### Issue 1714 - Monday 17th October, 2022

## In Today's Issue

- USA increases Chinese semiconductor restrictions
- Meta's Horizon Worlds is losing the little user traction is had
- Elon Musk threatens Ukraine with cutting off Starlink, changes mind
- A photo and description of a very early iPod prototype
- Cheap Ring floodlight, Gigabyte & Kingston SSDs, TP-Link Wi-Fi 6 routers, GTA Trilogy for Xbox, refurb Dell SFF PC, Elgato mic arm, Vodafone trade-in bonus money

## The News

### USA increases Chinese semiconductor restrictions

The USA has been in a cold war with China over semiconductor manufacturing for the last few years, but a fresh set of rules laid down by the USA's Bureau of Industry and Security last week has made it virtually treason for US citizens to "support" Chinese semiconductor factories. Not just the latest and greatest stuff (which Taiwan's TSMC and South Korea's Samsung are in control of), but any technology that directly manufactures or supports the manufacture of relatively mainstream gear 128-layer NAND, 18nm DRAM and 16nm "logic chips with non-planar architectures". As a result, ASML has pulled all its employees with US citizenship out of China, leaving many factories in the lurch and and YMTC (who manufacture a huuuge amount of NAND) unable to make 3D NAND memory.

### Meta's Horizon Worlds is losing the little user traction is had

Meta proudly announced back in February that they hit 300,000 monthly active users in Horizon Worlds, their virtual reality/metaverse/Second Life clone we all love to make fun of. According to internal documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal, that figure plummeted to 200,000 a few months later, only 9% of worlds built by creators are ever visited by at least 50 people, men outnumber women in Horizon by two to one and most users don't return after one month of using the platform. I'm sure this has nothing to do with Meta's share price going from $320-$350 at the start of the year to the $140-$120 its hovered around the last few months.

### Elon Musk threatens Ukraine with cutting off Starlink, changes mind

On Friday, SpaceX formally requested the Pentagon take over funding Starlink in Ukraine, asking for US$400m to keep access going in the war zone for 12 months (the monthly RRP of every Starlink terminal). Elon then jumped on Twitter to defend the decision, saying the expectation SpaceX fund the service indefinitely with data usage "up to 100X greater than typical households" is "unreasonable" and that he is simply following the recommendation of a former Ukrainian diplomat, who told Elon to "fuck off" after old mate put up a poll suggesting Ukraine surrender to the Russians. 48 hours after asking the Pentagon for money, Elon changed his mind, tweeting "the hell with it.. even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we'll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free". Thank you Elon, you're the best, I like your memes they are very funny, great cars too. Occupy Mars lol!

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### A photo and description of a very early iPod prototype

Cop a look at this prototype iPod. According to Tony Fadell, it's a "P68/Dulcimer iPod prototype we (very quickly) made before the true form factor design was ready. Didn't want it look like an iPod for confidentiality — the buttons placement, the size — it was mostly air inside — and the wheel worked (poorly)". Nice photo of it compared to the iPod that eventually made it to market. I miss my iPods. I am an old man. Apple used to be cool.

## Bargains

- Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Plus - $179.40 at JB Hi-Fi
- Gigabyte AORUS 1TB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe M.2 SSD - $153 from Amazon UK
- Kingston KC3000 2TB Gen 4.0 M.2 SSD - $309 from PLE
- TP-Link Archer AX1500 Wi-Fi 6 Router - $87.44 from Amazon
- Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition for Xbox - $28 from Harvey Norman
- Refurb Dell Optiplex 7040 SFF PC (i5-6500, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD) - $159 from UN Tech
- Elgato Wave Mic Arm LP - $129 from Amazon
- Get $300 or $400 extra for an old phone trade-in via Vodafone if you're buying a Pixel 7 or Pixel 7 Pro

## The End

📻 Grey Flap - Pist.On

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