private equity and venture capital, research, customer trading and institutional sales. Susquehanna is probably best known for expertise in derivatives pricing and trading, especially equity options.

Smith & Wesson Sues New Jersey Over ‘Anti-Second Amendment Agenda’

NEWARK, N.J. (CN) — A leading firearms manufacturer alleges New Jersey is engaged in an “unconstitutional fishing expedition” to try to curtail gun rights by using a new tactic: false advertising claims.

In a federal lawsuit filed in New Jersey on Tuesday, Smith & Wesson claims New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal has tried everything in his power to stymie gun sales, and that he is now sifting through decades of company advertisements and marketing materials in an extra-legal attempt to restrict the right to bear arms.

https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/smith-wesson.pdf

In October, Grewal filed administrative subpoenas seeking evidence of fraudulent advertising from the gun manufacturer. The subpoenas request documentation related to advertisements that claim firearms make a home safer, an untrained homeowner could use a Smith & Wesson firearm safely and effectively to defend his home, and whether guns enhance one’s lifestyle.

“The Subpoena presents no legitimate inquiry into any purported fraud, and instead targets mere opinions and other protected statements allegedly made by Smith & Wesson,” the company claims. It seeks a court order enjoining the subpoenas and declaring them unconstitutional.

Citing 248 million results in Google searches of “do guns make you safer” as proof that many Americans believe firearms make them safer, Smith & Wesson says New Jersey’s false advertisement subpoenas should be a dead-end legal theory.

Smith & Wesson also says the subpoenas are politically motivated, noting that Grewal has partnered with several anti-Second Amendment groups, like Do Not Stand Idly By, to seek new methods to restrict gun ownership.

The complaint notes that at a conference at New York University earlier this month, participants allegedly observed how consumer protection and false advertising laws were fertile ground for new anti-gun initiatives.

https://www.law.nyu.edu/centers/civiljustice/firearms-litigation

The complaint also claims New Jersey’s purported “name and shame” policy, in which the attorney general has tried to connect Smith & Wesson with “crime guns,” is an extra-legal attempt to branch the company as a bad actor.

https://www.courthousenews.com/smith-wesson-sues-new-jersey-over-anti-second-amendment-agenda/

Prosecutors: No charges in pawnshop killing during George Floyd unrest
County Attorney says state can't refute owner's claim of self-defense.

When police responded they were met by a hostile crowd that yelled and threatened officers, forcing them to move Horton to a nearby business while they waited for an ambulance, according to prosecutors. He died a short time later at HCMC.

Because of the chaos, officers arrested Rieple, but didn't stay to process the scene. As a result, the shotgun that was used was never recovered. Looters also ransacked the pawnshop, taking everything, including its security cameras and the DVR that would have recorded the fatal shooting and the moments leading up to it, prosecutors said.

Two more witnesses, one of whom was a close friend of Horton, were identified when detectives reviewed officers' body camera footage from the scene. But the female friend, who was not identified, later hired a lawyer, who told prosecutors that she would not talk to police, nor would she identify another woman she was with, prosecutors said.

The County Attorney's Office later put out a plea urging any other witnesses to come forward to no avail.

"When the Hennepin County Attorney's Office deferred the case on June 2, prosecutors asked police to canvass the neighborhood for additional witnesses to the shooting and any other surveillance cameras which might have captured the shooting. No other cameras were found," the statement read. "Some people had posted video and they were tracked down and interviewed. Their video showed Horton and the pawnshop after the shooting and the witnesses could only testify to the chaos at the time, but not the actual shooting."

https://www.startribune.com/prosecutors-no-charges-in-pawnshop-killing-during-george-floyd-unrest/573391381/

So, lemme think about this. Rioting in the streets, people breaking into your business, active looting going on, and people are actually rushing at you - and it's STILL against the law to use a weapon to defend yourself? Hmmmmmm . . .

The fact that the looters took away the cameras and the DVR with all the evidence seems like evidence, in and of itself. The video evidence would have exonerated the business owner, so the rioters couldn't leave it behind.

And, no witness is willing to testify on behalf of the deceased.

Wow.

Loot matters more than any black life, in this city!