Facebook stock more popular than ever in 2020
IOC President re-confirms that esports is a thing they’re taking seriously
More businesses accepting NSW’s digital drivers licence
Monitor dangerous PM 2.5 levels in the air with a Raspberry Pi
Cheap 82” Samsung TV, GoPro Hero8 Black, 2TB Samsung USB-C SSD
Despite what the nerd hive mind thinks about Facebook, the general public and in particular investors, seem to still love it. After the absolute ratshit year Facebook had in 2019 where the share price plunged to "historic slumps", they've kicked off 2020 with a record high share price. Share prices don't indicate quality, or usefulness - but they do indicate what people with money think about a business's ability to make more money. The fact more and more shares in Facebook are being purchased means at some level, people expect Facebook to grow even larger than it already is. God help us all.
I'm a huge Olympics fan (a polite Swiss man had to kick me out of the Olympic Museum in Lausanne because I lost track of time and they were closing) and I'm super exited for the Tokyo Olympics in a few months time - so it was interesting to hear Thomas Bach, president of the IOC say that unless the Olympic movement embraces esports, it'll be irrelevant soon as TV viewership is rapidly dying (literally) because esports is so damn popular with the kids. When asked about games simulating sports (e.g: Zwift for cycling/running), Bach said "whether they could one day be considered for the Olympic programme the answer is yes". I doubt the IOC can pull it off, but I'm going to watch from the sidelines while they try.
Accepted uses of the NSW digital drivers licence are growing beyond police stops and entering licenced venues, with Australia Post now letting New South Welshians use DDL for over the counter parcel collections, along with Coles and Woolworths "on board" for using it in their stores (I guess for online order collections and buying booze/smokes?). Service NSW is currently developing a "copy solution" that'll allow businesses to confirm someone's identity instead of a photocopy of a physical driver's licence. I look forward to seeing what their solution to this problem is - better not be "place smartphone on photocopier".
With all the bushfire smoke engulfing Australia's cities right now, there's probably a few of you curious about monitoring the air yourself. The state government authorities do a bare minimum job (in Victoria at least) at reporting air quality, but if you want something more local to where you are and have a spare Raspberry Pi lying around, check out this tutorial on the Raspberry Pi website. It'll guide you through setting up a PM2.5 sensor to a Raspberry Pi and using the Adafruit IO platform to display the output from those sensors on a pretty website with charts and shit.
Samsung UA82RU8000WXXY 82" 4K TV - $2,691 + delivery from Appliance Central’s eBay store
GoPro HERO8 Black - $439 from Digital Camera Warehouse
Samsung T5 2TB external USB-C SSD - $435.53 from Bing Lee’s eBay store
🎶 Pogo - Digitalism
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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.