Chinese tech giant Tencent has rolled out a facial recognition system called "Midnight Patrol" to 60+ of its China-specific smartphone games. They've got a national gaming curfew in China, between 10pm and 8am, to limit kiddies going wild on the gaming hog all night. The Midnight Patrol feature scans the player's face, checks with some sort of national database to verify the player's age and shitcans em if they're not old enough (or if they're an adult and the scan fails for whatever reason). Sounds horrific to me, but give it time - the Libs or ALP will pitch this via the eSafety commissioner at some point. I bet heaps of parents would love it.
Google has been hit with a lawsuit by 36 US states who are "targeting the fees Google takes from developers for purchases and subscriptions inside apps" - i.e: 30% is too much and the fact Google gets away with it is an abuse of their power. Similar sorta thing to Epic's case against Apple, but arguably weaker as the Google Play Store is not the only method of installing applications on Android, unlike iOS where Apple's App Store is the only choice. A few weeks ago I would have thought that 36 states suing Google would mean a slam-dunk case, but as we saw with the FTC's & 48 states case against Facebook getting dismissed, it's a tough fight.
In these difficult times, we can all use a laugh and Donald Trump has delivered once again with a "a very important and very beautiful, I think, development for our freedom". He will be lead plaintiff suing Facebook, Twitter and Google and their CEOs for banning him and his cronies, with the desired outcome being "to make sure that the liability protections that they have under Sec. 230 is, at a very minimum, changed and maybe at a maximum taken away". Now, he hasn't actually filed the suit, he is just saying he is going to sue them. Chances are he will get laughed out of court and we will all continue to wonder what the fuck happened to the USA's collective brains in making that bloke president.
Graham Castleton wants you to start your own ISP. He wants so much for you to do this, that he's made a rather comprehensive website outlining all the steps you need to do to it. His documentation focuses on operating a wireless ISP (aka WISP), as the technology to provide reliable and affordable internet without the huge capital costs of running a cable to every premises is relatively cheap and easy to use now. The info is US-centric, so I don't know if the economics apply here in Australia (getting fibre to an area with shit internet might cost more per month than you'd get from customers) but it's fun to read anyways.
📻 Bet My Blood - Pretty Sick
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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.