ACCC sues Google for not giving users full details of how it ties together the data it collects
Garmin got absolutely, positively, owned by the WastedLocker ransomware
NSW government gives NRMA a few mil to build 20 EV fast chargers in regional areas
The Power Mac G4 Cube turns 20
Cheap Tenda mesh wi-fi kit, Ryzen 5 3600 CPU, 16" MBP, Kingston A400 SSD, Civ6 DLC, Microsoft Sculpt ergo mouse, Ring doorbell & Echo Show combo, UniFi Dream Machine
Google's in trouble with the ACCC again, alleging "Google misled Australian consumers to obtain their consent to expand the scope of personal information that Google could collect and combine about consumers' internet activity, for use by Google, including for targeted advertising". According to the ACCC, Google took user's non-Google online activity in 2016 and merged it with their Google activity "to improve the commercial performance of its advertising businesses". That isn't a bad thing, what the ACCC is upset with is the notification of the change Google gave to users, which they reckon wasn't detailed enough to explain what was really happening. The ACCC media release has lots of info and diagrams explaining their beef with Google.
Garmin is still recovering days after suffering a ransomware attack that's taken all their user facing services offline. Garmin Connect, which takes user activity from devices and pops it on the cloud, is offline. flyGarmin, an aviation navigation and route-planning service is also offline, as are chunks of Garmin's website. Garmin haven't said much about what happened, except that there's "no indication that this outage has affected your data, including activity, payment or other personal information" but TechCrunch has heard the reason for the outage is the WastedLocker variant cryptolocker. Not sure if Garmin is restoring from backups, setting up everything from scratch or what. Either way, what a fucking mess to be in.
The NRMA has been given $3m from the NSW state government to expand its regional NSW electric vehicle charging network. 20 new sites will be added to the NRMA's existing 38 across NSW country towns and regional centres. The press release has a nice map showing where the current stations are and where the new stations will go. For now the chargers are free to use, but NRMA does plan to take money for access to them in the future. These small regional town charger sites are probably the least profitable for private investment, so it's nice to see the NSW government pony up some cash to get them installed and open up these areas to EV drivers. The Victorian government would be smart to do the same as a post-COVID stimulus, if we ever get rid of the damn thing.
Yet another sign I am getting old has presented itself before me - the 20th anniversary of Apple's Power Mac G4 Cube. When it came out I was doing work experience as a 16 year old at Choice Connections on Spencer Street and came into work one morning oblivious there was a thing called the Macworld Expo. One of the dudes working there showed me a photo of the Cube and that my friends, was the moment I got sucked in by the Steve Jobs reality distortion field. You could easily make a computer in that form factor now. Heaps of space for what is essentially a laptop. Shit, it would have better thermals than Apple's current MacBook Pro line up. If Apple had any sense of history they'd give the fans a nice reach around and release a few anniversary edition products.
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AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CPU - $266.67 also from Amazon
16” Apple MBP (i7 CPU/16GB RAM/512GB SSD) - $3329 at Umart, but Officeworks will price match down to $3162
960GB Kingston A400 2.5” SATA SSD - $119 delivered from PCbyte AU
Civilization VI: Gathering Storm DLC - $13 on Steam via AllYouPlay
Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Mouse - $39 at The Good Guys
Ring Doorbell 3 + Echo Show 5 - $236 from Amazon AU
Ubiquiti Unifi Dream Machine - $492.15 from Computer Alliance’s eBay store if paying with Afterpay
🎶 Pup - Horror My Friend
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