The totally off-topic thread

[JohnK]

That would depend on the size of the bottle, wouldn't it?

That would be correct.

"You cannot drink half a big bottle of gin in 2.5-3 hours and expect to be conscious over the next 4 hours."

 

[medhead]

Got you. Generous FIT makes it a no brainer. For me with 8c FIT I still don't think it's worth it. My bill's only 450ish per quarter, in part thanks to the 20% discount offered By AGL over standard NSW prices, so I think I'll have to stick with that for a while.

I have either a 4 or 5kW system. Last bill was about $400 reduced by $178 produced. Also they charge you for use and then pay for production, rather than charging for the difference between production and use. That was a bit of a shock on the first bill when I'd produced more than used, in dollars terms, but still had to pay GST on the power used because i don't collect GST on the power I sell.

 

[Bindibuys]

Our power cost is heating in winter. The bill almost doubles.

We have a large slow combustion fire for 90% of heating (+1 room heater in bedroom for getting dressed by) but then the fan on the fire gets turned on. so that uses power. Plus every time you turn on a tap, the electric pump kicks in, pool pump, it all adds up.

 

[RAM]

Is there anyone else here that, upon starting up a new laptop and going through the setup blah-blah, immediately goes to (installed) Programs to start uninstalling bloatware?

Oh yeah, and also Folder Properties, Show All File Extensions and uncheck Hide System Files and Folders

Yes, shut up Mac users

In the 'better late than never' list...

There is a very useful free utility called Revo Uninstaller.

Do a search on it first and read about it (always assume the worst and get lots of pleasant surprises).

It is a very easy to use utility that goes through the uninstall bloatware process very simply by showing every program installed on your machine. If you don't know what something is - google it and find out.

What is particularly good about this utility is first it goes through the normal 'uninstall' process (if there is one) and then it goes through the deletion of hidden material associated with a program (such as cookies, registry entries, hidden directories etc).

If always prompts you before any deletions and shows you exactly what files/directories/registry entries will be deleted before asking you to confirm.

I've used it for over a decade across multiple machines without a problem.

The clearing of left-over registry entries really helps to keep the speed of your start-up under some control although a good general registry cleaner is another must have as the M$ updates leave lots of redundant registry entries. Have a look at Wise Registry Cleaner for example.

Enjoy!

 

[serfty]

Seems like we have similar spouses - I go around behind her (and the kids) turning off unwanted lights, lest we get mistaken for a Xmas Tree. Helps keep the bills to manageable levels and why our usage is low, compared with our suburban peers

SWMBO likes light and I have been slowly replacing the most used ones with LED lights ... in April I replaced 10 x 50W halogen downlights with 5W led units at a cost of about $50 ... the monthly power bill received last week was the lowest we have had since taking up residence ... some $45 less than for the same period last year ...

 

[RAM]

Amaroo what KW system is that from? My issue with solar is we'd need to go to a smart meter with time of day billing. We use the bulk of our power in the peak period and I'm thinking I'd need a big system to ensure we weren't drawing from the grid at peak times.

If you are using for a business than most of what follows is not so relevant but still you need to do your number crunching as time-of-day = max profit generation for the power company.

Are you sure you need time-of-day billing?

In NSW they try to get you to go that way but you can have the smart meter installed and NOT change your billing choice.

Put the panels up in 8/13 and still pay flat rate cost per Kwh used from grid.

For the 5 of us, no pool & no aircon it is near impossible to ever move evening peak use into the 'solar hours'. Using timer on oven for cooking roasts etc is not really food friendly, although long slow roasting (@120 C) can take up some of excess solar generation in spring through to early autumn. Largest single power use is large fridge/freezer @ 4.2 kwh/day. {Monitoring your power usage accurately is another good excuse for having long holidays}

Running the numbers on all uses of power over 24 hour periods against all the various time-of-day tariffs offered Aust wide (it was a slow day) showed that for a typical household and ours - your power bill increased with time of day billing no matter what you tried.

So, long explanation later, Do Not go time-of-day if at all possible. Try calling the State Ombudsman if you have any trouble.

 

[whatmeworry]

SWMBO likes light and I have been slowly replacing the most used ones with LED lights ... in April I replaced 10 x 50W halogen downlights with 5W led units at a cost of about $50 ... the monthly power bill received last week was the lowest we have had since taking up residence ... some $45 less than for the same period last year ...

Isn't there some government scheme in Victoria to get free LED's in place of halogens?

 

[robd]

Isn't there some government scheme in Victoria to get free LED's in place of halogens?

Yes, they knock on the door a couple of times a year with free LED's. The catch is, they won't just give them to you, you have to let these strangers into your home. I therefore, do not have LED's throughout the entire house.

How many people does it take to change a lightbulb?

 

[whatmeworry]

Ok after googling, not free but reduced price. About $30~35 per led. Ledified - halogen replace to led - Lighting - Gadgets
With the same scheme I got back about $20 for a $300 led tv I bought for my sister. Cashbacks for other things as well.
https://www.veet.vic.gov.au/Public/Public.aspx?id=VEETActivitiesbySector

 

[vetrade]

Isn't there some government scheme in Victoria to get free LED's in place of halogens?

Stung twice before with those govt. freeby schemes and there won't be a third. One was to install flow restrictors on all our taps and new shower heads to save water - pressure was so poor afterwards I removed them all and threw them in the bin. Not even enough pressure in the shower to rinse off the soap! Second occasion was to replace all our light globes with low energy ones - this was before LEDs - (didn't realise until it was too late that the "deal" involved the installer taking all our (still working) light bulbs with him. The globes he installed did not even illuminate the rooms properly and all burnt out in record time - not impressed.

It seems QC gets ditched with these schemes in favour of the lowest cost option.

 

[medhead]

The shower head guy was great. Our shower heads needed replacing. One was cracked and occasionally sprayed water all over the place out of the crack. They were also the twisty flow restriction types. Anyway this guy replaced them for free with wonderful new chrome shower heads with a better shower rose pattern. Also gave us 2x standby power cut off thingys. Keen to get the downlights installed as well.

 

[vetrade]

ABC had a dirt bag terrorist sympathiser called Zaky Mallah (who has served time for threatening to kill Australian officials) in the Q&A audience to ambush a Lib MP last night. In the judgement against him the judge stated that Mallah should not be given exposure by the media as his anti-social personality was only encouraged to be more violent and extreme by it. ABC had to apologise today (something they never usually do) -admitted it was an error of judgement to have him on the show.

Today Mallah posted comments (Twitter, I think) that Miranda Devine and another female journalist should be gang raped on a table and asking if anyone agreed Julia Gillard should have her throat slashed.

After all that The Project on Channel 10 still thought it would be a good idea to have him on their show this evening. Sheeesh!

 

[medhead]

Despite the fact that he is a complete %#^%*#*#head. Much of the rhetoric coming out of this government is perfect recruitment propaganda. This increases the risk to Australians. That element of his so-called ambush needs to be answered by our leaders.

 

[Hvr]

<snip>
Today Mallah posted comments (Twitter, I think) that Miranda Devine and another female journalist should be gang raped on a table and asking if anyone agreed Julia Gillard should have her throat slashed.
<snip>

Actually Alan Jones, friend of the Liberal party and person to whom Tony Abbott bows and scrapes. would support that, after all he wanted to put her in a chaff bag and drown her.

Mallah's comments are extremely offensive and grossly misogynistic but the great part of Australia is that he is allowed to say them. I won't listen, nor defend him. But, if it is ok (and it's not) for Alan Jones to suggest murdering a sitting PM without any punishment then why are we getting so upset over this particular scum bag?

 

[blackcat20]

The shower head guy was great. Our shower heads needed replacing. Was was cracked and occasionally sprayed water all over the place out of the crack. They were also the twisty flow restriction types. Anyway this guy replaced them for free with wonderful new chrome shower heads with a better shower rose pattern. Also gave us 2x standby power cut off thingys. Keen to get the downlights installed as well.

One of those standby power cut off thingys blew my dvd recorder; hasn't been the same since.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Actually Alan Jones, friend of the Liberal party and person to whom Tony Abbott bows and scrapes. would support that, after all he wanted to put her in a chaff bag and drown her.

Mallah's comments are extremely offensive and grossly misogynistic but the great part of Australia is that he is allowed to say them. I won't listen, nor defend him. But, if it is ok (and it's not) for Alan Jones to suggest murdering a sitting PM without any punishment then why are we getting so upset over this particular scum bag?

Agreed. Poor judgement on the part of the ABC. But not to mention the crass and unconscionable behaviour of Alan Jones and Tony Abbott appearing in front to the Ditch the Witch and other completely unacceptable plackards before the last election. I didn't think much of TA before that, but afterwards I was appalled that any parliamentarian would stoop so low to pander to base instincts, but then that TA would stoop to such levels has now proved less surprising given the current frothing about death cults etc. Anything to gain and keep in power...

 

[robd]

The shower head guy was great. Our shower heads needed replacing. Was was cracked and occasionally sprayed water all over the place out of the crack. They were also the twisty flow restriction types. Anyway this guy replaced them for free with wonderful new chrome shower heads with a better shower rose pattern. Also gave us 2x standby power cut off thingys. Keen to get the downlights installed as well.

Pretty sure there was a swap program with the water supplier a few years ago with free shower head replacement or rebate/cash refund. Maybe during the last drought?

 

[ReLoad]

I have no idea why it pisses me off as it has nothing to do with me, but I hate it when people intentionally ignore the safety demonstration that FAs give.

You know reading the paper, playing with phones etc.

For some reason it grabs my goat.

 

[medhead]

The shower head would have been around that time.

One of those standby power cut off thingys blew my dvd recorder; hasn't been the same since.

One of our DVD players went to cough sometime afterwards. Could have just been old. Removed the power thingy after that. Never installed the other one as there was only one keep alive outlet but I had foxtel, a computer and TV tuner that needed to stay turned on.

 

[JohnK]

Casino had a promotion last week. Come to watch the State of Origin and for each try Queensland scores if you are playing a machine and you are a pearl member you will get $50 slots dollars and black member you will get $100 slots. So I came in lost ~$300 but have the chance to get some of it back with $150 slots dollars.

Fast forward to today, 6 days later. No slots dollars. They expired after 5 days. No mention in promotion they expire after 5 days. What the....?

Not happy. Why the need for further deception? Not happy. Put in complaint. Not resting until I get a chance to use those slots dollars.

This world is deteriorating rapidly.