Snowden wants to return to USA (if he gets a fair trial) and asks Macron for asylum (if he can’t go back to the US)
LastPass bug allowed for potential viewing of passwords via Chrome & Opera browser extensions
Wi-Fi 6, also known as 802.11ax, is ready to go
What should happen with your digital assets when you die?
Cheap board games, Bunnings wi-fi smart plugs, Tetris 99, Yamaha soundbar, Razer gaming mouse
Edward Snowden is back in the news, promoting his book by giving interviews. In an interview with CBS he says he would like to leave Russia - "I would like to return to the United States. That is the ultimate goal. But if I'm gonna spend the rest of my life in prison, the one bottom line demand that we have to agree to is that at least I get a fair trial. And that is the one thing the government has refused to guarantee because they won't provide access to what's called a public interest defense". In another interview with a French radio station he asked French President Emmanuel Macron to offer him asylum, saying that "protecting whistleblowers is not a hostile act. Welcoming someone like me is not an attack on the United States".
LastPass has fixed a pretty nasty bug that "made it possible for websites to steal credentials for the last account the user logged into using the Chrome or Opera extension" - the kinda thing you don't want to happen when using a password manager! "In certain situations, websites could produce a popup by creating an HTML iframe that linked to the Lastpass popupfilltab.html window rather than through the expected procedure of calling a function called do_popupregister(). In some cases, this unexpected method caused the popups to open with a password of the most recently visited site". The vulnerability was found by Google Project Zero researcher Tavis Ormandy, who privately told LastPass about it a month ago, so the chances of this being used in the wild are pretty slim.
Wi-Fi 6 is now officially a thing, with the Wi-Fi Alliance starting the Wi-Fi 6 certification program. This means manufacturers of 802.11ax devices can now test their devices to ensure they work well with other devices. If you're unfamiliar with Wi-Fi 6, it's the same wi-fi you know and love, but better. It's theoretical max data bandwidth is 2.4 Gbps (faster than gigabit Ethernet!), but the real improvement is 802.11ax's enhanced spectral efficiency that allows multiple devices to share the same slice of radio bandwidth. Wi-Fi 6 also includes mandatory support for MU-MIMO, WPA3, 1024-QAM, 160 MHz channels and support target wake time (to lower power consumption).
A few months ago my wife and I went to a lawyer and got ourselves some proper wills made up. It was a sobering experience, thinking about what happens when we die and who gets our stuff - but it also made me wonder what happens to my "digital" stuff. Like, it would kinda be nice if someone was to log on to my Twitter account and let everyone know I died, or even to simply refund all you Sizzle subscribers. I forgot about it and moved on, but an article on TechCrunch reminded me again. It's main premise is to chuck everything in a password manager and keep details on accessing it along with your will, so whoever executes your estate can have access to your passwords. 1Password makes it easy with their PDF emergency kit, I should use that.
Board Geeks has a large sale on board games. I have no idea what is a good board game beyond Monopoly, but you dorks might dig some of the deals.
Bunnings has $15 smart wi-fi plugs with support for Google Home, IFTTT & Alexa that also include USB charging.
Tetris 99 for the Switch is $30.65 at Target and it also includes a 12m sub to Nintendo Online (normally worth $29.95).
Yamaha ATS1080B soundbar (cheapest soundbar that doesn't suck) - $156 + delivery from Videopro's eBay store.
Razer DeathAdder Elite gaming mouse - $54.96 + delivery (or free for eBay Plus) from Shopping Square's eBay store.
🎶 The Noise of Carpet - Stereolab
😁 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.