Tau
@Tau@aussie.zone
- Comment on Australian electric car market to get influx of new models as cheaper EVs hit the road 1 week ago:
The little Honda is a pretty attractive idea, looks nice and it’s good to see something that’s supposedly designed to be fun to drive rather than yet another sluggish poor handling SUV.
The BYD Atto 1 I think though is a more significant model simply because it’s something that’s at least approaching affordable to an average person. That 24k price is really narrowing the gap between the cheapest cars and cheapest EVs and I expect will result in a noticeable increase in uptake.
I like that another van option is appearing too, it’s sure to be well above a price I can justify but having more secondhand options in the future will be good for me when my Transporter gets beyond logical upkeep.
- Comment on Happy New Year 2 weeks ago:
- Comment on Happy New Year 2 weeks ago:
Pretty good so far, hopefully it’ll continue that way
- Submitted 2 weeks ago to australia@aussie.zone | 6 comments
- Comment on Soft plastic recycling coming back with new facility open in NSW 2 weeks ago:
That would be the best idea to reduce the issue and there is a lot that could be cut out. For example looking at recent shopping the potatoes could have come in a hessian bag instead of plastic (or loose and paper bagged in the shop for small amounts) and the lettuce really did not need to be in its own plastic bag. Soft plastic is harder to replace though for some things (e.g. cheese) so having a way to recycle what will be used is good.
- Submitted 2 weeks ago to australia@aussie.zone | 7 comments
- Comment on Australia’s roads are full of giant cars, and everyone pays the price. What can be done? 4 weeks ago:
Depends on the state. NSW for example is one that does vary depending on weight (based on weight ranges, not a full sliding scale) - there’s a ~$180 difference between my sedan and van due to the van’s tare weight placing it in the next category up. QLD on the other hand is one that doesn’t - they charge based on the cylinder count instead.
- Comment on It took years to come up with a plan to cut road deaths, and just 11 days to kill it 4 weeks ago:
Shouldn’t have taken them years to figure out it was a poor idea but I guess that’s what you get when there’s such a vested interest in demonising speed. I’m quite happy it got kiboshed - it’s a rare case of government actually listening to the people.
- Comment on As of December 10th, You need to be sixteen to use Aussie.Zone 1 month ago:
Zip disks ain’t that old!
That’s what I like to think as well, but I guess it has been a while. It’s like how I think 90s cars are still fairly recent until I see ones rolling around with historic rego…
- Comment on As of December 10th, You need to be sixteen to use Aussie.Zone 1 month ago:
One of the places I work at has a display cabinet showing historical media formats and devices, seeing things in it like the zip disc and the Sony camera that took floppies always make me feel like Elrond:
- Comment on Australia | Teenagers sue over social media ban for ‘violating their right to communicate’ 1 month ago:
Discord implemented age verification due to us and the UK moving towards such laws, a third party involved in this was breached and ~70k users had information leaked (though presumably not all of these included IDs). Approx 68k of these users turned out to be Australian.
- Comment on Australia | Teenagers sue over social media ban for ‘violating their right to communicate’ 1 month ago:
It’s pretty depressing to see how many people in favour of this are prepared to make everyone suffer invasive demands for personal information in order to use a good portion of the internet. These laws haven’t even come into force yet and they’ve already caused harm in the form of tens of thousands of leaked IDs, to say nothing of the problems with further reducing anonymity of discussion in an increasingly authoritarian world.
- Comment on WeRide: Cycling community celebrates reinstatement of e-bike standard 1 month ago:
The continuous output is where average people actually want more power though, one of the main points of ebikes is to reduce effort from climbing hills. Most people are not going to be at your level of fitness or investment in cycling (in both the physical and mental sense) and just want to get places without needing a shower afterwards. I can see why you want to keep a purer form of something you have an interest in (similarly I think there is limited need for automatic transmissions outside of disability) but there is a case for more power if you want more people to be riding than driving.
- Comment on WeRide: Cycling community celebrates reinstatement of e-bike standard 1 month ago:
The 250w limit in EN15194 is overly low, NSW finally changed their laws to a more sensible 500w a few years back so this change will make it so you can’t import a whole variety of bikes you can legally ride. Even 750w isn’t a problem IMO, having ridden one (with throttle and all) I’d class it as definitely still on the bicycle end of things rather than an actual motorbike.
Looking on the bright side though import restrictions will hopefully induce more manufacturers to do ADR compliance for those of us who do actually want the motorbike end of ‘ebikes’, even for dirt bikes the ability to rego them makes them much more useful for non-track riding.
- Comment on Should Newcastle to Sydney bullet train really be first link built of Melbourne to Brisbane route? 2 months ago:
It sounds a logical start point, the central coast and Newcastle have a large population base to work with and it’s not that far apart. The sheer amount of tunnel for that route compared to what one would expect with a corridor through more open country is a downside but you might as well start somewhere rather than talk about it for a few more decades.
- Comment on UK's rival to the Tim Tam can no longer be called chocolate 2 months ago:
They’re most of the way there but fall a bit short of a real Tim Tam. I find the chocolate has a slight sourness to it compared to the original (as if they let an American pick the recipe) - not enough to stop me eating them but enough to reduce the normal Tim Tam desire to rip through a whole packet.
The Choceur chocolate blocks however tend to be a quite acceptable replacement for Cadbury and even Whittaker so not all hope is lost for more affordable chocolates.
- Comment on 'Nothing' done to address gaps created by teen social media ban, says children's commissioner 2 months ago:
Over the last few years I think all our states have now banned phones from being visible in school, so there’s efforts towards reducing usage at least within school. That’s a relatively recent move though and does only cut down on usage during part of the day so I don’t know if there’s been a noticeable effect on the kids.
- Comment on 'Nothing' done to address gaps created by teen social media ban, says children's commissioner 2 months ago:
Doesn’t that sound exactly like the “can somebody please think about the children” argument?
It is that, but the ban in question is being justified by that same poor argument so it might as well be fired right back again.
- Comment on ‘Glamping’ proposal for NSW national parks slammed as privatising public assets 2 months ago:
From my reading it’s going to be the same campgrounds that already exist, but now with a commercial operator being able to book a proportion of the sites before the public can. I don’t know if they will physically separate the commercially booked sites but at this point I have seen no mention of expanding or creating campgrounds for this purpose.
I am ideologically against letting commercial operators into this field - I accept the reality that camping fees in national parks are a necessary evil to help with provision of services and reduce false bookings, but I think if such fees are going to exist the money should go directly to Parks rather than have the majority go to a private company. Commercial camping operations should be operating on private land rather than public - that way public access to public land is not reduced and the public gets limited access to land they would not otherwise get to (the camping might even help fund preservation of said private land).
- Submitted 2 months ago to australia@aussie.zone | 6 comments
- Submitted 2 months ago to australia@aussie.zone | 40 comments
- Comment on Inquiry finds British committed genocide on Indigenous Australians 4 months ago:
The 1830’s??? ???
Melbourne was founded later than you’d expect given its prominence in size and historical political power, it was indeed started in the mid 1830s. Before that there was a bit of exploration in Victoria but basically all settlements of size were in NSW and Tasmania (the expeditions for Melbourne left from Launceston, which had been going for a couple of decades by that point).
- Comment on Researchers asked AI to show a typical Australian dad: he was white and had an iguana 5 months ago:
I guess you’re a prime example of someone looking to be offended then, because I really haven’t said anything racist.
- Comment on Researchers asked AI to show a typical Australian dad: he was white and had an iguana 5 months ago:
Turns out that when you go out hunting for things to be offended by you tend to find them.
The "Aboriginal Australian’s house’ one for example was clearly going to be a no-win situation regardless of the output - if the model returned the same house as the ‘Australian’s house’ image they’d be writing instead about how offensive it was to ignore traditional culture.
- Comment on Shoring up Australia's remaining industry an investment rather than bailout 5 months ago:
“Every closure of a manufacturing facility is a loss of sovereign capability and compromises Australia’s ability to build a more complex and dynamic knowledge-driven economy.”
I agree with this sentiment, I don’t think it is a good idea long term to lose manufacturing capability and knowledge. I would however prefer that a stake in the company is transferred to the government when they have to spend large sums bailing out a facility due to it being in the national interest to do so.
- Submitted 5 months ago to australia@aussie.zone | 3 comments
- Comment on Chinwag's age verification process 5 months ago:
This is unironically a good method.
Agreed. I think the age verification laws are a rubbish idea but if one has to comply with them this is actually one of the better options for doing so - particularly for smaller sites. Something similar is worth considering as an option for this site when necessary as it’s both something I’d actually consider doing (unlike a licence photo) and does not set the admins up for potential issues regarding having to store sensitive personal information.
- Comment on Supersized stick insect discovered in high-altitude trees in Australia 5 months ago:
Nah, just hand me that long stick there”
…and that’s when they found the really big stick insect.
- Comment on Legislation to reduce student loan debt by 20% passes Parliament 5 months ago:
Would have been nice a couple of years ago before I paid off the last of mine, but I guess one can’t have everything…
- Submitted 5 months ago to australia@aussie.zone | 2 comments
