NEWS
Government imposes NBN tax on any ISP that decides to compete with NBN
The Australian government has decided to end 2016 with a fine example of their incompetence, implementing a tax on any competitors to NBN's network. The government's logic is that it needs more money to complete the NBN rollout, so as to appear to appease rural voters, the tax collected from telcos will go to fund fixed wireless and satellite NBN services. Reading between the lines though, the tax is to discourage competition to the NBN. The tax will be collected via the government's carrier licensing system and applied to all "superfast broadband" services, with loads of exclusions that seem to let all other forms of broadband to operate without an extra cost, except highly profitable FttB networks that NBN can't compete with because of its stupid pricing model. The NBN was supposed to get around the rent seekers holding Australia back (*cough* Telstra), but now, it's a rent seeker itself. Nice work guys.
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Rich tech dudes get together to fund renewable energy projects around the world
People who obviously have no clue about money or economics, like Bill Gates, Jack Ma, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, the founder of SAP and the chairman of India's largest conglomerate, Reliance, have decided to waste their hard earned money by establishing a US$1b investment fund into clean energy. These idiots clearly haven't heard that climate change is a hoax and a Chinese conspiracy to cripple western economies. What a bunch of dummies! They may as well set their cash on fire, at least then they'd get some heat from it, unlike their homes when the wind stops blowing and the sun isn't shining!
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Uber is abusing private customer info again
Uber is getting sued by a former employee tasked with investigating Uber's use of private customer data, for abusing its use of private customer data. Pretty much every employee could access everything Uber had on a customer and was using it to stalk ex-partners amd check out celebrity and politician customer info. This is extra bad because Uber agreed with the New York Attorney General that it would specifically not let this happen. Yet here we are. You're shitcunts Uber, why can't you be nicer so we can all use your glorified taxi services guilt free?
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COOL SHIT
Metadata makes catching crims a piece of piss, just ask these 12 year olds
Triple J's Hack covered a "cyber fox hunt" put on by Melb Uni, where a bunch of kids pretended to be the AFP told to rat out a whistleblower. Utilising mock data based on what the AFP is allowed to collect and store in its giant database of Australian citizen metadata, the kiddies were able to shut down the trouble maker with a conscience in under an hour. A kid, using tools less advanced than what the cops have, was able to intercept and arrest a whistleblower, just from knowing the name of the journalist who wrote an article using the whistleblower's leaks. Encrypt yo shit fellow citizens.
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Here endeth the sizzle (until tomorrow!)
--Anthony
The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Today's subject line is from Where Did She Come From, by The Hard Ons. Like The Sizzle? Like it on Facebook!