### Issue 2217 - Friday 15th November, 2024

Thanks Raj for filling in while I was away! I might be taking more time off next week but I'll give you a heads up if that happens.

## In Today's Issue

- Comms Minister wants to add a Digital Duty of Care to Online Safety Act
- New QLD LNP govt to investigate dodgy PsiQuantum investment
- Waymo open to the public in LA, The Guardian leaves X, Meta fined over $1.3b by the EU again
- The M4 Mac mini sips electricity like a little bird
- Friday Forum Update
- Cheap BYD EVs, Sennheiser headphones, Amazon Fire TV, Denon AVR, refurb Dell SFF PC, Kings USB-C power pack, UniFi gear, Hubbl Glass TVs, Ultimate gift cards

## The News

### Comms Minister wants to add a Digital Duty of Care to Online Safety Act

A "Digital Duty of Care" concept is one of the key recommendations of an as-yet not public review of the Online Safety Act that was handed to the government by the eSafety Commissioner last week. According to a speech the comms minister gave on Wednesday night, updating the Online Safety Act with a Digital Duty of Care "will put the onus on industry to prevent online harms at a systemic level, instead of individuals having to enter at their own risk" and that "a Duty of Care is a common law concept and statutory requirement that places a legal obligation to take reasonable steps to protect others from harm... It is a proven, workable and flexible model".

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### New QLD LNP govt to investigate dodgy PsiQuantum investment

The new Queensland LNP government announced a review of QLD's portion (approx $470m) of the $1b investment made by the previous ALP state government and the current federal ALP government into PsiQuantum. If you don't remember, PsiQuantum is an American startup that promised the governments that they'll build the "world's first useful" quantum computer in Brisbane. Since the massive investment was announced, everyone in the industry was pissed off about it - lack of scrutiny, lack of transparency and many world leading Australian businesses overlooked for a massive pot of cash. The whole thing got even more rotten when PsiQuantum announced a very similar deal to operate a quantum computer in Chicago, making Australia look like rubes.

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### Waymo open to the public in LA, The Guardian leaves X, Meta fined over $1.3b by the EU again

- If you're visiting Los Angeles you'll now have the ability to give Waymo a shot, as they're expanding it to all Waymo users. Just sign up and a robotaxi will move you around 80 square miles of one of the world's most car-centric cities.
- The Guardian has come to its senses at last and decided to stop posting on X - "we think that the benefits of being on X are now outweighed by the negatives and that resources could be better used promoting our journalism elsewhere".
- Meta copped yet another fine from the EU, this time almost 800m euros for "tying its online classified ads service Facebook Marketplace to its personal social network Facebook and by imposing unfair trading conditions on other online classified ads service providers".

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### The M4 Mac mini sips electricity like a little bird

The M4 Mac mini is an impressive little computer. Jeff Geerling found out that the M4 mini is the most efficient computer on the market today, reaching 6.74 Gflops per watt of electricity on the HPL benchmark and a total power draw of 42W peak, including a 10GbE network interface and 32GB of RAM. He found that it uses 3-4W idle - so still turned on, just not doing anything - which is less than the 10GbE NICs on most other computers, let alone the rest of the computer! It's wild how power efficient Apple has got their SoCs and overall platforms.

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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 wants a portable USB-C monitor that doesn't suck
- adamxweb is making a smart distress switch and is after input on how to improve it
- Griffmiester posts about a few games the currently on-strike New York Times developers spun up so you don't have to cross their virtual picket line
- zuccs wonders if there's a way to squeeze more discounts out of Telstra on their new phone plans
- evilalpaca has a laptop that works fine except for the display's backlight and they're after suggestions on what to do with it now

## Bargains

- $3,000 off BYD electric cars & bonus home charger
- Sennheiser HD 620S over-ear closed back headphones - $350 from Sennheiser's eBay store
- Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max - $59 from Amazon
- Denon AVC-X3800H AV Receiver - $1999 from CHT Solutions
- Refurb Dell OptiPlex 7070 SFF PC (i5-9500, 8GB RAM, 500GB SSD) - $181.77 from ACT's eBay store
- Kings 36Ah 12.8V LiFePO4 100W USB-C Power Pack - $279 from 4WD Supa Centre's eBay store
- A bunch of Ubiquiti UniFi stuff around 15% off & free delivery from Wireless1
- 55"/65" Hubbl Glass 4K TV - $595/$695 at Harvey Norman
- 10% off Ultimate gift cards (Good Guys, JB Hi-Fi, EB Games, IKEA, Officeworks & more) at Big W

## Image Of The Day

A close-up view of a commemorative plaque left on the Moon at the Hadley-Apennine landing site in memory of 14 NASA astronauts and USSR cosmonauts, now deceased. Their names are inscribed in alphabetical order on the plaque. The plaque was stuck in the lunar soil by astronauts David R. Scott, Apollo 15 commander, and James B. Irwin, lunar module pilot, during their lunar surface extravehicular activity (EVA). The tiny, figurine represents fallen astronauts and cosmonauts. (NASA)

## 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.