Good morning, how you doin’? Here’s some tech news to make the day before a public holiday (or two) a little easier to get through.
1. We’ll be watching NASA’s megarocket tanking test
After replacing faulty seals that resulted in the second scrubbed SLS launch attempt on September 3, NASA is ready to proceed with a full-scale cryogenic tanking test of its megarocket. The tanking test starts at 9 pm (tonight). Should everything go smoothly, the test will conclude at around 5 am tomorrow. NASA’s live coverage of the test is available at NASA TV, NASA’s YouTube channel or at the feed provided below.
2. Australians made 80,000 complaints about telcos last year
In 2021-2022, Australians made 79,534 complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman. That’s quite a lot, yes, but it’s a 33.4 per cent decrease over the year prior. In numbers terms, that’s a drop of 39,866 complaints. Up until this year, the internet was the most complained about service, but now it’s mobile leading the charge. Telstra is still the most complained about telco.
3. YouTube’s algorithm doesn’t care if you ‘thumbs down’ videos
Apparently, giving a video the ‘thumbs down’ on YouTube does SFA. A report from the Mozilla Foundation claims, based on a survey and crowdsourced data, that the “dislike” and “don’t recommend channel” feedback tools do not actually change video recommendations. It goes deeper than that, however, with Mozilla last year claiming that folks surfing the video platform are regularly being recommended violent content, hate speech and political misinformation. Yikes.
4. Tesla Megapack battery fire
A Tesla Megapack battery caught fire overnight at the local utility company PG&E’s Elkhorn Battery Storage facility in Monterey County, California, as reported by local news stations. Brought to our attention by The Verge, residents in the area have been asked to shut all windows and turn off ventilation systems due to the ongoing hazardous waste material incident caused by the Tesla Megapack fire.
5. In awe of Nvidia’s new range of GPUs
Nvidia announced its new range of GPUs, the RTX 4000 series, overnight, including the RTX 4080 and the RTX 4090. These cards include noticeable performance improvements over the 30 series and include DLSS 3.0 and RTX Remix, an AI system that remasters old games.
BONUS ITEM: It’s always a curiosity to wake up and see Scott Morrison trending on Twitter. Today, this is why.
Scott Morrison’s secretive cabinet committee of one had hundreds of meetings, FOI documents suggest https://t.co/OK8QkbHdSQ
— Guardian news (@guardiannews) September 20, 2022
Enjoy your day/s off!