The Department of Industry, Science and Resources has kicked off a "dialogue starter" on the topic of "Diversity in STEM" as part of their Pathway to Diversity in STEM Review. They want "to start a genuine conversation about the cultural and systemic barriers in STEM, and how they can be broken down". Unlike most government discussions, this dialogue starter is more freeform in order to get a more diverse range of people responding. You can submit audio, video and photos, along with the usual PDF/DOC files. It really seems like they're after any and all feedback around STEM careers and what holds people back from pursuing them. More info on the department's website if you're interested in participating.
Florida is an outstanding achiever in the field of dumb legislation, but a new one requiring bloggers to register with the government is its finest work yet. Senate Bill 1316: Information Dissemination literally requires anyone that writes "an article, a story, or a series of stories" about "the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, a Cabinet officer, or any member of the Legislature" and gets paid to do so, must "register with state offices within five days after the publication of an article that mentions an elected state official". Every month, on the 10th of that month, they have to submit a report on any new articles they've published. It likely contravenes the USA's precious first amendment, but Florida is trying anyways.
A Sydney woman was arrested by the AFP last week for "allegedly sending more than 32,000 emails over a 24-hour period to the office of a Federal MP" adn charged her with "one count of committing unauthorised impairment of electronic communication". The email bombing was so severe that it "impaired workers from operating IT systems and stopped members of the public from making contact with the office". Not to self: do not try to promote The Sizzle to our federal parliamentarians by sending an email every 30 seconds. They will see it and know who I am, but they'll also arrest me. Not worth it.
Just as we got comfortable with eSIMs, Qualcomm is dropping iSIMs on us. Apparently eSIMs still require a dedicated IC on the circuit board of a smartphone and the phone OEMs hate how precious PCB real estate is wasted for it. An "integrated SIM" (iSIM) pops this directly on the SoC and uses the same standard as an eSIM and "any carrier that works with eSIM shouldn't see a difference between an eSIM and an iSIM. iSIM is still just a hunk of silicon that needs software provisioning—where the silicon lives shouldn't really matter to your carrier". Why even introduce this new name then? Thanks Qualcomm.
Utility Structures: Castle Hill Telecommunications Exchange, New South Wales. 2018. (Buddy Patrick / Flickr)
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