Issue 2263 - Tuesday 4 February, 2025

ICYMI, the Sizzle forum had some great replies about people’s first ever computer room.

In Today’s Issue

The News

Australia kicks tech policy down the road, again

Australia should keep expanding its online safety regulation and give big fines to platforms that don’t comply, says a government-initiated review coming out today (ABC News). A review of the 2021 Online Safety Act by former ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard recommends legislating a duty-of-care and to create binding rules for platforms to deal with dehumanisation of minorities, national security and social cohesion threats and more.

But the government, which has had the report since November, is not committing to actually doing any of the recommendations, although Communications Minister Michelle Rowland says the government will legislate a duty of care (here’s a duty-of-care explainer from Australian tech think tank Reset Tech). But without any details or timetable, we’re seeing yet another federal government essentially kick the can down the road. I know it’s easy to hate on government for bad tech policy, but personally I would prefer some tech policy. On the government’s flagship policy, the teen social media ban, Reuters has a fun piece where they made teen burner accounts on YouTube — exempt from the ban — and found they were very quickly directed towards extremist content (Reuters). Cool!

Elon Musk knows how tech really runs the government

Checking in on how things are going in the US: This is a recent high school graduate who did an internship with Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink who has now been installed at one of the most powerful government agencies. He reportedly has unprecedented access to classified government data (including staff medical records) and is appearing in meetings with senior public servants (WIRED, $).

Far be it for me to judge a book by its cover or CV, but the presence of a zoomer Musk stan in a government boardroom is a red flashing light alerting us that things ain’t right. Elon Musk and his cronies have reportedly gotten access to the technical systems that control the government’s finances for things like its foreign aid agency USAID and welfare programs like Social Security and Medicare (The Verge). What we’re seeing is actual takeover of the US government, wresting away the power of Congress to pay for things to an unelected billionaire.

I’m not being hysterical and I don’t think Musk is some chess grandmaster, but it’s clear that Musk, and his various cronies, understand something fundamental about how big organisations work from their experience taking over various businesses: power doesn’t rest with the person with the wallet, it actually lies with the person who knows the online banking log-in.

Steve Jobs is rolling in his grave over iPhone porn

It’s insane that it took nearly two decades but we’re getting the iPhone’s first ever “approved” porn app as a consequence of the EU’s push to open Apple up (The Verge). You can now download Hot Tub, an “adult content browser” from the iOS app store alternative AltStore PAL which launched in April last year thanks to Europe’s Digital Markets App. Frankly, this rocks. Not because this will help you get your rocks off — although, the Sizzle supports that 100% — but because porn is not a crime. Most iPhone owners are adults. People who make porn should be able to make money like anyone else. If I spend $1000s of dollars on a device, why shouldn’t I be able to use its full capacity and not be limited to Safari’s nerfed capabilities for just about the most popular thing you can do on a computer? Just remember, it was Steve Jobs who said “folks who want porn can be and [sic] Android phone” (TechCrunch).

Oh, Also

What name do computers hate?

I happened across this 2015 article from a technology journalist called Christopher Null about his name (WIRED, $). He acknowledges it’s a good one for a tech journo (“The geek connotations provide a bit of instant nerd cred”) but says, on balance, it’s a pain in the ass for obvious reasons.

I feel bad for the guy unlike the bloke who ended up with US$12,049 worth of tickets wrongly sent to him after he chose a “NULL” vanity license plate (WIRED, $)

Bargains

The End

😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday afternoon. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius.

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The Sizzle is created on Gadigal 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.