Plus: How a Redditor gave a happy ending to an infuriating NBN story ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

December 02, 2025 | Read online
# Australia's AI green light, Netflix ends casting and UK's Wordpress bungle Plus: How a Redditor gave a happy ending to an infuriating NBN story
Edition 2463
"IBM 7090 Computer Data Processing System being Used" (Flickr: SDASM Archives)
Thank you to everyone who has made recommendations for the Sizzler Xmas Gift Guide! If you haven’t already, go here and tell me what you think is great.
# The News
### Australia’s AI plan trades mandatory guardrails for green light
Australia has abandoned its plans for mandatory AI guardrails in favour of relying on existing laws and rules to regulate the technology (ABC News). Industry Minister Tim Ayres released the government’s long-awaited National AI Plan to “capture the opportunity”. On top of the already announced AI safety centre which will be tossed $30m, it promises a plan to cut red tape for data centre construction, government deals with AI companies and some money to help turn AI research into businesses.
The Sizzle: As I was thumbing through the report, I was surprised by how little substance it contained. A lot of it is either previously announced things or things that have yet to be worked out. In some cases, it’s a plan to have a plan. And yet, the report has been warmly welcomed by the business sector because there’s not much there (AFR). Notably absent is a standalone AI Act or the ten AI guardrails that were announced by the previous industry minister Ed Husic. Even the AI safety institute will just be a government think tank with no powers to investigate how AI is actually being used (SmartCompany). Rather than putting us in line with the EU and its protections, Australia is giving the green light to let it rip.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### You probably can’t cast Netflix from your phone anymore
Netflix has ditched casting support from phones to most TVs without any notice, instead directing people to use native smart TV apps (AndroidAuthority). Over the past few weeks, users noticed that their updated Netflix smartphone apps had lost the “cast” button which allowed them to stream content from their phone to Chromecast devices. While a few older devices maintain casting ability, it’s only for the more expensive ad-free Netflix tiers. Netflix removed AirPlay support in 2019 (The Verge). God forbid people want to use their phones rather than fuck around with shitty TV remotes and their apps.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Top UK bureaucrat resigns for WordPress plugin error
The head of a UK government treasury agency has resigned because of a budget data leak caused by a misconfigured Wordpress plugin (Guardian). In November, the UK’s Office for Budget Responsibility’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook document circulated online an hour before it was supposed to be released (Guardian). An investigation found that the Office’s servers were configured to require authentication to the uploaded document but a Wordpress plugin, Download Monitor, bypassed this requirement. Then it appears that someone just guessed the URL and downloaded it ahead of schedule. Oops!
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Australia:
Australian media eyes $600m-a-year windfall in big tech news crackdown (Australian Financial Review, $) What 17,000+ young people think about the social media ban (ABC News) ‘We’ll be watching’: Social media companies warned about complying with ban as teens flock to alternative apps (Crikey, $) S ocial media bans are such a great idea I think they should apply to all age groups (Benhr.xyz)
Rest of the world:
Amazon, Google launch multicloud service for faster connectivity (Reuters) More of Silicon Valley is building on free Chinese AI (NBC News) Megan Thee Stallion Wins Defamation Suit Against Blogger (Variety, $) first defo case I’ve seen involving a deepfake ‘The Precedent Is Flint’: How Oregon’s Data Center Boom Is Supercharging a Water Crisis (Rolling Stone, $) Microsoft’s 2025 ugly sweaters feature Clippy, Zune, and the Xbox (The Verge) Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs—And They Have No Idea What They're Doing (Techdirt) Every time you sign up for a new social app, you have to rush to claim your username. That’s silly. (Internet Handle)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### How a Redditor gave a happy ending to an infuriating NBN story
Last night, Redditor u/maz_net_au posted a painstaking account of his five-year battle to get FTTP.
this makes me SICK
What turned a truly soul-sucking account into something uplifting is that after they posted last month that “I give up. The NBN won. I'll have to live with 4G forever”, another Redditor who worked at the NBN “drives to [his] house, takes a few photos of pits and pipes still missing from NBN’s Atlas maps” … and literally overnight fixes a data problem that had afflicted him for years. Then, less than a week later, u/maz_net_au had working gigabit FTTP. God bless random Redditors!
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
Samsung EVO Plus Gen2 512GB MicroSDXC - $73.50 at Amazon AU Garmin Forerunner Smartwatches at Garmin AliExpress Forerunner 255 for $253 Forerunner 265 for $416 Nothing Headphone(1) Wireless Headphones at Amazon AU Black for $360 White for $363 Apple HomePod (2nd Gen) - Midnight - $398 at Harvey Norman Swann NVR 8 Cameras Security 4K Monitoring With 2TB 5MP - $699 at Costco Apple AirPods Max Midnight Black [USB-C] - $777 at Amazon AU Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2) Sapphire Edition 47mm - $898 at Amazon AU
Computing
Ajazz AK992 Retro USB-C Mechanical Keyboard - Red Switch - $41.42 at Ajazz Official Store AliExpress Atrix 512GB MicroSD Express Card for Nintendo Switch 2 - $73.50 at EB Games eBay ASUS TUF BE6500 Dual Band WiFi 7 Router - $177 at YQ Global Store AliExpress Unifi Pro Max 16-Port Poe - $660 at Amazon (Down from $800) ASUS Prime Radeon RX 9070 XT 16G OC - $1029 at Centre Com Gigabyte Gaming A16 Pro 16" WQXGA Core 7 32GB 1TB RTX 5080 Gaming Laptop - $3289 at Centre Com
Mobile
Xiaomi Bundle at Xiaomi Australia Xiaomi 15T for $879 Xiaomi 15T Pro + Redmi Pad 2 Mint Green for $1179
# The End
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