### Issue 1659 - Thursday 28th July, 2022

## In Today's Issue

- NBN to get new orders from government, ends stand-off with telcos
- Chrome keeping third party cookie tracking for an extra 2 years
- The most minuscule of GTA6 news drops and I am here for it
- EU finds Pegasus on staffer iPhones, USA spends big on semiconductor subsidies, Autopilot takes another life, Meta makes less money than last year, Kraken crypto exchange possible treason
- Cheap Wera tools, Polk speakers, Pixel Buds Pro, eufy smart scale, LG 86" TV, 10% off Macs, refurb Bose headphones, Nintendo Switch Pro Controller

## The News

### NBN to get new orders from government, ends stand-off with telcos

The new government has heard all the teclos complaining about NBN's proposed update to the Special Access Undertaking and said last night that they will issue NBN a new "Statement of Expectations" ASAP. As a result, NBN withdrew its updated SAU that nobody was happy with and will come up with a new one once they get the new list of things the government wants them to focus on. The government also said "it will retain NBN Co in public ownership for the foreseeable future, expand full-fibre access to more homes and businesses, and ensure the NBN delivers for consumers and facilitates productivity". This piece on Innovation Australia details the interesting times ahead for little ol' NBN now that there's a new government.

### Chrome keeping third party cookie tracking for an extra 2 years

Back in 2020, Google said they will phase out support for third party tracking cookies in Chrome in two years. Today they made a blog post saying they'll do it in the 2nd half of 2024 instead - another 2 year delay. Google says they "need for more time to evaluate and test the new Privacy Sandbox technologies", which should be ready by Q3 2023 and adopted by enough developers by 2024 so Google can block them. Have a look at the Privacy Sandbox. It's basically a shopping list of ways to track you across the internet but still maintain privacy (lol). It seems so needlessly complicated that the only one who benefits from it is Google. All this nonsense simply for targeted ads that honestly, aren't that great at targeting!

### The most minuscule of GTA6 news drops and I am here for it

Besides Civilisation, the other franchise that manages to turn me into a full-on goblin mode gamer is Grand Theft Auto. Therefore I am pleased to tell you that according to this Rockstar puff-piece in Bloomberg, GTA 6 is coming "April 2023 through March 2024", but "developers are skeptical" and "people interviewed for this article said they didn't know of any firm release date and that they expect the game to be at least two years away". There's also going to be a woman (gasp) protagonist. She will be Latina and "be one of a pair of leading characters in a story influenced by the bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde". The bulk of the article is about Rockstar being less of a frat house/sweatshop and people like working there now.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### EU finds Pegasus on staffer iPhones, USA spends big on semiconductor subsidies, Autopilot takes another life, Meta makes less money than last year, Kraken crypto exchange possible treason

There's a heap of news around, so no cool fun nerdy thing today. Just boring "why is the world like this" news. Sorry, I don't make the news, I just write about it:

- The EU has evidence that NSO Group's infamous Pegasus spyware was found on EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders' iPhone in 2021, along with a bunch of other European Commission employees. Dunno who put Pegasus on there and we probably never will. The only reason the EU knows is because Apple told them.
- The USA has dropped a massive US$280b (yeah billion) on the "Chips and Science Act". There's a lot going on in the bill, but the bit getting the most attention is US$52b for "microchip manufacturers to incentivize construction of domestic semiconductor fabrication plants". For reference, that's approximately one (1) NBN.
- It's a day ending with Y, so there's a new incident of Tesla's Autopilot killing someone. On this occasion the collateral damage of Elon's grift is a motorcyclist that was rear ended on a highway in Utah and killed instantly. The NHTSA has added this incident to their pile of suspicious Autopilot occurrences.
- Meta made less money this quarter than they did for the same quarter last year - for the first time ever. Okay, it's only a 1% drop, but still, let me enjoy this. Revenue was a meager $28.8b!! He's only making $6.7b a quarter in profits! What a loser. Utter nonce. Go choke on a bottle of Sweet Baby Rays.
- From the New York Times: "Kraken, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, is under federal investigation, suspected of violating U.S. sanctions by allowing users in Iran and elsewhere to buy and sell digital tokens, according to five people affiliated with the company or with knowledge of the inquiry". What else is there to say?

## Bargains

- Wera Kraftform Kompakt W1 tool kit - $170.84 from Amazon UK
- Polk T15 passive bookshelf speakers (pair) - $149 from Selby
- Google Pixel Buds Pro - $269.10 from JB Hi-Fi
- eufy Full-Body Smart Scale C1 - $30.60 from Amazon
- LG UQ90 86" 4K TV - $2515.50 from JB Hi-Fi
- 10% off Macs from The Good Guys
- Refurbished Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 - $389.95 from Bose
- Nintendo Switch Pro Controller - $84.15 from The Good Guys

## The End

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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.