### Issue 1980 - Thursday 23rd November, 2023

Sizzlethon 2023 is over and you finally get a break from my relentless self-promotion. It was worth it, because we raised $1,544 for Cafs and gained 199 new Sizzle subscribers - hopefully lots of them decide to pay when the trial is complete!. I made the donation this morning: Big thanks to everyone that shared The Sizzle with friends, colleagues and strangers. Also cheers to the LAST Club, who topped the leaderboard with 27 referrals. If you're into Lean, Agile and Systems Thinking (LAST!) you need to check them out.

## In Today's Issue

- Sam Altman returns to OpenAI with new board
- VMware is now owned by Broadcom
- The 2023-2030 Cyber Security Strategy will protect us on the cybers
- Cyrcle 2.0 kickstarter, keyboard with a DAC & amp, Teenage Engineering's new synth
- Cheap eBay Plus, Xbox Series X, CalDigit TS4 dock, EV charging cable, Wera screwdriver kit, Shure mic, DJI drone, RAW Power for macOS, Epic Games, Phaidon books, refurb iPhone 12, Sony wireless speaker, LIFX gear, Meross smart plug & Diablo IV for PC

## The News

### Sam Altman returns to OpenAI with new board

Sam Altman is back as CEO as OpenAI and the board that sacked him is now gone, replaced with an "initial board" consisting of Bret Taylor as Chair, Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo. Altman tweeted, "i love openai, and everything i've done over the past few days has been in service of keeping this team and its mission together. when i decided to join msft on sun evening, it was clear that was the best path for me and the team. with the new board and w satya's support, i'm looking forward to returning to openai, and building on our strong partnership with msft". So that's that, OpenAI can now concentrate on building the Torment Nexus.

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### VMware is now owned by Broadcom

First announced back in May 2022, Broadcom (mostly known for its range of networking & server chips) has finally closed its acquisition of VMware (server virtualisation & management) after the Chinese government agreed to the US$69b deal. The press release says "we can now come together and have the scale to help global enterprises address their complex IT infrastructure challenges by enabling private and hybrid cloud environments and helping them deploy an apps anywhere strategy", but ask anyone how Broadcom operates as a business and they're a pack of hard bastards that are more interested in bean counting than engineering. For now it feels like business as usual, but we all know how that goes. Ask Redhat and IBM, or Sun and Oracle.

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### The 2023-2030 Cyber Security Strategy will protect us on the cybers

The government's long awaited 2023-2030 Cyber Security Strategy is now public. The press release for it says "Australia was in a cyber slumber" but now the "Albanese Labor Government is determined to act decisively and do what is necessary to protect Australians from the fastest growing threat that we face as a nation", putting "cyber criminals on notice". I'm sure they're shaking in their boots. The Strategy also comes with $586.9m of additional funding to implement various programs like "$4.8m in establishing long-overdue consumer standards for smart devices and software", "$9.4m to build a threat sharing platform for the health sector", "$8.6m in professionalising our cyber workforce and accelerating the cyber industry" and more. If you want some analysis of the strategy (you don't pay me enough to read it), this article on The Conversation is the only one I've seen not behind a paywall.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Cyrcle 2.0 kickstarter, keyboard with a DAC & amp, Teenage Engineering's new synth

- A 2022 Kickstarter for a phone with a round screen called Cyrcle 2.0. We need more weird phones in our lives now that Nokia is boring and keeps making the same rectangular slabs of glass and metal running Android that everyone else does.
- Audio brand FiiO has made a mechanical keyboard with a built-in 3.5mm headphone jack that also contains a quality DAC and headphone amp inside the keyboard that connects to your computer via USB-C. That's pretty fucken handy.
- Teenage Engineering is back with yet another gorgeous synth that I have no idea how to use, but looks so beautiful that I want one. The EP-133 KO II is US$299 and if you order now maybe it'll ship to AU in time for Christmas??

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## Bargains

- $20 cashback on eBay Plus 12m membership via ShopBack - $9.99 from eBay ($10.01 profit)
- Xbox Series X Console - $645 from Microsoft
- CalDigit TS4 Thunderbolt 4 Dock - $617.49 + Delivery from MacFixit
- Type 2 to Type 2 EV Charging Cable 22kw 5m - $195.50 from EVSE
- Wera 5134000001 Kraftform Micro Big Pack Screwdriver Set - $115.32 from Amazon UK
- Shure SM7B dynamic cardioid XLR microphone - $447.16 from Amazon Japan
- DJI Mini 4 Pro Drone with RC-N2 Controller - $977 from Sydney Mobiles eBay store
- RAW Power for macOS photo editing app - $29.99 from the Mac App Store
- 33% off all purchases over $22.99 on the Epic Games store
- 30% off & free shipping from the Phaidon online store (fancy design & art books)
- Refurbished iPhone 12 64GB - $499 from Coles Best Buys marketplace
- Sony SRSXB23B wireless speaker - $79 from Amazon
- 50% off a range of LIFX smart light products with free delivery from Clear Deals
- Meross Smart Plug Wi-Fi Outlet with Energy Monitor (2-pack) - $25.89 from Amazon
- Diablo IV free to play until November 28th on Steam

## Image Of The Day

EP–133 K.O. II. is a portable and powerful synthesizer, sampler and composer. Featuring a fully reworked sequencer, brand new punch-in 2.0 effects and a workflow that lets you go from idea to track faster than ever. (Teenage Engineering)

## The End

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