### Issue 1601 - Friday 6th May, 2022

## In Today's Issue

- Elon's shopping his investment in Twitter around to get extra cash, claims he will be interim CEO
- Facebook deliberately took out government, charity & other pages when blocking news pages last year
- Aussie hackers leak hundreds of thousands of emails from Nauru cops
- Apple, Google & Microsoft agree to implement a common passwordless sign-in standard
- Friday Forum Update
- Cheap JB Hi-Fi, Good Guys & Binge gift cards, Lego bricks, Samsung 43" monitor, Kayo discount & JB Hi-Fi Perks

## The News

### Elon's shopping his investment in Twitter around to get extra cash, claims he will be interim CEO

Elon Musk managed to get 19 mates to chip in US$7.4b of extra funding to buy Twitter, lowering his financial burden. Larry Ellison, Binance, the Qatari government and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal are chipping in. These guys aren't here to fuck spiders so the pressure for Twitter to make serious coin is huge. Musk is also going around saying he will be CEO of Twitter, at least initially, in his pitch to potential investors. Meanwhile, Twitter is experimenting with some new features like adding pictures and videos to the same tweet, tweet "awards" and a status feature.

### Facebook deliberately took out government, charity & other pages when blocking news pages last year

We have fresh inside gossip on what went down on Facebook's side of the trench during that glorious period where Australian news was blocked from Facebook. I haven't read the original WSJ article (paywalled and I'm too cheap to pay for the WSJ), but it alleges that the collateral damage of government, charity and other Facebook groups getting shitcanned along with the news was deliberate - not an accident - to force the government back into negotiations. Zuck and Sandberg even congratulated the team that did the blocking, saying the strategy "set a new high standard".

### Aussie hackers leak hundreds of thousands of emails from Nauru cops

I missed this earlier in the week, but Crikey has revealed that a group of Australians "decided to hack the Nauru Police Force, who were tasked by the Australian government with policing the island, and obtained 285,635 confidential emails related to abuses that they tried to cover up, and we are making them all public". The emails all appear to be legit, exposing the dog acts of cops and the callous nature of Wilson Security towards refugees detained there on behalf of the Australian government. God bless these hackers for bringing sunlight to this dark corner.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Apple, Google & Microsoft agree to implement a common passwordless sign-in standard

Apple, Google and Microsoft chose World Password Day to announce they're working together to "expand support for a common passwordless sign-in standard created by the FIDO Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium" by the end of the year. In practice this means you could, hypothetically, "sign-in on a Google Chrome browser that's running on Microsoft Windows—using a passkey on an Apple device". I really like Microsoft's "tell us the number" notification that pops up on my phone when I try to log in via their Authenticator app. Death to the password!

## 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.

- coljac wants an action camera that'll be good for use when flying a glider
- bob launched a discussion about Optus and TPG's complaining that YouTube, Netflix and Meta are getting a free ride on their networks
- Noblejoker is after the Windows equivalent of a 16" MacBook Pro
- Mitty is looking to consolidate all the Raspberry Pis and other servers they're running at home on to a spare iMac
- I updated the long running thread of my attempts to get people to pay for The Sizzle

## Bargains

- 10% off JB Hi-Fi & The Good Guys gift cards at Giftz.com.au
- Join JB Hi-Fi Perks (their new loyalty program) and get a $10 coupon to use store wide
- LEGO 10698 Classic Large Creative Brick Box (790 pieces) - $38.99 from Amazon
- 10% off Binge gift cards from CashStar
- Samsung M7 4K 43" monitor - $577 at Officeworks
- Get Kayo for $5/m for 3 months via Netball NSW

## The End

📻 Get up Morning - Eddy Current Suppression Ring

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

💬 Checked out the paid subscriber only forum? It's a tidy little place to discuss tech with like minded Aussies.

👋 Forums not your thing? The Sizzle has a Slack group you can procrastinate in and chat with other nerds bored at work.

💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info or change email address? Visit the customer portal.

📚 Browse The Sizzle Archive. A few issues are missing and it's not searchable, but it's better than nothing.

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## Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land

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.