Plus: Sometimes technology is just a really good bicycle bell ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

April 20, 2026 | Read online
# Vercel hacked, nurses using ChatGPT and Google's new fitness band is a threat to my Apple Watch Plus: Sometimes technology is just a really good bicycle bell
Edition 2545
"A-On office2" by Someone Not Awful is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
Mentioned in today’s edition: Vibecoding, Royal Darwin Hospital, Google Fitbit Air, NextDC, Anthropic, Apple Watch and Skoda. Plus, deals on Apple AirPods, DJI drones and Samsung Galaxy smartphones.
# The News
### Cloud developer platform Vercel popped
Popular vibecoding cloud platform Vercel has been breached, and someone has listed the company's data for sale on a hacking forum (BleepingComputer). Overnight, Vercel said that a "limited" number of its customers had been affected when a hacker used a third-party tool's Google Workspace OAuth access to get into their internal systems (Vercel). Someone claiming to be part of the formidable ShinyHunters group listed some internal data on a popular hacking forum and is asking for a $2m ransom.
The Sizzle: Top software companies are usually pretty straight up when it comes to disclosures about breaches. Vercel, to its credit, has been pretty quick and upfront about what's happened. But there's one part about its CEO's response to the hack that is super annoying:
Guillermo Rauch began on X by saying "Vercel stores all customer environment variables fully encrypted at rest. We have numerous defense-in-depth mechanisms to protect core systems and customer data", before going on to say that some of the data was not encrypted. I get you want to calm people down, but leading with “we’re actually very safe” when you got hacked reads as obfuscation and defensiveness. You should be leading with how you got hacked and who’s affected. I’m not really interested in hearing about how good your alarm system is if you were robbed because you left the back door open.
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### Hey ChatGPT, how much medicine does this guy need? Make no mistakes.
Darwin's busiest hospital is struggling so much with capacity that unsupervised younger nurses are reportedly using ChatGPT to figure out how much medication they should give to people (ABC News). Whistleblowers at the Royal Darwin Hospital have told the ABC that they're so understaffed and undertrained that they fear patients are suffering. One alarm bell? Junior staff are resorting to YouTube and ChatGPT for information on basic procedures:
I've come onto the ward and witnessed junior nurses on YouTube looking up how to do blood and how to put in cannulas, and using ChatGPT to calculate medications
a pseudonymous nurse whistleblower
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### Google's new screenless fitness tracker makes me want to ditch my constantly buzzing Apple Watch
Google is coming out with its own screenless fitness tracker to compete with products like the popular Whoop band (9to5Google). There's nothing too groundbreaking about the Fitbit Air — which is going to lean heavily on a subscription-based health software model — but it is an excuse to talk about how a few Sizzlers, including myself, are souring on their Apple Watches. I've personally found myself fed up with getting my notifications mirrored to a buzz on my wrist. I mean, my phone is in reach most of the time and, when it's not, it's usually because I don't want to be distracted. Without those notifications, the only part that I like is the health tracking — which begs the question, why not have a simpler health tracker without the distractions?
(Curious to hear if anyone else has become more anti-Apple Watch too?)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Leftovers
Australia:
ChatGPT ads start in Australia today (AdNews) Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party exempt from data breach penalty, even though it wasn’t registered at the time (Crikey, $) Australia takes social media ban global as expert warns of failure (AFR, $) Carsales follows customers into AI chat apps (iTnews) Data centre finance corner: NextDC raising $1.5b to meet unprecedented data centre spending plan (AFR, $) Firmus talks up sale-and-leasebacks in IPO pitch, eyes on client book (AFR, $)
Rest of World:
Scoop: NSA using Anthropic's Mythos despite blacklist (Axios) Nevada police may be tracking your phone's location without a warrant. Here's how. (AP News) Bosses say AI boosts productivity – workers say they're drowning in 'workslop' (The Guardian) Amodei's comments have sparked a massive debate on social media about whether AI alignment is even possible at this scale (Financial Times, $) ”Notion is leaking the email address of everyone who edits it” (X)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Oh, Also
### Sometimes technology is just a really good bicycle bell
As much as I love my noise-cancelling headphones, I always turn off the ANC when I'm going for a run. One thing I hadn't considered is how noise-cancelling might be a problem for people riding bikes. At least it was, until Skoda — sorry Škoda — engineered the DuoBell which "outsmarts" noise-cancelling by adding an additional resonator which alters the tone in a way that makes it harder to block. Very cool (until it leads to an arms race between bell and headphone manufacturers!)
Škoda DuoBell - The First Bike Bell Designed To Penetrate Noise-Cancelling Headphones
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Bargains
Electronics
Audio-Technica AT-SB727 Sound Burger - $149 at JB Hi-Fi (Down from $429) Apple AirPods 4 - $169 at Hub by Triforce JBL Charge 6 - $186 at Amazon (Down from $225) DJI Neo Drone (Black) Fly More Combo - $380 at Mobileciti via Lasoo (Down from $839) Samsung 55" LS03F The Frame QLED 4K Smart TV 2025 - $1185 at The Good Guys (Down from $1391) LG 65" OLED B5 AI UHD 4K Smart TV 2025 - $1920 at Appliance Central
Computing
Ugreen CAT8 Ethernet Cables 2m - $12.99 at Amazon (Down from $44.95) AMD Ryzen™ 5 9600x 6-Core, 12-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor - $245 at Amazon HP EliteBook 830 G9: Intel I7-1255u, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, Win11 Pro (Refurbished) - $799 at Computer & Laptop Sales Gaming PC: AMD 7800X3D, RTX 5090, B850, 64GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 1200W - $7759 at UMKLOGIX
Mobile
Yesido S27 3-Axis Phone Gimbal Stabiliser - $76.49 at eBay (Down from $89.99) Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra 256GB + Wireless Battery Pack - $1400 at PhoneX AU (Down from $2197)
# The End
😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson every weekday. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius.
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