### Issue 1833 - Thursday 27th April, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- Digital Rights Watch floats the idea of a government owned Australian Digital Corporation
- UK to block Microsoft's US$69b acquisition of video game publisher Activision
- Send & receive iMessages in Windows 11 (kinda), Black Mirror returns for 6th season, Google Authenticator app can sync 2FA tokens now
- Elon Musk likes to get around Twitter pretending to be a horny version of his toddler son
- Cheap 30" Dell monitor, Samsung foldy phone, Pixel 7, Cricut Maker 3, HP micro PC, Optus 365-day pre-paid SIM

## The News

### Digital Rights Watch floats the idea of a government owned Australian Digital Corporation

Digital Rights Watch have made a submission to a Senate Inquiry on the influence of international digital platforms suggesting a government owned Australian Digital Corporation. The ADC would "begin by building publicly owned cloud computing infrastructure that brings technical capacity that has been outsourced to big tech back into the public service" and also "be empowered to develop publicly owned payment processing, streaming services and social media. It could play a role in supporting other public services to establish a larger presence online such as libraries and public schools". I haven't read the full submission yet (it's 40 pages) but the concept of the Australian Digital Corporation is an interesting one.

### UK to block Microsoft's US$69b acquisition of video game publisher Activision

The UK is the first of the big government regulators to block Microsoft's US$69b take over of Activision. According to the Competition and Markets Authority, Microsoft has a 60-70% market share of cloud-gaming already and by purchasing Activision would Microsoft wouldn't be able to resist making its titles exclusive to their platform, despite promises and deals with Nintendo and Nvidia to supply games for the next few years. The CMA also added that it would be a pain in the arse for them to constantly monitor Microsoft to make sure they're abiding by these agreements. It's easier just to not allow the acquisition in the first place. Microsoft will appeal this and the EU and USA still hasn't decided what they'll do.

### Send & receive iMessages in Windows 11 (kinda), Black Mirror returns for 6th season, Google Authenticator app can sync 2FA tokens now

- Microsoft's Phone Link app in Windows 11 is out of preview and lets you send and receive iMessages on your Windows PC. It's a bit of a hack, using the Car Bluetooth integration to get it to work, but hey, better than nothing if you're desperate.
- Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones have churned out new episodes of one my all time favourite TV shows, Black Mirror. Netflix announced that a 6th season will kick off in June. Charlie once said he's tapped out of ideas, so I hope it doesn't suck.
- Google's Authenticator app now lets you sync 2FA tokens with your Google account so if you install it on a new device the tokens are transferred across. It's currently not end-to-end encrypted, but after some outrage Google is fixing that.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Elon Musk likes to get around Twitter pretending to be a horny version of his toddler son

I ripped this straight from the excellent Garbage Day newsletter because it's a better summary than I'll ever write: "It seems highly likely that Elon Musk was using an alt account last winter to roleplay as a horny toddler or, I guess, more of a horny toddler than he usually is. How do we know? Well, Musk tweeted a screenshot of his app to brag about the amount of paying subscribers he now has for "exclusive memes" and the profile pic of the horny toddler account was in the screenshot as a switch user. Also, probably worth noting that a very small percentage of his followers are actually subscribing to him. What's even worse - like impossibly worse - is that Musk's weird alt account appears to be him roleplaying as his two-year-old son X AE A-XII". Thanks gtch for bringing it to my attention in The Sizzle's Slack channel.

## Bargains

- Dell UltraSharp U3023E 30" 2560x1600 IPS USB-C monitor - $649 from Futu Online's ebay store
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 5G 512GB - $1569 from Amazon
- Google Pixel 7 5G 128GB - $787 at Officeworks
- Cricut Maker 3 Machine - $419.40 from Spotlight (can get Officeworks to price beat)
- Refurb HP Prodesk 400 G4 micro PC (i5-8500T, no RAM or SSD) - $201.52 from Pearllaptops eBay store
- Optus $300 pre-paid starter kit (365-day expiry, 200GB data, unlimited calls & SMS) - $199 at Woolworths

## Image Of The Day

The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the technical foundation of the Internet. This is an undated network map, likely from the mid-70s. (National Museum of American History)

## The End

📻 Slave - Silverchair

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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.