Tony Nicholson
@tonynicholson.bsky.social
Australian. Computer Engineer. Into Networking, Security, macOS, Raspberry Pi, Windows & retro computing. Border collie owner & ball thrower. Drives an electric vehicle. Follicular lymphoma survivor. Living sustainably on Awabakal land (Lake Macquarie NSW)
Just updated the 💻 , iPad, 📱, TV, and ⌚️. Make sure your Apple iThingies get the latest updates.
Apple has released emergency updates to patch two zero-day vulnerabilities that were exploited in an "extremely sophisticated attack" targeting specific individuals.
Apple fixes two zero-day flaws exploited in 'sophisticated' attacks
Apple has released emergency updates to patch two zero-day vulnerabilities that were exploited in an "extremely sophisticated attack" targeting specific individuals.
www.bleepingcomputer.com
December 13, 2025 at 3:08 AM
Just updated the 💻 , iPad, 📱, TV, and ⌚️. Make sure your Apple iThingies get the latest updates.
Don’t click ads - to make sure their business model breaks…
A new AMOS infostealer campaign is abusing Google search ads to lure users into Grok and ChatGPT conversations that appear to offer "helpful" instructions but ultimately lead to installing the AMOS info-stealing malware on macOS.
Google ads for shared ChatGPT, Grok guides push macOS infostealer malware
A new AMOS infostealer campaign is abusing Google search ads to lure users into Grok and ChatGPT conversations that appear to offer "helpful" instructions but ultimately lead to installing the AMOS info-stealing malware on macOS.
www.bleepingcomputer.com
December 11, 2025 at 12:19 AM
Don’t click ads - to make sure their business model breaks…
Hiding the threat won’t make it go away. I dread to think how long it will take the world to recover from this. Maybe after it’s all burnt, flooded and blown away.
It appears that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has, within the past week, scrubbed a large amount of climate change content from its official website, as well as *removed human-caused warming* from the discussion on its "causes of climate change" page.
December 8, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Hiding the threat won’t make it go away. I dread to think how long it will take the world to recover from this. Maybe after it’s all burnt, flooded and blown away.
All politicians are like pigs with their snouts in the trough. If they get all expenses paid for both them and their spouse/family, then there is no need to pay them such high salaries. The “guidelines” need scrutiny and revisions to pare back the entitlements. I’ll volunteer to do this for free.
Anika Wells claimed more than $8,500 for family travel to Melbourne during AFL grand final weekends over three years
Anika Wells claimed more than $8,500 for family travel to Melbourne during AFL grand final weekends over three years
Exclusive: Labor’s minister for communications and sport has stood by her use of family travel expenses as within the rules
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Anika Wells claimed more than $8500 in family travel expenses to Melbourne during AFL grand final weekends in 2022, 2023 and 2024, when she received free suite tickets to the matches.
The minister for communications and sport has stood by her use of family travel expenses as within the rules, but the Coalition opposition is demanding reforms to expense rules and an inquiry into Wells’ spending by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority, the parliamentary body which tracks and reports politicians’ spending on travel and office expenses. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
December 8, 2025 at 1:59 AM
All politicians are like pigs with their snouts in the trough. If they get all expenses paid for both them and their spouse/family, then there is no need to pay them such high salaries. The “guidelines” need scrutiny and revisions to pare back the entitlements. I’ll volunteer to do this for free.
Status update: Staying cool inside with a cuppa and a (large) slice of Yummy Kitchen Celebration cake whilst listening to Handel’s Messiah on ABC TV. It’s a bush fire Smokey 37°C outside even after the 26km/h Nor’easter (or Novocastrian sea breeze) has started to cool things down.
December 6, 2025 at 4:54 AM
Status update: Staying cool inside with a cuppa and a (large) slice of Yummy Kitchen Celebration cake whilst listening to Handel’s Messiah on ABC TV. It’s a bush fire Smokey 37°C outside even after the 26km/h Nor’easter (or Novocastrian sea breeze) has started to cool things down.
Only if you’re doing something dodgy would you want make records of important conversations with business lobbyists disappear. What happened to ethical and open? #auspol
December 6, 2025 at 1:03 AM
Only if you’re doing something dodgy would you want make records of important conversations with business lobbyists disappear. What happened to ethical and open? #auspol
Great stuff Whitepages! Everyone now needs physical copies to look up someone they know to confirm their address - can’t do it online anymore. I wonder if it was slurped into the large language model “AI” slop machine. Was there a heads up this was going to happen?
November 22, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Great stuff Whitepages! Everyone now needs physical copies to look up someone they know to confirm their address - can’t do it online anymore. I wonder if it was slurped into the large language model “AI” slop machine. Was there a heads up this was going to happen?
Not so good news for anyone with a WhatsApp account. I’m not one of them I think - but who knows what happened when Meta took control and merged the bookface mega advertising database.
Researchers compiled a list of 3.5 billion WhatsApp mobile phone numbers and associated personal information by abusing a contact-discovery API that lacked rate limiting.
WhatsApp API flaw let researchers scrape 3.5 billion accounts
Researchers compiled a list of 3.5 billion WhatsApp mobile phone numbers and associated personal information by abusing a contact-discovery API that lacked rate limiting.
www.bleepingcomputer.com
November 22, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Not so good news for anyone with a WhatsApp account. I’m not one of them I think - but who knows what happened when Meta took control and merged the bookface mega advertising database.
Don’t you just love the latest co-pilot version of lookout (Microsoft Outlook) automatically moves e-mails from the Microsoft Insiders team about the web site refresh directly into the Junk folder! #EnshitificationOfAI
November 20, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Don’t you just love the latest co-pilot version of lookout (Microsoft Outlook) automatically moves e-mails from the Microsoft Insiders team about the web site refresh directly into the Junk folder! #EnshitificationOfAI
The answer to the question “When will electricity prices go down?” is “Never”. That’s how privatisation and capitalism works!
If the Libs and Nats want an alternative then they can leave political life and setup their own energy company —using both their own and their donor’s money and go for it!
If the Libs and Nats want an alternative then they can leave political life and setup their own energy company —using both their own and their donor’s money and go for it!
November 20, 2025 at 12:11 AM
The answer to the question “When will electricity prices go down?” is “Never”. That’s how privatisation and capitalism works!
If the Libs and Nats want an alternative then they can leave political life and setup their own energy company —using both their own and their donor’s money and go for it!
If the Libs and Nats want an alternative then they can leave political life and setup their own energy company —using both their own and their donor’s money and go for it!
They’re still trying these 30 year old scams. Sounds believable that an orphan priest would leave me a fortune and get a nun to act as his legal representative an they picked my email address at random. 🤪
![An e-mail from “Rev. Sister Mary Thomas” [using a Gary Riley Gmail address] from the Cotonou Benin de Republic is announcing out of the blue that a Rev. Fr. Clement Sandy (an orphan) has died and left me US$6.5 million in his will and requests my contact details.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:56xt2s2256smoqzmkpu2be32/bafkreiatn6dzqq4pa2npkv5sbdog5wdfmz6lwzjrz75jerztsovci2qfti@jpeg)
October 19, 2025 at 3:13 AM
They’re still trying these 30 year old scams. Sounds believable that an orphan priest would leave me a fortune and get a nun to act as his legal representative an they picked my email address at random. 🤪
Great! A 24.8 MB clock app update. Who are the “many people” that want “Focused Sessions” and just how is this going to help us to “stay focused and be more productive”? Microsoft #13523 evidence that they have well and truely lost the plot! #WindowsBloat
September 26, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Great! A 24.8 MB clock app update. Who are the “many people” that want “Focused Sessions” and just how is this going to help us to “stay focused and be more productive”? Microsoft #13523 evidence that they have well and truely lost the plot! #WindowsBloat
Spring timeline cleanser that has a faint smell of vanilla!
September 19, 2025 at 12:21 AM
Spring timeline cleanser that has a faint smell of vanilla!
Happy 3rd birthday car! Mostly powered by home solar PV. Maintenance costs for the last year… $40 for wiper blades and $60 for in cabin filters.
September 9, 2025 at 12:50 AM
Happy 3rd birthday car! Mostly powered by home solar PV. Maintenance costs for the last year… $40 for wiper blades and $60 for in cabin filters.
Somewhere over the…
August 16, 2025 at 6:04 AM
Somewhere over the…
Yep. Ditch the current fuel excise and diesel fuel tax rebates in favour of a road user charge that’s fair and reasonable for all users of public roads.
MEDIA RELEASE:
Road User Charging must be Universal
A universal, mass × distance road user charge for would serve the same role as fuel excise. A pay-by-use system which is proportional to the impact driving has on society and infrastructure.
www.aeva.asn.au/files/4297/
Road User Charging must be Universal
A universal, mass × distance road user charge for would serve the same role as fuel excise. A pay-by-use system which is proportional to the impact driving has on society and infrastructure.
www.aeva.asn.au/files/4297/
August 14, 2025 at 12:49 AM
Yep. Ditch the current fuel excise and diesel fuel tax rebates in favour of a road user charge that’s fair and reasonable for all users of public roads.
Everywhere I search online for factual information I’m finding that it’s infested with large language model chat-bot “AI” rubbish. “AI” is the latest pandemic threat to anyone with a brain that accepts what it spews out without questioning its validity.
August 13, 2025 at 4:06 AM
Everywhere I search online for factual information I’m finding that it’s infested with large language model chat-bot “AI” rubbish. “AI” is the latest pandemic threat to anyone with a brain that accepts what it spews out without questioning its validity.
Two months after the previous “6 severe weather warning events” in the forecast, it seems we now have another one. Hopefully it won’t be another record flooding event.
August 2, 2025 at 2:17 AM
Two months after the previous “6 severe weather warning events” in the forecast, it seems we now have another one. Hopefully it won’t be another record flooding event.
There’s a few of these today… so I’ll attempt posting them in a thread. The first is about Samsung and LG TVs and the sneaky way they gather viewing information. If you have one - follow the instructions to turn off their data collection tracking on what you see. appleinsider.com/inside/mac/t...
How to stop your LG or Samsung smart TV from tracking you
Even when used as a monitor for your Mac, an LG or Samsung smart TV will periodically capture what's on screen and send it to company servers. Here's how to stop that terrible behavior.
appleinsider.com
July 9, 2025 at 4:34 AM
There’s a few of these today… so I’ll attempt posting them in a thread. The first is about Samsung and LG TVs and the sneaky way they gather viewing information. If you have one - follow the instructions to turn off their data collection tracking on what you see. appleinsider.com/inside/mac/t...
Some people are shocked to discover they need to fact-check ChatGPT and I'm having the uncomfortable realisation that they never fact-checked their uncle's Facebook posts, their friend's medical advice, or literally anything Google's top result told them, and suddenly the last decade makes sense!
July 2, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Some people are shocked to discover they need to fact-check ChatGPT and I'm having the uncomfortable realisation that they never fact-checked their uncle's Facebook posts, their friend's medical advice, or literally anything Google's top result told them, and suddenly the last decade makes sense!
Asking for a “friend”… Is there an AI Blocker that functions like an Ad Blocker like @pi-hole.net’s pihole? It seems that such a thing could be useful for filtering results from internet search engines.
June 4, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Asking for a “friend”… Is there an AI Blocker that functions like an Ad Blocker like @pi-hole.net’s pihole? It seems that such a thing could be useful for filtering results from internet search engines.
Woken up by a crack of thunder to see 6 weather related warnings for Newcastle - Flood, Severe Weather, Coastal Hazard, Hazardous Surf, Sheep Grazier and Marine Wind. I just need a few more to complete the full set? Gale, Earthquake and Tsunami anyone?
May 18, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Woken up by a crack of thunder to see 6 weather related warnings for Newcastle - Flood, Severe Weather, Coastal Hazard, Hazardous Surf, Sheep Grazier and Marine Wind. I just need a few more to complete the full set? Gale, Earthquake and Tsunami anyone?
Speculators about the Iberian Peninsula’s power outage need to do some research into what happens when the power grid drifts too far from the nominal frequency (50Hz). Things become unstable when alternating current loses synchronisation and breakers trip to prevent damage to the grid.
April 29, 2025 at 5:59 AM
Speculators about the Iberian Peninsula’s power outage need to do some research into what happens when the power grid drifts too far from the nominal frequency (50Hz). Things become unstable when alternating current loses synchronisation and breakers trip to prevent damage to the grid.
Warning: Don’t update Microsoft Outlook on your Mac unless you want to be in “Use Office connected experiences” hell. The dialog box keeps popping up because I choose not to enable them. I can’t access my email via their broken app and have to use my phone or browser. #MicrosoftOutlookHell
April 17, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Warning: Don’t update Microsoft Outlook on your Mac unless you want to be in “Use Office connected experiences” hell. The dialog box keeps popping up because I choose not to enable them. I can’t access my email via their broken app and have to use my phone or browser. #MicrosoftOutlookHell
Agree Dave Milner - I choose to vote against genocide, economic immiseration of the future, erosion of democracy, new fossil fuels & being best buds with Nazis by voting 1 Independent or Green, then ALP and put LNP near the bottom of the ballot above Clive’s Trumpets.
theshot.net.au/uncategorize...
theshot.net.au/uncategorize...
On doing the same inadequate shit over and over again until the end of democracy - The Shot
The consequence of not good enough, as evidenced in the United States right now, is that you inevitably get much, much worse.
theshot.net.au
April 11, 2025 at 4:46 AM
Agree Dave Milner - I choose to vote against genocide, economic immiseration of the future, erosion of democracy, new fossil fuels & being best buds with Nazis by voting 1 Independent or Green, then ALP and put LNP near the bottom of the ballot above Clive’s Trumpets.
theshot.net.au/uncategorize...
theshot.net.au/uncategorize...