A broad group of IT related lobby groups submitted what they'd like changed about the Assistance and Access Act to the Parliamentary Joint Committee reviewing it. Many of the suggestions are things the ALP had planned as amendments but cowardly ditched at the last minute, like judicial consent for warrants, the removal of the definition of systemic weakness, the removal of Technical Assistance Notices (TANs), for notices to be given to a business not an individual employee and bumping the threshold for crimes the AA Act applies to up from 3 years to 10 years. If the ALP win the election, I reckon they'll throw the IT industry a bone a year or so after they take office and implement these requests.
Commonwealth Bank customers can finally use Apple Pay, for real this time. Fire up the Wallet app on your iPhone and go for it, it works now. Here are CBA's instructions on what to do to get Apple Pay going. That leaves just NAB and Westpac as the last holdouts for Apple Pay support. Even pissy little credit unions have Apple Pay support! Unlike ANZ however, CBA hasn't implemented support for eftpos, Mastercards only. There's rumours floating around from late last year that those two holdouts might bite the bullet and implement Apple Pay. Let's see what happens throughout 2019. I wanna know when Australia gets Apple Pay Cash - that looks kinda handy.
I know exactly what you've been thinking about, lying awake at night wondering - what's happening with the Huawei CFO detained in Canada? Well, I'm glad you asked. Retuers has a nice overview of what's happened with her and what might happen next. Basically the USA needs to formally request extradition, then Meng Wanzhou can be tried in a US court. Meanwhile, Huawei's CEO gave a 25-minute TV interview (dude doesn't normally do that kinda thing) saying, for the millionth time, that Huawei isn't a pawn of the Chinese government.
You know how Australia has that law where someone like Village or Foxtel can go to the Federal Court and get a website they don't like blocked? The MPAA and RIAA (big US lobby groups representing media companies) are inspired by it and want to include a very similar law in any UK-USA free trade agreement once the UK leaves the European Union. The UK already has similar laws, so that part is easy - it's the USA that's the stubborn one with freedom of speech and all that stuff, making this free trade agreement a perfect opportunity for the copyright cartel to implement their wishlist of laws.
I don't know how popular it is in Australia, but Glassdoor is really big in the USA. People use it to get a sense of what a prospective employer is like, as Glassdoor is full of reviews of workplaces written by the employees. Unsurprisingly, it seems that companies have been manipulating Glassdoor rankings by gently forcing employees to leave positive reviews. SpaceX for example would give out free mugs for leaving a 5-star review on the company's Glassdor page. As usual, anything with a rating and ranking system is gamed and taken advantage of, making it impossible to trust.
Since iOS 11, you've been able to join a wi-fi network by scanning a QR code. With the latest iPhones (XS & XR), you're able to tap an NFC tag and join the wi-fi network instantly. You can do this on Android too. I saw this Wifi Porter thing that you can stick on a wall and tap your phone onto to share wi-fi access with randos. US$129 for a 4-pack and they look kinda nice with the wood finish and wi-fi logo etched in. Don't even need to pop a battery in it, nor do you need a companion app to trigger anything. Just stick it on a wall or on a desk/table and off you go. I look forward to the $9 knock-offs from Aliexpress.
A bloke on Reddit dropped his 6-week old iPhone XS in a pool (~1.1m deep, for about 60 seconds), dried it out according to the instructions on Apple's website, but the iPhone had weird issues for weeks after the incident. He then took the iPhone to an Apple Store who promptly told him "moisture indicators show this has been dropped in water, pay up or fuck off". Not content with this response, he complained to NSW Fair Trading and was eventually given a new iPhone XS after pointing out that Apple's website states the iPhone XS is IP68 rated, which should mean surviving water immersion up to 2m for 30 minutes. Thank you Australian Consumer Law!
That's it, see ya tomorrow!
--Anthony
Aussie Broadband is the best ISP I've used since Internode's glory days. Their CEO gives talks at AUSNOG about their network and they even have network utilisation charts for every NBN POI. Their pricing isn't the cheapest, but if you want an ISP that's fast & reliable, give them a shot. Use my affiliate link or my referral code (1001031) and we both get $50 credit on our next bill.
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