Plus: The internet’s horny Library of Alexandria went offline because too much horny ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

July 07, 2025 | Read online
# Tesla hiding safety data, US-only TikTok app and vertical tabs Plus: The internet’s horny Library of Alexandria went offline because too much horny
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Edition 2368
Flickr: Lafayette College
Hi team! Posted a little bit about the Sizzle behind the scenes after doing it for six months on the forum. Also, you might see below, I’m playing a bit with adding a section called “The Sizzle” to separate out the news and analysis. Curious to hear what you think!
# The News
### Tesla hiding and fudging its Autopilot safety data, according to leaked documents
Tesla is withholding data from regulators and designing systems to technically avoid responsibility for crashes involving its assisted driving systems, a new book reveals (The Guardian). The piece is a super interesting excerpt from a book written by two reporters who got given 23,000 Tesla files by a whistleblower. It reveals the lengths that the Elon Musk-run carmaker goes to fudge or hide the safety data for its “““"autopilot full-self driving”””” system, despite Musk bragging about how much data each car collects as part of its training.
The Sizzle: The biggest yikes for me? It’s been documented Tesla’s Autopilot feature deactivated “less than one second before impact” which means it technically wasn’t engaged for the crash. This type of chicanery means it’s very hard to trust the company’s claim that its assisted driving is safe.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Will the US TikTok sale end with an American Great Firewall?
TikTok will create a US version of its app as a condition of an imminent sale demanded by Donald Trump (Reuters). After the deadline for parent company ByteDance to either sell the app so it was majority US-owned or face removal from the App Stores was kicked down the road again, the US President says he’s got a group lined up to buy the app. Apparently, US users will be able to use the existing app until March next year, after which the new app, M2, will be the only way to use the platform.
The Sizzle: There’s not a lot of detail on M2 but isn’t it crazy how the US is reverse engineering the Great Firewall of China by getting its own version of the Chinese-only TikTok, Douyin. Will we see US-only moderation? Who’s to say the Trump approved buyers won’t be fiddling with the algorithm knobs to promote MAGA? The departure of the US — TikTok’s largest user base by country — leaves a vacuum that I believe it is only right for Australians to fill and become a global culture superpower.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### I’ve taken the vertical tabs plunge
Mozilla has finally added a vertical tabs option to Firefox as a feature (ZDNet) like other browsers including Edge and Safari (ZDNet). I switched over to vertical this weekend to give it a test ride. My first impression? Muscle memory is so powerful. I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve been momentarily bamboozled about where my tabs have gone. I’m now a few days in and my verdict is that it hasn’t made a huge difference. Having tabs on the side does seem like a better because web experiences are increasingly being designed for the portrait-shaped mobile screens, leaving big gaps on the side. Have you made the switch? I’d love to hear from you! I’ll check back in after a few weeks to let you know if I’ve stayed the course or switched back.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
AI in Australia will ‘create jobs, not take them’: Albanese (InnovationAus, $) China looks to include AI in free trade agreement with Australia (AFR, $) Whose interests would OpenAI’s blueprint serve? (AFR, $) Qantas to tell hacking victims details of specific data stolen (Cyber Daily AU) Anti-money laundering/counter-terrorism financing reforms come in for “legal, accounting professions, real estate and jeweller industries” (AUSTRAC) Telcos had new complaints and outage communication requirements (Internet Association of Australia) BYD offers $4,000 cash back incentive for top selling Shark 6 plug in ute (The Driven) ‘Shit in, shit out’: AI is coming for agriculture, but farmers aren’t convinced (The Conversation) ChatGPT is testing disruptive Study Together feature (Bleeping Computer) Meta pushes for EU-wide age rule for teen access, seeks to avoid national bans (MLex, $) ‘Improved’ Grok criticizes Democrats and Hollywood’s ‘Jewish executives’ (TechCrunch) Xbox Producer Recommends Laid Off Workers Should Use AI To ‘Help Reduce The Emotional And Cognitive Load That Comes With Job Loss’ (Aftermath) Huge fines coming for Californians caught by drone with illegal fireworks (SFGate) Valve's reported profit-per-head from Steam commissions is $3.5 million per employee (PC Gamer) Mercedes-Benz electric G-Wagen review: king of the off-road (The Verge) Meet the guy who keeps pissing people off by coding competitions by “vibe-coding” (SF Standard, archived)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### The internet’s horny Library of Alexandria went offline because too much horny
The world’s greatest collection of (largely horny) fan-fiction was brought to its knees because of its own version of the 2038 problem. Warning: click on any of these links at your own risk. Archive of Our Own, which goes by AO3, is the online home of written fan fiction and mostly slashfic — romantic relationships between characters of the same gender — for everyone from Kirk and Spock (AO3) to Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull (AO3). The website was down for a few days because its user base had made 2,147,483,647 bookmarks — the maximum positive value for a 32-bit integer — and the site’s operators needed to migrate it to a new system (Reddit). Fittingly, this last bookmark was for an extremely NSFW story about the One Direction boys called “The Breeding Cage”(AO3).
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electronics & electrical
Ring Outdoor Camera Plus Battery - $89 at Amazon AU Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 5 Wear OS Smart Watch - $169.99 at Amazon AU Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Paperwhite 16GB - $229 at Amazon Paperwhite Signature 32GB - $259 at Amazon Blink Outdoor 4 - 5 Cameras - $249 at Amazon AU Nvidia Shield TV Pro 4K HDR Android TV Media Player (2019) - $248 at Amazon AU TVs at ALDI AKAI 40" Full HD Smart TV for $269 Bauhn 75" 4K UHD Smart TV for $749 Shure AONIC 50 Premium Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones (Black) - $289 at Amazon AU Cuboai Smart Baby Monitor 3 - $369 at Cuboai FFalcon 50" U65 LED Google TV 2025 - $399 at JB Hi-Fi Sony WH-1000XM6 Noise Canceling Headphones - $599 at Kogan HW-Qs700f/XY Samsung Q-Series 3.1.2 Ch Dolby Atmos Soundbar - $685 at Samsung Hisense 65" ULED Mini-LED U6QAU 4K QLED Smart TV 65U6QAU PRO - $999.99 at Costco TCL 65" C6K QD-Mini LED 4K 144Hz Google TV (2025) - $1025 at Appliance Central Nikon Z 5 Mirrorless Camera (Body Only) - $1397 at Harvey Norman Fujifilm X-T5 Black Digital Mirrorless Camera (Body Only) - $2228 at Amazon AU LG 65-inch C5 4K OLED evo Smart TV - $2791 at Harvey Norman
Computing
Logitech G203 Lightsync Wired Gaming Mouse (Blue) - $22 at The Gamesmen ORICO O7000 2TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 SSD - $172.89 at ORICO G.O.A.T via Amazon AU AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Desktop Processor - $238.60 at Amazon UK via AU Apple iPad 11" A16 128GB Wi-Fi (Silver Only) - $499 at Hub by Triforce iPad Mini Wi-Fi (6th Gen) at Costco Online 64GB for $499.99 256GB for $629.99 Lenovo Legion Go S Game Console - Ryzen Z2 GO CPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD - $679.40 at Lenovo Outlet Alienware AW2725D 26.7" 1440p 280Hz QD-OLED Gaming Monitor - $710.73 at Dell AMD Ryzen 9 9950X CPU - $743 at Amazon US AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU - $780 at Centre Com via eBay PowerColor Radeon Hellhound RX 9070 XT 16GB Graphics Card - $1130 at Centrecom eBay MacBook Air/Pro deals at Costco MacBook Air 15 Inch: M3 Chip, 256GB - $1,599.99 MacBook Air 13 Inch: M3 Chip, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD - $1,599.99 MacBook Air 13 Inch: M3 Chip, 10-Core GPU, 24GB RAM, 512GB SSD - $1,799.98 MacBook Air 15 Inch: M3 Chip, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD - $1,799.99 MacBook Pro 14 Inch: M3 Chip, 512GB - $1,999.99 MacBook Pro 14 Inch: M3 Pro Chip, 512GB - $2,499.99 MacBook Pro 14 Inch: M3 Pro Chip, 1TB - $2,999.99 MacBook Pro 16 Inch: M3 Pro Chip, 12-Core CPU, 18-Core GPU, 18GB RAM, 512GB - $3,199.99 GALAX RTX 5080 1-Click 16GB OC Graphics Card - $1840 at Centrecom eBay PNY GeForce RTX 5080 Triple Fan 16GB OC Graphics Card - $1899 at Umart
Mobile
Free lifetime subscription for Pumped Workout Tracker Gym Log for iOS/Android Free lifetime subscriptions to Kindergarten Learning Games+ on iOS Free Nothing Headphones with Nothing Phone (3) and any SIM plan at Optus Shockproof Silicon Case Cover for iPhone 15/14/13/12/11/XS Pro Max/6/7/8 Plus - $2.99 at Hms1116 eBay Zuslab Magnetic Case for iPhone 12-16 Series - $6.96 at Zuslab eBay OnePass Mobile Prepaid SIM Starter Kit at OnePass Mobile 45GB 28-Day for $12 (then $30 on-going) 280GB 365-Day for $169 (then $240 on-going) 50% off CommBank Yello Sim only plans 25gb for $16/Month 32gb for $22/Month 50gb for $28/Month Motorola Moto tag at Harvey Norman 1-Pack for $25 4-Pack for $98 Motorola Edge 50 Neo 12GB RAM/256GB Storage - $298 at Harvey Norman Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 Pro+ Plus 5G (12GB RAM, 512GB, Frost Blue) - $682 at Kogan Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge 256GB - $998 at Harvey Norman Apple iPhone 15 512GB - $1500 at Costco
# The End
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