Telegram hit with massive Chinese DDoS during Hong Kong protests
Google Photos and Google Drive will soon not sync between each other
Spanish soccer league fined for breaking GDPR with their snitch app
LaunchVic’s funding cut isn’t permanent according to Innovation Minister
104 new domain names for Australian ISPs to block
Sponsored Job Ad: Technical Recruiter - Lookahead Search (Sydney)
A very good take down of Uber’s business model
Privacy policies should be in plain English so we can know how our data is used
Cheap Toshiba SD cards, ThinkPad E495, Crumpler briefcase, LIFX, Ring doorbell, Amazon Echo Dot, PSVR Mega Bundle, PS4 controllers
Popular messaging app Telegram got hit with a fucken massive DDoS attack over the past 24 hours, taking the service offline for many users. According to their CEO Pavel Durov, the 200-400Gb/s attack came mostly from China and just happened to occur around the same time as big anti-China protests in Hong Kong - wow, what a coincidence. China would never conduct a cyber attack to prevent information denigrating the CPC. That's so unlike them. Telegram also tweeted out a fun explanation of a DDoS if you're unfamiliar with the term.
Starting in July, Google will no longer allow Google Photos and Google Drive to sync between each other. Photos uploaded to either service will be in their own little silo - if you delete a photo from Google Drive, it will remain in Google Photos and vice-versa. Google's making the change because it was confusing, and I agree with them. Just chuck all your photos on Google Photos and if you want a proper backup, use Backblaze, Arq or something like that.
La Liga (the soccer leauge that Barcelona & Real Madrid play in) added a feature into their Android app to background activate the mic and location services to dob in people illegally streaming matches. Spain's data protection agency reckons this is a breach of the EU's GDPR laws and fined them 250,000 euros for "not properly informing its users in respect of the microphone feature, including not displaying a mic icon when recording". I get where La Liga is coming from, but ya can't record audio without people knowing!
When the Victorian state budget came out and had only $10m in funding for a single year for LaunchVic, when it used to be ~$60m for 4 years, that lead some people to believe the Victorian startup agency was on the way out. At an estimates hearing earlier this week, the Innovation Minister said that LaunchVic isn't getting the axe and will be encouraged to pivot "to focus less on those early-scale startups and potentially to provide some great support for the later-scale and more mature startups". The government will discuss long term funding for LaunchVic based on this new approach.
The Federal Court has granted an order to Village Roadshow, Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount, Columbia, Universal, Warner, Madman and Tokyo Broadcasting, blocking an additional 104 domain names . This has means all ISPs now have to prevent access to the 104 domain names, which include "StreamCR, Torrenting, TorrentLeech, AnimeHeaven, and HorribleSubs". I'm not sure how many sites have been blocked now, must be just under 1,000 or so? I also don't know if it has any material effect on piracy - the block is so easy to get around, just change your DNS to 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8.
We hire people who already care about technology and train them to become great technical recruiters. Sometimes that's a developer who wants to be in a more people focused role. Sometimes it's a product manager who wants more autonomy. The glue that binds us at Lookahead is that we care about technology and bringing people together. Each of us has experience in a software team, and it's that empathy for how products are built that helps us match the right people to the right companies. If you're a Sizzle subscriber, we're already off to a good start. If you are curious about what a people focused role is like, email steve@lookahead.com.au
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I wish I read this blistering smackdown in American Affairs on Uber's pathetic business yesterday so it could be mentioned alongside that air taxi bullshit they were spinning yesterday, but today is good too. There's so many quoteables, but the quote that sums it up best is "Uber's most important innovation has been to produce staggering levels of private wealth without creating any sustainable benefits for consumers, workers, the cities they serve, or anyone else".
Have you ever read a website or app's privacy policy? It's a blocked toilet of legal jargon that's so indecipherable it's almost a unique language separate to English! The New York Time agrees and in this opinion piece, puts up a great argument for governments creating laws that force companies to provide privacy polices in plain English. With easy to read privacy policies people might get a better understanding the implications of handing personal data over to a business and make it easier to regular people to hold businesses accountable when they break their own privacy policies.
$7 for a 32GB or $18 for a 64GB Toshiba SD card at Officeworks.
Lenovo ThinkPad E495 (14" 1080p, Ryzen 5 3500U, 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM) laptop for $755, or $679.50 after Cashrewards cashback.
Crumpler Logican Briefcase/laptop satchel - $69
Buy two LIFX products, get one free (not everything, but still some good stuff if you’re deep in the LIFX ecosystem).
Buy a Ring Video Doorbell 2 for $259 and get a free Amazon Echo Dot.
JB Hi-Fi is clearing out the previous generation Amazon Echo Dot for $29 each (not all stores have stock, but all the ones near me have some left).
Amazon's got the PSVR Mega Bundle for $296.95 delivered.
Costco has PS4 controllers for just $44.99 if you're a Costco member.
🎶 Radiohead - Everything in Its Right Place
😁 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Join us on Slack and chat with other Sizzle subscribers.
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.