Plus: A bird's-eye view of the internet ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

August 12, 2025 | Read online
# Aussie data piggies, Microsoft absorbs GitHub and Reddit blocks archiving Plus: A bird's-eye view of the internet
Edition 2394
"This little guy crawled inside my SD600 camera case this afternoon and appeared to be hard at work on his cocoon." (Flickr: ptelford)
# The News
### Australians are data-hungry, fibre-fed piggies: NBN
Australians are rapidly switching to fibre connections and slurping up more data than ever before, according to NBN Co (Canberra Times). The national broadband network’s latest annual results paints a picture of a nation that can’t get enough internet (NBN Co). Since last year, about 500,000 new premises now have FTTP, 700,000 more premises are on 100 Mbps plans or above, and the average household’s monthly data usage has increased 13% to 508GB.
The Sizzle: It’s so painfully obvious now that it might even be hard to remember just how painfully obvious it was that Tony Abbott was wrong in 2013 when the then-prime minister said: “We are absolutely confident 25 Mbps is going to be enough -- more than enough -- for the average household.” (SMH). Just to put it in perspective: the average monthly household data use in 2013 was less than the year-on-year increase in monthly average data use (Swoop).
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### GitHub will no longer be independent from Microsoft
Microsoft is completely absorbing GitHub into its “Core AI” team, ending a near decade of supposed independence (Ars Technica). The news came out that GitHub’s CEO — the second since the $11.5B acquisition in 2018 — is leaving and won’t be replaced by Microsoft. Instead, GitHub will be folded into the team that builds AI coding tool Github CoPilot.
The Sizzle: Lots of parallels between this move and Elon Musk’s xAI’s “acquisition” of X. Vibrant online communities are boiled down to the value of being easily digestible training data sets. The problem with purchases like this is that the best interests of online spaces often clash with the interests of the owners trying to protect their data assets.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Reddit blocking Wayback Machine from archiving its platform
Reddit is blocking the Internet Archive from archiving most of its platform, citing AI scrapers and “respecting user privacy” (The Verge). The Wayback Machine will be limited to only archiving the Reddit homepage and will no longer have access to “pages, comments or profiles”. According to Reddit, it’s caught AI companies crawling the archive as a proxy for scraping Reddit. The company also took issue with Internet Archive failing “respecting user privacy, re: deleting removed content”.
The Sizzle: As you might remember, Reddit now literally blocks all search engine crawlers other than Google, with which it has a commercial partnership. This has led people to believe this is just a bad faith excuse to squeeze more money from other companies. Maybe! But I’m also interested in the second half of the explanation: that Wayback Machine should delete content removed by Reddit. As someone who’s relied on Wayback Machine for investigations, it’s been a crucial resource for the accountability of both individuals and platforms. I’d hate to lose it.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
How Australia’s rationale for the teen social media ban has subtly, but crucially, shifted (Crikey, $) ATO trials multimodal AI models for auditing work-related expenses (iTnews) PC push to give teachers equitable access to AI, edtech tools (InnovationAus) Gambling firms lobby for return to R&D tax breaks (InnovationAus, $) AI chatbots accused of encouraging teen suicide as experts sound alarm (Triple J) Meta updates scam ad reporting tools for Facebook and Instagram (SmartCompany) Meta dismisses 'bogus' leak alleging its AI scraped Australian news sites (Capital Brief, $) Don’t slam brakes on EVs: Sparks fly over push for road user charges (The Driven) Mouthguards that flash red with head impacts to be used at Rugby World Cup (RNZ) Wikipedia loses challenge against Online Safety Act verification rules (BBC News) Even the lowly canister vacuum now wants access to your Wi-Fi network (The Verge) Amazon to begin launching its Kuiper internet satellites on ULA's Vulcan rocket next month (CNBC) New Ringtones and app launch speed up — What's new in iOS 18 beta 6 (AppleInsider) Deepfake detectors are slowly coming of age, at a time of dire need (The Register) AI tools used by English councils downplay women’s health issues, study finds (The Guardian) There are 111,000 Australian misconfigured healthcare devices affected, leaking MRI scans, X-rays and leaked online (TechRadar) Three simple laws for chatbots (Bluesky)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### This website gives you a birds-eye view of the internet
1,000,000 screenshots is a website that more-or-less does what it says on the box: it’s a visual snapshot of 1,048,576 websites, updated each month, and shown to you at random.
Delightful
It’s cool to have a quick scroll through. My take-away? So much of the internet looks exactly the same now. Sad!
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Elecitrcal & electronics
NOVOO RG68 67W 3-Port 2C1A GaN Charger - $25.19 at Mbest-AU via Amazon AU CUKTECH PB200N 20000mAh 45W Power Bank with Built-in Cable - $34.99 at Mostly Melbourne (Down from $59.99) UGREEN 65W 5 Ports Nexode GaN II Desktop Charger - $39.99 at UGREEN via Amazon AU Audio Technica CKS50TW ANC True Wireless Earphones - $59 at JB Hi-Fi EFM 27,000mAh Laptop Power Bank 140W Output with Power Delivery 3.1 - $99.95 at MobileSkin DJI Ronin RS 4 Pro Combo Kit - $1380 at Mwave
Computing
Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 EVO - $62 at suomole Amazon AU (Down from $80) MSI PRO MP273A 27" Eye Care Ergonomic Business Monitor - $135 at Amazon AU Ugreen 8K-60Hz HDMI KVM Switch - $144 at Ugreen via Amazon AU AOC Q27G11E 27inch 180hz QHD Fast IPS Gaming Monitor - $209 at Scorptec Alienware 34 Curved QD-OLED Gaming Monitor (refurbished) - $899 at Dell Outlet
Mobile
Moose 5G 40GB Post-Paid Mobile Plan - $12.40/Month for 6 Months at Moose Mobile (Renews at $26.80/month for 27GB) Vodafone Prepaid Starter Pack at Cashrewards 85GB plan plan for $16 140GB plan for $135 300GB plan for $199 Motorola Edge 60 Fusion 8GB/256GB (EU Model) - $477 at Tradeinn Samsung Galaxy S24 FE 128GB (Mint / Blue) - $749 at BIG W (Down from $1099)
# The End
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