Isn’t most of the print media owned by the same companies as the big networks? Sky, Seven and Nine account for a considerable chunk of the news industry in Australia.

I tend to avoid most reality TV because I never know how much has been cut or instigated by the producers to make the show more dramatic. The one sub-genre I don’t mind is the contest one, specifically where it’s focused on the challenges rather than personal interactions between contestants. A few Korean ones I’ve watched recently which were quite good were Physical: 100, Siren: Survive The Island and The Devil’s Plan. Of course, the editing still makes these shows appear more dramatic or tense than they really were but at least they generally don’t misrepresent the personalities of the people involved.

Smartphone camera systems have been using AI for many years. It’s only recently that companies started adding the buzzword to the marketing material to make it seem like there has been some massive leap forward. It’s likely this camera will function like any other.

Safe and official are not the same thing. I’m not sure there is any pirate site that is 100% safe when downloading applications. You are always taking an educated risk based on the history of the site, the moderation, the users and the application in question. It is not a good habit to think of things as clean or unclean, safe or unsafe, because circumstances can always change and you need be actively on the lookout for warning signs.

US election effect?

Yeah my own data usage is very low these days, usually <3 GB a month, so I also went for that $89 deal. Let’s hope it’s a smooth transition!

Yes, reportedly people were screaming “run for your lives”. I do wonder if the two injuries occurred because of the panicked evacuation, rather than the incident itself.

EDIT: Confirmed:

A 77-year-old woman suffered a shoulder injury while fleeing the Marion centre and another person in their 30s suffered a knee injury, South Australia Ambulance Service said.

Although “armed offender” is technically correct and no bystander was seriously hurt, the response from Westfield does seem a bit overly dramatic. Everyone is clearly on edge after the incidents in the eastern states but I wonder if they’ll tone things down eventually.

The Fairphone 4 also has a possible 5 years of warranty (2 years standard + 3 years complimentary extended).

I’m not a big meat eater but shopping at the nearby wholesale butcher has definitely saved me money and the quality is way better. I like the variety too - there are a lot of cheap offcuts that you would never see in a supermarket.

I might see ‘The Convert’ tomorrow night at my local cinema. I’ve been making an effort to support it for the last couple of years, since I love cinema and I’m getting kinda scared by all the small business closures in the wake of the pandemic. It’s over 100 years old so it’s an iconic place, plus the tickets are only $10.

I am mostly concerned with tracking from the private sector; I see privacy as more of an ethical dilemma than an immediate threat, although the corporate surveillance business model is contributing to problems in the real world (data drives social media algorithms which brainwash and radicalise people, leading to increased violence and social chaos). If there is a better alternative to some privacy-invasive big tech app or service then I will make the effort to switch to that. I am willing to sacrifice convenience to support projects that I believe are doing things the right way, or at least putting some effort into being better. However the reality is that most people, whether it’s my friends and family or just acquaintances, do not share my ethical concerns and/or are unwilling to make personal sacrifices and this means I will always need to remain open to compromise to avoid isolating myself socially.

When it comes to the public sector, I am mostly interested in circumventing the federal government’s mandatory data retention laws. which were imposed by a conservative government I didn’t vote for. Again, this is more of an ethical decision; I believe I should have the right to opt out and if the government won’t allow me to do that then the next step is to use tools like VPNs to ensure that data is less personally identifying than it otherwise would be. And again, like data collection from the private sector, my attitude towards government data collection varies depending on whether I see a reason for it to exist. Mandatory data collection of lawful civilians for vague “national security” reasons is overreach and doesn’t have an obvious practical benefit, but during the worst of the COVID years I was okay with the compulsory government tracking of where I had been and when. I saw the pandemic as an immediate challenge we needed to overcome as a society and I was willing to sacrifice my privacy to contribute towards the collective effort.

SolidTorrents is a pretty good aggregator. You can also search on non-English sites (I use Korean ones).

Yes, that is how they use quotes. Without them it would appear as though the The Guardian was making its own assessment of the system, which it is not.

People need to read beyond the headline and understand how it relates to the content of the article itself. I’ve seen a few threads on reddit recently where people were outraged about headlines and assumed the article was contradicting their beliefs when it was actually validating them. An example is this article by The Guardian, which is about the correlation between generational wealth inequality and gaps in life satisfaction between generations. /r/Australia was absolutely incensed by the headline and most of the comments in the thread were along the lines of “FEELS LIKE?! HOW DARE THE MEDIA GASLIGHT ME!!!” despite the fact that the article was about how young people were feeling and was arguing the exact thing everyone assumed it wasn’t.

There’s probably something in the terms about it

2.3 Geographic Restrictions

The Paid Services, and certain content available within the Paid Services, may only be available in certain countries. You agree that you will not present any false, inaccurate or misleading information in an effort to misrepresent your country of residence, and you will not attempt to circumvent any restrictions on access to or availability of the Paid Services or content available within the Paid Services.

Terminations and Suspensions by YouTube

YouTube reserves the right to suspend or terminate your Google account or your access to all or part of the Service if (a) you materially or repeatedly breach this Agreement; (b) we are required to do so to comply with a legal requirement or a court order; or © we believe there has been conduct that creates (or could create) liability or harm to any user, other third party, YouTube or our Affiliates.

I don’t understand these surprise pikachu reactions from some people. If you break the terms of service you are running the risk that the company in question will terminate your service or account at some point in the future. There is nothing controversial or surprising about this, other than the fact that Google has taken so long to get around to it.

That’s a poor reason. Google takes a big cut, just pay the YouTuber(s) directly through their favourite donation service; most have at least one these days. This is like when people claim they pay for Spotify because they “care about supporting musicians”. It’s delusional at best and a straight up lie at worst.

The article is only based on a handful of accounts from reddit, but it would be quite funny considering how many people I’ve encountered who do this and think they are geniuses or morally superior because they don’t use an ad-blocker. Let’s see how they feel after a fee hike. :)

I shouldn’t have clicked on that article and looked at the photos…

These days I don’t buy fresh produce from supermarkets, it’s always cheaper and better quality at my local independent grocers and wholesale markets.

Yeah I would agree that many of the home-brand food items are better at ALDI and the frozen stuff is also pretty good. I basically never go out of my way to visit an ALDI though, it’s always like “oh there’s an ALDI in this shopping centre that we came to for something else, let’s buy this thing we forgot in the main shop while we’re here”.