### Issue 2006 - Monday 15th January, 2024

## In Today's Issue

- Meta invites group of Fediverse community leaders to get their feelings on adding Threads to the network
- Bunch of Aussie businesses stop using TikTok tracking pixel after senator asks if they've had legal advice on privacy implications of it
- Microsoft's market cap slightly higher than Apple's, Artifact AI-news social network shuts down, LG "smart" washing machine going nuts is prob fake
- OpenWRT to develop 1st-party officially supported hardware
- Cheap Coles Mobile SIM, Nikon Z8 camera, Samsung & LG monitors, Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate, Samsung microSD, iPad 10th-gen, JB smartphone trade-in bonus credit, Yamaha soundbar, UniFi PoE doorbell, DJI gimbal camera

## The News

### Meta invites group of Fediverse community leaders to get their feelings on adding Threads to the network

Tom Coates was invited to a "Data Dialogue event at Meta's offices in San Francisco" along with other "Fediverse" community people to discuss what Meta's plan is for Threads and ActivityPub integration - the protocol Mastodon uses - and published a long blog post about the meeting. The entire post is an interesting retelling of what appears to be a frank discussion between Meta and the Fediverse community, but the key bit of info in the post is a timeline from Meta of what they plan to do. Incrementally by the end of 2024, you'll be able to "follow Mastodon users within Threads, and reply to them and like them", with an end goal (still TBD) of "full blended interoperability between Threads and Mastodon". Lots of interesting questions around consent from non-Meta users getting their data sucked into Meta's algorithm for recommendation/display on Threads, moving accounts between Threads and Mastodon and moderation of what Mastodon content they decide to show to Threads users.

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### Bunch of Aussie businesses stop using TikTok tracking pixel after senator asks if they've had legal advice on privacy implications of it

Senator James Paterson wrote to 19 Australian companies using TikTok's tracking pixel, "asking whether they continued using it; if not, when they stopped using it; and whether they sought legal advice assuring them they were abiding by the nation's privacy laws". A bunch of them said they removed it once they realised it likely breaches the Privacy Act be default, so that's cool, but others like the University of Wollongong, Kmart, Woolworths and Sportsbet persist. He's a Liberal senator so it's probably related to some sinophobic bullshit and it's just a coincidence this happens to be a digital rights issue (I don't see him emailing about Google or Meta's tracking pixels), but regardless nice to see some businesses discover the juice isn't worth the squeeze when it comes to TikTok's tracking pixel at least - which to be fair, is one of the nastiest tracking pixels out there.

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### Microsoft's market cap slightly higher than Apple's, Artifact AI-news social network shuts down, LG "smart" washing machine going nuts is prob fake

- Microsoft overtook Apple as the world's most valuable public company, currently sitting on a US$2.887 trillion market cap compared to Apple's US$2.875 trillion. Kinda impressive how Microsoft is still duking it out with Apple all these years later, yet not really competing at all - Microsoft doesn't really have any mobile products, but the iPhone is huge. Apple doesn't have much enterprisey cloud stuff, yet Azure is a cash cow.
- Remember Artifact? The much hyped app from the co-founders of Instagram that had an "AI-driven" recommendation engine to suggest news to you? It'll be shut down at the end of February. CEO Kevin Systrom said "we have built something that a core group of users love, but we have concluded that the market opportunity isn't big enough to warrant continued investment in this way" - i.e: people like the app but we can't figure out how to make any cash out of it, so off we fuck.
- This viral tweet about an LG washing machine spewing 3.7GB of data a day out to the internet has been doing the rounds the last few days. Everyone was quick to make fun of this horrible device doing God knows what on old mate's network, but Tom's Hardware reckons it's an "inaccuracy in the ASUS router tool", misreporting data usage as people with the same washing machine see less than 1MB/day of traffic.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### OpenWRT to develop 1st-party officially supported hardware

OpenWRT is making their own 1st party, officially supported router. Up until now all the OpenWRT hardware support is best effort. Some devices were better than others for how easy they are to hack, but none were made with input from OpenWRT, designed with ongoing OpenWRT support in mind. They will be working with the BananaPi team to develop a a router that'll cost less than US$100, contain a 2.5GbE & 1GbE port, 1GB of RAM, Mediatek SoC, 3x3 WiFi 6, NVMe SSD, USB-C power, optional PoE and open source schematics. BananaPi will sell it and give a cut to OpenWRT in return. It's still early days in the process but should be on sale some time this year.

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## Bargains

- Coles Mobile 365-day pre-paid SIM with 120GB data, unlimited calls & SMS to 15 countries, 5000 bonus Flybuys points - $125 from Coles
- Nikon Z 8 Mirrorless Camera (Body Only) - $5,334.58 from Amazon
- Samsung LC34J791WTEXXY 34" 3440x1440 curved QLED 100Hz monitor with Thunderbolt 3 & built-in KVM - $647 + delivery from Bing Lee
- Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition (base game + Phantom Liberty expansion) for PC on GoG - $58.79 from CDKeys
- Samsung Pro Plus 256GB MicroSDXC card - $39 from The Good Guys
- iPad 10.9" Wi-Fi 64GB 10th Gen - $647 at Officeworks ($644 at Costco if a member)
- $250/$300 bonus trade-in credit at JB Hi-Fi for use towards buying a Pixel 8 or Pixel 8 Pro
- LG 27UP550N 27" 4K monitor with USB-C 90W charging & $40 JB Hi-Fi gift card - $399 at JB Hi-Fi ($369 if you're a JB Perks member)
- Yamaha SR-B20A soundbar - $199 from Amazon
- Ubiquiti UniFi Protect G4 Doorbell Pro PoE Kit - $699 from Umart
- DJI Osmo Pocket 2 Creator Combo - $549 at Amazon & Officeworks

## Image Of The Day

Late August 1992 - Historic abandoned Overseas Telecommunications Commission satellite earth station dish at Brown Range, Carnarvon, Western Australia, Australia. The 'Big Dish' (as it was colloquially known) has a 29.5 metre diameter reflector. The control building is not open to the public, but you can visit the site & enjoy panoramic views over Carnarvon and the surrounding plantations from the viewing platform. The OTC Dish Base is located on Brown's Range & was the site of Australia's first earth station for satellite tracking & communications (one of only eight in the world at the time). It was an integral part of the communications network for the Apollo Moon Programme & also helped track Halley's Comet. It was operational for 21 years (1966-1987) & played a major role in global communications of that era. (aussiejeff / Flickr)

## The End

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