Plus: The Taliban are banning the internet to ‘prevent immorality’ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

September 17, 2025 | Read online
# Data centres, Roblox is BIG and 'Get Out Of Technology' Plus: The Taliban are banning the internet to ‘prevent immorality’
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Edition 2420
"A Day In My Life" (Flickr: Laura Rinaldi)
# The News
### Here’s why you should care where they’re building data centres
Everyone at the Tech Council of Australia’s summit this week was talking about how they’re going to get new data centres. There’s tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in new global data centre spending being announced pretty much every week — like Microsoft and NVIDIA’s AU$67B UK announcement today (WIRED, $). In Australia, it’s making unicorns like Firmus. (Smart Company). One tech journo told me yesterday that the lobbying efforts in Canberra over data centres is “crazy” right now.
This is from 2024
A great Reuters piece that came out this week shows that Australian governments are green-lighting these massive projects with no idea about how they’re going to deal with the long-term resource demand.
The Sizzle: Until recently, I did not care about data centres. I knew we needed more and, because of generative AI’s training and inference demands, that meant shitloads more.
What changed for me was starting to really think about what this means locally: these tech companies are going into communities, competing with residents over land, water and electricity — all for centres that don’t produce much benefit for the local community once they’re up and running. And tech companies are going to have to do this over and over again. It’s going massive issue over the next few years, and one that I’m going to try and start covering.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Roblox is bigger than you think
Does this mean anything to you?
????
Almost certainly not. But to tens, maybe hundreds, of millions of people who play Roblox regularly, this is a normal sentence about the game-within-the-game Steal a Brainrot that’s become extremely popular on the platform (Roblox wiki).
| Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 @JeremiahDJohns |
Even most chronically online people have no idea how staggeringly, unfathomably big Roblox is right now. Roblox by itself has more monthly concurrent users than all of Steam, Xbox and PlayStation *COMBINED*
Dexerto @Dexerto Steal A Brainrot game has broken all-time high concurrent player records Roblox topped out at 23.4 million while Fortnite reached 542,000
7:47 PM • Sep 15, 2025
9.97K Likes 659 Retweets
134 Replies
Roblox has been in the news a bit lately because of the growing scrutiny on its child safety efforts (SMH, $) and just generally covering how it is a “brain-rotting, hyper commercial dystopia” (NYMag). All this is true — I just wanted to share that Roblox is so much bigger than you think. It has 110 million+ daily active users. That’s more than Reddit.
I’ve actually never played it! So, my homework is to give it a try. And if you want to join me — or perhaps you’re already a hardcore Roblox fan with thoughts — I’d love to hear what you think.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### ‘Get Out Of Technology’
A short post from a well-known American hacker and engineer, George Hotz, has been making waves in tech circles:
The Sizzle: Well-known tech fiddler Jane Manchun Wong summed it up: “These days, everything seems to be all about maximising shareholder value and getting rich quick.”
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Marina Go appointed .au Domain Administration Chair (auDA) Elon Musk's Aussie boss Robyn Denholm — who has sold $820m Tesla shares since 2020 — is graciously forgoing a salary for chairing Australia's R&D review. (me on Bluesky) China could ‘disable or detonate’ Aussie EVs, warns top cyber expert (Australian Financial Review, $) GAC to officially enter Australia with electric Aion V SUV, now approved for sale (The Driven) Review: Sangean DPR-35 Pocket DAB+ Radio (Decryption) UNSW signs Australia’s largest ChatGPT educational deal (Cyber Daily) OpenAI launches ChatGPT Edu for teens, with parental controls (Axios) Apple backports zero-day patches to older iPhones and iPads (BleepingComputer) A new Google Search experience on Windows (Google) Mods react as Reddit kicks some of them out again: “This will break the site” (Ars Technica) From Gaza to Europe via jet ski and ChatGPT: Muhammad Abu Dakka's daring escape story (Reuters) ICE Subpoenaed Google and Facebook for Info on Students for Justice in Palestine (The Intercept) The final countdown for Windows 10 begins (The Register) `@ctrl/tinycolor` and 40 other npm packages compromised (StepSecurity) Beijing says TikTok’s US app will use Chinese algorithm(Financial Times, $) What would improve the tiniest Game Boy Color? (The Verge) The Mac App Flea Market (Jim Nielsen's Blog)
2025, man
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### The Taliban are banning the internet to ‘prevent immorality’
Ignore the headline about Wi-Fi, AP has an article about how the Taliban are cracking down on internet access in one of Afghanistan’s provinces to “prevent immorality”. While mobile internet is still available, fibre optic internet has been blocked and a Taliban spokesperson says they’re building an “alternative” for “necessities”.
While I concede that there’s plenty of immorality online — look no further than the Sizzle Slack server and forum — sure seems like a lot of authoritarian countries are cracking down on internet access!
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electronics & electrical
Fosi Audio T10 Wi-Fi & Bluetooth Amplifier - $99 at Fosi Audio AU Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones (refurbished) - $274 at Sony eBay Dreame L10s Ultra Complete Robot Vacuum and Mop Cleaner - $649 at Dreame Official AU Amazon AU
Computing
12 Months Perplexity Pro for students and educators EPOMAKER x Aula F75 Gasket Mechanical Keyboard, 75% Wireless Hot Swappable - $100 at EPOMAKER Amazon AU (Down from $131.99) HP ProBook x360 435 G7 (refurbished) - $299 at Harris Technology Ubiquiti Cloud Gateway Fiber (UCG-Fiber) - $501 at Mwave (Down from $609) Apple iPad mini 8.3-inch Wi-Fi 128GB - $689 at triforce Lenovo ThinkPad E14 - Intel Core i5-1335u 16GB RAM 512GB SSD - $729 at Lenovo eBay Lenovo 27" AIO Desktop PC: Intel i5-13420H CPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD - $999 at The Good Guys ASUS ROG Strix G16 (2025) G614 16" FHD+ Ryzen 9 16GB RAM 1TB RTX 5070 Ti - $2899 at Centre Com Nvidia RTX 6000 96GB GDDR7 Professional Video Card - Blackwell Server Edition - $14724 at Mwave (down from $15499)
re: the Blackwell
Mobile
Google Pixel 9a at JB Hi-Fi 128GB for $697 256GB for $847 $400 off Nothing Phone (3) for Nothing Phone (1) & (2) Owners 256GB for $1109 512GB for $1289 $1200 Gift Card with JB Hi-Fi Mobile 300GB $99/Month 24 Months Plan
# The End
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