Plus: What it means if your company gives you a Lenovo ThinkPad ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

March 31, 2025 | Read online
# Elon Musk dumps X to his AI investors, election online shenanigans and Oracle denies hack but confirms other hack Plus: What it means if your company gives you a Lenovo ThinkPad
Issue 2302 - Monday 31 March 2025
Hello and happy Monday! Two quick things.
Forum emails are working again so please sign up to the forum, reset your password or fiddle with email alerts to your heart’s content. Thank you to Daniel, Samuel and James who all sent me a screenshot of their AI bots recommending the Sizzle; and no thanks to Ben who showed me ChatGPT 4o suggesting a competitor.
# The News
### Elon Musk offloads X to his xAI company, sticking his AI company’s investors with his stinky social media company
You could be forgiven for looking at the headline “Elon Musk’s xAI firm buys social media platform X for $33bn” (The Guardian) and thinking, gee, Elon’s wiggled his way out of trouble again. But a little context casts this move — which, btw, I predicted a month ago (Bluesky) — as looking desperate. Tesla stock is down significantly, which has people wondering when there’ll be margin calls on the stocks used as collateral for the $12 billion loan he used to buy Twitter (Newsweek). (Margin calls are when your broker says “hey, you need to have more money/whatever you’re using as collateral because it’s looking more likely you might need it”). Last week, X’s head of engineering left (The Verge). Now, Elon Musk has “bought” X using xAI stock which values the social network Very Coincidentally at the exact same amount Musk bought it for ($45 billion minus the $12 debt used to buy it). Where do these two valuations come from? They “were determined during negotiations between the two musk arms, which had the same advisors” (WSJ, $). TLDR: Musk offloaded his stinky social network by lumping it into his hot AI startup at an inflated value so he could save face and spread his losses to his AI investors. TBH, not a bad option if it’s available…
### Election shenanigans have already begun…
The starting pistol has only just gone off and already some of the political players are doing some election trickery. Both the Coalition and Labor have brought back their faux postal vote application websites which look and sound like they’d help you sign up for a postal vote but… instead farm your details for their parties. This is an old trick that goes back to physical mailers, but was digitised a while back (Guardian Australia).
Both major parties’ fake postal vote websites
Similarly, both parties sent out text messages promoting these websites. As it turns out, you don’t need to put your electoral authorisation — this is authorised by Cam Wilson, 1 Sizzle Lane, New Sizzle Wales — on a text message as long as it’s in the website that you link to. As always, if you see anything like this, please send me an email or Signal message!
### Oracle got hacked. Not that hack, which they deny. I’m talking about another hack.
Oracle’s healthcare division appears to have suffered a cyberattack in which hackers stole patient data (Reuters). The FBI is now investigating what appears to be a scheme to extort medical providers, and it’s not known how many patients and providers have been affected. Confusingly, this is a separate incident to the purported Oracle Cloud hack which I’ve posted a few stories about in last week’s Leftovers. Cybersecurity firms say they’re getting ready to treat the other breach as real (Cybersecurity Dive). Researchers continue to turn up evidence suggesting that the Oracle Cloud hack could be real (The Register) but Oracle has remained steadfast: no hacking here, they say.
#### Leftovers
TikTok shuts down more than 200 accounts targeting students in Sydney (Daily Telegraph, $) Australia’s Age Assurance Technology Trial solidifies list of participants, adds Google (Biometric Update) eSafety statement: eSafety to appeal Administrative Review Tribunal finding (eSafety) The offshore wind debate could influence this federal election and it's already an 'absolute blood-fest' (ABC News) Apple Readies Its Biggest Push Into Health Yet With New AI Doctor (Bloomberg, archived) Kink and LGBT dating apps exposed 1.5m private user images online (BBC) Samsung’s 2025 Bespoke appliances are going all in on AI (Engadget) Agencies found to be using Kaspersky despite adverse advice (InnovationAus, $) Bloomberg Has a Rocky Start With A.I. Summaries (NYT, $) Beyond Bluesky: These are the apps building social experiences on the AT Protocol (TechCrunch) FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado (Ars Technica)
# Oh, Also
### What it means if your company gives you a Lenovo Thinkpad
This TikTok contains more insight than 80% of business columns and segments I’ve read and seen (Bluesky mirror).
Watch now on TikTok
@1sugelight
#jobsecurity #laptop #lenovo #thinkpad #lenovothinkpad
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
Razer Leviathan V2 X Gaming Soundbar - $95 at Bing Lee Electric Anker Soundcore Sport X20 True-Wireless Workout Earbuds - $114 at AnkerDirect via Amazon AU Ring Stick Up Cam Battery Triple Pack - $149 at Amazon AU Sony WH1000XM4B (Refurbished) - $254 at Sony eBay PS300 300W 276Wh Portable Lithium Power Station - $299 at iTechworld Addicted To Audio headphones HIFIMAN Sundara Closed-Back Planar Headphones for $299 Sennheiser HD 620S Closed Back Headphones for $349 BLUETTI AC50B Portable Power Station | 700W 448Wh - $474 at BLUETTI Roborock Q5 Pro Plus Robot Vacuum and Mop with Auto-Empty Dock (Official Australian Model) - $499 at Kogan Samsung HW-Q800D/XY (2024) 5.1.2 Soundbar - $549 at Samsung Government EPP Sony HT-A3000 3.1ch Dolby Atmos Soundbar - $612 at Amazon AU Apple Watch Series 10 GPS + Cellular 46mm - Various Bands - $759 at Telstra Plus Shure SRH1840BK Professional Open Back Headphones (Black) - $876 at Videopro Samsung 75" The Frame 4K QLED Smart TV 24 QA75LS03DAWXXY - $2185 at The Good Guys Samsung S90D 65" - $2307 at Samsung Partnership Program Sony XR85X90L 85" X90L Full Array LED 4K HDR TV (2023) (Box Damaged) - $2591 at Sony Australia eBay (Excl. TAS, NT) TCL 85" C7K QD Mini LED 4K 144Hz TV (2025) - $3108 at The Good Guys Commercial (Membership Required) LG 83" OLED EVO C4 4K UHD Smart TV (2024) - $4902 at Bing Lee
Computing
SanDisk USB 64 GB - $9 at Amazon AU Logitech Keys to Go 2 Bluetooth Keyboard - $94 at Amazon AU EDILOCA EN870 1TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD (up to 7450MB/s) - $96 at GUOSEN SSD via Temu HP EliteDesk 800 G3 SFF Desktop PC i5-7500 8GB RAM 256GB SSD Win 11 Pro (Refurb) - $120 at Technology Locker Dell Latitude 7210 2 in 1 i5 10310U 8GB Ram 256GB SSD 12.3" Win 11 (Refurb) - $290 at Australian Computer Traders Crucial T500 PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 Internal 4TB SSD - $394 at Amazon UK via AU Asus Rog Ally X Gaming Handheld (Refurbished) - $1199 at JW Computers OMEN 32 by HP 31.5" UHD OLED 240hz VESA Gaming Monitor - $1398 at HP eBay ThinkPad T16 Gen 3 16" Intel - Ultra 7 155U, 16GM RAM, 512GB SSD (Certified Refurbished) - $1596 at Lenovo Outlet
Mobile
Android: Railways - Train Simulator - free at Google Play Store Samsung Galaxy S24 256GB Onyx Black - $749 at Telstra Samsung Galaxy S24+ - $906 at Samsung
# The End
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