Meta (short for metaverse) is now the name of the overarching brand that operates Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and all the other shit Facebook does. Zuck gave a 90 minute presentation outlining his metaverse dream. I'll save you the pain - it's Ready Player One, based on tech that doesn't exist yet, but Zuck reckons his team and piles of money can invent an online virtual world we will constantly inhabit. There will be shitloads published about Zuck's hard-on for the metaverse, but I encourage you to set make time and read these interviews (The Verge & Stratechery) and Zuck's "founder's letter" to see in his own words what he's excited about. It'll make you scream as to how adolescent the "metaverse" he describes is. Who wants this and why do they hate humanity?
Apple's Q4 earnings are out and while overall revenue grew 29% (come on, 29% for a company the size of Apple is nuts!) it was lower than the market expected. Apple said it's due to "larger than expected supply constraints" that had "around a $6 billion revenue dollar impact driven primarily by industry-wide silicon shortages and COVID related manufacturing disruptions". The most amazing stat I saw in Apple's earnings is that they made a total of US$366 billion in revenue the past 12 months. That's over US$1b per day. During a pandemic, when supply of hardware has never been more tight. Mind boggling stuff here folks.
Hey look, there's the new Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. It's a big performance update to the previous Pi Zero, sporting a 64-bit quad-core 1GHz SoC now. Besides a minor update from Bluetooth 4.1 BLE to 4.2 BLE and the requirement for a 2.5A USB power supply, it's the same little, cheap, constantly out of stock computer you know and love - just much faster. Apparently the new SoC gets quite toasty so for anything hitting the CPU hard you might want to investigate extra cooling. The price went up a bit too, now selling for $22.95 locally. Still amazes me you can get a full blown computer running Linux (not a microcontroller!) in such a small form factor.
Trendy Swedish design group Teenage Engineering is selling a PC case! Better known for their synths and audio gear, they're now selling sheets of metal you need to bend to shape and assemble yourself, that'll hold a mini-ITX mainboard and associated parts inside. No fucking idea if it's a good case airflow wise, or how much of a prick it'll be to assemble (bending metal? seriously?) and it's pretty expensive at US$190 aaanndd it's sold out - but it looks cool as fuck and I want one.
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.
📻 Rock N Roll Can Rescue The World - Electric Eel Shock
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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.