Pour a 40oz on the curb for a true computing OG - Sir Clive Sinclair has kicked the bucket at age 81. Sir Clive got his start making some of the first affordable pocket calculators, the Sinclair Cambridge back in the 70s. Anyone who's dipped their toes into retro computing is familiar with the ZX Spectrum, one of the most famous home computer brands of the 80s along with the Commodore 64, which spawned a whole generation of nerds. The guy also made a weird electric tricycle called the Sinclair C5 and an adorable little TV called the Sinclair TV80. Both of them were commercial flops, but are now beautiful artefacts of the early transistor era of electronics. I'm a bit too young to appreciate the glory of his work, but game recognise game. RIP Sir Clive.
Two concerned individuals are suing the Victorian government in the High Court over its road-usage fee for electric vehicles. If you didn't already know, in VIC, I have to pay 2.5 fucking cents every goddamn kilometer I drive because the state government reckons its not fair that a car that not poisoning the air as it moves doesn't pay fuel excise like a car belching toxic fumes. The argument put forward by the plaintiffs is that section 90 of the constitution says the Commonwealth has "exclusive power over customs, excise, and bounties", so Victoria as a state cannot and the road-usage fee should be removed. I don't know if that's good enough to convince the High Court, but it's absolutely worth a shot.
OpenSea is the Mt. Gox if you will, of NFT marketplaces. Very popular and in on the game early. Also like Mt. Gox, it's doing the dodgy on its users. Apparently OpenSea's head of product, Nate Chastain, has been purchasing "items that they knew were set to display on our front page before they appeared there publicly". Old mate was buying the artwork or whatever it is a fucken NFT is cheap when nobody gave a crap about them, then flip the NFT a few days later after they hit the front page and blew up in value because they were featured on the front page of the world's largest NFT marketplace. Nate has now resigned from OpenSea. Still gets the keep the filthy loot though.
I know many of you love Home Assistant, so feast your eyes on this beauty - the Home Assistant Amber automation gateway. It's a custom designed mainboard with PoE support, a Zigbee/Matter module, an NVMe M.2 SSD slot, a few USB ports and a "high-quality stereo audio DAC" that you slap a Raspberry Pi 4 compute module into to. This little box then acts as the brains for your Home Assistant setup. It's currently in crowdfunding on the Crowd Supply site and if it reaches its goal, will ship in about a year's time. US$130 inc shipping to Australia for the PoE unit. BYO your own Raspbery Pi CM4 (approx $80 for the 4GB RAM one) and an SSD.
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.
📻 Another Morning Stoner - ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead
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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.