Australians give billions to charity each year. But how do charities treat their donors? An ex-charity data scientist reveals how 31 of Australia’s biggest & most trusted NFP profile, rank and predict how much you’ll give and what messages will push your buttons. www.crikey.com.au/20...

Thinking about fucking up my life (replacing my constellation of a million different smart home apps with Home Assistant)

the crazy weird mental gymnastics you have to go through to make this a gotcha is so bizarre lol. oh you wanna have a little laugh do ya bud? well actually it's not funny to run a DISINFORMATION magazine

it's christmas :)

for all the criticism of a "bubble" and "questions about fraud" about the AI circular deals, you gotta hand it to the fellas, i bet it whips to sign off on a $13 trillion deal: you send out a media release, no actual pressure of making sure it works works, maybe even take a lil taste for yourself.

We should be able to bet on this. Maybe we can already idk

REJECT MODERNITY WE MUST RETVRN

Optus triple-zero review, GitHub charging backflip and what a year for Aussie games Plus: Contrary to popular belief, the Pluribus smart fridge didn’t send Carol mad READ: https://thesizzle.com.au/p/optus-triple-zero-review-github-charging-backflip-and-what-a-year-for-aussie-games

i'm obsessed with Medianet's weekly Media visibility list format. It's like wow!! the ashes are DOWN as a new familiar name, Jeffrey Epstein, RECLAIMS a place on the charts. And don't sleep on Maria Corina Macahado!!!!

this would be the logical conclusion of Meta's (and other platforms') increasingly extortion-y approach to users and their audiences. Already pages barely have any reach. Now, after 20yrs of inserting themselves into all commerce and community, they want to literally charge to send anyone off-site.

i love reading news outlets' year in review pieces. the more honest and granular the better. if you've seen any particularly good ones, send em my way!

normal country www.bloomberg.com/ne...

Reddit's teen social media ban's challenge will continue to the existing Digital Freedom Project filing, a judge ruled. Reddit's request to forgo a statement of claim prior to a hearing was denied, with the government arguing that it's needed to set the terms of engagement.

no more lying to myself - the font size on my desktop computer has gone from "normal" to "large"

my 2026 resolution is to spend more time personally lobbying the proprietors of websites that I like to create rss feeds

if you're looking for some last-minute gift ideas, I collated Sizzle subscribers' product ideas in various price tiers (from "work kris kringle" to "cheeky 'it's Christmas for me, too' self-gifts). It's all free, there's no affiliate links, just want to share some good recos

to openai's lab general manager: if you think that's bad, just wait until you hear what's going to happen to your job in the AI industry (and maybe the entire global economy) if you guys don't hit a few revenue quotas

Grifters and scammers are cashing in on the Bondi attack tragedy using cryptocurrency and fake fundraisers. One disturbing example is the creation of a crypto coin named after a 10-year-old shooting victim so 'her legacy can live on-chain forever.' www.crikey.com.au/20...

Wow! A third High Court challenge teen social media ban has filed... which was immediately booted as the judge said the litigant (who elsewhere describes herself as a "holistic practitioner, intuitive healer, and creator of the Inner Compass System") did not establish standing.

This is the way #Meanjin ends — not with a bang but a whimper. New FOI story from me for @crikey.com.au: www.crikey.com.au/2025/12/17/m...

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Sizzle's Xmas gift guide, Mozilla's 'AI' Firefox future and MAGA app cracked Plus: A nice story about the kindness of internet strangers READ: https://thesizzle.com.au/p/sizzle-s-xmas-gift-guide-mozilla-s-ai-firefox-future-and-maga-app-cracked

The 2025 Sizzle last-minute Christmas Gift Guide Here's the best presents to buy if you're still buying, according to the Sizzle community's collective wisdom READ: https://thesizzle.com.au/p/the-2025-sizzle-last-minute-christmas-gift-guide

example number #1923871293 of AI dudes defaulting to generating content of young women over any other demographic

Scammers and grifters are already cashing in on the Bondi tragedy, minting coins using the likeness of victims and setting up fake fundraisers for non-existent heroes. @cameronwilson.bsky.social reports.

Grifters and scammers are cashing in on the Bondi attack tragedy using cryptocurrency and fake fundraisers. One disturbing example is the creation of a crypto coin named after a 10-year-old shooting victim so 'her legacy can live on-chain forever.' www.crikey.com.au/20...

something quite relevant to this that I completely forgot I wrote a few months ago" "Australia’s lead advisor on fighting antisemitism has singled out X for successfully using artificial intelligence to “root out hate” More: www.crikey.com.au/2025/07/11/a...

Just hours after the Bondi shooting, we saw a near-instant generation of closed loop of AI misinformation: It appears that AI was used to generate a lie, which was then absorbed by AI, then regurgitated to others in a breaking news situation. www.crikey.com.au/20...

This is so sad www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12...

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Roomba goes broke, UK wants devices to detect and block nudes, Bondi follow-ups Plus: some, ehem, hard numbers from P*rnhub about Linux on the desktop READ: https://thesizzle.com.au/p/roomba-goes-broke-uk-wants-devices-to-detect-and-block-nudes-bondi-follow-ups

Just hours after the Bondi shooting, we saw a near-instant generation of closed loop of AI misinformation: It appears that AI was used to generate a lie, which was then absorbed by AI, then regurgitated to others in a breaking news situation. www.crikey.com.au/20...

An AI generated the “Edward Crabtree” lie. An AI absorbed it. An AI spread it. The Bondi attack reveals the risk of AI chatbots eating their own tails, @cameronwilson.bsky.social reports.

linux desktop popularity has SURGED in 2025 according to the only source i pay attention to: pornhub insights

It is inconceivable that you could go online after something like the Bondi terrorist attack and avoid seeing graphic, horrific content. I wrote about how we've all settled into a deal with tech platforms that being traumatised is the price of entry: thesizzle.com.au/p/b...

oh great, thanks, good to know

one interesting absence in the online reaction to the Bondi beach terrorist attack: I don't think I saw any AI-generated images/videos purporting to be from the incident.

eSafety has received "multiple complaints" about Bondi terrorist attack footage. In response, the office has reminded platforms that their own rules require interstitial/sensitive content labels, but no content has reached "Class 1" classification (which means no removal notices)

14 victims dead including two rabbis and a 10-year-old child. 42 injured. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12... And it could have been worse but for Ahmed's heroism and our gun control laws that meant the deceased shooter only had the 6 non-automatic firearms he had been able to acquire legally.

it's really sad that going on any of the major platforms in 2025 after an abhorrent event like last night's shooting means accepting that you be exposed to some graphic content. some platforms are worse than others, but it's remarkable that it's unremarkable.

A fascinating American perspective on Australia's #SocialMediaBan, and how it is ultimately in the interests of big tech, not children. Also quotes @cameronwilson.bsky.social on his @crikey.com.au scoop about the advocacy group's involvement with making gambling ads. #auspol

'There is no information at this stage about the target or nature of the shooting, but a Chanukah by the Sea event was scheduled to take place near the children's playground from 5pm, and had begun.' www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12...

I'm not very good at self-promoting (and I don't take gambling money!) but FYI one way to support my work is to subscribe to my tech newsletter the Sizzle. It's like $6/mo or $60/yr for a daily round up of news/deals & fun web stuff: http://www.thesizzle...

feels like a lifetime ago but — when AFR first reported that Reddit was preparing to challenge the law on Tuesday — I wrote that it wasn't the tech company that the government and industry was expecting to take this to court. www.crikey.com.au/20...

the analogy to cigarette bans is actually kind of apt because of the explosion of teen nicotine use via the black market of vapes which have become an effectively unregulated substitute for cigarette smoking

does it matter that some kids are getting around the ban? a report commissioned by the government (but never fully released) warned non-compliance "snowballing and becoming normalised" would "potentially undermine" its effectiveness. wrote about it earlier this year here: www.crikey.com.au/20...

Scoop: the pro-teen social media ban lobby group 36 Months was funded & co-staffed by its co-founder's ad production firm that was simultaneously making gambling ads The federal government has ignored calls for a gambling ad ban while pursuing the social media ban. www.crikey.com.au/20...

Let me explain why my reporting isn’t making a consistent case for or against the ban: Because I’m not on anyone’s team. I’m a journalist just trying to report what’s happening and why.

tell the streets we back up in this mango game