# In This Issue

- Zuck getting roasted by AOC is a glorious sight to behold

- You can tell your grandkids you were alive when humanity reached quantum supremacy

- Victoria’s got a $700m backlog in fine collections because they suck at computers

- Fighter pilots are buying up Garmin smartwatches to use in flight

- Cheap Nintendo Switch, 10% off Macs, O'Reilly Safari, Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite, 6th-gen iPad, Orico USB 3.0 HDD enclosure, Philips DAB clock radio, Dell 49" monitor

# News

#### Zuck getting roasted by AOC is a glorious sight to behold

Mark Zuckerberg fronted up to a bunch of US congresspeople to take questions about Facebook's plans for its fledgling Libra cryptocurrency. The whole thing went for about 6 hours and was very boring. The government is skeptical Libra is a good thing while Zuck is adamant Libra is more than a money making exercise *cough* bullshit *cough*. The best bit, totally unrelated to the Libra currency is AOC fucking roasting the hell out of Zuck over Facebook refusing to delete political ads containing lies and using white nationalist publications. It's only 5 minutes out of the 6 hour political gripefest but it'll bring a smile to your jaded little face. Stop reading my bullshit and watch the video already.

#### You can tell your grandkids you were alive when humanity reached quantum supremacy

Quantum supremacy is a computing milestone where a quantum computer is faster than the world's fastest computer. Google is claiming they've achieved quantum supremacy in a paper published in Nature today. Apparently a task that would take Google's 53-qubit Sycamore quantum CPU just 3 min & 20 sec would take the Oak Ridge supercomputer in Tennessee over 10,000 years. IBM cracked the shits and put up a blog post disputing Google's claim to achieving quantum supremacy. They reckon a classic computer can do Google's 10,000 year simulation in just 2.5 days, so quantum supremacy hasn't been achieved and get back in your box Google. Confused by quantum computing (you aren't alone!)? Nature and Google have videos explaining it in terms idiots like us can grasp.

#### Victoria’s got a $700m backlog in fine collections because they suck at computers

Don't even think about quantum computing in Victoria - the state government is having a hard enough time with getting "classical" computers (lol, love that term) handing out fines to naughty people. Over 120,000 fines are outstanding because VIEW hasn't been sending fines out to people. Apparently there's $328m-$700m of fines unpaid because VIEW can't do its basic job of letting people know they have a fine to pay. To make things worse, when people eventually get notice of a fine and try pay it, they’re stung with late fees! The Department of Justice and Community Safety has been trying since 2007 to build a reliable system for managing fines and still hasn't been able to do it. Business as usual in government IT.

# Not News

#### Fighter pilots are buying up Garmin smartwatches to use in flight

Did you know that US fighter pilots love Garmin smartwatches? The Navy starting issuing Garmin GPS watches to pilots after an incident in an E/A-18G Growler aircraft where a "catastrophic failure of its environmental control system at 25,000 feet" lead to the cockpit freezing and obscuring the crew's vision and flight control instruments. The crew used their Garmin watches to keep track of their heading and altitude so air controllers could guide them to safety. At first they used Garmin Feix 3 smartwatches, but when Garmin noticed aviators were buying them for use in the cockpit, they made specific aviation models like the Garmin MARQ and D2 Charlie that the US Airforce now issue to U-2 pilots. Is it bad I want one instead of an Apple Watch now that I know fighter pilots use em?

# Bargains

- Nintendo Switch (2019 model) - $392.66 delivered via The Gamesmen eBay store

- 10% off Macs at JB Hi-Fi until the 30th of October

- Join the Association of Computing Machinery for US$99/yr and get access to O'Reilly Safari

- Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite grey import Android One smartphone - $194 delivered

- 6th-gen iPad 128GB - $500.65 if you get Officeworks to price match Harvey Norman

- Orico USB 3.0 HDD/SSD 2.5" enclosure - 2x for $12 from Apus Express eBay

- Philips DAB clock radio - $40 delivered from Appliances Online

- Dell U4919DW 49" monitor, 5120x1440 (like 2x Dell 27" Ultrasharp's glued together!) - $1280.30 from Dell AU

🎶 The Face That Launched 1,000 Shits - Death Cab for Cutie

😁 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Join us on Slack and chat with other Sizzle subscribers.

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.​