# In This Issue

- The e-sports and streamer lads are being shitheels towards women again

- RIP to the Segway Human Transporter, aka Ginger, aka It

- Some recent Aussie tech news that slipped through the net

- ZenCast is a very nice podcast hosting platform made and operated by a Sizzle subscriber

- Cheap OSMO starter kits, 2TB WD portable HDD, Dell Inspiron Ryzen 4000 laptop, Azure Fundamentals training & exam

# News

#### The e-sports and streamer lads are being shitheels towards women again

The e-sports and game streaming industry has been experiencing a moment of reckoning the last few days, with over 70 people (mostly women) going public with sexual abuse and harassment allegations. Unfortunately it's the typical creepy shitbag behavior that's been going on for ages - big shot game streamers harassing the typically less powerful women streamers and the bosses of e-sports teams taking advantage of the women in their teams. One dude called "SayNoToRage" did stuff like "nonconsensual touching, propositioning for sex and harassment, on Twitter using their streamer handles" and has since apologised, but Twitch still kept him around in their Partner program (kinda like a VIP setup for pro streamers). There's a growing movement of streamers planning a 24 hour strike to get Twitch to address the rotten behavior in the industry they're pretty much the king of.

#### RIP to the Segway Human Transporter, aka Ginger, aka It

The Segway is officially dead. The two wheeled, auto-balancing scooter will no longer be made by Ninebot, who purchased the brand in 2015. Originally introduced in the year 2001 after loads of hype, like people saying cities would be designed around them, the Segway never really took off. Ninebot reckons they were too durable, so people wouldn't buy news ones and the image of Segways never moved beyond weirdo freaks. This story from 2003 of Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos trying out the Segway prior to launch is hilarious. Steve Jobs said "it sucks", that its "shape is not innovative, it's not elegant, it doesn't feel anthropomorphic" and often repeated the phrase "will shit his pants" when referring to how other people will react to the Segway's (then known as "Ginger") innovation

#### Some recent Aussie tech news that slipped through the net

- The ATO is gonna start data matching the claims of businesses receiving JobKeeper and individuals that applied early access to superannuation due to COVID-19 to "verify eligibility" for the programs. Dunno what data they're going to suck in but my arsehole is clenched tightly, ready for robodebt 2.0.

- ASPI (aka the people China accused of making up the report that lead to the PM giving that weird "we are under cyber attack!!" press conference) reckon there should be a government department dedicated to tackling "disinformation and the incentives of social media and technology companies" in Australia.

- The ACCC is suing Dodo and iPrimus (both owned by Vocus) for misleading customers with their advertised peak hour speeds. They allege the ISPs are selectively measuring their speeds instead of giving the true average speed of all their users.

- Victoria gained a new innovation minister after the cabinet reshuffle due to Adem Somyurek’s branch stacking. Jaala Pulford takes over from Martin Pakula for managing the state's innovation strategies, which is pretty much funneling money into LaunchVic and seeing it get flushed down the toilet.

- 7-Eleven is deploying facial recognition technology in all 700 of its stores across Australia, using a platform called Rate It to measure customer experience. Sounds a little creepy to monitor the face of every person going into a 7-Eleven just so HQ can find out if they had a good "experience".

# Not News

#### ZenCast is a very nice podcast hosting platform made and operated by a Sizzle subscriber

Back when The Sizzle had a podcast (it might come back one day!), I spent ages looking for a nice platform to host it on. After weeks of pure crap I found ZenCast, liked it and plonked down the cash to use it. The owner Kyran, saw my thesizzle.com.au email address, reached out to say hello and that he's a Sizzle subscriber - serendipity! So If you're in the mood to start talking shit into a microphone and sharing it with the world, check out ZenCast. It does pretty much everything you could ever need as a podcast hosting platform and you're supporting a Sizzler!

Got a project you reckon I’d be into, let me know! Jump in The Sizzle’s Slack or shoot me an email. If I like it, I might share it with the other Sizzle subscribers.

# Bargains

- 20% off OSMO educational tech kits at Amazon AU (could also price match them at Officeworks for an extra 5% off)

- 2TB WD Passport portable HDD - $89 at The Good Guys

- Dell Inspiron 15 5505 laptop (Ryzen 5 4500U, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD) - $839.20 from Dell

- Microsoft Azure Fundamentals AZ-900 virtual training & exam are currently free

🎶 Death Letter - The White Stripes

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

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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.​