Did everyone else get the “Energy Bill Relief” email?

I have a feeling that this is just more “corporate welfare”.

I expect everyone’s Energy providers to inflate prices over the next 4 months by about $75 a month.

I recently changed provider because the government energy website said my bill would be half of what it was; guess what; it was exactly the fucking same!

The sooner the Government de-privatise the Energy sector, the better. We will also see an end to the Fracking Industry’s astroturfing against renewables.

That would be wonderful. They would need to make the Change-Over because of the plethora of battery platforms available. I can see them being quite expensive though. Lots of labour to test and refactor that many cells by hand. Consumed cells will need to be recycled and specialist technicians trained and experienced in working with high voltages will need to do the battery swaps in and out of vehicles.

One other good benefit would be that vehicles that are no longer roadworthy will be taken off the road. If an EV battery technician notices damaged structure, they aren’t likely to want to replace the battery in the vehicle. EV battery technicians that aren’t responsible will be selected against by Darwin’s Law. ⚡️🔥💨⚡️

I would like to see your calculations. Please enlighten us.

We let us do the maths; A low end ICE vehicle (historically in Australia) would last 20-30 years if it is serviced regularly. $30k. Let us pretend it uses a tank of fuel a week ($5000),annual Servicing is $1000 a year and insurance is $1000 a year. That is $7000 per year running cost. That is $30k+30*$7k =$240k

Let’s take an EV, assuming insurance is $1000, servicing is $500, cost is $100k and lifetime is 10 years before the battery is useless. I’m not going to worry about electricity. 3*$100k+30*$1500 = $750k

“That’s not fair, you can buy a cheap EV for $50k, and batteries may last longer than 10 years!” Ok then, 2*$50k+30*$1500=$550k

We have AppleTVs on every TV in the house and none of the TVs have ever been connected to the home network. Same with the rest of the extended family.

We also have a HDHomeRun in each house for those rare occasions when we want to watch Broadcast TV.

The only time a TV changes from HDMI1 is when someone wants to play PS or XBox.

Not to mention the TCO. Battery lifetime will be interesting when vehicles are out of warranty.

A traditional ICE vehicle will last decades beyond the Warranty period.

Some of the cheaper EVs have batteries dying within months of warranty expiration; replacement remanufactured change-over batteries are more than the value of a new vehicle.

As long a manufacturers have guaranteed buyback and the vehicles are fully recyclable, that would be fine, but it isn’t something the cheaper brands aren’t offering.

The corporate revolt against MLL has started. The lawyers are starting to realise that outsourcing to an unaccountable third party is too much of a liability. The business leaders are also starting to realise that it isn’t good for their business models.

I was ecstatic to find that the Adobe AI feature is missing from Acrobat Reader when I started my work computer the other day. Our IT department is also progressively excising Microsofts Copilot and Bing Chat features from our work computers too.

More companies need to do this.

Sorry, was my tasteless joke similar to those deleted comments? I will happily delete it if you don’t approve.

Saved you a click; It was Woodgrove in Melton, It wasn’t Highpoint (if it was Highpoint, it wouldn’t be News).

Maybe ThE aLgOrThMs insistence to put scantily clad women in everyone’s Shorts is just a really bad attempt at a bad Dad Joke.

Curated music services like Spotify and Apple Music can give some great recommendations.

ThE aLgOrYtHm of YouTube gives terrible recommendations. It is as if it has no musical taste whatsoever.

They are all doing these offensive bundles of crap. It is worse than the days of Cable.

We are subscribed to Apple One Family Premier. I need the large data for my family to backup their devices, but none of us want Fitness+ or News+. It is cheaper to get this extra crap we don’t want, than to just get Data.

I just need a way to disable Fitness+ without disabling the Workout features. This is the same as disabling Shorts, Music and Games in YouTube.

I have been ”Don’t Recommend”-ing the generated “SuperPanavision” videos since they started earlier this year; blocking channels, “show less like this” everything. The problem is that this stuff is being pumped out constantly on so many channels that it is impossible to block them all.

I usually get bombarded with Right-Wing content after I watch Juice Media videos. Also, if a watch a feminist video, it is usually followed by recommendations of “AnTi-WoKe” mansplaining videos. it is if they want to show “Both Sides” after I watch something about maintaining democracy and contributing to society in a positive way.

The YouTube Games are just another banner of unwanted “content” like Shorts.

The T&A shorts are usually of young women in jeggings and crop-tops doing risqué actions; if your mouse passes over the Shorts for a millisecond , YouTube autoplays them and registers as a view, creating a negative feedback loop of more and more scantily clad young women doing mundane things in a risqué way.

Jailbait is probably the wrong word, but every single short has a scantily clad young lady. It isn’t the Algorithm because all I watch are Machining Videos, DIY and Restoration Videos and the occasional Science and Natural History video.

The most risqué channel subscribe to is VanWives.

Speaking of which, the Algorithm never serves anything that I subscribe to. I would better off going straight to my Subscriptions page.

I will maintain my observation that the Algorithm is shit.

This is ridiculous.

• their algorithms are crap and keep ramming right-wing bullshit down my throat
• they keep trying to get me to play YouTube games
• they list YouTube Shorts multiple times in the Home Screen and most of the time it is just over-sexualised jailbait.
• using anonymous Google to find a video on YouTube is more effective than using YouTube search

I am seriously thinking of getting an Apple Vision Pro just so I can use Juno and bypass all the bullshit.

Time I planned an exit strategy.

And which is which?

They are trying to blame “inflation”, but at the same time they are reporting record profits.

When we built 6 years ago, we advised the builder that we wanted a Zero Energy house and that it would be audited and profiled by the SECCCA and published in their magazine.

We weren’t seeking any discount or special treatment, but it would have been a great opportunity for this builder to showcase that they are progressive.

Every step of the way, the Site Supervisor and contractors snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. It is was almost as if they were trying to sabotage the build.

It came to a head when they tried to install an “electric assist” hot water service instead of a fully electric hot water service. We never had Gas to site.

The Site Supervisor and their manager called us idiots for not wanting gas and ranted and raved. They said it was not possible to have a house in Australia without Gas hot water.

Their CEO got involved and pointed out that his house did not have Gas to site, he had two Tesla PowerWalls and 20kW of solar over two inverters and was essentially off-grid in suburbia. He got a rebate from his power company every month.

The Site Supervisor was fired and their manager was given a demotion.

Building Inspectors used to be employed by local government and were audited to prevent them being able to take bribes.

Now Building Inspectors are employed by the builder. Their whole business model is one big bribe.