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4 hours ago, Dead1 said:

I really don't care what some random person from western Sydney or Perth or some outback town thinks.  It's meaningless filler. 

The yoiks who talk are self selected. Either they have an agenda or they are too clueless to know they are being manipulated. Then the journalists select and edit. A total waste of air time.

I -  like > 30%  - voted early so the polls are meaningless too. 

The Greens are the sensible voice and so rarely heard.

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1 hour ago, KillaKukumba said:

I think in the interest of not taking the sides the ABC are anti every politician whilst simultaneously kissing their arses to try and get interviews with them. The ABC TV news is like a kid whose parents have split up, today they talk to one politician about how great he's doing and how the other parents are all idiots, then tomorrow they get a different parent on and do the same bloody thing. Not one hard question has been asked by the media in this election.

Totally true, despite the fact there are so many massive issues now concerning everything from environment to housing to cost of living to national security and China relationship.

What happens now literally determines the future of the country.  The old neoliberal ways of doing things are less and less viable.  

17 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

 

The Greens are the sensible voice and so rarely heard.

 

I totally agree.  They have come along quite a long way since their more activist days.

4 minutes ago, KillaKukumba said:

They reckon the number of early voters could be as high as 50% this year. I voted about 2 weeks ago when my papers arrived in the mail. I haven't seen a polling booth in about 20 years.

I always try to vote early.  This year I did a postal vote for first time.

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I love the way that the AEC has been on TV lately talking about the high numbers of people voting early while at the  same time saying that people need a good reason not to vote on the day. The only reason people need is "will not be available". Not only that if you ask your local member, whether you like them or not, for a postal vote form most of them keep your name on record for the next election and just send out the forms because they think they've got a chance of getting your vote if they send you the papers.

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3 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I really don't understand why they can't just have people vote on their phones via an internet poll like they do for American Idol. We could have election results in mere minutes.

I actually agree.  I also think modern technology could allow all democracies to become more democratic by allowing polling for major or contentious legislation (aka direct democracy).

They do this in Switzerland which is the only real democracy.

 

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6 minutes ago, Dead1 said:

I actually agree.  I also think modern technology could allow all democracies to become more democratic by allowing polling for major or contentious legislation (aka direct democracy).

They do this in Switzerland which is the only real democracy.

 

Been saying this for years but no one takes me seriously. Don't think it would even be that hard to implement, it'd just make a bunch of corrupt Congressmen redundant. 

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27 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I really don't understand why they can't just have people vote on their phones via an internet poll like they do for American Idol. We could have election results in mere minutes.

In this country it requires changes to the constitution to implement any form of online voting. It's not impossible but it's something no party really wants to be responsible for changing given the ramifications if it fails. 

 

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2 hours ago, KillaKukumba said:

The only reason people need is "will not be available".

I was asked - do I have a valid reason? To which my answer was of course, yes. (And the reason? Because I wanted to.)

 

2 hours ago, Dead1 said:

What happens now literally determines the future of the country.  The old neoliberal ways of doing things are less and less viable.  

I am tired of apologising to my kids that the old bastards -  not me, but my generation - have got it wrong again. I think the voting age should be lowered and that there should be a maximum age for voting. The former is an idea whose day will come. The latter probably not but the future belongs to the young and I would give up my vote at, say 85 (if I live that long) in the hope for a better future.

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29 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

I was asked - do I have a valid reason? To which my answer was of course, yes. (And the reason? Because I wanted to.)

 

Was that to vote early in person or on the postal vote form?

Because from memory I think the postal vote form has 4 maybe 6 options and they are all fairly generic. At the end of the day the AEC want people to vote, they don't care if it's done via post, but the rules state one must have a valid reason so that's all they ask for they don't care what the reason is.

 

I never really thought I liked dark themes on my web pages but I've been getting used to them lately and this site stood out as kind of annoying all white so I've changed it. Looks much better black I think I'll keep it.

Given all that white is less environmentally friendly I'll consider this my contribution to global warming :P

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52 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

 

I am tired of apologising to my kids that the old bastards -  not me, but my generation - have got it wrong again. I think the voting age should be lowered and that there should be a maximum age for voting. The former is an idea whose day will come. The latter probably not but the future belongs to the young and I would give up my vote at, say 85 (if I live that long) in the hope for a better future.

I don't think the young generation generally gives a shit either.  In some ways I would say they are far worse.  They have access to a lot more debt and cheap consumer goods.

 

You see all these young guys driving around in shiny massive $70,000+ gas guzzling utes that never get dirty or carry anything in their small trays.  All their hobbies are consumption - you see them towing boats, jet skis or expensive mountain bikes etc.  No compromising on consumer nirvana here.

Or the young nerds at my gaming club who sink thousands into expensive toy soldiers (literally a box of 10 is nearly $100) or expensive board games which now weigh as much as 38 kg thanks to Kickstarter phenomenon.  I couldn't even afford wargaming when I was in my teens and we certainly didn't buy as much as these guys even once we had disposable income.

Or travel - during COVID in a couple of interviews with many 18-25 year olds  they all viewed it as their entitlement to hop on polluting airliners to other parts of the world.  

 

My 18 year old niece is woke and highly intelligent, yet she is also a mindless, selfish, impulsive consumer.  She hid she had COVID so she could go to parties and family events where her immuno compromised relatives were!

She once talked about how governments should do something about companies that pollute.  I said maybe she and her friends would reconsider their own polluting purchases eg a brand new iPhone every couple of years or having to own the latest fashionable items of clothing.

She said it was "complicated" and then tried changing the topic.  She never raised the environment again (her current woke talk is about how we need to pay more lip service to the indigenous).

 

 

I think if we are serious about the environment, we need to massively reduce access to consumer goods.  And not just higher taxation on these goods - anyone willing to spend $70,000+ on a ute or several thousand dollars on a mountainbike won't be deterred by higher prices.

 

Needs to be banning some things outright, removing access to cheap/easy debt and higher taxation of consumers.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Dead1 said:

I don't think the young generation generally gives a shit either. 

A gloomy take on the world. I'm not saying you are entirely wrong, but there is ascertainment bias here. I interact with a different bunch of younger people but we all consume too much, me included.

 

1 hour ago, KillaKukumba said:

Was that to vote early in person or on the postal vote form?

In person.Very simple and convenient. 

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I got bored this morning waiting for my coffee so I kept playing around with colours.

It took me about 30 minutes and can only be done locally (it can be done at server level if it's paid for) but I got sick of the pristine white background while my other regularly loaded sites use dark themes. It's not perfect and I'll probably keep playing with it when I get bored again but it's coffee time now.

image.thumb.png.5e9855edfd60714e11d76dc200cdb9e7.png

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There are a multitude of apps and browser extensions that will flip any website with dark text on a white background and display it with white text on a black background. I use them on my desktop and on my phone as well. I have a zero tolerance policy for dark text on a white or light colored background. Even that black text on the grey background you have there wouldn't work for me, I want an entirely black page. I've been using these for so long I often forget that others are probably viewing the Metalforum site with a white background right now. 

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Most apps do exactly that, flip light into dark with little regard for contrast because they can't actually read what is being changed. Swapping a background is easy, reverting black to white is easy, actually changing contrast is what makes a huge difference, especially for those with colour perception problems. With a few keystrokes I can change any colour on these pages and with a few more I can make entirely new theme.

Small things amuse small minds and getting down to the small details amuses me greatly when I'm bored. FWIW this site looks pretty bad with a red background, blue text boxes and green text

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3 hours ago, KillaKukumba said:

Most apps do exactly that, flip light into dark with little regard for contrast because they can't actually read what is being changed. Swapping a background is easy, reverting black to white is easy, actually changing contrast is what makes a huge difference, especially for those with colour perception problems. With a few keystrokes I can change any colour on these pages and with a few more I can make entirely new theme.

Small things amuse small minds and getting down to the small details amuses me greatly when I'm bored. FWIW this site looks pretty bad with a red background, blue text boxes and green text

Yeah issues of contrast definitely make a big difference, I took a nearly 2 year hiatus from here for that very reason, also I don’t have Facebook for the same problem though I’m much less concerned about that. In other news I got to hold my niece for the first time today I’ll take it as a good sign that she stopped crying as soon as I was holding her. 

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1 hour ago, MacabreEternal said:

Stupid idea of the week?  Staying out till 1am on Thursday night/Friday morning drinking with younger colleagues from work.  In my defence I was in Edinburgh which is probably my favourite city I have ever visited and I have not been able to go for the past 2 years because of the pandemic.

Good for you. I performed at the Fringe festival back in 92. Went with a fledgling U.S. touring Shakespeare company from Virginia-we were called Shenandoah Shakespeare Express back then. It's actually grown into a pretty thriving institution in Staunton Virginia. Just looked them up, American Shakespeare Center. It literally grew out of a group of college kids from James Madison University and a charismatic Shakespeare proff in the late 80's. 

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7 hours ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

I have a cunning plan to avoid that dilemma it’s called move far enough away that I’m not an option as a babysitter, I’m thinking maybe in Norway… Or Denmark…seriously though I need to stick around so that kid doesn’t grow up vegan, or worse a Britney Spears fan Mike her dad

When my brother had his first (twins) I moved to Sydney, not so I couldn't baby sit but it was a good excuse. By the time my first arrived I'd moved back to Vic and his attitude was enough to know I didn't need a baby sitter :)

 

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I'm about to install some PC fans in my mower shed/garden shed and the bike shed. These aren't for cooling they are simply thermo controlled powered vents that suck air in one side and push it out the other creating airflow for hot days. I've designed the frame and mounts in my head but now I'm sitting here mulling over coffee and wondering if it's worth the trouble of getting the router table set up and routing groves in the timber frame which would also mean setting up the guide multiple times and showing some care with following lines, or do I just get the chisel out and do it the non-powered way. The router is obviously a cleaner result but given the number of passes and the set up and clean up efforts it might not be quicker.

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