Issue 2251 - Thursday 16 January, 2025

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In Today’s Issue

• Australia to join countries in beefing up age restrictions on online porn

• Drone maker now lets you fly your device over the White House

• AI hype bubble keeps going

• How did a teen get Doom to run in a PDF?

• Cheap TVs and soundbars at JB Hi-Fi, ASUS wi-fi router, Huawei Watch Fit, Nothing Phone (2A), robot vacuums and LG OLED EVO 4K smart TV.

The News

Australia will soon beef up age restrictions on online porn

There’s pushback against the recent and unprecedented trend of governments around the world requiring users to prove their age online as to try limit access to pornography and social media. In the US, PornHub has now blocked access to people from most of the South (404 Media, $) in response to laws that it says require “ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous” age assurance methods. Now, Texas’ law is being challenged in the Supreme Court (NPR) over claims that the “overly vague” law is infringing on adults’ rights for free expression, which really does include porn.

It’s gotten little attention but Australia is almost certainly going to introduce something similar. Right now, there’s draft internet regulations produced as part of a process overseen by our eSafety Commissioner that would require search engines to delist adult content providers unless they verify their users ages (The Guardian). Meanwhile, a government-backed trial of age assurance technologies that has been closely linked to the forthcoming teen social media ban is also testing the technologies for their use regarding limiting access to adult content, too. If you’re interested in following that, the group running the trial just put out details of its plan so you can see exactly what they’re testing and how (ageassurance.com.au). Essentially, get ready to have to show some plastic (ID) or some skin (facial scan) if you wanna check out OnlyFans.

Drone maker now lets you fly your device over the White House

“Finally, no more drone censorship,” I cheer as I pummel my DJI Mini 2 into the cockpit of a landing American Airlines jet. That’s made possible by DJI’s decision to remove its software blocks on flying its drones over the White House, airports and wildfires in the US this week (The Verge). There’s been speculation that it’s politically motivated, given the timing and the fact that it looks like the company’s drones will be banned in the US (The Verge), but I can’t for the life of me figure out how DJI’s position will be helped by rolling back features that stop every dumbass with $500 from being able to remotely kamakaze into the White House. I don’t think this applies to Australia, where we also have restricted zones, but I will check and report back to you.

AI hype bubble keeps going

All aboard the AI hype train! Over the past few days, both Macquarie (The Nightly) and the Telstra (SMH, $) have announced big AI deals. Macquarie is spending close to $9 billion on investing into AI data centres, and Telstra is putting in $700 million to level up their AI across the company. What does it mean? The Macquarie move is about making money — after all, it’s the people selling the shovels in a gold rush who make out like bandits — whereas the Telstra splash just feels like corporate blah to me. Australia’s tech industry lobby group, the Tech Council of Australia, just put out its “tech leaders survey” who bravely predicted that AI would be the biggest trend of 2025 (Tech Council). Huge! My prediction is that it’s going to be a mixed year for AI. I think we’re going to see some AI companies and businesses realise their AI investment isn’t paying off which will deflate the bubble somewhat, but others will find some value in some of the less flashy uses.

Oh, Also

How did a teen get Doom to run in a PDF?

Just when you thought we’d exhausted all the places that you could run Doom — a treadmill, a vape, a Myki card reader — an enterprising high school student has taken the noble pursuit to new heights: PDF.

Apparently, the teen was able to run the classic first-person shooter via PDF’s Javascript support which allowed him to use “a separate text field for each row in the screen, then set their contents to various ASCII characters (Polygon)”. Turns out, the kids are alright.

Bargains

• 15% off TVs & soundbars with coupon code at JB Hi-Fi

• UGREEN Airplane Bluetooth 5.2 Transmitter Adapter - $27.99 at Amazon

• ASUS RT-AC59U V2 AC1500 Dual Band Gigabit Wi-Fi Router - $59 at Computer Alliance

• Huawei Watch Fit - $69 at Phonebot

• Zyron Powerpod 140W Gan Travel Charger with Figure-8 and Travel Adapters - $108.75 at Zyron Tech

• KLEVV CRAS C910 4TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 2280 SSD $269 at Mwave

• Nothing Phone (2a) - 8GB RAM/128GB Storage for $399, 12GB/256GB for $469 at JB Hi-Fi

• EUREKA E10s Robot Vacuum and Mop Combo 2 in 1 - $498.89 at Amazon

• Dreame L10s Pro Ultra Heat Robot Vacuum - $1199 at The Good Guys

• LG 83" OLED EVO C4 4K UHD Smart TV OLED83C4PSA $6995 at JB Hi-Fi

The End

😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday afternoon. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius.

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The Sizzle is created on Gadigal 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.