RAM Giants Accused of Price Fixing

Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron—who control 90% of the RAM market—are facing a class-action lawsuit alleging they conspired to drive up consumer RAM prices by up to 700% over four years. The suit claims the companies intentionally cut production of standard DDR3 and DDR4 memory to prioritize more lucrative AI data center hardware, directly increasing the cost of PCs and gaming consoles.

AI Costs Force ‘Caveman’ Speech

Companies are using a ‘caveman’ plugin to force AI models like Claude and Codex to provide blunt, minimal answers instead of verbose responses. This strategy aims to curb skyrocketing token expenditures, with developers at OpenAI, Nvidia, and GitHub reportedly using the tool to stop ‘burning through’ AI budgets.

Data Centers Strain Local Power Grids

Extreme summer heat is triggering power curtailments for data centers and forcing local governments to ask schools to conserve electricity. In Henrico County, Virginia, electricity costs for government and school facilities are expected to rise by 25% due to the energy pressure from 37 local data centers, while global capacity faces high climate risks.

Reddit Ends Anonymous ‘Old Reddit’ Access

Reddit will soon require all users to log in to access old.reddit.com, citing the legacy interface as a major source of ‘abusive scraping.’ The move effectively ends anonymous browsing for long-time users and signals a potential future phase-out of the legacy site.

US House Passes Kids’ Online Safety Act

The US House passed the KIDS Act, requiring platforms to implement age verification and stricter parental controls. Privacy advocates warn that these measures could lead to mandatory ID or biometric scanning for all users, sparking a global ‘Stop Killing the Internet’ movement to defend the open web against mass surveillance.

Nvidia Resurrects 5-Year-Old GPU

Nvidia is bringing back the RTX 3060 12GB to retail shelves at $339, five years after its launch. The move is seen as a response to AI demand consuming cutting-edge wafer capacity, leaving gamers with an aging, lower-performance card as one of the few affordable options.

Former MS Engineer Rebuilds Notepad

Former Microsoft engineer Dave Plummer created ‘TinyRetroPad,’ a version of Notepad that fits in under 3 kilobytes. The project serves as a critique of modern software bloat, demonstrating that a basic text editor can remain lean and functional without telemetry or AI-powered suggestions.