### Issue 1497 - Friday 19th November, 2021

## In Today's Issue

- Nvidia's dreams of buying Arm are getting crushed worldwide
- Blockchain dorks fail to buy rare original copy of US constitution
- Enjoy these insightful NBN statistics courtesy of the ACCC
- I've never seen a van carry so much wireless bandwidth
- Friday Forum Update
- Cheap Red Dead Redemption, JB Hi-Hi gift cards, FIFA 22, Death Stranding, PS Plus subscription, Tenda mesh wi-fi, Dell monitors, Dell gaming laptop

## The News

### Nvidia's dreams of buying Arm are getting crushed worldwide

Nvidia admitted that not only is its deal to buy Arm from Softbank under deep regulatory investigation in the EU and UK, the USA's FTC is sniffing around too. Nvidia didn't detail what the FTC is looking at specifically, just saying that the FTC has "expressed concerns" and is in discussions about "remedies to address those concerns". I'd be shocked if it's any different to the concerns the EU and UK have around Nvidia stiffing Arm's current customers like Qualcomm, AMD, Apple and Google, who also happen to be Nvidia competitors too. If I had to bet on this, I reckon the regulators will stop the deal going ahead.

### Blockchain dorks fail to buy rare original copy of US constitution

A bunch of strangers calling themselves ConstitutionDAO managed to raise US$47m in order to purchase an original 1787 copy of the US Constitution (11 known surviving copies, 9 in museums, 2 privately owned) and put it on the blockchain. Their goal was to allow people that buy the tokens to "own" the US Constitution - which in reality means they have a say on what the real owners (the entity that buys it at auction) do with the precious document. Unfortunately/fortunately ConstitutionDAO was outbid and now has to figure out how to return all that Etherum. James Hennessy's The Terminal had a great story about ConstitutionDAO this week.

### Enjoy these insightful NBN statistics courtesy of the ACCC

The ACCC released some NBN related stats in their NBN Wholesale Market Indicators Report today. The most popular speed tier is 50mbit, with 58% of premises on the NBN settling on that speed. Only 7.8% of premises are on speeds above 100mbit and even more surprising to me, only 9.8% are on 100mbit. Also interesting is that the average CVC per users is 2.8 Mbps. I figured it would be higher. Telstra is still the big dog in ISP land, snatching 44.3% of the market. TPG (23.9%) and Optus (14.5%) fill out the top 3. Meanwhile, TPG is working with the ACCC on a functional separation plan to make itself a "more robust competitor to NBN Co".

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### I've never seen a van carry so much bandwidth

Geoff Huntley has published a blog post about the heavy duty mobile broadband setup attached to his van. He's got three LTE modems (one for each Vodafone, Telstra and Optus) hooked up to three antennas that are bonded together using Speedify. He's also got two other antennas that act as a wi-fi access point, turning the van into a giant mobile hotspot. Oh and a 5G modem for shits and giggles when he enters a 5G area. To top it all off, now he's adding Starlink to the mix. This is a wild setup for a van, but it's exactly what I would do if I was into living in a van and needed rock solid internet access. If anyone here is seriously thinking about this but you're unsure about the networking stuff/what to buy, I'd love to help you do it.

## Friday Forum Update

Here's five interesting discussions over on The Sizzle's paid subscriber forum for you to enjoy over the weekend. If you are not a paid subscriber but want to get involved, visit https://thesizzle.com.au/payme to get onboard.

- The_Hawk is taking us down memory lane and asking about our first home computers
- smeghead has a new 16" MBP and needs a new bag to go with it
- taybenlor shared Runno, a project they've been working on to embed run code demos demos on a website
- I installed Monterey on my Mac recently and wondered what are the first apps people put on their machines after a re-install
- A reminder that you can buy and sell stuff on The Sizzle forums! Get rid of that excess tech gear this weekend without the Facebook/Gumtree weirdos or eBay fees

## Bargains

- Red Dead Redemption 2 for PC - $40.48 from Green Man Gaming
- Red Dead Redemption 2 for PS4 - $29 from Amazon (affiliate link)
- 10% off TCN gift cards (which includes JB Hi-Fi) from TCN
- FIFA 22 for PS4 - $39 at Target
- FIFA 22 for PS5 - $59 from Amazon (affiliate link)
- Death Stranding Director's Cut for PS5 - $54 from Amazon (affiliate link)
- 12 months of PlayStation Plus - $53.30 from Amazon (affiliate link)
- Tenda Nova MW5G-3 mesh wi-fi 3-pack kit - $79.50 from Amazon (affiliate link)
- Dell S2722QC 4K USB-C monitor - $369 from Dell's eBay store (affiliate link)
- Dell G15 5515 Gaming Laptop (Ryzen 5 5600H, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, RTX 3050) - $979 from Dell's eBay store (affiliate link)
- Dell S3422DW curved 3440x1440 gaming monitor - $499 from Dell's eBay store (affiliate link)

## The End

📻 The Hardest Cut - Spoon

😎 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.