### Issue 2213 - Monday 11th November, 2024

## In Today's Issue

- Standards Australia figures out V2G for electric cars
- Microsoft slaps more AI into Paint & Notepad
- Explanation for Myki readers going AWOL without 3G & Conduent wants more cash to do upgrades
- Elon is a top 20 Diablo 4 player, iPhone 16 is illegal in Indonesia, Asus has a 27" 5K display for $1200
- Cheap Kobo Libra Colour, Nikon Z6III, Voda & Boost SIMs, SVS subwoofers, DJI drone, Kingston SSD, LG monitor, Apple gift cards, Moto G85 phone, Xbox controller, Kings 24Ah power pack

## The News

### Standards Australia figures out V2G for electric cars

Copied straight from CarExpert: "Speaking at the Sydney International EV AutoShow, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, announced Standards Australia has given V2G the seal of approval, with a rollout of the technology due within just over a month". The minister said that "the process from now is that those [EV] manufacturers that enable vehicle-to-grid charging and those charging companies that enable it can register their products with the Clean Energy Council and get approval for each particular product. They'll have to meet the standard that's been ticked off by Standards Australia, but where we've got manufacturers and OEMs who are on board for that and it all happens smoothly, we'll be able to have bidirectional charging a reality by Christmas this year". Good to see this all being sorted out, I hope by the time I'm ready for my next EV the cost of a bi-directional charger is reasonable ($4k-ish max) and whatever car I get supports it properly.

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### Microsoft slaps more AI into Paint & Notepad

Microsoft couldn't help themselves and have blessed Notepad with AI-capabilities. Rewrite can "adjust the length, tone, and phrasing of highlighted sentences or paragraphs using generative AI" and requires a Microsoft account sign-in to work. Even if you aren't logged in, Notepad "launch times improve by more than 35%, with some users seeing improvements of 55% or more". What the fuck is Microsoft on about? Notepad has launched instantly on every dog shit PC since 1995. Paint, little old MS Paint, is also getting AI features like generative fill, generative erase and "image creator". The generative fill and erase features are actually kinda cool, but again, you gotta be logged in to a Microsoft account to do it and you'll need a Copilot+ PC (i.e: a computer with an NPU capable of more than 40 TOPS).

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### Explanation for Myki readers going AWOL without 3G & Conduent wants more cash to do upgrades

Bit of a follow-up from Friday's story about Myki being shit - Daniel Bowen did a bit of digging and found that "there was a configuration issue affecting some of them, such that they defaulted to requiring a 3G signal. Apparently it was the newer Vix devices, found on most buses and about half the tram fleet. The older slower devices were okay". I had no idea there are LTE modems that were setup to require 3G to initalise or something like that. Meanwhile, the Victorian government and Conduent are arguing over the cost of upgrades to Myki so that it'll support smartphones as tickets. Conduent reckons there's way more work required than what the government let on when they were bidding for the upgrade contract. Nothing has happened for months due to this stalemate and Conduent may end up walking away from the deal.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Elon is a top 20 Diablo 4 player, iPhone 16 is illegal in Indonesia, Asus has a 27" 5K display for $1200

- Elon Musk reckons he is a top 20 player of Diablo 4. Unlike most of the words out of his mouth, this might actually be true according to according to Helltides.com, as his "Pit Run" time of 2 min 45 sec ranks him 20th on their site. I'm still waiting for Mark Zuckerberg to jump on a Civ6 Twitch stream for charity.
- You can't legally buy an iPhone 16 in Indonesia, after the government banned it for not meeting rules that electronic devices sold in the country need to have at least 40% of its parts made locally. Could make some good cash smuggling iPhones into boogie board bags to sell in Bali??
- Asus has a 5K 27" monitor now. The ProArt Display PA27JCV has an IPS-panel, factory calibrated 99% DCI-P3 and 100% sRGB, DisplayPort over USB-C and 96W power delivery, ambient light sensor, built-in KVM and a stand stand with tilt, swivel, pivot and height adjustments. $1,199 at your favourite PC store, ships in a few weeks.

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## Bargains

- Kobo Libra Colour e-ink reader - $315.95 from Mobileciti
- Nikon Z6III camera body - $3,330 from LKN Australia
- Vodafone 365-day SIM with 250GB data, unlimited calls & SMS - $152.15 after cashback from TopCashBack
- Boost Mobile 365-day SIM with 170GB data, unlimited calls & SMS - $178.50 from Cellpoint
- SVS PB-2000 Pro subwoofer - $1649 from CHT Solutions
- SVS PB-3000 subwoofer - $2549 from West Coast Hi-Fi
- DJI Mini 4K Fly More Combo - $621.22 from Mobileciti
- Kingston KC3000 4TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD - $379 + delivery from JW, Umart/MSY, Scorptec
- LG 34WR50QK-B 34" curved VA-panel 3440x1440 100Hz monitor - $328.06 from LG's eBay store
- 20x Everyday Rewards points on Apple gift cards (can be used at online store & App Store) at Woolworths this week
- Motorola Moto G85 smartphone - $289.25 from Mobileciti
- Xbox Wireless Controller - $64 from Mobileciti
- Kings 24Ah 12.8V LiFePO4 60W USB-C Power Pack - $169 from 4WD Supa Centre's eBay store ($20 postage, free pickup)

## Image Of The Day

Apollo 11 Hasselblad image from film magazine 40/S - EVA (Project Apollo Archive)

## The End

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