### Issue 2025 - Monday 12th February, 2024

## In Today's Issue

- Apple's back on their anti-right to repair bullshit & neuters PWAs in the EU
- Mining cryptocurrency uses more electricity than all of Australia
- Flipper Zero & other nifty SDRs banned in Canada over unfounded car theft fears
- VCware sucks, death to VCware
- Cheap solar batteries for QLDers, refurb Dell monitor, Timezone double load credit, Apple Music & TV+ for students, Doom Eternal, Samsung 27" 5K monitor, Sennheiser HD 660S2 headphones, Boost 365-day SIM, trade-in bonus at EB, refurb Dell SFF PC

## The News

### Apple's back on their anti-right to repair bullshit & neuters PWAs in the EU

Apple's principal secure repair architect told a hearing in Oregon discussing a new right to repair bill "it is our belief that the bill's current language around parts pairing will undermine the security, safety, and privacy of Oregonians by forcing device manufacturers to allow the use of parts of unknown origin in consumer devices". Dunno what changed since they supported a Californian right to repair law and finally setting up a self-repair program (debatable how useful that program really is, but it's better tha nothing), but this is Apple's natural modus operandi and their previous support of right to repair is the aberration. Also in Apple being pricks, they made it so progressive web apps on EU iOS devices "open like a bookmark, with no dedicated windowing, notifications, or long-term local storage". Very bad areas.

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### Mining cryptocurrency uses more electricity than all of Australia

The USA's Energy Information Administration released a report that found "the world's crypto miners used as much electricity in 2023 as the entire country of Australia, accounting for up to 1 percent of global electricity demand" and in the USA alone, "just 137 mining facilities were responsible for up to 2.3% of the nation’s total electricity demand last year—roughly the same demand as the state of West Virginia". I knew cryptocurrency mining used a lot of energy, but that is a shitload of electricity. Even if it's 100% renewable energy (it isn't) that limited amount of energy could and should be used for something way more productive! There's gotta be a better way to transfer money for stuff that's borderline legal that doesn't also burn the planet.

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### Flipper Zero & other nifty SDRs banned in Canada over unfounded car theft fears

Canada is banning the cute little Flipper Zero and other similar tools like the HackRF One and LimeSDR because they can theoretically be used to steal cars. Prime Minister Trudeau said "it has become too easy for criminals to obtain sophisticated electronic devices that make their jobs easier". That's cool and all, but according to the Arstechnica article, the Flipper Zero can't actually do anything that'll help in stealing a car. It can't do a "signal amplification relay" used to boost the signal of wireless proximity keys inside a house. It can't do a "rolljam" to defeat rolling codes used by wireless central locking systems. It also can't do a "CAN-injection" attack to access the vehicle's CANbus via the headlights. Hopefully our snow cousins realise how dumb this ban is sooner rather than later.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### VCware sucks, death to VCware

I don't use Obsidian (though maybe I should), but the boss of this "private and flexible writing app that adapts to the way you think" published a blog post on the weekend about the beauty of 100% user-supported software. He describes software that's funded by venture capital and at the mercy of investors demanding a return on their investment at the expense of a quality product as VCware. It's a vibe I think we can all agree with. The software I enjoy using most on my computer isn't VCware, it's "tiny teams" making "principled software" and I'm happy to pay for it with money, not my attention or data.

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## Bargains

- QLD state government giving out $3,000 - $4,000 rebates for domestic solar batteries
- Refurb Dell P2419H 24" 1080p IPS monitor (no stand, BYO monitor arm/stand) - $89 delivered from Metrocom
- Timezone arcade double load credits (e.g: pay $100, get $200 credit) on the 17th & 18th of Feb
- Students can get Apple Music & Apple TV+ combined for $6.99/m for as long as they're a student (or possibly just a .edu email addy for staff?)
- Doom Eternal for PC - $9.61 from Fanatical
- Samsung 27' Viewfinity S90PC 5K monitor - $1,697 from Amazon
- Sennheiser HD 660S2 open back headphones - $621.67 from Sennheiser's eBay store
- Boost 365-day pre-paid SIM with 170GB/260GB data and unlimited calls/SMS - $199.99/$265.99 from Lucky Mobile
- Trade-in bonuses on games and accessories at EB Games for EB World members
- Refurb Dell OptiPlex 7060 SFF PC (i7-8700, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) - $347.77 from Max Direct's eBay store

## Image Of The Day

Man Holding Surface Duo (Microsoft)

## The End

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