### Issue 1321 - Thursday 11th March, 2021

## In Today's Issue

- Epic sue Google in Australia regarding their app store monopoly & payment processing lock-in
- OVH's Strasbourg datacentre in France catches fire, many servers lost
- Australia's tech unicorns want the R&D Tax Incentive to be more software development friendly
- Papercraft PCs, software development documentary, another Plex request add-on, Mac screenshot software & Bitcoin mining in the Arctic
- Cheap Amazon Echo Shows, Google Nest Hub Max, Telstra plans with JB gift cards, Nvidia Shield TV Pro, Latitude Pay & Good Guys discount, Belkin Qi charger, Boost Mobile SIM, Chromecast with Google TV

## The News

### Epic sue Google in Australia regarding their app store monopoly & payment processing lock-in

Epic is taking the fight against Apple's and Google's app stores onto our golden soil, suing Google in the Federal Court of Australia. Epic reckons that Google's "contravening conduct hinders or prevents the ability of Epic (and other app developers) from distributing its software applications" and that "these restrictions have provided Google - through its control of the Google Play Store - with a near-monopoly in the market". They're also upset with being forced to used Google's in-app payments service that takes a 30% cut. Epic is now suing Apple and Google in the UK, USA and EU, along with Australia.

### OVH's Strasbourg datacentre in France catches fire, many servers lost

OVH, Europe's largest (but small compared to the USA's Microsoft, Google and Amazon) cloud hosting company had one of its French datacentres burn down last night. Check out the pics in the linked article. Anyone with stuff located in the SBG2 zone is shit outta luck as all the equipment located in there has been burnt to a crisp. Other SBG zones are also down due to a lack of power or other damaged infrastructure. Apparently 2% of websites in the .FR domain are impacted. I look forward to reading a report on what the hell happened here.

### Australia's tech unicorns want the R&D Tax Incentive to be more software development friendly

Atlassian, AirTasker, Culture Amp and StartupAus have written to the ATO asking to help them update the R&D Tax Incentive (aka RDTI) program to be more suitable for software related activities. Right now it's a bit of a stretch for most software projects to claim the RDTI, which for years the ATO turned a blind eye to, but is now ordering some companies to pay it back as most software "research and development" really wasn't anything of the sort. The authors of the letter want to "work closely" with the ATO to "better understand and define the nature of software-enabled innovation" in a "collaborative day-long workshop" under "Chatham House rules, with Atlassian to play a coordinating role".

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Papercraft PCs, software development documentary, another Plex request add-on, Mac screenshot software & Bitcoin mining in the Arctic

- Papercraft models of old computers you can print and construct yourself. Apple II, Amgia 500, Commodore 64, even a Sega Master System.
- This video of a programmer explaining to a project manager why what they want isn't as simple as it sounds is supposed to be funny but it's actually a documentary.
- Conreq is yet another service for Plex that'll let users request content. I still like Overseer most.
- Stop being a fucking noob and use CleanShot X on your Mac to take screenshots. Yeah it's US$29 don't be a cheapskate, be a screenshot wizard professional expert!
- Norilsk in icy cold Arctic Siberia was home to a huge nickel smelter that closed in 2016. BitCluster has taken advantage of the -40C weather and cheap electricity to mine Bitcoin instead.

## Bargains

- Amazon Echo Show 5 or Echo Show 8 - $69/$129 from Amazon AU
- Google Nest Hub Max - $299 at JB Hi-Fi or The Good Guys
- $500 JB Hi-Fi gift card if you go on a Telstra $59/m 12-month plan at JB
- Nvidia Shield TV Pro - $279.85 delivered from Shopping Express
- Get $20 off a minimum $60 spend at The Good Guys when paying with Latitude Pay
- Belkin Boost UP wireless charging pad - $25 from Amazon
- Boost Mobile $200 SIM with 95GB data - $159.99 from Cellmate
- Chromecast with Google TV - $89.10 from The Good Guys

## The End

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The Sizzle is created on Wathaurong land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.​