Thank you to everyone who has made recommendations for the Sizzler Xmas Gift Guide! If you haven’t already, go here and tell me what you think is great.

The News

Australia’s AI plan trades mandatory guardrails for green light

Australia has abandoned its plans for mandatory AI guardrails in favour of relying on existing laws and rules to regulate the technology (ABC News). Industry Minister Tim Ayres released the government’s long-awaited National AI Plan to “capture the opportunity”. On top of the already announced AI safety centre which will be tossed $30m, it promises a plan to cut red tape for data centre construction, government deals with AI companies and some money to help turn AI research into businesses.

The Sizzle: As I was thumbing through the report, I was surprised by how little substance it contained. A lot of it is either previously announced things or things that have yet to be worked out. In some cases, it’s a plan to have a plan. And yet, the report has been warmly welcomed by the business sector because there’s not much there (AFR). Notably absent is a standalone AI Act or the ten AI guardrails that were announced by the previous industry minister Ed Husic. Even the AI safety institute will just be a government think tank with no powers to investigate how AI is actually being used (SmartCompany). Rather than putting us in line with the EU and its protections, Australia is giving the green light to let it rip.

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

You probably can’t cast Netflix from your phone anymore

Netflix has ditched casting support from phones to most TVs without any notice, instead directing people to use native smart TV apps (AndroidAuthority). Over the past few weeks, users noticed that their updated Netflix smartphone apps had lost the “cast” button which allowed them to stream content from their phone to Chromecast devices. While a few older devices maintain casting ability, it’s only for the more expensive ad-free Netflix tiers. Netflix removed AirPlay support in 2019 (The Verge). God forbid people want to use their phones rather than fuck around with shitty TV remotes and their apps.

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Top UK bureaucrat resigns for WordPress plugin error

The head of a UK government treasury agency has resigned because of a budget data leak caused by a misconfigured Wordpress plugin (Guardian). In November, the UK’s Office for Budget Responsibility’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook document circulated online an hour before it was supposed to be released (Guardian). An investigation found that the Office’s servers were configured to require authentication to the uploaded document but a Wordpress plugin, Download Monitor, bypassed this requirement. Then it appears that someone just guessed the URL and downloaded it ahead of schedule. Oops!

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Leftovers

Australia:

Rest of the world:

Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Oh, Also

How a Redditor gave a happy ending to an infuriating NBN story

Last night, Redditor u/maz_net_au posted a painstaking account of his five-year battle to get FTTP.

What turned a truly soul-sucking account into something uplifting is that after they posted last month that “I give up. The NBN won. I'll have to live with 4G forever”, another Redditor who worked at the NBN “drives to [his] house, takes a few photos of pits and pipes still missing from NBN’s Atlas maps” … and literally overnight fixes a data problem that had afflicted him for years. Then, less than a week later, u/maz_net_au had working gigabit FTTP. God bless random Redditors!

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Bargains

Electrical & Electronics

Computing

Mobile

The End

😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius.

🤖 We love robots at the Sizzle but this newsletter has always been and will always be written by humans for humans. Also by Aussies for Aussies — so all prices are in dollarydoos, of course.

🗣️ Have any feedback, a tip or just want to chat? Send me an email or Signal message. I promise to reply!

💬 Want to hang out with other Sizzlers? There’s a subscriber-only Slack server and forum if you want to procrastinate and chat about tech-related news.

🌐 The Sizzle is on Bluesky, Mastodon and LinkedIn if you’re feeling social.

💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info, change email address or cancel your subscription? Visit the Beehiiv customer portal.

🎁 Make someone's day and gift them a 12 month gift subscription to The Sizzle.

💔 Don’t want this any more? I won’t take it personally. There’s a unsubscribe button at the bottom of this email or here’s a guide.

🦺 The Sizzle has been tested to meet and exceed ISO 3533 standards.

Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land

The Sizzle is created on Gadigal 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.