Optus has provided a milquetoast explanation about happened last week: "At around 4.05am Wednesday morning, the Optus network received changes to routing information from an international peering network following a software upgrade. These routing information changes propagated through multiple layers in our network and exceeded preset safety levels on key routers. This resulted in those routers disconnecting from the Optus IP Core network to protect themselves. The restoration required a large-scale effort of the team and in some cases required Optus to reconnect or reboot routers physically, requiring the dispatch of people across a number of sites in Australia. This is why restoration was progressive over the afternoon". I'm no network engineering expert, but this sounds totally amateur? The Optus CEO will front up to a Senate inquiry on Friday to answer more questions.
A witness in the Google vs. US government trial that's still going on let loose that Apple receives a whopping 36% of all search ad revenue that comes via Apple's Safari web browser. According to Bloomberg, Google's lawyer "visibly cringed" when that was said in the courtroom. We all knew it was huge, but damn, that just goes to show how desperate Google is to make sure they remain the default search engine on iOS. How is anyone supposed to compete when Google can hand over 36% of their revenue to a competitor? Also in Big Tech collusion, Apple asked Amazon to remove ads on pages featuring Apple products and Amazon did it. Apple says its to stop ads for counterfeit products appearing alongside its legitimate ones, but the fact Amazon even did it shows how much power Apple wields as they sure as shit don't do that for any other brand.
Only a few months ago Qualcomm announced their own version of Apple's Emergency SOS via Satellite feature, dubbed Snapdragon Satellite, with Iridium as a partner. Today they've killed off this feature as "Qualcomm couldn't get a single Android manufacturer to add satellite messaging to a phone", with Qualcomm telling CNBC that smartphone makers "indicated a preference towards standards-based solutions" for satellite-to-phone connectivity. That's a real shame, I think this satellite emergency/last resort capability is a real game changer and it sucks that right now only iOS users have it - at least until Optus and Telstra get their deals with SpaceX and OneWeb's low earth orbit networks up and running.
Australia's getting yet another streaming media platform - but this one could be a keeper. It's called Brollie by Umbrella Entertainment, a familiar name to local movie buffs. They've distributed Australian and foreign niche/cult films for decades so it makes sense they'd want to get the titles they own the Australian rights to in a format people want in 2023 as disc sales drop. It launches November 23rd at brollie.com.au with with 350 films and TV shows. Titles rotate monthly and are hand picked by the "Brollie Film Club" to provide a "concentrated" and "curated" experience. Best of all, it's free. I am absolutely pumped for this.
Platinum spark plug, 4x objective lens magnification. Image of distinction, 2023 Nikon Photomicrography Competition. (Nikon)
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