### Issue 1422 - Wednesday 4th August, 2021

## In Today's Issue

- Facebook reaches behind couch and pulls out $15m for Australian news related grants
- Federal Court reckons its cool for AI to be the inventor on a patent
- Blizzard sacks two big wigs for their role in creating a hellhole for women employees
- Some news related loose ends
- Cheap Google Pixel 4, Xiaomi battery pack, iPad Air 4, iPhone 12 mini

## The News

### Facebook reaches behind couch and pulls out $15m for Australian news related grants

Facebook is pissing in everyone's pocket and telling them its raining with the launch of a $15m Australian News Fund. According to Facebook it will hand out a bunch of grants for "innovation and revenue-generating projects, such as subscription paywalls and membership program development" and "to fund news projects of public interest value and to encourage media diversity". I'd rather eat my own dick than take a cent from Facebook. What's this one off sugar hit of cash gonna do besides give them a tiny bit of positive PR? Absolutely nothing. They're also launching a beta of Facebook News to a handful of Australians before giving it to all Australian Facebook users "in the coming months".

### Federal Court reckons its cool for AI to be the inventor on a patent

Australian patent law just got spicier, as the Federal Court has said that an AI system can be named the inventor of a patent - which seems to be the first judicial determination in the world of its type. Dr Stephen Thaler, a US-based developer of Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience (DABUS) made the patent claim and put on it that DABUS, not himself, invented a "food container and devices and methods for attracting enhanced attention" (I think this is the patent in question). Initially IP Australia said it's bogus because a human needs to be the inventor, but the federal court overturned that decision as the Patent Act doesn't define the term inventor, so the judge figured "We are both created and create. Why cannot our own creations also create?".

### Blizzard sacks two big wigs for their role in creating a hellhole for women employees

Blizzard's president J. Allen Brack and human resources boss Jesse Meschuk have quit the beleaguered gaming company as sexual harassment claims pile up. An IT worker admitted to installing spy cameras in the women's toilets in 2018. A security engineer said she was mocked and harassed by Blizzard employees at a 2015 Black Hat conference. Male Blizzard employees would "would often walk into the office's breastfeeding rooms without knocking and refuse to leave until asked". All this in addition to the previous stories of women being groped and harassed at work. A pathetic HR department is one of the core complaints made by the women involved in the lawsuit against Blizzard, saying their lack of action on stuff like this enabled male staff to keep acting like fuckwits.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Some news related loose ends

- You can buy a keyboard from Apple that has Touch ID built-in. Only works on an M1 Mac though, for obvious reasons.
- Famous camera manufacturer/lifestyle brand Leica has built its own smartphone - the Leitz Phone 1. Unsurprisingly it's very photography focused with a huge (for a smartphone) 1" sensor.
- This protoype of "reverse passthrough" VR goggles shown off by Facebook researchers sure is something. It allows for eye contact even though the other person is immersed in virtual reality.
- Adobe has released a native Apple Silicon version of Premiere. The new version also adds a "Speech to Text feature that automatically converts audio in a video into editable text for overlaying or embedding captions".
- Telstra is struggling to maintain its infrastructure from the mouse plague hitting regional NSW. Mice are attracted to the warmth of equipment cabinets and love gnawing on cabling, plus piss and shit all over electrical equipment.

## Bargains

- Google Pixel 4 64GB - $499 at Harvey Norman
- Xiaomi ZMI QB910M MFi power bank & USB-C to Lightning cable combo - $39.99 from MMel
- Telstra Day sale on the 5th of August - iPhone 12 mini for $754 and 64GB iPad Air 4 with LTE for $899

## The End

📻 Strange Human Being - Regurgitator

😎 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.​