# Issue 727

##### Wednesday, 19th September 2018

## In This Issue

- Tesla & Musk under criminal investigation over botched plan to take Tesla private
- Assistance and Access Bill already heading to Parliament, only 1 week after feedback ended
- 900,000 people have opted out of My Health Record
- iPhone XS reviews are up - it's the iPhone X, but better
- Big chunk of Google related news
- IT workers & designers interested in unionism should go to this thing
- Aussie EV charger manufacturer gets a $400k grant from the US government
- Cheap Logitech K830 keyboard, AirPods, Seagate external HDDs, PS4 & Xbox One games, 10% off eBay Sitewide

## News

###

Tesla has entered a new world of pain thanks to Elon's "funding secured @ $420" tweet - the Department of Justice is conducting a criminal investigation surrounding the actions of Elon Musk surrounding the botched plan to take Tesla private, in conjunction with the previously reported SEC civil investigation. I stole this from chollida1 on Hacker News, but it's incredibly pertinent today: "The sad piece of karma in all of this is that Musk tweeted in an effort to destroy the shorts. His tweet turned out to: give the shorts a big dip in his stock, an investigation by the SEC, an investigation by the DOJ, the backing off of a deep pocketed investor in the Saudis (and) him potentially being personally liable, which would mean having to step away from SpaceX and Tesla if he was found guilty of fraud".

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### Assistance and Access Bill already heading to Parliament, only 1 week after feedback ended

Assistance and Access Bill feedback period ended only a week ago, yet it's already passed the Coalition Party room and will be introduced into Parliament soon! No, you're not the only one wondering how the hell such a complicated piece of legislation, with mountains of expert feedback submitted, could sail right through to Parliament - Peter Tonoli, an EFA board member agrees, saying that "tabling the legislation so soon brings up the question of whether or not the government was ever interested in pursuing good faith consultation process for the legislation". You know what Pete? I reckon you're spot fucken on with that assessment. As if Dutton gives a shit what a bunch of nerds reckon about his precious law

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### 900,000 people have opted out of My Health Record

The Senate inquiry into My Health Record has been told by the Australian Digital Health Agency's boss, Tim Kelsey, that "about 900,000 people have opted out of the service in the past two months via the online platform and call centres", which Tim reckons is "significantly lower than the original forecast we had anticipated and is in-line with other international examples". 900,000 people opting out is apparently only 3% of people eligible for MHR. It was a mainstream news topic for days, with the risks clearly highlighted, yet only 3% of people have bothered to opt-out in the 2 months you've been able to do so. The government must be loving that stat - hey our system isn't shit, only 3% of people opted out, what's the big deal?!

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### iPhone XS reviews are up - it's the iPhone X, but better

Reviews of the iPhone XS and XS Max are out and it seems to be that they're everything you love about the iPhone X, just faster and smoother, or in the case of the XS Max - bigger. Heaps of reviews mention that unless you want the 2x lens or care enough about an OLED display, the iPhone XR is worth waiting for. Nilay Patel at The Verge reckons the Pixel 2 camera is still better than the iPhone, but Gruber's info that the sensor in the iPhone XS being 32% larger than the sensor in the X, combined with an updated lens arrangement allowing for 50% more light, kinda makes Patel's claim hard for me to believe. Will be interesting to see what camera review sites & Anandtech reckon when they get their hands on the XS. If you only read one review of the iPhone XS, read this one from Peter Wells in the SMH. It the only Australian one that wasn't written by a dickhead.

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### Big chunk of Google related news

Here's a big dump of Google related news that came out today that seems unrelated for the fact Google is involved:

- Rumours are circling that Google will announce Home Hub, a Google Home speaker thingo with a screen at its Oct 9 event.
- Google Maps now works with CarPlay in iOS 12, cool.
- The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance have announced they'll integrate Android and Google services (think Maps & Assistant) into all their upcoming cars.
- Chrome OS 69 (nice) has support for running Linux apps on certain model Chromebooks.
- Google's Accelerated Mobile Pages project is moving to a "new governance model" where non-Google people and companies can collaborate on the specification.

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## Not News, But Still Cool

### IT workers & designers interested in unionism should go to this thing

Comrades! "Are you interested in unionism and organising at work? Are you in the tech or design industry? Join us for some social drinks and chat - and bring a friend! We started this conversation at a recent meet-up about all the things we want from a union, and some of the things we don't. Since then, we have drafted up a summary of what we discussed and we want to share it with you. All welcome. Let's keep the conversation going!" - if that sounds cool to you, the meetup is on Wednesday 26th of September @ 6PM at Bar SK in Collingwood, Melbourne. I'm all for unions in IT, it would be so good for the average worker in a business to share in more of the record profits Australian businesses are currently enjoying.

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### Aussie EV charger manufacturer gets a $400k grant from the US government

Tritium is a Brisbane-based company that's an industry leader in the design and manufactures ultra-fast EV chargers that are sold all over the world. Despite their products being routinely ignored in Australia (there should be at least one at every servo in Australia), they've recently done deals to roll out hundreds across Europe. Just last week they also received $US400,000 to "to customise Tritium's enterprise grade Veefil-PK ultra-fast charger to make it smaller, more efficient and cheaper to buy". Would be nice if our government gave Tritium a hand too, perhaps by funding EV infrastructure?

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### Cheap Logitech K830 keyboard, AirPods, Seagate external HDDs, PS4 & Xbox One games, 10% off eBay Sitewide

- JB has the Logitech K830 wireless, backlit keyboard with integrated trackpad for $79.20
- Apple AirPods for $183.20 with eBay Plus & the code POLLEN
- Seagate external HDDs from Newegg (inc. delivery & GST) - 6TB $172.81, 8TB $219.02
- Gran Turismo Sport is $25 and Detroit: Become Human is $39 (they're PS4 games) at Big W
- Loads of Xbox One games on sale on Xbox Live too, many more than 50% off.
- 10% off siteway on eBay, max discount of $300, minimum purchase of $75. Use code POINTY.

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That's it, see ya tomorrow!
--Anthony

Philadelphia Grand Jury - The Good News

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