### Issue 1740 - Wednesday 23rd November, 2022

## In Today's Issue

- Twitter verification delayed again, Geohot goes to work at Twitter, an advertiser explains why they left
- The desktop GPU market is collapsing, I wonder why?
- Victorian Libs want to replace Service Victoria with ConnectVic if they win election
- University study finds large portion of computer repair places are dodgy
- So many bargains, bargains as far as the eye can see

## The News

### Twitter verification delayed again, Geohot goes to work at Twitter, an advertiser explains why they left

Silly me thought we could go the rest of the week without mentioning Elon Musk or Twitter. I was wrong.

- Twitter is delaying the launch of "Blue Verified" checkmarks until "there is high confidence of stopping impersonation", according to a tweet from Elon, adding that they will "probably use different color check for organizations than individuals". Maybe they could do what the people laid off did to verify users? That seemed to work.
- George Hotz (aka geohot) has nothing better to do than work for the richest dude in the world for free, so is joining Twitter for a 12-week internship (just getting paid "the cost of living in SF") to "fix its search feature" and "remove the prompt that prevents you from browsing the service on the web without logging in".
- Here is an advertiser's perspective about why they stopped their ad campaigns on Twitter. It's nothing to do with Elon being the cringiest motherfucker on the planet, the banned freaks returning, or anything like that. Ad performance "fell significantly", "serious brand safety issues", "the entire account team turned over multiple times in 2 weeks" and the "Ads UI is very buggy and login with SSO and 2FA broken". That'll do it.

### The desktop GPU market is collapsing, I wonder why?

Jon Peddie Research has worked out that "sales of standalone graphics cards for desktops decreased to 6.89 million [in Q3 2022], or by 33.5% quarter-over-quarter, the lowest quarterly result in years". Or in other words, the market for beefy gaming GPUs has tanked. The reasons GPU makers have provided for such a drop inclde, "the shutdown of crypto mining, headwinds from China’s zero-tolerance rules and rolling shutdowns, sanctions by the US, user situation from the purchasing run-up during Covid, the Osborne effect on AMD while gamers wait for the new AIBs, inflation and the higher prices of AIBs, overhang inventory run-down, and a bad moon out tonight". It's gotta all be cryptocurrency mining right? Great time to pick up a 2nd hand graphics card!

### Victorian Libs want to replace Service Victoria with ConnectVic if they win election

The Victorian state election is this weekend and at the last minute the Liberals have decided they'll build "a new all-in-one app and portal, dubbed ConnectVic, to replace the existing Service Victoria offering, reportedly at cost of $300 million". Basically they're gonna copy the good stuff NSW has - digital drivers licences, public transport ticketing on your phone and a fuel price comparison service - in a new platform like Service NSW. As far as I know, the newly privatised VicRoads is already doing the digital drivers licence thing and if you've got an Android phone you can already get your Myki on there. I doubt this kinda thing will change anyone's vote (I'm a nerd and it's very low on my priority list), but a move to digitise more government services is a good thing, Victoria is so damn behind.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### University study finds large portion of computer repair places are dodgy

According to a study by the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, there's a 50% chance the person fixing your computer is a creep. They sent out 16 laptops with a very minor issue (working perfectly, they just disabled the audio driver) and found that "technicians from six of the locations had accessed personal data and that two of those shops also copied data onto a personal device". They also found that "the vast majority of repair shops provide no privacy policy and those that do have no means of enforcing them" and "repair technicians required a customer to surrender their login password even when it wasn't necessary for the repair needed". It sucks that the average person who just wants their computer fixed has to go through this dilemma of potentially having their privacy invaded.

## Bargains

Before I begin the 3rd deluge of bargains (never seen such a sustained rate of deals!), don't forget that you can get 15% off JB Hi-Fi and The Good Guys gift cards right now from Coles.

- Cygnett 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Stand for Apple - $89.97 from JB Hi-Fi
- Refurbished Google Pixel 4a 128gb - $299 from Phonebot
- Yearly Subscription to The Sizzle Tech Newsletter - $42.50 from The Sizzle (send the Ozbargain link to your friends, get them to read The Sizzle!!!!)
- SanDisk 256GB USB 3.0 Ultra Flash Drive - $24.99 from Officeworks
- Elgato Wave Mic Arm LP - $119 from Amazon
- Belkin Boostup Charge Pro 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Pad with Magsafe - $153 from JB Hi-Fi
- Belkin BoostUp Charge Pro 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Pad with MagSafe (Black) - $153 from David Jones
- Boost Mobile 365-day pre-paid SIM with 140GB/260GB data & unlimited calls/SMS - $140/$215 via Cashrewards
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 1TB - $2299 at JB Hi-Fi
- Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen - $17.50 at Officeworks
- Sandisk Extreme 1TB microSDXC card - $175.05 from Amazon
- LG C2 83" Self Lit OLED EVO 4K Ultra HD Smart TV (2022) - $7250 + delivery (free to some areas) from Appliance Central
- Canon PowerShot PICK PTZ Vlogging Camera - $249 ($99 after Cashback) fom JB Hi-Fi
- Kindle 6" eReader WiFi White 8GB - $79 from Officeworks
- TP-Link Archer AX55 Gigabit Wi-Fi 6 AX3000 Router - $150.72 from Amazon
- Logitech BRIO 4K Pro Webcam - $199 from JB Hi-Fi
- Keychron C1 Wired RGB hot-swappable TKL Mechanical Keyboard - $99 from Keychron.net.au
- LG 48" UltraGear UHD 4K OLED Gaming Monitor - $1833.96 ($1577.20 via Cashrewards) from LG

## Image Of The Day

Byte Magazine May 1981 - Software Piracy (Jason Scott / Internet Archive)

## The End

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