### Issue 2169 - Friday 6th September, 2024

## In Today's Issue

- Voluntary Austrailan AI Safety Standard & proposal for mandatory AI guardrails
- DJI's new Neo selfie drone
- Bluetooth 6.0 is a thing
- People keep selling NBN NTDs on Facebook & Gumtree
- Friday Forum Update
- Cheap DJI drone, Samsung SSD, Bluetti power station, Pixel Watch 2, Lenovo cashback, LG 24" monitor, refurb ThinkPad, Optus pre-paid

## The News

### Voluntary Austrailan AI Safety Standard & proposal for mandatory AI guardrails

The government released a Voluntary AI Safety Standard yesterday that includes 10 "AI guardrails" along with a proposals paper for "mandatory guardrails for AI in high-risk settings". The voluntary standards seem like a good starting point for implementing AI stuff in a business - stuff like make sure there's human oversight, apply some basic cybersecurity, be transparent about the use of AI, have a risk management process and so on. The proposed mandatory guardrails are very similar to the voluntary ones, but with the aim of creating legislation to turn them from voluntary to mandatory for "high risk" (e.g: threats to democracy, impacts to human rights or an individual's mental health, etc) uses of AI.

⬆ Share or Discuss

### DJI's new Neo selfie drone

DJI's got a new cheap drone - the $299.95 NEO. It's 135g, has a 12MP 4K/30 camera and has a fly time of 18 minutes. The Neo is designed to be a really easy to use drone for beginners and the way DJI is pitching it, it's the ultimate selfie camera with features like palm takeoff & landing, AI subject tracking and a range of "quickshots" that are automatic flying sequences combined with subject tracking. You can technically use the Neo without a phone, just turn it on, press one of the buttons on the drone's body for a specific type of video shot and it'll do its thing. Influencers are gonna fucken love this thing.

⬆ Share or Discuss

### Bluetooth 6.0 is a thing

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group has formally announced that Bluetooth 6.0 is ready for action whenever device makers want to implement it. The headline new feature is Channel Sounding, a new way to determine how far away you are from another Bluetooth device (e.g: AirTags) with "centimeter-level accuracy" using "phase-based ranging to send radio signals between two devices at different frequencies, allowing it to calculate the distance between them". The press release mentions a bunch of other features that make no sense to me but you might find insightful.

⬆ Share or Discuss

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### People keep selling NBN NTDs on Facebook & Gumtree

Cam Wilson has a delightful article in Crikey about people selling their NBN NTDs on Facebook and Gumtree when they move house. There's hundreds of them for sale despite the fact they belong to NBN and are hard coded to only work at that specific property. This is a huge pain in the arse for the next person that moves in to the house as they have to spend precious effort contacting their ISP to get a new one and then waiting for it to be delivered and activated. I reckon if the NTDs were fixed to a wall it would stop this nonsense.

⬆ Share or Discuss

## Friday Forum Update

Here's five interesting discussions over on The Sizzle's paid subscriber forum for you to enjoy over the weekend. If you are not a paid subscriber but want to get involved, visit https://thesizzle.com.au/payme to get onboard.

- bym007 is after a refurbished laptop for around $500 but confused by all the options on eBay
- holmesrg made a Christmas mince pie review thread. Dunno why but I'm glad it exists because I like fruit mince pies
- shelbloip gave the jobs wanted/seeking thread a bump as they're after a new programming related gig
- Discussion about ASIO's threats regarding encrypted messaging services got a bit spicy
- davo67 wants a cheap way to transfer phone calls to a virtual receptionist from an existing number

## Bargains

- DJI Neo Fly More Combo & bonus $20 HN gift card - $538 from Harvey Norman
- Samsung T7 Shield 2TB Portable SSD - $227.18 from Amazon USA
- Bluetti EP500 Portable Power Station (5.1kWh capacity, 2kW output) - $2,999 + $125 delivery from Green IOT
- Google Pixel Watch 2 LTE & bonus Google branded band - $379 at JB Hi-Fi
- 15% cashback on the Lenovo online store (uncapped) from Cashrewards
- LG 24MR400-B 24" 1080p IPS 100Hz monitor - $99 from Amazon
- Refurb Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Yoga (i5-10210U, 16GB SSD, 1TB SSD, 13.3" 1080p touch) - $439.07 from Max Direct's eBay store
- Optus 365-day pre-paid SIM with 5G, 260GB data, unlimited calls & SMS - $220 from Optus

## Image Of The Day

Computer, and monitor, Apple II and Apple II Monitor, plastic / glass / metal / electronic components, circuit design by Steve Wozniak and product design by Jerry Manock for Apple, Cupertino, California, United States of America, made in Ireland and by Samsung, Korea for Apple Computer Inc, 1977-1982 (Powerhouse Museum)

## The End

📻 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - 10 x 10

😎 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, change email address or cancel your subscription? Visit the customer portal.

🎁 Make someone's day and buy them a 12 month gift subscription to The Sizzle.

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

🫂 Friends of The Sizzle is a small group of businesses or organisations operated by Sizzle subscribers. Support your fellow Sizzler!

💔 Tired of my bullshit? Unsubscribe and I'll never speak to you again.

## 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.