Iowa’s Democratic party vote collection app was a total shitshow
ACCC finalises Consumer Data Right rules, banks must implement by July 1st 2020
New betas of iOS and Xcode have cool new features
A browser extension to keep the firehose of social media updates under control
Cheap Optus pre-paid SIM starter packs, 12V deep cycle battery, Death Stranding PS4, 4TB Seagate portable HDD
The Democratic party is choosing a leader to represent them at the Presidential election later this year and the first step in doing that is having the Democratic members (caucuses, I think??) in the state of Iowa decide on who they want to go up against Trump. This process was totally botched because a smartphone app that was supposed to be used to report results from each little group back to the Democratic HQ was a piece of shit. Then people discovered the app was made by a bunch of Democratic party cronies and now there's conspiracy theories that the app was purposely botched because a certain candidate was getting too popular. Oh and the app is a security nightmare too.
Get set to hear about Consumer Data Right stuff more often the next few months, as the ACCC just finalised a bunch of rules surrounding its use. The point of CDR is to force industries to make their product data public (e.g: "interest rates, fees and charges, and eligibility criteria for banking products like credit cards and mortgages"), as well as allow customers access to transactional data they generate with businesses so they can easily shop around to find better deals. The banking sector will be first to have to legally comply with these laws (1st July 2020), with telcos and energy companies forced to do the same shortly. What's also interesting about CDR is the right for a person to have their data "deleted", but it's iffy if the data will actually be deleted or simply de-identified.
A new beta of iOS has been released alongside a new beta of Xcode and whilst normally I'd ignore this inside baseball stuff, there's some cool features worth mentioning. In March, Apple will allow developers to "distribute iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and tvOS versions of your app as a universal purchase, allowing customers to enjoy your app and in‑app purchases across platforms by purchasing only once". iOS 13.4 has a nifty upcoming feature called CarKey, which if a car maker decides to support it, will let you use your iPhone as a car key (start the car, unlock the doors, etc) even if the battery is dead. iOS 13.4 also has new memoji, iCloud Drive sharing support, "third-party navigation in CarPlay" and a few more nifty things I don't care about but you might.
Fraidycat is a weird little browser extension/Electron app that tries to get all your mate’s internet activity in the one spot. It shows you their name and a link to what they've recently posted to stuff like Twiter, Pinboard, YouTube, Reddit, Insta, etc. and that's it. There's no notifications or dark patterns to build engagement, it's pretty much an RSS feed of activity. I like how you can set an "importance" to each feed so you can tell Fraidycat "ok just show me this person's crap once a month - I care, but not enough for daily updates". Not sure how much I'll use it, but I like the idea.
Optus Prepaid SIMs - $30 for $10, $40 for $15 at Coles Express
110Ah 12v deep cycle battery - $179 delivered off eBay
Death Stranding for PS4 - $54.95 on the PlayStation store
Seagate 4TB portable external HDD - $129 at Aus Post or $122.95 at Officeworks if you ask them to price match
🎶 Prisoner of Society - The Living End
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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.