# In This Issue

- COVIDSafe source code is now available on GitHub

- Elon Musk sues Alameda county for not lifting COVID-19 restrictions, is moving HQ out of there “immediately”

- Sick of reply-all email storms, Microsoft adds a feature to Office 365 to reduce their impact

- Netgear’s Meural digital art canvas thing is good, but not perfect

- Cheap portable 4TB HDD, AirPods & AirPods Pro, Bose NC700 headphones, Kogan Mobile 365-day plan, AudioTechnica mics, Samsung TV cashback & 15% off iTunes gift cards

# News

#### COVIDSafe source code is now available on GitHub

On Friday night the DTA released COVIDSafe's source code to GitHub, giving Australian security researchers and developers and a chance to see what's going on. The server side code isn't available (i.e: we don't know how the health officials interact with the data collected), but it's better than nothing. People like Vanessa Teague, Jim Mussared and Geoffrey Huntley have been busy tweeting out multiple bugs or potential privacy issues they've found whilst going over the source code. Hopefully the DTA listens, as there's no formal way to report a bug. If you've got friends or family bugging you with questions about COVIDSafe, Josh Taylor's latest article in The Guardian answers many of common questions. Like "does the app work?", "does it use much battery?", "should I be worried about the privacy implications?" and more. If you'r curious as to what other countries are doing with their COVID-19 tracing apps, MIT's Technology Review is keeping track of them.

#### Elon Musk sues Alameda county for not lifting COVID-19 restrictions, is moving HQ out of there “immediately”

Elon went on Twitter and declared that Tesla is filing a lawsuit against Alameda county and will be moving its HQ to Texas or Nevada "immediately". He's pissed off that the local government where Tesla's Fremont HQ is located isn't loosening stay-in-place COVID-19 restrictions like other surrounding counties. The lawsuit filed hours after Musk's tweet wants an exemption from the county lockdown laws because it "contradicts the Governor’s Order to the extent it restricts the operation of business operating in the federal critical infrastructure sectors". I'm pretty sure Tesla was planning to move its HQ out of California anyways, as most car companies operate in lower paid southern states where unions are practically illegal and worker safety laws are weak.

#### Sick of reply-all email storms, Microsoft adds a feature to Office 365 to reduce their impact

Microsoft has added a feature to Office 365 that might prevent the annoying but sometimes hilarious "Reply-All email storms" - you know when some dingus (that dingus could be you, it has been me!) presses reply-all to a company wide email and then people reply-all to that email for hours later with their dumb comments? In the latest version of Office 365 Exchange, this new feature will "block all email threads with more than 5,000 recipients that have generated more than 10 Reply-All sequences within the last 60 minutes" then "block all replies in the email thread for the next four hours". Right now there's no way to lower or change those settings, but it might happen later based on user feedback.

# Not News

#### Netgear’s Meural digital art canvas thing is good, but not perfect

Old mate Raj over at Reckoner has a great review of the Netgear Meural - an LCD in a nice frame designed to impersonate a painting or photo. I get bored of the same photos or prints on my walls, so to have a screen auto rotate my favourites would be fantastic. The Meural seems pretty good overall, with a nice app to control what's on the display and does a good job automatically adjusting brightness, but is let down by the poor display quality. The matte screen is still quite reflective and the 16:9 aspect ratio doesn't lend itself to how most artwork or photos are created. I reckon when microLED 8K displays are more of a thing, the concept of a digital artwork display would cross the acceptable threshold for most people.

# Bargains

- Toshiba 4TB portable 2.5” HDD - $135.15 from Shopping Express’ eBay Store with the code PBOLT15

- 2nd-gen Apple AirPods with charging case - $211.65 from Titan Gear’s eBay Store with the code PBOLT15

- Apple AirPods Pro - $351 delivered from Rosman Computers

- Buy a 75” or larger Samsung TV and get a $250 prepaid Mastercard

- Bose NC700 headphones - $449.99 from Amazon AU

- 15% off iTunes gift cards at Coles starting on Wednesday

- Kogan Mobile 365 day plan with 300GB of data is $275

- Audio Technica AT9920 desktop microphone - $39.99 at Teds

- Audio Technica AT9903 lapel mic - $49.95 at Teds

🎶 Paul P Pogh - Shiner

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