### Issue 1618 - Tuesday 31st May, 2022

## In Today's Issue

- Big NDIS client database just got hacked, data leaked on dark web
- New world's fastest computer capable of over 1.1 exaflops
- Cydia gets a chance to fight Apple in court over support for 3rd party app stores
- CT scan of an iPod, Intel's virtual museum, mini Android phone lovers, PowerToys for Windodws, 10 cool Aussie games
- Cheap Audioengine & Creative speakers, DJI Mavic 3, Lenovo laptops & desktop PCs, 1Password, Britbox, WD external HDDs & SSD, Samsung Endurance microSD, Dell 27" monitor

## The News

### Big NDIS client database just got hacked, data leaked on dark web

CTARS, a cloud-based client management system for the NDIS, just got popped. It posted on its website that "its systems were compromised on 15 May, with a sample of the stolen data posted on a deep web forum on 21 May", along with the disturbing line that "although we cannot confirm the details of all the data in the time available, to be extra careful we are treating any information held in our database as being compromised". As you can guess by the fact it's associated with the NDIS, "a very large volume of personal, health and other sensitive information may have been breached, which may include identity documents, Medicare details, tax file numbers, contact information, and personal health or other sensitive information". Big oof.

### New world's fastest computer capable of over 1.1 exaflops

Folks, we have a new world's fastest computer! Oak Ridge National Lab's Frontier is a collection of 9,472 EPYC CPUs (with 8,730,112 cores) and 37,888 AMD GPUs built on the HPE Cray EX platform. It is capable of a whopping 1.1 exaflops. That's right, we are now in the exaflop era of computing. It trounces the previous fastest computer over the last 2 years, Fujitsu's ARM-based Fugaku located in Kobe, Japan, which only manages a paltry 442 petaflops. Frontier is also power efficient, topping the Green500 list at 62.68 gigaflops per watt. The entire thing is liquid cooled, has 700PB of storage on tap and uses "only" 29MW of electricity. Frontier will be ready for "full science" in early 2023.

### Cydia gets a chance to fight Apple in court over support for 3rd party app stores

Remember Cydia, that app store for jailbroken iPhones? It's still a thing and in 2020 the developer of Cydia sued Apple for introducing "new technologies between 2018 and 2021 to harm apps distributed outside the App Store" and Cydia wants Apple to "open up iOS so that developers can distribute apps outside of the App Store". Apple reckons the allegations are "time-barred", "stale" and wants the case dismissed. But after 2 years the judge (who happens to be the same judge who oversaw the Epic vs. Apple trial that's still getting appealed) reckons they're legit beefs and the case will be heard.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### CT scan of an iPod, Intel's virtual museum, mini Android phone lovers, PowerToys for Windodws, 10 cool Aussie games

- A high resolution CT scan of an iPod, with commentary from Tony Fadell himself. If I owned a CT scanner I would do this too.
- I like museums and I like semiconducors, so Intel's virtual tour of their Santa Clara museum is cool, to me and maybe you too.
- One of the people that created the Pebble smartwatch has made a website gauging interest for a small screen Android phone.
- An introduction to PowerToys, Microsoft's open-source Windows utlities that make Windows a little bit more awesome and befuddles me why they aren't included by default.
- Can't remember if I mentioned this here or on Twitter, but it's still in my bookmarks, so please enjoy (or re-enjoy) this list of 10 cool games made by Australians.

## Bargains

- Audioengine A2+ active speakers with Bluetooth - $319.20 from digiDIRECT's eBay store
- Creative T100 Desktop Speakers - $134.95 from Creative
- DJI Mavic 3 drone - $2638 from Amazon
- Lenovo IdeaCentre 5i desktop PC (i3-10100, 8GB DDR4, 1TB HDD wi-fi 6) - $499 from Amazon
- 50% off 1Password 1 year plans - $40 for individuals, $66 for family
- Britbox UK streaming TV 2 month subscription - $2 from Britbox
- WD Elements SE portable 480GB SSD - $59 at Officeworks
- Samsung 256GB PRO Endurance microSD - $70.03 from Amazon
- Western Digital 18TB Elements Desktop external HDD - $460.38 from Amazon
- Lenovo ThinkPad E15 Gen 3 (Ryzen 7 5700U, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) - $1019 from Lenovo
- Dell S2721DGF 27" 165Hz 1440p monitor - $409 from Dell's eBay store
- WD Black P10 1TB/4TB Xbox Game Drive - $50/$169 from Officeworks

## The End

📻 25 or 6 to 4 - Chicago

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