### Issue 2222 - Friday 22nd November, 2024

## In Today's Issue

- US DoJ submits long list of things to break up Google's search monopoly
- Car manufacturers do not give a crap about data privacy
- Pirate access to scientific research papers is a good thing actually
- Scrolling through CT scans of everyday stuff is a fun way to waste an afternoon
- Friday Forum Update
- Today is not actually "Black Friday" - it's next week! I did not realise beacuse there's so many fucken bargains

## The News

### US DoJ submits long list of things to break up Google's search monopoly

The US DoJ has filed with the court what it wants to see done to end Google's search monopoly. As rumoured earlier in the week, it does include wanting Google to divest its Chrome web browser and even has the possibility of forcing them to divest Android "to incentivize it against circumventing other remedies". They also want to stop Google "offering money or anything of value to third parties — including Apple and other phone-makers — to make Google's search engine the default", mandate it gives access to the Google search index at "marginal cost, and on an ongoing basis", let websites opt-out of AI summaries without penalising their search ranking and "require Google to syndicate its search results, ranking signals. What exactly will happen is anyone's guess as by the time any of this is decided Trump will be fully installed in the White House and the DoJ will have a fresh roster of Trump loyalists leading it who may or may not take the same approach to punishing Google as the Biden's DoJ.

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### Car manufacturers do not give a crap about data privacy

A new study by Katharine Kemp at UNSW is "the first in-depth analysis of privacy terms relevant to connected cars in Australia" and found that "carmakers in many cases fail to appreciate the seriousness of privacy and security threats presented by connected cars". It's similar to what Choice discovered a few months ago. Manufacturers make the terms and conditions difficult to find, don't get informed consent from owners the cars prior to purchase, make it a pain in the arse to disable data collection, don't outline the exact types of data they hoard, are ambiguous if they share the data they collect with third parties and who those third parties might be and now, aren't explicitly saying if what they collect will be used to train AI.

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### Pirate access to scientific research papers is a good thing actually

Straight from TorrentFreak: "A recent study published in the Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice sheds light on people's motivations to use Z-Library. Expensive books and limited access to academic material play a key role among those surveyed. That includes a group of Chinese postgraduate students who believe that shadow libraries help to overcome (academic) poverty". Why societies are okay with limiting human curiosity is beyond me. I kinda get the copyright cartels with media, games and software, but locking up scientific research behind paywalls does nobody any favours except a handful of publishers and actively holds back progress.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Scrolling through CT scans of everyday stuff is a fun way to waste an afternoon

Scan of the Month is a website made Lumafield, a company that sells computed tomography scanners, as a way to promote CT scanner use outside of the medical field. They place everyday objects into one of their machines and post pictures of the results along with explanations of what we're looking at. Who knew browsing through thousands of x-ray layers of batteries, AirPods, gamepads and other stuff would be so interesting?

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## Friday Forum Update

Here's five interesting discussions over on The Sizzle's paid subscriber forum for you to enjoy over the weekend. If you are not a paid subscriber but want to get involved, visit https://thesizzle.com.au/payme to get onboard.

- joshuawithers wants some outdoor lights with smarts and stuff in them to wrap around a big pine tree for Christmas
- netizen asks which online PC store we like best considering most of them sell stuff for more or less the same price most of the time
- holmesrg has a legitimate whinge about having to waste time getting quotes for car insurance every year
- Pete kicked off a thread about Bluesky (btw I am @decryption.bsky.social)
- andyb lets us know about an ABC story explaining how Sydney's light rail operator is collecting passenger wi-fi MAC data for load reporting purposes without proper consent

## Bargains

- 10% off Amazon gift cards at GiftCards.com.au
- Nikon Z6 III camera body - $3349 from Amazon ($2,814.10 if you use 10% off gift cards and claim Nikon's cashback!)
- Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve Studio Perpetual Licence - $395 from Blackmagic
- DJI Osmo Pocket 3 Camera Creator Combo - $965.01 from DJI's eBay store
- WD BLACK C50 1TB Expansion Card for Xbox - $174.15 from Amazon Germany
- Apple AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C) - $289.99 at Costco (needs membership, but you can prob get OW to price beat)
- Apple AirPods 4 - $199 at Big W
- Apple AirTag 4 Pack - $119.99 at Costco
- Panasonic DP-UB820 4K Blu-ray player - $488 from The Good Guys eBay store
- Synology DS923+ NAS - $857.22 from Smarthomestoreau's eBay store
- Sennheiser HD 560S open back headphones - $178.62 from Sennheiser's eBay store
- Sennheiser HD 800S over ear headphones - $1499 from Sennheiser's eBay store
- 10x rolls of 36 exposure Kodak Portra 800 35mm film - $265.20 from Prices Demolished eBay store
- Herman Miller Aeron Remastered - $1900 at Sit Back & Relax
- PNY Nvidia RTX4060 8GB graphics card - $373.62 from Smarthomestoreau's eBay store
- 10% off most Macs at Harvey Norman (can get OW to price beat these too maybe depending on stock)
- Apple AirPods Max - $590 from MacApp's eBay store
- Apple iPhone 16 Pro 256GB - $1929.99 at Costco
- Cyberpunk 2077 for PC, DRM-free via GOG - $40.47 from Humble Bundle
- WD Elements 20TB external HDD - $491 from Amazon USA
- PlayStation 5 Slim Disc or Digital Console - $558/$498 from EB Games eBay store
- PlayStation VR2 Horizon Call of the Mountain Bundle - $579 from Amazon
- Lexar NM790 4TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD with heatsink - $305 from BPC Tech
- Get some bonus Apple gift cards if you buy stuff from the Apple online store next week
- $250 pre-paid Mastercard - $244 at Coles next week
- Gamesir G8 Galileo Type-C Mobile Gaming Controller - $78.99 from Spebelectronics eBay store
- Logitech MX Master 3S Wireless Mouse - $107 from Amazon (don't forget the 10% off Amazon gift cards!)
- Red Dead Redemption 2 - $19 at JB Hi-Fi
- 20% off Nearly Everything (camera accessories, bags, straps, mounts, etc) at Peak Design
- Motorola Moto G85 smartphone - $263.99 at Mobileciti's eBay
- Google Nest Doorbell (Battery) 2nd Gen - $147 from Amazon
- Sonos Era 100 smart speaker - $294 at JB Hi-Fi
- Denon Perl True Wireless ANC Earphones - $179 at JB Hi-Fi

## Image Of The Day

The public telephone, notice board and internet access terminal inside Wagga Wagga Airport, 5 July 2005 (Loui Seselja / National Library of Australia)

## The End

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