djsherly

https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/2/18165804/apple-iphone-sales-weak-demand-tim-cook-letter-revised-q1-estimate

So all those people who rubbished the promotional pricing concerns? There’s a reason why Apple did this, and here it is.

mattinoz said:

cropr said:

chasm said:

Anti-democratic.

A law passed by a democratically elected parliament is by definition a democratic law.  You don't have to agree with the content, but you cannot call this anti-democratic just because you don't like it.

The current  parliament has so many in answered questions about it validity there is no confidence it is democratic. 

That I would agree - there are number of members on both sides who are under an eligibility cloud, the problem is they are their own gatekeepers on the particular issues (s44 of our constitution) so that despite all the bluff and bluster, nothing is happening.

macguy85 said:

loopless said:

The current conservative government in Australia is self-destructing just like the Republicans in the US, hopefully the next government will change this stupid law. 
And don't knock Australia's democracy, it is a far more democratic country that the US. No gerrymandering, no dis-enfranchisment of minorities, and a far greater percentage of eligible voters actually get out and vote (on a weekend!) And far, far fewer guns. Oh, and universal healthcare. But I digress...

You obviously do not understand Australia Law.  Australian, by law, have to vote.  If they do not show up at the polls they receive a fine from the government.  That's why it's held on a weekend.  In fact, it unfortunately throws of their economy within the country leading up to an election because Australians will typically not travel at that time so they can vote without a fine.

Australia is a fantastic country, but to think they don't have their own issues is a gross assumption.

I’ve never heard of this criticism of compulsory voting. I think there are two points to make.

1. You have to turn up at a polling place and have your name marked off the roll. You then get a ballot paper and you get to vote in secret. Hint: who said you had to mark the paper A good percentage of votes are informal, deliberate or otherwise

2. If you know you are travelling you can do two things: pre-poll ballot, they’re available for a period of time before the poll date. Or you just turn up at a polling booth where you are and get the form for your electorate. In any event, the fine is $20 and can be waived.

This legislation passed because there were two bills before the parliament (specifically the senate) on the last sitting day of the year. One was to compel the government to treat sick asylum seeking children in Australia based on doctor’s advice (rather than at the discretion of the minister responsible for immigration), the other was this piece of shit. Both of these bills had to be discussed in the Senate.

The opposition and the government were both playing games.

The opposition had agreed in principle to this encryption bill but had wished to make amendments. These had to be debated in the senate before they became law.

The government did not want to have to deal with the refugee bill because passing in the senate would send it to the lower house, where it would have lost a vote - it would then become law. This would have signalled a loss in the confidence of the government. In a traditional situation, a government would dissolve parliament and cause an election. This is because the government has lost the power of a significant piece of legislation. A significant party of the ruling party’s platform is based on managing refugees, if you want to use a term loosely.

So the government filibustered the vote on the refugee bill until the lower house shut down for the year. In the ordinary course of events, and it happens often, a movement is made to the extend the hours of the lower house. No such movement was made. The government would rather not deal with refugees, or their loss of confidence that would ensue, and as a consequence, they were prepared to risk not passing the encryption bill.   

In the meantime, the government wedged the opposition on the encryption bill, claiming terrorists and pedophiles were going to run riot on whatsapp over Christmas. So the opposition crumbled and waved the bill through without considering the amendments.

So that’s why we can read your messages. It seems like a bit of a Trojan horse to be honest. It allows us to provide state aid to those other states who seek it. Including those states whose maximum penalties for offences is death. This is also at odds with australia’s Moral stance on capital punishment.

All in all, a really poor showing by our government and opposition. 

Electoral divisions are drawn by the executive, and are more or less independent of the ruling party. For instance most redrawn federal divisions have turned notionally Labor. Its actually a real problem for the ruling party as they currently trail most polls by a significant margin...

anyway, bone headed legislation.

I really like the new stylus - one of the issues I have is that the double tap gesture is a little trigger happy - for me. I tend to adjust my grip constantly while I write and this often means the inadvertent selection of the the alternative tool. All of a sudden I am erasing material in GoodNotes, for instance.

Otherwise, apart from being more expensive - I don’t care what you say, $200 is a lot of money. I can feed a family of four for that kind of money every week. I did buy it, but I don’t think I’m getting that kind of value. I wouldn’t have ummed and ahhed so much over, say $150, but $200 is definitely starting to enter WTF territory.