### Issue 1571 - Tuesday 22nd March, 2022

## In Today's Issue

- Senators go to blockchain conference to pitch planned reforms to cryptocurrency industry
- NBN to upgrade and expand fixed wireless network, aims for 250mbit in 85% of footprint
- Qantas NFTs, Australian Space Command, PAX is back, new EPYC CPUs, SEC climate disclosures
- Do you own an iPhone and pay for petrol? Install Petty now
- Cheap Brateck mic arm, SanDisk high endurance microSD card, Samsung 980 Pro SSD, Amazon gift cards

## The News

### Senators go to blockchain conference to pitch planned reforms to cryptocurrency industry

Senators Andrew Bragg & Jane Hume spoke at a blockchain conference yesterday and floated the idea that Australia should be a "cryptocurrency hub" and that there should be an "Australian-made badge of approval" for cryptocurrency services. Senator Bragg talked about a Digital Services Act that would regulate the entire industry, as well as taxation reforms to make sure there's no additional taxes on cryptocurrency, but also to make sure existing taxes aren't dodged. Senator Hume went on to explain that if they remain government next eletion, a "light touch regulatory framework for the crypto industry" isn't on their list of priorities.

### NBN to upgrade and expand fixed wireless network, aims for 250mbit in 85% of footprint

Good news for the 636,000 premises with NBN fixed wireless - it's getting upgraded to "the latest 4G and 5G wireless technologies" with the aim of making it capable of 100mbit-plus speeds for everyone and up to 250mbit to 85% of premises in the wireless footprint. The footprint itself is being expanded so around 120,000 premises currently on satellite services can use fixed wireless instead. Meanwhile, NBN has added HFC to the same performance standard as FTTN, meaning if you suffer 4 or more "unexpected dropouts" in a 24 hour period, NBN will investigate. Oh and the FTTN to FTTP upgrade program officially launched today.

### Qantas NFTs, Australian Space Command, PAX is back, new EPYC CPUs, SEC climate disclosures

- Qantas is gonna mint some NFTs. Dunno what they'll be of exactly, but "the initial buyer of a Qantas NFT will be able to earn Qantas Points, with more exciting future benefits for Qantas NFT holders underway". I love Qantas paraphernalia, but hate NFTs. I'm torn.
- Australia's Air Force has a new division - Space Command. Lots of people are laughing at this, but having some sort of military apparatus for defending Australia's space interests (don't fuck with our satellites, I guess?) makes a bit of sense.
- Gamers rejoice! PAX Australia is back in person this year. It'll run from the 7th to the 9th of October and take place at MCEC Melbourne. You can buy tickets now. Well, kinda. As I write this there is a 1 hour wait in the virtual queue to give PAX your money.
- AMD announced new EPYC CPUs. These server CPUs are based on the Zen 3 architecture. The flagship chip is the EPYC 7003 which has 64 cores and a whopping 768MB of L3 cache. The rough price for one is US$8,800.
- The SEC is proposing new rules that would force publicly traded companies to disclose the emissions they directly/indirectly generate, details of climate pledges and how they'll handle climate-related risks. Good.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Do you own an iPhone and pay for petrol? Install Petty now

Now seems like a good time to remind people about a little iOS app called Petty. It's by far the nicest petrol price app going around, uses Australian sources, has widgets, notifications, an Apple Watch companion app, an iPad version, light/dark mode support and a 90-day price history. NSW, QLD, SA and TAS are supported and it only costs $4.49/yr to unlock premium features. The developer is also a Sizzle subscriber, so get around it! If I had to suffer the indignity of driving a fossil fuel powered vehicle, I would have Petty on my iPhone's home screen, for sure.

## Bargains

- Brateck MDS06-1 mic boom arm - $65 from Amazon
- SanDisk High Endurance microSDXC 128GB - $22.95 + delivery from Shopping Square
- Samsung 980 Pro 1TB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD - $189 from Harris Tech
- Catch Connect 365-day prepaid SIM with 85GB data - $89 from Catch
- $100 Amazon gift card - $95 from Australia Post

## The End

📻 Baby - The Drones

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