Issue 194 - Thursday 21st July, 2016 - Won't Somebody Sell Me Back To Me?

In this issue

News

Not News, But Still Cool

  • Elon Musk publishes part 2 of his plan for Tesla
  • Bloke allegedly responsible for Kick Ass Torrents has been arrested in Poland
  • Controversial man kicked off Twitter permanently, causes more drama
  • Virgin Australia announces in-flight Internet
  • Pokemon Go is still in the news
  • Get a refurbished Nintendo Wii for $28
  • An insight into why sys admins don't always do what you want them to
  • Who wants a computer in the shape of a yacht? (me, I do)

NEWS

Elon Musk publishes part 2 of his plan for Tesla Elon Musk has finally released part 2 of the manifesto he's been teasing us with on Twitter the past few days. It lays out his vision for what's next with Tesla. Summarised, Elon wants Tesla to expand their electric car range to include trucks and public transport, sell integrated solar panel and battery systems, make fully autonomous vehicles and let you share vehicles when you aren't using them. The entire thing is definitely worth a read to see what's on Elon's mind for the next decade. Discuss

Bloke allegedly responsible for Kick Ass Torrents has been arrested in Poland The USA's Department of Justice has used it's far reaching tentacles to get Polish authorities to arrest the dude apparently responsible for Kick Ass Torrents - a site I'm sure we've all used at least once to grab a few "Linux ISOs". Artem Vaulin, who is Ukrainian, but living in Poland, is alleged to have avoided the DMCA repeatedly and to have made more than $16m a year in ad revenue running Kick Ass Torrents. Artem will be extradited to the US shortly and KAT's domain names have been seized by the US. Discuss

Controversial man kicked off Twitter permanently, causes more drama If you use Twitter, you may have noticed a few tweets from people you might not know about a bloke called Milo Yiannopoulos. Twitter kicked him off, permanently, for getting a bunch of his followers to pile shit on Leslie Jones, an actress in the new Ghostbusters movie. Normally I'd avoid talking about this Twitter drama, but this time it's interesting because I think, it's the first time Twitter has booted someone with an as high profile as Milo and it brings up an interesting question: should social media protect "free speech"? Discuss

Virgin Australia announces in-flight Internet Virgin Australia is gonna implement in-flight wi-fi on most of its flights over the next few years. Starting mid-2017 its fleet of 737-800s, A330s and 777-300ERs will get satellite internet access. No details on cost or even the provider they'll be using, but it is coming, eventually. Earlier this year Qantas said they'll be giving free internet access on domestic flights with partner ViaSat. Discuss

Pokemon Go is still in the news Pokemon is still most certainly a thing, and there's not much else to talk about, so here's a roundup of all the Pokemon articles The Guardian has put up. They realllyyyyyy flooded the Pokemon article market, not even proper gaming sites like Polygon have written as many as The Guardian, they're pumping out like 3 per day. Bosnia has had to warn people not to enter minefields to look for Pokemon. The Japanese launch of Pokemon Go is delayed because details of the Maccas/Pokemon sponsorship deal leaked. Saudi Arabia has upheld its 15 year fatwa on Pokemon as it is un-Islamic and promotes Zionism. Apple will reap $3b in revenue from its cut of in-game purchases made in Pokemon Go. People are selling leveled up Pokemon Go accounts for thousands of pounds (are they still worth something?) online. Discuss

COOL SHIT

Get a refurbished Nintendo Wii for $28 EB is selling refurb Nintendo Wii's for $28. $28! Buy it, chuck it on the Internet, download some virtual console games and have some fun. There's at least a dozen really great Nintendo games (all the various Mario incarnations, a Zelda or two) that you can buy for like $10-$20 each off eBay now. Don't forget your component cable for "HD" resolutions, will look way nicer on your LCD TV. Discuss

An insight into why sys admins don't always do what you want them to Ever encountered a sys admin who's told you to pretty much go fuck yourself when you've asked for something to do with your work computer? There's sometimes a good reason for that denial (other times they're just being a prick) and this blog post tries to give a bit of an explanation as to why the person in charge of the computers asks you seemingly stupid questions or flat out refuses to co-operate. I imagine this post came about after some grumpy pleb went to their boss to complain about the author and got them in the shit with their boss, hah. Discuss

Who wants a computer in the shape of a yacht? (me, I do) Sizzle subscriber Derek, has shown me the latest case from the artisans at Lian-Li: the PC-Y6W Odyssey Yacht Themed Mini ITX Chassis. What a glorious PC case! It's a yacht, that you stick computer bits in! Comes in black, silver or white (the white is best imho) and has LEDs embedded in each deck of the ship. There will only be 500 made, so if you want one, order now - one of these pieces of of art will set you back a low $650. I want one so badly, it would look great on my desk. Discuss

Here endeth the sizzle (until tomorrow!) --Anthony

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