This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. View on remote instance

Nath ,
@Nath@aussie.zone avatar

$50ea, and no Adults at Children's prices silliness.

I dunno, I'd probably pay that if it were in my city. But coupled with 4x flights and accommodation, it's a bit much.

Nath ,
@Nath@aussie.zone avatar

People will just go back to what they did before negative gearing: Make businesses and move their properties into that. "Oh, your business made a loss paying more interest than it brought in as rent, I guess you can write that off as a loss and not pay tax on your income".

The result is the same, but it's more work for the ATO.
My old boss still had his holiday home under the business, because it's how he did it before Negative Gearing was a thing.

Nath ,
@Nath@aussie.zone avatar

I demand they keep it up. So there.

Nath ,
@Nath@aussie.zone avatar

I don't even know what his issue with this picture is. As a blunder years photo, it's not that bad. 18-year-old me would have even envied that coat.

Nath ,
@Nath@aussie.zone avatar

I don't pay any attention to this stuff at all. I should probably feel guilty about that, but I honestly just sort of trust the super-engaged to keep the government of the day to account.

Thanks for this thread, I wouldn't have even known about the budget and the main points of what is in it without it.

Nath ,
@Nath@aussie.zone avatar

The same couldn't be said for her sister, sadly. The old Children's hospital in Perth was called "Princess Margaret Hospital". Unfortunately, Princess Margaret was no longer with us for the new one, so it has the very boring name Perth Children's Hospital.

Nath ,
@Nath@aussie.zone avatar

Wow. That is a blatant copy.

Nath ,
@Nath@aussie.zone avatar

The neat thing about Android is that you have the choice to do that. None of us understand why you want to use sms over rcs, but we love that you can.

Nath ,
@Nath@aussie.zone avatar

If it was that big a deal for you, why would you use a phone OS by that same company?

SMS is hot garbage:

  1. The first "S" stands for short. If your message is over 160 characters, you are sending multiple messages. The implementation of SMS is a hack on the carrier network in the first place, and joining multiple messages, particularly across carriers is a complication to this hack. Sure, 99.99% of messages are delivered just fine. But if the message doesn't arrive for some reason, there's no acknowledgement of this. The recipient just doesn't get it.
  2. SMS is easy to spoof. If I have even basic carrier access, I can send a message to your dad from your number.
  3. SMS is not secure - at all.
  4. I can initiate a number port on your number, and while that port request will likely fail, it's possible that I can receive messages that were destined for you in the short term.

But sure. It works for anyone on any phone.

Nath ,
@Nath@aussie.zone avatar

I only watched the first 10 reasons, but the first was enough for me. I don't have to, the law explicitly says you can cycle on the road. Beyond that, my reasons are my own. I'm glad he laid it out for viewers, but I don't think many motorists will sit through all the reasons, either.

Bikes were on roads before motor vehicles. Bikes will be on roads after people stop owning private motor vehicles. The idea that cars own the roads is not one I subscribe to.

Like most cyclists, I am also a motorist. The idea that we are two totally combative and distinct classes of road users is also not one I subscribe to. I think we'd all be better road users if non-cyclists were convinced to use the roads as the "other" side more frequently.

Nath , (edited )
@Nath@aussie.zone avatar

Maybe fare compensation is where you get your public transport fares covered by your employer if you have to go into the office?

jimcullen , to Brisbane

The longest-running scientific experiment, the Pitch Drop at the University of Queensland, Brisbane @brisbane

ALT
  • Reply
  • Expand (9)
  • Collapse (9)
  • Loading...
  • Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    It would be weird if university students weren't protesting something.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    Ahh, here's the post I hadn't seen yet because I was at work.

    I'll throw my suggestion in here as well, but you kids may not remember the reference:
    LifeBeInIt

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    Ok it exists (!ausfit). Go make a post in it so I can mod you. I'm still at work (only 4:15 here), so I can't do up a banner/icon yet.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    Being clear: nobody is getting their debt "wiped out". This isn't a debt forgiveness that you missed out on by already having paid your loan off. The HECS indexation last year resulted in unfair loan interest of 7.1% being applied to debts for 2023. HECS was never intended to do that to people. The "wipe out" is an adjustment of this interest only for last year.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    This was great. My biggest hesitation with all these protests about domestic violence and spending a Billion dollars combating it was that I didn't know what was possible to do about it. Other than de-normalising violence, I couldn't see what the point was. You can't exactly pass a law saying it's illegal to assault and kill people - it's already illegal.

    So, I disagree with this guy on one point: We don't all know what immediately needs to be done. I had no clue, at least.

    I love that when he was challenged, he had a list of things that needed to happen. Now. And he seems to only just be getting started. I'm sold - we need to listen to the people in the trenches who are facing domestic violence. They're the ones who know what needs to be done.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    Why on earth would we have no empathy for them? I cannot imagine what it takes to hold and comfort a 10 year old child dying in my arms who has been stabbed by their parent. With two kids around that age myself, I'd be a complete wreck! And he's attended up to 20 domestic violence calls in a night! For years!

    Nothing but respect for someone who can do that.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    Most of the vitriol I see is directed at US police. Being an Australian instance, we don't get that so much.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    Uber did that to me, too! In the early days, drivers used to offer you minties. I ended up buying them for myself for a while there.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    This is all super fascinating from a macro view. Originally telephony services (landlines) were provided by a government utility. That utility was privatised in the late-20th century with certain guarantees that they will continue to provide a certain standard of telephony services.

    Along come all these mobile carriers, who are providing a private service without the same level of assurance they will meet those requirements. You probably don’t notice, but when you sign up to a mobile or VoIP telephony service, you’ll routinely agree to waive those guarantees (do a quick google of “csg waiver”). In short: Most non-Telstra carriers won’t/don’t actually guarantee you can reach 000, or meet the government CSG. Only that they’ll try their best.

    It looks like the government is considering stepping in and putting an end to that practice. It’ll be a huge shake up to the telco industry.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    Well, for a start - Telstra still honours the CSG. You could argue that Telstra today is better than Telecom of the 90's. But, it's impossible to say how much Telecom would have evolved and improved with the same technology advancements that have come along. I seriously doubt that Telecom would have jumped into the Internet space as quickly as Telstra did. Even Telstra was a bit late to the Internet Provider party.

    Why do “we” (the voting public) keep falling for this shit?

    It's not so much the things that are privatised, it's what that privatisation pays for. Recent WA privatisations are paying for Metronet - which is a massive uplift to the Perth's public transport network, providing new lines, stations and trains. Hundreds of thousands of people are benefiting from that.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    Parenting subs can be weird. Someone didn't like what a pediatrician told them about their kid. Proceeds to get support and validation from the sub. I piped in and said something like it might be smarter to follow the advice of an actual doctor over a bunch of randoms on the Internet. Even getting a second doctor's opinion.

    Was my most downvoted comment in 12 years of using Reddit.

    How many of you 9-5s have been given work from home forever ?

    My mate works for an Indian company and got WFH forever. I was in shock because I never thought any company can give a work from home option forever ? Does any Australian company gives you such an option ? If so, please name those companies and job titles so that I can start applying for jobs there.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    Not in WA. We mostly sailed through the whole Covid thing business as usual. There's more work from home than there was before 2020, but I don't know any company that has all its employees remote.

    My employer has a few people working from home, but it's usually because they're working for customers in different states. It's certainly not normal and not assured to always be remote.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    It's a myth that house prices always go up. There are plenty of apartments in Melbourne CBD around $400k, which is what they cost ten years ago.

    Yes, nice big 4 bedroom two bathroom houses in nice suburbs have massively increased in value. But the bottom end hasn't moved nearly so much, because the buying power of the bottom end purchasers hasn't increased by that much.

    Australian prime minister labels Elon Musk ‘an arrogant billionaire who thinks he is above the law’ ( www.theguardian.com )

    Australia’s prime minister has labelled X’s owner, Elon Musk, an “arrogant billionaire who thinks he is above the law” as the rift deepens between Australia and the tech platform over the removal of videos of a violent stabbing in a Sydney church....

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    For that much money, they could almost buy Twitter. Isn’t it only worth about $4Billion now?

    To really rub salt in the wound, they should leave Elon with the “X” brand and only buy Twitter. Let the users decide whether they are Twitter users or X users.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    After that happened in the movie, I was angry that a big moment had been denied me. I basically stopped watching trailers of any film I intended to see that day.

    People who are into movies say that the trailer is a part of the experience. But I’d prefer to go in completely unspoiled.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    Well, yes.

    Our assorted clans, tribes, societies or cultures regardless of where or when in our species’ history have always relied on a stream of babies. Needing babies is not in question.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    From a purely business perspective, gaining a well-educated taxpayer in 20 years is going to cost a lot more than $10k (healthcare, education etc). But, is an extra $10k investment now worth that taxpayer in 20 years?

    I personally pay well over this amount annually in taxes. It sounds like a good investment on the face of it I just don’t know how many people this will pay for.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    Other than being a physical card, is there anything else wrong with them?

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    The first one I didn’t know! And yes, this one is absolutely the most obscure cover of an even more obscure song I think I’ve heard of.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    If it were a state in Australia, it would be our third-smallest.

    That’s more a statement on the USA’s tiny states than anything specific against Texas though.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    While not for the particular charge of contempt of senate and not a complete list, these CEOs have been imprisoned in the past 20 years:

    • Andrew Ferguson, Bight Abalone
    • Matthew Perrin, Billabong
    • Gavin Pollock, Shire of Ravensthorpe
    • Daniel Tartak, Bingo Industries (skip bins) *
    • Emmanuel Roussakis, Aussie Skips *
    • These two were convicted together for price fixing

    Being a CEO doesn’t put you above the law. It just buys you better lawyers.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    I just pasted the names and companies from the first few Google hits. There were plenty more hits, but I wasn’t going to read them all.

    I actually couldn’t find anyone who had ever been imprisoned for contempt of senate. The charge exists, and a prison term is possible, but I don’t know that it has ever actually happened. It comes over as an hollow threat.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    £1,212 is more like $1,500 US dollars. Which is nuts.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    For our instance, the users have in fact donated and keep us running. I’m not sure why you’d think users are unwilling to donate.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    Asking $12/yr for software seems like pulling teeth to some.

    That may be your problem. We don’t ask for anything specific. We simply make a post with how much the service costs and how much users have donated. Users are smart and can take things from there.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    Working the name “Taylor Swift” into any news article is the ultimate 2024 click bait.

    It must suck for her PR people. They have to read articles about all sorts of unrelated matters to make sure they aren’t actually about Taylor Swift.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    It’s nearly time to try again. It’s been 15 years since the last trial/referendum. That was 15 years after the previous trial/referendum.

    We’re too close to an election to rock the boat now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were rolled out next term.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    I always loved it. I liked the sun setting around 8:30-9pm. I don’t really see the point in dawn being at 4:30am, as I’m never awake for it anyway.

    Where it really makes a difference though is if you work with colleagues over East. I start work at the start of their lunch time, so I’m totally unavailable all morning. Same on the other side - their day is winding up by the end of lunch, so I only really have the morning.

    I know it’s only an hour, but it really makes a difference for communication to the other side of the country.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    It isn’t a monopoly though. Even ignoring the Blizzards, Epics and GOGs of the web, any developer can host their game on their own Web site and market it completely independently of Steam and keep 100% of their takings.

    The monopoly on storefront argument holds water in mobile land where side-loading a game is not possible/easy. In the world of computers though, I don’t think the same standard applies.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    The author has a MacBook and has discovered that the new Apple Silicon is terrible for games. Particularly 32-bit games. It turns out Valve hasn’t re-made these 10-20 year old games to compensate for Apple’s hardware compatibility changes.

    Somehow, that’s Valve’s fault and a sign that they’re going down the drain.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    That’s only legal in like two countries.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    I know I was super late to the party, but I’m genuinely surprised that nobody has said Skyrim, yet.

    Before that, Subnautica (both of them).

    But I’ve probably spent as much time in Skyrim as both Subnautica games combined.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    Are Land Cruisers not a thing in the USA? Because they are the ultimate off-road vehicle.

    I’m sure you have the Hilux and there is no place where I’d choose to take a Jeep over a Hilux.

    Nath ,
    @Nath@aussie.zone avatar

    We call that car the “Sierra” in Australia. Perfect beach/dune car. Not ideal for rougher terrain, though. In fairness, the biggest thing it has going against it is the narrow wheelbase. It doesn’t fit right on the tracks made by all the other 4x4’s. If all those tracks had instead been made by narrower vehicles, it might not be so bad.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • random
  • tech
  • kbinEarth
  • testing
  • interstellar
  • wanderlust
  • All magazines