decryption

The new Tesla Powerwall 3 is $13,600

https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/powerwall-3-launch/

Two of those is $27,200 minus installation and some solar panels to feed them (but the PW3 does have 3x 6.6kW solar MPPTs built-in unlike previous ones, so all you need to do is connect the panels directly to the PW3 and then the PW3 to your home).

That's correct. I wouldn't recommend a custom ROM to an average smartphone user, but when you have someone in your life that's dedicated to tech support and you have custom needs, it's a good idea IMHO.

I consider helping my family with their tech stuff a privilege, not a burden. They help me with so much, why wouldn't I want to guide and support them on things I am knowledgeable about?!

Great list! Thanks for sharing. Noting how many developers work on the device is a nice addition.

My Dad likes his non-Google phone very much! He never had a smartphone in the first place so doesn't use any apps, social media, internet banking, etc. But does like having an easy to use on-screen keyboard. If a "dumbphone" existed with a large touch screen instead of the little 1" screen with a numpad, that would be great.

Agreed - this is a good solution for people that don't want or need any of that stuff. You'd be surprised how many people out there don't do any form of internet banking at all and simply manage their money in the bank branch or over the telephone directly to the bank. For the elderly, it's a great idea to remove their internet banking (or not give them access to it in the first place) and protect them from scammers.

Not sure how you get in on the IPO, but once they list on the LSE it'll be quite trivial to buy shares on the usual platforms like Stake, SelfWealth, CommSec, etc. Not much different than buying on the ASX.

Born and bred, baby! I don't live there now, but do miss it sometimes.

I scanned this old Aussie magazine about the Internet from back in 1996 and was surprised how the first topic was about cybersex and had many articles in it that would now be considered "woke". The internet was really more leftist back then!

I've been publishing The Sizzle - a general tech newsletter that comes out daily and has an Aussie take on the last 24 hours of news - for almost 8 years. 1,300 people pay me A$60/yr to read it. There's a 30 day free trial (no credit card needed, unsubscribe any time via a one click link in every email) at https://thesizzle.com.au

Thanks for the mention!

You need to add multiple passkeys so if one breaks, you can still access the service.

Ditto for Yubikeys (which can be added as a passkey), you need more than one so if you lose it you can still access.

I have a 2013 Mac Pro running Alpine Linux and a bunch of Docker containers.

Installing any Linux distro is trivial, just boot the installer for your distro of choice off a USB stick. Hold down the Option key when the Mac turns on and it'll appear as a boot option alongside the internal drive and internet recovery.

Ahhh, yeah grid demand response appliances are kinda common here (solar inverters and air conditioners). There’s been a few trials and whatnot of smart chargers installed in homes by grid operators:

https://arena.gov.au/knowledge-bank/origin-energy-electric-v...

And a grid operator has been experimenting with special tariffs that are “free” during peak solar times:

https://reneweconomy.com.au/networks-test-time-of-use-appeti...

You’re right - it wouldn’t surprise me if there becomes a standard for EV chargers in Australia that makes it so they have to be centrally controlled to protect the grid/take advantage of excess renewables. Good to do it now before too many homes install EV chargers (probably only 30-40,000 in the country right now).

With EV Up it was a rotten co-founder that didn’t follow through on their contract. It poisoned the well, destroyed the trust between us and the remaining co-founders (me and one other person) left. That business still exists and is operating to this day - under new management.

For Park N Plug, missing out on the grant from ARENA was a big kick in the balls as we had investment depending on receiving the grant. When the grant didn’t happen we had no capital. To make things worse, we were relying on the R&D tax incentive to come through on our software platform, but the tax department said it wasn’t eligible despite earlier guidance it was.

That left us out of pocket on developer costs and deflated from the setback. We probably should keep at the software stuff and pivot the business, but my co-founder and I have other businesses we are busy with so the energy hasn’t been there.

This blog post and the reaction to it has been quite positive, so who knows, maybe I’ll try a third time to get something EV charger relate going.

The tide is turning quite rapidly in Australia. New government held an “EV Summit” a few weeks ago outlining their hopes and will release a policy discussion paper late September. We will get to 5% of new car sales as EVs faster than any other OECD country has - just a shame we will be last to do so, haha.

I’m not convinced EVs as grid response or virtual powerplants will be as important as people think. No EVs on sale right now can do it except the Nissan LEAF and the hardware required (a rectifier) is not cheap (approx A$10k). I’m also sceptical car owners will get much value out of it. Is it worth the hassle just for a few bucks on your electricity bill every month?

Fleets however represent much more of an opportunity. Buses, heavy vehicles (garbage trucks, delivery trucks, etc) and general fleet cars that are idle at night in a depot could be quite lucrative.

Totally agree. I don’t have to register to buy petrol, why should I to refill my car’s battery?

In NZ they have a government list of every fast charge station.

https://www.journeys.nzta.govt.nz/ev-chargers-list-view/

Probably wouldn’t be too much more effort to add chargers status to it. Or even an API that others can develop apps against (like what we do in Australia for fuel pricing).

Amen to that - I love being able to plan things without having to listen to a sales pitch first, or explain myself to someone.

I co-founded two EV startups in Australia in 2019 and 2020 that failed at their mission of installing more EV chargers in this emerging market (less than 1% of new car sales are EVs compared to 5% in the US and 10%+ in Europe) and didn't install a single charger.

I did however, learn a fair bit about EV charging - the software that runs them, choosing locations, the electrical needs, how to install chargers, etc. - that someone else with a bit more business sense and access to capital might find useful.

I 100% agree with this take.

I've got an email newsletter that 874 people pay me $5/m to read (The Sizzle - https://thesizzle.com.au). I set it up outside of Substack a few years ago, then migrated when Substack launched with the hope their platform would bring in new readers and make my life easier.

This turned out to be a massive waste of over a year, as not only did the newsletter stop growing, it lost subscribers. There was no platform effect by being on Substack, so I left it, setup my homebrew solution (where all the bits, like billing, email sending, customer info are interchangeable) and growth has resumed and I'm doing better than ever - all without giving Substack a 10% cut and further locking myself into their ecosystem.

Here's a blog post explaining in more detail why I chose to remove myself from Substack if anyone is interested: https://blog.decryption.net.au/t/why-i-use-a-mishmash-of-ser...

I don't know where you're located, but in Australia there's a handful of workshops that'll convert a classic car to electric.

e.g: http://ev-torque.com.au/ https://www.evmachina.com/ https://www.ozdiyelectricvehicles.com/ https://www.evclassic.com.au/

Electronic Frontiers Australia - https://www.efa.org.au/ and Digital Rights Watch - https://digitalrightswatch.org.au/

Give Rasplex a shot - http://www.rasplex.com/

The woman who did that was sent to jail for 18 months too! [http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-05-02/woman-jailed-for-it-th...

Pretty harsh I reckon.

I don't really have any insights into marketing. I'd say that's what I struggle with the most. I was able to cheat a bit by having a bit of a following already via other projects I've been part of. Expanding out of that circle has been pretty hard.

The only feedback I get is one of three things: 1. they end up becoming paid subscribers 2. they unsubscribe from the list and never hear from me again 3. don't bother to do either and just languish on my list and I email them manually whenever I feel like it

I haven't done a lot of tweaking to determine if I'd get more conversions if I slowed down the pace of the up-sell emails though.

Thanks for subscribing! I reckon you'll like The Sizzle.

I'm working on getting costs down, but prefer to put my energy into content and marketing at this stage.

Cheers - I subscribe to growth.email as well. Been handy to use some of the tips to get subscribers to The Sizzle.

I give away a 2 week free trial with no strings attached. No credit card info necessary - just give me your email address. Half way through the free trial, subscribers are asked if they'd like to become a paid subscriber. Once the free trial is over, I then send a bunch of automated "hey please subscribe, pleaseeeee" emails at 14, 15, 17, 20, 23, 28, 31, 35 and 40 days after the subscriber's trial ends.

Currently there's a ~20% conversion rate from trial to paid. Used to be around 30% for a while, but as more strangers - i.e: people that don't follow me on Twitter, don't know me from other sources such as my freelance tech writing or podcasting - sign up that's dropping slowly.

Getting people to sign up for a free trial is my main focus and success there comes in ups and downs. So many hours wasted on things that don't work, but every now and then something unexpected goes well and I get a spike in people signing up for the trial (and hence, become paid subscribers in 2-3-4 weeks after their trial ends).

I love Tedium - always look forward to it! Keep it up mate :)

I run The Sizzle (https://thesizzle.com.au), which is a daily roundup of tech news with an Aussie slant. Any Australians who enjoy HN should check it out!

I've got 445 subscribers that pay $5/m or $50/yr for it. No ads, no tracking, but I do insert affiliate links - primarily eBay.

Costs me about ~$1000/yr to run (Mailchimp, web hosting for a Wordpress blog & Discourse forum and Zapier costs mainly).

This financial year (July 1st 2016 to June 30th 2017), revenue sits at about AUD$18,000. I expect around ~$30,000 next year if there's 0% paid subscriber growth and affiliate link revenue stays the same.