### Issue 1362 - Tuesday 11th May, 2021

## In Today's Issue

- Huge US petrol pipeline shut down thanks to a cryptolocker
- A satellite called DOGE-1 and paid for in Dogecoin is going to the moon, literally
- ACCC really wants the local Epic vs Apple court case to proceed
- Strip tracking junk out of URLs easily with ClearURLs
- Cheap Coles Mobile SIM, Dell 34" m onitor, Elgato Stream Deck, Kingston SSD

## The News

### Huge US petrol pipeline shut down thanks to a cryptolocker

The Colonial Pipeline supplies 45% of the US east coast's petrol. It's a very important piece of infrastructure and it was debilitated by ransomware last week, shutting down the main pipeline for 4 days so far. No technical info on the hack yet, or even what ransom is, but the FBI is blaming the notorious DarkSide group, who have since come out and said that "our goal is to make money, and not creating problems for society" and that "from today we introduce moderation and check each company that our partners want to encrypt to avoid social consequenecs in the future". Someone poked the bear a bit too hard in their quest for cash!

### A satellite called DOGE-1 and paid for in Dogecoin is going to the moon, literally

Geometric Energy Corporation has announced that they've paid SpaceX an undisclosed amount of Dogecoin to get a 40kg Cubesat called DOGE-1 into the moon's orbit next year. DOGE-1 will "obtain lunar-spatial intelligence from sensors and cameras on-board with integrated communications and computational systems", or in layman's terms "we don't know yet but it'll involve computers and rockets and shit". Of course, Elon Musk was proud to tweet this, probably as a way to save face in the eyes of the cryptobros that adore him after a Saturday Night Live appearance (which by the way, is the cringiest thing I've ever seen) failed to deliver the amazing Dogecoin gains they expected.

### ACCC really wants the local Epic vs Apple court case to proceed

Back in November last year, Epic sued Apple in Australia over the same kinda stuff they're battling out over in the US, but Apple said they reckon it should be settled in the US first, to which the court agreed. Epic is appealing this, wanting the case heard in Australia regardless of what happens in the US - and the ACCC agrees. The ACCC agrees so much infact that they have gone to the Federal Court and asked them to hear the case locally. The ACCC also wants to be involved in the case as a "friend of the court", lending its expertise in the area of competition law.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Strip tracking junk out of URLs easily with ClearURLs

Ever gone to link to something on eBay, Amazon, Aliexpress or a news site only for the URL to be fantastically long and full of jibberish? Most of that is purely to track you and the people you share the link with. I absolutely loathe it as they're a pain to remove manually. Luckily on my desktop computer at least, I can easily strip that junk out with a browser extension called ClearURLs. It's invaluable to me when sharing links here in The Sizzle too as I don't want you to click a messy link and removing them by hand can sometimes mess up the link.

## Bargains

- Coles Mobile 365-day SIM with 50GB data & unlimited calls to 15 countries - $129 at Coles
- Dell 34" U3415W curved monitor (brand new) - $621 from Shopping Express eBay store
- Elgato Stream Deck (15-key) - $206.88 from Amazon
- Kingston NV1 NVMe M.2 SSD 500GB - $69.70 from Shopping Express eBay store

## The End

📻 I'm Afraid of Americans (Nine Inch Nails V1 Mix) - David Bowie

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

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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.​