zik
@zik@aussie.zone
- Comment on How many of you 9-5s have been given work from home forever ? 6 months ago:
I work in software and we’re permanently work from home. (I don’t want to name my employer but they’re a medium sized company)
- Comment on There's a baby drought in Australia. Maybe we should fund IVF? 6 months ago:
I’m literally one of those people who you say is vanishingly small.
- Comment on Federal Court publishes affidavit detailing Seven Network payments to Bruce Lehrmann, including for sex, drugs 7 months ago:
The producer who was lumped with this was horrified and handed in his resignation the next day. I don’t think he was happy with the situation.
- Comment on Draining entire superannuation savings wouldn’t cover most young couples’ home deposits, research finds 7 months ago:
It’s a fair point but my intention was to bracket the possible returns.
- Comment on Draining entire superannuation savings wouldn’t cover most young couples’ home deposits, research finds 7 months ago:
I worked in the superannuation industry for a while. I wouldn’t say that super is exactly a scam but it’s a terrible mess and the fees we pay on super in Australia are insane. Basically we have a lot of parasites taking a cut and that ends up making the standard funds poor investments. Median returns on the super funds are around 5.6% pa (over ten years for the standard “balanced” option) at a time when stock market tracking funds have appreciated by over 8% pa. A lot of that is being lost in inefficiencies and fees.
By comparison Americans with a 401k invested in the NASDAQ would have made 17.3% pa over the same period.
We’re getting a terrible deal with superannuation, and it’s our retirements which are being stolen from us.
- Comment on Draining entire superannuation savings wouldn’t cover most young couples’ home deposits, research finds 7 months ago:
Aside from anything else, I’ve seen a couple of examples of downsizing up close and in neither case did it end up with them making very much money on the deal. They just ended up with smaller places.
In the first case they ended up with a small apartment which they actually ended up having to sell some of their retirement investments to be able to afford after selling a large family home in the outer suburbs and paying all the costs associated with selling.
In the other case she moved from a large family home in the outer suburbs into one of those “retirement communities”. The whole thing’s a massive scam. You “buy” the unit but you don’t actually own it, you just own a leasehold on it. You’re not allowed to even improve or renovate it - they impose rules on you more like a rental. And when you move out you’re not allowed to sell it, they reserve the right to sell it and pay you a massively discounted price. Essentially they steal half the value of what you originally paid in a time when house prices are going up as well. It’s straight up theft from old people who are trusting and compliant.
- Comment on “We cannot support it:” Polestar follows Tesla out of car lobby over Toyota led campaign 8 months ago:
Toyota really screwed up in deciding that Hydrogen was the energy of the future. Even when everyone else in the world went with electricity they persisted in their failed vision. It’s a shame that an otherwise great manufacturer should fall victim to such massive hubris but honestly I think their days are numbered as a major vehicle manufacturer.
There’s no chance that hydrogen’s going to be a long term success for them and with all their eggs in the one basket it looks like they’re dead men walking.
- Comment on How Australian undercover police ‘fed’ an autistic 13-year-old’s fixation with Islamic State 9 months ago:
Ah, I see
- Comment on Police call Pride protesters 'an ugly rabble' 9 months ago:
Police weren’t happy about gay pride back in the 1970s and it seems they haven’t really evolved since then.
- Comment on How Australian undercover police ‘fed’ an autistic 13-year-old’s fixation with Islamic State 9 months ago:
There’s no such thing as Miranda rights in Australia - it’s an American law. We do however have “the right to silence”, and must be informed of that right by police on arrest so it has a similar effect.
- Comment on How Australian undercover police ‘fed’ an autistic 13-year-old’s fixation with Islamic State 9 months ago:
Here’s one on his lack of mental compentence to testify at his own trial.
Apparently Singapore contacted our intelligence service and ASIO organised the sting with the FBI. Prior to that he had no buyer. That’s consistent with the Wikipedia article.
I can’t find a reference now for the documents not actually being classified - I remember this from media coverage at the time. I think the story was that they were USGS maps which were subsequently publically available or something like that.
- Comment on How Australian undercover police ‘fed’ an autistic 13-year-old’s fixation with Islamic State 9 months ago:
Even worse I can think of two other cases of the Federal Police and ASIO doing similar things:
- Scott Rush, one of the “Bali 9”, was imprisoned in Indonesia after a tip-off from the AFP. This followed his parents alerting the AFP in advance and them reassuring the parents that they’d keep him out of trouble - then waiting until the crime had been committed and tipping off the Indonesian police to take the credit.
- Jean-Philippe Wispelaere was a defence intelligence officer with mental illness who was imprisoned for selling secrets to Singapore. The “secrets” turned out to be publically available maps - not secret at all - and he had no interest in selling any information until the sting operation by an Australian government organisation and the FBI. He was eventually arrested by the FBI and remains in prison today.
- Comment on Australia developing 'top secret' intelligence cloud computing system 11 months ago:
Not so “Top Secret” any more, now that it’s been in the news…
- Comment on Centrelink should consider waiving 100,000 debts that may be unlawful, ombudsman report finds 11 months ago:
More than that, press criminal charges since they’re unlawful.
- Comment on Decision to allow wider truck bodies paves way for electrification of big rigs in Australia 1 year ago:
The fuck you say?
- Comment on Decision to allow wider truck bodies paves way for electrification of big rigs in Australia 1 year ago:
Contrary to what the other comments are saying, there’s no compelling reason why goods transport by train can’t be done here when it can be done elsewhere. It was done in the past but then we started spending billions to subsidise trucks and passed a variety of laws to benefit road transport. Plus allowing the taxpayer to cover the cost of road wear caused by trucks which totals more billions per year.
So in the end it was a pure policy decision - in the 1950s various lobby groups pushed for the introduction of laws to favor road transport over rail transport and in 1957 the first laws were passed. The rest is history.
- Comment on No love lost: AppLovin helpfully releases tool to switch from Unity to Godot or Unreal 1 year ago:
Godot supports C# as well as its native python-like GDscript.
- Comment on 'Have a second look': Surge in motorcycle deaths prompts desperate plea to drivers 1 year ago:
Nice victim blaming. Most motorcyclist deaths are due to them being hit by cars, but it’s their fault you’re saying?
- Comment on Sam Bankman-Fried is going to jail 1 year ago:
Big investors into his company got burned too.
- Comment on All smartphones, including iPhones, must have replaceable batteries by 2027 in the EU 1 year ago:
But now you have to charge two things rather than one. Some people would prefer not to have to do that.
- Comment on REDcycle founder says she had 'no doubt' stockpiled plastic would be recycled 1 year ago:
There are no facilities in Australia which can recycle soft plastics in commercial quantities. It requires a special process which is very energy intensive and expensive to run (“depolymerisation”). The only country in the world which does it at commercial scale is Japan, and even the they only process around 10% of their soft plastics. So, it’s better than the 0% we do here.
It’s unlikely to ever be done here in Australia because it’s a lot more expensive than just making new plastic.