### Issue 2048 - Friday 15th March, 2024

Hello to the 858 new Sizzle subscribers that took advantage of my little Ozbargain promotion this week. We managed to raise $429 for the fine folk at Digital Rights Watch! I hope you like your 90 day taste of The Sizzle.

## In Today's Issue

- Pornhub blocks Texas after court enforces mandatory ID verification
- Starship's 3rd test goes well
- Powers used to compel tech companies to "assist" in defeating encryption hardly used, never for terrorism
- Nitro is the Aperture successor old school Mac photographers will love
- Friday Forum Update
- Cheap Doom Eternal, refurb Dell laptop, UniFi AP, Beyerdynamic headphones, Valve Steam Deck OLED, Moto G84, Sony Pulse headphones, Sony wireless earbuds

## The News

### Pornhub blocks Texas after court enforces mandatory ID verification

Too bad if you're in the 2nd most populated state in the USA and want to have a cheeky wank - you're blocked from Pornhub now. Pornhub took this action after Texas enacted a law that forces them to verify the age of visitors using a government ID API, something Pornhub reckons is a privacy risk unless done on-device, not in the cloud, so they block access if you've got a Texas IP address. You can get around this using a VPN if you're keen of course. I agree with Pornhub here - I don't want the government to have a log of each time my ID was used to verify my age when visiting adult content, but I also get the state's view that adult content shouldn't be so easy for minors to access. There needs to be a better technological solution here that respects user privacy.

⬆ Share or Discuss

### Starship's 3rd test goes well

SpaceX's Starship had its 3rd test last night and it seems to have gone pretty well. It was the first time all 33 Raptor engines functioned as expected and a test of the payload bay doors was successful too. It still hasn't nailed the landing (it's supposed to land gently in the ocean for recovery), but there's 9 more tests approved with the FAA for 2024. In the near term, SpaceX plans to use Starship to launch a fuckload of Starlink satellites all at once from its huge payload area. Longer term, NASA wants to use Starship to take heaps of stuff to the Moon and setup a permanent base there. Even longer term, Musk reckons Starlink will take people to Mars (imho not in my lifetime). Strongly recommend clicking through to the article on this story as the photos are fantastic. Unfortunately they've stopped livestreaming their launches to YouTube in glorious 4K and only broadcast them on Twitter/X which is nowhere near as good quality.

⬆ Share or Discuss

### Powers used to compel tech companies to "assist" in defeating encryption hardly used, never for terrorism

This year's Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act annual report dropped last week and after many years, there's still zero uses of this incredibly invasive Act related to terrorism. If you remember, the government and law enforcement at the time made a huge fuss that they desperately needed powers to force tech companies provide "technical assistance" to "provide data", even if it is encrypted. They harped on about terrorists and kiddie fiddlers, but in reality, all its been used for really is the NSW cops (53 out of the 66 technical requests made were by them) to investigate a homicide or drug offence (47 out of the 66). Perfect example of the government catastrophising an issue to get their way and erode our freedom as there's fuck all chance the law will be scaled back now that we know it's not that useful for the purpose it was intended for.

⬆ Share or Discuss

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Nitro is the Aperture successor old school Mac photographers will love

Who remembers Aperture, Apple's professional image editing and photo management program they abandoned in 2014? I do and when Apple discontinued it, that's also when I kinda stopped taking photos with my fancy camera as I didn't like any of the software (i.e: Lightroom) to edit with. Aperture's legacy lives on with a new app called Nitro - which itself is an updated version of RAW Power - both made by Nik Bhatt, the former engineering lead on the Aperture team. RAW Power has been around for a while and it's great, but Nitro is brand new and has features like "gradients, brushing, cloning, XMP sidecars, synchronized zoom, and more" that were not possible with the legacy codebase of RAW Power. It's got a 7-day free trial and after that is a $150 one-off purchase via the Mac App Store. Maybe it's time for me to dust off the ol' digital camera and give Nitro a spin to see if it rekindles any creative spirit I have left.

⬆ Share or Discuss

## 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.

- koconder has curated a website & calendar feed of tech events in Melbourne & Sydney.
- wongm 3D printed an adapter so their old Ryobi cordless drill and an Aldi hedge trimmer can take the batteries from newer drills.
- holmesrg is after a e-ink reader that's bigger than 6" and is after input from The Sizzle community.
- joshuawithers spitballed an idea to help less tech savvy people identify phishing/scam emails and SMS.
- zuccs has an infrared sauna and wants an EMF reader for it, to quote "make sure I'm not microwaving myself".

## Bargains

- Doom Eternal Standard or Deluxe Edition for PC - $13.73/$24.98 via Steam
- Refurb Dell Latitude 7400 laptop (i5-8265U, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 1080p 14" touchscreen) - $328 from Bufferstock
- Alienware AW3423DW 34" curved QD-OLED gaming monitor - $1679 at JB Hi-Fi
- Ubiquiti Unifi U6 Pro Wi-Fi 6 Access Point - $242.25 from Wireless1's eBay store with Afterpay
- Beyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X headphones - $280.49 from Mobileciti's eBay store with Afterpay
- Valve Steam Deck OLED 512GB/64GB - $1069.99/$628.99 from Mobileciti's eBay store with Afterpay
- Motorola Moto G84 12GB RAM/256GB smartphone - $279.64 from Mobileciti's eBay store with Afterpay
- Sony Pulse Elite Planar Magnetic Wireless Headset - $203.96 from Sony's eBay store with Afterpay
- Sony WF-1000XM5 noise cancelling wireless earbuds - $296.65 from Sony's eBay store with Afterpay

## Image Of The Day

Starship and its Super Heavy booster climb off the launch pad at Starbase, Texas. (Arstechnica / SpaceX)

## The End

📻 La femme d'argent - Air

😎 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon.

💬 Checked out the paid subscriber only forum? It's a tidy little place to discuss tech with like minded Aussies.

👋 Forums not your thing? The Sizzle has a Slack group you can procrastinate in and chat with other nerds bored at work.

💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info, change email address or cancel your subscription? Visit the customer portal.

🎁 Make someone's day and buy them a 12 month gift subscription to The Sizzle.

📚 Browse The Sizzle Archive. A few issues are missing and it's not searchable, but it's better than nothing.

🫂 Friends of The Sizzle is a small group of businesses or organisations operated by Sizzle subscribers. Support your fellow Sizzler!

💔 Tired of my bullshit? Unsubscribe and I'll never speak to you again.

## Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land

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.