The younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

August 29, 2025 | Read online
# The Parable of the Prodigal Son The younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.
{{OPEN_TRACKING_PIXEL}}
Edition 2407
Computer road, 1986, woodcut on paper, Lidia Groblicka (Art Gallery of South Australia)
Hello, it’s me, Anthony, the guy who used to write The Sizzle. After 252 days away not much has changed. I’m still standing by and watching the internet pillaged and burned by gormless men. The computer that lives in my pocket is still bad and the computer on my desk has lost all its social capital. Elon Musk is "Completely Addicted to Anime Gooner AI Slop". The North Melbourne Kangaroos men's team continue to ruin my weekends. But that's okay as I get another opportunity to join you in a cathartic bodysurf through the thick brown sea of shit we call technology. Cam will be back next week but I hope he lets me out of the cage more often.
# The News
### Niche blogging site blocking entire US state
Dreamwidth is probably a website none of you have heard of, let alone used, but this fork of Livejournal will start blocking all visitors with IP addresses it thinks are from the US state of Mississippi. This is due to a law that forces all "social media websites" to do age verification for all accounts. Sound familiar? As more of these laws happen across the world, it's justified for sites that aren't trillion dollar megacorps to say fuck it, we will block your area entirely rather than deal with this nonsense. But it's also not going to stop governments doing it and suddenly the entire internet is age-gated, requires identity documents and using a VPN is illegal. Us nerds will live in our digital bunkers, off the grid, like a cyber-bushmen and women, but the rest of society won't even realise what they've lost. Many may even be happier this way.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Tesla Makes Full Self Driving (Supervised) Available in Australia
Pedestrians, cyclists and other road users should be on high alert, as Tesla made "Full Self Driving (Supervised)" available to some drivers in Australia today, making us the first right hand drive country to experience it. Aren't we lucky? For those willing to risk their lives for TikTok, your Tesla needs version 4 of the onboard computer, then you need to shell out $10,100 for the software upgrade and wait for to be blessed by Tesla's beta program to have a little nibble of autonomous (supervised) driving while they work out the (many, potentially fatal) bugs. As a commenter on CarExpert.com.au said "Dashcam Owners Australia is going to have so much more Youtube content".
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Microsoft still doesn’t care that Azure is a key component in the Palestinian genocide
Cam has covered this story when it happened but I wanted to mention it again because it's easy to forget in the constant drum beat of bad news - Microsoft is still knowingly participating, enhancing and profiting from an extremely clear and obvious genocide. It was revealed a few weeks ago that Israel's Unit 8200 met with Satya Nadella to set up a "a customised and segregated area within Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform" that they use to do mass survellance in Gaza, that in turn, is used to starve, murder and torture Palestinians. This is not an "oopsie we didn't know what was happening" type thing, Microsoft was told in advance what is going to be collected and they didn't give a shit. Microsoft is more concerned about protestors making noise at their HQ than the obvious fact they're a modern version of IBM helping the Nazis efficiently eliminate jews. Fuck them, fuck them all and I hope I'm alive to see the day all these bastards experience the consequences of their actions.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### 252 Days of Bookmarks
I still pay attention to computer stuff!
##### Some stuff I bookmarked since I last wrote The Sizzle:
Printercow - an API for various thermal printers Making Software - a reference manual for people who design and build software After The Beep - an anonymous public voicemail inbox Music For Programming - exactly what it says on the tin Dumbify - a minimalist launcher for iPhone
##### Some stuff I read since I last wrote The Sizzle:
The Babysitters Club - Jesse Barron Very Ordinary Men - Sam Kriss Is anyone out there? - James Ball Human_Fallback - Laura Preston Never Forget What They've Done - Ed Zitron
##### Some stuff I wrote since I last wrote The Sizzle:
Reunited With My First iPhone Trying To Find Meaning In Owning An Old Mac Why Do Cops Hate Encryption? Facial Recognition Software and You What To Do if You Lose Your Phone
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
AirPods Pro 2 - $310 at JB Hi-Fi Alienware AW3425DW 34” 240Hz, 3440×1440, QD-OLED monitor - $999.54 from Dell Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition - $279 from Amazon Amazon Kindle Colorsoft 32GB/64GB - $379/$329 from Amazon Seagate 5TB portable HDD - $186.70 from Amazon Apple iPad mini 128GB - $605.15 from Officeworks after price beating DigiDirect Samsung 990 Pro NVMe SSDs 1TB/2TB/4TB - $142/$237/469 from Amazon
# The End
😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius - except today.
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