Plus the surprising performance of eero's mesh Wi-Fi, some great news for WireGuard, and an update on the Librem 5.

Links:

• T-Mobile launches 600MHz 5G across the US, but no one can use it yet
• Study confirms AT&T’s fake 5G E network is no faster than Verizon, T-Mobile or Sprint 4G
• 5G on the horizon: Here’s what it is and what’s coming
• Can 5G replace everybody’s home broadband?
• The Snapdragon 865 will make phones worse in 2020, thanks to mandatory 5G
• Librem 5 backers have begun receiving their Linux phones
• Amazon’s inexpensive Eero mesh Wi-Fi kit is shockingly good
• WireGuard VPN is a step closer to mainstream adoption

Plus so-so SSD security, and a new wireless protocol that works best where the Wi-Fi sucks.

Links:

• “Where the Wi-Fi sucks” is where a new wireless protocol does its magic
• Ubiquiti’s new “Amplifi Alien” is a mesh-capable Wi-Fi 6 router
• Self-encrypting deception: weaknesses in the encryption of solid state drives
• Securely erase a solid-state drive
• Solid state drive/Memory cell clearing - ArchWiki
• The Deep Learning Revolution and Its Implications for Computer Architecture and Chip Design
• Intel Core i9-10980XE—a step forward for AI, a step back for everything else
• How to recognize AI snake oil

Plus why you may want to skip Nest Wifi, and our latest explorations of long range wireless protocols.

Links:

• Decoding LoRa: Realizing a Modern LPWAN with SDR — LoRa is an emerging Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN), a type of wireless communication technology suitable for connecting low power embedded devices over long ranges. This paper details the modulation and encoding elements that comprise the LoRa PHY, the structure of which is the result of the author’s recent blind analysis of the protocol. It also introduces grlora, an open source software defined implementation of the PHY that will empower wireless developers and security researchers to investigate this nascent protocol.
• Nest Wifi announced at Made by Google 2019 | Ars Technica — Google says that a two-piece Nest Wifi kit—one Nest Router and one Nest Point—should cover up to 3,800 square feet and 85% of homes. This claim, like most arbitrary claims of Wi-Fi coverage with no real detail, should be taken with several grains of salt.
• TP-LINK EAP series Business Wi-Fi Solution — The EAP Series Business Wi-Fi Solution incorporates EAP Series hardware, which provides a smooth, reliable wireless internet experience, and a powerful centralized management platform.
• Bloody Stupid Johnson | Discworld Wiki — Although evidently able in certain fields, Johnson is notorious for his complete inability to produce anything according to specification or common sense, or (sometimes) even the laws of physics.
• A Quick Look At EXT4 vs. ZFS Performance On Ubuntu 19.10 With An NVMe SSD — For those thinking of playing with Ubuntu 19.10's new experimental ZFS desktop install option in opting for using ZFS On Linux in place of EXT4 as the root file-system, here are some quick benchmarks looking at the out-of-the-box performance of ZFS/ZoL vs. EXT4 on Ubuntu 19.10 using a common NVMe solid-state drive.
• ubuntu/zsys: zsys daemon and client for zfs systems — It allows running multiple ZFS systems in parallel on the same machine, get automated snapshots, managing complex zfs dataset layouts separating user data from system and persistent data, and more.
• Ubuntu ZFS support in 19.10: ZFS on root · ~DidRocks — We are shipping ZFS On Linux version 0.8.1, with features like native encryption, trimming support, checkpoints, raw encrypted zfs transmissions, project accounting and quota and a lot of performance enhancements.
• Ubuntu ZFS support in 19.10: introduction · ~DidRocks — We want to support ZFS on root as an experimental installer option, initially for desktop, but keeping the layout extensible for server later on.
• A detailed look at Ubuntu’s new experimental ZFS installer | Ars Technica — If you're new to the ZFS hype train, you might wonder why a new filesystem option in an OS installer is a big deal. So here's a quick explanation: ZFS is a copy-on-write filesystem, which can take atomic snapshots of entire filesystems.