### Issue 1494 - Tuesday 16th November, 2021

## In Today's Issue

- Google spending $1b in large sucking up to Australian government effort
- Twitter's new API is out of beta, closes the gap between official & 3rd party clients
- Russia blew up a satellite and the debris caused the ISS to go into emergency mode
- Apple was a bee's dick away from banning Facebook from the App Store but chickened out
- Cheap GL.iNet wi-fi 6 router, Quad Lock cases & mounts, $1200 JB Gift card with $99/m Telstra plan

## The News

### Google spending $1b in large sucking up to Australian government effort

Google is gonna drop some huge coin in Australia via what it calls the Australian Digital Future Initiative - a $1b, five-year program to "strengthen digital infrastructure, develop Australian technology and talent, and solve global and local challenges". Google will set up a research hub somewhere to be decided in the country that will use "a team of local researchers and engineers that will use AI processes to explore job creation, education, and training". They'll also work with the CSIRO to "explore clean energy, natural hazard management, and protect the Great Barrier Reef" and with Macquarie University to research quantum computing. Wow! Is there nothing Google can't do???

### Twitter's new API is out of beta, closes the gap between official & 3rd party clients

Twitter has taken its new API out of beta, closing the feature gap between the official client and third parties. In fact, in an interview with The Verge, Twitter's developer platform lead said that the new API would "would make things better for users who wanted third-party Twitter clients" and has "removed language in our Developer Policy that restricted some elements of how you build with Twitter's core features and limited the number of users you can support through your app". Stuff like polls, Super Followers, Spaces, lists and more are supported now, so technically a third party app can support them too.

### Russia blew up a satellite and the debris caused the ISS to go into emergency mode

Russia has apparently blown up one of its satellites in-orbit using a ground-based missile (called an ASAT test), which sounds fucken cool until this next sentence - astronauts (two of which are Russian) on the ISS had to "shelter in place" due to a cloud of space debris that passes the ISS every 90 minutes as it orbits Earth. Nothing appears to have hit the ISS or caused major damage, but the astronauts had to spend hours inside the Soyuz and Dragon capsules, ready to quickly abandon the ISS as a precaution. Sounds like the plot to a movie, but nope, 100% real and actually happened.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Apple was a bee's dick away from banning Facebook from the App Store but chickened out

This came out a few months ago, but I missed it at the time - in 2019 Apple was gonna ban Facebook from the App Store if it didn't do more to prevent human trafficking on Instagram. Apple found out via a BBC investigation that exposed a huge amount of posts (typically not in English, probably why Facebook didn't know/didn't give a shit) just listing people for sale as if they're cattle. Apple then told Facebook to lift its game, Facebook did a "proactive sweep" looking for human trafficking and kept Apple off its back. Imagine a world where Apple or Google remove Facebook's apps from their stores. It would be glorious.

## Bargains

- GL.iNet AX1800 Flint Wi-Fi 6 Router - $121.50 from Amazon
- 30% off the Quad Lock case & mount online store
- Sign up for a $99/m Telstra 24m plan (200GB data) at JB Hi-Fi and get a $1200 JB Hi-Fi gift card

## The End

📻 You Let My Tyres Down - Tropical Fuck Storm

😎 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.