### Issue 1285 - Monday 18th January, 2021

## In Today's Issue

- First signs of an industry developed COVID digital vaccination passport appear
- A critical mass of Apple rumours that'll please the fanbase
- NASA's Space Launch System hits a snag, failing a vital engine test
- I love large format film and I cannot lie, you other nerds can't deny
- Cheap LIFX Tile kit, Cyberpunk 2077 for PC, Catch Connect 365-day SIM, Logitech MX Master 3

## The News

### First signs of an industry developed COVID digital vaccination passport appear

Microsoft is working with a bunch of other health related companies like Epic and the Mayo Clinic to develop a COVID-19 vaccination passport. It's called the Vaccination Credential Imitative and aims to "help people store encrypted digital copies of their immunisation records in a digital wallet of their choice". Going by the VCI's website, they plan to use "the open, interoperable SMART Health Cards specification based on W3C Verifiable Credential and HL7 FHIR standards". There's no app or anything so far, but this kinda thing seems inevitable. Do we actually need it? I have no idea, but who wants to bet that Australia pays a bunch of consultants millions of dollars to develop a shit version that doesn't work?

### A critical mass of Apple rumours that'll please the fanbase

A torrent of Apple rumours have been let loose over the weekend that tick all the boxes for product updates fans have been craving. Apple's gonna make a "low priced external monitor" for us plebs. 14-inch and 16-inch Apple Silicon based MacBook Pros are going to have "more ports", bring back MagSafe and remove the TouchBar. An update to the super expensive Mac Pro will be "less than half the current size of the Mac Pro" - a Mac Pro mini if you will, in the vein of the infamous Power Mac G4 Cube. The iMac is going to get "slimmer bezels" and sport a design similar to the Pro Display XDR/iPad Pro. This is all too good to be true, so I reckon Tim Cook is trying to smoke out leakers by putting all this stuff out there and seeing who bites.

### NASA's Space Launch System hits a snag, failing a vital engine test

Bad news for NASA's Artemis mission to put humans back on the moon with the Space Launch System - the rocket engine core that's supposed to get them there failed a critical test overnight. Four engines lit up and fired, but only lasted 50 seconds instead of 8 minutes after a "major component failure". Engineers for Boeing and Aerojet Rocketdyne are still figuring out what went wrong, but NASA's boss said that it was "not everything we hoped it would be". It's a little sad seeing this failure of big ol' NASA and Boeing compared to the seemingly constant successes by nimble SpaceX. SLS was supposed to be the tried and true method, leveraging the Space Shuttle's engines to avoid stuff like this!

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### I love large format film and I cannot lie, you other nerds can't deny

Melbourne is a great city, but it is the best city because it has something 99% of cities don't - a 15 perf 70mm IMAX film projector! Why is this special? Look at this infographic comparing the various cinema projection formats available for Dunkirk. A few other cinemas have 6 perf 70mm film projectors and they're lovely, but as you can see in the infographic, the IMAX film is way bigger. There's not many feature films made in 15/70mm film (basically just Christopher Nolan) but the ones that do exist are glorious and are an experience. Forbes has a two part interview with IMAX Melbourne's projectionist about their unique setup. Melbournians are truly blessed to have such a facility locally. By the way, Interstellar in 15/70mm is showing on Jan 30th.

## Bargains

- LIFX Tile kit - $199 from JB Hi-Fi
- Cyberpunk 2077 for PC - $44.09 from CD Keys
- Catch Connect (Optus MVNO) 365 plan with 60GB data & unlim calls + SMS - $89 from Catch
- Logitech MX Master 3 wireless mouse - $119 from Officeworks

## The End

📻 Muori Delay - Verdena

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

💬 Did you know that The Sizzle has a Slack group? Join in and chat with other subscribers like you.

💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info? Visit the customer portal.

🌐 Use my affiliate link to purchase a subscription to NextDNS. It's basically all the ad-blocking and logging of Pi-Hole, combined with the fancy protocols and security of Cloudflare's DNS service all rolled into one! I don't use the internet without it.

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.​