### Issue 2194 - Monday 14th October, 2024

## In Today's Issue

- SpaceX catches a Starship Super Heavy Boost with "chopsticks" in mid-air
- TPG sells enterprise business & entire fibre network to Vocus
- Wordpress steals WP Engine plugin, renames it and claims it as its own
- Internet forums are still a thing and they are good
- Cheap refurb Starlink, Boost Mobile, Lenovo tablet, Portal game, Nura earbuds

## The News

### SpaceX catches a Starship Super Heavy Boost with "chopsticks" in mid-air

It's easy to look at Elon's entire time at Twitter/X, his deplorable cosying up to Trump & co, and last week's Tesla event and consider him the epitome of overpromising and under delivering, but then you see SpaceX's antics last night and go, wow, that's some cool shit that actually happened. They launched another massive Starship rocket and managed to capture the Super Heavy booster on its descent back to Earth back at the launchpad. Normally the booster stage is dumped in the ocean and scrapped, but SpaceX wants to re-use and and by demonstrating they can literally catch it with a pair of what they call "chopsticks", is pretty amazing. It reduces the cost of a launch significantly as you're not making a giant part of the rocket each time you launch it. You can watch the entire 2hr demo over on X, or just the 60s clip of the booster catch.

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### TPG sells enterprise business & entire fibre network to Vocus

TPG announced to the stock market today that it is selling its "fibre network infrastructure assets and Enterprise, Government and Wholesale (EGW) fixed business" to Vocus for $5.25b. TPG will keep its "mobile radio network infrastructure, Consumer and EGW mobile business and its Consumer and small office/home office fixed retail business, including fixed wireless". TPG's CEO said that the deal creates "a more focused and streamlined business" for TPG and by selling this fibre network and EGW fixed business to Vocus, "will create a challenger of scale in the enterprise connectivity sector with strength in international, inter-capital, regional and metropolitan connectivity".

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### Wordpress steals WP Engine plugin, renames it and claims it as its own

The Matt Mullenweg/Wordpress drama continues, with Wordpress.org effectively stealing a very popular 3rd party plugin created by WP Engine. They've "forked" the Advanced Custom Fields plugin by "invoking point 18 of the plugin directory guidelines" which gives Wordpress permission to remove or change a plugin "without developer consent". Mullenweg is trying to justify this by saying there's a security flaw with the plugin that needs fixing, but isnt' saying what that flaw is. Meanwhile, they changed the name (it's Secure Custom Fields now) and changed the author of the plugin in the plugin directory from WP Engine to Wordpress. They call it a fork but to me it looks like theft.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Internet forums are still a thing and they are good

Mentioned in last week's Garbage Day newsletter (one of the very few newsletters I pay for!) was Chris Person's list of internet forums that are still alive and kicking. Split up into broad topics, it shows a vibrant world of discussions outside the algorithmic mess of social media, dedicated to all kinds of niches. There's something for everyone here. Don't forget the Sizzle's forum too. Feel free to spin up a thread about whatever's on your mind as long as it's slightly technology related!

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## Bargains

- Refurbished Starlink hardware kits - $199 + $30 delivery from Starlink
- Boost Mobile 365-day pre-paid, 170GB data, unlimited calls & SMS - $150 after cashback via TopCashback
- Lenovo Tab P12 Android tablet - $466.65 from Lenovo's eBay store
- Portal Bundle for PC - $2.17 from Steam
- Nura NuraBuds 2 ANC Earbuds - $109 at JB Hi-Fi

## Image Of The Day

Launching and returning the world's most powerful rocket (SpaceX / X)

## The End

📻 Thee Oh Sees - Sacrifice

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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.