Quick heads up - no Sizzle tomorrow because it's the "Friday before the AFL Grand Final" public holiday in Victoria. 2024, year of the roo - I'm hearing it more and more.
Meta's dev conference kicked off last night. The Meta Quest 3 is now a thing with a faster SoC, better graphics and is "the first mainstream mixed reality headset" according to Zuck. Meta's "Stories" smart sunnies are now called "Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses" and feature built-in audio like the Bose & Amazon smart sunglasses, better cameras and controversially, the ability to livestream direct to Facebook or Instagram with a few taps. A big part of Zuck's keynote was infusing AI into every corner of Meta's products (of course). One feature they demonstrated was "virtual representation of celebrities like "Charli D'Amelio, Dwyane Wade, Kendall Jenner, MrBeast, Snoop Dogg, and Paris Hilton" that you can chat to in Messenger. The AI demos start at around 25 min into the keynote.
We've got a formal response from the government to the 2-year-long review of Austraila's Privacy Act. Out of the 116 recommendations, 38 are fully agreed to (i.e: the government will do it), 68 are "in-principle" (i.e: yeah we kind agree but need to check what our mates think) and 10 are "noted" (i.e: lol no we aren't doing that). Digital Rights Watch sent supporters an email summing the review up: "the overall vibe is positive and supportive of many of the improvements to the Privacy Act that we've been pushing for for years, including a statutory tort for serious invasions of privacy, junking the broken consent model, removal of the small business exemption, and improvement of the definition of 'personal information'. If implemented, this would be a significant improvement on our current laws, which are miles behind comparable jurisdictions. The bad news: Government has decided against providing individuals with a right to opt-out of targeted advertising. Amusingly—and unsurprisingly—they're also not keen on removing the exemption for political parties". Keep up the fight my privacy loving mates!
The Information is gossiping that Sam Altman (Mr. OpenAI) and Jony Ive (do I have to explain?) are "friends" and have been discussing "what new hardware for the age of AI could look like", according to a "person familiar with the matter". I wonder what the pals and insiders reckon? Anyways, Altman is a big investor in Humane (remember that TED Talk demo?) and it wouldn't surprise me if Atlman is trying to suck up to Ive to get him to come back to designing consumer electronics. Ive is the GOAT, so if Sam manages to get Jony to design Humane's next-gen/mass market product, that'll make everyone pay attention to it. I also like to imagine what Jony and Sam talk about in their friendship. Oh to be a fly on the wall during those conversations.
Straight from the press release: "Denny's CEO Kelli Valade was joined Tuesday by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang Tuesday to unveil a plaque at the Silicon Valley Denny’s where NVIDIA's founders hatched their idea for a chip that would enable realistic 3D graphics on personal computers". Jensen used to work at a Denny's as a teenager, saying that "no one can carry more coffee cups than I can" and then stuck around at the event after the plaque was unveiled, "serving his 100 colleagues" and "balanced ten plates on his arms while circulating among the crowd". Jensen and his table ate a "Lumberjack Slam, Moons Over My Hammy, and a Super Bird sandwich - washed down with plenty of coffee". If you're ever in San Jose and want to do something cheesy, please go to the Denny's on Berryessa Road in San Jose, take a selfie with the plaque and send me the photo.
A view inside a glass and stainless steel glovebox containing the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return canister. (Dante Lauretta / NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
📻 Harmonic Generator - The Datsuns
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