@ajsadauskas@aus.social
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

ajsadauskas

@ajsadauskas@aus.social

Australian urban planning, public transport, politics, retrocomputing, and tech nerd. Recovering journo. Cat parent. Part-time miserable grump.

Cities for people, not cars! Tech for people, not investors!

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ajsadauskas, (edited )
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Gibsonisafluffybutt @briongloid Nawww, how cute 😻

I've inadvertently trained two of our babies to chatter when I pick up a ball, and the third to run down the corridor in preparation.

Also, we inadvertently trained one of our babies to SPRINT to the kitchen as soon as the fridge door opens.

(Yes, wifey and I have three cats.)

ajsadauskas, to sydney
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

Hornsby is the fifth best place to live in Australia, apparently.

At least, according to a study SGS Economics and Planning:

"Sydney's Northern beaches ranks as the highest in the nation for wellbeing, with only one Queensland city making it to the top 10, the annual index revealed today.

"The Australian Capital Territory came in second due to its low gender wage gaps, climate change risks and the division of wealth."

The study assessed 518 local council areas on seven indicators:

  • economy
  • income and wealth
  • employment, knowledge and skills
  • housing
  • health
  • equality, community and work-life balance
  • environment

The top 10 local government areas are:

  1. Northern Beaches (Greater Sydney)

  2. Australian Capital Territory

  3. North Sydney (Greater Sydney)

  4. Ku-ring-gai (Greater Sydney)

  5. Hornsby (Greater Sydney)

  6. Lane Cove (Greater Sydney)

  7. Mosman (Greater Sydney)

  8. Sutherland (Greater Sydney)

  9. Sydney (Greater Sydney)

  10. Brisbane (Greater Brisbane)

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-08/sgs-cities-regions-wellbeing-index-wage-gaps-environment-health/103815302

@sydney

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@naevaTheRat Hornsby definitely isn't bad by any stretch — I used to live there.

But.

If you made a list of the five top places in Australia to live, Hornsby probably wouldn't be on the list either.

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@naevaTheRat There are many upsides to Hornsby.

The Westfield has most major chains you'd want, including a David Jones and a cinema.

There are some good local restaurants.

For a satellite city/outer suburb/exburb, the area around the Hornsby CBD is surprisingly dense. Three-storey blocks of flats and apartment buildings, for the most part.

Very multicultural these days.

Walking distance to national parks.

Multiple train lines to most of northern Sydney, as well as the Central Coast, Newcastle, and beyond.

You can comfortably live without a car there.

I've had the misfortune of visiting the local hospital. It's clean and modern.

Good public and private schools.

It's close to the Macquarie Park business precinct, as well as the university.

It's reasonably affordable (at least by Sydney standards).

But.

There's little in the way of live music. Or arts and culture.

It's a long way from many of the places you'd want to visit in Sydney.

No local beaches.

While there are good restaurants there, it doesn't hold a candle to somewhere like Newtown, or Surry Hills, or Church Street in Parramatta.

So it's a good place.

But it's a long, long way off top five place in all of Australia.

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@greg @sydney You mean the one near the station that does the freshly grilled pork banh mi?

Also, there's a few other good things about the place as well: https://aus.social/@ajsadauskas/112405402308405600

ajsadauskas, to cars
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

The toll road scam: A government-made monopoly you pay for.

Here's a funny-because-it's-true take on Transurban and the poor tax it imposes, from Punter's Politics:

https://youtu.be/FlKBakPAtiw?si=G39_0GcJzSB0SSA8

@fuck_cars

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@alcoholicorn It is when it has been privatised to a company that pretty much pays no tax (hi Transurban!), for roads that taxpayers helped to pay for, and those toll roads connect car dependent suburbs that have next to no public transport.

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@alcoholicorn Yeah, that's not how it tends to work in Australia.

What happens is a state government puts up a good chunk of time construction costs (as much as half in some cases), plus public land.

In some cases, the freeway already exists, but the state government wants one more lane built, because it thinks that will ease congestion (as happened with sections of the Tullamarine and Monash Freeways in Melbourne).

It gets handed off to Transurban, who builds it under a long-term operating agreement (30 years is common).

In some cases, the agreements have clauses saying railways that compete with the toll road can't be built.

As the end of the lease approaches, Transurban offers to build one more lane — in exchange for extending the agreement.

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@unionagainstdhmo @Baku The other really big part of it has to do With who pays for free TV: The advertisers.

Let's compare what broadcast TV to a free streaming app from an advertising point of view.

With broadcast TV, there's one ad that's shown to everyone. If 100,000 people watch, then 100,000 people all see the same ad at the same time.

You pretty much need to be a big national advertiser to buy all 100,000 eyeballs.

With streaming, you can insert different ads from different advertisers to different people.

And an advertiser doesn't necessarily need to buy everyone that's watching. Perhaps they only buy 50,000? Or 10,000? Or potentially even just one or two?

That potentially increases the pool of brands that can advertise.

With broadcast TV, the ratings give you a rough breakdown of how many people are watching, with breakdowns by age, gender, and socioeconomic background. But the TV station doesn't know precisely who those people are.

More importantly, you can't target who sees the ad at the level of individual people.

With a streaming app, you typically need to give up some personal details, like your email address, to set up an account. The app owner can know precisely which accounts, with which email addresses, are logged in and watching at any given time.

That means an advertiser can select, down to the level of individual accounts linked to email addresses, who sees their ad.

An advertiser can upload a list of email addresses they want to target, and if any of those people are watching, they'll see their ad.

So, for example, an advertiser with a niche product could upload the 5000 people on their email mailing list and only show their ad to those people.

Or a business might only show their ad to people in postcodes where they have a store.

You can't do that with broadcast TV.

Here's where it gets a little creepy.

If you go shopping and scan your FlyBuys or Woolworths Rewards card, Coles or Woolies know your email address and the products you bought.

They can then sell the fact that your email address purchased a particular product on a particular date to an advertiser.

(Coles' platform for this is called Coles 360: https://www.coles.com.au/coles360).

So, for example, say you sign up to a Kellogg's email mailing list, for example. It can provide Nine's streaming platform with your email address to make sure you see an ad for Corn Flakes.

They can then cross-check to see whether or not you purchased Corn Flakes in the following week from Coles and Woolies.

In short, it's end-to-end tracking.

You can't do that with broadcast TV.

That's why TV networks and advertisers want you to stream.

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@HubertManne @sqgl Yes, the linked article is about the Australian ABC, rather than the American one.

The two entities are not connected. The Australian ABC is a government-owned public broadcaster, while the American one is owned by Disney.

It's basically claiming a former Murdoch executive, who was appointed to manage the Australian ABC, is still working to promote his former boss' political and business interests.

ajsadauskas, (edited )
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Seagoon_ Every day, I promise myself that today's the day that I'll get to bed at a reasonable time.

And yet, here I am...

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Gibsonisafluffybutt @Seagoon_ Ooh, exciting! 😊

Are you going to mix it up a bit and get a new style? Any that you have in mind?

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Bottom_racer @Force_majeure123 I've tried Uyghur food before — albeit not at that restaurant — and it was delicious 😋

I forget what it was called, but it was a dish where noodles were chopped up into little squares, mixed with chopped up veggies, and cooked in a sauce, with a choice of meats (optional if you're vegetarian).

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Gibsonisafluffybutt @Seagoon_ The joys of having an ethnic name (there's a reason I go by AJ these days).

It's a pity I don't know how to code apps, because if I did, I'd make one that automatically plays a response when it's asked the following questions:

Where's that from?

No, I mean where are you from originally?

No, I mean where's your family from?

Oh, and where's that?

Have you been back recently?

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Gibsonisafluffybutt @Seagoon_ Also, best of luck for the job interviews 🤞🍀

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Force_majeure123 I just mentioned Uyghur food to wifey.

She really doesn't like onions, but likes the taste of their food otherwise.

(And by "really doesn't like onions", I mean I've seen her pick out every piece of diced onion from a dish before.)

I'm not sure if it's just the restaurant we went to, but they had lots of pieces of finely diced onion in their dish, so that's a non-starter for her.

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@TinyBreak @StudChud Many years ago I dated a girl who lived in Rowville, and I can confirm there's plenty to do there.

You can choose whether you want to go to the Coles or the Kmart at Stud Park Shopping Centre. Maybe both?

Or you can wait and wait in a traffic jam on Stud Road.
Or wait and wait in a traffic jam on Wellington Road.
Or wait and wait in a traffic jam on Kelletts Road.
Or wait and wait for the bus to Knox and Ringwood.
Or wait and wait for the bus to Dandenong.
Or wait and wait for the bus to Glen Waverley.
Or wait and wait for the bus to Boronia.
Or wait and wait for the bus to Caulfield.

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@TinyBreak @Seagoon_ Or Boronia: https://youtu.be/yRebOoCvBAg?si=k-ZUznmIyYWshV92

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@underwatermagpies @TinyBreak To be fair, it also depends on where in Geelong.

It's not that bad if you're in one of the new estates near Torquay or in a new apartment block in the CBD.

Corio on the other hand...

Well...

There's a good reason why Geelong maybe has a bit of a bad reputation sometimes.

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@StudChud @calhoon2005 Mick Jagger was born born before World War 2 ended. (You can look it up if you like — Jagger was born in 1943. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuked in 1945.)

When this song came out, the Rolling Stones were around 40. People were already starting to call them things like aging rockers and dinosaurs: https://youtu.be/SGyOaCXr8Lw?si=f0MmiyRYZ0Jj1ev1

That song came out 40 years ago.

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Thornburywitch @useless_modern_god ...with a heavy Chuck Berry influence: https://youtu.be/IK5gnx__M1M?si=Qw8r5XMEgasWMmK-

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Seagoon_ I love Daiso and Miniso. They're really good for things like makeup brushes and sponges and stuff.

The only thing is while it's cheap, you always end up leaving random kitchen gadgets and things like mugs with cute anime animals on them.

Also our fur babies love the giant stuffed toys they sell.

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@melbaboutown @Thornburywitch I'm not sure I'd trust the Kmart ones.

The Bonds ones basically just look (and smell) like normal black undies, just a little thicker.

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@PeelerSheila That's hilarious 🤣

Spot on impersonation!

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Thornburywitch @useless_modern_god A few more songs to compare.

Here's the Rolling Stones' debut single, Come On: https://youtu.be/_iAQVGOzj4M?si=G4aXaHDYxsNccU-B

Which was a cover of Come On by Chuck Berry: https://youtu.be/JgW6s8FPm_w?si=pu6K0qOb-_IBiyqg

Here's Can't Catch Me by The Rolling Stones: https://youtu.be/IK5gnx__M1M?si=NP61dxgx1oJLMd_0

And Can't Catch Me by Chuck Berry https://youtu.be/9jKrHzps0XM?si=2H9Wbjy4NhousbTk

(Just as an aside, John Lennon was a fan of that one too, apparently. Note the second verse begins "Here come a flattop, he was movin' up with me". Lennon borrowed that line for Come Together and got a lawsuit for his efforts.)

Rolling Stones, Sweet Little Sixteen: https://youtu.be/n-tYCwzTrrU?si=DDynnP4-MzxshiLp

And the Chuck Berry original: https://youtu.be/ZLV4NGpoy_E?si=xysXmQVLaih_w01A

(The Beach Boys really liked that one — just listen to Surfin' USA sometime. Like John, they got sued for their efforts.)

One more Chuck Berry songs for reference:

Maybelline: https://youtu.be/v124f0i0Xh4?si=0rv4e1rcPFzw3sIF

Now. Here's some of the lyrics from You can't always get what you want by the Stones.

"I went down to the Chelsea drugstore
To get your prescription filled
I was standing in line with Mr. Jimmy
And, man, did he look pretty ill
We decided that we would have a soda
My favorite flavor, cherry red
I sung my song to Mr. Jimmy"

Note the African American Vernacular English.

How many British people have you met who go around talking about drugstores?

Mick's almost going the full Iggy Azalea here trying to capture the lyrical style and delivery of Chuck Berry: https://youtu.be/Ef9QnZVpVd8?si=AjR8vc1MJrwVS_Un

To my ears there's a clear line that goes from the jump blues ( https://youtu.be/YhELpSeeipg?si=EYK0bdIx_hOhDss7 ) and artists like Big Joe Turner: https://youtu.be/YhELpSeeipg?si=JYqKpLB_jauoYsVL

To Chuck Berry in the '50s, to the Rolling Stones in the '60s.

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