Australian Space Agency receives $150m of funding to participate in NASA Artemis lunar program
Facebook has another mass clear-out of naughty apps using its API
uBlock Origin doesn’t work with Safari 13
See a satellite tonight
Cheap TCL 84" TV, 20% off iTunes cards, Boost 12m pre-paid, ThinkPad E595, 10% off everything at MSY, Huawei battery replacements, LitteBits electronics kits, Vultr credit
The government gave the Australian Space Agency $150m of funding over 5 years to be used towards NASA's Artemis lunar program and signed a Statement of Intent with NASA on expanding cooperation between the two entities. Artemis plans to land humans on the moon again in 2024, as a stepping stone to putting humans on Mars one day. The government reckons "what this deal does is to deliver opportunities for Australian businesses to be a part of NASA’s supply chain". Considering how far behind Australia's space industry is for a country of our economic development, every little bit helps.
Facebook has suspended "tens of thousands of apps" for "inappropriately sharing data obtained from us, making data publicly available without protecting people’s identity or something else that was in clear violation of our policies". One of those apps for example, was "myPersonality, which shared information with researchers and companies with only limited protections in place, and then refused our request to participate in an audit". Facebook has also banned some developers permanently and even taken legal action against them. After all this time since the Cambridge Analytica bullshit, this stuff is still happening on Facebook. Fucken rotten platform.
If you've upgraded to Safari 13, uBlock Origin (imho the best ad blocker, in combination with Pi-Hole) won't work. Apple is only allowing "content blockers" in Safari now and is disabling the API that allows users to installed extensions. The content blockers are a bit average, but 1Blocker (costs US$10 on the Mac App Store) should get the job done according to the uBlock Origin developers. Chrome is also killing off uBlock Origin in the very near future, but that's not a surprise as Google is an advertising company first, tech company second.
Did you know that you can see satellites zooming through space, from earth, without a telescope? They kinda look like big shiny, fast moving stars, but you can see them! See A Satellite Tonight is a website that does what it says it does - give it your location and it will tell you what time to look at the sky and what satellite you will see. It even integrates Google Street View to tell you were to look in relation to where you are! What a great, practical use of technology. Imagine telling someone about this even as recently as the 90s - it would blow their mind.
TCL 85P8M 84" 4K TV - $2970 at JB Hi-Fi
10% off everything (except notebooks) at MSY from today until the 30th of Sept
20% off iTunes gift cards at Coles
12m Boost pre-paid SIM (80GB data, unlimited calls/SMS) - $135 at Coles
Lenovo ThinkPad E595 (15.6" FHD, AMD Ryzen 5 3500U, 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM) - $749 or $719.04 using Cashrewards
$49 Huawei smartphone battery replacements across Australia (or post in)
LitetleBits kids electronics kits - $15 at JB Hi-Fi (Officeworks can price match too)
$50 free Vultr credit for new customers (nice VPS provider like Digital Ocean/Linode, etc.)
🎶 Instinct Blues - The White Stripes
😁 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.