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Optus, and the Data You Didnt Know You Handed Over

The Optus breach saga took a bizarre turn this week when the hacker apparently backed off and apologized. That doesnt fix the actual problem, which is how much ID data telcos sit on.

September 28, 2022·3 min read

TechpadinTech News

I Watched a Spacecraft Punch an Asteroid Last Night

I watched NASA's DART spacecraft slam into an asteroid live from my kitchen, and the wildest part is we still don't actually know if it worked.

September 27, 2022·4 min read

TechpadinTech News

The Two RTX 4080s Are Not the Same Card

Nvidia's two new RTX 4080 cards share a name but not a GPU die, and the naming trick is a bigger story than the announcement itself.

September 25, 2022·3 min read

TechpadinPersonal

The GTA 6 Leak Gave Me a Half-Life 2 Flashback

Rockstar confirmed the huge GTA 6 footage leak today, and watching it unfold sent me straight back to downloading the stolen Half-Life 2 source code off IRC in 2003.

September 19, 2022·3 min read

TechpadinTech News

MFA Fatigue, or How Uber Got Owned By a Text Message

Uber's breach this week wasn't a clever exploit, just an 18-year-old texting an employee until he got tired of MFA prompts and tapped approve. That's the scarier part.

September 17, 2022·4 min read

TechpadinPersonal

AirPods Pro 2 Preorder Day, and a Strange Week for News

A half-asleep 5 AM preorder for the AirPods Pro 2, a still-Lightning charging case that's annoying me, and the strange feeling of a huge tech launch and huge real-world news sharing the same week.

September 11, 2022·4 min read

TechpadinPersonal

Flex Alerts, Laptop Fans, and the Irony of Not Charging Your EV

Writing this during a California heat wave and nonstop Flex Alerts, with some thoughts on the irony of being asked not to charge EVs two weeks after the state announced its 2035 gas car ban.

September 5, 2022·3 min read

TechpadinTech News

Watching a Rocket Not Launch, Again

NASA scrubbed the second Artemis I launch attempt today over a hydrogen leak, and I cleared my whole morning to watch it not happen.

September 3, 2022·4 min read

TechpadinPersonal

Ban Gas Cars, Then Beg Us Not to Charge the Electric Ones

California banned new gas car sales by 2035, then days later asked everyone not to charge their EVs during a brutal heat wave. Some thoughts on the whiplash.

September 2, 2022·3 min read

TechpadinTech News

I Sat Through the Artemis I Scrub So You Didn't Have To

NASA scrubbed the first Artemis I launch attempt on August 29 over a stubborn engine sensor, so here's what three hours of couch-watching and some very rough per-launch cost math felt like.

August 31, 2022·4 min read

TechpadinTech News

GPU Prices Are Finally Coming Back Down to Reality

Nvidia's latest earnings show gaming GPU revenue cratering, and after two years of scalped prices, that's actually good news for anyone trying to buy a graphics card.

August 25, 2022·4 min read

TechpadinTutorials

Fine, I'll Update Right Now

Apple's iOS 15.6.1 patched two zero-days already being exploited in the wild, no clicks required. Here's how I finally set every device I own to update itself without me having to remember.

August 23, 2022·4 min read