### Issue 1330 - Wednesday 24th March, 2021

## In Today's Issue

- Optus & TPG lobby government not to sell NBN to Telstra
- Intel will allow outsiders to make their chip designs in Intel fabs
- Hundreds sign open letter telling FSF to get rid of Stallman
- Five Things I Saw On The Internet
- Cheap Amaysim 12m plan, Logitech MX Anywhere 3 mouse, 4K AppleTVs, DJI Osmo Action 4

## The News

### Optus & TPG lobby government not to sell NBN to Telstra

Optus and TPG really don't want the government to sell the NBN to Telstra and are lobbying the communications minister hard not to do it. TPG told The Age that "if NBN Co was sold to Telstra, it would be like someone selling their house but continuing to charge the new owners rent. The new owners then renovate and expand the house, and sell it back for less than they paid to the original owners". The law currently prohibits the sale of NBN to a telco that does infrastructure and retail - hence all the manouvering lately by Telstra to re-jig their business structure, making TPG and Optus' worst nightmare a legit concern.

### Intel will allow outsiders to make their chip designs in Intel fabs

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has unveiled a plan he says will "put the silicon back into Silicon Valley". The main plank of Intel's renassiance lies in building a new US$20b semiconductor factory in Arizona that'll be dedicated for third party use and making it a core part of their business going forward. Intel Foundry Services will be a standalone business unit that would compete head on with TSMC. There's never been a better time for Intel to take making chips for other companies seriously, as demand for semiconductors is huge right now and despite Intel's latest dropping of the ball, they're still better than just about anyone at turning grains of sand into complex devices.

### Hundreds sign open letter telling FSF to get rid of Stallman

Following up from yesterdays news that Richard Stallman is back on the board of the Free Software Foundation, an open letter signed by former FSF members, X.org foundation board members, Debian project members, the Open Source Initaive, GNOME executive director and hundreds of others has called for "the entire Board of the FSF to step down and for RMS to be removed from all leadership positions". They highlight Richard's various problematic statemnets on the age of consent, defending pedophilia ("there is little evidence to justify the widespread assumption that willing participation in pedophilia hurts children"), examples of transphobia and "a history of mistreating women and making them feel uncomfortable, unsafe, and unwelcome". Truly bizarre stuff.

## Five Things I Saw On The Internet

- Anthony Smith made an escape room game in nothing but Google Docs.
- Andrew McCarthy took some amazing photos of the ISS transiting the Sun and Moon.
- Greg Godwin wrote a tutorial on how to use youtube-dl on an iPad.
- Jozef Bogin decided booting a PC off a vinyl record would be a fun thing to do.
- Jay Carlson really likes microcontrollers that cost less than US$1.

## Bargains

- Amaysim (Optus MVNO) 12m SIM with 120GB data - $100 from Amaysim
- Logitech MX Anywhere 3 mouse - $89 at Officeworks
- Apple TV 4K - $228 for 32GB, $258 for 64GB at Harvey Norman
- DJI Osmo Action 4 camera - $299 from Amazon

## The End

📻 Crucifire - Desert Sessions

😎 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon.

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The Sizzle is created on Wathaurong land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.​