### Issue 2154 - Friday 16th August, 2024

## In Today's Issue

- After 12 years fighting, NZ judge signs warrant for Kim Dotcom's extradition to USA
- APS mandates all government agencies make public statement on their use of AI
- Evie sacks 30% of staff after failing to get a foothold in fleet & home EV charging
- Minisforum has a cheap Oculink 4 eGPU dock
- Friday Forum Update
- Cheap Lenovo mini PC, refurb Sony headphones & earbuds, DJI Osmo action cam, TCN Netflix & Stan gift cards, TP-Link PoE switch

## The News

### After 12 years fighting, NZ judge signs warrant for Kim Dotcom's extradition to USA

Kim Dotcom has fought against extradition to the USA over the 12 years since his compound was spectacularly raided by NZ law enforcement, but his options ran out today with a NZ judge signing a warrant for his deportation to the USA to face trial for copyright infringement. Kim's Megaupload mates Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk did a deal and copped 30 and 31-month prison sentences in NZ, but Kim continued to fight. Over on X he said, "oops, don't worry I have a plan" and "I love New Zealand. I'm not leaving", then continuing to post as normal the rest of the day. God speed Mr. Dotcom and if this is all fresh news to you, check out Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web, a 2017 doco about the raid and trial up until that point.

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### APS mandates all government agencies make public statement on their use of AI

It's now mandatory for all government departments and agencies to "make publicly available a statement outlining their approach to AI adoption and use within six months" and "provide the public with relevant information about the agency's use of AI including information on compliance with this policy, measures to monitor effectiveness of deployed AI systems, [and] efforts to protect the public against negative impacts". The statement must also "be reviewed and updated annually or sooner, should the agency make significant changes to their approach to AI". This is part of a wider "safe and responsible use of AI" policy now mandated by the Australian Public Service (APS) that'll come into effect September 1st.

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### Evie sacks 30% of staff after failing to get a foothold in fleet & home EV charging

Electric car charging networking Evie sacked about 30% of its staff this week (32 out of approx 100 staff), citing a lack of growth in the market for fleet and depot charging, and an extremely competitive home charging market as the reasons why. According to CEO Chris Mills, "there has been not much of a follow on from corporates after an initial bump. It's just not where it needs to be for us to absorb costs" and that "home charging is a pretty competitive field. There is very little barrier to entry". Mills also reckons "we're on the precipice of a big change, but there is an enormous amount of FUD. Those people who have been anti-EV have ramped up their rhetoric. That has had its impact". I'm sure Evie's main investor, Trevor St. Baker, taking a massive haircut on the fire sale of beleaguered Tritium, who he was also a major investor in, had an impact too.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Minisforum has a cheap Oculink 4 eGPU dock

I haven't paid attention to eGPUs lately, but Minisforum has a new eGPU dock for only US$109 including shipping & GST to Australia. The DEG1 uses OCuLink to plug into your computer, which is pretty common these days on high-end mini PCs. You gotta buy your own PSU but that's pretty easy (tip: get a modular one). This would let you use a mini PC or handheld gaming console (e.g: ROG Ally) as a high power gaming rig when you want it instead of having it sitting idle when you're not gaming, or even share it between multiple computers. Pretty cool! ETA PRIME has a great review of it over on YouTube.

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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.

- bym007 has some questions about the Frigate NVR software package
- holmesrg kicked off a fresh web browser discussion thread
- lenjet wants to add some reverse cycle split systems to their new home and is after some advice on which brand to choose
- Rowdy wants a new computer chair that's not a piece of shit but also not thousands of dollars
- daft009 is struggling to get AI image generators to make accurate illustrations of factories and production lines, I think

## Bargains

- Lenovo ThinkStation P330 Tiny (i5-9400, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) - $223.27 from Australian Computer Trader's eBay store
- Refurb Sony WF-1000XM5 ANC Wireless Earphones - $206.67 from Sony's eBay store
- Seconds Sony WH-1000XM5 or Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones - $322.87/$248.17 from Sony's eBay store
- DJI Osmo Action 4 Standard Combo - $386.10 from Mobileciti
- 1,000 bonus Flybuys points on TCN, Netflix & Stan gift cards at Coles next week
- TP-Link LS105GP 5-port PoE gigabit switch - $35 from Amazon

## Image Of The Day

This manual is designed for people who want to learn to program in Apple's Applesoft BASIC. With this manual, and an Apple computer, and a bit of your time and attention, you will find that there is nothing difficult about learning how to program a computer. At first, as with anything new, programming will be unfamiliar, but this manual was designed to alleviate any apprehension you might have. First of all, there are no hidden secrets that you have to know before you can read this manual. Everything is revealed, and only one thing at a time is explained. If you start at the beginning, try everything as it comes along, and make up your mind to take your time, it is pretty much guaranteed that you will learn how to program. (Jason Scott / Internet Archive)

## The End

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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.