Apple's launched its fancy new Maps interface in Australia. New things iOS users will now notice include "lane guidance, speed camera alerts, information about accidents and road hazards, accident reporting, and the Share ETA feature", along with Look Around - Apple's copy on Google's Street View. Maybe Apple Maps is a competitor now. It certainly looks as full featured as Google Maps now and is wayyyy nicer to use than the ugly (but very practical) Waze. Google still has the advantage in points of interest and user sourced data simply due to the fact there's a shitload more users compared to Apple Maps.
Hashicorp is now a public company, floating on the Nasdaq today and currently sitting at a US$15b market cap. I've heard the name Hashicorp thrown around among my enterprise IT worker mates, but never knew what they did. For anyone blissfully unaware of Hashicorp as I am, Hashicorp provides "several popular tools that help companies get their applications up and running on cloud infrastructure" like AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. Those popular tools include services such as Terraform, Vault, Vagrant and Consul. Browsing Hashicorp's website reminds me how far out of the game I am when it comes to modern systems administration. Shit, I don't think they even call babysitting computers "systems administration" these days.
WhatsApp is trying out cryptocurrency payments within a chat for users in USA. A service called Novi facilitates the exchange between the two users in a WhatsApp chat using Pax Dollars (USDP), "a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar issued by Paxos" that can be cashed out to fiat currency. There's no fees apparently and payments are instant. Sounds like a massive waste of time considering you'd then have to convert those useless "Pax Dollars" into US dollars. Just send US dollars! I assume this is just another stop-gap solution (like Venmo, Cashapp, Apple Cash, etc) for the fact the USA's payment system sucks.
The world wide web is so infested with malware delivered via advertising that the NSA, CIA and other law enforcement agencies have "implemented network-based ad-blocking technologies and uses information from several layers, including Domain Name System information, to block unwanted and malicious advertising content". These players aren't here to fuck spiders, so if they're doing it to protect their shit, you probably should do. NextDNS, Pi-Hole, uBlock Origin, Magic Lasso - pick one (uBlock & NextDNS here), they're all good strategies.
Here's five interesting discussions over on The Sizzle's paid subscriber forum for you to enjoy over the weekend. If you are not a paid subscriber but want to get involved, visit https://thesizzle.com.au/payme to get onboard.
📻 Deja Vu - Something For Kate
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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.