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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER 11 - 16 DECEMBER, 2023
Hello and Welcome,
December 2023 was Party Time
John Lucke: Club members met to enjoy the end-of-year 2023 party at our city club room and via Zoom, as the final event of another busy year.
Firstly, Alex joined us briefly from Los Angeles via Zoom to introduce guest presenter Dean Williams from Norton, also via Zoom from Melbourne, who gave an exciting update on their latest new security products.
Also, our club president, Steve South, organised a raffle and prizes, plus lots of culinary delights to savour, making it a most enjoyable event.
Merry Christmas to All.
Christmas 2023 Party
Meeting This Week
2023/12/12 — 18:00-20:00 — December, Tue — Programming
Meetings Next Week
NO MEETINGS
Schedule of Current & Upcoming Meetings
First Tuesday 18:00-20:00 — Main Meeting
First Saturday 13:00-14:00 — Penrith Group
Second Tuesday 18:00-20:00 — Programming
Third Tuesday 10:00-12:00 — Tuesday Group
Third Saturday 14:00-16:00 — Web Design
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Go to the official Sydney PC Calendar for this month's meeting details.
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Penrith meetings are held every 2nd month on the 1st Saturday from 1-2 pm.
The following meetings are in January, March and May 2024.
ASCCA News:Tech News:
AMD's Threadripper CPUs return with a 96-core monster chip
See The Verge article by Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012 | Published on Oct 20, 2023, 12:56 am GMT+11.
AMD is targeting professional workstations and high-end desktop PCs with its new Threadripper chips.
AMD Threadripper
AMD is returning its Threadripper CPUs with two new classes and chipsets. There's a Pro series of Threadripper chips that are designed to be part of the very top workstations for professionals, and there's a non-Pro series for high-end desktop (HEDT) PCs and "prosumers" who don't need manageability features, eight-channel memory, or vast amounts of PCIe Gen 5 lanes.
Both the Pro and HEDT chips are based on AMD's Zen 4 architecture, with access to the latest PCIe Gen 5 high-speed storage. At the very top of the Threadripper Pro chips is the 7995WX, which offers 96 cores and 192 threads, a max boost of 5.3GHz, up to 384MB of L3 cache, and 128 PCIe Gen 5 lanes. AMD offers six Threadripper Pro chips, with the entry-level 7945WX shipping with 12 cores / 24 threads.
The Threadripper HEDT chips are the more realistic options for anyone in design, manufacturing, architecture, engineering, and media. AMD will offer three Ryzen Threadripper chips here, but they will be costly. The flagship 7980X offers 64 cores / 128 threads, a 5.1GHz boost, and 320MB total cache, all for an eye-watering $4,999. Here's the full lineup:
— AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X — $4,999, 64 cores, 5.1GHz boost, 320MB cache, 350W TDP
— AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7970X — $2,499, 32 cores, 5.3GHz boost, 160MB cache, 350W TDP
— AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7960X — $1,499, 24 cores, 5.3GHz boost, 152MB cache, 320W TDP
If you're considering a new Threadripper for a workstation, you'll also have to think about what memory and motherboards to pair it with. Threadripper 7000-series chips will only support registered memory, so an unbuffered dual in-line memory module (UDIMM) isn't supported here.
AMD is introducing TRX50 motherboards for the HEDT chips and WRX90 motherboards for the Pro platform. Interestingly, the TRX50 motherboards will also support the Pro chips, so you could technically build a high-end desktop with 96 cores and 192 processing threads. You won't get the eight-channel memory support or 128 lanes of PCIe Gen 5, but if you're rocking 96 cores, that will already be a lot of power.
We'll have to wait for reviews and complete benchmarks to see how these compare in professional tasks and gaming against Intel's Xeon and Core processors and AMD's regular Ryzen 7000 series. Both Ryzen 7000 Threadripper CPU variants will be available on November 21st.
Study: No Evidence Internet Harms Mental Health
See the InfoPackets article by John Lister on December 4, 2023, at 12:12 pm EST.
Researchers say they were unable to find a clear link between Internet use and harm to mental health. However, the results looked at national populations rather than individual behaviour.
The researchers, from Oxford University's Oxford Internet Institute said they needed more data and cooperation from major tech companies.
The broad research paper "Global Well-Being and Mental Health in the Internet Age", looked at studies of the psychological well-being of around 2.4 million people across 18 countries. The researchers looked at changes in reported well-being between 2005 and 2022 in each country and then compared them with figures for Internet usage growth over that period.
No Clear Link
They found no clear correlation between the two figure sets for the worldwide population or specific countries. It also found no evidence that particular demographics were at the most significant risk of mental harm. (Source: independent.co.uk)
The findings did suggest a possible link between Internet use levels and mental health problems in younger people, though the link was "small in magnitude."
The researchers didn't argue their findings completely disprove any link and noted that tech companies' internal data might lend greater insight. They argued that not only do these tech firms have data about individual use of technologies, but they constantly analyze it for their benefit. (Source: fortune.com)
However, they concluded there isn't strong enough evidence in their findings to justify any regulatory steps to limit mental health harm.
Tech Firms Criticized
Some reports of the study have pointed out limitations, most notably that it didn't seek to examine how people were using the Internet (for example, social media use vs streaming). Neither did it look at whether the time spent online had any measurable effect on mental health.
Co-author Andrew Przybylski has criticized previous research into the topic as being based on inadequate data with insufficient evidence to justify the high levels of attention given to the findings.
He also noted that much previous research has concentrated on English-speaking countries, which he says could represent the younger global population more.
What's Your Opinion?
Are you surprised by this finding? Was it a suitable methodology? Is this a subject worthy of more research?
Comments:
Brainwashing — Submitted by Dennis Faas on Mon, 12/04/2023 — 12:28
It may not affect mental health according to this study. Still, it's arguable whether or not apps like TikTok have the ability to brainwash people by attempting to normalize certain behaviours. The Israel war and woke culture are excellent examples.
Humans rendered unable to see the — Submitted by buzzallnight on Tue, 12/05/2023 — 02:33
Evidence Internet Harms Mental Health!
Microsoft's Copilot chatbot will get six significant upgrades soon — including ChatGPT's new brain
See the TechRadar article by Darren Allan published Dec 6th, 2023.
GPT-4 Turbo is coming soon (it's currently in testing)
Cat with Samurai Sword
Microsoft has announced that Copilot — the AI chatbot formerly known as Bing Chat — will soon get half a dozen impressive upgrades.
This batch of improvements should make the Copilot chatbot considerably more powerful in numerous respects (outside of and inside of Windows 11).
So, first off, let's break down the upgrades themselves (listed in a Microsoft blog post) before getting into a discussion of what difference they're likely to make.
Firstly, and most importantly, Copilot is getting a new or upgraded brain in the form of GPT-4 Turbo. That's the latest model of GPT from OpenAI, which makes various advances in terms of being generally better and more accurate.
Another beefy upgrade is an updated engine for Dall-E 3, the chatbot's image creation feature, which produces higher-quality results that are more closely aligned with what's requested by the user. This is actually in Copilot right now.
Thirdly, Microsoft promises that Copilot will do better with image searches, returning better results when you sling a picture at the AI to learn more about it.
Another addition is Deep Search, which uses GPT-4 to "deliver optimized search results for complex topics", as Microsoft puts it. This means that if you have a query for Copilot, it can produce a more in-depth search request to produce better results. Furthermore, if the terms of your query are vague and could relate to multiple topics, Deep Search will follow up on what those topics might be and offer suggestions to allow you to refine the query.
The fifth upgrade Microsoft has planned is Code Interpreter, which, as the name suggests, will help perform complex tasks including coding, data analysis, etc. That's not something the average user will benefit from, but some will.
Finally, Copilot in Microsoft's Edge browser has a new rewrite feature (for inline text composition). This allows you to select text on a website and get the AI to rewrite it for you.
Analysis: Something for Google to worry about
There are some beneficial changes inbound here. Getting GPT-4 Turbo is an upgrade (from GPT-4) that many Copilot users have been clamouring for, and Microsoft tells us that it's now being tested with select users. (We previously heard it still had a few kinks to iron out, so presumably, that's what's happening).
GPT-4 Turbo will be rolling out in the "coming weeks" so it should be here soon enough, with any luck, and you'll be able to see the difference it makes for you in terms of a greater level of accuracy for the chatbot when responding to your queries.
It's great to see Dall-E 3 getting an upgrade, too, as it's already an excellent image-creation engine. (Recall the rush to use the feature when it was first launched due to the impressive results being shared online).
The search query improvements, both the Deep Search capabilities and refined image searching, will combine with the above upgrades to improve Copilot across multiple fronts. (Although we worry somewhat about the potential for abuse with that inline rewrite feature for Edge).
All of this forward momentum for Copilot comes as we just heard the news of Google delaying its advances on the AI front, pushing some major launches back to the start of 2024. Microsoft isn't hanging around when it comes to Copilot, that's for sure, and Google has to balance keeping up without pushing so hard that mistakes are made.
Fun Facts:
Learn more about ableism and what it looks like with our 8-part quiz on disability discrimination
See the ABC-NEWS article by the Specialist Reporting Team's Evan Young | Posted Wed 29 Nov 2023 at 5:54 am | Updated Wed 29 Nov 2023 at 11:15 am.
Disability advocates say ableism is still common in society. (ABC News/Canva)
How inclusive are you? Take our 8-part quiz on ableism and find out.
The ABC is partnering with the International Day of People with Disability to recognise the contributions and achievements of the 4.4 million disabled Australians.
We spoke with people with disability and advocates, who shared their experiences. Check out the quiz to better understand what ableism and disability discrimination can look like.
It's one of society's biggest "isms".
However, according to disability advocates, ableism is still all too common and often remains unchallenged.
Ableism is discrimination against people with disability and something that casts their lives as less important than those of non-disabled people.
While it can be deliberate and structural, it can also be unconscious and exhibited despite the best intentions.
We spoke with disabled people and advocates, who shared their experiences, to form the questions in this quiz.
Consider how you might initially react to each situation — be honest — and then read what they say about your answer.
Q1: You see a person getting out of a car parked in an accessible parking space. The vehicle has a permit, but the person is not using a mobility aid. Do you:
A Go over and tell them off — they shouldn't be using that space.
B Do nothing and go on with your day.
C Tell the nearest authority figure what you saw.
Q2: A vital work meeting is being held on Zoom. A Deaf colleague has requested an Auslan interpreter present, but the manager has decided that's too hard and they can just read the captions. Do you:
A Say nothing — it's none of your business.
B Ask everyone on the call to avoid talking over each other so the captions are clear.
C Tell the manager they should make efforts to organise the interpreter.
...
Q8: While booking a venue for your birthday, you realise it's not accessible to one of your friends, who uses mobility aids to help them move around. Do you:
A Book the venue anyway because it has a good reputation and suits everyone else.
B Tell your friend you'll just see them another time.
C Find a new venue that is accessible.
Meeting Location & Disclaimer
Bob Backstrom
~ Newsletter Editor ~
Information for Members and Visitors:
Link to — Sydney PC & Technology User Group
All Meetings, unless explicitly stated above, are held on the
1st Floor, Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney.
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