### Issue 1803 - Friday 10th March, 2023

It's the Labour Day public holiday in Victoria on Monday the 13th of March. Next issue of The Sizzle will go out on Tuesday the 14th of March.

## In Today's Issue

- WhatsApp joins Signal in exiting UK market if Online Safety Bill passes
- FBI and Catholic Church buy up data from brokers to assist in their nefarious goals
- Crypto & VC banks collapsing, Apple Music Classical, Paste Text Only shortcut coming to Word
- The launch of SimCity's 2012 reboot was so bad it killed the franchise
- Friday Forum Update
- Cheap Google Pixel Buds A-Series, Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme

## The News

### WhatsApp joins Signal in exiting UK market if Online Safety Bill passes

The boss of WhatsApp has joined Signal in telling the BBC that if the UK's Online Safety Bill passes, "we won't lower the security of WhatsApp. We have never done that - and we have accepted being blocked in other parts of the world". If you've forgotten, the Online Safety Bill will make it so WhatsApp has to use "accredited technology" to scan every message for child-abuse material, even the end-to-end encrypted ones. This obviously breaks the entire concept of end-to-end encryption. Unlike Signal which is kinda niche in its use, WhatsApp is used by 70% of UK adults according to Ofcom. Pulling out of the world's 6th largest economy is a strong statement. Let's see who blinks first.

### FBI and Catholic Church buy up data from brokers to assist in their nefarious goals

If you needed a sign that data collection has gone way too far, then news that the FBI has purchased data on people for use in a project, has to be that sign. In a US Senate Hearing, the FBI Director was asked "does the FBI purchase US phone-geolocation information?" and he replied with "I understand that we previously — as in the past — purchased some such information for a specific national security pilot project. But that's not been active for some time". Meanwhile, "a group of conservative Colorado Catholics" spent US$4m to buy data sourced from Grindr and other gay dating apps to out gay preists. With both the FBI and the Church it's unknown if the data they got was useful, but the fact they're able to do and think it might be useful is bad enough.

### Crypto & VC banks collapsing, Apple Music Classical, Paste Text Only shortcut coming to Word

- Silvergate Bank (one of the main banks cryptocurrency businesses used to interface with the "traditional" banking system) has shat itself and Silicon Valley Bank ("the trusted banker to the start-up world" used by loads of VCs) is in the process of shitting itself. Is this something? This has to be something, yeah? I'm on the phone with TSMC asking them to make me the world's smallest violin.
- Apple announced Apple Music Classical, a dedicated app for classical music lovers. "Unlike the existing Apple Music app, Apple Music Classical allows users to search by composer, work, conductor, catalog number, and more. Users can get more detailed information from editorial notes and descriptions". It's free for Apple Music subscribers and launches March 28th.
- Microsoft is adding a "Paste Text Only" keyboard shortcut to Word. The feature has been in Word for yonks but there's no keyboard shortcut for it. Now you'll be able to perss Control + Shift + V and boom, formatting free text right in Word. Hallelujah! They've also released PowerToys app that'll let you use set your own keyboard shortcut (default is Ctrl + Win + Alt + V) system wide in Windows.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### The launch of SimCity's 2012 reboot was so bad it killed the franchise

I reckon most of the people reading this absolutely loved playing SimCity at some point in their lives, so why hasn't there been a follow up to SimCity in the last 11 years? PC Gamer argues that the launch of that game was such a shitshow that it ruined the franchise. EA initially required users to be connected to the internet to play and there just wasn't enough server capacity for the huge demand. The press dumped on it, users left scathing reviews, but EA refused to remove the online requirement because they wanted to push its Origin platform and as a way to prevent piracy (both of which didn't work). After a few months the servers caught up and the game was okay, but then Cities Skylines happened and the rest is history. I hope they make a new SimCity one day.

## 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.

- jay510 is after advice on internet security software they can use instead of Norton products
- Casablanca wants to know if there's any way to get higher quality out WebRTC video recordings
- isuru is keen to watch some footy but doesn't wanna pay for Kayo
- mvyrmnd started a discussion about Tesla's initial lead in EVs slowly eroding away
- wolfjay shared an article highlighting the craziest Apple abominations our friend Dana has photoshopped

## Bargains

- Google Pixel Buds A-Series - $99 from Google
- Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 (i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, RTX 3050 Ti, 1920x1200) - $1949 from Lenovo

## Image Of The Day

2600: The Hacker Quarterly is an American seasonal publication of technical information and articles, many of which are written and submitted by the readership, on a variety of subjects including hacking, telephone switching systems, Internet protocols and services, as well as general news concerning the computer 'underground'. (JSEHV / Internet Archive)

## 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.