# Issue 603

##### Friday, 23rd March 2018

## In This Issue

- Employees over 40 years old are not welcome at IBM
- Trump's tariffs on Chinese imports will hit the tech sector hardest
- Instagram tweaks user's feeds to be more chronological instead of actually making it chronological
- US music industry is making money again thanks to streaming services
- BMW claims it won't be able to make a profitable EV until 2020
- Elon Musk tweets that RHD Model 3 production is delayed
- YouTube gun aficionados are moving their channels to Pornhub
- Cheap Nintendo eShop games, Optus & Voda SIMs, 10% off MacFixit, Logitech K810 keyboard, Samsung USB drives & C64 retro console

## News

### Employees over 40 years old are not welcome at IBM

IBM has been systemically pushing out US-based employees over 40 and replacing them with younger workers as to avoid paying them promised generous pensions. To make matters worse, anyone who realised this was a con and wanted to call IBM out on it in a court of law wasn't able to, as IBM held their redundancy packages ransom if they didn't sign an agreement promising not to sue IBM. Not only is this illegal, but it's gotta be bad business, right? Experienced staff would be less prone to making the inevitable mistakes young people make, because they've been there and done that and learned from it. Boneheaded move from IBM really.

Share this story | Discuss

### Trump's tariffs on Chinese imports will hit the tech sector hardest

Donald Trump has announced that the USA will be placing $60b worth of tariffs on Chinese goods and according to this TechCrunch article, most of that will be electronics because China makes practically every gadget in your home. The aim, according to Trump, is levelling the playing field as a US made item entering China incurs a high fee, but Chinese stuff entering the US is basically free. The USA's Information Technology Industry Council (aka lobby group) isn't keen on the US imposing tariffs, but does agree something needs to be done with the high tariffs US made tech is hit with when entering China. I doubt Australia would do something similar, but it's fun to watch from a distance.

Share this story | Discuss

### Instagram tweaks user's feeds to be more chronological instead of actually making it chronological

Instagram is tweaking the way it displays images in your feed again, promising to "ensure that newer posts are more likely to appear first in feed". Instagram justifies not reverting back to the simple to engineer and easy to understand chronological feed because you might "miss important posts that you care about", giving the example of a friend posting in a different time zone. Just put the damn thing back the way it was you goons, nobody likes this random shit popping up feed. Also while I'm complaining about Instagram, make an iPad app already and make the web version show higher resolution/bigger pictures.

Share this story | Discuss

### US music industry is making money again thanks to streaming services

Music industry revenue is starting to increase again. It's still a long way off what it was in the late 90s rivers of coke era when selling CDs was the game, but now that streaming music services have moved users away from piracy and paying something for music, the industry is on the up. Curiously, physical media (CDs, vinyl) are selling more than digital downloads (i.e: iTunes) now. I guess if people are gonna pay to own a copy of a song instead of paying a monthly licence to listen to it, they may as well own it on something they can hold.

Share this story | Discuss

### BMW claims it won't be able to make a profitable EV until 2020

BMW reckons it can't make a buck producing electric cars until at least 2020, and as a result, isn't going to enter supply contracts for battery materials until then. According to BMW's CEO, current electric car technology can't be scaled up to be produced in volume and be profitable enough. He goes on to say that BMW is waiting for "5th generation" EVs (BMW's current EVs are 4th generation), that are much cheaper to produce. There's no detail on what exactly makes a 5th gen EV cheaper to build (battery tech? manufacturing techniques? shared platforms?), but it seems to like it's a bad idea to wait to secure long term battery contracts.

Share this story | Discuss

## Not News, But Still Cool

### Elon Musk tweets that RHD Model 3 production is delayed

A tweet from Elon Musk brings bad news for any Australians looking forward to the Tesla Model 3: right hand drive production won't begin until mid-2019. If production doesn't begin until mid-2019, deliveries to Australia (not exactly an EV hotbed compared to the UK & NZ) plus the reservation queue wait times (existing Tesla owners get priority) mean it's unlikely I'd have a Model 3 in my garage prior to 2020. Ugh. Elon suggests that anyone busting for a Model 3 should get a used Model S instead. Lemme just check Carsales for a used Model S *computer noises* the cheapest one is $92,000. What a bargain...

Share this story | Discuss

### YouTube gun aficionados are moving their channels to Pornhub

YouTube recently announced that practically any video about guns that has an affiliate link or is a sales video will be banned. Of course, the gun nuts are pissed off about this and are looking for alternative places to make money off their passion. Where do you go for some hardcore passion? Pornhub. Yep, one gun channel, InRange TV, has started uploading gun tutorials and reviews to Pornhub, where for the time being you can chuck in affiliate links to gun stores and not face any consequences. Apparently there's a lot of non-porno vids on Pornhub. Not that I would know. I mean, who visits PornHub right? ha ha ha

Share this story | Discuss

### Cheap Nintendo eShop games, Optus & Voda SIMs, 10% off MacFixit, Logitech K810 keyboard, Samsung USB drives & C64 retro console

- 140 games in Nintendo's eShop are on sale, including stuff for the Switch.
- Optus have $40 prepaid starter kits for $10 (good for your burner phones)
- Vodafone are doing $40 starter kits for $20 and you can get $12 back with Cashrewards
- MacFixit.com.au have 10% off storewide. Handy if you're after a niche Apple accessory.
- Logitech K810 backlit bluetooth keyboard for $83.30
- Not exactly a sale, but EB has a Commodore 64 retro console like the mini SNES & NES that you can pre-order for $149.95.
- Harvey Norman have the decent quality Samsung BAR USB 3.0 64GB flash drives for $28

Share this story | Discuss

That's it, see ya Monday!
--Anthony

Sekiden - Take It or Leave It

The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Join us on Slack and chat with other Sizzle subscribers.

The Sizzle acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures, and to elders both past and present.​

This email was sent to *|EMAIL|*
why did I get this? | unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences

*|LIST:ADDRESSLINE|*