Comms minister has announced plans for "a suite of online measures to address easy access to pornography for children and young people and tackle extreme online misogyny, which is fuelling harmful attitudes towards women". Leading this suite is a "a pilot of age assurance technology to protect children from harmful content, like pornography and other age-restricted online services" - i.e: the same stuff we've seen in US states that PornHub has blocked because they can't safely comply and the UK failed to introduce because they couldn't figure out how to do it without creating a giant "hey this guy looks at porn" honeypot. There's also "legislation to ban the creation and non-consensual distribution of deepfake pornography" and "a counter-influencing campaign in online spaces where violent and misogynistic content thrives, to directly challenge the material in the spaces it's being viewed".
Tesla has sacked entire teams working on its Supercharger network, the new vehicle development team and its public policy team. The public policy team doesn't surprise me as Tesla hasn't ever given a shit about what governments think beyond what money they can squeeze out of them, but getting rid of the Supercharger and new vehicle development teams make absolutely no sense. The Supercharger network is probably one of the biggest selling points of a Tesla right now and in Australia at least, is by far the most reliable charging network, so to hobble it and sack the executive responsible is incomprehensible. New car development makes even less sense, as Musk said at Tesla's earnings call last week that they are going to build a new, cheaper car "for the masses". Meanwhile, he's asking shareholders to re-instate his US$55b compensation plan that was invalidated by a Delaware court. Classic Musk.
The UK has begun enforcing a law from 2022 (it didn't take effect until now) that says anything you buy that connects to the internet "must either have a randomized password or else generate a password upon initialization (through a smartphone app or other means)", "should be securely updateable" and "simple for the user to apply". Failure to comply can result in fines up to 10m GBP or 4% of related worlwide turnover, whichever is higher. All common sense stuff and its been a while since I've seen something like a router or even an IoT device have a default password that's the same on every device sold, but good to have as a law with some sort of consequences. Another interesting part of the law is "device owners can report security issues and expect to hear back about how that report is being handled". A nice change from reporting a security issue and being threatened with a lawsuit and/or the cops for "hacking".
1,000 Clipart Business CD-ROM (ShivaShaw / The Internet Archive)
📻 Ohio - Cherry Glazerr
😎 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon.
💬 Checked out the paid subscriber only forum? It's a tidy little place to discuss tech with like minded Aussies.
👋 Forums not your thing? The Sizzle has a Slack group you can procrastinate in and chat with other nerds bored at work.
💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info, change email address or cancel your subscription? Visit the customer portal.
🎁 Make someone's day and buy them a 12 month gift subscription to The Sizzle.
📚 Browse The Sizzle Archive. A few issues are missing and it's not searchable, but it's better than nothing.
🫂 Friends of The Sizzle is a small group of businesses or organisations operated by Sizzle subscribers. Support your fellow Sizzler!
💔 Tired of my bullshit? Unsubscribe and I'll never speak to you again.
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.