### Issue 1255 - Monday 23rd November, 2020

## In Today's Issue

- Victoria to implement road usage fees specifically for EVs in 2021
- Vicpol using a black-box algorithm without community consultation to try and predict crime
- Samsung dropping massive coin to compete with TSMC and leap over Intel's decaying corpse
- I yearn for the days I didn't know TikTok mansions existed
- Cheap Sonos, Amazon Ring gear, iTunes & Spotify gift cards, Lowepro camera bags, Rode wireless GO mic, Coles Mobile SIM, PS Plus 12m sub, Sony & Bose noise canceling headphones, LG OLED TV, Philips 4K monitors, Sim City 4, Age of Empires 1 & 2, Civ 6, Sims 4, FIFA 21

## The News

### Victoria to implement road usage fees specifically for EVs in 2021

Victoria has joined SA and NSW in creating a road usage fee specifically for electric vehicles. The state will collect 2.5c/km for pure EVs, 2c/km for plug-in hybrids and start July 2021. No details yet on how they'll implement the program. Federal Liberal MP (!!!) Trent Zimmerman has a very coherent opinion piece about why this road usage fee for EVs is way too early to implement and fails to compensate for the externalities of fossil fuel cars. I honestly don't know why any rational person would buy an EV in Australia. Compared to a hybrid they cost more up-front, not much less to operate per kilometer (high electricity pricing & road tax vs. cheap fuel) and you still have to deal with the bullshittery of public charging when going on long drives.

### Vicpol using a black-box algorithm without community consultation to try and predict crime

Victorian cops have revealed that they're using an algorithm to try and predict crimes. Here's the money quote from a "senior officer" talking to a Monash Uni researcher about their system - "We can run that tool now and it will tell us – like the kid might be 15 – it tells how many crimes he is going to commit before he is 21 based on that, and it is a 95% accuracy". I don't know what the point of this system is. Kid that does a lot of crime is gonna be an adult that does a lot of crime? Fucking hell, what an insight! You dingbats need a computer system to tell you that? Nothing else about this system has been made public beyond its existence, but I hope it's being used to try and get these kids into some sort of help program and not as an excuse to oppress them.

### Samsung dropping massive coin to compete with TSMC and leap over Intel's decaying corpse

Samsung has announced they'll spend US$116b (billion!) to develop the the technology and manufacturing process for 3nm chips to rival the current king of silicon, TSMC. It'll mean that companies like Apple, AMD and Nvidia will have a second option for where to get their crucial SoCs and GPUs manufactured. Nice not only for market competition, but if say, a certain country was to invade/harm Taiwan, there is an alternative option for industry. Intel though, geez, what an emblem of the USA's rise and fall as a science and technology giant than having South Korean and Taiwanese companies steal your customers with a superior product?

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### I yearn for the days I didn't know TikTok mansions existed

A company that owns TikTok mansions has done a reverse takeover of a Chinese healthcare company in order to become a publicly listed company on a pissant stock market in the USA. There's a few layers here, lemme break it down for you. TikTok mansions are a thing where some rich bloke gets a bunch of influencers (normally teens) to live in an opulent house together and churn out sponsored content whilst taking a cut. It is very weird and abnormal. This is apparently so lucrative that they want to create more of these social media content sweatshops, but need millions in capital that nobody wants to provide except bottom dwelling penny stock enthusiasts - hence the reverse takeover of Tongji Healthcare Group. What a time to be alive.

## Bargains

- Sim City 4 Deluxe Edition for PC/Mac - $2.69 on Fanatical
- Shitloads of cheap Sonos gear (Beam, Sub, One, etc) from Videopro
- Shitloads of cheap Ring gear (lights, doorbells, cams, etc) from Amazon
- $50 iTunes cards for $41.99 at Costco
- 10% off Spotify gift cards at Target
- Lowepro 350/450 AW II camera & laptop backpacks - $169/$210 from Amazon
- Rode Wireless GO microphone system - $228.65 from Titan Gear's eBay store
- Coles Mobile (Optus MVNO) 365-day 60GB SIM - $99 from Coles
- FIFA 21 for PS4/Xbox One - $38 from Amazon
- Age of Empires or Age of Empires 2 definitive editions - $5.61/$11.47 from Microsoft
- PlayStation Plus 12 month subscription - $59.95 from Sony
- Civilization 6 for PS4/Xbox One - $24.95/$26.21 from the PS Store/Microsoft
- Sims 4 for PC - $6.24 from Origin
- Sony WH-1000XM4B headphones - $349 from Amazon or $315.15 from Sony if you can be fucked jumping through a few hoops
- LG CX 65" OLED TV - $3820 from JB Hi-Fi/The Good Guys
- Philips 28" 288B9RN or 43" 436M6VBPAB 4K monitors - $328.80/$800 from gg.tech365's eBay store
- Bose 700 or QC35 II noise canceling headphones - $419/$300 from Amazon

## The End

📻 Lie to Me - Tired Lion

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