Issue 2320 - Tuesday 29 April 2025

The News

Europe’s blackout hits tech and dickheads are already blaming renewables

Tens of millions of people were without power for hours as blackouts hit Portugal, Spain and other parts of Europe (ABC News). Train networks were shut down, banks closed, flights grounded and even YouTube was affected (TechCrunch) although mobile networks were generally fine due to back-up power sources.

The blackout’s cause is still unknown but Spain’s grid operator has blamed grid oscillation which is when the system can’t handle energy sources coming on and going off (Bluesky). This lack of clarity, of course, hasn’t stopped the usual suspects from blaming renewables including Australia’s homegrown dingbat Senator Matt Canavan (RenewEconomy). I don’t know about you, but I reckon having a home battery would have been pretty useful in a blackout!

Manufacturers: if you don’t do closed source DRM, I won’t have to hack your device

Also on Europe: Google is killing support for its early smart thermostats and withdrawing completely from Europe, citing “a variety of hardware and software requirements” that make it difficult to build products (The Verge). Owners won’t be able to control them remotely starting October and the company has no plans to open source the products’ software. It reminded me of a YouTuber who recently bought a DJI camera that can only be used if you download an app (YouTube). It’s these kinds of products that drive me insane! This is only ever going to end in shitty experiences for users because companies have no incentive to keep supporting them. That’s why I think it’s reasonable to be sympathetic to DRM removal software which just got removed from GitHub because of a OnlyFans complaint (TorrentFreak) or Wii homebrew software using stolen Nintendo code (The Verge). Can you blame people for ensuring they can use the devices they bought into their own hands?

The group chat is an underrated source of influence

A big piece dropped over the weekend about a Signal group chat containing 300 of the most significant people in Silicon Valley (Semafor). There’s heaps of interesting tidbits about it — about how some of the pro-Trump members saw it as a way to shift the other members over to their side of politics — but I mostly share this because there’s been a lot of talk about "social media filter bubbles”, but much less about the effects of the subterranean online communities that have popped up in Signal, WhatsApp and iMessage. I reckon group chats that expose you to people’s thoughts, day and night no matter where you are, influence how people think. And clearly, they’re being used to co-ordinate how elites shape public opinion. We know Australian politicians and public servants love disappearing messaging apps (ABC News) — I’d love to know who they’re texting with.

Leftovers

Oh, Also

A tech answer to public transport inspectors

I’ve been mean to my Victorian neighbours in the past so I come to you with a peace offering: a University of Melbourne computer science student has developed an app to crowdsource the location of Myki inspectors (Information Age). PtvAlert allows people to share alerts for delays, animal and custom events like “inspectors”. It is, unfortunately, only available on iPhone at the moment (Apple).

Bargains

Electrical & Electronics

Computing

Mobile

The End

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