Plus: What name do computers hate? ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

February 04, 2025 | Read online
# 2263. Australia kicks tech policy down the road, again, Elon Musk gets how tech really runs the government and iPhone porn makes Steve Jobs roll in his grave Plus: What name do computers hate?
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Issue 2263 - Tuesday 4 February, 2025
ICYMI, the Sizzle forum had some great replies about people’s first ever computer room.
# In Today’s Issue
Australia kicks tech policy down the road, again Elon Musk knows how tech really runs the government Steve Jobs is rolling in his grave over iPhone porn What name do computers hate? Deals on amaysim prepaid SIM pack, Samsung Galaxy Fit3 smartwatch, Anker USB C fast charger, Civilization VII early access, refurbed cheap Toshiba and Lenovo laptops and Mac Mini M2 Pro.
# The News
### Australia kicks tech policy down the road, again
Australia should keep expanding its online safety regulation and give big fines to platforms that don’t comply, says a government-initiated review coming out today (ABC News). A review of the 2021 Online Safety Act by former ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard recommends legislating a duty-of-care and to create binding rules for platforms to deal with dehumanisation of minorities, national security and social cohesion threats and more.
But the government, which has had the report since November, is not committing to actually doing any of the recommendations, although Communications Minister Michelle Rowland says the government will legislate a duty of care (here’s a duty-of-care explainer from Australian tech think tank Reset Tech). But without any details or timetable, we’re seeing yet another federal government essentially kick the can down the road. I know it’s easy to hate on government for bad tech policy, but personally I would prefer some tech policy. On the government’s flagship policy, the teen social media ban, Reuters has a fun piece where they made teen burner accounts on YouTube — exempt from the ban — and found they were very quickly directed towards extremist content (Reuters). Cool!
### Elon Musk knows how tech really runs the government
Checking in on how things are going in the US: This is a recent high school graduate who did an internship with Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink who has now been installed at one of the most powerful government agencies. He reportedly has unprecedented access to classified government data (including staff medical records) and is appearing in meetings with senior public servants (WIRED, $).
His nickname, according to his deleted LinkedIn, is “BigBalls”
Far be it for me to judge a book by its cover or CV, but the presence of a zoomer Musk stan in a government boardroom is a red flashing light alerting us that things ain’t right. Elon Musk and his cronies have reportedly gotten access to the technical systems that control the government’s finances for things like its foreign aid agency USAID and welfare programs like Social Security and Medicare (The Verge). What we’re seeing is actual takeover of the US government, wresting away the power of Congress to pay for things to an unelected billionaire.
I’m not being hysterical and I don’t think Musk is some chess grandmaster, but it’s clear that Musk, and his various cronies, understand something fundamental about how big organisations work from their experience taking over various businesses: power doesn’t rest with the person with the wallet, it actually lies with the person who knows the online banking log-in.
### Steve Jobs is rolling in his grave over iPhone porn
It’s insane that it took nearly two decades but we’re getting the iPhone’s first ever “approved” porn app as a consequence of the EU’s push to open Apple up (The Verge). You can now download Hot Tub, an “adult content browser” from the iOS app store alternative AltStore PAL which launched in April last year thanks to Europe’s Digital Markets App. Frankly, this rocks. Not because this will help you get your rocks off — although, the Sizzle supports that 100% — but because porn is not a crime. Most iPhone owners are adults. People who make porn should be able to make money like anyone else. If I spend $1000s of dollars on a device, why shouldn’t I be able to use its full capacity and not be limited to Safari’s nerfed capabilities for just about the most popular thing you can do on a computer? Just remember, it was Steve Jobs who said “folks who want porn can be and [sic] Android phone” (TechCrunch).
# Oh, Also
### What name do computers hate?
I happened across this 2015 article from a technology journalist called Christopher Null about his name (WIRED, $). He acknowledges it’s a good one for a tech journo (“The geek connotations provide a bit of instant nerd cred”) but says, on balance, it’s a pain in the ass for obvious reasons.
Most will accept "Null" without complaint. Some will loop back to the input screen and tell the user to try again, that the last name field can't be blank (But it's not blank! That's just my name!) Some will tell the user that "null" is a reserved term that can't be used. And some will just crash.
Christopher Null
I feel bad for the guy unlike the bloke who ended up with US$12,049 worth of tickets wrongly sent to him after he chose a “NULL” vanity license plate (WIRED, $)
# Bargains
amaysim 28-Day 50GB $30 Prepaid SIM Starter Pack - $10 at amaysim Samsung Galaxy Fit3 Grey or Gold - $69 at Mobileciti Anker Prime USB C Charger, 100W USB C Fast Charger - $99.99 at Amazon Civilization VII Early Access - Deluxe $129.31, Founders $161.64 at 2game Microsoft Surface Pro 5 (LTE) 1807 12.3" Touch Laptop i5-7300U 8GB 256GB (used) - $211.65 at eBay Lenovo P520c: Xeon W-2123, 32GB RAM, 256GB NVMe, 2x 1TB HDD, P2000, 500W (used) - $300 at eBay Toshiba Tecra X40-E: Intel Core i7-8550u, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD, FHD Touchscreen (used) - $349 at corporatepc ASUS Vivobook 15 R7-7730U, 16GB, 512GB, 15.6" 2.9K OLED 600nits HDR 120Hz - $973.25 at Smart Home Store Sapphire AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT Pulse 20GB Graphics Card - $1099 at Centre Com Mac Mini M2 Pro 10C CPU 16C GPU 16/512GB Silver - $1294 at Officeworks
# The End
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