Issue 1781 - Wednesday 8th February, 2023

In Today's Issue

The News

Microsoft shows off a ChatGPT infused Bing & Edge

Microsoft has added ChatGPT to Bing. The "new Bing" uses an upgraded version of GPT-3.5, dubbed the Prometheus model that is "better able to answer search queries with up-to-date information and annotated answers". Unfortunately this new version of Bing is only in a limited preview. The new Bing FAQ mentions that "it can still show unexpected or inaccurate results based on the web content summarized, so please use your best judgment". Sounds a lot like Tesla's "please pay attention at all times when using your fully self driving car". Microsoft also added some OpenAI powered features to Edge - Chat (summarize the webpage or document they're looking at and ask questions about its contents) and Compose (acts as a writing assistant; helping to generate text, from emails to social media posts, based on a few starting prompts).

Safer Internet Day survey finds 23% of people love to watch people get upset online

Yesterday was Safer Internet Day and that means the massively ineffective, despite their vague and powerful legislated powers, eSafety Commissioner waves their arms around to remind the public that they exist. This year's thought bubble is asking dating apps to "report on how they are responding to violence and threats" or they "may soon issue legal notices" to do so. Just fucken issue the notices already, what's the point of all that power if you don't wield it? eSafety also commissioned a survey/report that found 23% of respondents reckon "it's fun to watch people get upset about something I've posted online". Natural born posters those 23%! Now what are you gonna do about it eSafety Commissioner? More draconian laws you never enforce?

Twitter's dumpster fire continues to burn brightly

It's been a minute since I bitched about Twitter. Time to fix that:

Something I Saw On The Internet

Maybe a good idea to avoid Samsung's 980 Pro and 990 Pro NVMe SSDs for now

Whenever someone asked me which SSD they should buy to upgrade their PC, I'd lazily tell them to get a Samsung as they're usually the best and I know I'm not going to get people coming back telling me I gave them a dud recommendation. It looks like I can no longer recommend Samsung's NVMe SSDs, as the 990 Pro and 980 Pro are shitting themselves prematurely. SSDs have a finite lifespan and after a few hundred terabytes of data copied back and forth, will just crap out. Samsung's latest SSDs are approaching their failure point way too early, like 64% health after only 2TB of written data. High end PC builder Puget Systems reckons its enough of an issue that they've moved to Sabrent as their SSD supplier instead of Samsung.

Bargains

Image Of The Day

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, watches Honda Motor Co.'s interactive robot Asimo, demonstrate at the Miraikan, or the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo, Monday, March 9, 2015. (AP Photo /Shizuo Kambayashi)

The End

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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.