### Issue 1718 - Friday 21st October, 2022

## In Today's Issue

- Loads of Victorian renewable energy projects announced
- Texas sues Google for collecting biometric data without consent
- Elon Musk will sack 75% of Twitter's workforce when he takes over
- What do hackers do with the data they steal from big companies?
- Friday Forum Update
- Cheap Logitech Lift mouse, Wacom One tablet, free Apple TV+ for PlayStation owners, Edifier speakers, Samsung soundbar, Samsung 2TB portable SSD, HP Ryzen laptop

## The News

### Loads of Victorian renewable energy projects announced

Renewable energy in Australia got a big kick up the arse this week. On Wednesday the federal government announced the first batch of projects in its "Rewiring The Nation" initiative. $1.5b of "concessional financing" to build offshore wind in Victoria, $750m via the CEFC to fund a huge VIC-NSW grid interconnect (VNI West) and together with the Victorian and Tasmanian governments, will fund 20% of the Marinus Link subsea cable between VIC and TAS. Yesterday the Victorian government said it'll introduce a 95% renewable electricity generation by 2035 target. To meet that goal, it'll bring the State Electricity Commission back and fund it with $1b to build a shitload of state-controlled (so co-funded with private owners with the SEC owning 50%+) renewable energy projects. Did Daniel Andrews read Saul Griffith's The Big Switch recently??

### Texas sues Google for collecting biometric data without consent

Texas reckons Google has unlawfully "collected millions of biometric identifiers, including voiceprints and records of face geometry, from Texans through its products and services like Google Photos, Google Assistant, and Nest Hub Max" without user consent - a violation of the state's laws. Hate to say it considering Texas' recent history on internet laws (HB-20 anyone?) but they're on the right track here. Google might ask for permission from the actual user of the product, but it also collects and builds datasets on people associated with that user (i.e: family members, friends, etc) that did not give permission. Google recently agreed to pay $100m class action settlement in Illinois for the same thing, but says "AG Paxton is once again mischaracterizing our products in another breathless lawsuit" and "will set the record straight in court".

### Elon Musk will sack 75% of Twitter's workforce when he takes over

Thanks to a Washington Post article, we have some insight as to how Elon Musk will run Twitter when he inevitably owns Twitter. Musk has pitched to investors that he will "get rid of nearly 75% of Twitter's 7,500 workers, whittling the company down to a skeleton staff of just over 2,000". Twitter was planning to sack 25% of staff and introduce the horrible practice of stack ranking before Musk rolled in, but 75% is pretty harsh. You'd hate to be the crew left behind, whipped by management daily to do the work of 3 people, so Elon Musk loses $30b instead of $40b when he sells Twitter to Verizon in 2025. During yesterday's Tesla earnings call, Musk was asked about Twitter and admitted he and his investors were "obviously overpaying". According to the article Twitter and Musk are "expected to close the purchase by next Friday".

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### What do hackers do with the data they steal from big companies?

The ABC has an excellent low barrier to entry article explaining what hackers do with the data they pilfer from places like Optus and Medibank. It explains phishing, targeted scams and the legal situation that forces companies to hold so much data, then barely punishes them when they don't store it properly. It ends on the sober fact that there's pretty much nothing we can do as individuals to stop data breaches, only limit the fallout after the fact. You and I already know this stuff, but if you've ever run into someone not so tech savvy that cracks the shits whenever they have to enable 2FA or whinges whenever they're told to use a unique password on every website, they'd find this article useful.

## 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.

- Azzoor has made a nice little iOS app called Sticker Drop that turns any image into a sticker you can use in WhatsApp, iMessage and Telegram.
- Emmackat kicked off a discussion about the potential lawsuit Microsoft is facing for using open source code to train GitHub's Copilot feature
- wolfjay wants to replace their Mac Mini under the TV with a set top box but doesn't know which one
- crunks is after a gaming laptop that's also good for streaming duties for around $2,000
- tuey is struggling to configure NextDNS so that it'll work with ABC iView and 10Play

## Bargains

- Logitech Lift vertical ergonomic mouse - $85 from digiDirect via Westfield Plus
- Wacom One 13.3" display tablet - $389 from Wacom
- 6 months free Apple TV+ for PS5 owners, 3 months for PS4 owners via the PlayStation store
- Edifier R1700BT active bookshelf speakers - $144 from Edifier Australia
- Samsung Q990B/XY soundbar - $1330 + delivery from Appliances Online
- Samsung T7 2TB Portable SSD - $227.08 from Amazon UK
- HP 15S-EQ3047A laptop (Ryzen 5625U, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, 15.6" 1080p) - $787 from Officeworks

## Image Of The Day

Sandra Lerner, co-founder of Cisco.
Image credit: Stanford Innovators

## The End

📻 Tool - Forty Six & 2

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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.