# In This Issue

- Tech Related Coronavirus News

- Victorian government wants ATO to make it easier for software startups to get R&D tax incentive

- Office 365 for home & family is now Microsoft 365, with extra family collaboration stuff

- First reviews of the Ryzen 4000 mobile CPU are out

- Cheap shared Melbourne-based web hosting, Google Home Max, Foxtel Movies package

# Tech Related Coronavirus News

- Wollongong Uni is making 3D printed face shields and ventilator parts for the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District should they need it.

- The Australian government will launch a coronavirus contact tracing app developed by ImpactApp some time in the next week. This LinkedIn post has a video explaining what the app does. Germany is launching a similar app too.

- Facebook is giving US$100m ($25m in US grants, $75m in Facebook ads) to support local news organisations and Twitter has had to delete posts from Rudy Giuliani and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for spreading coronavirus hoaxes.

- CBA and Westpac are temporarily removing merchant fees on credit card payments and waiving terminal rental fees. Businesses still have to pay the Visa/Mastercard portion of the fee though.

- Bloomberg has a story about an increase in dickhead managers buying software that's pushed out to remote worker's computers to track their keystrokes, monitor web traffic and take random screenshots as a pathetic way to manage their workforce.

- Watch out for Zoom trolls and "zoombombings" as by default, Zoom makes meetings public and anyone can join them. I think you can imagine what sort of antics bored teens and manchildren will get up to.

# Normal Tech News

#### Victorian government wants ATO to make it easier for software startups to get R&D tax incentive

The ATO is doing a review of the Research and Development Tax Incentive (RDTI) right now and the Victorian government has made a submissions asking for pure software development included in the ATO's R&D incentive program. Apparently the Victorian minister for Jobs, Innovation and Trade has heard from his consitutents that it's currently too confusing to determine if the projects they're working on meet the RDTI requirements and want it cleared up so startups can thrive off the taxpayer teat.

#### Office 365 for home & family is now Microsoft 365, with extra family collaboration stuff

As of April 21st, Office 365 for home and family users will be replaced by the same thing in a new wrapper with new features called Microsoft 365. Along with Office and 1TB of OneDrive space, Microsoft 365 subscribers also get a "Family Safety app" so you can view the location of all your family members (creepy), manage their screentime (also creepy) and even their driving habits (very creepy). Included in the subscription is Teams personal, where you can share stuff with your family and swap between "work" Teams and "family" Teams in the same app. I'm so glad I was raised in a time when none of this stuff existed for my parents to use with me.

# Not News

#### First reviews of the Ryzen 4000 mobile CPU are out

ASUS sent out a bunch of ROG Zephyrus G14 to reviewers in the last few days, which would normally a non-event as nobody really cares about Asus gaming laptops, but these are the first laptops with AMD's new 7nm Ryzen 4000 mobile CPUs. No Anandtech review yet, but there's this PC World article and a Linus Tech Tips video. It looks like the Ryzen 4000 is as fast as laptops that are twice the thickness and weight whilst using way less power (so you get more battery life) than slower Intel CPUs. The ROG Zephyrus G14 itself is a crap design, so I can't wait to see what Lenovo do with the Ryzen 4000 - I'd love a Thinkpad X1 Extreme using it.

# Bargains

- $8 for 1 year of shared hosting (Melbourne server) from Down Under Host

- Google Home Max - $198 at JB Hi-Fi

- Foxtel is giving the poor saps who paid for the sports package the movies package for free until June 30th

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😁 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Join us on Slack and chat with other Sizzle subscribers.

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.​