The News

The Internet Archive is pretty bloody big

The Internet Archive has hit the incredible milestone of 1 trillion pages captured (Internet Archive). Since starting nearly thirty years ago, the Archive has kept copies of web pages, obviously, but also books, images, audio, radio transmissions, maps, TV shows, movies — you name it, it’s probably archived. It even briefly ran a credit union (Credit Union Times).

The Internet Archive has been a truly crucial piece of internet infrastructure to countless people, saving knowledge and culture while holding people accountable. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve relied on it as a journalist, but also just as a normal internet user trying to find something that’s disappeared. It’s easy to take it for granted but it’s not a guarantee that something like the Internet Archive exists now or in the future — we should all be thankful (and think about what we might be able to do to help it).

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Smart mattress maker responds to AWS bricking by offering outage mode

When AWS suffered an outage last week, BOM, myGov and other Australian government technology systems hosted on Amazon were unaffected (InnovationAus, $). But — as mentioned earlier in the week — smart devices like internet-connected mattresses or water purifiers were rendered useless, driving their customers mad. Now, Silicon Valley-darling Eight Sleep says it’s releasing an “outage mode” feature that will let its smart mattress run locally with some basic features when it can’t reach the cloud (The Verge)

The Sizzle: Good to see Eight Sleep doing this but I don’t think this should be left to companies to do out of the goodness of their heart. Providing customers with the ability for basic functionality for smart devices unable to connect to the cloud should be a basic expectation for any product whether it’s to deal with a temporary outage or a company going bust. Maybe this is a pipe-dream, but I’d love to see some regulation that forces companies to build for this before something goes wrong — ideally when they come to market.

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Tinder is starting to require all users to scan their face

Tinder is mandating facial scans for new American users as part of its efforts to crack down on fake profiles (WIRED, $). Ex-Twitter trust & safety lead famously outed by Musk, Yoel Roth, announced that Tinder would expand its optional Face Check feature and make it a requirement. This feature matches your live scan to the images to make sure it’s really you in the photos. Currently, 98% (!) of Tinder’s moderation is getting rid of fake accounts which use other people’s images, typically to try and scam other users.

The Sizzle: I’m going to say something that maybe will surprise people: I don’t really see an issue with this. Think about how people use Tinder: you join up, you upload a bunch of photos already for anyone on the app to see. Why not use technology to make sure this isn’t bullshit? I think a lot of people feel inherently uncomfortable about facial scans, but in this situation I can’t really think of a downside considering everyone on the platform is already uploading their face by choice.

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Leftovers

Australia:

Rest of the world:

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Oh, Also

The internet’s favourite erotica author has issued an AI apology

Chuck Tingle is an internet famous satirical queer erotica author whose absurdist, meme-y books have found a cult following for their distinctive premises and covers. Some examples:

This week, he issued a formal apology because the cover of one of his recent books — My Neighbor’s Twelve-Foot-Tall Decorative Halloween Skeleton Gets Me Off Also She Is A Lesbian — appears to have included a stock image that may be AI-generated.

“could have easily just left it and i think 99 percent of buckaroos would never notice, but this is something i care about a lot. there are authors i will not name that i get tagged with all the time who proudly slop around with their AI, and i will never do that. the soul of these books is not theft”, Tingle wrote on Instagram.

Given that other authors have been caught out using AI to churn out their books, I’m glad to see that Chuck Tingle remains committed to handcrafting his artisanal filth.

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Bargains

Electrical & Electronics

Computing

Mobile

The End

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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.