### Issue 2175 - Monday 16th September, 2024

## In Today's Issue

- NSWEduChat, a government LLM for teachers in NSW, is now available
- Powercor won't implement demand tariffs or "solar tax" in the near future
- Big tech data centres emitting more CO2 than they report while Microsoft sells AI to fossil fuel companies
- A cute Raspberry Pi case with RGB fans and side window
- Cheap Lenovo tablet, AirPods Pro, Hard Disk Sentinel, refurb Sony TVs, MacBook Pro 14", Massdrop x Sennheiser headphones, 1TB microSD card, Thank Goodness You're Here game, Vodafone & iPhone pre-order deals

## The News

### NSWEduChat, a government LLM for teachers in NSW, is now available

NSW announced wider access to NSWEduChat, a home cooked version of ChatGPT for teachers to "enhance their AI skills and digital literacy" and "automates administrative tasks, giving teachers more time to focus on personalised learning and student interactions". There's a cheery little video on the NSW Education Department's website where a teacher said they use it to "write permissions slips" and "tailor materials for students and their age group to make it more exciting". Another teacher said they use it in "return from suspension meetings" and another likes NSWEduChat because "it's a time saver and takes away the admin part of teaching", "giving me back time". All teachers in the state can use it now, but a trial for students is still ongoing due to "concerns about data privacy, student safety, the potential exposure to harmful or explicit content and content inappropriate for teaching and learning".

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### Powercor won't implement demand tariffs or "solar tax" in the near future

Good news for people living in the Powercor electricity distribution area (i.e: me and the other legends in Western Melbourne & Victoria) - they've released a draft regulatory proposal for 2026-2031 and there's no plans to introduce a dreaded demand tariff like in other parts of the country and no plans for mandatory "two way pricing" (aka the Sun Tax). This means homes with solar panels won't be forced to pay to export their solar power to the grid and won't have to pay a huge premium for an entire month's of electricity based on a spike in usage for an hour or two the month before. Thank fuck for that.

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### Big tech data centres emitting more CO2 than they report while Microsoft sells AI to fossil fuel companies

On the topic of renewable energy, a report from The Guardian claims that between "2020 to 2022 the real emissions from the 'in-house' or company-owned data centers of Google, Microsoft, Meta and Apple are likely about 662% – or 7.62 times – higher than officially reported", due to their "creative accounting" with renewable energy certificates and the rapid growth of compute heavy AI products. Meanwhile, The Atlantic did some digging and discovered that Microsoft is making things worse by selling AI products to companies like "ExxonMobil and Chevron as a powerful tool for finding and developing new oil and gas reserves and maximizing their production — all while publicly committing to dramatically reduce emissions".

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### A cute Raspberry Pi case with RGB fans and side window

Want your Raspberry Pi to look like a mini gaming rig, blinged out with LEDs and transparent side panel? Pironman has you covered. I kinda wish there was version of the Raspberry Pi but with like, desktop class performance. A Rasperry Pi form factor board, but with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite SoC that you could shove into a standard form factor case. Pico or Femto ITX or something like that for a really small, but upgradeable (RAM & SSD at least) PC rig. Also as an aside, I've been looking at building a PC lately and by far the hardest part of the process is finding a nice case that isn't full of RGB fans and a clear side panel. A couple exist but they're few and far between and actually cost more! Gamer aesthetic is so gross.

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## Bargains

- Lenovo Xiaoxin Pad Pro 2023 Android tablet - $300 from AliExpress
- Hard Disk Sentinel Professional - $29.70 from HDSentinel.com
- Apple AirPods Pro with Magsafe Case - $309 from Triforce (can get OW to price beat)
- Refurb/Seconds Sony X90L 4K TVs 75", 65" and 55" - $1749/$1401.65/$1145.65 from Sony's eBay store
- Apple 14" MacBook Pro (M3 Pro, 18GB RAM, 512GB SSD) - $3,199 from digiDirect (can also get OW to price beat)
- Massdrop X Sennheiser HD 6XX Headphones - $289 from Drop
- 1TB Samsung EVO Plus Gen2 microSD card - $130.40 from Amazon
- Thank Goodness You're Here! for PS4/PS5 - $21.56 from the PlayStation Store
- Go on a 36 month Vodafone $79 contract and get $1,299 off any iPhone 16
- Trade in an iPhone 12 or newer and buy an iPhone 16, get a bonus $250 Officeworks gift card on top of the trade-in value of your old phone

## Image Of The Day

From the 5 April 1969 edition of New Idea (HappySwordsman / Internet Archive)

## The End

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