Month: December 2023

Enlarge / The front of a 128GB Dell CAMM. (credit: Dell)

Move over, SO-DIMM. A new type of memory module has been made official, and backers like Dell are hoping that it eventually replaces SO-DIMM (small outline dual in-line memory module) entirely.

This month, JEDEC, a semiconductor engineering trade organization, announced that it had published the JESD318: Compression Attached Memory Module (CAMM2) standard, as spotted by Tom's Hardware.

CAMM2 was originally introduced as CAMM via Dell, which has been pushing for standardization since it announced the technology at CES 2022. Dell released the only laptops with CAMM in 2022, the Dell Precision 7670 and 7770 workstations.

Enlarge / Saudi Arabia's presence at COP28 has reportedly been used to limit progress on fossil fuel cutbacks. (credit: Sean Gallup / Getty Images)

Oil-producing countries are apparently succeeding in their attempts to eliminate language from an international climate agreement that calls for countries to phase out the use of fossil fuels. Draft forms of the agreement had included text that called upon the countries that are part of the Paris Agreement to work toward "an orderly and just phase out of fossil fuels." Reports now indicate that this text has gone missing from the latest versions of the draft.

The agreement is being negotiated at the United Nations' COP28 climate change conference, taking place in the United Arab Emirates. The COP, or Conference of the Parties, meetings are annual events that attempt to bring together UN members to discuss ways to deal with climate change. They were central to the negotiations that brought about the Paris Agreement, which calls for participants to develop plans that should bring the world to net-zero emissions by the middle of the century.

Initial plans submitted by countries would lower the world's greenhouse gas emissions, but not by nearly enough to reach net zero. However, the agreement included mechanisms by which countries would continue to evaluate their progress and submit more stringent goals. So, additional COP meetings have included what's termed a "stocktake" to evaluate where countries stand, and statements are issued to encourage and direct future actions.

Enlarge (credit: Google)

Google Play Movies & TV is getting a shutdown date, again. Google previously sent out an email to users saying "Google Play Movies & TV is going away on 05 October 2023," but 9to5Google spotted a new support page that now says January 17, 2024, is the new shutdown date. It's not entirely clear why we got two different shutdown dates, but the October 5 shutdown definitely happened in the US; perhaps this message is for international users.

Google's page says that in January, "Google Play Movies & TV will no longer be available on Android TV devices or the Google Play website." This should be the last of the Google Play Movies brand. Phones and tablets have already switched over to a "Google TV" app (not to be confused with the Google TV OS), and the Play Store abandoned media sales in 2022.

With the one-stop-shop Play Store dead, Google says your purchased content will now be in different apps, depending on what Google platform you're on. The support page says: "On TVs and streaming devices powered by Android TV," purchased content is in the "Shop" tab but on "cable boxes or set-top boxes powered by Android TV" the content will be in the YouTube app. On the web, purchased content is on YouTube.com.

Enlarge / An ice-cold glass of cola is undoubtedly refreshing, but it probably won't help with food stuck in the throat. (credit: Cocktailmarler/CC BY-SA 4.0)

There's always a marked increase in ER visits during the holiday season involving people getting bites of partially chewed turkey or similar foodstuffs stuck in their throat. Googling home remedies might encourage you to just sip on some cola instead, letting the carbonation help dislodge the food and sparing you an emergency endoscopy. Sure, cola is cheap and widely available, with few (if any) side effects. But you might want to think twice about skipping the ER, according to a new study published in the British Medical Journal that concluded this popular folk remedy probably doesn't help clear a blocked esophagus.

"Emergency physician Elise Tiebie, the driving force behind this project, saw online that this was really a rumor, from tip websites to Wikipedia as well as an anecdote in a British newspaper about paramedics saving a life by using cola. I've even heard doctors recommending it,” said co-author Arjan Bredenoord, a gastroenterologist at Amsterdam University Medical Centers. Getting food stuck in one's esophagus "can be really dangerous, so it's important that people get the correct treatment," he added. "That's why we wanted to check if this works."

The technical term is "esophageal food bolus obstruction," more commonly known as "steakhouse syndrome" or "backyard barbecue syndrome." It's usually pieces of poorly masticated meat (steak, poultry, pork) that get stuck, and when that happens, the unfortunate soul will have trouble swallowing to the point of drooling (since they can't even swallow their saliva). They may also have chest or neck pain, and there's always the chance that the esophagus will be perforated, leading to aspiration into the lungs. Hence, a trip to the ER is necessary.

Enlarge / Infowars-founder Alex Jones speaks to the media outside Waterbury Superior Court on September 21, 2022 during one of his Sandy Hook defamation trials. (credit: Getty Images | Joe Buglewicz)

Elon Musk has allowed conspiracy theorist Alex Jones back on the social network formerly named Twitter, despite saying that he "vehemently" disagrees with Jones' claims that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.

Musk restored the @RealAlexJones account after polling X users. With almost 2 million votes, about 70 percent of users supported reinstating Jones, who was banned by Twitter in 2018.

"I vehemently disagree with what he said about Sandy Hook, but are we a platform that believes in freedom of speech or are we not? That is what it comes down to in the end. If the people vote him back on, this will be bad for X financially, but principles matter more than money," Musk wrote on Saturday. Musk also spoke with Jones about his Sandy Hook comments in a live interview on X.

Enlarge (credit: Mazda)

Electrification is a big challenge if you're a small automaker. And Mazda is a small automaker, one that's in danger of being caught out by a range of inefficient gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles. But the Japanese company hasn't given up on electric vehicles, it says. In an interview with Auto News, Mazda CEO Masahiro Moro says the company will be an "intentional follower" in this space and that questionable demand for EVs justifies this strategy.

"One of the big issues for us is demand is uncertain," Moro said. "In the current market, the reality for electrification, in particular for battery EVs, is the pace is not that high. So we may start a little slower in terms of the ramp-up. Not necessarily in terms of timing, but the ramp-up."

In time, we should see a family of new Mazda-designed EVs built on a new platform. But the division that has to design them, called e-Mazda, was only created in November. Moro told Auto News that the division will focus on making EVs lighter and more affordable but won't develop compact or smaller EVs as the cost of batteries makes them unprofitable.