Ravi Nayyar

Google's Tabua cable to be covered by extended Sydney protection zone As ACMA approves extension.

’ACMA formally extended the protection zone boundary on Tuesday, such that when completed, the Tabua cable will be the southernmost cable in the zone’.
www.itnews.com.au/news/googles...

‘While there was some opposition to the plan, notably from other coastal water users such as commercial fishing operators, the only telco to respond - Telstra - was in favour of the extension [of the protection zone].

Chief prosecutor says top official would not call China an enemy Stephen Parkinson sets out why the case against two alleged spies was dropped in a letter to MPs.

’The CPS could not go to the DNSA and then, on discovering he could not provide the facts prosecutors needed, choose an alternative witness’.
www.bbc.com/news/article...

’… given the defence teams knew what Mr Collins had said in his statements, prosecutors were under a duty to call him to give evidence at a trial - and he would be cross-examined.

‘Successive governments had declined to categorise it as such.

’He would accept, if asked [at trial], that China was not an enemy in the ordinary meaning of the word, and would not answer the question, if asked, whether China is an enemy within the meaning of the Official Secrets Act …

‘[The Deputy NSA] would also not accept that China was opposed or hostile to the interests of the United Kingdom at the material time …

‘… need to provide a jury with a factual account of why a state could be considered an enemy under the Official Secrets Act - and while the government had provided a clear conclusion about Russia, it had not done so for China.

AWS outage exposes fragility of our ‘smart tech’ A few years ago, while renovating a bathroom, we foolishly let ourselves be talked into installing a remote-controlled shower. Aesthetically, it was lovely; but the catch, as we soon discovered, was t...

’At the larger scale, the AWS outage suggests we should consider how far “smart” systems in fact allow everyday capacity to decay’.
unherd.com/newsroom/aws...

‘Most mattresses come with no internet connectivity or subscription payments, as standard, and can be relied on not to go haywire when Amazon Web Services encounters a database problem.

‘… all it takes is bad connectivity and your “smart” device is suddenly even dumber than if it had never been connected to Wi-Fi at all.

’Which seems sensible to me, but invites the question: has this user considered buying, you know, a normal mattress?

‘Though a “smart” meter that can turn your electricity off remotely is indeed creepy, the difficulties with “smart” devices often arise less from excess cleverness than from the same issue as faced by my shower: …

’Its challenge in 2026 will be to make sure it represents the interests of its emerging Australian company membership, and avoids becoming a megaphone for its high-paying US backers’.
archive.li/idqGk

’Its board reflects that it has become the industry association of choice for the big name local start-up stars. Also among the directors are software unicorn Culture Amp’s Didier Elzinga and … Silicon Quantum Computing chief executive Michelle Simmons.

‘Other groups such as the Australian Information Industry Association, the Australian Computer Society and DIGI were already active, but the TCA thrived by positioning itself as a voice for the fast-growing local tech company crowd.

Home Affairs streamlines risk vetting for gov tech suppliers But demands vendors give security top priority.

I dig.
www.itnews.com.au/news/home-af...

‘What we say to industries is that we will make this process more efficient and easier to access for you, but we do expect you to prioritise security in your products and not at a premium … but as a core design feature of your products …’

‘Home Affairs will also set a “baseline” to standardise risk assessments to make them more consistent across government departments and agencies.

‘This essentially means that one department could complete a vendor risk assessment and make it available to others through Home Affairs.

‘It’s understood that participation in the new centralised risk assessment sharing scheme will be decided by each department.

YouTube video by PlayStation Son of Thanjai - Announcement Teaser Trailer | PS5 Games

This game about the great Indian emperor, Rajendra Chola, looks fabulous.

How wonderful that someone’s making a game about Indian empires!
youtu.be/WkieoHmxJX0

Last year's Halloween costume was a CrowdStrike tee.

What's this year's? AWS/Azure top?

A cutie grabbing her breakfast.

This Halloween, I will go dressed as the Shai-Hulud worm.

Because I am so delightful that I'll be kicked out of the party in less than a few hours.

Suez Canal blocked after sanctioned tanker carrying Russian oil grounded in key waterway Twenty ships still held back after incident

Oh.
www.tradewindsnews.com/tankers/suez...

I agree, Renukaji.

I agree.

How good's the Internet?

'The White House cannot simply be a museum to the past ... In that way, Trump’s undertaking is a shot across the bow at NIMBYs everywhere'.
archive.md/XExy9

'... as members took pains to ensure the fencing complied with environmental rules. Construction didn’t begin until July 2019.

'Harry S. Truman gutted the White House interior and added the balcony that bears his name. Purists decried it. Now it’s a hallmark.

'After a fence jumper got inside the White House in 2014, it was obvious that better perimeter fencing needed to be installed. But doing so involved five public meetings of the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) over two years, ...

From the WaPo _Editorial Board_:

'It is absurd that tents need to be erected on the South Lawn for state dinners, and VIPs are forced to use porta-potties. [Huh?]