 | Edition 2476 |
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Hello all! This is the last edition for 2025 but it won’t be the last time you hear from me this year. |
But, for now, have a gorgeous break, spend lots of time with friends and loved ones, spoil yourself, try to learn something and make something in your time off, and, most of all, stay safe. See you in 2026! |
The News |
China’s doing some crazy spy stuff to learn how to build computer chips |
China’s reliance on American technology for semiconductors may soon be over with the country having successfully built a prototype machine that has long eluded them. A bonkers Reuters report that is part tech news, part spy thriller talks about the lengths that the Chinese government has gone to reverse engineering an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine. These EUVs are extremely expensive, technically demanding and enormous machines used to etch circuits onto silicon wafers that have essentially been monopolised by a Dutch company ASML. Their tech has been highly guarded by Western governments — given that it is one part of the chip supply chain that China cannot yet do — and yet, China, thanks to big fat paycheques, espionage, and a bit of elbow grease seems like they’re on the way to having it fully operational by 2030. |
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The Sizzle: Before we get into what this means, you should really read the article. It’s a banger. OK: what happens if China gets one of these bad boys up and running? I mean, it’s far from a done deal. The article points out they’re still struggling to source necessary components and, even if they do, we shouldn’t assume they’ll just stick it all together like an IKEA desk (although there’s not many things that Chinese manufacturers haven’t figured out how to do quite yet). I do think things will get pretty whacky if China is able to start producing top level chips at home. |
All of this is why I think the counterintuitive case of giving Chinese companies full access to top level Nvidia chips actually makes sense. The benefits of global trade is that we’re all so intertwined that conflict becomes that much harder. Yes, maybe giving Blackwells to the CCP means they can do some things with AI now that we’re worried about — but I think anything we do to keep everyone reliant on each other is fundamentally a good thing for world peace (which I admit is a crazy thing to say about products that were until recently best known for having sexy elf product covers). |
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum. |
University of Sydney, congratulations on being our last hack of the year! |
Close to 30,000 University of Sydney current and ex-students and staff have had their data stolen in a hack (Bleeping Computer). The University says it detected the breach of “one of our online IT code libraries” last week which, for some reason, contained “historical data files … containing personal information about some members of our community” (University of Sydney). Data exfiltrated includes basic personal ID like name, DOB, address, phone number and data about employment. The university says it hasn’t been ransomed and that data hasn’t shown up on the dark web anywhere…yet. |
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum. |
Cam’s 2025 tech naughty and nice list |
2025 was a big year! I thought it would be nice to mention some of the people and organisations who’ve had a big impact, whether good or bad. |
Nice |
Epic Games: Say what you want about Fortnite and all their actual business practices, pursuing the most powerful tech companies in the world in court and crowbarring open their closed ecosystems has been one of the most obviously good things that happened this year. OzBargain: Whether it’s the deals or their insane forums, god bless those savings scavengers. The average tech company worker who isn’t doing something evil: it felt like Big Tech really broke bad this year. The crazy thing is that there are a lot of employees who joined these companies based on their missions to do good. I know a lot of you are working hard and trying your best to keep creating things that help others. Trump campaign: OK this is a zag but there’s one specific reason I have to give them credit. The Trump campaign keeps scamming the world’s dumbest people with things like the Trump Mobile that never turned up. I’m sure that this money sitting in Trump tower is probably marginally better than what other things it could be used for. Consumer electronics tech journos who are good: my appreciation for the journos who are actually trying new products, using them like real people, and not just sharing spin from companies really grew this year. Two shoutouts: Australia’s Trevor Long and America’s Joanna Stern. Wikipedia and the Internet Archive: These places are the backbones of the internet. It’s like critical infrastructure that exists purely because of volunteers and love. I don’t know how they keep it going. Everyone who talks to me: The dirty secret of journalism is that you’re just saying what other people say to you. I really depend on people giving me their insights and experiences. I love it when I hear anything from people. Am I right? Am I super wrong? I always reply and I always appreciate any comment. Always let me know!
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Naughty |
Elon Musk: I don’t really need to say anything other than this guy seems to be at the centre of everything that’s poisoning the world. Computer part manufacturers selling to AI companies: RAM is expensive, storage is expensive, everything is expensive because manufacturers can get so much money selling to hyperscalers. I guess the real blame here should go to either the AI companies or capitalism, but, whatever. Here’s an idea: a non-for-profit consumer hardware manufacturer that does it to make sure I don’t have to sell a nut so I can have 83 Chrome tabs open at all times. Albo: for pursuing tech policy because it was politically expedient, you’re getting a big lump of coal this Christmas. Microsoft: What’s going on at Redmond? Every product is turning to shit. Even for a company with such a checkered commercial past like Microsoft, it really feels like we’re hitting new lows. 2025 was the year where they really said we don’t give a fuck about consumers.
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Who’d I miss? Who was on here unfairly? LMK |
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum. |
Leftovers |
Australia: |
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Rest of the world: |
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Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum. |
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Oh, Also |
Scaring away AI crawlers from your self-hosted website with p*rn |
Not sure why there are so many p*rn stories this week but, hey, I guess it’s summer. Everyone gets a bit frisky. Anyway! I came across Fuzzy Canary, a self-hosting solution to AI crawlers. Its creator says that it will insert invisible links to adult websites which have the effect of scaring off AI website crawlers by triggering their safeguards. Smart! (Although I’m not sure it would deter Grok…) |
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Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum. |
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Bargains |
Electrical & Electronics |
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Computing |
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Mobile |
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The End |
😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday. 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. |
