No Sizzle tomorrow because it is Australia Day. Change the fucken date already.
The US DoJ and a couple of states have sued Google. The press release outlines how "Google now controls the digital tool that nearly every major website publisher uses to sell ads on their websites (publisher ad server); it controls the dominant advertiser tool that helps millions of large and small advertisers buy ad inventory (advertiser ad network); and it controls the largest advertising exchange (ad exchange), a technology that runs real-time auctions to match buyers and sellers of online advertising". Google, of course, disagrees and says it is "one of hundreds of companies that enable the placement of ads across the Internet" and actually has loads of competition.
Elon Musk spent 7 hours over 3 days getting peppered with questions in court about his "funding secured" tweet in 2018. Some highlights of his testimony from a few articles I've read about the proceedings:
Ivory, a Mastodon client by the same mob that made popular iOS Twitter client Tweetbot, is now available for the iPhone at $2.99/m or $24.99/yr. Not that there wasn't decent Mastodon clients for iOS around before Ivory (here's a few), but many people got comfortable with how Tweetbot worked after a decade of use and for them, Tweetbot was Twitter. Now they can use more or less the same app, but on Mastodon, which makes them happy and hopefully, use Mastodon more frequently. It's still got a shitload of features to come but in its v1.0 form Ivory is very usable and in my opinion the nicest Mastodon client yet. I look forward to the Mac and iPad versions. By the way, if you'd like to follow me on Mastodon, I'm decryption@aus.social and here's an invite link to join aus.social if you'd like to give Mastodon a shot.
One of the nice things about a recent Mac laptop is that if you lose one, it's difficult for someone to get any use out of it due to the iOS-style activation lock. This makes Apple gear worthless for most thieves so they don't get stolen as often either. Unfortunately it also means when 3 year old laptops that are still very excellent computers, but let go due to generous device upgrade policies, are dumped at an e-waste facility by a business or school that's too busy/dumb to remove them from an MDM or iCloud, they're also worthless bricks that end up in industrial shredders. The cynical side of me reckons Apple is quite happy with the status quo and fewer used (i.e: cheap) Macs in the wild.
Netscape Developer T-Shirt. Designed by Tom Peikwen. ca. 1995 (John Slater / Flickr)
📻 Liberty Bell - The Gathering
😎 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon.
💬 Checked out the paid subscriber only forum? It's a tidy little place to discuss tech with like minded Aussies.
👋 Forums not your thing? The Sizzle has a Slack group you can procrastinate in and chat with other nerds bored at work.
💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info, change email address or cancel your subscription? Visit the customer portal.
📚 Browse The Sizzle Archive. A few issues are missing and it's not searchable, but it's better than nothing.
🫂 Friends of The Sizzle is a small group of businesses or organisations operated by Sizzle subscribers. Support your fellow Sizzler!
💔 Tired of my bullshit? Unsubscribe and I'll never speak to you again.
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.