TikTok is one step closing to getting banned in the USA, with Congress easily passing a bill that mandates ByteDance flog TikTok to a US company or cease operations in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. Now it enters the Senate where things are a bit more divided, with many Senators worried it'll impose limits on free speech that could be constitutionally illegal and weighing up how hard their constituents will complain if TikTok is taken away as it could negatively impact businesses that rely on it for marketing and just upset a disturbingly large cohort of society that absolutely loves this God forsaken app. Still feels pretty wild to me that the USA is probably gonna ban a social media platform.
It's a slow news day, so worth checking out Aquent's 2024 Salary Guide for "100+ job roles across marketing, design, and technology" that just got released. With the ol' cozzie livs getting up there and employers refusing to give wage increases above inflation, there's never been a better time to see if what you're getting paid stacks up to current market levels. Some common ones for Sizzle readers: UX Designer - $100,000. Email Marketing Specialist - $90,620. Social Media Manager - $75,000. Community Manager - $82,450. Full-Stack Developer - $90,000. Scrum Master - $150,000. Thanks Artywah over in The Sizzle's Slack group for bringing it to my attention! It's open for all Sizzle subscribers not just paying ones, so jump on in.
Of all the benchmarks that are performed when a new CPU or SSD or whatever comes out, the most important one to be is how fast web browsing is. Yes I know it's not exactly a computationally taxing activity, but considering how damn much of the stuff I do on my computer and smartphone is in a web browser, it's a much more useful metric to me when gauging a computer's performance than video editing or gaming. That's why I'm excited about Speedometer 3.0 - a massive update on previous Speedometer benchmarks that make it easy to compare browser performance across platforms and devices. On my M1 Pro MBP, Chrome (25) beat Safari (22.4) and flogged my beloved Firefox (17.8). But on my Ryzen 9 7900 box running Windows 11, Firefox (26) just beat Edge (25.7) and was barely beaten by Chrome (26.4). Could be all the extensions I have in Firefox on the Mac that makes it so comparatively slow.
There has been talk of hackers everywhere in the media for some time now. And when people say "hackers" in this country, they usually mean members of the Chaos Computer Club Hamburg and its offshoots. Be it the DM 130,000 coup at the Hamburger Sparkasse or the various appearances on Tagesschau, Frank Elstner and elsewhere: they have been widely reported on. Here, for the first time, is a book about them. Not only about the how of hacking, but also about the why. (retroGfx / Internet Archive)
📻 Stick - Ovlov
😎 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.
🎁 Make someone's day and buy them a 12 month gift subscription to The Sizzle.
📚 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.