### Issue 1822 - Tuesday 11th April, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- Twitter changes HQ sign to say "Titter", blocks Substack, Circles no longer private, senior lawyer leaves during FTC & EU investigations
- Reuters finds that Tesla employees have been spying on all the footage collected via vehicle cameras and sharing as memes
- PC market takes a huge drop, Latitude hackers demand ransom, eSafety wants to regulate AI, DPReview to be archived, new version of Teams sucks less
- Tristan Hume's collection of macOS tips and recommendations
- Cheap Valve Steam Deck, Sigma 50mm lens, AirPods Pro, LG 4K monitor, Dell 27" monitor, refurb PS5, Amazon Echo Dot, Flybuys points bonus on gift cards, The Last of Us 2 for PS4, refurb Dell 34" monitor, UniFi G4 doorbell, LG 83" OLED TV, Sony Alpha A7C camera body

## The News

### Twitter changes HQ sign to say "Titter", blocks Substack, Circles no longer private, senior lawyer leaves during FTC & EU investigations

Elon Musk spent Easter being an even larger fuckwit than usual. He wanted to remove the W from the Twitter sign at their San Francisco HQ so it read "Titter", but the landlord said it has to say Twitter, so he got one of his minions to paint the W white, claiming to have "solved the problem" - but he still owes the landlord $9m in rent. Twitter also blocked all links to and mentions of Substack after they launched "Notes", a mini-version of Twitter built-in to the Substack platform. Musk's best mate and author of "the Twitter files" conspiracy theory, Matt Taibi, had a hissy fit at Elon when the Substack ban took place, so Elon "shadow banned" all of Matt's tweets too. The Circles feature is comprehensively broken. Twitter's senior lawyer has resigned in the middle of FTC and EU investigations. When is this piece of shit platform going to collapse so we can all move on?

### Reuters finds that Tesla employees have been spying on all the footage collected via vehicle cameras and sharing as memes

You know how a Tesla is covered in cameras in order for Autopilot to do its thing? Unsurprisingly, access to those cameras has been abused by Tesla employees. According to a Reuters investigation, between 2019 and 2022, a team responsible for labeling the data the cameras collect to improve Autopilot scooped up the funny or interesting videos, even when cars are parked at homes, and shared them around the workplace as memes. Telsa's privacy notice says "camera recordings remain anonymous and are not linked to you or your vehicle" but "seven former employees told Reuters the computer program they used at work could show the location of recordings". Total lack of respect for their customers privacy and unfortunately, what I expect from a bunch of ratbags led by Elon Musk. A class action lawsuit has already kicked off in the USA.

### PC market takes a huge drop, Latitude hackers demand ransom, eSafety wants to regulate AI, DPReview to be archived, new version of Teams sucks less

- The arse has fallen out of PC industry shipments, with approximately 30% fewer computers sold in Q123 vs Q122. Apple took the biggest hit of all the OEMs with 40% fewer Macs sold. Dunno why exactly, I figure everyone who wants a new computer has one after we all went gangbusters upgrading last year.
- Latitude informed the ASX today that hackers responsible for pilfering the ID of over 14m people in Australia and NZ have made a ransom demand. Latitude will not be paying because it "strongly believes that paying a ransom will be detrimental to our customers and cause harm to the broader community by encouraging further criminal attacks".
- The eSafety Commissioner got an op-ed published in the AFR about the need to regulate AI. Unlike Italy, she doesn't want to ban it, but wants to ensure that "Safety by Design is a primary consideration in the development, deployment and refresh of any kind of technology" and "supports the Australian government's efforts" to "examine the range of potential regulatory issues around AI and algorithms".
- DPReview's boss has said that their vast trove of photography related content "will remain available as an archive" after Amazon stops paying them to generate new content. That's a relief. Amazon was simply gonna turn off the lights and scrub DPReview from the internet like it never existed. Someone has already taken DPReview's camera spec database, open sourced it and made a site using that data.
- Microsoft has released a public preview of a new Teams app for Windows, "built on a foundation of speed, performance, flexibility, and intelligence—delivering up to two times faster performance while using 50% less memory". There's also some big UI changes to make things simpler and jam in a bunch of AI related features. I've never used Teams so I'll take Microsoft's word that it sucks a little less now.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Tristan Hume's collection of macOS tips and recommendations

Tristan Hume has a big list of macOS related "tips and recommendations I've learned about over many years which are super important to how I use my computer, but often quite hard to find out about". I knew most of these, but didn't know that you could type "open ." in Terminal and open the current directory in Finder and if you select multiple items in Finder, right click and choose "Rename Items" and you'll get a pretty advanced batch renamer built in. If you're new to macOS you might find these tips, along with the app recommendations (it's missing Soulver!) pretty useful.

## Bargains

- Valve Steam Deck 64GB - $746.17 from Three.Sons eBay store
- Sigma 50mm F/1.4 DG DN Art for Sony E-Mount - $1078.17 from DXCpert's eBay store
- Apple AirPods Pro (2nd Generation) - $317.06 from Three.Sons eBay store
- LG 32UN88A 31.5" 4K monitor with built-in monitor arm - $697 from Amazon
- Dell S2721DGF 27" IPS 165Hz 2560x1440 monitor - $341.50 from Dell
- Refurb PlayStation 5 Disc Edition - $698 from EB Games
- Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen - $29 at JB Hi-Fi
- 1000 bonus Flybuys Points on $50 and $100 Netflix, Stan, Google Play & TCN Ultimate Him (EB & JB) gift cards from Coles
- The Last of Us Part 2 for PS4 - $21.87 from Amazon
- Used/Refurb Dell UltraSharp U3415W curved 34" 3440x1440 monitor - $320.95 from un-tech's eBay store
- Ubiquiti Unifi G4 Doorbell - $190.54 from Free Shipping Tech's NZ eBay store
- LG C1 83" OLED83C1PTA 4K OLED TV (2021) - $4750 + delivery from Appliance Central
- Sony Alpha A7C Full Frame Mirrorless Camera (Body Only) - $1999 at JB Hi-Fi

## Image Of The Day

A 1994 t-shirt commemorating the AOL eternal September (Kevin Marks / Flickr)

## The End

📻 Default - Atoms For Peace

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## Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land

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.