3,113 karma · joined November 11, 2009
I built and operate SlickDNS (https://www.slickdns.com), a DNS hosting service.
I co-founded YouPatch (https://www.youpatch.com), the world's most popular pixel quilt pattern generation service.
Location: Adelaide, Australia (via Canada, California and Melbourne)
Website: wombatsoftware.com
Email: john@wombatsoftware.com
Cute. Let's see the reviews for an existing Australian government auth app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.gov.mygov.m...
And the kicker is that the above app doesn't even need to exist since myGov could just use industry standard TOTP two-factor auth like the dozens of other services I use.
Aussie politicians once again conforming to their lucky country stereotype:
"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."
25 years ago: http://herpolhode.com/rob/utah2000.pdf (Time flies.)
[1] https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-news/tesla-model-y-model-3-...
1: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Ftwit...
Results: https://twitter.com/jbarham74/status/1760587123844124894
I used to walk over it almost every day when I worked at a coworking space in the old Lonely Planet HQ building. I think a lot of locals drive over it without ever realizing it's there.
Because a reduction of domestic gas usage will just be diverted to less efficient LNG exports.
Given that by far the largest source of Victoria's electricity generation capacity is from dirty brown coal [1] if anything banning domestic gas usage might even make emissions worse since it will force people to use only electricity for cooking and heating.
> Direct consumption emissions are eliminated.
Ah, so burning Aussie natural gas in Asia (after it's been liquified and then turned back into gas) is somehow better for the environment than just burning it in Australia?
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Victoria#Electricity...
As of 2023, Australia is the world's second largest LNG exporter (source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1262074/global-lng-expor...) after the US (take that Russia!) and ahead of Qatar. Great for the gas exporting cartel but not so great for ordinary Australians in eastern states who now pay the same for gas as people in Tokyo. (And Aussies wonder why manufacturers keep leaving...)
Banning domestic gas usage for new homes (which the fools running Victoria, the state I live in, have done) will do nothing for emissions but will mean that the gas cartel can make even more money exporting LNG to Asia. Bravo!
The exception is Western Australia which is also a massive LNG exporter but has stricter domestic reservation requirements than the eastern states.
All of the above has been extensively documented at https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/ (source: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww....).
I'd recommend the book Jutaku by Naomi Pollock to get a sense of how uniquely innovative Japanese housing architecture is. Ironically a major reason is tax depreciation rules for houses which encourage homeowners to demolish and rebuild rather than renovate.
The major advantage of liquid fuel compared to electricity is that it's easier to transport and store, and harder to steal, which is why I don't think EVs will see significant take up in the third world.
The roof rack and Thule box cost maybe $1200 AUD. But the rack was also useful for attaching bicycle carriers.
Yeah, all of these cities also have long, harsh winters.
FWIW I'm a Canadian who lived in California on work visas for several years and relocated to Australia in 2011, where I'm now a citizen. I've never regretted leaving Canada.
Of course there's still a chance that physical prints can be lost, stolen or destroyed in a house fire. But I think overall that's statistically much less likely to happen than digital media becoming obsolete or unreadable, or data stored online being deleted because the original uploader stopped paying the storage bill or didn't arrange for transfer of their accounts after their death.
In 2022 the US median age was 38.8, which is not that young by world standards.
E.g., the median age in Afghanistan is < 19 (i.e., most people alive in Afghanistan today were born after the 9/11 attacks).
E.g., here is DHH's blog: https://world.hey.com/dhh
Canada is almost unique among developed countries with government healthcare in that it doesn't also have a parallel private medical system for those who can afford to pay for it. So naturally rich Canadians will often pay for private healthcare in the US.
I'm originally Canadian but have lived in Australia for the past 10+ years (in Melbourne). We've never had any issues getting medical appointments with local doctors (usually "bulk billed" so we pay nothing or a very nominal amount for the appointment). But we also have private medical insurance, which is required above a certain age (30 something), that we use occasionally for specialist appointments. But even then the out-of-pocket fee is something like $70 which is fine.
Unlike Canada, AFAIK most countries in Europe (e.g., Sweden, France, Spain, Germany) have parallel private medical care, so Canada really is unusual in that respect.
It was certainly a memorable experience, but one I never wish to repeat.