NSW announced wider access to NSWEduChat, a home cooked version of ChatGPT for teachers to "enhance their AI skills and digital literacy" and "automates administrative tasks, giving teachers more time to focus on personalised learning and student interactions". There's a cheery little video on the NSW Education Department's website where a teacher said they use it to "write permissions slips" and "tailor materials for students and their age group to make it more exciting". Another teacher said they use it in "return from suspension meetings" and another likes NSWEduChat because "it's a time saver and takes away the admin part of teaching", "giving me back time". All teachers in the state can use it now, but a trial for students is still ongoing due to "concerns about data privacy, student safety, the potential exposure to harmful or explicit content and content inappropriate for teaching and learning".
Good news for people living in the Powercor electricity distribution area (i.e: me and the other legends in Western Melbourne & Victoria) - they've released a draft regulatory proposal for 2026-2031 and there's no plans to introduce a dreaded demand tariff like in other parts of the country and no plans for mandatory "two way pricing" (aka the Sun Tax). This means homes with solar panels won't be forced to pay to export their solar power to the grid and won't have to pay a huge premium for an entire month's of electricity based on a spike in usage for an hour or two the month before. Thank fuck for that.
On the topic of renewable energy, a report from The Guardian claims that between "2020 to 2022 the real emissions from the 'in-house' or company-owned data centers of Google, Microsoft, Meta and Apple are likely about 662% – or 7.62 times – higher than officially reported", due to their "creative accounting" with renewable energy certificates and the rapid growth of compute heavy AI products. Meanwhile, The Atlantic did some digging and discovered that Microsoft is making things worse by selling AI products to companies like "ExxonMobil and Chevron as a powerful tool for finding and developing new oil and gas reserves and maximizing their production — all while publicly committing to dramatically reduce emissions".
Want your Raspberry Pi to look like a mini gaming rig, blinged out with LEDs and transparent side panel? Pironman has you covered. I kinda wish there was version of the Raspberry Pi but with like, desktop class performance. A Rasperry Pi form factor board, but with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite SoC that you could shove into a standard form factor case. Pico or Femto ITX or something like that for a really small, but upgradeable (RAM & SSD at least) PC rig. Also as an aside, I've been looking at building a PC lately and by far the hardest part of the process is finding a nice case that isn't full of RGB fans and a clear side panel. A couple exist but they're few and far between and actually cost more! Gamer aesthetic is so gross.
From the 5 April 1969 edition of New Idea (HappySwordsman / Internet Archive)
📻 Amyl and The Sniffers - Born To Be Alive (Rising: Singles Club)
😎 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon.
💬 Checked out the paid subscriber only forum? It's a tidy little place to discuss tech with like minded Aussies.
👋 Forums not your thing? The Sizzle has a Slack group you can procrastinate in and chat with other nerds bored at work.
💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info, change email address or cancel your subscription? Visit the customer portal.
🎁 Make someone's day and buy them a 12 month gift subscription to The Sizzle.
📚 Browse The Sizzle Archive. A few issues are missing and it's not searchable, but it's better than nothing.
🫂 Friends of The Sizzle is a small group of businesses or organisations operated by Sizzle subscribers. Support your fellow Sizzler!
💔 Tired of my bullshit? Unsubscribe and I'll never speak to you again.
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.