The Truth: Elon Musk Legally Allowed to Call People Paedophiles, Lots of Cheap VPS Providers Shutting Down, CVN-79 Named USS John F. Kennedy
Welcome to The Truth for Monday, 9 December 2019. A new week brings fresh tech news. Among the things we learned over the weekend was that you can apparently wantonly call people paedophiles if you’re a rich, eccentric asshole.
Nvidia has published a security bulletin for its Tegra-powered Jetson computing boards. Six security vulnerabilities have CVSS scores ranging from 7.6 to 8.4 – mostly threatening denial of service and privilege escalation.
OpenBSD has released patches for four (CVE-2019-19519 thru CVE-2019-19522) authentication vulnerabilities. These were discovered by Qualys.
Microsoft’s latest security patch for Access is apparently causing SQL queries to fail.
Twenty cheap VPS providers in the US have suddenly shut down, giving customers only two days to save their data. ZDNet reports that customers “suspect an exit scam.”
All clues point to the fact that all 20 websites are part of an affiliate scheme or a multi-brand business ran by the same entity. A source in the web hosting industry who wanted to remain anonymous told ZDNet that what happened this weekend is often referred to as “deadpooling” – namely, the practice of setting up a small web hosting company, providing ultra-cheap VPS servers for a few dollars a month, and then shutting down a few months later, without refunding customers.
After the infamous keyboard problems, Apple seems to be having more hardware issues with its new MacBook Pro.
When using Final Cut Pro X, Logic Pro X, QuickTime Player, Music, Movies, or other applications to play audio, users may hear a pop come from the speakers after playback has ended. According to an internal memo, Apple is investigating a fix to the software-related problem. As such, repair personnel are advised to refrain from setting up service appointments or replacing affected MacBook Pros.
The US Navy has christened its second Gerald R. Ford-class nuclear aircraft carrier (CVN-79) as USS John F. Kennedy. CVN-79 is thus the second aircraft carrier to bear the name, the first one being CV-67 (decomissioned in 2007). The ceremony was held on Saturday at Newport News Shipbuilding. The ship’s sponsor is former ambassador Caroline Kennedy, daughter of JFK. CVN-79 is planned to enter service in 2022.
Elon Musk has won his defamation lawsuit against a British cave diving expert he labelled “pedo guy” and “child rapist”. The hero, who helped rescue a football team of 12 boys in a cave diving expedition in Thailand, had dared to dismiss the billionaire’s idiotic mini-sub PR stunt in a TV interview, for which Musk labelled him a paedophile, based on a short Google search that told him the diver lived in Thailand, it seems. Musk’s successful defence was apparently based on claiming that in South Africa, where he comes from, “pedo guy” is shorthand for “creepy old man”. As TechCrunch reports, the court decided Musk’s tweets were not meant as a statement of fact and are thus not punishable as defamation.
CNBC notes in a separate report that the verdict could “set a precedent where free speech online, libel and slander are concerned” as among the first court cases brought by a private individual over a tweet.
My personal opinion is that the court would have done well to slap that Musk asshole* down hard. Meanwhile, he’s celebrating and driving around in his idiotic new car.
* Not a statement of fact. Where I was born, “that asshole” just means “that guy over there”.
China is continuing to play hardball in the trade war:
China has ordered all government offices to start ripping out non-Chinese computers and software in order to bolster domestic manufacturers and suppliers. The ban needs to be fully implemented within three years.
As The Register points out their stipulation that stuff be “Chinese-made” leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Does Lenovo count? What software are they going to use? Their state-sponsored Linux distro?
René Auberjonois, best know for his role as Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has died. This fills me with sadness. We’ve been losing way too many DS9 actors recently.
This is an archived issue of my daily newsletter FOXTROT/ALFA. You can find more information about it, including how to subscribe via email, on this page.