So I went to check out this blue sky thing. It turns out I actually created an account on there at some point under my real name. I don’t remember doing that, it had to be before Aussie.zone became a thing.

So I log into it, I’m already following half a dozen accounts that I don’t remember following (but they’re awesome people like George Takai and Mara Wilson).

Review:
It’s all about US politics and how awful Twitter is. Boring. 😔

I never sent a single tweet in 15 years, I can’t see myself using this site either.

Under the Commonwealth Electoral Act, registered political parties receive a dollar amount for every legal first-preference vote they receive once they pass the 4% minimum. The per-vote rate is indexed to inflation and, at the 2022 election, was $2.914.

Currently, the rate sits at $3.35 per eligible vote. Under the government’s proposed changes, the rate would rise to $5. On top of that, registered parties would receive another $30,000 per MP and $15,000 per senator in “administrative” funding.

I can see how $5 per first-preference vote is a lot. Perhaps a scale for $5 for the first 20% of the votes and then $3 per vote after that?

I don’t see how this change punishes anyone, however. It’s a raise for everyone. If your complaint is basically ‘those guys get more money because they get more votes’, my response becomes ‘then, do something to make people want to vote for you and not those guys’.

Before anyone says that’s not easy to do, I agree. How do we solve that? The Green party has been going for 40 years. They have never held government and show no sign of holding government in the next 20 years. The Teal candidates came out of nowhere in the last 10 years and and did very well in the last election - but they had financial assistance beyond AEC funding.

Covid boosters are like a flu shot these days. For the last two years, I’ve gotten them both in a single visit. WA government has a programme where they’re free at the start of the season.

Has anyone actually written out a cheque in their personal banking chequebook this century? I only did it occasionally in ye olden days, and mostly to post payments to utilities and pay rent etc. I don’t think I ever stood in a store and wrote out a cheque. Hardly any would accept them without a prior arrangement.

I’ve used bank cheques this century, but not lately. Who’s out there writing cheques?

There are a few retailers these days who don’t deal with cash. It’s just as weird to me as the retailers who only deal with cash.

At the moment, the majority of us agree that immigration is necessary - particularly of skilled workers. We also agree that we need people in some trades desperately. But, it’s a leap to accept unskilled people into tafe courses and apprenticeship programs.

I see the problems, no idea how to fix them.

I do know that we can’t discuss it in a sensible debate. Particularly not in an election year.

Huh. Back in my Brunswick E. days, I had the TV too loud one night and my neighbors politely asked me to turn it down. Which, of course I did. Because we are all grown-ups.

I never had the note experience. I think I’d just chuck it and ignore it. I honestly don’t know what I’d do with it. “What is this high school shit?”

The problem basically boils down to a design feature (or flaw) in the original Lemmy code. The different instances update each other transaction by transaction. Each lemmy.world upvote, post, comment etc is sent to the other instances one by one. Because lemmy.world is in Finland and Aussie.zone is in Sydney, that takes about a quarter of a second.

Lemmy devs never pictured a situation where one instance would get so big that they couldn’t update everyone in a timely manner. Basically, lemmy.world generates more than four upvotes, comments, posts etc per second. So it took until this afternoon for me to see your comment.

The latest version of Lemmy code allows instances to open more than one stream of updates. When/if lemmy.world upgrades to that version, they’ll be able to open several channels to update the other instances.

I am constantly aware that I work in a bubble of very smart, talented and fairly-paid people. That the people I work with aren’t a slice of “average” Australia. But within that bubble of IT workers, we absolutely have that global cultural influence CEO was speaking about.

Then there’s the kids. They go to school in a mix of kids from all over. Its a great equaliser. They don’t know where their mates ‘are from’, almost everyone was born here. I get it from their names.

It’s easy to look at the news and think our influences are all US/UK. But I think as each generation goes by, they’ll be less central to what makes an Australian.

What emerges from that mix? I’m keen to see it. What we already have is clearly recognised by the British themselves as something distinctly separate from their culture.

I understand the paper solution, and I’m all on-board with it. But I’d still whip that up as a spreadsheet and print it out. Not because I couldn’t make such a chart by hand, just that it would never occur to me.

I’m a little impressed. 👍

Are people going through keyboards/mice like some sort of consumables?
I’m looking at reviews for a mouse, and something supposedly good about it is that it lasted some person four whole years. I’ve been using the mouse on my work PC for 15 years, it was the first Bluetooth mouse I purchased. I’ve been using this keyboard for 10 years, and the only reason I bought it was that I was no longer typing on my laptop keyboard. Side note: I would love to buy another one just like this one for home, but it doesn’t exist any more.

10 years with no signs of slowing in the next decade sounds right to me. 15 years for the mouse and the only reason I’m considering replacing it is I’d like one that can switch between multiple devices and maybe do away with AA batteries. Do people really go through peripherals quickly?

It doesn’t sound like someone who is on the same team as you. 😞

That actually sounds really wholesome. Plus I like baking. I’ll give is a shot. As a rule, I avoid reality TV because it’s awful.

The spreadsheet of gifts has already started on this end. I need to get up to three gifts for each person (One from wife and I, then 1-2 from the kids). There are two Christmas parties this year, and the in-law side is going to be so big this year, the adults are doing a secret santa to reduce the gift load at least amongst ourselves.

That leaves me buying 25-35ish gifts just for the extended family. Not including the four of us. Experience has taught me that leaving the shopping to the last week before Christmas is a terrible plan. Oh! And the final week of November has a kids’ birthday, Sister’s birthday, Niece’s birthday, Father-in-law’s birthday and our Wedding Anniversary. Gotta get through all that before I really start stressing about Christmas.

The only real reality TV shows are on the sports channel. Everything else is edited/scripted. 😀

I nearly bought one in 2007. It was between a Mazda 6 and a Pulsar. In the end, I went with the Pulsar because it was $2k cheaper, and all other things about the cars were pretty equal.

My life circumstances changed over the next decade (had a family), and the Pulsar was a bit small for us by the end. I ended up wishing I’d gone with the Mazda.

I think you made the right choice.

Or you drive serious km. It’s designed for people who need a car for their job.

Take a kid. Then you are a parent or uncle and they’ll think you’re cool, again. They’ll even let you buy PlayStation games without judgement if you have a kid in tow!

Prominent members of Australia’s neo-Nazi network have also launched a series of targeted harassment campaigns at police officers.

Sewell said on a livestream that his followers had identified a Victoria police officer who, in recent demonstrations, attempted to remove a mask from a neo-Nazi protester.

He boasted that he had uncovered personal information on the officer, saying members of his group had saved wedding photos and images of the officer’s family.

They may be adept at skirting the edges of the law, and staying out of prison. But there is no collusion with police. Quite the opposite, in fact. These guys will be under close scrutiny from police, and they in-turn are trying to doxx the police officers who they are at-odds with.

Do it today. Petrol usually goes up on Friday. Plus, you’ll enjoy your day off more if you know you don’t need to waste a pile of it doing the shopping.