[ 010 ]
KAPOW!
ITUNES TERMS & CONDITIONS NOW
WORTH READING (IN COMIC FORM)
Nobody reads the terms and conditions for
iTunes (or anything else), due to the fact that
it’s boring and hard to read. So R Sikorayak
decided to use his talent for drawing cartoons
to create iTunes Terms & Conditions: The
Graphic Novel mimicking the art styles of well
known comic strips, such as Garfield,
Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbes, Archie, Frank
Miller’s Batman, Dilbert, Tintin, Adventure
Time and Watchmen. True, it’s still hard to
understand but the different depictions of
Steve Jobs in his turtleneck are amusing.
Check out the unabridged work here:
itunestandc.tumblr.com/tagged/
comics/chrono [ CS ]STREAMING HIGH
QANTAS DEAL MAKES IN-FLIGHT
AUDIO- AND VIDEO-STREAMING
AVAILABLE VIA FREE WI-FI
Qantas has partnered with big-name
streaming services including Netflix, Foxtel
and Spotify to provide domestic customers
on the Flying Kangaroo a wider variety of
onboard entertainment, and from mid-April
Stan will join the bandwagon, too. To make
the streaming seamless, the national flyer
is equipping its first fleet of 80 aircrafts,
including Boeing 737s and Airbus A 330 s, with
NBN-supplied Wi-Fi that boasts of speeds of
up to 12Mbps and will be available free of
charge on domestic flights. [ SS ]WIKILEAKS’ DUMP EXPOSES
CIA HACKING PRACTISES
WHILE MANY OF THE SECURIT Y FLAWS
ARE ALREADY FIXED, A LARGE NUMBER
REMAIN OPEN
In the most recent WikiLeaks data dump titled
Vault 7 ‘Year Zero’, the whistle-blowing
organisation has leaked 8,761 US-government
documents that expose a plethora of CIA
hacking practises. In particular, the
documents expose the agency’s penchant
for exploiting Android and iOS devices via
‘zero-day’ exploits or undetected loopholes,
as well as turning ‘smart’ T Vs into audio-
visual recording devices, although we don’t
know if these practises are in use. [ HD ]TESLA CEO ELON Musk recently offered to fix South Australia’s apparent ‘energy crisis’,
proposing to get his battery farm “installed and working 100 days from contract signature
or it is free” in order to alleviate the recent statewide blackouts. Notably, he made this
proposal via Twitter and was met with a range of pleas from the public, urging the
government to consider. Since then Musk has spoken with South Australian Premier Jay
Weatherill, and following this, with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. The statement
from Turnbull’s office said “the pair had an in-depth discussion on the value of storage
and the future of the electricity system”, however Minister for Resources, Senator Canavan
told the ABC that nothing specific to South Australia was discussed. Although there isn’t a
specific price being discussed, based on similar solutions in California using Tesla’s
Powerpack 2 batteries, the cost is estimated to be in the tens or hundreds of millions.
Furthermore, South Australia’s electricity generation is privatised, meaning Tesla would
have to either sell to one of the companies or become a market entrant themselves, so it is
currently unclear how feasible Musk’s offer truly is. [ HARRY DOMANSKI ][] ] NEED TO KNOW[ NOT QUITE SMOOTH SEAS ]74 additional piracy websites
blacklisted in Australia
THE BATTLE RAGES ON.LATE LAST YEAR, entertainment rights-holders Village Roadshow and Foxtel
spearheaded an attack on piracy websites, resulting in the Federal Court ruling that all
Australian ISP’s were to “take reasonable steps to disable access” to five popular piracy
sites, including The Pirate Bay, IsoHunt, and more. Village Roadshow is at it again,
this time enlisting the help of six other film studios to file a mammoth injunction against
a further 74 sites linked with online piracy. As the previous case did not grant the
rights-holders a rolling injunction, each new addition to the block list has to be made
in a separate injunction such as this.
Among the newly targeted sites are Demonoid, Bitsnoop, Limetorrents, ExtraTorrent
and MegaShare, as well as piratebay.to, an alternative domain for The Pirate Bay, alongside
a number of Putlocker domains. The requests have been specifically aimed at Telstra,
Optus, TPG and Vocus, as well as these ISPs’ subsidiaries although, as the previous case
ruled that the onus is on the rights-holders to pay for the blocks themselves, Village
Roadshow proposes it pays $50 per domain blocked. [ HARRY DOMANSKI ][ LIGHT ‘EM UP ]Prime Minister Turnbull
talks power problems
with Elon Musk
HAVE WE REACHED A DECISION?