### Issue 1934 - Monday 18th September, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- Plex to block hosting servers on Hetzner boxes
- NSW to remove EV incentives & introduce road usage tax
- Home Assistant Green is a US$99 box pre-loaded with Home Assistant sever
- The people in Apple's marketing materials send each other weird text messages
- Cheap UniFi AP, Tidal Hi-Fi Plus, Corsair & Samsung SSDs, Boost Mobile SIM, Ryzen 5 5600 CPU, Dell 30" monitor, Xbox controller, OnePass, Vodafone iPhone 15 deals

## The News

### Plex to block hosting servers on Hetzner boxes

Everyone hosting a Plex server on Hetzner infrastructure received an email from Plex over the weekend telling them "due to the large-scale violations occurring from that hosting provider, we will be taking action soon to block access and activity from Plex Media Servers hosted by that provider" - even if the content hosted on that Plex server is entirely legitimate. Sure, there's a shitload of pay for access Plex servers on Hetzner full of pirate material and I get why Plex doesn't want anything to do with that, but it's disturbing Plex is monitoring where your server is hosted. Good time to look at Jellyfin for your media hosting needs.

⬆ Share or Discuss

### NSW to remove EV incentives & introduce road usage tax

Following Victoria's lead, NSW has decided to ditch all incentives for buying an electric car and will introduce a road usage fee. The $3,000 rebate for EVs under $68,750 and the stamp duty exemption for EVs under $78,000 will end on Jan 1st, 2024. Instead of these incentives, the NSW government will spend $260m on charging infrastructure. The road usage fee was always planned to be a thing by 2027, but it'll be interesting to see if it's actually legal. There's a High Court case that's due for a decision in the next few weeks that might decide the road usage fee is an excise (not a fee or a tax), which only the Commonwealth has the right to impose as per section 90 of the Constitution.

⬆ Share or Discuss

### Home Assistant Green is a US$99 box pre-loaded with Home Assistant sever

Home Assistant is a wonderful platform for smart house stuff that doesn't lock you in to a single vendor and now they've got a new little box that makes running a Home Assistant server a little easier. The Home Assistant Green is an RK3566 SoC based computer that pre-loaded with Home Assistant's server software that runs on your local network and communicates with all the smart devices in your home regardless of vendor or platform. It costs US$99 + delivery and if you want to communicate with Zigbee/Thread/Matter devices, you'll need a US$30 dongle that slots in to the Green's USB port. If you wanna keep your smart house stuff but stop sending data back to Apple/Google/random Chinese vendor check Home Assistant out.

⬆ Share or Discuss

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### The people in Apple's marketing materials send each other weird text messages

Max Read has dived into the fake text messages used in Apple's product marketing since the release of iMessage 12 years ago and found a disturbing "Apple Dimension" where people are either on holiday or planning a holiday, sending perfect photos to each other and punctuation and grammar are perfect. According to a post on Hacker News, someone at Apple tried to sneak in Easter Eggs and references to previous characters/people in the Apple Dimension, but had the joy sucked out of them by "multiple rounds of approvals by many different teams".

⬆ Share or Discuss

## Bargains

- Ubiquiti UniFi U6-Pro wi-fi access point - $256.47 from Computer Alliance's eBay store
- Free 3 months of Tidal Hi-Fi Plus (new customers) from Tidal
- Corsair MP600 PRO LPX 2TB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe M.2 2280 SSD with heatsink - $179 from Amazon
- Get $18.50 cashback via Cashrewards when buying a Boost Mobile SIM with 65GB data for $17
- Samsung 2.5" 870 EVO SATA SATA SSD 1TB/2TB - $98.77/$188.41 from Computer Alliance's eBay store
- AMD Ryzen 5 5600 CPU with Wraith Cooler - $181.77 from Computer Alliance's eBay store
- Dell Ultrasharp U3023E 30" 2560x1600 IPS monitor with USB-C 90W PD output - $769 from PCMarket
- Xbox Wireless Controller or the controller plus a USB wireless adapter - $64/$74 from Harvey Norman
- 50% off OnePass annual membership (perks & free shipping from Bunnings, Kmart, Target, Officeworks & Catch) - $20/yr
- $1000 off an iPhone 15/15 Pro when you go on a Vodafone 24m contract at an Apple Store
- Get $150 bonus trade-in credit if you upgrade to an iPhone 15/15 Pro on an eligible Vodafone plan

## Image Of The Day

Surface Duo 2 Components scaled (Microsoft)

## The End

📻 Horse Pills - The Dandy Warhols

😎 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon.

💬 Checked out the paid subscriber only forum? It's a tidy little place to discuss tech with like minded Aussies.

👋 Forums not your thing? The Sizzle has a Slack group you can procrastinate in and chat with other nerds bored at work.

💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info, change email address or cancel your subscription? Visit the customer portal.

🎁 Make someone's day and buy them a 12 month gift subscription to The Sizzle.

📚 Browse The Sizzle Archive. A few issues are missing and it's not searchable, but it's better than nothing.

🫂 Friends of The Sizzle is a small group of businesses or organisations operated by Sizzle subscribers. Support your fellow Sizzler!

💔 Tired of my bullshit? Unsubscribe and I'll never speak to you again.

## Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land

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.