octave

Geelong. Pretty stable and reliable.

Unless people hold large amounts of cash they will always be reliant on the power and phone network. People who say they only use cash get their cash from the bank system or perhaps they draw cash out when making a debit card transaction. The person using cash drows it out through the digital network, puts it in thier wallet or purse then hands it over to the shopkeeper. I cut out thee middle part of that chain and don't put it in my wallet but send it straight to the shopkeeper. By the way I ave been in a supermarket when the power goes out and they immediately closed the store

I did read the whole article. My point stands that EV sales (BEV, PHEV) have not "fallen off a cliff" The proportion of BEV to HEV has shifted recently, whether this is permanent or temporary, time will tell. Remember the Channel 7 story about Tesla graveyards in Melbourne that they suggested was growing at 40000 cars a month? This "graveyard" must be enormous by now. The automotive market (all cars) for August was down by 10.6 percent on last August. change is not usually linear but there will be ups and downs

I don't know about "full bottle" (are you saying I drink too much?) but seriously - I am not suggesting that we should shred all the money and knock old ladies' purses out of their hands etc. I am not sure if you need to be particularly tech-savvy to operate a card account. As time goes on there will be fewer people who use cash this is the trajectory. I am questioning to what degree we should artificially slow down this change. I have no problem with ensuring certain levels of cash supply or services. I do however think we should not be forcing business owners to deal in cash if they do not wish to. The proposed legislation I linked to suggested that a business would be compelled to take cash up to $10000, which to me is crazy. We should not compel the taxi driver working at night to carry around excessive cash. In times gone by taxi drivers being bashed and robbed was a common occurrence. This morning we am off to our favourite cafe. We have become quite friendly with the owner and even gone out socially. This business is not so much a cafe but more of a hole-in-the-wall type business. This business is still in its first year. The owner is passionate about what he does and this place is becoming quite busy at times. He is usually there by himself. When you order he quickly types it into a screen on his side of the counter and then immediately goes back to making coffee. On the customer side of the counter is another screen where your order appears and you can tap your card or phone or whatever. In a one-person operation like this, there simply is not time to stand waiting while someone rummages through their wallet or purse. My point is that he should not be compelled to take cash if it does not fit in with his business model. I am actually not sure if he does take cash but I have never seen anyone offer cash. I would suggest that most people of any age are able to operate a bank account. With age people do lose ability though. My mother is in care and I now operate her bank accounts for her (anyone need a loan?) Although her ability to operate her bank accounts has deteriorated this also applies to using cash. As for me being "full bottle" on technology, I would say not especially. Something I think is crucial as I age is to not get stuck in a bygone era because this leads eventually to helplessness. If I don't understand how to do something I find out how to do it. It is all too easy to give up. Although my 92-year-old mother is not particularly tech-savvy I am pretty proud of the way she still is able to use her laptop (with a bit of tech support over the phone from us which can be arduous sometimes). Every Sunday night she will Facetime with her friend in England. They were nurse together 70 years ago. It is important not to give up on learning new things whilst you have the capacity to do so. I am fine with the government ensuring a certain level of cash facilities for those who are unable to use cash or for whatever reason don't wish use cash but as this number dwindles I guess we need to be aware of the costs and benefits of subsidising these services.

Anyone with a phone can take a payment. I am not arguing for the abolition of cash but I choose not to use it. I don't look back fondly to the days when registering your car meant a trip to the bank followed by queuing at the motor registry. I value my time too much to waste it.

To be precise $6.07 the total fare is 511.79

At least this article avoided the hysteria. EV sales have not fallen off a cliff they have just grown at a slightly slower rate. However, demand for electric vehicles (EVs) has not fallen off a cliff, as viral footage claimed to show stockpiles of Teslas waiting at Australian ports unable to find buyers would suggest. Data published yesterday shows 8.3 per cent of new vehicles reported as sold in June 2024 were electric, down from 8.8 per cent this time last year.

I am not aware either way. In any case only an idiot or someone with far too much money would actually fall for that. Of course using a credit card is not the only way of paying, if I were faced with a large surcharge (which has never happened so far I would use a debit card or bank transfer. What I would not do is walk around with 10k in my pocket. We just bought some plane tickets for an overseas trip. The surcharge was $6 on a $511 fare. I could have used a debit card, I think you can even do a bank transfer. What I would not do is spend an hour travelling to the nearest office of this airline with a wad of cash.

I would suggest that that is not legal and I certainly would pay it and I would report it. https://www.accc.gov.au/business/pricing/card-surcharges Ban on excessive payment surcharges About the ban on excessive surcharges Businesses incur costs for processing certain card payment types. Some businesses include these costs in the prices they charge for their products. Others pass the costs on as a surcharge for paying with the card. Certain rules apply when a business applies a surcharge to particular cards: the surcharge must not be more than what it costs the business to use that payment type the surcharge can only include costs that are for accepting that particular payment. For example, if a business pays an amount for gateway fees for processing credit card transactions only, the business cannot include this cost in its debit card transactions. How much it costs a business to process a payment depends on the size of the business, the technology used, and the payment method. Small businesses usually have higher processing costs than large businesses. Whatever the surcharge amount, the business must be able to prove the costs they used to calculate it.

The cost of handling cash was always built into the price of the goods and services and digital means should also be built in and I think in the future they will be. I don't find too many businesses with card surcharges. Below is a link to legislation put forward by a politician and supported by crazy Bob Katter. This legislation would impose fines of up to $25000 for a business if it does not accept cash. It also wants a business to have to accept up to $10000 in cash This seems foolhardy to me. Legal tender: bid to enshrine cash use I buy green coffee beans from a local importer. I choose what I want to buy online and put an order in and pay online. I can pay by credit card, Paypal (with a tiny tiny surcharge) or if I want to avoid that surcharge I can do a online bank transfer which is free. This business is a one-person operation. I just rock up and pick up my order from a table, already paid for. Often I can see the owner roasting coffee beans so I give him a wave and get on with my day. I think it would be grossly unfair to insist that this owner of a probably marginal business should have to accept cash when it does not suit his business model. Here is a posting on a Reddit group from a small business owner. Handling cash is way more expensive than EFTPOS. General "Took over a coffee van business two months ago that does pretty decent business during the morning rush. Use Square for EFTPOS and they charge a flat 1.6 percent card processing fee. About a tenth of my income comes from Cash as customers try to help us out saving money? Surely that's a good thing? WRONG. The sheer amount of time and money spent sanatising hands after touching money everytime adds up quick. It also slows down the ordering process drastically compared to a simple paywave beep on the machine. On top of that actually maintaining a proper cash float with enough coins and small bank notes is time consuming. Takes a couple hours a week to count, collect coins and deposit money at the bank. I would have never thought I would say this but I wish every one of my customers used card. Cash is the bane of my existence. Does anyone else feel the same? Are there any benefits I'm not seeing to cash ( assuming you aren't dodging taxes) ?? /Rant over" The only assertion I make is that this business owner should not be told in what form they can accept payment. If a business only wants to accept cash that is also fine with me. In the end people will vote with their feet.

Because they can! It is probably harder to add a cost to a method of payment that has been used for ages. I would argue that cash or card, just average it out and forget clumsy extra charges for this method or that method. Most businesses don't really bother and do incorporate the cost of taking payments into the price. Handling cash obviously is not free, Amourgaurd is not a charity.

Both cash and cards incur some expense. When a business sets a price it takes into account all of the inputs. When shopping at Coles and we see a couple of armed guards collecting or delivering cash, this is a cost. Coles has to incorporate into the price of the items it sells all the inputs including how they handle payments and everything else including the wage for the person who mops the floor. I would suggest that they could moderate their appetite when it comes to the obscene profits they reap however cash or card, they both cost.

All the costs a business incurs are or should be included in the prices they charge. It is a fallacy to believe that operating in cash is free, it is not. A quick search of the net yields many articles that suggest the full cost of handling cash, bookkeeping and security is greater than digital payments.

This is an important point. Would you be happy to continue running if the forum financially paid for itself? The cost is one issue but the other is time and effort. I certainly would understand if you had things you would rather be doing than running a forum for a few old goats.

I can 100% assure you that private groups are in fact private and have no advertising. I am not making this up and I am happy to post screenshots from my groups. Anyone who joins and is a troll or otherwise anti-social is quickly tossed out. I have been the administrator of a few groups and I do know how they work

Just on Facebook, you can have private groups that can only be seen by members and have no adverts. I am in several groups that operate this way. We often make a group, especially for an event for example we are planning a holiday to NZ next April so we have started a private group called NZ 2025, there are only 2 members, myself and my wife. Here is an example of one of the many groups I am in, These private groups do not have ads. Also, editing is allowed (this could be both a pro and a con). I realise that perhaps most members here are not on FB and perhaps feel uncomfortable about it and that is fine, whatever happens, has to suit the majority. I do think it is important however to be aware that much of the criticisms of FB are based on the worst uses of it. A private group will not mean advertising, short posts or trolls. Many private groups I am in require a new member to ask to join and to be approved or not based on whatever criteria the members choose. A downside for some people may be that on FB people usually use their real name and perhaps some folks value anonymity.

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I think this is happening. Melbourne switches on 2.4 MW solar carpark I can think of quite a few car parks shaded by solar panels. I would pose the question, why not do both? What is wrong with farming combined with solar, so-called "agrivoltaics"

E-bikes are brilliant. Hills need not be an issue. You can dial in the level of assistance you need but without taking all the effort out of it (unless you want to)

Recumbents are much kinder on the arse

Back in the day, we owned this. A tandem Greenspeed trike with trailer (with pedals). We did ride it to the Sutton driver training centre where there was the Human Powered Vehicle Association for a competition day. (100km trip). This was back in the mid-90s. There were many pedal vehicles with elaborate fairings however electric motors and batteries were a lot more primitive than today. We did get this trike to 80kph once down a pretty steep hill. . d

https://rac.com.au/car-motoring/info/car-doctor/speed#:~:text=The Australian Design Rules require,speed indicated by the speedo. Theoretically, GPS can be very accurate; however in practice GPS accuracy can vary depending on variables such as the terrain of the area you’re driving through, the presence of tall buildings, weather conditions, electrical interference and the number of satellites available to the GPS system (a minimum of three, preferably four). The Australian Design Rules require that a vehicle’s speedo must not indicate a speed less than the vehicle’s true speed or a speed greater than the vehicle’s true speed by an amount more than 10 per cent plus 4 km/h. This means that the vehicle’s true speed must not be higher than the speed indicated by the speedo. That is, at a true vehicle speed of 100km/h, the speedo must read between 100km/h and 114km/h. An alternative way to look at it is; at an indicated speed of 100km/h, the vehicle’s true speed must be between 86 km/h and 100km/h. Generally speaking, on modern cars the true speed is only a few km/h less that the indicated speed.

https://electricvehiclehub.com.au/information-centre/the-safest-evs-with-five-star-safety-ratings-in-2023/#:~:text=Summary,with five-star ANCAP ratings.

318 panels in the case of this particular Aldi. No, the carbon neutral claim is not made solely on the installation of solar panels as the link explained. Carbon neutrality in theory means not using power from carbon-creating sources. This means producing your own power (solar in this case) and purchasing other power from carbon-neutral sources. In the case of Aldi, I believe they have deals with local wind and solar farms. The other sources are carbon-negative projects such as tree planting projects etc. Also purchasing of carbon credits. There are some flaws in some of these schemes (carbon credits, etc.) But it is surely better than nothing. I suppose you could look at the panels on my roof and say "But they don't power everything all the time." I assume that Aldi (and others) get some benefit other than just being able to say look at us aren't we green? Here are some pictures of a shopping centre I regularly visit when I am in Adelaide.