I have been using Linux for 30 years. Never recommend anything to anyone. It’s their decision to make. I will answer questions if asked but I try and be conservative. Lots of people don’t need computers and would be better off without them or only need something simple to do their jobs or play games. Also my experience doesn’t translate to normies. Inlaw was asking around for laptop recommendations and I just shut my trap. They can buy a Mac or a box store Windows laptop and it will do the job and I won’t be on the hook for support.

I am not a preacher and Linux is not a religion. It is an effective tool for technically minded people to get shit done. Nothing more. If companies want to turn it into a product and an experience like Valve or Google then it will end up in more or less polished consumer ready products but that is nothing to do with why I use it.

Shut them down. It would be a huge net win for people everywhere. It is horrible seeing friends, family, clubs and institutions all captured by meta. They are a blight on society.

Framework have been available in Australia for years. A few years back I ordered one and it shipped from Taiwan to regional South Australia in about a week. I was pissed off because they almost beat an order from PCcasegear. They are manufactured in and ship from Taiwan, not trumpistan.

I bought a 13" years ago. I thought I would have upgraded the cpu/motherboard, battery, speakers, screen by now but I could never justify the cost for the benefit. So it is the same as the day I bought it. I have bought cheap laptops for kids schooling and had to replace one for what would have been a repairable fault on a Framework but there is a massive price difference and could not justify another Framework. It is a shame. Their stuff needs to be a lot cheaper but it is a chicken and egg with volume.

When they made a cheap “chromebook” class plastic school laptop for kids it ended up costing more than a vastly more powerful mac (even before Apple released their cheap models). The low volume manufacturing had heaps of problems reported on their forums. Its strictly for the fans sadly. People with lots of disposable income who buy one in every colour. I would have loved to buy a similar looking product at a mainstream price and with modern specs but it makes no sense with current cost of living pressures.

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Yep, but such recommendations need to go to the states/territories in our federal system. Also I suspect Albo is spooked by the rise of the far right/culture wars bullshit in Australia.

Conversion therapy is banned in SA, NSW, ACT, Vic. So the recommendations on that should go to shit state/territories like WA, Tasmania and NT. Any attempt by the federal govt to legislate outside of its constitutionally defined powers would have to survive a high court challenge which is just going to feed the facebook crazies. The external affairs power worked for the Franklin dam but that was a specific set of circumstances.

It takes two. A sucker and someone to take advantage of them. The government can’t do much about stupid people doing stupid things. Often there are underlying mental issues like depression etc I think. We don’t really want to be ruining peoples lives even more for being addicts as has happened with the war on drugs. There is a limit to what governments can do though. People do need to take some responsibility for being fuck ups but we don’t have to make it easy for the predators.

The “good idea” isn’t the data centers but the stock pumping. You propose something insanely difficult and expensive (also hopelessly impractical and stupid in this case) and because it is so difficult and expensive you claim you can monopolize the market if you succeed which is the ultimate dream of every capitalist but you just need some insane amount of investment to get there. Then when the money runs out you go back and ask for more and exploit sunk cost fallacy. All the while valuations increasing. It is an amazing way for already rich scammers to get much, much richer than could happen in a sane economy and slurp up huge amounts of capital that otherwise could have gone into more productive endeavors.

Obviously in any well regulated economic system this shit would be subject to some proper oversight to protect the interests of the majority, particularly all the people whose pensions and livelihoods are at risk when this all goes to shit.

It didn’t click for me until I heard Zionism described as a white supremacist ideology. It cut through the bullshit for me. I am still very wary of any anti-Jewish narrative. There is a lot of dangerous and unjustified hate out there and it can be a slippery slope. But given the current state of the world, including our own country, you have to take a stand against that sort of shit regardless of the source.

End of an era for just about everything. Streaming is all enshitified. The job market is shit. Democracy is falling apart. Decades of progress being undone. It’s just the way it will be until people get sick of all this shit and start doing things differently and move on. All the great old companies are dead. Either turned to zombie brands or run by zombies. I remember how excited I was to buy my first Sony Trinitron, my first walkman, my Sony component stereo, first PlayStation.

There are very harsh fines for driving with a phone elsewhere. And smaller vehicles and better infra for pedestrians.

They better ask for the money up front.

Kids around here still play on the streets. And roam around town on their bikes and on foot. Cars drive accordingly. That’s not the message the auto industry pushed and got adopted most places unfortunately.

Companies do influence society often for the worse. The problem is people listen to this shit and just accept it. There needs to be a counter narrative. People need to be able to live good fulfilling lives that provide healthy challenges, physically and mentally. The car ruined our physical spaces. Corporate LLMs are coming for our mental spaces.

Under a real democracy nobody would be listening to her and she wouldn’t be a threat to our peace and prosperity. Allowing massive bot operations financed by billionaires and foreign media to operate on our shores to destabilize our nation with impunity is disgusting. But the real disappointment is our fellow Aussies who fall for this shit. They are better than that.

Major stockpile from the same people who won’t supply us submarines?

Another word for stockpile might be dump. They probably want to dump obsolete stuff here because we are too far from anywhere for rapid response.

Immigration numbers aren’t pulled out of a hat. There are a lot of factors like skill shortages, demographics etc taken into account. We could reduce numbers but we would need to do it carefully and plan for the consequences.

One Nation’s concern about immigration is entirely a dog whistle for racial intolerance.

For shits and giggles the govt should announce a return of White Australia policy and doubling the intake and watch ON implode. Of course bringing out 10 bob poms to work in factories is fucking hopeless now we have shut them all down. What are they going to come here for? The skin cancer?

Pity her mother didn’t feel the same way.

If you are rich and given the choice of taking money out of your business to buy more property and a bigger yacht or invest in modern equipment and processes you are most likely going to run your business like a slum lord until the business is no longer competitive and then blame the unions and buy goods from overseas and slap your name on them instead. Particularly if your a multinational (eg US, UK owned) and have no particular interest in this country beyond extracting its natural wealth. Meanwhile overseas the winning countries are nation building and trying to dominate strategic industries and supply chains for the benefit of their people.

Hence we don’t have refinery capacity or competitive steel mills. It was run into the ground. Owners blamed local costs. Then threw their hands in the air. Always the same. Stupid country run by stupid people.

Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people’s ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise. – Donald Horne, 1964

It is more nuanced than just misogyny. It is targeted vilification for political purposes. The incitement is hidden behind social media sock puppets and the crazies so it can’t be traced back to anyone but I reckon a lot of politics these days operates two campaigns - the official regulated old media stuff and an unregulated underground shadow campaign.

It is rare for people to dislike Hanson because she is a woman or in her 70s. Arguably its irrelevant to the politics she espouses. Women inside the Liberal party were copping a lot of shit inside the party but outside the attacks were relatively benign compared with the shit aimed at Gillard. I swear GamerGate hyping up the lame man-o-sphere during Clinton’s run was not a coincidence either.

So yeah, attacking people on shit like this is weak and pathetic and easily dismissed by anyone with half a brain. But straight forward emotional appeals clearly have an impact with more ignorant voters and its a very cost effective ploy to appeal to a prejudice to sway a voter. Ironically the people so swayed will probably tick the One Nation box.

Some societies have tied basic needs like health care and housing to employment so people will fight over scraps.

Even some countries that had a decent safety net have had it eroded over time. Forget UBI, i suspect we are heading back to poor houses and people being jailed for stealing loaves of bread. Empathy and social cohesiveness have been under attack for years and it’s showing everywhere. People are being encouraged to punch down and many are happy to comply.