### Issue 1918 - Friday 25th August, 2023

I am taking off all of next week for some much needed grass touching, so The Sizzle will be left in the capable hands of Raj & Josh. I'll be back on the 4th of September.

## In Today's Issue

- Threads has a website now, still sucks though
- Zoom's CEO wants workers back in the office 2 days a week
- Apple supports Californian right to repair bill
- The world still yearns for increased internet bandwidth
- Friday Forum Update
- Cheap Samsung tablet, Boost Mobile SIM, portable USB-C monitor, Pixel Buds Pro, Vodafone 600GB/m plan, LG 34" monitor, Ultimate Him gift cards, Logitech mouse

## The News

### Threads has a website now, still sucks though

Meta's Threads social network finally has a website for old people like me that still consider a desktop computer to be a first class internet device. It appears to work well. Still waiting for ActivityPub support, you need to have an Instagram account to view more than a handful of messages and the joint is still mostly influencers and brands that are extremely boring, but at least now I can view it in a browser. Now that the dust has settled, I've landed on Mastodon as my primary social media presence, but I still check in on X every now and then, with Threads and Bluesky an afterthought. Facebook for Marketplace and local community info, TikTok for drooling idiot content to turn off my brain and Instagram for the occasional "look at me I'm doing something interesting" selfie.

⬆ Share or Discuss

### Zoom's CEO wants workers back in the office 2 days a week

Zoom's CEO has ordered "employees within 50 miles of an office that they must report to the office a minimum of two days a week", because "it's difficult for Zoomies — the pet name the company gives to employees—to build trust with each other on a computer screen" and "it's difficult to have innovative conversations and debates on the company's own platform because it makes people too friendly". Of all companies you think would be remote work friendly, it would be Zoom. I've worked for myself, at home, for over a decade now and would never return to office, but I can kinda understand why sometimes, working with your team on a project can be useful. Mandatory minimum in-office quotas though? Get fucked.

⬆ Share or Discuss

### Apple supports Californian right to repair bill

In a surprising move, Apple has lent its support to a Californian law that will require "vendors of consumer electronics and appliances to make sufficient documentation, parts, and tools for repairs available to customers and independent repair shops". Apple has vehemently argued against these laws in other jurisdictions, but in its home state, wrote to a state Senator saying that it supports the bill so long as it forces "repair providers disclose the use of non-genuine or used parts and provides "assurances that the bill would not threaten consumer safety and data security" by requiring manufacturers to disable security features. Apple's actions need to speak louder than their words (piles of perfectly good but bricked Macs? what about all those "obsolete" iPads & iPhones that can't be repurposed??), but at least there's words now.

⬆ Share or Discuss

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### The world still yearns for increased internet bandwidth

Alan Mauldin, a researcher at TeleGeography, investigated why there's still so much demand for new submarine fibre optic cables. There's terabits upon terabits of capacity added every year, but who the hell is using it all? It's a 15 minute video presentation (or check out the slides as a PDF), but the answer is pretty simple - "content providers". CDNs, cloud providers and gaming companies are growing rapidly and need to link their data centers to each other and to edge PoPs (i.e: ISP data centers) and are building their own networks rather than using the "public internet" for more quality control. Amazing how after all these years of the internet, we are still seeing exponential growth in data use. Just this week, work commenced on the "SMAP" cable that'll connect Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth via a 5,000km submarine cable capable of 300Tbps.

⬆ Share or Discuss

## Friday Forum Update

Here's five interesting discussions over on The Sizzle's paid subscriber forum for you to enjoy over the weekend. If you are not a paid subscriber but want to get involved, visit https://thesizzle.com.au/payme to get onboard.

- scottgrot is after a smart watch with physical buttons to reliably control music playback on their smartphone
- Once again I am looking for ways to let people know about The Sizzle and convince them to sign up for a free trial
- bljpoad asks questions about the reliability of eMMC storage in devices like thin client and single board computers
- Baa has bumped the job thread, where people list jobs at their workplace and where people looking for work can announce their availability
- andyb kicked off a discussion about the upcoming iPhone 15

## Bargains

- Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 wi-fi 64GB - $299 from Big W
- Boost Mobile 365-day SIM with 170GB data - $174 after cashback via Cashrewards
- ZSUS 15.6" 1080p IPS 144Hz portable USB-C monitor - $125.10 from Aliexpress
- Google Pixel Buds Pro - $199 from JB Hi-Fi or $198 at Officeworks (limited stock)
- Vodafone month-to-month mobile plan with 600GB/m of data - $65/m from Vodafone
- LG 34WP75C 34" 3440x1440 160Hz VA curved monitor - $559 from Harvey Norman
- 20x Everyday Rewards points on Ultimate Him gift card (EB, Kayo, Roblox, Timezone, etc) at Woolworths next week
- Logitech MX Anywhere 3 wireless mouse - $79 from JB Hi-Fi

## Image Of The Day

Commodore Magazine (Australia) Vol 5 No 2 - Issue 30 - 1985 (abeckett / Internet Archive)

## The End

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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.