### Issue 1634 - Thursday 23rd June, 2022

## In Today's Issue

- Australian privacy activists complain to government about Bunnings use of in-store facial recognition
- Australian company makes fancy quantum processor to simulate individual atoms
- Twitter Notes, maglev trains on conventional tracks, Alexa can impersonate the dead
- Electronic Design Automation is part of the magic that is modern semiconductor manufacturing
- Cheap Sony camera, Oeck VPN, Nintendo Switch, The Sizzle, DJI Mini SE, PS5 controller, Sonos Sub, Sonos One SL, 5m EV charging cable, ThinkPad, Dell laptop bag, Sony headunits, Kmart monitor lights, Pixel 6 Pro & Telstra plan

## The News

### Privacy activists complain to government about Bunnings use of in-store facial recognition

After the news last week that Bunnings and other large retailers are quietly using mass facial recognition in their stores, Electronic Frontiers Australia asked Bunnings for more info. From what EFA was told, they surmised (Bunnings would neither confirm nor deny) that Bunnings is taking a faceprint of everyone that enters their stores in order to match it with a list of people banned from their stores. This probably constitutes "sensitive information" under the Privacy Act, which has strict rules on what is valid consent for collecting such data that Bunnings and other retailers are not adhering to. Today EFA, Digital Rights Watch and the Australian Privacy Foundation have made an official complaint to the Australian Information Commissioner that will hopefully trigger an investigation.

### Australian company makes fancy quantum processor to simulate individual atoms

Australian startup Silicon Quantum Computing reckons they've invented the world's first "quantum processor at the atomic scale to simulate the behaviour of a small organic molecule". This allows them to "simulate the precise location of atoms in the polyacetylene chain". Apparently this was a challenge set in 1959 by the famous theoretical physicist Richard Feynman and is a Big Deal in the physics world. Nature has published an article about their accomplishment. It's way over the top of my head so I'll nod and smile and congratulate these researchers on their hard work. The federal government found it exciting enough to publish their own press release and remind us that they're supporting quantum computing industry.

### Twitter Notes, maglev trains on conventional tracks, Alexa can impersonate the dead

- Twitter is working on a long-form blogging featured called Notes. We've literally come full circle from blog posts, to tweets, back to blog posts again. You can even add images and videos, as well as tweets into the post. It's still a trial for select users but I reckon it'll be popular enough to go mainstream.
- The EU has given a 2.5m euro grant to Nevomo, who have developed "a passive magnetic levitation train operating on existing railway tracks at speeds up to 550 kph". The cash will let them do more testing and get a full scale rig going. Maglev trains but on existing tracks that moves fast as fuck! I hope it works.
- Amazon showed off a creepy new feature for Alexa that can "synthesize short audio clips into longer speech". The demo they gave was a dead grandmother reading a bedtime story to her grandson. All they need is one minute of speech to do this. People, please, Black Mirror was not an instruction manual, but entertainment at best and a warning at worst.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Electronic Design Automation is part of the magic that is modern semiconductor manufacturing

When semiconductors were new they were designed on paper, but now CPUs and other types of microchips are way too complex for that. Even a "basic" chip, like say the one inside your monitor that's responsible for accepting a HDMI signal from a computer, is more complicated than any sane human can design using a piece of paper. Electronic Design Automation is the technology responsible for making these convoluted chip designs with billions of transistors possible and Asianometry has a great article and video explaining the basics of how damn important EDA is to semiconductor manufacturing and therefore, to society at large.

## Bargains

- Sony A7 IV camera (body only) - $3299 from Camera House's eBay store
- 12 Months Residential IP Smartrouting VPN - $103 from Oeck
- Nintendo Switch Console Grey - $330.68 from The Gamesmen's eBay store
- 15% off Yearly Subscription to The Sizzle - $42.50 from The Sizzle
- DJI Mini SE Drone - $378 from Amazon
- Sony PS5 DualSense controller - $69 at Amazon and Target
- Sonos Sub Gen 3 Black - $899 from Sonos
- Sonos One SL - $249 from Sonos
- 22kw 5m Type 2 EV charging cable - $224.10 from EVSE
- Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 4 (AMD Ryzen 5 5625U, 16GB DDR4, 512GB SSD) - $999 from Lenovo
- Dell Ecoloop 15" laptop backback - $18 from Dell
- Sony XAV-AX5000 CarPlay/Android Auto headunit (and some other Sony headunits) - $495 from Bankstown Sound & Marine
- Anko LED Monitor Light with webcam/without webcam - $19/$9 from Kmart
- Google Pixel 6 Pro on a 12m 100GB Telstra plan - $399 upfront then $69/m (total cost $1227)

## The End

📻 Heavy Business - Magic Dirt

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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.