Plus: a fun, anonymous and encrypted way to have a yap ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

March 11, 2025 | Read online
# No, Ukraine is not hacking Elon Musk's X, National Library shuts out historian's API access and gaming wrap Plus: a fun, anonymous and encrypted way to have a yap
Issue 2288 - Tuesday 11 March 2025
Hello everyone! Me and 👶 are under the weather today so apologies for a rushed edition this morning.
# In Today’s Issue
No, Ukraine is not hacking Elon Musk’s X National Library shuts out long-time historian’s API access Xbox handheld, AI-written games and SNES getting faster: gaming wrap A fun, anonymous and encrypted way to have a yap
# The News
### No, Ukraine is not hacking Elon Musk’s X
Elon Musk is almost certainly full of shit when he says that the outage of X, formerly Twitter, is because of a cyber-attack using “Ukrainian IP addresses” (The Verge). Musk may even be telling the truth about the IP addresses but the implication that Ukraine, in the middle of defending against a Russian invasion and now without US aid, is DDoSing X for… reasons ??? makes zero sense, unless you have addled your brain with too much ketamine (The Atlantic, $). Meanwhile, Bluesky continues to add features — this time, increasing video lengths to 3 minutes and filtering spam DM requests (TechCrunch) — that make it a good, mainstream alternative.
### National Library shuts out long-time historian’s API access
Sizzle readers may be familiar with Tim Sherratt, a historian and programmer who has built the tool GLAM Workbench tool around the National Library of Australia’s enormous library of archival data, as well as many other sources. His NLA API keys were recently revoked for allegedly breaking its terms of service that supposedly limit the extraction of full text rather than just metadata (Information Age). This is despite, in Sherratt’s telling, the API being changed to make it easier to pull the full text. The Information Age article links this to AI but AFAIK the NLA hasn’t explicitly said this. I’ve emailed the NLA and haven’t heard back yet — but needless to say, the NLA should be doing everything it can to work with researchers like Sherratt to make their catalogues more available and useful.
### Xbox handheld, AI-written games and SNES getting faster: gaming wrap
I don’t cover that much gaming stuff on the Sizzle but I thought I would wrap in a few things here. Microsoft is looking like it’s going to get into the burgeoning handheld PC gaming market with its own device (Windows Central), but the future of the Xbox hardware itself looks grim as the company ramps down the number of exclusive games. Game-makers are falling over themselves to put AI into games like a leaked Sony prototype (The Verge) but gamers understandably would prefer human crafted content over AI slop. Also in a totally weird thing: the speed-running community might be affected by the news that SNES consoles appear to be getting faster as they get older (Time Extension) because of its ceramic audio processor? Weird.
#### Leftovers
Alfred blows away the Gilmour Space launch window (InnovationAus, $) Tech worker retirements put gov agencies on edge (ITNews) A review of Australia's spy agencies is yet to be released, eight months after the government got it (ABC News) Ex-Facebook employee alleges sexual harassment and human rights failures in new memoir (NBC News) Exclusive: Apple, Meta likely to face modest fines over DMA breaches, sources say (Reuters) The Tesla protests are getting bigger — and rowdier (The Verge)
# Oh, Also
### A fun, anonymous and encrypted way to have a yap
Fancy a yap with someone on the internet? Enter yaps.chat which is a totally anonymous, encrypted chat platform that lets you randomly chat with an individual or group. It’s like a text-based Chatroulette or Omegle! And the fact that’s text only means it probably doesn’t have the pretty serious predator problems those sites had (BBC). yaps.chat feels like an older version of the internet that we’ve lost, where there were little nooks and crannies with different quirky designs. I had a nice chat with someone who told me they were in the US and quite scared about where things are going in their country and, well, fair enough.
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
UGREEN 22.5w 20000mAh Power Bank - $37 at Amazon AU Nanoleaf Essentials B22 LED Bulbs 3-Pack - $40 at Amazon AU Garmin Vívoactive 5, Health and Fitness GPS Smartwatch - $337 at Amazon AU Dreame L10s Ultra Complete Robot Vacuum and Mop Cleaner - $805 at Amazon AU Sony ZV-E10 Mirrorless Vlog Camera with 16-50mm Lens Kit (Black) - $890 at JB Hi-Fi EcoFlow DELTA 3 Plus Portable Power Station - $1329 at Ecoflow Sony Alpha A6700 Mirrorless Camera - $1695 at VideoPro TCL 98" C655 QLED 4K Google TV 24 - $2984 at The Good Guys
Computing
Patriot Supersonic Rage Lite 64GB USB Drive 5-Pack - $32 at Amazon AU Team T-Force Z44A7 M.2 PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD 4TB - $299 at PC Case Gear Apple iPad 10th Generation 10.9" 64GB Wi-Fi - $487 at Amazon AU Acer Aspire 3, 15.6" TN 1080p, AMD Ryzen 7 5700U, 16GB / 1TB, 48 Wh - $697 at Officeworks NetGear Orbi RBK853 Wi-Fi 6 Tri-Band Mesh Router System (3-Pack) - $787 at Amazon AU ASUS ROG Rapture GT-BE98 Quad-Band Wi-Fi 7 Router - $1099 at Amazon AU
Mobile
Lebara 30-Day Prepaid Starter SIM 70GB - $10 at Woolworths Boost 65GB 28-Day Prepaid SIM - $13 at Cashrewards Catch Connect 365-Day Prepaid Mobile Plan 360GB - $169 at Catch Google Pixel 9 Pro XL 128GB - $1447 at JB Hi-Fi
# The End
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