### Issue 1868 - Friday 16th June, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- Reddit's CEO digs in, refuses to negotiate with moderators holding subreddits hostage
- Two of the four Megaupload execs busted for copyright infringement are going to jail
- Squarespace to take over Google's domain registration business
- Google lens can detect skin conditions on your phone, kinda, maybe, probably not
- Friday Forum Update
- Cheap AirPods Max, AirTags, Ryzen CPUs, Kingston & WD SSDs, Google One, Lenovo mini PC, Chromecast, refurb iPhones, Samsung soundbar, Logitech keyboard & mouse, ALDImobile, Nokia G60 smartphone, Pixel 7 Pro, Nest doorbell, 12" iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, AirPods Pro, Pixel 6a, Samsung S23 Ultra & Watch5, HP gaming laptop

## The News

### Reddit's CEO digs in, refuses to negotiate with moderators holding subreddits hostage

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman has given an enlightening interview with The Verge about the controversy surrounding its move to a paid API. In it he says that "we're not going to subsidize other people's businesses for free" and that the "API usage is about covering costs". When asked if apps like Apollo add value to Reddit and are worth supporting, "not as much as they take. No way". He went on to finish the interview arguing that "the blackouts are not representative of the greater Reddit community". In an interview with NBC he called the moderators of subreddits gone private, "landed gentry" that are "not democratic" and "plans to pursue changes to Reddit's moderator removal policy to allow ordinary users to vote moderators out more easily if their decisions aren't popular". Strap in, shit's gonna get messy.

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### Two of the four Megaupload execs busted for copyright infringement are going to jail

I did not expect to be writing about Megaupload again, but here we are in the middle of 2023 and two executives/coders/large shareholders of Megaupload, Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk, have been sentenced to 2.5 years in a New Zealand jail. The Megaupload story should be well known by now - they hosted a shitload of copyrighted material and did practically nothing to remove it when forced to by the copyright owners. In 2012 the FBI prodded New Zealand (where Megaupload's execs, including boss Kim Dotcom was based) to arrest and extradite them to the USA. Finn Batato was diagnosed with terminal cancer during the trial and died a year ago, Kim Dotcom is still appealing his extradition to the USA and these two guys gave and took the relatively sweet deal of just a few months in an NZ jail before they're out on parole.

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### Squarespace to take over Google's domain registration business

Google is ditching their domain registration business and selling it to Squarespace. This impacts more people than I realised as many domains were sold alongside Google Workspace accounts. Starting in the third quarter of 2023, those domain names will have Squarespace as the registrar and that's where you go to manage them (i.e: setting your name servers and perhaps some DNS settings like A, CNAME and MX records too). Just another piece of evidence that demonstrates how Google is thoroughly uninterested in any business that doesn't directly relate to selling ads. I fear for Google Photos, one of my favourite Google products, as it doesn't appear to have any ads involved like say, Google Maps (the best Google product) which is full of ads.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Google lens can detect skin conditions on your phone, kinda, maybe, probably not

Google Lens just got a new feature to detect skin conditions. According to the blog post, "take a picture or upload a photo through Lens, and you'll find visual matches to inform your search. This feature also works if you're not sure how to describe something else on your body, like a bump on your lip, a line on your nails or hair loss on your head". It's obviously available on Android phones, but also on iOS via the Google app. I just tried it out on a wart on my arm and it didn't do a damn thing, just dumped me in an image search of other weird looking skin conditions from the internet, many with links to pages not in English. Useless.

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## 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.

- I'm a big dumb dumb that can't figure out how to make a macOS Shortcut that will resize multiple images at once, please help.
- sommer is after a smart lock for their apartment, but can't replace the actual lock because they're renting
- patsch is having a problem with Telstra not being able to verify German passports in order to activate pre-paid SIM cards and is after a Telstra insider to help
- adamxweb kicked off a thread to discuss Apple's design choices in macOS Sonoma and debate the encroachment of iOS into macOS
- jurgen has been blessed with gigabit internet, which requires upgrading their router in order to realise those speeds and they are unsure which router to buy

## Bargains

- Apple AirPods Max (blue) - $718 from Amazon
- Apple AirTag 4-pack - $127.92 from Computer Alliance's eBay store
- AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D or Ryzen 9 7950X3D CPU - $646.62/$935.22 from Computer Alliance's eBay store
- Kingston NV2 1TB/2TB or KC3000 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs - $59/$139/$99 from Shopping Express
- Upgrade your Google One subscription to the 2TB annual plan and get a free 4K Chromecast
- Lenovo ThinkCentre M710q Tiny PC (i5-6500T, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) - $133 from UN Tech
- Chromecast with Google TV 4K - $69 from Optus
- Refurb iPhone SE 2020 64GB or iPhone XR 64GB - $249/$319 from Coles
- WD Black SN770 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD - $152.77 from Amazon Germany
- Samsung HW-Q990C soundbar - $1210 + shipping from Appliance Central
- Logitech MX Mechanical Mini Keyboard (tactile quiet keys) - $144.72 from Amazon
- Logitech M720 Triathlon wireless mouse - $45 from The Good Guys
- ALDImobile 365-day pre-paid SIM 132GB or 189GB of data - $159/$189 from Aldi
- Nokia G60 5G smartphone - $297 from The Good Guys
- Google Pixel 7 Pro 128GB/256GB - $987/$1137 from Officeworks
- Google Nest Doorbell (Battery) - $189 + delivery from Bing Lee
- 12.9" iPad Pro (2022) wi-fi 256GB - $1871 from Amazon (potential for OW pricebeat)
- Apple Pencil Gen 2 - $159 at Amazon & Officeworks
- Apple AirPods Pro (2nd-gen) - $318.59 from Allphones eBay store
- Google Pixel 6a - $497 from Officeworks
- Disco Elysium The Final Cut for PC - $14.23 on Steam or GOG
- Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra 256GB & Galaxy Watch 5 - $249 on an $89/m Telstra 300GB 24m contract at JB Hi-Fi
- HP Omen n0065AX gaming laptop (16" 1080p 144Hz, Ryzen 7 6800H, RTX 3070 Ti 8GB, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) - $1814 from HP

## Image Of The Day

Print, 'Connected Loneliness', wood engraving by Leonie Bradley, 2017. (Victoria and Albert Museum)

## The End

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