### Issue 2087 - Tuesday 14th May, 2024

## In Today's Issue

- OpenAI's GPT-4o is the latest technically impressive Torment Nexus
- eSafety loses injunction against X, full trial to come in a few weeks
- Border Force still inspecting the devices of innocent people entering Australia
- Federico Viticci loves the iPad but it does not love him back
- Cheap Sennheiser headphones, Brother printer, Steam Deck, Ryzen CPU, Sony speaker, SanDisk SD card, Audioengine speakers, Samsung S23

## The News

### OpenAI's GPT-4o is the latest technically impressive Torment Nexus

OpenAI's latest hot shit is GPT-4o, which in the demos on their blog at least, is basically Scarlett Johansson's character in the movie Her. The dorks at OpenAI thought that's something they should build, reinforcing the meme that nerds keep missing the point of dystopian fiction. Anyway, while the demo makes me feel uneasy, it is impressive at face value. GPT-4o's voice mode can respond to audio inputs "in as little as 232ms, with an average of 320ms, which is similar to human response time in a conversation". GPT-4o differs from GPT-4 as it is a "a single new model end-to-end across text, vision, and audio, meaning that all inputs and outputs are processed by the same neural network", rather than converting audio to text like GPT-3.5/4. GPT-4o's text and image features can be used now in ChatGPT (even in the free tier) and via the API, with the audio and video features coming to a "small group of trusted partners in the API" and ChatGPT Plus "in the coming weeks". OpenAI also announced a Mac app for ChatGPT. The full 26 minute video of OpenAI's Spring Update is on YouTube.

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### eSafety loses injunction against X, full trial to come in a few weeks

Elon had a small victory against the eSafety Commissioner in Federal Court yesterday, with the judge refusing to extend eSafety's injunction forcing X to delete posts instead of hiding them from Australians. There is still going to be a proper hearing about eSafety's decision mark the X posts as "class 1 material" under the eSafety Act that'll test if their interpretation of "well an Australian can see the posts if they use a VPN, hence, you need to delete, not geoblock the posts" is something they're able to force a business to do. Not sure when that will take place (2-3 months or so perhaps), but the full judgement on the injunction is available online. Josh Taylor noted that one of the reasons the judge removed the injunction is because "the notice would be ignored or disparaged in other countries" and has "potential consequences for orderly and amicable relations between nations".

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### Border Force still inspecting the devices of innocent people entering Australia

Looks like Border Force are still searching the smartphones of people entering Australia, including citizens. Today's example is of an "Australian tech entrepreneur who lives in the US with his wife and children" who was told "to hand over passwords to personal electronic devices" that were "searched out of my view for extended periods" and that if he didn't do that, the device would be "kept indefinitely [for] forensic examination". This person was also "asked to hand over the master password for his password manager on the third visit but he refused". This has happened to over 40,000 devices over the past 5 years and while the officers can't force you to unlock the device, it's totally legal for them to confiscate it if the officers suspet "special forfeited goods" like "illegal pornography, terrorism-related material and media that has been, or would be, refused classification". It's fucked up and anyone you explain it to agrees its fucked up, yet the current government is pissing their pants daily about social media.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Federico Viticci loves the iPad but it does not love him back

Federico Viticci, aka Mr. iPad, has a glorious rant about how iPad OS is hobbling what is otherwise an amazing piece of hardware - something made even more obvious with the new M4 iPad Pro. Federico's beef starts off with a lack of built-in apps that already exist on iOS & macOS and even the apps that are included are still half baked compared to their macOS counterparts. Then he goes ham on the Files app, saying "Files is a bad product that needs a fundamental rethink", a 100% correct statement. Crap multi-tasking, poor audio capabilities, Spotlight sucking, background app tasks shitting the bed and a lack of backup options round out this very sensible list of things that Apple should prioritise for iPad OS 19.

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## Bargains

- Sennheiser CX Plus noise cancelling wireless earbuds - $98.10 from Sennheiser (lots of other Sennheiser gear on sale too)
- Brother HL-L2445DW duplex mono laser printer with wi-fi - $127 from The Good Guys
- Steam Deck LCD 512GB - $702.71 from Kogan's eBay store
- AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D CPU - $321 from Aliexpress
- Sony SRS-XB100 Bluetooth speaker - $50 from Sony
- SanDisk 128GB Extreme Pro SDXC memory card - $24.51 from Amazon USA
- 20% off a range of Audioengine speakers and other gear, plus free shipping
- Samsung Galaxy S23 128GB - $839.30, but there's a $300 trade-in bonus that brings the price down to $589.30 and the price can go as low as $460 with a bit of dicking around

## Image Of The Day

Two blue plastic stereo headphones, Qantas first class, 1986-1987, consisting of two circular speakers set into circular blue plastic earpieces, with foam on the inside. Each adjustable earpiece is attached to a blue plastic fitting. A black plastic coated cord protrudes from each eachpiece and is attached to a two prong plug. Packed in plastic bag with Qantas logo and instructions for use. Headphones and packaging (2), 'Qantas Electronic Stereo Headset', 'HD 40', issued to First Class Qantas aircraft passengers, plastic / rubber / metal / foam, designed by Qantas Airways Limited, Australia, Sennheiser, Germany, 1986-1987 (Powerhouse Museum)

## The End

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