### Issue 1800 - Tuesday 7th March, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- People that invested in cryptocurrency via SMSFs probably aren't doing well
- Twitter broke again, Musk walks around HQ with two bodyguards at all times
- Atlassian sacks 5% of workforce, Cities Skylines 2 announced, Edge gets AI video enhancer
- China is very efficient at running disinformation campaigns on the internet
- Cheap Amazon gift cards, Xbox controllers, monitor LED, Chromecast, AirPods, Crucial SATA SSDs, 12kg monitor arm, WD SSD

## The News

### People that invested in cryptocurrency via SMSFs probably aren't doing well

According to a Reuters investigation of ATO data there is $1.4b of cryptocurrency assets in various self-managed super funds in Australia. It's a small percentage of the overall SMSF pie ($880b), but Reuters and Liam Shorte, a financial planner that specialises in SMSFs, reckon as the price of Bitcoin collapsed last year, many of those who set up an SMSF during COVID due to being bored at home and chucked their retirement savings into crypto at the peak of its hype, may have lost around 40% (on average - some more, some less) of their money. There's a good chance those losses will never be recouped, let alone make a profit.

### Twitter broke again, Musk walks around HQ with two bodyguards at all times

Twitter shit the bed again overnight, this time simply showing an error message, "your current API plan does not include access to this endpoint" whenever you visited the website. Presumably the implementation of the paid API feature didn't go well. Elon's response was "the code stack is extremely brittle for no good reason. Will ultimately need a complete rewrite". Mmhmmm. Meanwhile, the BBC has spoken to a bunch of Twitter employees (anonymously - these people don't want to lose their jobs) about the shitshow that is Musk's Twitter. Apparently Elon walks around the joint with "at least two bodyguards" at all times, even to take a piss. Extremely healthy workplace dynamic.

### Atlassian sacks 5% of workforce, Cities Skylines 2 announced, Edge gets AI video enhancer

- Atlassian is sacking 5% of their workforce, approximately 500 people. They blame the usual "changing and difficult macroeconomic environment" and say "this decision is not a reflection of Atlassian's own financial performance, as we will be reinvesting in roles that better support our priorities". There's quite a few Sizzle subscribers working for Atlassian. Hope you kept your jobs!
- Cities Skylines 2 was announced by Paradox Interactive. No idea what's new in it or when it will go on sale ("coming 2023"), but it is a thing and will be on Steam, Xbox and Playstation. The teaser video is full of non-gameplay cinematics. I hope they put more focus into it being a city simulator instead of a transport simulator, as that's what it feels like when I play it.
- Microsoft's added a feature to Edge called "Video Super Resolution" (VSR) that'll use "machine-learning technology to upscale lower-resolution video to a higher resolution" on modern Nvidia and AMD GPUs. It'll take 720p or lower quality video and upscale it to 1080p. The intent is to "reduce the amount of internet bandwidth required to stream videos to your PC". VSR can be enabled now in Edge if you wanna try it out.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### China is very efficient at running disinformation campaigns on the internet

This article from 2021 by the New York Times gives a bit of insight as to how the Chinese government "taps private businesses to generate content on demand, draw followers, track critics and provide other services for information campaigns" on "international platforms like Facebook and Twitter, which the Chinese government blocks at home". Shanghai police's "Public Opinion Technology Services Project" just puts out a tender and businesses respond to it with proof how many accounts they've got, how long their accounts survive before getting banned and how many followers they can gain. We all know this stuff is happening, but to see it detailed like it's a tender for constructing a new road or installing sprinklers in the local park is weird.

## Bargains

- $100 Amazon gift card - $95 from Australia Post
- Xbox Wireless Controller: Carbon Black - $61.56 from EB Games eBay store
- Baseus ScreenBar Monitor Light DGWK-B01 - $27.20 from Mobileciti's eBay store
- Google Chromecast with Google TV (4K) - $67.20 from Mobileciti's eBay store
- Apple AirPods (2nd Gen) - $159.20 from Mobileciti's eBay store
- Crucial MX500 2TB 2.5" SATA SSD - $177.37 from Amazon USA
- Crucial MX500 500GB 2.5" SATA SSD - $53 from Amazon or Scorptec
- North Bayou H100 12kg Monitor Arm - $39.95 from Amazon
- Western Digital Blue SN570 1TB NVMe SSD + $20 e-gift card - $89 from JW Computers

## Image Of The Day

Sophie Wilson, CBE FRS FREng, designed the Acorn System 1, coding the operating system in binary before designing and implementing Acorn Assembler, Acorn MOS, and BASIC. She and Steve Furber designed and implemented the prototype of the BBC Microcomputer — she designed the operating system and designed and implemented BBC BASIC for a succession of processors. She and Furber also co-designed the ARM processor powering Acorn's computers during the 1990s and virtually every mobile phone and tablet in the world nowadays — more than 180 billion sales of ARM-powered chips to date. She co-designed the ARM3, ARM610, and ARM700 processors and ARM7500FE single-chip computer; created Acorn Replay multimedia software; and developed the Firepath SIMD LIW processor and then co-founded Element 14 to exploit it for ADSL. She studied computer science and mathematics at Cambridge University and has an honorary doctorate of science from the university. (National Academy of Engineering)

## The End

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