### Issue 2088 - Wednesday 15th May, 2024

## In Today's Issue

- Google I/O may as well be called Google AI Dog & Pony Show or something
- Bunch of IT related things from the federal budget
- Apple & Google make way to track each other's unwanted trackers, VMware desktop apps fre free & Squarespace taken over by private equity
- Rumours spread by right-wing wankers about Signal should be taken with a grain of salt
- Cheap Razer webcam, Anker powerbank, Hisense TV

## The News

### Google I/O may as well be called Google AI Dog & Pony Show or something

Google I/O happened overnight and The Verge has a list and a live blog of all the things announced so far at the conference. It's probably not a surprise that it's basically massive smearing of AI goop all over everything you might love about Google - Gmail, Chrome, Photos, Search, Docs, Workspace, even your calls on an Android phone to "protect you from scams" - nothing will be spared from Gemini's wrath, which has improvements like Live "to make voice chats with Gemini feel more natural" and Gems, that "lets users give instructions to Gemini to customize how it will respond and what it specializes in". There's also another AI/LLM, LearnLM. that'll "help students with homework". Veo, Google's version of OpenAI's Sora and Project Astra, "a research prototype that features similar video comprehension capabilities" to OpenAI's GPT-4o. All this stuff is really impressive, technically, but I'm not impressed or enthusiastic about it, if that makes sense?

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### Bunch of IT related things from the federal budget

The federal budget was handed down last night. Here's a list of tech related spending iTnews found that I think you might be interested in: $50m for a "TAFE Technology Fund, to improve workshops, laboratories, and IT facilities". $6.5m to start the pilot of age assurance technologies. $37.3m in funding over 4 years for ACMA, ASIC & ACCC to "administer and enforce mandatory industry codes for regulated businesses to address scams". $39.9m over 5 years to "support the adoption and use of AI technology in a safe and responsible manner". $50m on a pilot program to "help mobile coverage on regional highways and major roads". $68m for a range of "First Nations digital inclusion programs". $288m over 4 years to "boost adoption of Digital ID". $466m in equity and loans for PsiQuantum. $448m to build the next generation of the Landsat satellite earth observation program along with the USA. $580m over 4 years to "sustain and keep developing the myGov platform. $288m over 4 years for a National Digital Identity scheme and $23.4m over 2 years to "pilot the use of government digital wallets and verifiable credentials".

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### Apple & Google make way to track each other's unwanted trackers, VMware desktop apps fre free & Squarespace taken over by private equity

- Apple and Google smooshed their big brains together and created an industry spec for "Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers". Now if only they could work together to make a standard for Bluetooth trackers so Find My works on Android and the Find My Device network works on iOS!
- VMware's desktop products are now "free". Workstation Pro 17 and Fusion Pro 13 are now free to use for personal use, but still require a license for commercial use. The commercial use licence is turning into a single subscription, no outright purchase available. Thanks Broadcom, I think?
- Squarespace has been acquired by private-equity form Permira for US$6.9b. They will be removed from the NYSE and be a fully private company. If I was relying on Squarespace for my business, I would be investing some time in an exit strategy should shit hit the fan. Private equity take overs generally tend to not end well for customers.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Rumours spread by right-wing wankers about Signal should be taken with a grain of salt

I don't hang out on X much these days, but apparently Elon Musk has been spreading shit about Signal, saying it contains "known vulnerabilities" in response to an article by Christopher Rufo - a classic right-wing bullshit artist, who has a beef with Signal board member Katherine Maher, because she's the CEO of NPR, which recently sacked some guy because he wasn't woke enough. I think. Anyway, this has been compounded by Telegram's CEO, who used Jack Dorsey sharing that same hyperbolic/"just asking questions!!" Rufo article as a launchpad for ranting about how Signal "has ongoing ties to the US government, casting doubt over its end-to-end encryption, and claiming a lack of software transparency". This X thread from Matthew Green is a bit more fact based about Signal, particularly compared to the hot mess that is Telegram.

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## Bargains

- Razer Kiyo X 1080p webcam - $54.90 from Amazon
- Anker 737 USB powerbank (aka PowerCore 24K) 140W output - $149.49 from Anker
- Hisense A7KAU 4K TV 65" - $732 from The Good Guys

## Image Of The Day

Contact pad array, 500x magnification. Dr. Jacques Lefebvre & Dr. Pedro Barrios-Perez. National Research Council of Canada, Institute for Microstructural Sciences (2005 Nikon Photomicrography Competition)

## The End

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