### Issue 2071 - Friday 19th April, 2024

To the ~320 paid subscribers that gave me their address for a free copy of a Sizzle zine I cooked up last week - thanks for your patience! I've finally printed, folded, bound and trimmed each issue and 400 mailing boxes arrived off eBay this morning. This weekend I'll be getting them all packed then dropping them off at the post office Monday morning. I can't wait for you to read it.

## In Today's Issue

- Meta unleases Llama 3 LLM on the world
- Tritium insolvent, calls in administrators
- Colorado introduces privacy restrictions on the capture, storage and use of neural data
- Three YouTube videos I thought were cool
- Friday Forum Update
- Cheap refurb Seagate HDD, Mophie USB charger, Kogan Mobile pre-paid, Xiaomi USB battery

## The News

### Meta unleases Llama 3 LLM on the world

Meta's unleashed its latest and greatest LLM - Llama 3. They reckon they've got "the best models existing today at the 8B and 70B parameter scale" and posted Llama 3's benchmark results compared to Mistral, Gemini and Claude (but not GPT4?). I have no idea if any of this is legit or not, but Meta has been busy with AI stuff for a while so I assume as far as LLMs go, it's half decent. Unlike previous models Meta's crapped on about, you can actually try this one out yourself with a chatbot style interface on the web, for free and not logged into any Meta stuff. Being a Meta thing, it's also baked in to Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. I've already seen it enabled in Facebook groups where it comments on posts trying to be helpful but usually missing the point. No different than most Facebook comments to be honest.

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### Tritium insolvent, calls in administrators

Australian EV charging manufacturer Tritium continues to circle the drain, having called in KPMG as administrators because it has declared itself insolvent because it hasn't got enough money to pay its bills. No other details were added to the Nasdaq announcement. As much as Tritium copped a lot of shit for their unreliable chargers and poor after-sales support, it does suck to see an innovative Australian company actually making things here that the world was frothing over, fizzle out like this at the hands of Wall Street fatcats that in hindsight, pushed it too hard, too fast.

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### Colorado introduces privacy restrictions on the capture, storage and use of neural data

The citizens of Colorado can sleep easy at night knowing their state is the first in the US (possibly the world?) to make it illegal for companies to use their neural data without consent. An update to Colorado's privacy law requires companies to get consent to collect neural data, be transparent about how it is used, easy to access, delete or correct that data and make it easy to opt out of the sale of neural data or its use in targeted advertising. I wasn't even thinking about my brainwaves being used to target ads towards me. That's a thing I have to worry about now? Fucks sake.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Three YouTube videos I thought were cool

- Corridor Crew recreated a technique Disney used in the 60s to do seamless and transparent green/blue screen keying but nobody seems to use these days. Doesn't matter what colour you wear, or how fine your hair or clothing is.
- Dan Foisy built a volumetric display using a "phased array of ultrasonic transducers to levitate a 1mm foam ball and move it at speeds greater than 1m/s" that can be moved around to "draw" in mid-air. It's pretty fucking cool.
- Designed by Kirk got a little tour of IMAX Melbourne's projection room while the projectionist was loading up the 15/70mm film print of Oppenheimer. I love IMAX Melbourne so much, we must protect it at all costs. If it ever closes down I will be devastated.

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## Friday Forum Update

Here's five interesting discussions over on The Sizzle's paid subscriber forum for you to enjoy over the weekend. If you are not a paid subscriber but want to get involved, visit https://thesizzle.com.au/payme to get onboard.

- mitty wants to sell some stuff on eBay but also doesn't want to get ripped off
- craig got a Meta Quest 3 and is keen for tips on any apps or games they should try out.
- warkolm needs a new wallet and I was surprised how many people have opinions on wallets.
- The_Hawk wanted to customise their iOS lock screen and answered their own question using the rubber duck method.
- News of Cory Doctorow using Kagi sparked a wider discussion about Kagi and its creator/boss, Vladimir Prelovac.

## Bargains

- Seagate Exos X18 14TB 3.5" SATA HDD Factory Recertified - $199 from Pongobyte Computers
- Mophie 45W GaN Dual Port USB-C Power Adapter - $29 + delivery from Wireless1
- Kogan Mobile (TPG MVNO) 365-day SIM with unlimited calls & SMS, 500GB/300GB/200GB of data - $200/$170/$140 from Kogan
- Xiaomi QB826G 210W 25000mAh USB powerbank - $140 from Amazon

## Image Of The Day

For All Mankind NYCC Posters (Danamania)

## The End

📻 Ugly - The Smashing Pumpkins

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## Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land

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.