### Issue 2090 - Friday 17th May, 2024

## In Today's Issue

- NBN floats the idea of 2gbit FTTP/HFC services to ISPs, along with new NTDs
- Another day, another "commercial health information organisation" hacked and our private medical info leaked
- Reddit sells our data to OpenAI, Google gives Gemini to schoolkids, Slack to train its AI on customer data
- Winamp to release source code
- Friday Forum Update
- Cheap 34" Alienware OLED monitor, Optus pre-paid SIM, AirPods Max, Intel Optane, Diablo 4, Dell SFF PC, Plex Pass

## The News

### NBN floats the idea of 2gbit FTTP/HFC services to ISPs, along with new NTDs

NBN has begun "discussions on 2 Gbps download speeds, with industry consultation commencing today". They're proposing three new "hyper-fast" plans - 2000/200 for FTTP, 2000/100 for HFC (lol) and 2000/500 "business fibre" for FTTP. This would also necessitate a range of new NTDs (the little boxes/modems in your house) as the current ones are not capable of more than a gigabit. For residential users that'll be a "slimline, single-port NTD, which has the technical capability to accommodate future speeds up to 2.5 Gbps" and a "new, four-port model, which has the technical capability to accommodate future speeds up to 10 Gbps" for businesses. NBN's also tossing up if ISPs want a 100/100 Home Ultrafast plan. Yes. Yes to all this. Should have happened a decade ago. 2000/200 for $200/m would be a great plan, which is still overpriced compared to NZ, but still satisfactory for the downtrodden Australian residential internet enthusiast.

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### Another day, another "commercial health information organisation" hacked and our private medical info leaked

Not long after a coy little post on LinkedIn from the National Cyber Security Coordinator that a "commercial health information organisation" told them it was "the victim of a large-scale ransomware data breach incident", MediSecure put on its website that it got popped. This company operates a prescription exchange service (i.e paperless prescriptions) which obviously, if someone got a bunch of data from, would have information on the medicines people take - pretty sensitive info I reckon. MediSecure and the NCSC hasn't said what data was taken, how many people impacted or really anything beyond "early indicators suggest the incident originated from one of our third-party vendors". Both my wife and I have used this system as it was the only way our local GP would give us scripts, so that's cool. Can't wait for my recent medical history to be on the dark web through no fault of my own. Awesome.

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### Reddit sells our data to OpenAI, Google gives Gemini to schoolkids, Slack to train its AI on customer data

Three bits of AI-related news. First, OpenAI and Reddit have struck a deal so everything you post to Reddit will be slurped by OpenAI's insatiable data beast as well as Google's. Meanwhile, Google is going to give kiddies access to Gemini on their school provided Chromebooks, but a special, crappier version (Gemini 1.0 instead of the superior 1.5) with the promise it won't use the children's or school's data to train Gemini. Completing the "all your data belongs to us" trifecta is Slack's quiet change to their terms and conditions that unless the owner of your Slack instance opts-out, all the data you give Slack will be used to train Slack's AI/ML models. Of course they don't make it easy to opt-out (you have to email them instead of there being a button in the settings) and as usual with tech companies, consent is just implied rather than explicitly asked for. I've asked Slack to remove The Sizzle from its "global models", but I wish opt-in would be the default instead of opt-out. I'm sick of this shit being foisted on us.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Winamp to release source code

Winamp, yes it still exists, will release source code for the music player we know and love on the 24th of September 2024. They reckon Winamp "embodies a unique digital culture, aesthetic, and user experience" and by open sourcing the code they are "allowing its users to contribute directly to improving the product". I don't know what licence it will be, why they're doing this now, or even why someone would want this code beyond preservation, but it's cool nonetheless. Foobar2000 is probably the local music player of choice for the nerds (like me) that still have local music libraries. Anyway, this is a perfect excuse to share a link to the Winamp Skin Museum. Perfect for a trip down memory lane on a Friday arvo.

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## 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.

- Jusrus is wondering what it's like sharing a desktop Mac with multiple people these days
- chendo wants a 12.9" used iPad if anyone's got one they wanna sell
- hammy's going to a few countries in Asia and asks if they should go with Optus roaming for $5/day, local SIMs or a travel eSIM
- ausfestivus is after an automatic light for a small closet under a staircase that's mains powered
- A few folk tried out RetroArch on their Apple TVs and found the UI kinda lame and fiddly to load up ROMs

## Bargains

- Alienware AW3423DWF 34" 3440x1440 QD-OLED gaming monitor - $1,171.33 from Dell
- Get $100 cashback via Cashrewards on a $260 pre-paid Optus SIM (365-day, 260GB data, 5G)
- Apple AirPods Max - $699 at Umart (can get Officeworks to price beat down to $664.05)
- Intel Optane P1600X 118GB PCIe NVMe SSD - $96.56 or 2x for $181.53 from Amazon USA
- Diablo 4 Standard Edition for PC - $54.95 from Battle.net
- Dell Optiplex 3080 SFF PC (i5-10500, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) - $349 from Metrocom
- Plex Pass Lifetime - $128 from Plex

## Image Of The Day

As NASA's two Voyager spacecraft travel out into deep space, they carry a small American flag and a Golden Record packed with pictures and sounds -- mementos of our home planet. This picture shows John Casani, Voyager project manager in 1977, holding a small Dacron flag that was folded and sewed into the thermal blankets of the Voyager spacecraft before they launched 36 years ago. Below him lie the Golden Record (left) and its cover (right). In the background stands Voyager 2 before it headed to the launch pad. The picture was taken at Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Aug. 4, 1977. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

## The End

📻 Sappy - Nirvana

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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.