### Issue 1723 - Friday 28th October, 2022

## In Today's Issue

- The lunatic is in control of the asylum (Elon completes Twitter purchase)
- Apple and Amazon hand in their quarterly financial results
- Australian Clinical Labs hacked, research shows gamer kids superior to non-gamers, Bumble open sources penis detection AI
- A rant about Apple's App Store and the 30% cut
- Friday Forum Update
- Cheap 500/50 NBN, Skyrim Special Edition, eufy Floodlight Cam, Chromecast 4K, Dell 7060 micro PC, refurb AirPods Max, refurb DJI Osmo Mobile 3 gimbal combo

## The News

### The lunatic is in control of the asylum (Elon completes Twitter purchase)

The New York Times is reporting that "Elon Musk has started cleaning house at Twitter", firing "Parag Agrawal, Twitter's chief executive, Ned Segal, the chief financial officer, Vijaya Gadde, the top legal and policy executive, and Sean Edgett, the general counsel". Elon posted an open letter to Twitter's advertisers, saying that "Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape where anything is allowed" and that he purchased Twitter not to "make more money", but "to try to help humanity, whom I love". It's official, Elon owns Twitter. I really like Twitter so I hope he makes it better, not worse, but it's Elon Musk, so who the fuck knows what'll happen. Charlie Warzel has a good attempt at guessing in this article for the Atlantic.

### Apple and Amazon hand in their quarterly financial results

Today is Apple and Amazon's turn to show the world the insane amount of money they generate each quarter. Apple cracked $90b of revenue and made $20b of profit - their best Q4 earnings ever. Amazon generated $127b of revenue (and had the biggest Prime Day sale ever), but actually lost $2.5b in net income (i.e: profit) globally. Amazon's share price dropped 20% overnight. After having looked at Meta, Microsoft, Alphabet and now Apple and Amazon's latest quarters, the clear trend is that all of them are taking hits, but some more than others. Meta and Alphabet's ad businesses are struggling and are probably past their peak - finally. Amazon, Microsoft and Apple are much stronger, but they are not immune to macro economic trends like foreign exchange rates, inflation and rising interest rates impacting their customers.

### Australian Clinical Labs hacked, research shows gamer kids superior to non-gamers, Bumble open sources penis detection AI

- Australian Clinical Labs, the mob who study my piss and blood whenever I'm sick, got hacked. It actually happened in Feburary and was reported to the OAIC in March. ACL didn't think any data was stolen, but in June was informed by the ACSC that their data was on the dark web. In the wake of Medibank's issues, they decided to inform investors and the ASX only yesterday.
- A study by the University of Vermont reckons kids that play video games did better on tests that "measure attention, impulse control, and memory" compared to non-gamers. There was also "more activity in brain regions involved with attention and memory when they were performing the tests" in the gamer kids. I fucken told you Mum, I fucken told ya.
- Dating app Bumble has open sourced Private Detector - "an AI-powered feature that detects and blurs lewd images and a warning is sent to users about the photo before they open it". They've done this because "there's a need to address this issue beyond Bumble's product ecosystem and engage in a larger conversation about how to address the issue of unsolicited lewd photos".

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### A rant about Apple's App Store and the 30% cut

It's tough to feel sorry for Meta and NFT traders, but Apple has managed to do just that in their attempts to squeeze every last cent of the App Store. What Meta call "boosts" in Instagram or Facebook (paying to get your post higher priority in the algorithm) now must happen via an in-app purchase, with Apple collecting 30% along the way. NFT purchases, same thing - a 30% cut for Apple, even though Apple did little to fuck all to generate demand or develop the product/service that lead to the purchase being made. Apple is rent-seeking. They like to claim that without the App Store and Apple's devices these companies wouldn't have a business, so they deserve a cut - which is true - but 30% is taking the piss? As much as I hate Meta, Apple isn't responsible for 30% of Meta's income via an iOS app. If Apple simply lowered their IAP cut to 5%, businesses and developers would be happy to use it, IAP usage overall will increase and the customer gets a superior experience.

## 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.

- Jimi-W wants to know where their fellow office drones buy good looking, hard wearing, but also affordable work wear
- jez kicked off a thread about Microsoft's ARM developer box and wezm mentioned they've purchased one and can run tests on it for ya when it arrives
- adamxweb is after a 4K or better gaming monitor that can also double as a TV, preferably OLED
- daft009 would like to pay someone to help them set up Microsoft 365 for their business
- toothbrush needs an Australian accountant that works remotely and is familiar with overseas freelance work

## Bargains

- nbn 500/50 - $109.90/m for 6 months from Tangerine Telecom
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Ed for PC - $13.73 on Steam
- eufy Floodlight Cam 2K Pro - $359 from Amazon
- Google Chromecast 4K with Google TV - $69.95 on the MyDeal app
- Dell Optiplex 7060 Micro PC (i5-8500t, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, wi-fi) - $272.22 from Bneacttrader's eBay store
- Refurbished Apple AirPods Max - $474.20 from Allphones eBay store
- Refurbished DJI Osmo Mobile 3 Gimbal Combo - $69 + delivery from Kogan

## Image Of The Day

Attorney Anthony Martin of the Committee to Fight Microsoft Corp. distributes leaflets outside a downtown Manhattan computer store 24 Aug calling for consumers not to purchase Microsoft's new Windows 95 software. Martin claims that Windows 95 is not an "upgrade" and will require consumers to purchase costly additional memory for their computers.
(Getty Images)

## The End

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## Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land

The Sizzle is created on Wathaurong land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.