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TPG outage: power problem or settings screw-up? Elon's OpenAI bid and EV tough times

Plus: Why is there so much porn on Australian government domains?

Author

Cam Wilson
February 11, 2025

Issue 2268 - Tuesday 11 February, 2025

In Today’s Issue

  • TPG internet outage: power problems or settings screw-up?

  • Elon Musk wants to buy OpenAI, too

  • Tough times for EVs

  • Why is there so much porn on Australian government domains?

  • Deals on Kogan fans, Lebara and amaysim prepaid SIM packs, Logitech mice, Lenovo laptops, Apple 10.9’’ iPad, Motorola phones and LG 27’’ OLED 480Hz monitors.

The News

TPG internet outage: power problems or settings screw-up?

Some TPG staff had a very bad night as the network suffered a major outage for a couple of hours, cutting internet to for tens of thousands of customers and even bringing down the telco’s website (The Guardian). The company blamed a power outage at its Glebe datacentre as a consequence of Sydney’s recent torrential rains (9NEWS) but I’ll be honest, I don’t understand how a power problem explains the spike in BGP announcements noticed by @geoffreyhuntley on X (Reddit mirror) which seems to suggest some kind of fuck up. One piece of speculation from Redditor u/multidollar that sounds interesting: “they did lose power but the restoration was littered with misconfigurations or the routers came back in an undesirable state” (Reddit). Reading about BGP led me down a rabbit hole to Cloudflare’s campaign to move off BGP because it can cause “major Internet disruptions” (Cloudflare). Sounds familiar.

Anyway, you know things are rooted when you need to do your first post in six years.

Elon Musk wants to buy OpenAI, too

I feel like that GTA San Andreas meme “ah shit, here we go again” (Know Your Meme) but I can’t ignore the Elon Musk-led bid to buy OpenAI (WSJ, gift link). To recap previous episodes: Musk helped found OpenAI in 2015, but exited in 2018 after his attempt to take over the not-for-profit was rebuffed (Semafor). Since then, OpenAI became insanely valuable and is doing things like developing its own chips (Reuters) and running Super Bowl commercials (The Verge). In response, Musk launched a competitor, xAI and a lawsuit against OpenAI for not really being a not-for-profit (Reuters). Now, the totally-not-jealous-or-mad Musk and a coalition of investors have offered AU$155 billion to buy OpenAI.

Is this just a dick-swinging contest led by a petulant billionaire who simply can’t fathom not getting what he wants? That’s definitely a part of it, but there’s another part, too: the bid makes it harder for OpenAI to lowball its own value as part of its planned transition to a for-profit company (which would presumably have big tax implications). Credit where it’s due: I have no choice but to respect Musk finding time for petty revenge while also dismantling the US government (Bloomberg, $).

Tough times for EVs

Speaking of Elon, his political partner, US President Donald Trump, continues to strip away incentives for EVs, this time ending federal funding for a domestic charger roll-out (Bloomberg, $). This adds to the 10% tariffs on China which will hit BYD and other Chinese EV companies but also companies like GM and Ford that make some vehicles there (Bloomberg, $). BMW says it is continuing to invest in combustion engine vehicles because of the “rollercoaster ride” that is Trump’s America (Ars Technica). Amid all this turmoil, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has reportedly revived a previously-stalled plan for a road user charge (AFR, $) although I have my doubts if they’ll pass anything before the next election. This comes as domestic EV sales have fallen to a two-year low (Yahoo! Finance). I wanted to write a bit on self-driving cars and robotaxis because there’s a bit of news about, but I’ll hold off until later in the week.

Oh, Also

Why is there so much porn on Australian government domains?

Don’t ask me how I found it but there’s a whole bunch of explicit, hardcore pornography listed on Australian government websites. (Mildly NSFW, but nothing too crazy).

Ranging from the National Museum to Victoria’s Hume City Council, spammers have been able to commandeer government domains to direct users to explicit content, presumably to make money from ads served on the page. These are the result of people exploiting ‘dangling’ DNS entries from services that have been abandoned by government agencies and then taken over by enterprising individuals, a cybersecurity expert told me (Crikey, $).

I can’t blame my government IT staff friends too much because I have only recently experienced the trauma of dealing with DNS problems when messing around with the Sizzle.

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The End

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Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land

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.

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