The Helpdesk

Right to disconnect 

• Victoria Police have won the right to disconnect as part of the union's most recent negotiations. 
• Apart from emergencies, they're not to be contacted outside of work hours unless it’s for a welfare check. 
• Other unions are likely to follow - with work increasingly encroaching on our home lives, clocking off is getting harder. 

Porter appointment to tech portfolio 

• A follow up on the PM’s cabinet reshuffle last month, that saw Christian Porter, the former attorney general moved to the Industry, Science and Technology portfolio 
• Tech industry leaders have told the AFR they won’t meet with the minister, invite him to things and will think twice about accepting any government grants. 
• The principle complaint is the appointment is damaging to a sector that’s working to improve its gender diversity 
• Other criticism includes: he lacks experience in technology and would be too focused on saving his political career and a defamation fight over the ABC’s coverage of the allegations, to properly lead the sector. 
• It’s always tricky for business to comment on government, and they usually have a diplomatic line about just sticking to their business… and in this case many industry leaders declined to comment, because of their ties to the government.

Facebook 

• Information belonging to more than 7.3 million Australians was leaked online as part of a massive data dump of 533 million facebook records. 
• Facebook says the data was scraped due to a vulnerability that the company discovered and patched in 2019. 
• The leaked data contains phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birth dates, bios and email addresses. It does not contain password information.
• But that information can be used by cybercriminals to impersonate someone online or get them to hand over passwords or credit card information. 
• No company should be able to have that much information that can be accessed through a single exploit. 

Andrew Laming 

• The Guardian reports Liberal National MP Andrew Laming operates more than 30 Facebook pages and profiles under the guise of community groups to promote the LNP and attack opponents. 
• For example, there’s the Redland Bay Bulletin – which uses a similar name to the local news site the Redland City Bulletin – was set up by Laming in October 2015 claiming to be a “community group”.
• None of the pages include political authorisation disclosures.
• According to the Australian Electoral Commission, political authorisation is required for information intended to influence the way electors vote in a federal election. Those rules were extended to include social media in 2016.  
• The MP is is on leave from parliament to undertake empathy counselling following complaints about his behaviour towards women,

Canva valuation 

• Australian start-up Canva is now valued at almost $20 billion australian dollars after raising $US71 million.
• This makes it one of the fastest growing 
• The milestone comes with Canva on track to turn over $US500 million this financial year, a 130 per cent...
  

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Lots of Uber news

Opal card to extend to Uber, taxis and share bikes

NSW is letting commuters pay for Ubers, Lime bikes, taxis and ferries with their digital Opal card in a new trial 

FYI - uber pool is back in Sydney & Perth 

How to cut costs on your ride: Uber pools riders back together 

For anyone hoping 2021 would see a return to travel… 

WWDC 2021 officially announced, iOS 15 expected

• WWDC was one of the better virtual confs i attended last year 
• WWDC is Apple’s developer conference, where they announce the developer beta of the latest operating systems for the Mac, iPhone, Watch and iPad 
• The focus is on software usually, but Apple often announces hardware too, while the world’s media is paying attention 
• Do you have any changes you’d like to see in software? 

LinkedIn Making a Clubhouse Rival 

LinkedIn confirms it's working on a Clubhouse rival, too

NFTs go missing

People's Expensive NFTs Keep Vanishing. This Is Why

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SBS reporter Calliste Weitenberg has been leading a double life online. She spent six months creating a fake wellness influencer Mia Wilde aka @ThatCoastalGirl all in the name of uncovering exactly how the influencer economy operates. 

On today’s show, Calliste talks us through the highs and lows on being an influencer, how much fake followers cost and what happens when you dupe a marketing agency. 

You can catch her full series of Like, Subscribe, Follow 10pm Tuesdays on The Feed, or anytime on SBS on-demand. Read about the experiment here.

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Nine Entertainment is still reeling from a cyber attack that hit the company’s headquarters over the weekend, crippling some operations and stopping shows from going to air. So far the source of the suspected ransomware attack has not been identified. 

Scott Morrison’s didn’t win any fans from the tech sector with his cabinet reshuffle yesterday. As James Riley, editor of InnovationAus puts it: the PM has buried the two most controversial Cabinet members by giving them tech-heavy portfolios. Christian Porter has been moved to the Industry, Science and Technology portfolio. While Linda Reynolds becomes the Minister for Government Services and the NDIS. 

Remember COVIDsafe? Well, turns out it’s still around and costing about $100,000 per month to run. 

Energy companies are working out how to deal with the strain electric vehicles will put on the grid. Origin energy is rolling out 150 “smart chargers” to electric vehicle owners that will coordinate times that their cars are recharged with periods of surplus solar supply.

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Lots of Slack news 

Slack now lets you DM anyone 

• Slack is starting to roll out a new feature that lets anyone using the service DM each other.
• Announced back in October, Slack Connect DMs will let Slack users privately message employees outside of their company.
• This new DM feature builds on Slack's work with Connect, which started appearing last year.

Slack quickly removes message invites in its new DM feature over harassment concerns

• The company says in response to concerns the feature could be used to send abusive messages or harassment with relative ease, it's now disabling the option to send a message alongside an invite.

Slack is getting new audio features 

Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield says the company will soon introduce new audio features; 

• Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield said his company would soon add a range of audio features for all users of its work chat app.
• Terfield said that a feature for leaving audio messages, similar to a function available in messaging apps like Telegram, was available in a beta test.
• He also said that Slack would soon offer a feature akin to the audio-chat app Clubhouse, which allows users to drop into rooms for conversations without requiring scheduling a meeting or initiating a call.
• Terfield also said Slack would soon get an ephemeral video message feature commonly known as "Stories," similar to a message format originated by Snapchat and imitated by many, from Instagram to LinkedIn.

Amazon has a poop problem 

• The pandemic-induced boom in online shopping has come with an unhygienic side effect. 
• The Intercept reports, Amazon’s delivery drivers in the US often don’t have anywhere to go to the bathroom during their shifts. Leaving them to pee in bottles or defecate in bags.
• Amazon, in a fight with Bernie Sanders on Twitter, said this an urban legend
• But documents from The Intercept show management is aware of the problem. 
• This story has some amazing passive aggressive emails from management to their drivers… 

Intel to Spend $20 Billion on 2 New Chip Factories in Arizona.

• Intel announced massive changes in its "Intel Unleashed: Engineering the Future" webcast last week
• New Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger announced plans for Intel to produce processors for other companies.
• There are three components of this vision; Intel's in-house manufacturing, Intel using third-party foundries for manufacturing, and the company's new Intel Foundry Services that will produce chips for other companies.
• Intel expects to build on its existing relationships with third-party foundries, which today manufacture a range of Intel technology - from communications and connectivity to graphics and chipsets.
• To deliver this vision, Intel is establishing a new standalone business unit, Intel Foundry Services, led by semiconductor industry veteran Dr. Randhir Thakur, who will report directly to Gelsinger.
• That's a major shift for Intel that could see the company making chips for some of its biggest...
  

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FRIDAY LINKS:

WeWork tells investors it lost $3.2bn last year as it woos them for Spac deal 

WeWork is back and plans to go public via a SPAC merger. The paperwork shows the company lost $3.2B last year, which compares with a $3.5B loss in 2019. occupancy rates fell to 47 percent at the close of 2020, a drop of 72 percent from the start of the year. Will there be a co-working comeback?  

Richard Stallman returns to the Free Software Foundation after resigning in 2019

“Stallman also had a long history of iffy behaviour that often crossed the line between aloof nerd and straight up fuckwit.” The Sizzle… 

And a number of FSF members have asked he be removed again 

Free software advocates seek removal of Richard Stallman and entire FSF board

Facebook is cool with you threatening to kill a public person 

Facebook guidelines allow users to call for death of public figures

Apple Wants Epic Games' Australian Lawsuit Thrown Out of Federal Court

Among many arguments made, Apple argued that the cases between Epic and Apple are so similar in both California and Australia that it should be settled in the jurisdiction originally agreed upon by the two companies.

Super Nintendo World review: sensory overload

This is the first place i want to go to overseas 

OnePlus Watch has 14-day battery, $159 price tag

Not running Android Wear, but a proprietary system 

Nintendo’s fancy new switch still using off the shelf products - upscaling 

OLED Nintendo Switch reportedly uses new Nvidia chip with DLSS support

Why does the homepod have temperature and humidity sensors? 

HomePod mini reportedly includes room temperature and humidity sensor, could be enabled through software update

Butterfly keyboard class action 

Judge certifies class action lawsuit against Apple over infamous MacBook butterfly keyboard

Ted Lasso wins writers guild 

Ted Lasso wins big at Writers Guild...

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Thursday 25th 

Microsoft in talks to buy Discord for more than $US10 billion 

Discord and Microsoft Said to Discuss Deal That Could Top $10 Billion

• Popular chat client Discord is potentially up for sale, with Microsoft a potential buyer, according to those in the know 
• The Slack-like service is incredibly popular with gamers, and could easily slot into Microsoft’s Xbox gaming environment, on consoles and PCs
• Microsoft has another Slack-like chat product in Teams, but that has never really taken off outside of the enterprise - so there wouldn't be much overlap between the two clients
• The only other tech giant that seems like a suitable purchaser would be Amazon, who could roll Discord into its Twitch game streaming service. 
• Or, this could all just be rumours to get Discord re-valued for an upcoming IPO 

Airtasker goes public 

• The platform you turn to when none of your friends will help you move is worth more than $400 million dollars.
• Airtasker listed on the ASX on Tuesday with a market valuation of $255.4 million. By the end of the day, it was valued at $412.5 million. 
• CEO Tim Fung, who co-founded the company in 2012, held onto his 12.7 per cent stake in the business through the IPO. His share is now worth more than $52 million. 
• One of the biggest things the company has going for it? Name recognition. In 2020, 99% of Airtasker’s new customers came from non-paid marketing channels. 
• That means they don’t need to pay the Google & Facebook tax. 

YouTube to auto-detect products in videos, serve related links

• Youtube has a new experimental feature to detect products within a video, and generate links to the websites 
• The system is a bit of a twofer - training Google’s algorithms on image analysis, and also providing more ways to monetize youtube content. 
• This seems to be the holy grail of tv marketing, I’ve read similar experiments over the years from network television, smart tvs, Instagram and even youtube in the past 
• Youtube is already messy enough, do we really want more links and overlays in the service? 

Prince Harry appointed chief impact officer at Silicon Valley start-up 

• Fresh from his separation from the Royal family, Prince Harry is sprucing up his resume. 
• The royal has been appointed the chief impact officer of BetterUp, a Silicon Valley start-up that provides coaching and mental health assistance for corporate employees.
• Harry, who has been vocal about his struggles with mental health, used the company’s app prior to joining it.
• In his new role he will “focus on driving advocacy and awareness for mental fitness” and “diversify Betterup’s community of coaches and customers through strategic planning”
• Which famous person would you hire for your start-up and what role would you give them?

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Welcome to The Helpdesk for Wednesday March 24.

We all consult Dr Google from time to time. But what’s the best way to manage your mental health online?

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Welcome to The Helpdesk for Tuesday March 23.

The evidence is mounting that Twitter will be adding an “undo tweet” feature. The ability to take back tweets has also shown up on a survey asking Twitter users about features they’d be willing to pay for, as well as in the code for the app, and CNET received confirmation today from Twitter that it is, in fact, being tested.

More Twitter news: the company sent out a survey to random users asking if leaders should face more, less, or the same amount of scrutiny as other accounts and if it’s okay for the platform to ban a sitting president or prime minister. 

Apple has announced the executives who it wants to take the stand in the case against Epic, and the lineup is, well, Epic. Plus take a trip into Apple’s history… 

Venture capital company Spark Capital decided to sever ties with Dispo, the app it just gave a truckload of cash to. 

Got a tech question you want answered? Get in touch at Thehelpdesk.com.au

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Welcome to The Helpdesk for Monday, March, 22. 

Will Apple stand up to China on privacy? 

• Apple warns Chinese apps not to dodge its new privacy rules

Zuck changes his tune of Apple’s anti-tracking features - kinda. 

• Zuckerberg: Facebook could be in “stronger position” after Apple tracking change 

Instagram wants your kids to share pics of their babycinos.  

• 'A bad idea all round': Facebook to launch Instagram for kids 

Streaming services spend big on US sports. 

• NFL media rights deal 2023-2033: Amazon gets exclusive Thursday Night

Got a tech question? Get in touch at thehelpdesk.com.au

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