### Issue 1768 - Thursday 19th January, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- Microsoft & Amazon announce huge job cuts
- Apple brings back the HomePod smart speaker
- Many AI projects operate on the back of low paid workers
- RIP to MSY's parts.pdf
- Cheap QNAP NAS, AirPods Pro, Sony OLED TVs, KRK speakers, Last of Us PS4, Samsung Pro Plus microSD, Seagate 18TB HDD, refurb Sony headphones

## The News

### Microsoft & Amazon announce huge job cuts

Microsoft's announced they're sacking 10,000 employees and Amazon's started another round of firings in its quest to be 18,000 people lighter. Microsoft claims the ousting of 4.5% of its global workforce is in "response to macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities". Reading about these two announcements on Hacker News (Microsoft - Amazon) and there's loads of comments from employees saying they only found out about this in the news. The realisation that they're just tiny cogs in a gigantic machine belonging to two of the wealthiest companies to ever exist in the history of humanity is hitting hard. CNBC reels off a list of layoffs made by big tech companies lately. There's gonna be lots of skilled tech people looking for work!

### Apple brings back the HomePod smart speaker

Apple has released a new version of the full-sized HomePod. The 2nd-gen unit is a little smaller, but according to The Verge, sounds just as good, if not better than the 1st-gen HomePod. You can pair two of them up for stereo audio, but you can't mix and match 1st-gen and 2nd-gen HomePods. Mid-year there will be an update to add Sound Recognition, "allowing the speaker to listen for smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and send a notification directly to a user's iPhone". There's a temp and humidity sensor built-in to the new HomePods that also exists on the HomePod mini and will be unlocked in the next version of the HomePod software. The new HomePod goes on sale on the 3rd of Feb for $479 each.

### Many AI projects operate on the back of low paid workers

Time has uncovered a dirty little secret about OpenAI's ChatGPT - the labeling of "violence, hate speech, and sexual abuse" examples to avoid ChatGPT embarrassing itself is done by thousands of lowly paid workers in Kenya, Uganda and India. Loads of tech companies, OpenAI included, outsource this boring and tedious task to Sama. Their pitch is "ethical AI" training, taking US$12.50/hr from OpenAI and give $1.32-$2/hr to African workers, making a massive profit along the way. Dunno what's worse - Sama's gouging/exploitation or the fact cutting edge AI technology is useless without a digital sweatshop of humans to make it happen.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### RIP to MSY's parts.pdf

MSY seems to have recently discontinued production of its legendary "parts.pdf" pricelist. For almost 20 years, Aussie nerds wanting some PC parts or accessories at rock bottom prices with absolutely no customer service would hit up https://www.msy.com.au/Parts/parts.pdf and get a poorly laid out multi-page PDF containing prices for various PC bits and pieces. By all measures it was crap, but I loved it. Dense and no bullshit. I don't know when the PDF disappeared or why, but it ain't working now and OzBargain noticed recently too. It appears that QLD's Umart took over MSY at some point in October last year. Nothing is forever, but parts.pdf was with me all my adult life. I'll miss it.

## Bargains

- QNAP TS-464-4G 4-bay NAS - $674.70 from Shopping Express Clearance's eBay store
- Apple AirPods Pro Gen 2 - $336.80 from Sydneytec's eBay store
- Sony 77" A80K or 83" A90J 4K OLED TVs with bonus HTS100F soundbar - $5562.40/$7007.40 from JB Hi-Fi
- KRK Rokit 5 G4 Studio Monitor (pair) - $469 from Belfield Music
- Last Of Us Remastered for PS4 - $5 at Harvey Norman
- Samsung PRO Plus 128GB microSDXC - $27.79 from Amazon USA
- Seagate 18TB Exos X18 3.5" SATA HDD - $438 from Eastdigital HK's eBay store
- Refurbished Sony WH-1000XM5 noise cancelling headphones - $326.82 from Sony's eBay store

## Image Of The Day

Limor Fried in Adafruit's New York offices (Business Insider)

## The End

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