Christchurch Call tries to do something about online extremism but the USA doesn’t like it
Donald Trump wants to know if you’ve been banned from social media for being a bigot
USA cracks down even harder on Huawei with new laws
Sell your GoPro shares, DJI has a new action camera
Yet another ALP election promise for the tech industry
Twitter's handy election DM bot
Surprise trailer for season 5 of Black Mirror
Stuff I found on AliExpress - Part 2
NZ PM Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron managed to get 17 countries, the European Commission, 8 tech companies and many other organisations to agree to the Christchurch Call - a range of “voluntary commitments from Governments and online service providers intended to address the issue of terrorist and violent extremist content online and to prevent the abuse of the internet as occurred in and after the Christchurch attacks”. One notable exception is the US government, who reckon the Christchurch Call restricts freedom of speech. Which makes sense considering the next bit of news I got for ya…
The White House has set up a Typeform survey (no, really, they’re using Typeform), with this introduction: “SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS should advance FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Yet too many Americans have seen their accounts suspended, banned, or fraudulently reported for unclear “violations” of user policies. No matter your views, if you suspect political bias caused such an action to be taken against you, share your story with President Trump”. This looks exactly like a Trump pet project some poor staffer at the White House has to give a shit about because Donny keeps whinging about his racist buddies getting shitcanned from Twitter.
The US Department of Commerce placed Huawei and other Chinese companies affiliated with Huawei on a ban list that makes it illegal for US companies to trade with. In practice this means Huawei can't get CPUs, networking gear or radio chips from companies like Intel, Broadcom or Qualcomm (which ends up hurting the US companies more than Huawei to be honest, as it means they just lost China as a market for their tech). Trump also declared a "national emergency"making it illegal for US companies to use telecommunications equipment made by firms posing a national security risk - which Huawei is one of.
DJI is better known for gimbals and drones, but they’ve got a new camera called the Osmo Action and it’s basically a GoPro, but better. Waterproof, dustproof, shockproof, loads of accessories, high quality video (at least as good as the latest GoPro), smartphone control apps, 3.5mm external mic input, video stabilisation - you name it, DJI’s chucked it in the Osmo Action. US$349, goes on sale May 22nd in the USA. Dunno about Australia. GoPro has been a bit of a laggard tech wise for a while now, they might have an edge with the huge amount of accessories available, but all GoPro really has left is the brand, right?
Today’s piece of pork barrelling is a Digital Skills Centre of Excellence, worth $5m if the ALP form government next week. According to Labor, “Australians would be trained in a centre utilising the most up-to-date or emerging technology. They would also develop training platforms to help both metropolitan and regional-based students”. For what it’s worth, I haven’t read a single thing from the Liberals related to technology training, investment or programs. That’s why I haven’t mentioned any new Liberal policies - there aren’t any.
On the topic of elections, Twitter has made it easy to find out where you can vote, who you can vote for and to find a polling booth. Just DM the official @TwitterAU account and it’ll tell you where to exercise your hard fought right to participate in democracy. On Saturday there will also be the option to find out which polling places have delicious democracy sausages to enjoy. Last federal election, the polling place closest to me hasn’t had any - please let that change this year!
Netflix has uploaded a 90 second teaser trailer for 3 new episodes of Black Mirror. One of the episodes looks like an homage of the classic “fuck you society” film, Falling Down, with a bloke going apeshit over people’s addiction to smartphones. I can’t wait to wallow around in Charlie Brooker’s demented technofuture (featuring Miley Cyrus????) on June 5th. These are just classic episodes, none of that interactive garbage like Bandersnatch.
Part 2 of my AliExpress spelunking:
$21 for a programmable 48x12 pixel LED name tag/small sign. Looks cool.
Wanna snort coke off the back of your iPhone? This case with a tempered glass mirror back is perfect and only $5.
$38 for a knockoff Ring video doorbell (BYO 3x 18650 batteries) - what can go wrong?
I've got a few of these travel cable/electronics organiser bags. Super handy and only $14 for one that holds all my shit.
I purchased one of these $9 magnetic pads to keep screws from rolling around on ya table.
It's a 10W Qi wireless charger with dual coils (so you can put your phone in portrait or landscape) on a pen cup for $34.
A very specific Lightning cable that wraps around the back of an iPhone so it doesn't get in the way when you're using it - $10.20.
📡 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.
😁 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Join us on Slack and chat with other Sizzle subscribers.
The Sizzle is created on Wathaurong land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures, and to elders both past and present.