### Issue 1859 - Friday 2nd June, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- Meta announces new Quest 3 VR/AR headset
- Amazon gets weak punishment from FTC for severe data privacy breaches
- Eating disorder AI chatbot gives bad advice & AI powered drone kills operator in simulation
- Japanese dudes get job at Amazon warehouse so they could get Zelda a few days early
- Friday Forum Update
- Cheap SanDisk Endurance Max microSD, PS5 controllers, UniFi AP, Samsung phones, AirPods 2, portable USB-C monitor, refurb Sony TVs, Anker speaker, WD datacentre SSDs, Belkin 3-in-1 Magsafe charger, Silicon Power SSD, NuPhy Studio mech keyboards & keycaps

## The News

### Meta announces new Quest 3 VR/AR headset

Meta's announced a new Quest VR headset. The Quest 3 is 40% slimmer than the Quest 2, have lal new controllers, dual 4MP RGB colour cameras for an even better passthrough/augmented reality experience and "a next-generation Snapdragon chipset developed in collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies" that's twice as fast as the one in the Quest 2. The Quest 3 will go on sale "later this year" for US$500. The Quest 2 gets a price cut to US$300 on June 4th. Interesting timing, considering everyone reckons Apple will reveal its own headset next week at WWDC.

### Amazon gets weak punishment from FTC for severe data privacy breaches

The USA's FTC gave Amazon a few slaps on the wrist this week. They found Amazon didn't delete Alexa voice recordings and geolocation data of children when users requested it and fined them US$25m and implement a few bare minimum privacy policies. Separately, Ring (which Amazon owns) got busted "compromising its customers' privacy by allowing any employee or contractor to access consumers' private videos and by failing to implement basic privacy and security protections, enabling hackers to take control of consumers’ accounts, cameras, and videos". The punishment for this? Refund the impacted customers. Piss weak considering the (in my opinion) severe breach of privacy.

### Eating disorder AI chatbot gives bad advice & AI powered drone kills operator in simulation

The National Eating Disorder Association runs a hotline for people needing help in the USA, sacked the four people running it and replaced them with an "AI-powered" chatbot called Tessa. Unsurprisingly, Tessa offered so much shit advice (500-1000 calories a day is healthy, lol) that they had to turn it off. Granted it was a crude chatbot, but still, the management didn't know it was shit. Meanwhile, the US Air Force simulated an AI-powered drone and told it to "destroy enemy's air defense systems, and attacked anyone who interfered with that order", so it tried to kill the operator that would provide final go/no-go confirmations. When it was told not to do that, it would take out the comms tower used by the operator so it couldn't receive a no-go message.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Japanese dudes get job at Amazon warehouse so they could get Zelda a few days early

Two blokes in Japan were so keen to get their hands on The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, they got jobs at an Amazon warehouse and stole copies of the game soon as it entered the building a few days before the public release. One guy immediately went home and played it. The other guy "had stolen a bunch of Zelda-related merchandise, including Amiibo and Zelda-themed Pro Controllers with the aim of reselling them on sites like Mercari". Totally separate guys too, they didn't know each other or devise a plan, they just really like Zelda.

## 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.

- Mitty wants to know what 2FA/MFA apps or methods you recommend
- Chuck needs to replace the external doors in their home and is contemplating a smart/internet connected locks for them
- ash wants to spend $1500 to buy a new GPU, but isn't sure which one to get
- Cubez needs a 16-port gigabit PoE switch and wants something fancy, but not too fancy
- I've created a thread of every image of the day featured in the newsletter that updates daily

## Bargains

- SanDisk Max Endurance 128GB microSDXC - $31.74 from Amazon
- PS5 DualSense controller - $69 from Amazon
- Ubiquiti Unifi U6 Pro Wi-Fi 6 Access Point - $223.20 from Wireless1's eBay store
- Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 128GB - $549 from Amazon
- Apple AirPods 2 with Charging Case - $165 from MyDeal
- Bimawen 15.6" 1080p IPS portable monitor with case & stand - $127 from Aliexpress
- Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 5G, 256GB, Bora Purple - $899 from Amazon
- Refurb Sony X90J 4K TV 55"/65"/75" - $989.10/$1169.10/$1649 from Sony's eBay store using Afterpay
- Anker Soundcore Motion+ portable Bluetooth speaker - $119.99 from Soundcore
- Western Digital Ultrastar DC SN640 7.68TB U.2 NVMe SSD - $566.10 from Silicon Centre's eBay store
- Belkin MagSafe 3-in-1 Wireless Charger - $128.43 from Amazon
- Silicon Power XPOWER XS70 4TB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD - $438 from Amazon Japan
- 20% off Storewide (Mechanical Keyboards, Keycaps) at NuPhy Studio

## Image Of The Day

The bombe was an electro-mechanical device used by British cryptologists to help decipher German Enigma-machine-encrypted secret messages during World War II. The US Navy and US Army later produced their own machines to the same functional specification, albeit engineered differently both from each other and from Polish and British bombes. In 1994 a group led by John Harper of the BCS Computer Conservation Society started a project to build a working replica of a bombe. The project required detailed research, and took 13 years of effort before the replica was completed, which was then put on display at the Bletchley Park museum. (I took this photo!)

## The End

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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.