# Issue 767

##### Monday, 19th November 2018

## In This Issue

- Huge 2FA & password reset SMS database caught with its pants down
- Elon Musk dug a hole
- Tesla to use CCS2 charging socket on EU & AU Model 3
- You can use Alipay in Australia now, kinda
- RIP Apple AirPort
- Learn computing concepts via Julia Evan's cartoons
- Bloody massive game collection in a Melbourne bloke's house
- Too much cheap stuff to fit in a single headline

## News

### Huge 2FA & password reset SMS database caught with its pants down

I've never heard of Voxox, but they handle sending "text messages, including password reset links, two-factor codes, shipping notifications and more" for many websites and apps. Sebastien Kaul stumbled across one of their servers on Shodan that was wide open, not even a password applied, that had the full contents and metadata of over 26 million messages fully searchable. The scariest thing sitting in that live updating database was messages containing plain text passwords sent to users for bank accounts. Loads of 2FA codes in there too, that if someone wanted to break in to your account and was monitoring the database, could be used to view the response code without even needing the device!

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### Elon Musk dug a hole

Elon Musk's Boring Company has pulled a tunnel-boring machine through the exit of its test tunnel in LA. They started building this tunnel back in Jan 2017 and hope for the ~3.5km long tunnel to be ready December 10th so people can take rides in Teslas through it. The Boring Company started because Elon reckons there's a better way to use tunnel-boring machines than companies do now - 5x to 10x faster in fact, which would reduce costs big time. This post on Quora is actually quite useful to quickly grasp what Elon is doing with Boring Company and why it arguably won't/will work.

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### Tesla to use CCS2 charging socket on EU & AU Model 3

Tesla has announced it's adopting the CCS2 rapid-charging standard in Europe and Australia for the Model 3 instead of its proprietary Supercharger connector. Tesla also said that it will retrofit its existing Supercharger network in Australia with CCS2 plugs. This is very interesting because all the upcoming EVs will have CCS2 support, which means technically, there's no reason why they couldn't use Tesla's Supercharger network. Tesla has said they're not against other cars using their Superchargers, so it wouldn't surprise me if they open up the Supercharger network to everyone at some point at the same 35c/kWh they charge new Tesla owners now.

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### You can use Alipay in Australia now, kinda

NAB has implemented support for Alipay so Aussie businesses can get those sweet Chinese tourist Renminbi and convert them to dollars. "This means from next year, Aussie businesses with a NAB merchant terminal can offer Chinese tourists Alipay, their preferred QR code payment method, in-store, and unlock an opportunity to promote their businesses on Alipay's marketing platform which has 870 million active users". I wonder if you could sign up for an Alipay account in Australia and link it to your bank account? Would be a good way to enable mobile payments on a smartphone that lacks NFC or via a bank that doesn't support Google/Apple Pay.

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### RIP Apple AirPort

The AirPort Express has been dead for a while already and late last week, Apple pulled the AirPort Extreme & Time Capsule off their online store for good. This means Apple no longer sells wi-fi routers. It's a shame Apple couldn't continue developing this product line as I review heaps of consumer grade routers and most of them work fine, but none were as easy for a luddite to set up as Apple's. I know you're gonna ask me, so here are my recommendations for replacements: Asus RT-AC68U for a single unit setup, Netgear Orbi RBK50 mesh wi-fi for a large-ish home and Ubiquiti's UniFi stuff if you know what the OSI model is.

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## Not News, But Still Cool

### Learn computing concepts via Julia Evan's cartoons

These wonderful little zines have been sitting in my "shit to mention in The Sizzle" pile for a while, not sure why they've been sitting there so long as they're too cool not to share! Julia Evans takes these ugly and weird computing related concepts and makes them so much more understandable via cartoons. I think "Help! I Have a Manager!" would be very relatable to most technical people working in IT and wondering why the hell their boss is such a dickhead at work, but otherwise is perfectly normal and sane. Could make life a lot easier at work for some of you.

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### Bloody massive game collection in a Melbourne bloke's house

Over on Twitter, @MostlyJal shared this video of the "World's Greatest Game Room" with me and folks, it is pretty damn great. This guy from Melbourne has basically built a second house attached to his home, that contains 5 separate rooms full of video games and video game ephemera. It's easily over 300sqm all up. Classic games, modern games, consoles (mostly), PC games and even a room where his wife and kid have a massive TV each where they play games with each other. An incredible collection that made me sad to know that its locked away in his home, rather than for the public to enjoy.

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### Too much cheap stuff to fit in a single headline

Bunch of stuff on eBay using the code PEPPY:
- VideoPro have an 82" Samsung 4K TV for $4390 + $150 delivery
- Samsung EVO+ 128GB microSD card - $31.60
- refurb Samsung Galaxy S8 64GB units - $447.20
- Sandisk 32GB high endurance microSD (perfect for dashcams/24x7 environments) - $15.14
- Samsung T5 500GB portable SSD - $151.19
- Panasonic 65" 4K OLED - $3192 + delivery

Non eBay related bargains:

- Apple HomePod is $448 at Harvey Norman & Officeworks
- 3 months of Xbox Live Gold for $20.40 at EB
- 12 months PS Plus membership for $63.96 at EB & JB
- Digital Deluxe version of Civ 6 is just $27.53 at Humble Bundle right now
- 3 month free trial of Audible if you've never used it before
- Lots of Logitech gamer gear discounted at Harvey Norman. I like the G240 and G440 mousepads for $17 & $24 respectively
- 10% off Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ at Element14, making one of em $53.56 delivered
- Crumpler Mantra 13" laptop backpack for $99 delivered
- Detroit: Become Human for the PS4 - $29 at Amazon AU
- PlayStation VR + Camera V2 + VR Worlds + Skyrim VR is $299 at EB

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That's it, see ya tomorrow!
--Anthony

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