Plus: Turn any device with a command line into a file server ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

November 12, 2025 | Read online
# Softbank goes all in on OpenAI, shameless game influencers, VIC's "jobs pipeline running under the sea" Plus: Turn any device with a command line into a file server
Edition 2459
Hacker No. 7 (March 4, 1987)
Hello old friends! Anthony here filling in for a day while Cam is busy doing God's work (technology journalism). I hope you're doing well, I miss you all, take care and enjoy today's issue, I had fun writing it.
# The News
### Softbank sells its entire Nvidia stake so it can invest more in OpenAI
SoftBank sold all of its Nvidia holdings (US$5.3b) and a big chunk of its T-Mobile shares (US$9.17b) so it can go all-in on OpenAI to the tune of US$22.5b. Softbank's CFO said that "Arm and OpenAI are powering SoftBank Group toward our goal of becoming the No.1 platform provider for the Artificial Super Intelligence era". On the same day, JP Morgan released a report saying "to drive a 10% return on our modeled AI investments through 2030 would require ~$650 billion of annual revenue into perpetuity... which equates to $34.72/month from every current iPhone user". The only question in my mind is will the AI bubble pop, leaving behind a horrible mess on the wider economy impacting us all for a decade, or will AI hype slowly deflate and we allow the shysters to save face while they move on to the next grift?
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### The line between journalist and influencer has never been thinner
Shannon Grixti got busted by Mediawatch running affiliate links and taking money from brands like Asus and Lenovo to promote gaming devices on his personal social media channels as well as acting as a paid brand ambassador in the media, while at the same time writing about those devices and products in other media outlets without disclosing those relationships. I could write thousands of words about the sordid consumer electronics "journalism" industry, so I'll stick to saying that what Shannon's doing is basically the status quo now. I can't name an Australian impartial full-time professional technology reviewer and we, as technology enthusiasts and consumers, are all worse off because of it.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### New submarine cable will fix trains between Geelong and Melbourne
SUBCO has begun work on SMAP, "a new transcontinental submarine cable system connecting Sydney, Melbourne (Torquay), Adelaide and Perth". It'll connect Equinix SY4/5 in Sydney, NextDC M3 in Melbourne, NextDC A1 in Adelaide and Equinix PE3 in Perth across 16 pairs of fibre optic cable and will be the "world's first zero carbon long-haul subsea cable system". Good stuff, but what interested me is the Victorian state government taking credit, saying it "secured" the cable. What did the state government do? Was SUBCO gonna build this and just skip Victoria? The press release also says that SUBCO & VicTrack are going to build an unrelated to SMAP fibre network between Melbourne and Geelong, "boosting V/Line’s operational capacity and delivering benefits for commuters" - pardon me? Am I missing something here or is the Victorian government talking shit?
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### It’s never been easier to share files thanks to Copyparty
Copyparty is self-hosted "portable file server with accelerated resumable uploads, dedup, WebDAV, FTP, TFTP, zeroconf, media indexer, thumbnails++ all in one file" - what the fuck does this mean? You install this on a computer and it makes it easy for other people to access and take/give/view files to/from/on it. The beauty of it is that it runs on any old piece of shit computer, it can even run on a really low power SBC (e.g: Raspberry Pi) off a battery or solar, or a $10/yr VPS behind NAT in a country not known for giving a damn about copyright. I bet someone cooler and with more friends than me could do something very interesting with this piece of software.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Viofo A229 Pro front & rear 4K dashcam & hardwire kit - $308 from Aliexpress 10% off Kayo gift cards via Giftz Vodafone 365-day 220GB pre-paid SIM - $139.30 after cashback via ShopBack & Vodafone $110 cashback via TopCashback on Superloop NBN plans that can be stacked with Superloop’s Black Friday deals - e.g: 500/50 for $46.67/m for 6 months. Hifiman Edition XS audiophile headphones - $313 from Aliexpress when paying via PayPal AMD Ryzen 5 7500F AM5 CPU - $150 from Aliexpress when paying via PayPal AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D or AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPUs - $397/$602 from Aliexpress
# The End
😎 Today’s Sizzle was written by Anthony “decryption” Agius, but usually Cam Wilson writes it and sends it out every weekday.
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