### Issue 1916 - Wednesday 23rd August, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- Microsoft jams Python into Excel
- eSafety takes aim at generative AI
- Snowy Hydro doco, 404 Media, Texas Chainsaw Massacre game
- The rhetoric used to defeat digital rights progress
- Cheap Anker USB charger, Kingston SSD, Sennheiser earbuds, Beelink mini PC

## The News

### Microsoft jams Python into Excel

Python is coming to Excel. If you 1. know what that means and 2. are excited by it, then yep, you are a certified dork and I love you. According to a support document from Microsoft, "Python in Excel brings the power of Python analytics into Excel. Use it to process data in Excel with Python code. You type Python directly into a cell, the Python calculations run in the Microsoft cloud, and your results are returned to the worksheet". No local version of Python is included or needed, as everything runs in the cloud - which of course means internet access is required. Also it's only available in the Windows version of Excel (via the Microsoft 365 Insider Program & Beta Channel). No word if this will come to the Mac version of Excel.

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### eSafety takes aim at generative AI

The eSafety Commissioner released a position statement on how it thinks the generative AI technology harms kids and what it wants to see the companies making this stuff do to make it "safer", after it started getting reports of "sexually explicit content generated by students using this technology to bully other students". To be fair, their demands are mostly good - "appropriately resourced trust and safety teams, informed consent measures for data collection and use, regular evaluation and third-party audits", but others like "age-appropriate design and escalation pathways to engage with law enforcement" can easily be perverted to invade privacy and further turn the internet into a virtual Disneyland.

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### Snowy Hydro doco, 404 Media, Texas Chainsaw Massacre game

- SBS has a new 3-part documentary about the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme that starts tonight. As much as I am in awe of the project, it's kinda sad we are still clinging on to it as the last great infrastructure project Australia managed to pull off.
- A bunch of journos from Vice's Motherboard have made a new tech news publication, craftily titled 404 Media. They're off to a good start with an interesting piece about the AirPods Max condensation problem, why the vibration patterns on sex toys are so lame and a look inside an AI porn marketplace.
- Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a classic horror film from the 70s that's been so parodied and remade that the original seems kinda crap. Perhaps then, a new videogame based on said movie will be more interesting. Looks like you need to play it as a team with other humans to get the best experience. It's available now on PC, Xbox and PlayStation.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### The rhetoric used to defeat digital rights progress

Once again, Samantha Floreani has published a great opinion piece about the whataboutism of digital rights activism and their experience trying to fight it, comparing it to where climate change activism was years ago - "we are relying on convincing people with research and logic, and it's not working". The other side however simply has to invoke the "Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse", terrorists, paedophiles, drug dealers, and money launderers and immediately whatever you're proposing puts you on the same of groups everyone agrees are arseholes. It's tough work this stuff. Support the EFA & DRW.

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## Bargains

- Anker 543 A2046 slim 45W USB-C charger - $40 from Anker Australia
- Kingston FURY Renegade 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD - $185.37 from Amazon UK
- Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 wireless earbuds - $239.20 from Sennheiser's eBay store
- Beelink EQ12 mini PC (N100 CPU, 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD dual 2.5G LAN) - $259.15 from Amazon

## Image Of The Day

A promotional mail-away CD for Internet Explorer 4.0 given to people who signed up for it during Microsoft's Tech-Ed 97 event. This disc contains a full setup of Internet Explorer 4 as well as a collection of offline websites for places like MTV, ESPN, Warner Bros, and the like - that no longer work. (Foxhack / Internet Archive)

## The End

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