The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communication and the Arts (wtf?) has kicked off a consultation process to give ACMA powers so it can "hold digital platforms to account for harmful misinformation and disinformation online", aka the Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023. These powers would allow ACMA to "gather information" from digital platform providers about disinfo & misinfo, ask industry to develop a code of conduct that ACMA enforces and like the Online Safety Act/eSafety Commissioner, will make up the codes themselves if what industry gives them isn't what they want. The good news is that "ACMA will not have the power to request specific content or posts be removed from digital platform services" - at least not now. The slippery sloped salami can still be sliced.
There's currently a trial going on between the USA's FTC and Microsoft to decide if they can acquire Activision Blizzard and Phil Spencer, the Xbox boss, told the court that when they heard about Starfield being exclusive to PlayStation, they decided to buy Zenimax so it becomes an exclusive for Xbox instead - despite Microsoft's promise when they purchased Zenimax that they won't make games exclusive to Xbox/PC. Poor optics considering the FTC's main argument is if allowed to acquire Activision, it'll cut off games for other platforms. Meanwhile, Microsoft presented an email from Sony Interactive Entertainment's Jim Ryan saying "I'm pretty sure we will continue to see CoD on PlayStation for many years to come. I'm not complacent and I'd rather this hasn't happened but we'll be OK, more than OK" - Call of Duty being the game Sony complained about losing the most to the FTC and being devastating to their business.
The EU has voted to pass a large set of battery related laws, one of which states that batteries in portable devices should be replaceable "with no tool, a tool or set of tools that is supplied with the product or spare part, or basic tools" and that the "process for replacement shall be able to be carried out by a layman". As someone that wants to change an iPhone battery but put off by the complexity - about fucking time. The law also says that batteries "need to maintain 83% of their capacity after 500 cycles and 80% after 1000 cycles", as well as being "dust tight and protected against immersion in water up to one meter depth for a minimum of 30 minutes". We have to wait until 2027 for this law to take effect, but still, excellent progress. Next step, longer software support and/or open-source firmware???
A few of the large Mastodon instance operators were invited to a secret meeting by Meta last week, who made attendees sign an NDA to discuss their P92 project and "seek feedback and guidance" regarding the integration of Meta's big fat fingers in the "Fediverse" (aka Mastodon/ActivityPub). Lionel Dricot has an insightful blog post explaining Google's adoption of XMPP back in the ICQ/MSN/Google Talk days and how it snuffed out an open, federated protocol by virtue of hosting the vast majority of users. There's a very large chance Meta will follow the same "embrace, extend, and extinguish" playbook with P92.
This photo is part of a series in which the Canadian photographer, Todd McLellan explores the material world around us. McLellan disassembles an everyday object, such as a bicycle, chainsaw or computer. He then lays out each of the pieces in a second frame, releasing them from the confines of structure to visualize both the complexity and simplicity of modern and classic pieces. The series brings to mind the consumption of technology in our everyday lives. (Victoria and Albert Museum)
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