### Issue 1646 - Monday 11th July, 2022

## In Today's Issue

- The Uber Files confirm what we already know about these ratbags
- Elon files papers to back out of buying Twitter
- Microsoft to enable VBA macros by default again, Google might split ad business off to Alphabet, Ubisoft acting dumb again
- Harness the power of GPT-3 to generate regex statements from plain English
- Cheap Lenovo Tiny PC, Pixel 6, iPhone 11, Alienware OLED gaming monitor, Synology NAS, Paramount Plus, Facebook Portal TV, Amazon gadgets

## The News

### The Uber Files confirm what we already know about these ratbags

A treasure trove of "124,000 leaked emails, texts, invoices and internal documents" during Travis Kalanick's infamous reign at Uber have been dissected by The Guardian in what they call "The Uber Files". I tried to find juicy bits to quote here, but honestly, it's rather stereotypical capitalist bully stuff we already knew. Befriending politicians and regulators (possibly bribing them? No evidence here), ignoring laws, growth at all costs, using protestors as pawns even if it meant they got hurt in fights, deleting data before law enforcement could get their hands on it and just being distasteful humans. Every executive involved in Uber's growth should be in jail, but they aren't, so now what?

### Elon files papers to back out of buying Twitter

Elon Musk has officially called off his bumbling attempt to buy Twitter, filing papers with the SEC. He is still claiming that Twitter isn't giving him enough information to do "an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter’s platform" despite Twitter bending over backwards to give him any data he asked for. Twitter's board said they're "committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement". One theory floating around is that this is a cover for Elon to sell a shitload of overvalued Tesla stock (US$8.5b!) without spooking the market.

### Microsoft to enable VBA macros by default again, Google might split ad business off to Alphabet, Ubisoft acting dumb again

- Microsoft is rolling back its decision to block VBA macros by default in Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Visio and Access. They started doing this in February, but it looks like customers shit their pants at this feature being slightly more difficult to use despite the security benefits.
- Google is thinking about splitting its ad business off to Alphabet. Google dominating the search and online advertising market is a big target of regulators around the world, so this symbolic gesture might ease some tension - if they can prove Google and Alphabet are actually separate.
- Assassin's Creed Liberation, arguably one of the shittier games in the franchise, is disappearing from Steam. Too bad if you purchased the game and have it on your computer, you'll no longer be able to play it as of September 1st. Dog move from Ubisoft.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Harness the power of GPT-3 to generate regex statements from plain English

Regular expressions are one of those computer things that if I understood properly would make me way more productive. Alas, I am a dumbo idiot and after years still struggle with the most basic of regex. AutoRegex might be a salvation for people like me. It's a website that uses the GPT-3 language AI to turn plain English into a regex statement you can paste where needed. I signed up (it's free) and have bookmarked it for the inevitable day I run into a situation where I need match some patterns.

## Bargains

- Refurb Lenovo M900 Tiny (i5-6500T, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, wi-fi) - $205 + delivery from FuseTech AU
- Google Pixel 6 128GB (UK Import) - $704.16 from Amazon UK
- Apple iPhone 11 64GB & bonus $60 store credit - $659 from The Good Guys
- Alienware AW3423DW 34" curved QD-OLED gaming monitor - $1678.64 from Dell
- Synology DS920+ 4-bay NAS - $762.68 from Computer Alliance's eBay store
- 50% off Paramount Plus for 3 months (new or returning customers)
- Facebook Portal TV - $79 from Facebook
- Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (32GB) - $202 from Amazon
- Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max, Echo Dot 3rd & 4th-gen, Kindle Paperwhite (8GB), Echo Show 8 (2nd-gen) - $49/$19/$39/$167/$99 from Amazon

## The End

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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.