### Issue 1698 - Wednesday 21st September, 2022

Tomorrow is the National Day of Mourning and Friday is the AFL Grand Final public holiday in Victoria. That means no Sizzle until Monday the 27th of September! Thanks for the long weekend Lizzy.

## In Today's Issue

- Nvidia's new RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 flagship GPUs are very fast and very expensive
- It's almost impossible to tell YouTube's algorithm to avoid videos you don't want to see
- Windows 11 2022 update is out and has a decent amount of new stuff in it
- Mirror, mirror on the wall, what's the most private browser of them all?
- Cheap Rogue Amoeba Mac apps, Synology NAS, Fire Stick & Echo Dot combo, Apple Macintosh computers, iPhone 13 mini, Logitech 1080p webcam, Dell 4K monitor, UniFi Dream Router

## The News

### Nvidia's new RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 flagship GPUs are very fast and very expensive

Nvidia officially announced its new flagship graphics cards - the RTX 4090 and RTX 4080. They use the new Ada Lovelace GPU, manufactured on the cutting edge TSMC 4N process. I won't bore ya with all the technical stuff. There's no 3rd party benchmarks yet, but Nvidia reckon the RTX 4090 is "2x" faster in games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Microsoft Flight Simulator than the RTX 3090 Ti. The Ada GPUs support hardware AV1 video encoding and DLSS 3, "an AI-powered performance multiplier" that if the game supports it, can improve performance and image quality significantly. They'll go on sale October 12th with an eye watering $2959 price tag for the RTX 4090, $2219 for the 16GB RTX 4080 and $1659 for the 12GB RTX 4080.

### It's almost impossible to tell YouTube's algorithm to avoid videos you don't want to see

The results of Mozilla's "Does This Button Work? Investigating YouTube's ineffective user controls" research project have been published. Their two findings were "people feel that using YouTube's user controls does not change their recommendations at all" and "YouTube's user control mechanisms are inadequate for preventing unwanted recommendations". Simply put, using the "dislike" and "don't recommend channel" features don't properly prevent the recommendation videos of certain genres you don't want to see - for example, "one participant asked YouTube to stop recommending firearm videos — but was shortly after recommended more gun content. Another person asked YouTube to stop recommending cryptocurrency get-rich-quick videos, but then was recommended another crypto video". All those big brains at Google and this is the best they can do.

### Windows 11 2022 update is out and has a decent amount of new stuff in it

Microsoft has released the Windows 11 2022 update. It contains "Start menu folders, improvements to Snap Layouts, Live Captions across the entire OS, better touch gestures, and even a new Xbox controller bar". Microsoft also made "subtle design changes in the Windows 11 2022 Update, improving animations, icons, and more. Even dark mode has improved, with the Task Manager now sporting a new interface and a dark theme". Unfortunately, "Microsoft now requires internet connectivity during the initial device setup for the Pro edition, and if you're using a device for personal use, a Microsoft account will also be required for setup". As usual, Microsoft is doing a slow roll of this update over the next few weeks so don't panic if you can't see it in Windows Update right away.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Mirror, mirror on the wall, what's the most private browser of them all?

PrivacyTests.org is a handy site that compares browser privacy features to answer the questions "what data is each web browser leaking? Which web browsers offer the best privacy protections?". It is probably not a surprise that Chrome and Edge suck. The only browsers that get a tick in almost every column are Brave and Librewolf. Safari goes alright out of the box too. I like that they compare iOS and Android browsers, not just desktop. Brave on Android seems to be the most private. Probably breaks the most sites too.

## Bargains

- 20% off all Rogue Amobea's macOS audio editing apps (Audio Hijack, Fission, etc)
- Synology DiskStation DS920+ 4-Bay NAS - $767.20 from Shopping Express eBay store (don't forget the Seagate HDD gift card deal too)
- Fire Stick 4K Max + Echo Dot (3rd Gen) Bundle - $99 from Amazon
- 10% off all Macs at JB Hi-Fi (including Mac Studio), perfect timing with the 10% off JB Hi-Fi gift cards too
- Apple iPhone 13 Mini 128GB - $944 from Catch (can get Officeworks to price match)
- Logitech C922 Pro 1080p webcam - $92 from Etrade's eBay store
- Dell S2722QC 4K USB-C monitor - $421.85 from Dell's eBay store
- Ubiquiti UniFi Dream Router (UDR) - $388.74 from Sydneytec's eBay store

## The End

📻 Stevie - Spiderbait

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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.