### Issue 1763 - Thursday 12th January, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- Plan to run a long extension cord from NT to Singapore goes into voluntary administration
- Twitter closing offices around the world, including Australia
- New budget Microsoft 365 plan, businesses can alter their Apple Maps info & video of a Tesla causing 8-care pile up
- ASRock's got a Sonic themed mobo and a monitor for your PC case
- Cheap Telstra plan, Dell 4K monitor, Intel Arc A750 GPU, Elgato Stream Deck XL, Samsung Care+, 10% off Macs at JB, Boot SIM car, B&W 800 Diamond speakers

## The News

### Plan to run a long extension cord from NT to Singapore goes into voluntary administration

Mike Cannon-Brookes and Andrew Forrest's big $30b plan to sell Australian solar energy to Singapore via a long cable under the ocean has shit the bed, with Sun Cable entering voluntary administration. Apparently the two captains of industry had "disagreements about the funding and direction of the company" regarding "significant amounts of cash that Sun Cable was spending, and its failure to achieve certain milestones". In a statement to the press about what happens to the business now, Cannon-Brookes said "Sun Cable will be an attractive investment proposition" and that he will "look forward to supporting the company's next chapter". Sun Cable is an ambitious idea, something rarely seen in Australia with our boring real estate, finance and mining dominated economy, hopefully it can continue with new investors.

### Twitter closing offices around the world, including Australia

Twitter is closing down pretty much all of its offices outside the USA, Australia included. The landlord of the Singapore office they were renting kicked out all the remaining staff because Twitter hasn't paid the rent. A hilarious benefit of Twitter's Australian office closing is that any requests or enforcements from the eSafety Commissioner will have zero effect on Twitter. The infamous Online Safety Act, the Basic Online Safety Expectations and all the industry codes Twitter was previously involved in developing, can be (and will be) ignored by Elon and Twitter and the government can't do a fucking thing about it, hahaha. They could make up a law to block Twitter like they do with gambling and warez, but that doesn't exist right now.

### New budget Microsoft 365 plan, businesses can alter their Apple Maps info & video of a Tesla causing 8-care pile up

- Microsoft is launching a cheaper variant of Microsoft 365. The US$1.99/m or US$19.99/yr Basic plan gives you 100GB of OneDrive storage, ad-free Outlook.com access and technical support on top of the already free mobile and web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
- Businesses can modify their "location card" in Apple Maps via Apple Business Connect. They add stuff like a "brand logo, images, and other key information, such as special promotions or seasonal menu items at a restaurant". US only at the moment, but can't be too long until it's global.
- Video of an 8-car pile up in a San Francisco tunnel involving a Tesla using "full self driving" is public. The Tesla is changing lanes then just stops in the left hand lane, causing cars following too closely to crash into each other. This is the problem with L2 autonomous driving - drive overconfidence in the system's ability.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### ASRock's got a Sonic themed mobo and a monitor for your PC case

ASRock has made a 13.3" LCD that goes on the inside of the clear glass side panel on of your PC case. A monitor for the side of your PC! I like the concept, but I haven't had a computer on my desk for a long time. The tower goes under the desk where you can't hear it! Here's a video review of it, showing how it sticks on and connects to the PC. Also in ASRock news, they've made a Sonic The Hedgehog themed mainboard. The Z790 PG SONIC is "designed to bring back epic memories of catching rings in Green Hill Zone, the motherboard echoes Sonic's lightning speed with its fast blue and silver shards and Sonic silhouette". Who knew Sonic still had fans and that those fans have money?

## Bargains

- Sign up for a $69/m Telstra plan (100GB data) on a 12m contract and score a bonus $400 JB gift card
- Dell S2722QC 4K USB-C monitor - $449.50 from Dell
- Asrock Intel Arc A750 Challenger D 8G OC Graphics Card - $399 at MSY and Umart
- Samsung MUF-256DA 256GB USB-C 3.1 flash drive - $46.55 from Bing Lee's eBay store
- Elgato Stream Deck XL (32 Keys) - $319 from Amazon
- Register for Samsung Unpacked and get free Samsung Care+ for new smartphone purchases
- 10% off Apple Mac Computers at JB Hi-Fi
- Buy a $15 Boost SIM card with 60GB of data (28-day expiry) and get $16 cash back via ShopBack
- 15% off Bowers & Wilkins 800 series Diamond speakers (if you have to ask how much, you can't afford it)

## Image Of The Day

Australia's national public Videotex service, Viatel, was launched by Telecom Australia on 28 February 1985. It was based on the British Prestel service. (cvxmelody / Internet Archive)

## The End

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