### Issue 1697 - Tuesday 20th September, 2022

## In Today's Issue

- Kiwi Farms got hacked
- Texas HB20 law upheld by US Court of Appeal
- iFixit impressed at repairability of iPhone 14
- The status of Myki's mobile & card payments
- Cheap JB gift cards, iPhone 13 mini, MacBooks, Codecademy, 10TB HDDs, Nintendo eShop gift cards, PS5 controllers, Philips Hue 1600lm bulb

## The News

### Kiwi Farms got hacked

Joshua Moon, the person responsible for Kiwi Farms, has told the users of his cesspool that "the forum was hacked" and should "assume your password for the Kiwi Farms has been stolen", "assume your email has been leaked" and "assume any IP you've used on your Kiwi Farms account in the last month has been leaked". Someone compromised his admin account (due to a flaw in the XenForo forum software Kiwi Farms uses) and then downloaded "the email address, username, last activity, and other details of each user". Perhaps the identities of users there might be made public? Stay tuned.

### Texas HB20 law upheld by US Court of Appeal

The USA's Court of Appeals has upheld a crazy Texas law that will prevent private companies like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube "from removing content touting Nazism or white supremacy, or even from blocking social media users who engage in campaigns of harassment against other users". An example of this law (Texas HB 20) in action is removing of pro-Nazi videos from YouTube will also require YouTube to remove anti-Nazi videos as both express "viewpoints". HB20 will likely be appealed again and again until it ends up in the Supreme Court.

### iFixit impressed at repairability of iPhone 14

iFixit is pleasantly surprised with the iPhone 14's repairability - "we've long said that designers could get all of the design features and functionality they're looking for, as well as repairability, if they just put in a little more effort to avoid the glue. Well this time, Apple put in the effort". Apparently with "just two screws", "both screen and back glass are immediately accessible" which iFixit calls "incredible". That said, as Apple giveth, they also taketh. Parts pairing and activation are still a thing, making it impossible to scavenge parts from other broken iPhones to make one working iPhone.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### The status of Myki's mobile & card payments

Daniel Bowen has a nice blog post explaining what's going on with Myki and mobile payments. On Android you can spin up a new Myki, add credit to it and use the phone as your ticket - but on the iPhone all you can do is top up your existing Myki (which works well and is instant, unlike topping up the Myki online). Regarding the iPhone getting built-in Myki (or a similar level of access like Android) Daniel has "asked different people in industry what happened with this, and each time the answer has been the same: Apple needs to enable it, and they're not interested". By the time Apple gives a fuck, Myki will probably move to what Sydney does with Opal and allow any old Paywave/Paypass card instead of a ticket.

## Bargains

- 10% off JB Hi-Fi gift cards at Woolworths (starting Wednesday)
- Apple iPhone 13 Mini 512GB - $1333 from Amazon
- 10% off MacBook and MacBook Pro on Amazon
- 1 year subscription to Codecademy - $179
- Seagate 10TB IronWolf 3.5" SATA HDD (buy 2x and get a Prezzee $150 gift card) - $299 + delivery from Mwave
- 10% off Nintendo eShop Gift Cards at JB Hi-Fi
- Sony PS5 DualSense Wireless Controller - $68 at Harvey Norman
- Philips Hue White A67 High Brightness 100W 1600 lumens smart bulb (E27 fitting) - $29.95 from Amazon

## The End

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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.