### Issue 1837 - Wednesday 3rd May, 2023

Just a reminder that The Sizzle has gift cards - $70 and they get an entire year of the newsletter and forum access. Please buy dozens, ideally one for every person in your workplace. Thanks!!

## In Today's Issue

- New IEFT standard to detect unwanted location trackers championed by Apple & Google
- Hollywood writers go on strike and one of their demands is to make sure studios don't use AI to replace them
- Utah blocked from accessing Pornhub & other porn sites as Mindgeek refuses to implement dodgy ID requirements
- Here's a good spreadsheet to compare the TCO of an electric car to an ICE car
- Cheap refurb Dell monitors, laptops and micro PCs, Samsung Galaxy S22, Amaysim 60GB 365-day SIM, Amazon Kindles, OnePass subscription,

## The News

### New IEFT standard to detect unwanted location trackers championed by Apple & Google

Apple and Google have teamed up to create a new industry standard to "help combat the misuse of Bluetooth location-tracking devices for unwanted tracking" and allow for "Bluetooth location-tracking devices to be compatible with unauthorized tracking detection and alerts across iOS and Android platforms". Samsung, Tile, Chipolo, eufy Security, and Pebblebee have "expressed support" for the standard too, along with various safety and advocacy groups like the National Network to End Domestic Violence and the Center for Democracy & Technology. Apple and Google expect the standard to be in production by the end of 2023. Better late than never. The IEFT's website has a draft of the proposed standard for Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers.

### Hollywood writers go on strike and one of their demands is to make sure studios don't use AI to replace them

The Writers Guild of America are on strike after negotiations with studios stopped, with one of the sticking points being the use of AI. The writers want a ban on AI being used as "source material" or for re-writing work and prevent AI from claiming credit for writing and therefore, lock out humans from getting the credit and the money an author would get. They also want to make sure AI isn't used to generate "literary material" (i.e: screenplays, outlines, etc). The Guild isn't totally anti-AI, as they think it's a useful tool in helping writers, but it seems to me they don't want to see humans removed from the writing process and studios trying to get out of paying writers by using AI. God speed.

### Utah blocked from accessing Pornhub & other porn sites as Mindgeek refuses to implement dodgy ID requirements

Pornhub, along with all the other MindGeek brands like Brazzers, YouPorn, and Redtube have blocked the entire state of Utah from accessing the world's most popular porn sites, instead of implementing ID-based age verification as required by the state's new laws. In a statement uploaded to Vimeo, PornHub says that "the best and most effective solution for protecting children and adults alike is to identify users by their device and allow access to age restricted materials and websites based on that identification". Unsurprisingly, searches for VPNs in Utah have increased substantially. This is the exact kinda thing our beloved eSafety Commissioner wants to see implemented here,

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Here's a good spreadsheet to compare the TCO of an electric car to an ICE car

Solar Quotes has the best EV ownership calculator I've ever seen. It's an Excel spreadsheet that takes into consideration every aspect of car ownership and lets you compare an EV you might be interested in buying to an ICE vehicle to see what the total cost of ownership is over the years. Even though you might be in the market for a $30k-$50k ICE car, an EV in the $50k-$70k price range might actually be cheaper if you intend to keep it for a few years. The only thing missing is the Victorian EV road usage tax, which can really cramp an EV's savings at 2.6c per km.

## Bargains

- Refurb Dell P2312HT 23" 1920x1080 monitor (no stand) - $50.70 from Technology Locker's eBay store
- Refurb Dell Latitude 7490 laptop (14" 1080p, i5-8350U, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) - $311.22 from smg-au's eBay store
- Samsung Galaxy S22 5G 128GB - $899 from JB Hi-Fi
- Amaysim 60GB 365-day pre-paid SIM with unlimited calls & SMS - $81.50 via Cashrewards
- Amazon Kindles all on sale, not the cheapest they've ever been, but been a while since they were this low
- Apple MacBook Air (M1 8-core SoC, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) - $1624 from Wireless1's eBay store
- 25% off a OnePass annual subscription - $30 from OnePass
- Refurb HP EliteDesk 400 G4 micro PC (i5-8500T, no RAM or SSD) - $178.62 from Pearl Laptop's eBay store
- Refurb Dell Optiplex 7060 micro PC (i5-8500T, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) - $248.82 from BNE ACT Trader's eBay store
- Dell Optiplex 7060 SFF PC (i5-8500, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD & 500GB HDD) - $240.24 from Technology Locker's eBay store

## Image Of The Day

The following are scans of high quality polaroid photographs of the screen of the Xerox Star 8010 workstation on its launch in 1981. (Digibarn Computer Museum)

## The End

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