Plus: Using Portal 2 to build and host websites ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

May 27, 2025 | Read online
# AI's copyright threat, telcos blocking phones and Chinese women fingers Plus: Using Portal 2 to build and host websites
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Flickr: naesyllek
Issue 2340 - Tuesday 27 May 2025
# The News
### AI’s copyright threat is an attempt to pitch countries against each other
Former Meta PR guy Nick Clegg says asking permission to train on data would “kill” the AI industry (The Verge). This is obviously bullshit. The open internet has enormous wealth of data with a very simple system of signalling how people should treat your data in robots.txt, even if it isn’t always adhered to. If you want copyrighted data, then you maybe should pay for it. The second thing — that’s been somewhat missed in the reaction — is that Clegg’s comments were specifically trying to spook the UK into not regulating its industry. It’s the “race to the bottom” playbook that you see with corporate tax rates, where industries and companies play countries off against each other. But it’s not that simple. Regulation isn’t just a bad thing for business. Look at the Wild, Wild west of crypto which has scared off a lot of normal people if you want to see how people feel about having no rules (Pew).
### Telcos are blocking phones and no one’s monitoring them
Friend of the Sizzle Julian Fell has an interesting piece out looking at the grey area of telcos blocking phones from using their services (ABC News). The big takeaway is that he was able to scrape data from both Telstra and Optus showing thousands of blocked types of devices but it’s not consistent across the pair. More importantly, this blocking is not regulated or even monitored by ACMA, and there is a potential conflict-of-interest where telcos could be tempted to block phones because it encourages people to buy handsets direct from them. Speaking of Telstra, the company came out on Friday afternoon and said actually, no, our networks do coverage 3 million km ² without an antenna (Telstra). It’s deeply confusing why Telstra walked back its claim, then walked back its walk back. The Australian ($) says government data shows its claim can’t be true but I don’t think that’s definitive. It seems inevitable this is going to end up in court.
Each of those little dots is a beautiful device denied its birthright to download some podcasts for me
### China’s tech advantage isn’t because of small Chinese women’s fingers
A NYT article about why iPhone production can’t move from China to the USA has caused controversy for claiming that “young Chinese women have small fingers” that are essential for installing screws and other small parts (NYT, $). It was a bit of an odd claim for a few reasons: Chinese women’s hands aren’t significantly smaller than their global counterparts (Futurism). Even if they did, there are plenty of men who do iPhone repairs around the world so it mustn’t be necessary. Anyway, it gets at a bigger issue about how some — including, seemingly, the US government — are missing the fact that China’s manufacturing capabilities aren’t because of just small hands or cheap labour, but because the incredible electronics and computing production expertise built over the past 20-30 years that doesn’t exist in the US (Rest of the World).
| sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social |
yeah grown ass men with sausage fingers are also out there painting tiny dolls using nail art brushes so they can play house* with their friends. american men have plenty of manual dexterity *warhammer 40k
nikomo @nikomo.fi My favorite part is that there's adult men, in America, that do iPhone repair, and they often do repair tasks much more intricate than what assembly requires. Like nobody even thought about this for a second.
8:09 PM • May 24, 2025
4.19K Likes 542 Reposts | 89 Replies
#### Leftovers
Defence trials AI radiocomms deception technology (ITNews) Executives head for the door at unicorn crypto start-up Immutable (AFR, $) BYD to take control of Australian distribution of its EVs and plug in hybrids (The Driven) Australia's WiseTech agrees to buy E2open for $2.1 billion (Reuters) Putin says services like Microsoft, Zoom should be 'throttled' in Russia (Reuters) Am I hot or not? People are asking ChatGPT for the harsh truth. (Washington Post) Google claims users find ads in AI search 'helpful' (Bleeping Computer) TikTok fans beware - experts warn dangerous malware spread by AI fake videos (TechRadar) TeleMessage – Ed’s note: the clone app used in Signalgate – customers include DC Police, Andreessen Horowitz, JP Morgan, and hundreds more (Micah Flee) A smarter, simpler Firefox address bar (Mozilla) A Vibe‐Coding Experience (Github) Valve CEO Gabe Newell’s Neuralink competitor is expecting its first brain chip this year (The Verge) Landa promised real estate investing for $5. Now it’s gone dark. (TechCrunch) DNS Piracy Blocking Orders: Google, Cloudflare, and OpenDNS Respond Differently (TorrentFreak) No, TorrentFreak, what you write about Google Public DNS is not true (Bortzmeyer)
# Oh, Also
### Using Portal 2 to build and host websites
Continuing in our theme of weird things that we can use to host a website, YouTuber PortalRunner was able to use turn the 14-year-old game Portal 2 into a web server (YouTube). Thanks to a feature shipped as part of the Linux port of the 2008 zombie game Left 4 Dead that was left in Valve’s Source engine, they were able do to things like host a static web page, track an object in-game, and then eventually build a modular in-game UI to build websites.
Turning Portal 2 into a Web Server
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
INIU USB C to C Cable 100W 2m - $4.99 at INIU AU via Amazon AU Zyron Powaforce GaN Chargers at Zyron 2-Port 68W for $28 GaN 5 4-Port 100W Charger, 2m USB-C Cable & Case for $56 Canon Camera Gear at No Frills Electronics eBay LP-E17 EOS Replacement Battery for $58.52 EOS R8 Body for $1699 Heaps of Samsung Galaxy Watches at Phonebot (Refurbished) Samsung Galaxy SmartTag2 4-Pack (2 Black + 2 White) - $87.20 at digiDirect eBay Philips Homerun 2000 Series: 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum and Mop XU2000/20 - $199 at Amazon AU Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 - $211 at 99 Bikes Audio-Technica ATH-TWX7 True Wireless Earbuds with Noise-Cancelling - $239 at JB Hi-Fi Philips SuperDynamic Massage Gun PPM7521BK - $249 at Amazon AU Google Pixel Watch 3 - $397 at Officeworks DJI Mic 2 (2 TX + 1 RX + Charging Case) - $389 at Amazon AU BLUETTI Power Stations at BLUETTI AC200L 2048Wh for $1804 AC300+B300K 2764.8Wh for $2849
Computing
Inno3D GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB OC Twin X2 GDDR7 Graphics Card (pre-order) - $739 at Centrecom Gigabyte Radeon RX 7800 XT Gaming OC 16GB GDDR6 Graphics Card - $749 at Centre Com Apple MacBook Air 13.3" M1 8GB RAM 256GB SSD Space Grey - $999 at BIG W
Mobile
Vodafone: Prepaid Mobile Plans - 27% Cashback at TopCashback AU iPhone 16 Range - $1400 off (with $99/M 24M SIM Plan) at JB Hi-Fi Vodafone 75GB 28-Days Prepaid Plus Starter Pack - $10 at ShopBack with 40% cash back Optus 300GB 365-Day Prepaid SIM Starter Kit - $199 at Coles Google Pixel 7 Pro 128GB Outright - $498 at Optus
# The End
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