Plus: I am so happy to tell you that rats play doom ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

December 15, 2025 | Read online
# Bondi terrorist attack content, subtitle malware and Apple gift card lockout Plus: I am so happy to tell you that rats play doom
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Edition 2472
"Panasonic NV-8200 Professional VHS VCR for interactive learning 1984" (Flickr: Lawrence G. Miller)
# The News
### The horrors of the Bondi terrorist attack and how being traumatised online is now a condition of entry
There was no avoiding the graphic nature of last night’s Bondi terrorist attack online. 15 people were killed, 40+ injured when two men opened fire on a Jewish celebration marking the first day of Hanukkah at Australia’s iconic Bondi Beach. It was declared a terrorist attack that intentionally targeted people because of their faith. It is so gut-wrenching to see this violence happen here.
It’s also another atrocity that we’re all collectively being exposed to through our screens. First came posts about a suspected shooting in Bondi. Then came footage circulating: of terrified crowds running, of blood-soaked pavement, of men dressed in black, shooting from a familiar location with long rifles. This was immediately followed by firehoses of widespread speculation, lies and hate. Long before anyone knew anything, we’re all inundated with loudest voices who aren’t waiting to find out what happened to start trying to force their reality onto the rest of us. The craziest part of all of this? It seems like everyone has grimly accepted this.
Scrolling online last night and this morning, I couldn’t escape it. Not just the awful news — which we need to bear witness to — but violent, gory content that was being served to me. Platforms are supposed to at least put interstitials on this stuff to blur it and stop it from autoplaying, but I don’t seem to be getting them.
It’s worse on some platforms. It cannot be expressed how uniformly fucked it is on X: Grok falsely telling people it was a white guy who tackled one of the shooters, as blue checkmarks are making money off posting viral videos falsely claiming that Muslims were setting off fireworks in celebration. But this happened to me on just about every major social platform for me. Going online in 2025 just means being blasted with the most horrific content you can imagine. Being traumatised is just the cost of entry.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### They’re putting malware in subtitles now
A torrented version of the hit movie One Battle After Another’s subtitles is the clever vector for a malware loader that’s pwning movie-lovers who’ve been sailing the seas (Bleeping Computer). BitDefender researchers investigated after noticing a spike in detection of malware relating to the recent Leonardo DiCaprio movie, and found that bad guy had managed to hide a PowerShell script in a subtitle file that was being activated when a user used the movie launcher. It’s not the first time pirated material has been used to seed malware, but researchers credited this method for being particularly sneaky.
What I would give to hear Benicio Del Toro do this line reading
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### One bad gift card = Apple vaporises you
Aussie Paris Buttfield-Addison had his 30-year-old Apple ID zapped because he tried to use a compromised gift card, he claims (Hey Paris). He said that he bought a $500 Apple Gift Card from a “Woolworths scale” seller that locked his account when he tried to redeem it. He can’t seem to even download his account data because of errors.
Apple support’s response has been comical. They told him to start a new account (which would violate Apple T&Cs) or to physically go to the Apple HQ to plead his case???????
Apple pretending you don’t exist might be worse than you realised
(Anyway, if you know Tim Cook or someone who can deal with this: help a brother out and email paris@paris.id.au)
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Australia:
The Casinos Exploiting Facial Recognition Profit (The Saturday Paper, $) 163,016 Homes Batteries have been installed in Australia in 6 months, Gov rebates extended to 2030 (TechAU) Aussies have until the end of the year to register for Cambridge Analytica payment (Cyber Daily) Inside the fight to make Western Sydney Australia’s AI engine (SmartCompany) Will Australia's social media ban survive a high court challenge from two teenagers? Most likely – here's why (The Guardian)
Rest of the world:
iOS 26.2 Update Now Warning Issued to All iPhone Users (Forbes, $) AI Tokens Are Surging But Are Profits? (Economist via AFR, $) Time Magazine's 'Person of the Year': the Architects of AI (Time) Australia’s social media ban carries health warning for Big Tech investors (Financial Times, $) Free Software Awards winners announced (FSF) Google Removes Sci-Hub Domains From U.S. Search Results Due to Dated Court Order (TorrentFreak) A Florida school went into lockdown after AI flagged a clarinet as a gun (TechSpot) Price of a 'bot army' revealed across hundreds of online platforms worldwide (University of Cambridge) I was forced to use AI until the day I was laid off (Blood in the Machine) Stop Crawling My HTML You Dickheads Use The API (shkspr.mobi)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### I am so happy to tell you that rats play doom
Do I really need to say anything else? What about this picture (see below). Go here.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronic
JBL Soundgear Frames (Pearl Color) - $78 at Amazon AU Anker Space A40 Adaptive Noise Cancelling Earbuds - $79.99 at Amazon AU Sennheiser Accentum Plus Wireless Over Ear Noise Cancelling Headphones Black - $128 at Amazon AU CMF by Nothing Watch 3 Pro - $128 at Amazon AU via Amazon Germany (Down from $179) Sony SA-SW3 200W Wireless Subwoofer (Back Order) - $149 at Amazon AU Anker Solix C1000 Portable Power Station - 1,056Wh - $899 at Anker Fujifilm X-T5 - $1999 at CameraPro (Down from $2348)
Computing
Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro Wireless Gaming Mouse White - $139 at SuperGear Netgear Nighthawk RAXE500 AXE11000 Tri-Band Wi-Fi 6E Router (EU Stock) - $289 at Amazon UK via AU MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wifi AM5 ATX AMD Motherboard - $499 at Senzu eBay Dell P3425WE Pro Plus USB-C Hub Monitor, 34" 3440 x 1440 (IPS, 100hz) (Refurb) - $579 at Dell Outlet (Down from $748) Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+ 12GB/256GB Wi-Fi Only (Grey) - $972 at MyMobile HP 17.3" Laptop, FHD Display, Intel Core i7 1355u Processor, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD - $999 at Amazon AU Apple MacBook Air (13-Inch, Apple M4 Chip with 10‑Core CPU and 8‑Core GPU, 16GB/256GB) - $1355 at Amazon AU
Mobile
Xiaomi 15T & 15T Pro & 15 at Xiaomi Xiaomi 15T for $699 Xiaomi 15T Pro for $999 Xiaomi 15 for $1099 Google Pixel 10 Pro XL 256GB - $1549 at Google Store OPPO Find X9 Pro 5G 512GB/16GB RAM Titanium Charcoal Dual Sim Global Version - $1726 at Spectronic au
# The End
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