# The Sizzle

### Issue 358 - Thursday, 23rd March 2017

The greatest sport in the world is back in action tonight (the best team in the world doesn't play until Sunday afternoon), so I wrote a little thing about how to stream it online this season. The AFL are horrible at streaming stuff online, but this year's international viewer service is awesome - you just need a VPN to access it. Check it out if you're into footy.

- Medium announces how they plan to monetise
- Someone ripped off $100m from tech companies with an email scam
- Apple acqui-hires Workflow
- Kia won't import EVs into Australia until the government does something
- Super Mario Run comes to some Android devices

- Qantas wants startups to do stuff with its vast collection of data
- Why aren't there more women in cybersecurity IT jobs?
- Narcissistic fuckwits learned to code and publish an app

NEWS

Medium announces how they plan to monetise
The latest fad publishing platform, Medium, has revealed how it plans to make money. Paid subscriptions. It basically wants to be the Spotify of words. You or I chuck some content up on Medium, the punters pay Medium US$5/month for access to our awesome gear and Medium distributes that $5 amongst all of us. How they're gonna spread the $5 around, we don't know, Medium hasn't figured that out yet. This is pretty relevant to me as I make a living from selling words, so let's see how Medium goes actually enabling writers to turn a decent living out of their craft.
Discuss

Someone ripped off $100m from tech companies with an email scam
A bloke in Lithuania managed to scam US$100m out of two US tech companies by pretending to be a computer hardware manufacturer. He just emailed these companies, pretended to be Foxconn or Pegatron or something, used forged invoices and contracts and they paid him, hahah. It hasn't been revealed who the companies are (to avoid intense embarrassment), but the court documents say that one is a "multinational technology company, specialising in internet-related services and products" and the other "a multinational corporation providing online social media and networking services". I'm going to guess Google and Facebook, because they build their own servers.
Discuss

Apple acqui-hires Workflow
Apple has purchased the Workflow app, which won an Apple Design Award in 2015. The app is very cool, it's like a mix of Zapier and IFTTT, but on your iOS device. Dunno how much they paid for it, but it's probably an acqui-hire type situation, with the Workflow team working for Apple now. Apple will keep the app on the store and has made it free. I really hope they integrate it into iOS. Kinda like Automator 2.0. The Automator that never got much love from Apple. Programming for the rest of us.
Discuss

Kia won't import EVs into Australia until the government does something
You all know I'm keen as to get an electric car, I really want one. Kia, who make decent automobiles at a good price, say that they won't import any of their electric cars into Australia until there's proper government support and infrastructure. Reading between the lines, they want a government incentive (e.g: a $10,000 green bonus for purchasers) and more charging stations around the place, particularly for people who don't have a garage in which to charge their car in. But the Kia Australia boss also things hydrogen fuel cells are the future, so yeah, no cheap EVs for me any time soon.
Discuss

Super Mario Run comes to some Android devices
Super Mario Run is now available on Android. Fans of the little green robot and the little red plumber can now enjoy what iOS users have been whinging about as too expensive. It's not on all devices though - curiously, relatively high end smartphones like the Pixel XL, Samsung S6 Edge and the Nexus 6 are not supported. That is very weird. It's $14.99 on the Google Play store, if your Android device can play it.
Discuss

COOL SHIT

Qantas wants startups to do stuff with its vast collection of data
Qantas is getting in on the startup incubator game. It's "Avro" program will give startups access to all its data in order to create "a seamless travel experience; servicing customers beyond the air; simplifying platforms and systems; streamlining processes for efficiency; and the next "breakthrough business". Also in Qantas related tech news, in-flight wi-fi on the Red Roo starts next week. A single 737 that flies along the Australian east coast will have internet access, then around the middle of the year, an A330 that goes between WA and the east coast will get it. It uses NBN's Sky Muster satellite, so you can shitpost your way across this big brown land.
Discuss

Why aren't there more women in cybersecurity IT jobs?
The ACS has published an article based off a talk given by Sandra Ragg, the Assistant Secretary of Cyber Policy in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, explaining why women just aren't getting involved in cyber security roles and what can be done about it. Sounds like a lot of common sense to me - there's no physical or mental reason why women can't do this work. There's so much potential talent wasted without women doing computer stuff. Imagine all the things this industry could achieve if 50% of the population wasn't excluded or dissuaded from participating?
Discuss

Narcissistic fuckwits learned to code and publish an app
Remember when we were kids and teachers and parents told us not to judge people by how they look? That message clearly didn't resonate with the developers of Spontana. What a dark and thick shit stain on the world this app is. You post a picture of yourself to it and the image is sent off to other Spontana users who look at it and give you a score out of 100. People are then ranked by who's the highest rated according to other users of the app. Once again, this is some horrible Black Mirror shit coming to life. I've got to start writing about happier tech related news, I can't keep going on like this.
Discuss

Here endeth the sizzle (until tomorrow!)
--Anthony

The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Like The Sizzle? Like it on Facebook!

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