Issue 2276 - Friday 21 February, 2025

Folks, have a spectacular weekend! And a special shout-out to Sizzler Bhakharvadi for surviving our journey together.

In Today’s Issue

The News

Microsoft’s quantum leap big if true, but the Aussie-government backed business says it’s not fazed

Microsoft says it has made a quantum computing breakthrough with its Majorana 1 computer chip (Microsoft). Its secret sauce is the “topological” approach which, the company claims, is a much more viable method than what its competitors are trying. I frankly found the marketing speak from Microsoft and much of the reporting impenetrable, so let me point you to this write-up from University of Melbourne’s Stephan Rachel that does a good job of explaining what’s happening and how significant it is (The Conversation). TLDR: A cool method if it pans out, but Microsoft has yet to prove its claims fully. Oh and remember PsiQuantum, the quantum computing startup that was given nearly a $1 billion by Australian governments in a huge bet on a single company in a notoriously speculative field? Well, it wants you to know that it is unfazed about Microsoft’s announcement and is still planning on building its big computer in Brisbane (AFR, $). I will say, one thing that quantum computing has going for it: the hardware always looks cool as hell.

We need hacking powers we rarely use: police

Police and intelligence bodies want to keep their recently granted powers to take over online accounts, surveil networks and delete stuff off computers that they’ve sparingly used since receiving them (Yahoo). In a hearing reviewing the powers, the agencies made the case that they need the three warrants given to them under the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Act 2021. (Home Affairs has a brief summary of the powers if you’ve forgotten). The Law Council of Australia and the Human Rights Law Centre, on the other hand, reiterated their concern that the laws are too powerful and broad (Cyber Daily). One major sticking point: the threshold for applying for the warrants is crimes that carry three years imprisonment — a surprisingly low bar for powers that are ostensibly only to be used on the most “serious” crimes.

Australia’s first homegrown rocket launch set for next month

The first Australian-built and owned orbital rocket is aiming to attempt a launch next month (AFR, $). After a two-year approval process, Gilmour Space has received the green light to launch its Eris rocket with plans to do so in late March (the company says it won’t say exactly when because its founder “wants to first book accomodation for his staff” before everyone else gets in lol). Also in space news: I’m heartened to hear that Australias academics are keeping an eye on the “city destroyer” asteroid that might hit Earth in eight years (ABC News). And Elon Musk has installed his SpaceX goons in the US’ aviation regulator (WIRED, $). Considering both how things are going in both the aviation industry (AP) and in SpaceX (BBC), maybe it’s not a great time to bring ‘em together.

Oh, Also

Use your excess tabs to play Pong

A little insight into my process: My scrounging for content to feed the Sizzlers starts with 21 Chrome tabs including my RSS reader, a few tech news aggregation sites, and a lot of outlets. I open up a tab for each of the stories that I think could be included in each edition and proceed to read them all. By the end of each edition, I still have dozens of tabs open that didn’t make it into the edition but are still interesting or might make it into a future one. Sometimes I don’t have time to read them before the next day, so I start the process again in a new window. By the end of the week, I’m burdened by hundreds of tabs across several browsers, waiting to be read. Now, a use for them: Pong. Not to be outdone by the person who made a version of Flappy Bird that runs in a favicon (Mewtru blog), an industrious programmer named Nolen Royalty — previously best known for the game One Million Checkboxes — has shared the code for running the old school computer game Pong using only 240 Chrome tabs (Eieio.games).

Bargains

Electrical & Electronics

Computing

Mobile

The End

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

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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.