### Issue 1836 - Tuesday 2nd May, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- Australia to get a National Messaging System for emergencies and a Public Safety Mobile Broadband network
- ACCC tells NBN to try again with new pricing agreement, 2nd time in 12 months
- Mastodon gets user friendly updates, CoinJar expands to USA, Apple's first Rapid Security Response update now available
- Replika AI gave people romantic AI friends then took them away
- Cheap 8TB HDD, Roblox & JB Hi-Fi gift cards, Boost Mobile pre-paid SIM, Alienware QD-OLED monitor, Crucial 4TB SSD

## The News

### Australia to get a National Messaging System for emergencies and a Public Safety Mobile Broadband network

In a bit of pre-Budget hype, the comms minister announced that Australia is getting a "National Messaging System" in late 2024. The UK tested something like this a few days ago using a feature called Cell Broadcast Alerts built-in to the 3GPP specification. I don't know if what Australia has planned uses the same setup the UK does, but if it does, only iPhones running at least iOS 14.5 and Android 11 or later devices are supported. The government also announced a taskforce to deliver Public Safety Mobile Broadband, a "mobile broadband service that provides Public Safety Agencies and first responders with fast and secure voice, video and data communications". Sounds like a good idea.

### ACCC tells NBN to try again with new pricing agreement, 2nd time in 12 months

The comms minister has been busy today, making another announcement that the ACCC and NBN still haven't agreed on a new Special Access Undertaking (SAU) - the document that outlines NBN's pricing that trickles down to us plebs. Key issues continue to be NBN jacking up the price of the popular 50/20mbps service and NBN refusing to commit to any service quality improvements before 2026. Literally, NBN wants to increase the price but decrease the quality and expect ISPs to say yes please and thank you. This is the second time in under 12 months the ACCC has told the NBN to try harder on the SAU. Not surprised in the slightest that NBN can't get it right.

### Mastodon gets user friendly updates, CoinJar expands to USA, Apple's first Rapid Security Response update now available

- Mastodon is changing their on-boarding process for new users, offering a "a default sign-up option that works with a server we operate" (mastodon.social) instead of forcing a user to already know which server they want to join. Mastodon is also working on adding "quote posts, improved content and profile search, and groups".
- Australian cryptocurrency exchange CoinJar is expanding to the USA. CEO Asher Tan told The Austrailan that "Where other exchanges see regulatory risk, we see opportunity" and believes that "the American market will reward an exchange with our unparalleled compliance bona fides". Good luck to them.
- Apple has pushed out its first "Rapid Security Response" patch for iOS and macOS. These are small updates that fix urgent security issues that can't wait for the next release of software updates - i.e: what Windows has done for decades. Waiting for a major release to fix urgent security bugs was always a dumb idea.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Replika AI gave people romantic AI friends then took them away

Have you watched the 2013 movie "Her"? If so, the story of Replika AI will be familiar as it's pretty much what Luka, the company behind the app, has created. They went around promoting an AI companion to lonely people who eventually wanted to have sex with their AI friend (aka Erotic Role Play), so Luka ramped up the horniness of their bot, pitching it to users as an "AI girlfriend". It went too far, with users claiming it was too aggressive or "sexually harassed" them, so Luka dialled it down and eventually, got rid of the sex and romantic stuff entirely as it got too messy. A significant number of people took to Reddit mourning the loss of their AI partner much like the loss of a real person. Gio has a very well written blog post explaining the "emotional rug-pulling" and mental damage that took place with Replika AI.

## Bargains

- 8TB WD Blue WD80EAZZ SATA HDD - $173.14 from Amazon USA
- 10% off Roblox gift cards via Amazon
- Get a Boost 140GB 12-month pre-paid SIM with unlimited calls & SMS for $150 via Cashrewards
- 20x Everyday Rewards points on select TCN gift cards (JB Hi-Fi the main one) at Woolworths
- Alienware AW3423DW 34" curved QD-OLED gaming monitor - $1679 from JB Hi-Fi
- Crucial P3 4TB PCIe Gen 3 NVMe SSD - $311.33 from Amazon UK

## Image Of The Day

The Richat Structure, also known as the "Eye of the Sahara," an eroded geological dome in the nation of Mauritania, is pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited 259 miles above the African continent. At left, from top to bottom, are the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module's forward port, the Prichal docking module, and the Soyuz MS-23 crew ship. (NASA Johnson / Flickr)

## The End

📻 Slide The Needle In Under Blue Skin I Took A Picture So I Can Still Burn You - Calm

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