• 1 Post
  • 3 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: July 3rd, 2023

help-circle
  • Honestly, this is pretty impressive IMO. Particularly since visa-free travel is not reciprocal. The below is just plain wrong; Australia is even less open than it appears:

    Ranked 83rd out of 99, Australia is one of the least open nations. Citizens of just 34 countries can visit Australia without prior visa authorisation

    Barring some niche cases (e.g. royal family, military/crew, transiting, Torres Strait Islanders), only one country’s citizens can travel to Australia without prior visa authorisation; New Zealand (and even they can be refused clearance at the border). Every other foreign country needs to apply for and be granted a visa before they are permitted to board the plane. Australia has somehow managed to convince 33 countries that their ETAs and eVisitor visas are not really visas. They just happen to be permission that a person needs to obtain before they are allowed to enter a country… If only we had a word for that.

    I’m honestly surprised how well the Australian passport performs considering Australia effectively has a universal visa requirement. That being said, it’s also one of the most expensive passports in the world.


  • I went from a cheap mp3 player that I could just plug in to my computer and drag in music to an iPod which forced me to download the iTunes bloatware create an account and then took 100x longer to transfer music because of the pointless conversion each file had to undergo. This was my first and last experience with a personal Apple device. Ended up putting some old pop music onto it and giving it to my grandmother after 2 days. Uninstalled iTunes and went back to using my cheap mp3 player until I replaced it with a smartphone.

    Coming in as a close second place, an all-in-one Sony Vaoi computer that cost a fortune and had shit performance. Took daily nags to Sony before they took it back and gave me a refund. I find that Sony’s hit and miss though. My favourite smartphone (Xperia Play) was Sony, and I love my Sony Bluetooth earbuds. The Sony Smartwatch was shit.


  • I think it depends on where you are more than your age. I very rarely carry a wallet on me and I am definitely not Gen Z. That being said, where I live, every legitimate (i.e. non laundering/tax dodging) business accepts paying by phone. I can use public transport by scanning my phone, I can prove my ID by showing my phone, I can claim medical benefits by using my phone, and every franchise has it’s own loyalty app I can download on my phone.