willedoo

More confusion over the 3G shutdown, 000 and blocked phones: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-03/brand-new-phones-unable-to-make-calls-3g-shutdown/104541440 The section in that article that related to phones purchased overseas being blocked got me thinking about second-hand sales of phones. With the 3G shutdown making my old Samsung Galaxy S5 obsolete, I bought a refurbished S10e on eBay. I wonder if any eBay phone sellers here in Australia source stock from overseas. Mine is working ok but I haven't called 000 to know if that part works. Apparently it's up to the telcos to block models they think might not be compatible but it sounds a bit arbitrary.

That's one of the reasons why they've got money. They don't like parting with it.

In the January 1992 floods we had 33 inches in 24 hours. I was away up at Fraser Island so missed seeing it. The most I've personally seen here is 14 inches in a day. We had 14 inches one Sunday and another 14 inches the following Sunday. It cut the road to the coast for five weeks. The first 14 inches had a week to soak in and waterlog the soil so it took much longer than normal for the second lot to get away.

He'd eased off on the orange for a fair while, but photos of him in the last couple of weeks shows it caked on in volumes. He must be applying it with a trowel now. As the election gets closer, he's decided to go for double orange. It looks weird and a little bit spooky with those pink eyelids peering out from under a face of orange. At least he didn't have to dress up for Halloween.

Fun and games with computers is never ending. I use Firefox for a browser and for a few days it's been as slow as a wet week. This afternoon it crashed and when I restarted it, it's been super fast. Firefox has a bad habit of playing up after updates.

The other problem for Harris is that for a lot of the saner Republican supporters it's all about policy. They're prepared to put up with Trump because they believe Republican policy is better for them and better for the country than the Democrat alternative. I think there's more chance of it being very close as opposed to a major victory by either side. I'd agree with the suggestion that it might come down to which side has the most motivated voters to actually register a vote. There's been a bit of delusion among Harris supporters expecting her honeymoon period to result in a major defeat of Trump. One bunch on YouTube were all excited over stats showing the increase in vote among white collar college graduates. Clinton increased it 5%, Biden 9%, and polling suggested an increase of 18% for Harris. Well whoopy doo, that's great if you restrict voting to white collar college graduates. It would be a bit like taking a poll among Canberra public servants to get an idea how people will vote in Bundaberg or Broken Hill.

It would help Harris a lot if they kept Biden sedated at home until the election is over.

Not long to go now. I'm not a betting man but I'm tipping a Trump victory.

That leaping was me, not the toad.

I had a run in with a cane toad tonight. He jumped onto my bare foot when I wasn't expecting it, resulting in much leaping and a twisted knee. The toad and two of his mates are no longer here.

Paraquat is the one that has been in the news a lot lately with possible links to Parkinson's mentioned. I'd agree on the improper handling part of it. I used to see it here all the time, farmers spraying with no cabs on the tractors, out in the open without a mask, shorts and short sleeved shirts. One farmer with Parkinson's was being interviewed on the ABC radio yesterday and he said that's how he sprayed for years. It's difficult to have sympathy for stupidity. Paraquat in it's concentrated form is very deadly. One young bloke was adding it to a tank and spilled it on the front of a football jersey or some similar tight fitting top he was wearing. His sister found him dead no more that 15 minutes after she last saw him. It appeared he's tried to take the shirt off and passed out by the time he had it up over his face. In another case up north, someone put paraquat in a coke bottle and put it in the fridge. When this bloke had a swig of it, he spat it out but still died in hospital a few days later. I think it wrecks your organs and there's no real antidote for it.

Trump's Truth Social stock market valuation is now greater than the estimated value of Musk’s Xcrement. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/oct/29/truth-social-trading-suspended

I'm not sure whether it was a statewide directive from the Greens in the Queensland election, but in my region all the roadside corflute signage for the Greens had them dressed up in khaki uniform. It was a bit comical with them all looking like the Irwins in the Australia Zoo ads. The signage made it look a bit fake, but then again most campaign signage looks a bit dodgy. I can just see Adam Bandt sitting in the Qantas Chairman's Lounge with his short sleeve khaki shirt on.

Day three and the sky hasn't fallen in yet.

I better not show that to my feathered mate; he'll expect cake instead of the dog pellets.

Seeing $1,300 would have been a bit of a shock.

You learn a lot on this forum. I've always pulled the Honda engine onto compression when not using it, but this afternoon I gave the muffler a squirt as noted.

That would be wishful thinking on Luka's part. The Belarusian military is one that the Russians really could beat. They're not much better than Kadyrov's TikTok warriors.

Another thing I'm getting used to is WhatsApp. So far I only use it for calls to friends who don't have a very good signal for a normal mobile phone calls. They get a lot of dropouts so use WhatsApp for calls whenever they can.

Jerry, what does redundancy in the mobile network mean?

With the NBN I get 100GB of data per month with no monthly rollover of unused data for $50 per month. With Aldi for the same price I get 130GB of data, unlimited phone calls and sms in Australia and 30 other countries, plus any unused data rolls over and accumulates. For a single user like myself, the phone data plan so far seems cheaper, faster and more reliable than the NBN. I would think in a multiple user household, the NBN plans would be more suitable.

Did you hear about the lady who received a bill in the mail and set fire to it. Her name was Bernadette.

My trial of phone data vs the NBN is going ok so far. The phone connection is set to mobile hotspot and wireless from there to the laptop. I've paid for another month on the NBN plan to keep it active until I decide whether or not to ditch it for good. The idea is to do the whole month using only the phone to get an idea of reliability and speed. I've been doing it for a week now and it's passed those tests. The economics and value for money side of it is already well in the phone's favour. So far the occasional times the phone slows a bit or has a drop out for a few seconds is not a problem.

I'd vouch for that. I've got a tradie quality Makita drill and also a green cheap range one. The cheap one growled like a 20 year old drill when it was fresh out of the box. The gear quality sounds like it's streets apart.

The Army made some nice storage boxes in their day. I saw this Engineer's box on FB Marketplace today. It looks like hoop pine and would have that nice old hoop pine smell no doubt. I have a couple of Army old rifle crates made from hoop pine with the rope handles. Also a few boxes that held some type of actuator. They are mostly plywood, but the timber pieces inside to hold the item in place are hoop pine and some even have red cedar pieces inside them. They used to refit and re-purpose a lot of boxes; you often see the old markings showing under the paint indicating a former use.