Optus is yet to make any new public statements regarding its total network collapse for over 8 hours yesterday, so we still don't have a root cause analysis. Matt Tett, "managing director of network analysis company Enex TestLab", speculates in the Guardian that "Optus are probably trying to pinpoint who is responsible and determine whether it is them or someone else" before giving a more detailed public statement. A Mastodon post by Rob Thomas outlines a theory that it was due to router upgrade gone wrong. Meanwhile, the Communications Minister announced a review of the incident, ACMA is looking into Optus' failure to comply with properly routing 000 calls, the Assistant Treasurer and Finance Minister wants Optus to compensate businesses and the Victorian government is "going to undertake its own review of both Optus' response and where we can see further improvements that can be made".
Remember that Humane AI Pin thing some ex-Apple people gave a TED talk about a few months ago? The Verge got its hands on some leaked documents ahead of its launch tomorrow. They summarise the Pin as a post-smartphone device that's a "US$699 wearable smartphone without a screen that has a US$24/m subscription fee and runs on a Humane-branded version of T-Mobile's network with access to AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI". There's a Snapdragon SoC, cameras, depth & motion sensors, a speaker and microphone and can connect to Bluetooth headphones. The mic isn't always on, you have to manually activate it somehow and a "Trust Light" blinks whenever the Pin is recording. We will learn more about this weird little device tomorrow.
Following up on last week's news that Tritium, an Australian EV charger manufacturer that actually builds stuff in Australia, is running out of money and might shut down their Brisbane factory has formally announced it is shutting down the Brisbane factory. A team of around 200 people in R&D will remain in Brisbane, but there will be layoffs and cost cutting in the sales and admin side of the Australian located business. Manufacturing of EV chargers will now be centralised in Lebanon, Tennessee, where Tritium was kinda forced to build a factory because in order for their chargers to be eligible for very juicy US government incentives on offer to buyers, the chargers have to made in the USA. Smart move for the yanks, but sucks for us. The big question I have is where will politicians looking for a photo opportunities go now?
Digital PCR plate set up with RNA extracted from viruses in wastewater sludge (multiplexed with primer probes of SARS-CoV2, spiked BCoV, and PMMoV). Karie Holtermann & Payal Sarkar. City of San Jose Regional Wastewater Lab. 40X objective lens magnification. (2022 Nikon Photomicrography Competition)
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