### Issue 1576 - Tuesday 29th March, 2022

## In Today's Issue

- ALP commits to NBN upgrades, NBN to upgrade 50 additional VIC suburbs to FTTP
- ASX's blockchain powered CHESS upgrade is delayed again
- COVIDSafe still exists, government has no plans to end it
- The reverse idiot funnel theory
- Cheap YubiKeys, 300GB/m Telstra plan, Samson USB mic, Elgato webcam, Nokia tablet, 2 for 1 Kogan SIMs, refurb Dell PC, ThinkPad P14s Gen 2, Cyberpunk 2077, iPhone 13 Pro Max

## The News

### ALP commits to NBN upgrades, NBN to upgrade 50 additional VIC suburbs to FTTP

Bit of NBN news today. The ALP confirmed that if they take government at the next election they'll keep the current government's planned upgrades to the fixed wireless portion of the NBN. In addition to that, the ALP will "work with NBN Co to examine the feasibility of reducing congestion on its seven most clogged-up satellite beams". Cool, I guess, for the 3 people left on it not using Starlink by then. NBN announced 50 Victorian suburbs that will be upgraded from FTTN to FTTP (if the premises orders at 100mbit+ plan), which is being funded by the Victorian government.

### ASX's blockchain powered CHESS upgrade is delayed again

In 2016 the ASX started to update the CHESS system (records shareholdings and manages settlement of transactions) with "distributed ledger technology" (aka blockchain). Today the ASX announced today that the project is delayed for the fourth time. Originally planned to go live in April 2021, it was pushed back to April 2022 then April 2023. The April 2023 date is still the target, but in a release to the market, ASX said "there is a strong likelihood of delay to the go-live date". Overhauling CHESS is a massive project so I'm not surprised it's going pear shaped, blockchain or not.

### COVIDSafe still exists, government has no plans to end it

As emergency declarations giving the federal government power to do all kinds of stuff related to handling the COVID pandemic end soon, what happens to the much maligned COVIDSafe app? A Department of Health spokesperson told iTnews that "government has no plans to discontinue the app at this time" and that "no changes are currently planned to the operation of the COVIDSafe contract tracing app following the lapse of the determination made under the Biosecurity Act 2015". Beats me why the government is keeping it alive, everyone I know deleted it off their phone over a year ago.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### The reverse idiot funnel theory

Ryan Broderick has came up with the "Reverse Idiot Funnel" as a way to explain how clear nonsense and bullshit news stories by some weirdo on the internet end up spreading as conspiracy theories that never seem to go away - like anti-vaxxers for example. There's this interplay between stupid Facebook users (normally retired school teachers, dunno why they're so susceptible to this), Fox News and Russian/Chinese state media that all reinforce each other's bullshit so strongly, that what would have previously been dismissed immediately as a mentally ill person's hallucinations are now taken seriously. What a time to be alive.

## Bargains

- 20% off two Yubikeys and one accessory at Yubico
- Get a free Samsung S22 5G 128GB (or $800 gift card) if you sign up for a $79/m 24m contract with 300GB of data/m at JB Hi-Fi
- Samson G Track Pro Studio USB microphone - $169 + shipping at Umart
- Elgato Facecam 1080p60 webcam - $237.80 from Amazon UK
- Nokia T20 (TA-1392) Android tablet (10.4" screen, 64GB storage, 4GB RAM) - $339.30 from Sydney Mobiles eBay store
- Buy one Kogan Mobile 365-day pre-paid SIM, get another one free - $270 for 2x 250GB SIMs, $300 for 2x 500GB SIMs
- Refurbished Dell Optiplex 3040, i5-6500, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD - $229
- Lenovo ThinkPad P14s Gen 2 (Ryzen 7 Pro 5850U, 4G LTE Modem, 32GB RAM, 512GB SSD) - $1749 from Lenovo
- Cyberpunk 2077 for PC via GOG - $24.59 from CD Keys
- iPhone 13 Pro Max 128GB or 256GB - $1779/$1974 at Amazon

## The End

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