 | Edition 2539 |
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 | "Taipei Bade Store, Kun Chi Computer closed 20251005" by Solomon203 is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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Good afternoon! It's been a dark and serious few weeks, so it’s a light Sizzle today. Have a fantastic weekend. |
Mentioned in today’s edition: iMessage, the XNU kernel, Microsoft, Barnaby Joyce, Tesla, OpenAI, Meta and Netflix. Plus, deals on LG OLED TVs, Google Pixels and Motorola smartphones. |
The News |
Someone just discovered a bug that forces Macs offline after 49.7 days |
An AI company noticed that their fleet of Mac computers, used to monitor iMessage's uptime, would stop making new network connections and refuse to make any new ones until they were restarted (Photon Blog). After digging into it, the team noticed it happened after exactly 49.7 days of uptime. Or 2^32 milliseconds. |
This immediately alerted them to the fact that it probably had something to do with an internal clock reaching its max number and then resetting to 0 (or a "32-bit unsigned integer wraparound" as it's known in the biz). It turns out that this bug in the XNU kernel had been around for the better part of a decade but no one realised because most people just reset their computers when there's a problem, and assume it's a random network error. |
Discuss in Slack or Forum. |
Never put your email in a Counter-Strike map documentation if you can avoid it |
Dave Johnston had it good (Johnsto). Not only was he working on iconic Counter-Strike maps like de_dust2, he also had snagged an elite, sought-after, short email address from his ISP: dv@btinternet.com. |
 | just an excuse to put an image of Dust2 in the email, really |
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Then came along the devastating trend of email worms like ILOVEYOU that initially spread by sending themselves to every email address in a victim's address book, but were later upgraded to attack every email in a user's system... like the email addresses in an installed video game's documentation. Soon, he was receiving thousands of spam emails a day that filled up his 15MB inbox space and made it unusable, so he had to ask for the ISP to blackhole the address. RIP dv@btinternet.com! |
Discuss in Slack or Forum. |
The Sizzler Say: |
As always, if you wanna get involved (or even be able to read what's on Slack) you can join the Slack server and forum via these links.
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mvyrmnd shared a tantalising rumour in the Slack about a telco being popped. Know more? Let us know. On the question of whether it's ok to pay a bit more for NBN, BernieTB makes a good point about access on the forum. mnarkbr posted an incredible piece of old school Microsoft swag on Slack, kicking off a chain reaction of Sizzlers sharing their best computer merch In the latest edition of "Quilgy does something cool", the man himself posted on the forum about 3D printing a badass old school TV for a student movie. I forgot to share this before but Clifford sent me an email on the topic of my ongoing coverage of the teen social media ban that laid out some interesting anecdotal information he heard from someone who works with kids about how introducing strict internet filtering had changed their behaviours: "Kids that would not leave their rooms, spent their evenings on their phones are now going out, meeting their friends. Abuse of staff has reduced dramatically. Overall, they were stunned by how effective it’s been." Definitely food for thought!
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Discuss in Slack or Forum. |
Leftovers |
Australia: |
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Rest of World: |
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Discuss in Slack or Forum. |
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Oh, Also |
A fun moon game to kill time on a Friday afternoon |
Since space travel is in the air at the moment — literally — and it's almost the weekend, I wanted to share this cute, older JavaScript game that puts you in a lunar vehicle moving cargo across the moon. Mooncraft2000 is retro and fun and really doesn't need any further explanation. Just go play! (For extra points, it's all open source). |
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Discuss in Slack or Forum. |
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Bargains |
Electronics |
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Computing |
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Mobile |
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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! |
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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. |
