### Issue 1913 - Friday 18th August, 2023

Thanks Raj for handling The Sizzle in my unplanned absence. He might pop up again randomly next week.

## In Today's Issue

- LK-99 reproduction experiments conclude it isn't a room-temp superconductor
- Telstra made a tidy profit but will jack up phone plan pricing anyways
- 7-11 to deploy computer vision checkouts, Ape NFT investors sue Sotheby's, Spotify has a white noise problem
- Use GPT-3 to help you with Linux command line stuff
- Friday Forum Update
- Cheap Sony headphones, Kingston SSD, Steam Deck, Apple TV, Optus 5G & Sport combo, TCL Mini LED TV

## The News

### LK-99 reproduction experiments conclude it isn't a room-temp superconductor

Now that a bunch of scientists have a crack at trying to make LK-99, that material from South Korea that was hyped as a viable room temperature superconductor, Nature is now saying LK-99 probably is not the superconductor of our dreams. A lab in Germany managed to make "pure, single crystals of LK-99" and determined that "LK-99 is not a superconductor, but an insulator with a resistance in the millions of ohms — too high to run a standard conductivity test" and that "the hints of superconductivity seen in LK-99 were attributable to Cu2S impurities, which are absent from their crystal". I don't know what that means, but I do know that handheld quantum computers, gigawatts of electricity over hair thin cables and maglev trains are not happening any time soon.

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### Telstra made a tidy profit but will jack up phone plan pricing anyways

Telstra announced their results for the 2022-2023 financial year yesterday and they made a bumper $2.1b profit, up 13.3% compared to last year. The mobile phone part of the business made up almost half of Telstra's revenue and ARPU for postpaid is up, along with profit margins. Despite this, Telstra still plans to jack up the price "in line with the consumer price index", blaming it on an increase in the costs of doing business. Mentioned in the results is a neat stat that mobile data use is up 35% and 41% of Telstra's mobile traffic is on 5G. Telstra also decided that it will not be selling off its majority stake in InfraCo Fixed (the holding company that owns all of Telstra's fixed line infrastructure - Amplitel is the holding company that owns all its mobile phone towers) saying that there is "strong customer demand for our infrastructure". No shit. People need internet and Telstra has a lot of internet.

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### 7-11 to deploy computer vision checkouts, Ape NFT investors sue Sotheby's, Spotify has a white noise problem

- 7-Eleven is gonna try do what Amazon is doing in the USA with their computer-vision based "Go" convenience stores, where you just walk out with your items and payment is made automatically. They're gonna use something called "Grabandgo" in 10 stores by the end of 2024 and it will be tied to using a new app called My 7-Eleven App Pay and Go 2.0.
- A group of "investors" that purchased Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs in 2021 are suing auction house Sotheby's. They argue Sotheby's colluded with Yuga, the creator of the NFTs, to run a "deceptive auction" in cahoots with FTX/Sam Bankman Fried, to juice up the price and increase trading volume of the NFTs (that would benefit Yuga & FTX), with Sotheby's hiding SBF's name on purpose to avoid upsetting the NFT community.
- An article in Bloomberg reckons that if Spotify added a feature to play white noise, relaxing sounds and that kinda thing, they'd increase their profits by US$38m. This is because Spotify is paying out that much money in ads within podcasts designed to help people sleep or relax. It also doesn't help that Spotify's algorithm has been recommending these podcasts to users.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Use GPT-3 to help you with Linux command line stuff

I've been using Linux regularly for over 20 years, but I still forget how to do basic stuff at the command line. Oh-heck combines GPT-3 and the command line to help you remember how to do stuff. Simply type, oh-heck "how do I stop all the running Docker containers then delete them?" and it'll ask GPT-3, present the prompt to you and ask if you want to do it. How cool is that?! AI finally good for something, unlike the stupid blockchain. It costs money (US$4/m) which makes sense considering the GPT-3 API isn't free. Works on macOS as well if you're a Terminal jockey in the walled garden.

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## 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.

- lisalt is after a smart watch to remotely monitor the vital signs of their ill father overseas
- tuey wants some new wireless earbuds to use on a Windows laptop with a focus on microphone quality
- zuccs has made a list of public websites that are blocking ChatGPT/OpenAI from scraping their content
- netizen wonders if Intel Macs are still worth anything these days and who would buy one now
- gunzel needs help reading data off some old SCSI hard drives and wonders how to do that in 2023

## Bargains

- Sony WF1000XM5B wireless headphones - $356.15 from Sony's eBay store when using Afterpay
- Kingston KC3000 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD - $183.60 from JW Computers eBay store when using Afterpay
- Valve Steam Deck 64GB - $686 from My-Phonez eBay store when using Afterpay
- Apple TV 4K Wi-Fi + Ethernet 128GB - $210.80 from Techciti_estore's eBay store with Afterpay
- Optus 30GB/month 5G phone plan, plus Optus Sport subscription & 6 months Amazon Prime - $31.49/m for first 12 months
- TCL C845 65" Mini LED 4K TV - $1,491.60 from The Good Guys eBay store

## Image Of The Day

Your Fun & Knowledge Telephone Book - an educational book by Telecom Australia from the 1980s. (cuddlyloner)

## The End

📻 The Only Thing They Fear is You (From "Doom: Eternal") - FamilyJules

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