### Issue 1900 - Tuesday 1st August, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- X's sloppy signage taken down while they reinstate antisemites and CSAM distributors
- News Corp Australia using AI to generate 3,000 articles a week
- NASA loses comms with Voyager 2, BBC sets up on Mastodon, 2 million new premises eligible for NBN upgrades
- Wipe the settings on the next printer you dump or you'll get hAx0r3d
- Cheap SSDs, Valve Steam Deck, Amaysim pre-paid, Mophie USB charger, Netgear digital photo frame

## The News

### X's sloppy signage taken down while they reinstate antisemites and CSAM distributors

You probably saw on social media that X put up a "giant, garishly lit X logo" on top of its office in San Francisco that the people living nearby rapidly complained about when it started illuminating their homes all night. It's gone now, but as is usual for Elon Musk, X did not get permission to install this structure and refused to let inspectors take a look so it could get permission, so it was probably improperly installed - a bad idea in a place like SF that is prone to earthquakes. A more cynical person than me could argue this stunt was a distraction from the fact X has re-instated the accounts of renown antisemite Kanye West and prolific child abuse distributor Dom Lucre, while threatening to sue the Center for Countering Digital Hate for exposing X's hypocrisy.

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### News Corp Australia using AI to generate 3,000 articles a week

At a news conference in Taiwan, News Corp Australia's boss told the crowd that a team of four staff (called Data Local) pump out 3,000 articles a week using generative artificial intelligence to "cover daily topics such as local weather, fuel prices, and traffic conditions", primarily in its "hyperlocal" mastheads, "typically in regions with a population of 15,000 or more people". Apparently they've used "automation" for years to generate this kinda content, but have boosted it with LLMs (I assume, they just called it AI and don't say what platform they employ) lately to make it better. Probably a good use for AI as getting a person to write this stuff is expensive, boring and tedious, but its kinda shit that News Corp doesn't say that stuff is generated by a bot, instead labelling the author as "Peter Judd" - News Corp's data journalism editor.

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### NASA loses comms with Voyager 2, BBC sets up on Mastodon, 2 million new premises eligible for NBN upgrades

- NASA "inadvertently" caused Voyager 2's antenna to point slightly away from Earth and as a result "is currently unable to receive commands or transmit data back to Earth". Bit of an issue when it is 20 billion kilometers away! It will automatically reset its orientation to point back here a few times a year. Next reset is due for October 15th - hopefully it has enough power remaining. Voyager 1 is still chugging along though, 24 billion km away. God speed to them both.
- The BBC has set up an "experimental" Mastodon server (social.bbc), collating posts from various BBC accounts. They note that "all Mastodon servers are responsible for their own moderation", meaning comments/replies left on BBC posts they need to moderate themselves. Will it be worth it for the BBC to DIY social media instead of using a 3rd party? That's what they'll hopefully find out. The Financial Times tried something similar a few months ago, but shut it down not long after as it was "more hassle than it's worth".
- NBN has added an additional 2 million premises in more suburbs to the list of areas eligible to upgrade from FTTN/FTTC to FTTP, hoping to get more punters on plans faster than 100mbit/s. A total of 4.36 million "Australian households have full fibre or are ready to order full fibre" and they're on track for 90% of Australian homes in the fixed-line footprint to have access to "Ultrafast" speeds. Reducing the price of these "Ultrafast" plans would also help I reckon.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Wipe the settings on the next printer you dump or you'll get hAx0r3d

Canon is now advising customers to wipe the settings on their wi-fi enabled printers before disposing of them, due to the security and privacy risks "if the printer memory is extracted by repair technicians, temporary users, or future buyers of the devices, allowing them to get the connection details for your Wi-Fi network". I honestly would never have thought to wipe the settings on a printer before dumping it on the nature strip (which I have seen very often!), but it makes sense, as if I grab the printer from outside your house, I know where the wi-fi network is located *and* the credentials to get in. I don't know how you extract the details from the printer but I can't imagine it being that hard.

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## Bargains

- Kingston KC3000 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD - $98.77 from Computer Alliance's eBay store
- WD Black SN850X 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD with or without heatsink - $195.62/$204.84 from Amazon USA
- Patriot P210 2.5" SATA SSD 2TB/1TB - $119.50/$61.65 from Amazon
- Valve Steam Deck 64GB - $655.20 from Mobileciti's eBay store
- Amaysim 365-day pre-paid SIM, 60GB data, unlimited calls & SMS + 1000 Everyday Rewards points - $99 at Woolworths
- Mophie Speedport 67W Dual Port GaN USB-C charger - $46 + delivery from Wireless1
- 21" Meural Canvas II (16" x 24" digital photo frame) - $899.10 from Netgear

## Image Of The Day

Virtual Environment Reality workstation technology 1989 (BonnieReal / Internet Archive)

## The End

📻 Time Bomb - Dismemberment Plan

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