Issue 1310 - Tuesday 23rd February, 2021

In Today's Issue

The News

Social media platforms agree to a voluntary disinformation code to try limit Australian eyes seeing fake news

Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Redbubble, TikTok, and Twitter have agreed to the voluntary Australian Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation. You can read the full code of practice here, but it boils down to telling users of their platforms if something they see online is "misinformation" and removing the incentives for people to monetise that type of content. The code was developed by the Digital Industry Group after the government said to do something about "fake news" online, or it will voluntarily or they'll step in and do it for them. Let's see how long it lasts until the government isn't happy anyways and dreams up another genius piece of legislation that gets the world laughing at us.

Prisoners kept locked up past their release date because of a software error in Arizona

Arizona's Department of Corrections has a homemade software package that manages most aspects their prison system, including the dates for prisoners to be released. A new law in the state means prisoners can get early release if they undergo substance abuse treatment or complete a high school diploma course. Whistleblowers came forward to reveal that at least 733 inmates are eligible for early release because they meet the conditions, but are still imprisoned because the software hasn't been updated to reflect the law. The kicker is that there's no plans or funds to update the software - I guess because, hey, it's prisoners, who gives a fuck about their human rights? This is so needlessly cruel.

Lossless Spotify, Diablo 2 remastered, Android 12 developer preview, Microsoft wants AU style media laws in the EU & Huawei's new Mate X2 folding phone

Something I Saw On The Internet

Unraid is a very good NAS & application server operating system for your commodity PC

This might be old news for some of you, but I only recently bothered to check out Unraid and folks, it is good. At its core, Unraid is a dedicated operating system for running a file server, with a special flavour of RAID that allows for easy expansion to larger drives or using mixed sized disks. But it also adds in Docker, so you can run a shitload of services and an implementation of KVM, so you can virtualise anything else that Docker isn't appropriate for. Yeah, it costs money, but it works pretty damn well and is perfect if a Synology/QNAP box doesn't suit your needs. I'm a fan!

Bargains

The End

📻 I Don't Do Drugs, I Just Sweat a Lot - Bicurious

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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.​