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December 19, 2025 | Read online
# China's chip spy antics, USyd hack, and the 2025 Naughty and Nice list! Scaring away AI crawlers from your self-hosted website with p*rn
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Edition 2476
"Glitch 6" (Image: Paduret Dan Cristian)
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.
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!
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.
Who’d I miss? Who was on here unfairly? LMK
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Australia:
I went on the great Tech Won’t Save Us podcast to talk about — you guessed it — the teen social media ban. Australia’s Cyber Security Centre’s guide for AI and small business Australia (Australian Signals Directorate) Nbn Co’s 2gbps Services Are 'too Fast' For Accc To Monitor (iTnews) Telstra Expands Satellite Messaging To Google Pixel Devices (Eftm) Legislation Drafters’ Cloud Shift Broke Procurement Rules (Innovationaus) Meta’s Response To The Antisemitic Terrorist Attack At Bondi Beach (Meta Australia Policy Blog)
Rest of the world:
Parents Of Sextortion Victim Sue Meta For Alleged Wrongful Death (The Guardian) The ChatGPT app store is here (The Verge) OpenAI has discussed raising tens of billions at about $750 billion valuation (Yahoo Finance) Tiktok Says It Signed Agreements To Create New Us Joint Venture (Bloomberg, $) Gemini For Home Reportedly Breaks Automations For Some (9to5google) LG Will Let You Delete The Previously Unremovable Microsoft Copilot Shortcut On Its Smart Tvs (Engadget) Trucker Wrongly Detained Through Casino’s Ai Identification Software Now Suing Officer After Settling Suit With Casino (Cdllife) North Korean Infiltrator Caught Working In Amazon It Department Thanks To Lag — 110ms Keystroke Input Raises Red Flags Over True Location (Tom's Hardware) Creating Apps Like Signal Or Whatsapp Could Be "hostile Activity," Claims Uk Watchdog (Techradar) Only 14% Of Steam Playtime Went To 2025 Games (Mp1st) ”Something that hasn't been made clear: Firefox will have an option to completely disable all AI features (@firefoxwebdevs) Play GTA Vice City in your browser (Dos.Zone)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# 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…)
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
Vention CCC 45W 20000mAh Power Bank - $47.17 at AliExpress Reolink CX820, 4K 8MP Dome PoE IP Camera with ColorX Night Vision - $135 at Reolink AU (Down from $194) Switch Lite - $139 at EB Games (Preowned) Final Audio UX 2000 ANC over Ear Headphones - $149 at Addicted to Audio AU Sony Wireless Party Speaker SRS-XV500B - $345 at The Good Guys Samsung Galaxy Watch8 40mm Bluetooth - $399 at JB Hi-Fi Apple AirPods Max (USB-C) Orange - $547 at Officeworks Sonos Sub 4 Wireless Subwoofer - $991 at Harvey Norman LG 65" QNED86A EVO AI Mini LED + LG Soundbar with Subwoofer S70TY Bundle - $1416 at The Good Guys Hisense M2 Pro 65" to 200" 4K Laser Smart Mini Projector - Titanium Grey - $1462 at Harvey Norman Onkyo TX-NR7100 plus a $500 gift card - $1839 at Videopro Panasonic Lumix S9 + 18-40mm Kit - $1998 at Amazon AU
Computing
Logitech MK220 Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Combo - $23 at Amazon AU Ergotron LX Desk Mount Dual Monitor Bracket Arm for up to 25" Displays - $49 at Scorptec (Down from $325) Logitech G515 Rapid TKL Hall Effect Keyboard - $148 at EB Games TP-Link Deco BE65 3 Pack Tri-Band BE11000 Mesh Wi-Fi - $699 at Good Games Pavilion eBay Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 Pulse Gaming 16GB OC Graphics Card - $829 at Umart Apple iPad Pro (M4) (11-inch Nano-Texture Glass Wi-Fi + Cellular 2TB Space Black) - $2389 at Amazon AU
Mobile
Xiaomi 15T Pro Black 12GB / 512GB - $999 at Amazon AU
# The End
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