SoylentNews

And we do have flames...

I couldn't watch anymore, but I hear it gets better

Hey, he's fun guy, but president? Too weird. What a horrible reflection!

UPDATE:

Thought you might enjoy some artful propaganda from the State of Georgia:

July 2

July 17

Do you see it? Cool, huh?

UPDATE 2:

Geeze, man! Just listened to Biden. Couldn't handle two minutes of that either...

What a fine mess!

UPDATE 3:

Ah, thank goodness, a transcript, now I don't have to watch!

At Last, a 2.5Gbps Consumer Network Switch: QNAP Releases QSW-1105-5T 5-Port Switch

After entirely too long of a delay, the wait for faster consumer-grade network switches appears to be coming to an end. This week QNAP launched its QSW-1105-5T switch, one of the industry’s first unmanaged 2.5Gbps (2.5GBASE-T) switches. The 5-port switch supports 2.5GbE operation on all five of its RJ45 Ethernet ports, and along with being unmanaged it is also fanless, allowing the switch to work maintenance-free and installed virtually anywhere. The QSW-1105-5T is already on sale in Taiwan for roughly $100, meaning that we’re looking at a price-per-port of about $20.

[...] As the first of what will undoubtedly be many 2.5G switches over the coming months, the QSW-1105-5T also gives us our first real look at what we can expect from this generation of switches as far as footprints and power consumption goes. Since it’s not carved from a pro-grade switch, the 18 cm x 14.5 cm switch is significantly smaller than earlier NBASE-T switches. And with a maximum power consumption rating of 12 W, we’re looking at power consumption of just a bit over 2 Watts per port, which is also a significant improvement over admittedly far more powerful switches.

All of which sounds unremarkable, and indeed that’s exactly what makes the QSW-1105-5T so interesting. The biggest barrier to wide consumer adoption over the last few years has been the cost – both in regards to the core technology and added frills – so we’ve been waiting for quite a while to see NBASE-T technology transition from pro-grade switches to cheap, consumer-grade gear.

It is in your own best interest to wear a mask if going into the hardware store to buy something to kill aunts in your home.

Pinephone “Community Edition: PostmarketOS” Launched with 3GB RAM, 32GB Flash, USB-C Hub

After PinePhone “BraveHeart Edition” with any OS pre-installed introduced at the end of last year, Pine64 launched PinePhone “Community Edition: UBports” with Ubuntu Touch last April, and now the company is taking pre-orders for Pinephone “Community Edition: PostmarketOS with Convergence Package”.

Besides using a different operating system, the new PinePhone also got a hardware upgrade with 3GB RAM and 32GB flash instead of the 2GB/16GB configuration from earlier models. Due to the changes and the addition of a USB-C dock for convergence, the price has also gone up from $149.99 to $199.99 with shipping scheduled to start at the end of August. If you don’t need the extra memory, storage, and convergence package, you can still pre-order PinePhone with postmarketOS for $149.99.

Got a PinePhone!
Adventures in PinePhone-land

Previously:

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) Starts "14nm" FinFET Volume Production

Look out Nvidia and AMD… Chinese GPU maker has a GTX 1080-level card in development

The new story:

Asia based Zhaoxin has plans for a dedicated graphics card series

A 70 Watt GPU wouldn't be as interesting as the 200 Watt "1080-level" GPU w/HBM concept from Jingjia Micro, but it could be good enough for cheap office PCs. It's also just a start: note that Zhaoxin's CPUs are on "16nm" while the GPU is on "28nm".

For starters, I have never really cared a lot about cell phones. They aren't "real computers" in my opinion, and they will never replace my desktop.

But, for reasons I'm not going into here, I suddenly need more reliable service, here at the house. That is, I need the cell phone to work, but I can't be going out into the rain, trying to find that magic spot in the yard where I get a full bar, or maybe two bars for reception.

I have, in the past, used those little cards that go inside of the cell phone, promising to boost your reception. I've had mixed results with that, none of them exceptionally good. The best of them might boost your reception by a bar. When you have no service at all, that little card will usually give you crappy service.

Looking at somewhat more serious equipment, Wilson makes a nice looking cell phone antenna for trucks and cars, that apparently gives you a nice signal boost. It sells for about $80 to $100. Problem is, the phone must be left in the antenna cradle, which probably means using the speaker phone. That sucks - you can't carry the phone around, and speaker phone always sounds like crap.

Car or truck, about $200
https://www.wilsonsignalbooster.com/weboost-drive-sleek-cradle-signal-booster-470135.html

Home use, starting about $500 to $1000
https://www.wilsonsignalbooster.com/
https://www.wilsonsignalbooster.com/weboost-470144-home-multiroom-signal-booster.html
https://www.wilsonsignalbooster.com/wilson-pro-70-plus-for-voice-3g-4g-lte.html

More serious equipment? Starting prices seem to be about $500 for a repeater. Set up your antenna, preferably in an elevated position, and point it at a cell tower. Run the coax inside the house, where it plugs into a booster device, which has another antenna to transmit the signal inside the house. Like magic, you should get 3 to 5 bars, and be able to wander throughout your home while maintaining that good, solid signal.

But, I have almost zero idea who makes good equipment, as opposed to consumer grade feel-good trash.

What is the competition for Wilson / weBoost? Some of you Soylentils have a lot of knowledge and experience in electronics. Point me at some good quality, reputable suppliers, please!!

Or, is this the best, and/or the best price, I'm going to find?

I did run across one booster system, that has to be set to one carrier or another. That is, it will not boost all cell phone signals at the same time - you have to choose one. It supposedly has a much stronger signal than any of the others I've looked at.

https://www.waveform.com/products/cel-fi-go-x

Again, that's a $1000. This particular page suggests that I can't change it from one carrier to another, instead, they want me to specify which carrier I want to use.

This one is near $1000, boosts all carriers, and they claim to have performance comparable to the cel-fi-go-x
https://www.waveform.com/products/hi-boost-home-15k-lcd-f20g-5s-lcd

So, are there better options out there? Cheaper options that are as good or better?

Facebook reveals holographic optics for thin and light VR headsets

Now it’s revealing a holographic optical architecture designed for thinner, lighter VR headsets, which it expects will appear in future “high performance AR/VR” devices.

Discussed in a Siggraph 2020 research paper titled “Holographic Optics for Thin and Lightweight Virtual Reality,” the system uses flat films to create a VR display only slightly thicker than today’s typical smartphones. Facebook’s “pancake optics” design combines several thin layers of holographic film with a laser projection system and directional backlights, delivering either flat imagery or volumetric holograms depending on the sophistication of the design. Depending on how many color, lighting, and alignment-enhancing components a prototype contains, the thickness of the optical system can range from 11mm to just under 9mm.

In wearable prototype form, each eye display features a resolution of roughly 1,200 by 1,600 pixels — comparable to current VR goggles — with a field of view that’s either a 93-degree circle or a 92-by-69-degree rectangle. That’s roughly comparable to the display specs of a 571-gram Oculus Quest, but in a glasses-like form factor that weighs less than 10 grams in total, albeit with only a single eye display in the prototypes. The researchers note they could cut parts and change materials to achieve a 6.6 gram weight equivalent to plastic aviator sunglasses, but would compromise performance by doing so.

Google Takes a Step Closer to Making Volumetric VR Video Streaming a Thing

Google unveiled a method of capturing and streaming volumetric video, something Google researchers say can be compressed down to a lightweight format capable of even being rendered on standalone VR/AR headsets.

Both monoscopic and stereocopic 360 video are flawed insofar they don’t allow the VR user to move their head completely within a 3D area; you can rotationally look up, down, left, right, and side to side (3DOF), but you can’t positionally lean back or forward, stand up or sit down, or move your head’s position to look around something (6DOF). Even seated, you’d be surprised at how often you move in your chair, or make micro-adjustments with your neck, something that when coupled with a standard 360 video makes you feel like you’re ‘pulling’ the world along with your head. Not exactly ideal.

The Prez wins. We lose.

Hardly matters. Reelection rates are holding steady. Still all DNC/GOP. The decline continues

"You get the Trump stink on you, it’s hard to get it off.”

If there’s an organizing theme to Pence’s vice presidency, it’s that he must never offend a man whose emotional antennae quiver at any slight. That means he’s perennially validating a president who insists the pandemic is under control when reality screams that it’s not.
...
In public, Pence takes pains to ensure that he and the president are aligned. On June 26, at the task force’s first public briefing in two months, he delivered the Trumpian message that “truly remarkable progress” had been made fighting the coronavirus, despite a worrisome rise in cases in dozens of states.

I asked the task-force member why, at times, Pence hasn’t worn a mask in public to model responsible behavior. Is it because he doesn’t want Trump to see and take umbrage? “That’s the only reason,” this person said. “He’ll wear it in a microsecond. He doesn’t want to egregiously look like he’s opposing the president.” (Asked about Pence’s mask-wearing message, John Fea, a historian and the author of Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump, referenced Pence’s Christian identity: “You can’t apply these scriptural ideas about loving your neighbor until you first understand that actually wearing a mask is to protect your neighbor.”)