### Issue 1772 - Wednesday 25th January, 2023

No Sizzle tomorrow because it is Australia Day. Change the fucken date already.

## In Today's Issue

- US DoJ sues Google for dominating too much of the web advertising market
- Some highlights from Elon Musk's 3 days & 7 hours in court
- The maker of Tweetbot has a nice Mastodon app called Ivory
- Recent-ish Apple laptops and their activation locks are a pain in the arse for recyclers
- Cheap Logitech keyboards & mice, Corsair mech keyboard, Apple Watch Ultra, aluminum laptop stand, Roland UVC-02 web presentation dock, Lenovo Tablet M10, Samsung microSD, Linsar 82" TV, Sony 83" OLED TV

## The News

### US DoJ sues Google for dominating too much of the web advertising market

The US DoJ and a couple of states have sued Google. The press release outlines how "Google now controls the digital tool that nearly every major website publisher uses to sell ads on their websites (publisher ad server); it controls the dominant advertiser tool that helps millions of large and small advertisers buy ad inventory (advertiser ad network); and it controls the largest advertising exchange (ad exchange), a technology that runs real-time auctions to match buyers and sellers of online advertising". Google, of course, disagrees and says it is "one of hundreds of companies that enable the placement of ads across the Internet" and actually has loads of competition.

### Some highlights from Elon Musk's 3 days & 7 hours in court

Elon Musk spent 7 hours over 3 days getting peppered with questions in court about his "funding secured" tweet in 2018. Some highlights of his testimony from a few articles I've read about the proceedings:

- There was never a specific number given in relation to the size of any investments to take Tesla private by any of the groups involved. Hard to "secure funding" without specific dollar values.
- The Saudi Public Investment Fund (who were providing the bulk of the finance to take Tesla private) never signed any documents saying they'd invest. Elon took them at their word.
- He swears that the price of $420 a share wasn't to impress his then-girlfriend Grimes, but was simply a 20% premium over the stock price and any reference to cannabis was a coincidence.
- Musk's lawyers "threw up their hands and shook their heads" when he said "most Tesla investors are happy because the company is worth more now than it was in 2018" and that these plaintiffs "don't represent most investors".
- One of the plaintiff's lawyers called Elon, "Mr. Tweet" and it was funny.

### The maker of Tweetbot has a nice Mastodon app called Ivory

Ivory, a Mastodon client by the same mob that made popular iOS Twitter client Tweetbot, is now available for the iPhone at $2.99/m or $24.99/yr. Not that there wasn't decent Mastodon clients for iOS around before Ivory (here's a few), but many people got comfortable with how Tweetbot worked after a decade of use and for them, Tweetbot was Twitter. Now they can use more or less the same app, but on Mastodon, which makes them happy and hopefully, use Mastodon more frequently. It's still got a shitload of features to come but in its v1.0 form Ivory is very usable and in my opinion the nicest Mastodon client yet. I look forward to the Mac and iPad versions. By the way, if you'd like to follow me on Mastodon, I'm decryption@aus.social and here's an invite link to join aus.social if you'd like to give Mastodon a shot.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Recent-ish Apple laptops and their activation locks are a pain in the arse for recyclers

One of the nice things about a recent Mac laptop is that if you lose one, it's difficult for someone to get any use out of it due to the iOS-style activation lock. This makes Apple gear worthless for most thieves so they don't get stolen as often either. Unfortunately it also means when 3 year old laptops that are still very excellent computers, but let go due to generous device upgrade policies, are dumped at an e-waste facility by a business or school that's too busy/dumb to remove them from an MDM or iCloud, they're also worthless bricks that end up in industrial shredders. The cynical side of me reckons Apple is quite happy with the status quo and fewer used (i.e: cheap) Macs in the wild.

## Bargains

- Logitech MX Anywhere 3 Wireless Mouse - $79.99 from Amazon
- Corsair K68 Red Backlit (Cherry MX Red) Mechanical Gaming Keyboard - $74 at The Good Guys
- Logitech MX Keys Wireless Illuminated Keyboard - $119 from ozonlinebuys eBay store
- Apple Watch Ultra - $1,153.76 from Sydney Mobiles eBay store
- Alashi aluminum laptop stand - $14.99 from Amazon
- Roland UVC-02 Web Presentation Dock (1080p HDMI Capture & XLR Mic Input) - $279 + delivery from VideoGuys
- Lenovo Tablet M10 3rd-gen - $199 at ALDI (next week)
- Samsung 256GB/512GB PRO Plus MicroSD Card - $34.20/$75.05 from Bing Lee's eBay store
- Linsar 82" 4K UHD Smart WebOS TV 2022 LS82UHDNF2 - $999 from The Good Guys
- Sony 83" XR Master A90J 4K OLED TV with Google TV & Sony HT-S100F Soundbar - $6154 at Harvey Norman

## Image Of The Day

Netscape Developer T-Shirt. Designed by Tom Peikwen. ca. 1995 (John Slater / Flickr)

## The End

📻 Liberty Bell - The Gathering

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## Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land

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.