### Issue 1611 - Friday 20th May, 2022

## In Today's Issue

- Elon Musk showed his dick to a flight attendant in 2016 and paid her not to tell anyone
- Apple inches closer so a virtual/augmented reality headset, or so the rumour mill says
- 1200 traffic cameras in VIC are hooked up to AWS Panorama for automated incident monitoring
- A look at what each party has promised the tech industry in the federal election campaign
- Friday Forum Update
- Cheap Bulova Computron watch, Lenovo Tab P12 Pro tablet, free Stan with Sony TVs, Dell monitors

## The News

### Elon Musk showed his dick to a flight attendant in 2016 and paid her not to tell anyone

We all got sex pest vibes off Elon Musk since day one, but now we have specific allegations about his penis that SpaceX paid US$250,000 to cover up. A flight attendant on SpaceX's private jet, mostly used to haul Elon and other execs between San Francisco (where Tesla is) and Los Angeles (where SpaceX is), was "encouraged to get licensed as a masseuse so that she could give Musk massages" and during one massage in 2016, she accuses "Musk of exposing his erect penis to her, rubbing her leg without consent, and offering to buy her a horse in exchange for an erotic massage". Elon denies it, calling the story a "politically motivated hit piece" and tweeted that unless she can describe any unique features about his dick, she is lying.

### Apple inches closer so a virtual/augmented reality headset, or so the rumour mill says

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple's board members got a hands-on with a prototype AR/VR headset close to production at a recent meeting. The device is set for debut in the "next several months". Specs wise it has "two 4K micro-OLED displays, 15 camera modules, powerful processors equivalent to the M-series chips, eye tracking capabilities, hand gesture support, spatial audio, and other features". It'll run "Reality OS", presumably a fork of iOS. This could all be total bullshit, but it's not a secret Apple is working on something in this area, as they have thousands of employees dedicated to it - just like their car project. What we see as a result of all that effort is anyone's guess, but this info is the most we've had in a while.

### 1200 traffic cameras in VIC are hooked up to AWS Panorama for automated incident monitoring

The Victorian Department of Transport is using "Deloitte's AWS Panorama-powered video analytics solution AutoEye" across its 1200 CCTV cameras to "enable identification of specific incidents of interest and general abnormal behaviour from the enriched data and baselines". According to the department's operations director, this is a real "game changer" that will let them "know about more incidents, more quickly, which will result in faster responses and recovery". The system's benefits are highlighted in this example of a team in an operations centre busy handling a truck rollover potentially missing other "secondary incidents occurring on the approach and in the surrounding network", because all their attention is on this truck rollover.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### A look at what each party has promised the tech industry in the federal election campaign

Innovation Australia has a list of tech-related policies floated during the Federal election campaign. It's mostly a cash splash on random initiatives. The biggest of those brain farts is the ALP's promise of $1b for a Critical Technologies Fund to "invest through loans, equity and guarantees in companies that expand Australia's capability in areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics and quantum computing". Each party also has NBN-related policies if that's a vote deciding issue for you - Labor, Liberal, Greens. I doubt any of this stuff is changing votes, but at least you roughly know where each party sits in regards to tech and science issues.

## Friday Forum Update

It was a quiet week over on The Sizzle forums so here's a reminder about the different area you can participate in. Less lurking, more posting!

- The Projects forum is my favourite. It's like a show and tell area for nerds. Anything you've been working on that you want to tell people about can go here.
- Topic Of The Day sparks interesting discussions. It's something from The Sizzle's newsletter you'd like to talk about with others and get a wider range of opinions besides mine.
- If consumer life is tough, outsource it like a good capitalist and let those of us with nothing better to do help you decide what to buy in the What Should I Buy forum.
- Got excess tech clogging up your home? Sell it on the Buy & Sell forum. It's not as big as eBay but it's free and the average forum user has an IQ higher than room temp.
- Bored, lonely, need to talk to an adult that isn't a family member? Shoot The Shit is where you can politely discuss any topic you like without the banality of social media.
- Ask a question or help someone out in the Tech Support forum. We've all been there, so there's no shame in asking for help and it's a Nice Thing to help others.

If that sounds like somewhere you'd like to hang out and you are not a paid subscriber of The Sizzle, visit https://thesizzle.com.au/payme to get access.

## Bargains

- Bulova Computron Watch 98C140 - $529 from Starbuy
- Lenovo Tab P12 Pro (Snapdragon 870, 12.6" AMOLED, 6GB/128GB) - $999 from Lenovo
- Buy a Sony TV, get 12 months Stan Premium & Stan Sports for free
- Dell S3423DWC USB-C 34" or Dell S2722QC USB-C 27" 4K monitor (plus a few other gaming monitors) - $554.77/$389.02 from Dell's eBay store

## The End

📻 Planet Telex - Radiohead

😎 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon.

💬 Checked out the paid subscriber only forum? It's a tidy little place to discuss tech with like minded Aussies.

👋 Forums not your thing? The Sizzle has a Slack group you can procrastinate in and chat with other nerds bored at work.

💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info or change email address? Visit the customer portal.

📚 Browse The Sizzle Archive. A few issues are missing and it's not searchable, but it's better than nothing.

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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.