Tau

joined 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

The idea of like having to put on a comedicly overwrought accent to make a machine understand you is 👌

I've tried this to good effect before when I got my current motorbike helmet headset - the voice commands on default settings worked much better when hamming it up with an American accent like one was trying to audition for a part in a Western. Luckily though I ended up finding out that Cardo also trained a British accent option in the settings, and that works a lot better if you want to talk like a normal person.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

There are a few actual streets like that in that suburb - I had a look to see if I could find the location of the photo and I think it's Ganges St.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago

Thanks :)

I've clicked around a bit this morning and so far so good, so all might be well again after your changes.

 

Over the last few days I've noticed that I'm semi-regularly getting Cloudfare error pages with timeout errors when I go to load a page here. Once the site loads it normally works fine for a while. Sounds similar to Baku's post from a few months ago, if others are experiencing the same at the moment possibly a reboot would help here too?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

The same argument that won the gay marriage plebiscite - people should be equal under the law and, by extension, our constitution.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago (8 children)

Last year, Australia showed how unengaged and racist this country remains by refusing to insert an Indigenous advisory voice

Convenient that the author forgot to mention that the very person they're writing about was a vocal No voter. You can say many things about Lydia Thorpe but politically unengaged is not one of them, and while she might be a little bit racist it's definitely not against Indigenous people.

I'll also note that the Tent Embassy had a giant banner hung up urging people to vote No, guess they're all politically unengaged and racist...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

While you will get the fine notice you shouldn't have to pay it - there is an option to reply with a reason why you shouldn't be fined and being overseas at the time would count as a legit excuse.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Yep, like in other elections we do have pre poll and postal voting (with a valid reason and you need to apply for postal) but the standard method is turning up on the day. I'm not sure if that has any effect on turnout compared to other states.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Probably less likely than a federal election but I'd still give it decent odds of finding one (particularly if the school is trying to raise funds for something). I can't remember exactly whether this was during council or state elections but I have turned up to vote before and not found a sausage sizzle.

 

Council elections may not the be most exciting but don't be like me a few years ago and forget they're on until after all the polling booths close...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I think the QLD and NSW options are actually decent, which is surprising for a modern flag redesign. Not sure about the Victorian one, could do with either making the symbol more regular (i.e. less finger paint style) or deleting the crown (too hard to keep details on) and making the stars loosely drawn too. WA seems a decent idea but could do with a cleaner swan rather than the ruffled feathers on the back. The SA idea looks pretty good but does have hints of invading Poland due to the ~~imperial eagle~~ magpie. Tasmania however is another one I could get behind.

Not a real fan of the current ACT/NT flags and I don't think changing to a wavy line helps them, and the idea for the Jervis Bay territory seems a bit too committee style bland for my liking (like most new flag designs I see mentioned).

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

Not keen at all on how it increases picture sizes and makes certain articles more prominent at the expense of actual information.

Also, what pelican told them that video shorts should take up such a massive section of the page (and not at the bottom either)? One of my bugbears these days is how information that can be conveyed much faster as text keeps getting pushed as video so people can spend both more time and vastly more data to find it out.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Highlights IMO are an amusingly ironic bit of tram signage at 7:20 and a very well timed song at 29:40.

Disappointingly I only saw two clips from Canberra but luckily both involved roundabouts (or faux-abouts) so at least the reputation of the city is intact.

 

A full half hour of people crashing into other people and/or things

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

it seems that the smaller the town, the higher the military worship. They may not even have a public toilet, but they will have a military worship statue that seemed to have cost more than all the town to build.

That's because the vast majority of our towns pre date WW2, and basically every area lost enough people in WW1/WW2 to affect multiple families and the broader local community. For example I grew up in a country village of a couple of hundred people (with several hundred more in the locality and upriver) and it has a war memorial listing what would have been ~50 people killed in WW2 and at least that again in WW1. I think it is understandable that towns (particularly smaller or more closely knit communities) would be in general support of the families and friends wanting a memorial to their dead given that level of losses.

I haven't seen anywhere near the number of memorials for other conflicts, they definitely exist but are significantly less common. If you want to avoid war related stuff your best bet would be towns/suburbs built well after WW2, but these tend to be suburbs of existing centres (which are likely to have a war memorial) instead of completely new towns.

Edit: Also consider that many of our country towns/villages have either not grown significantly or have even shrunk in population in the last half century or so, so historical memorials are more likely to retain the prominence they were originally intended to have instead of being surrounded or crowded out by new development.

 

Researchers from James Cook University were tagging marine life on the northeast coast when the 3m tiger shark they caught vomited up a dead echidna.

Nicolas Lubitz, a PhD candidate who studies marine predators, said he could only assume the shark gobbled up the echidna while it was swimming in the shallows off the island, or travelling between islands, which the animals are known to do.

 

Student debts will be lowered for more than three million Australians under reforms designed to stop HECS loans growing faster than wages.

Loan indexation will now match whichever is lower out of the Consumer Price Index or the Wage Price Index — which the government says will prevent another shock increase like last year's 7.1 per cent increase.

The changes will be introduced in the 2024 budget and, pending getting through parliament, will take effect from June.

 

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/8969234

For the first time in five years, northern corroboree frogs have been spotted in Namadgi National Park by ACT government ecologists.

The species is listed as critically endangered and the government has been attempting to restore their population in the park for more than a decade.

 

QLD Premier Steven Miles said the attack gives "added weight" to the argument to expand police stop and search powers.

Jack's Law lets Queensland police search people without a warrant on public transport, at public transport stations and in safe night precincts.

Mr Miles said legislation expanding Jack's Law to include shopping centres will be introduced to parliament "very soon".

 

Australia's first locally made orbital rocket is poised to blast off from a small north Queensland town next month.

The 23-metre rocket has been lifted into the vertical position for the first time.

Gilmour Space is waiting for launch approval from the Australian Space Agency.

 

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/6545941

There are two large closures coming up in Kosciuszko to allow for shooting to occur (animal control). If anyone's planning on a trip down there in the next few months this might affect you.

The first big one is the area south of Alpine Way, all the way down to the edge of the park at the Victorian border. This is planned to be closed for basically all of March (4th-28th). This map shows the area in question.

The second and even larger closure is the majority of the area north of the Snowy Mountains Hwy, and this is planned to be closed for literally half the year - 4th April to 4th of October. If you want to do the run through Long Plain and Broken Cart trail (makes nice day trip from Canberra) better think about doing it soon or you'll be waiting a while. This map shows the area for this closure.

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