### Issue 1311 - Wednesday 24th February, 2021

## In Today's Issue

- Facebook to allow Aussie news back on its platform after severely watered down law passes
- Online Saftey Bill rushing through Parliament under the guise of protecting children
- Bunch of new gadgets out today, here's a summary of them all
- AI is playing a greater role in hiring employees than I realised
- Cheap Parallels software combo, Azure AI Fundamentals training, Apple Watch SE

## The News

### Facebook to allow Aussie news back on its platform after severely watered down law passes

Facebook is reversing its news blockage in Australia after the changes to media mandatory bargaining code that passed Parliament last night. The law has been tweaked so that it won't apply to Google or Facebook if they sign deals with "enough" media companies (whatever that means), giving the government discretion on forcing the mandatory arbitration section of the law. Facebook would just pull the news again if they were forced into arbitration so yeah, Facebook and Google cough up a bit of cash and continue business as usual, the government gets to look good appearing to standing up to big tech and the whole issue fades away because the media class got paid off so will stop whinging.

### Online Saftey Bill rushing through Parliament under the guise of protecting children

The Online Safety Bill has already been submitted to Parliament today, despite the consultation period only ending a week ago. At its core, this law will allow the eSaftey Commissioner to remove "harmful online abuse" from the internet. The commissioner can order any website, social media platform or online service to remove any content that fits the ambiguous definition of harmful content. Digital Rights Watch has a page explaining the Online Safety Bill and how wide ranging it is. Remember Senator Stephen Conroy's porn filter? This is it, but instead of blocking stuff at ISP level, they're using enforceable legal requests to remove content the government doesn't like. Australia is really going hard on shit tech related laws lately!

### Bunch of new gadgets out today, here's a summary of them all

- Hyundai's Ioniq 5 is a very nice looking EV that comes out in Australia later this year that I plan to replace my Tesla with.
- Anker has a MagSafe compatible 5000mAh battery that sticks to the back of your iPhone 12 and charges at 15W.
- Lenovo's got new ThinkPads using the Ryzen 5000 series CPU and whatever turd Intel is pushing out these days. There's a nice 40" ultrawide Thunderbolt 4 enabled monitor/dock to go with them too.
- Sony has a new "Cinema Line" video camera called the FX3 that is basically the a7S III stills camera juiced up a little for videography.
- Rode's Wireless Go II is an update to their popular wireless lapel mic system. The new one adds USB-C output to a computer along with a bunch of other very useful features.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### AI is playing a greater role in hiring employees than I realised

I've never heard of companies like HireVue or Pymetrics, but they're used by many multi-national companies as part of their recruitment processes to weed out the bulk of applicants without any human intervention. This isn't necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, but as we well know, the algorithms these software platforms use to determine who should or shouldn't progress to the next stage of a job application are not always fair. There's even YouTube videos with tips and tricks to make sure the AI doesn't shitlist you. Makes those group interviews I did back in the day to work at Officeworks not so bad.

## Bargains

- Parallels Desktop, Pocket Premium, Fantastical & 1Password combo - $109.95 from Parallels
- Free training day for Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals
- Apple Watch SE 44mm/40mm - $449/$399 from Kogan

## The End

📻 To Hell With Good Intentions - Mclusky

😎 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon.

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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.​