### Issue 1438 - Thursday 26th August, 2021

## In Today's Issue

- OnlyFans reverts plan to remove and ban porn
- Big tech agrees to help White House fight the cyberwar
- Victorian governemnt invests $73m into NBN
- Kanye West's Donda Stem Player
- Cheap Yamaha turntable, Amaon Fire TV stick, Kindle Paperwhite, Hue smart lights, Facebook Portal, Thinkpad E14 Gen2, Blue Yeti USB mic, Telstra 12m pre-paid SIM, Nintendo Switch Lite, Dell monitors

## The News

### OnlyFans reverts plan to remove and ban porn

OnlyFans has changed its mind and is not going to remove all the naked people from its platform on October 1st. Earlier this week they blamed banks for the porn ban, saying "JP Morgan Chase, Bank of New York Mellon and the U.K's Metro Bank had cut off OnlyFans' ability to pay creators". That's since changed and OnlyFans said they've "secured assurances necessary to support our diverse creator community". This kinda thing is a constant threat for sex workers, even in jurisdictions where their work is totally legal. Cut them off from banking services and they can't really operate, legal or not. You'd think this would be cryptocurrency's time to shine, but that doesn't seem to be happening.

### Big tech agrees to help White House fight the cyberwar

The bosses of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, IBM and Microsoft met with Joe Biden at the White House to discuss cybersecurity. The President said that "reality is, most of our critical infrastructure is owned and operated by the private sector, and the federal government can't meet this challenge alone" and convinced these megacorps to help the government protect itself in the cyber battlefield - some more than others. Google's gonna spend $100m on fix vulnerabilities, IBM will train 150,000 people in cybersecurity skills and Microsoft will spend $20b "to integrate cybersecurity into its products and services". Meanwhile, Apple's going to "work with suppliers" and Amazon is gonna hand out 2FA devices for free to "selected" AWS accounts. Kinda pissweak IMHO.

### Victorian governemnt invests $73m into NBN

The Victorian government has invested $73m into NBN Co and in return "NBN Co has made funding available through its $300 million Regional Co-Investment Fund and $700 million Business Fibre Zone program to partner with the Victorian Government". I had to read the article a few times to grasp what's going on (and I'm still not sure what's happening exactly), but essentially the NBN was gonna upgrade a bunch of premises from FTTN to FTTP, but the businesses in those areas had to pay for the connection costs. The Victorian government is now "investing" in NBN Co and NBN Co will not charge connection costs to businesses in areas the Victorian government outlines.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Kanye West's Donda Stem Player

To accompany Kanye West's new album, Donda, the man also known as Yeezy is releasing the Donda Stem Player. It's a "a little tan puck" with LEDs made out of a "soft silicone blended skin" that'll let you remix old mate's tunes via "four touch strips on the device" and a motion sensor. The Verge's article has some embedded vids showing how it works. Artists releasing stems to their songs isn't new, but this weird device that lets you do it witout a computer is kinda cool. Donda Stem Player costs US$200 and pre-orders are open now with a "summer" (US summer, which is almost over??) release date.

## Bargains

- Yamaha TT-N503 wi-fi turntable - $499.20 from Amazon
- Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K - $69 from Amazon
- Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (8GB) - $129 at JB Hi-Fi
- Philips Hue A60 B22 Bluetooth White Starter Kit - $92.99 at Amazon
- Facebook Portal Mini White 8" - $79 from Facebook
- Lenovo Thinkpad E14 Gen 2 (14" 1080p Ryzen 7 4700U, 16GB/512GB - $1,021.63 from Lenovo's eBay store
- Blue Yeti USB Microphone Blackout Edition - $158 from Amazon
- Spend $150 or more at JB Hi-Fi using Zip Pay and get $30 back (effectively 20% off)
- Telstra 12 Month Pre-Paid SIM: $300 200GB for $234 from Simonline
- Nintendo Switch Lite - $259 at Target
- Loads of Dell monitors on sale at their eBay store. S2722QC (4K, 27" USB-C) probably the one most of you want.

## The End

📻 Russell Crowe's Band - Frenzal Rhomb

😎 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.​