We all got sex pest vibes off Elon Musk since day one, but now we have specific allegations about his penis that SpaceX paid US$250,000 to cover up. A flight attendant on SpaceX's private jet, mostly used to haul Elon and other execs between San Francisco (where Tesla is) and Los Angeles (where SpaceX is), was "encouraged to get licensed as a masseuse so that she could give Musk massages" and during one massage in 2016, she accuses "Musk of exposing his erect penis to her, rubbing her leg without consent, and offering to buy her a horse in exchange for an erotic massage". Elon denies it, calling the story a "politically motivated hit piece" and tweeted that unless she can describe any unique features about his dick, she is lying.
Bloomberg is reporting that Apple's board members got a hands-on with a prototype AR/VR headset close to production at a recent meeting. The device is set for debut in the "next several months". Specs wise it has "two 4K micro-OLED displays, 15 camera modules, powerful processors equivalent to the M-series chips, eye tracking capabilities, hand gesture support, spatial audio, and other features". It'll run "Reality OS", presumably a fork of iOS. This could all be total bullshit, but it's not a secret Apple is working on something in this area, as they have thousands of employees dedicated to it - just like their car project. What we see as a result of all that effort is anyone's guess, but this info is the most we've had in a while.
The Victorian Department of Transport is using "Deloitte's AWS Panorama-powered video analytics solution AutoEye" across its 1200 CCTV cameras to "enable identification of specific incidents of interest and general abnormal behaviour from the enriched data and baselines". According to the department's operations director, this is a real "game changer" that will let them "know about more incidents, more quickly, which will result in faster responses and recovery". The system's benefits are highlighted in this example of a team in an operations centre busy handling a truck rollover potentially missing other "secondary incidents occurring on the approach and in the surrounding network", because all their attention is on this truck rollover.
Innovation Australia has a list of tech-related policies floated during the Federal election campaign. It's mostly a cash splash on random initiatives. The biggest of those brain farts is the ALP's promise of $1b for a Critical Technologies Fund to "invest through loans, equity and guarantees in companies that expand Australia's capability in areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics and quantum computing". Each party also has NBN-related policies if that's a vote deciding issue for you - Labor, Liberal, Greens. I doubt any of this stuff is changing votes, but at least you roughly know where each party sits in regards to tech and science issues.
It was a quiet week over on The Sizzle forums so here's a reminder about the different area you can participate in. Less lurking, more posting!
📻 Planet Telex - Radiohead
😎 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 or change email address? Visit the customer portal.
📚 Browse The Sizzle Archive. A few issues are missing and it's not searchable, but it's better than nothing.
Fastmail. Email where you are the customer, not the product. Loads of features, smooth no-nonsense web interface, plus calendar and contact hosting. They've been around for 20 years and I've been a customer for over 10. Use this link and get 10% off your first year and I get around 30c/month you remain a customer.
Aussie Broadband. Great customer service and responsive to community needs (they have an "unofficial" Discord, they publish their CVC!). I've been a customer since 2017 and don't plan on going anywhere. Use my referral code (1001031) to get $50 credit when signing up for an NBN plan and I get $50 credit towards my next bill.
Vultr. All my Australian-based hosting needs (3x VPSes) are handled by Vultr. Easy to use admin interface, automatic backups, built-in firewall, custom ISO support and reasonable prices. Sign up with my link and score $100 credit. I get $25 credit if you're active for 30+ days and spend at least $25.
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.