# In This Issue

- Trump is considering giving a presidential pardon to Edward Snowden

- Google lets Australian users know how it feels about the proposed News Media Bargaining Code

- Pinterest’s management is a boys club that sacked its female COO for not being “collaborative”

- Real world Starlink speeds are starting to appear via beta testers

- Cheap Sims 4, iPhone SE, Izotope Neutron 3 Elements, Dell 27" USB-C monitor, Cygnett HomeKit smart plug

# News

#### Trump is considering giving a presidential pardon to Edward Snowden

In an interview with the New York Post, Donald Trump said in regards to Edward Snowden that "there are a lot of people that think that he is not being treated fairly. I mean, I hear that", further elaborating in a random interview at his golf course that he will "take a very good look at" pardoning Edward Snowden, who is currently exiled in Russia. Prior to becoming president, Trump said that Snowden is a "traitor" and a "spy who should be executed", but seems to have randomly changed his mind on the bloke who blew the whistle on the USA's massive government surveillance program. Meanwhile Julian Assange is sitting in a UK prison wondering who’s dick you gotta suck to get a presidential pardon.

#### Google lets Australian users know how it feels about the proposed News Media Bargaining Code

Google's placed a pop-up on Australian search results, saying "The way Aussies use Google is at risk. Your search experience will be hurt by new regulation" with a link to an open letter about the ACCC’s proposed "News Media Bargaining Code". Google reckons that "news media businesses alone would be given information that would help them artificially inflate their ranking over everyone else, even when someone else provides a better result", then scaring users with a vague message that "your search data may be at risk" as Google would be forced to hand over info about user activity to news businesses, which doesn't appear to be true, but even if it was Google isn't exactly a saint when it comes to handling personal data.

#### Pinterest’s management is a boys club that sacked its female COO for not being “collaborative”

Pinterest's former chief operating officer Françoise Brougher has published a blog post outlining how "although 70% of Pinterest's users are women, the company is steered by men with little input from female executives. Pinterest's female executives, even at the highest levels, are marginalized, excluded and silenced". The male management would have shadow meetings where the real decisions were made, the CEO only listened to a handful of people (all blokes), no women (even the COO!) were taken on investor roadshows and the sole woman executive was given less favourable equity terms. In an interview with Kara Swisher, Pinterest's CEO said he had no idea the women at his company felt this way and spouted some vague stuff about making changes.

# Not News

#### Real world Starlink speeds are starting to appear via beta testers

Beta testers have Starlink's satellite internet service has been anonymously sharing speed test results with Arstechnica and the news is pretty good. Latency hovers between 30ms - 90ms, downloads 11mbit-60mbit and uploads 5mbit-18mbit. That's better than many FTTN connections on our glorious National Broadband Network. Elon Musk said they're aiming for latency below 20ms back when Starlink was launched, and a few Reddit posts have some latency measurements as low as 20ms, but even at 40-50ms that's a massive improvement over traditional satellite internet. Maybe bandwidth would improve with the full 12,000 satellite constellation, but either way, time to start planning your move to a remote cabin in the bush.

# Bargains

- The Sims 4 for Mac & PC - $5.59 from CD Keys

- iPhone SE 64GB/128GB - $599/$679 from Vodafone if you go on a $35/m no-contract plan (so you can cancel day 1 and all you’ll pay is $634/$714)

- Izotope Neutron 3 Elements is free via Plugin Boutique at the moment

- Dell S2719DC 27" USB-C monitor - $629.30 from Dell

- Cygnett CY2881CHCPM Smart Plug with power monitoring (HomeKit enabled) - $24 from Harvey Norman

🎶 Manchasm - Future of the Left

😁 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Join us on Slack and chat with other Sizzle subscribers.

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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.​