shirro

@shirro@aussie.zone

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Reddit files legal challenge against social media ban for under-16s⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Not really. The legislation is stupid but the big tech companies are predatory and needed to be regulated. As does the gambling industry.

  It is just very poorly done. I have to go find a new music app now for the family as we can’t all use Youtube Music Premium anymore so it is a waste of money. My kids youtube accounts were managed under family link and had comments disabled some content restrictions and no ads. The ads are as harmful as social media IMO - sexualising kids, creating insecurity over appearance, clothing, weight, pushing unhealthy food, gambling, divisive politics.

  I can use hacked youtube clients on some platforms but they are closed source from less trusted parties and could be a security risk. I can try and trick YT with vpns and a set of new accounts but thats going to be tricky. Making fake adult accounts is no good as I can’t manage adult accounts under family link and apply the restrictions I want.

  But reddit can fuck right off. Hope they get laughed out of court.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Kia and Dettol ads top complaints list for 2025⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  sport

  I stopped watching sport years ago. I used to watch the footy every weekend. Summer tv was cricket. I remember ringing up a tv station once as a kid infuriated because I had been watching golf all day and they cut away just as the competition was being decided. Now all sport is tainted by gambling, overpaid and obnoxious personalities, and too much commercialism. I don’t know who plays for the teams I used to follow. I don’t care anymore.

  All my browsers are ad-blocked. I sometimes pay subscriptions to remove ads. I was time shifting for a few years to ad skip commercial tv but there was better content in higher quality on bittorrent, then streaming and now I don’t bother plugging an aerial into tvs or tuning the channels.

  Perhaps one day the ad market will collapse and sport will move back to the public broadcasters where it was before people worked out how to ruin it with money. Until then I can live without it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Honest Government Ad | Social Media Ban⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Yep. The ads are worse than the content. I am sure the government doesn’t care. They love that industry almost as much as the gambling and mining industries. I was happy to pay family premium and have some portion of the revenue go to creators though I wasn’t happy about the multiple price rises.

  I would be ad blocking and using specialized apps if I had little kids but I gave my little kids ABC for Kids and a media library instead when they were young. They are older now and I want them to learn to be responsible media consumers with some assistance. I also want them to be able to use their settings across a wide range of devices. They have access to a large number of devices with an assortment of operating systems. A kiosk solution isn’t what I am looking for. Youtube’s family accounts and premium gave me everything apart from removing shorts and front page which I could do with browser extensions. Those last two are what should have been regulated IMO.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Honest Government Ad | Social Media Ban⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  These are unofficial workarounds for features that could be regulated if esafety had a clue and weren’t working for the industry. Google could add options in acct settings and in family link. They don’t because they make more profit by driving engagement.

  Kids will now watch YouTube without logins,.lose their hand picked educational subscriptions and get lowest common denominator engagement bait on their front page. The ALP just handed kids over to the bad guys. I am furious. I will probably block YT via DNS now because the gov took my parental control away. They clearly don’t give a fuck about my kids.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Honest Government Ad | Social Media Ban⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  YouTube’s parent controls allowed me to set “age appropriate content” sort of(my kids are older) disabled comments, remove ads with premium. But they never allowed me to remove shorts or recommendations either for myself or my kids because they want the addiction dial set to 11. The government have made a mess of things but the companies are far from innocent. It’s a shame the govt went after age verification instead of consumer rights to disable all the crap. Very poorly advised. Big tech will come out of this stronger and more evil and will work out ways to target vulnerable people without logins.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Honest Government Ad | Social Media Ban⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I have been very proactive as a parent keeping my kids away from shit social media. The government never asked me. I sent them feedback. They gave me a form response. I support being able to opt out of algorithms and attention spam. I should be championing what they are doing. I support protecting kids from immoral corporations who don’t give a fuck about their welfare. But the response is half arsed and full of bullshit. We deserved better.

  And we deserve more variety in politics. Sensible moderate parties with sensible policies as an alternative to the ALP for Labor voters. I suspect a lot of trad liberal voters feel the same about their mob.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨As of December 10th, You need to be sixteen to use Aussie.Zone⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  This account will be visiting from another geolocation which isn’t subject to Australian laws and will henceforth identify as a foreign bot trying to disrupt Australian society and promote disunity. I request to be labelled as a foreign asset, not subject to age authorisation. In small print add “works for gambling industry, owns coal mine, makes political donations, VIP, mates with Albo and the Pope”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨E-bike rules in Australia will soon change with possible ban on sale of bikes faster than 25km/h⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  We need to roll back much of the the vehicularisation of cycling that empowers risk seekers, predominantly men, to ride invisibly amongst massive trucks. That means building out more separated infrastructure for old people, children, families and risk averse cyclists who don’t want to live out the rest of their lives with severe brain injuries sustained when the driver of a motor vehicle has a momentary lapse of attention.

  We can’t have high powered electric motor bikes amongst human powered bikes on separated infrastructure. If they want to kill themselves riding amongst cars, just class them as motor bikes and upgrade their brakes and helmets and let them do 300km/h on the roads. Their organ donations are much appreciated.

  25km/h is fine for mixing with other traffic not protected by steel boxes and airbags. It might even be too much for some older cyclists. You might need more power than 250W for a heavily laded cargo bike going up a hill but those things also have the potential do more damage if they hit someone. So its a tradeoff. First we decide to provide safe cycling infrastructure independent of the roads and cars so we aren’t fighting over who gets what.

  Then we decide what is compatible with that infrastructure. I think we need to be more accepting of risk on mixed bike/pedestrian paths and less accepting of risk on mixed bike/motor vehicle roads. The pedestrian lobby kills cyclists. But not sure exactly where the balance lies. Some states don’t even let cyclists on foot paths. Insane.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bread tags on long list of plastic items to be phased out in NSW⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  NSW is ridiculously conservative and behind on so much. It took them (and Vic) 40 years to catch up with SA on container deposit. You still can’t ride a bike on a path there. Does every thing still shut when the sun goes down?

  Haven’t seen a plastic bread tag for over a year. The cardboard ones are not as study but kids go through bread quickly and we have a lot of reusable clips.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Australian households to get free electricity three hours a day⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Call me cynical but I suspect this will mainly shift load for the benefit of the network operators.

  I wouldn’t be surprised if supply charges and non-free hours go up to offset any income loss for the electricity suppliers. Weatlhy home owners with solar pv, large power demands, and expensive appliances who can take advantage of free hours might be better off. People in rentals or poorer home owners might be worse off and it could be yet another wealth transfer.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Chinese companies are largest shareholders in two Australian mines producing minerals vital for Beijing's hypersonic missiles, helping China to access key resources⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If they don’t buy from us they will buy from someone else. The main thing is to get our fair share which never happens and it doesn’t matter if the mines are owned by Chinese or as is more often the case US/UK. We should own all our countries resources and these companies should be extracting them under contract to the owners, not stealing the legacy for our future generations and evading payment of tax.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Australia has amongst the highest teacher shortages in the OECD⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I believe it is largely a retention problem. Major political parties are thoroughly captured by the private school lobby and the religious enterprises that run them. It’s almost like they are running the public system down to help out their mates.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨'America is not happy': ABC under fire for pulling Jimmy Kimmel Live!⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The US should be a lesson to all of us about what happens when electoral systems are left to wither and die.

  We all need electoral reform. UK and Canada probably need more democratic upper houses with proportional representation and preferential voting for their lower house and powers more like Australias. Once they are democratic they might as well be allowed to introduce legislation as well as review it.

  I think Australia should do something about parties that consistently get far less seats in the lower house than their proportion of votes by introducting extra seats for them. Perhaps mixed member proportional or similar. So the two party system gets a shakeup and new parties can emerge when one is doing poorly.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨'America is not happy': ABC under fire for pulling Jimmy Kimmel Live!⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Worse, they remake stuff with cgi and different voice actors.

  Watching tv with kids is great. The first time I heard my oldest laugh was watching Shaun the Sheep with him. The last one we had moved into the time when everyone had their own idiot screens and it wasn’t the same which I regret. I didn’t know Bluey existed until she kept nagging me to play games. Bandit is a tough act to follow.

  I can imagine Bluey and Bingo going out one Saturday with Chilli and Bandit and they arrive at their school slightly confused because it is the weekend. And there are lots of people there going into a hall. They find some friends and play with them. Bluey wants to see what the adults are doing so goes in with Bandit watches him give his name to be checked on the elector role then he puts some numbers in boxes. She grabs a free pencil which she thinks is awesome. They get some sausages and all agree it was a great day out.

  Then the American kids ask their parents why they never go and vote like Bandit and Chilli. And their parents say they couldn’t be bothered and it doesn’t make a difference.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Summer is coming. How long do you shower for?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  My water comes from a river. Water comes from that river, gets poured on grape vines, which get harvested and sent to an American owned winery that sends the product back to the USA where they keep all the profits. It takes 8 litres of water to grow a single almond.

  I haven’t watered my garden for years to help conserve water for that bullshit because as much as it sucks there is fuck all else bringing income into the local economy. No way am I reducing my shower time. If they run out of water they can bulldoze a few almond trees.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨'America is not happy': ABC under fire for pulling Jimmy Kimmel Live!⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  We should start writing basic political education into Bluey, pitched at the level of 5 year olds, and start pushing it into the US via Disney+ so the kids, and perhaps some of their parents have the tools they need to understand the world around them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨US Republicans warn Australia of ‘punitive measures’ over recognition of Palestinian state⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  A lot, if not most, poor white people are good people. Poverty doesn’t make people evil. That is class based propaganda and anyone who believes it has been fooled.

  The Trumpist alliance of fascists manipulates people with populist appeals and will use them as foot soldiers. A lot of white people feel alienated by the pace of change around them and that makes then susceptible. Just like the alt-health crown whose brains were broken by the pandemic. Or the young men who were brought up in digital cages and never learned social skills. Their leadership doesn’t give a fuck about those people. They are a means to an end.

  Also everyone needs to stop blaming boomers. Most are poor and worked hard all their life for fuck all and many are living out their days in miserable sub-standard aged care.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Australians soon facing age checks when viewing adult websites⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I guess I am going to have to replace our kids linux desktops with an estazi kommisar approved one with inbuilt spyware and advertising controlled by her American ex-employer.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨REMINDER: Check your NBN speeds after the weekend upgrade⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Still stuck on PMG copper with no relief in sight.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Australians soon facing age checks when viewing adult websites⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  If they want to block normies from porn and social media I don’t really give a shit. My fear is they are going to come after the fundamantal technology next: encryption, open source, open computing. eKaren used to work for very Big Tech. Everything about recent moves looks like a huge power grab for big tech and big media to data mine and control us more than ever with the force of government behind them.

  They won’t be happy with people like me not buying and using their products, blocking their ads etc. The ultimate enshitification approaches. Total corporate control of our lives. Our votes and opinions are theirs to influence for their benefit and not ours.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Australians soon facing age checks when viewing adult websites⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Which established media? Nine or Murdoch? I think we can assume by their silence that they have a seat at the table and are getting what they want.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Australia’s government trial of age‑assurance tech to keep under‑16s off social media says social media age checks can be done, despite errors and privacy risks⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m still totally stuck on how you’d stop a 14 year old from installing an off-the-shelf Lemmy container into his/her homelab and started using it.

  Things rarely proceed to the extremes as they get harder and more pushback the further you go. But the logical extension of wanting access to all public communications and verification of everyone’s online identity is that access to general computation has to be outlawed. Access to a programmable general purpose computer trivially defeats any restrictions you place on commercial services.

  We do need to think about how for profit companies forgo their social responsibility and mess with people’s heads in pursuit of profits and if that should be regulated and how. But there are clearly some creepy people online, who might be funded, but aren’t necessarily motivated solely by profit but by ideology who will find ways to target people whatever the government does. Kids need to be prepared to live in that world and be very skeptical and it just isn’t happening. Today’s kids are just as fucking stupid as we were and they can’t afford to be.

  The government have leapt straight to regulation, in my opinion likely pushed by some players in the tech industry and possibly five eyes without fully educating themselves. Potentially they are going to do more harm than good. I suspect a lot of kids are going to drift to less regulated and more extreme alternatives and we save a few kids from Tik Tok memes at the expense of more neo-nazi Christchurch shooters.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨France to sue Australian platform Kick for 'negligence' after livestream death⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Meanwhile the “think of the children” Australian government is hands off on any enterprise run by the gambling industry. So much for the wishes of the Labor rank and file to kick gambling influence out of the party. The parliamentary parties allegiances are clear. Do whatever US intelligence and the tech companies say about age verification. Do whatever the mining industry says. Do whatever the surveillance industry says. Do whatever the gambling industry says. Piss weak for a government with a huge majority.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cigarette prices to jump by almost 7% amid growing concern about Australia’s booming black market⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The government could really fuck up the black market if they were smart about it. How much margin do you have to make in a black market to offset the risk of prosecution? Just do the maths. When you control investigation, enforcement, prosecution and excises have to be really stupid to fuck it up like this.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anti-immigration rallies held across Australia as clashes break out in Adelaide and Melbourne⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This is a huge deflection from real issues. Rich cunts got richer, monopolizing our countries abundance of natural wealth and stacking the system in their favour through decades of government lobbying and corruption. Then they pay some fuckwit influencers to push the line that its the immigrant’s fault. They have been doing this shit for at least a century and its so fucking obvious if you spend 5 minutes researching shit.

  BTW Immigration rates are high, not because of bleeding heart lefties, but because rich people have a pyramid scheme based on population growth pushing up property prices and want us to keep fighting for jobs so we aren’t in a position to demand better wages.

  Immigration levels are too high because it benefits rich cunts. Join a union or environmental groups and vote on your own self interest.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Australian ban on fish-shaped plastic soy sauce dispensers a world first⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Only if they ban those shit single serve sauce packets first and go back to free sauce in your pie from a manky old plastic squeeze bottle.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Nobody ask Albo why an Australian gambling industry billionaire operates a youth streaming platform while his government is going through the pretense of acting to protect vulnerable youth from online harm. Kick is for handwave over 18s only so nothing to see.

  Can’t get away with accusing politicians of being corrupt here but they never seem to act effectively against the interests of wealthy people do they?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Road safety data shows pedestrian deaths have increased by almost 50 per cent since 2021⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  As usual follow the money. The automotive lobby keeps killing people to make profits. They control the flow of information and public policy. People die for profits. That is all there is to it. If we wanted to cut pedestrian deaths all it takes is for people to shake off the influence and care about their families and community instead of swallow the mindless shit fed to them by paid influencers and media and then hold politicians accountable.

  To many huge trucks on the road and I don’t just mean the taxpayer subsidized yank tanks. Hugely profitable private logistics companies got public rail defunded over decades to the point it is unusable. Can’t walk to schools or shops without having to cross unsignalled intersections crossed by huge road trains all day and night. Successive governments have pushed heavy vehicle traffic onto B roads through small town centers and roads never designed for it and off the major highways with their bypasses and safety upgrades. All because they are too cheap to fund the necessary infrastructure upgrades at a small number of choke points. One day a double tanker of dangerous chemicals isn’t going to make a turn with the shops on one side and kindy and childcare on the other. It will make the headlines for a couple of days and then it will be back to heads in the sand.

  This country has some excellent institutions and people but fundamentally the media and politics is controlled by a small corrupt elite regardless of which party governs.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Age verification fun⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Jellyfin doesn’t know shit about my kids’ age, gender or political beliefs and that is the way we like it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Age verification fun⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  What pissed me off with the Disney one was them putting it on my kid’s profiles instead of sending me an email. From memory they did give a non-binary/intersex/prefer not to say sort of option but there is no winning choice because no matter what you supply it has the potential to be used as an algorithmic input in future and deliver overly narrow content. I don’t think they should requesting that information. When the yearly subscription runs out they are gone along with the rest.