Google is still fighting the US government in court over anti-trust allegations regarding its search engine, and one of the core issues is how Google prevents competition by paying Apple vast sums of money to make sure nobody else gets the prize of being the default search engine on Apple devices. How much money Google was giving the world's richest company was unknown, but thanks to this trial we now know it's "around US$18b" as of 2021. According to an investigation by the New York Times, this figure is so high because Google is petrified of Apple deciding to make its own search engine, which they hinted at with Spotlight on iOS "showing users richer web results like those they could have found on Google".
I haven't been following the court case involved Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX very closely as it's relatively uninteresting finance nonsense, but it is coming to a close and SBF has taken the stand. The Verge's opening sentence of their summary of SBF's testimony sums it up nicely - "Sam Bankman-Fried is so fucked". His defense seems to center around blaming others, including his own lawyers, which lead the judge to clear out the jury to conduct "an odd evidentiary hearing to figure out exactly what Bankman-Fried wants to tell the jury — and how much of it going to be admissible". After reading the rest of the article, all I have to say is, yep, SBF got his arse handed to him by the government's lawyers and old mate is gonna rot in jail once the jury cop a load of this annoyingly aloof arsehat.
Foxtel is taking another shot at trying to remain relevant, announcing Hubbl - yet another set top box. The aim of Hubbl is to "amalgamate free-to-air, subscription services, and streaming under one umbrella" and "eliminate the hassles viewers face when toggling between various streaming apps. It is engineered to converge different subscriptions and services into a singular, cohesive user experience". Inspired by UK's Sky Glass, there will also be a Hubbl Glass TV with this software built-in. No price or date, but it will launch "in the coming months". Perfect for the confused boomer in your life that finds using an Apple TV or an Amazon Fire TV too difficult.
Server nerds have probably heard of Oxide Computer Company. They've been working for years to build cloud computing services akin to AWS/Google Cloud/Azure but as something you can buy and run locally. It kinda reminds me more of Digital Ocean or Vultr, but instead of paying per hour/month, you plonk down a big pile of cash and get a full server rack delivered to you full of hardware, along with software that's similar in functionality to the cloud services out there. I bring it up today as they've announced an extra US$44m of funding, along with general availability of the Oxide Cloud Computer (i.e: you can contact their sales team and they have something to sell you). I don't know if Oxide's Cloud Computer is something people want, but it's certainly interesting.
Here's five interesting discussions over on The Sizzle's paid subscriber forum for you to enjoy over the weekend. If you are not a paid subscriber but want to get involved, visit https://thesizzle.com.au/payme to get onboard.
The Y2K Emergency Pocketbook by ACP Computer Publications (Jongleur / Internet Archive)
📻 Gila Monster - King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
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