NEWS
Twitter has new anti-abuse stuff and Facebook implements new suicide prevention measures
Twitter and Facebook are out and about demonstrating their morality today. Twitter has decided it'll give users the option to block other users that are "eggs" (accounts with no user picture set) or non verified emails and phone numbers. These accounts are more often than not, set up to stir shit, rather than do anything productive. They'll also use ~*algorithms*~ to find out who's being a bastard and sin bin them for 12 hours. Meanwhile, Facebook let you report a post or a livestream as "suicidal" and it'll then give you info on how to help this person not kill themselves and display a message on the other person's screen about how to get help too.
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Samsung Galaxy S8 gets leaked
The Samsung Galaxy S8 was set to debut on the 29th of March in New York, but some punk who doesn't trim his little fingernail so he can use it to pick his filthy nose and/or snort coke, has published pictures of it on the internet, totally ruining Samsung's je ne sais quoi. If you haven't already gone and clicked the link and looked at the S8 with your own eyes, let me describe it to you: a black elongated rectangle with curved edges. It looks like the new LG G6 had a baby with an iPhone 7 Plus and during embryogenesis, the mutant child of these two electronic devices lost its bezels.
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Nintendo Switch is out tomorrow
The Nintendo Switch comes out tomorrow and websites are finally allowed to publish proper reviews, not just unboxings. Vooks, Australia's most hardcore Nintendo fanboy, got one early and has gone into a lot of detail about it. He reckons its Nintendo's best console ever. Quote, "I can’t wait to see what the Switch experience looks like in a year, if it’s not already a must have now. It will be by then. For now, I have my dream Nintendo console." Also the Switch game cartridges taste like shit, so don't eat the carts.
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Yahoo CEO gives up her bonus because they suck at not getting hacked
Yahoo has been owned so hard, so many times, that Marissa Mayer said she is voluntarily (hmm) giving up her annual bonus and distributing it to Yahoo staff as a way of saying "sorry you work for Yahoo". She posted a thing on her Tubmlr about it. There's been so many security breaches at Yahoo since she came onboard, that there's a Wikipedia page outlining all. The sale of Yahoo to Verizon is still going ahead though and Verizon managed to haggle Yahoo down US$350m because of the hacks, haha. If you're wondering why the hell anyone wants to buy Yahoo, this Washington Post article sheds a bit of light (hint: bombard Yahoo users with ads)
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TiVo Australia is dead
Those of you still clinging on to your beloved TiVos in Australia - it's time to pour a 40 on the curb for a fallen homie. TiVo has announced they're turning off the servers that make TiVo do what TiVo does, on the 31st of October. After that date, your TiVo will probably be useless. If you have a TiVo, there's a trade-in offer that'll get you $100 off a FetchTV Mighty - but it requires going in to Harvey Norman, so stuff that. My family are still free to air TV fiends and love their PVRs. Some dude on eBay is selling brand new Topfield (who went out of business in AU a few months ago) PVRs for like $50 each. I got them a few of the TR2100s and they haven't complained yet!
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COOL SHIT
Become a cryptolocker magnate with this easy to use kit
Wanna run your own cryptolocker ransomware empire? This guy on YouTube is pimping his "Philadelphia" kit for US$400 and it looks really, really easy to use. From my sojourns around the dark web I found a joint that'll sell you access to some poor fucker's owned computer for about $5 ($20 if you want an Australian), that you can RDP in to and install whatever apps you want. Use this crpytolocker on say, 100 computers, charge the random at 1BTC and if 5% of the people you infect pay up, you're ahead. The juicier the target (i.e: maybe a retail store POS, or some architect with a poor backup regime), the more you can charge. I know what I'm doing if The Sizzle doesn't get 600 subscribers by this time next year!
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People are nicer on internet comments if they read the article first
The Norwegian equivalent of the ABC has come up with a neat way to prevent jerks being jerks in news discussions on their website. In an article about digital surveillance laws (a contentious issue), they made any potential commenters take a quick quiz about the article and if they didn't answer the questions correctly, ya can't comment. By making sure only those who read the article could comment, the quality of the debate increased immensely. Funny that. I wonder if they can make it scale somehow? It would be great to test on a wider scale, like say, The Guardian or SMH.
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I saw some cheap stuff on Ozbargain again
PS4 500GB for $296 from Target's eBay store, with free delivery - a better console than the Xbox One I reckon. 21.5" 1080p LG monitor from Kogan for $99+delivery - nothing special, but it's the cheapest new 1080p monitor around right now if you need something basic. Telstra 4GX mi-fi with 2GB of data for $29.50 at Big W. Belkin WeMo light switch for $39 at Bunnings (grab a snag too while you're there) - technically you gotta get an electrician to install these *wink*. 16GB of Vodafone data that lasts 180 days for just $25 from the Vodafone online store.
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Here endeth the sizzle (until tomorrow!)
--Anthony
The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Like The Sizzle? Like it on Facebook!