Quick rant thread.

[jon dee 500]

1 hour ago, Vass said:

The incentives baked into the system that have driven social media to what it is today? The drive for higher profits hijacking and weaponizing basic human psychology? The over-commercialization and commodification of literally everything? No semblance of any sense of a moral good, only what's good for the bottom line? Decisions, legislation, actions that are objectively necessary to curb any of that never being taken or implemented because they're "bad for the economy"? When you take a bigger picture view and look at the core incentives baked into the foundation of the economic system, it all becomes painfully inevitable.

Actually, this pretty much covers the reasons why the world is so f**ked up today, and why it will never get any better. In a society driven by greed, this aphorism has never been more true... The LOVE of MONEY is the root of all evil. 

Cheers...

[Twistee 461]

I blame the Kardashians, famous for being famous? WTF. Now we have a generation that is confused about where to inject fat, where to remove it and how many followers they can get doing it..... 😁 

[KwS 2429]

I still don't, and refuse to know, what a Kardashian is. 

[jon dee 500]

The Americans have delighted in freak shows for over 200 years. The Kardashians continue that proud tradition

Cheers...

[Bandit 194]

6 hours ago, KwS said:

I still don't, and refuse to know, what a Kardashian is. 

I'll play. Similar to a cardigan, overlarge with leather elbows. Usually dark blue, green or burgundy. Three overlarge buttons to the front. Shaggy wool construction, extremely warm and comfortable to wear. Slight dribble marks and some serious stain evidence to lower left front.

Comes with a characteristic odour of old engine oil with a suggestion of WD40, and slight overlay of aged cask whisky or bourbon.

Best removed before the aged aunt or grandmother visits as it may create an offence, causing the wearer to be written out of the will.

 

Edited August 17, 2022 by Bandit
sp

[aja540i 1906]

20 minutes ago, Bandit said:

I'll play. Similar to a cardigan, overlarge with leather elbows. Usually dark blue, green or burgundy. Three overlarge buttons to the front. Shaggy wool construction, extremely warm and comfortable to wear. Slight dribble marks and some serious stain evidence to lower left front.

Comes with a characteristic odour of old engine oil with a suggestion of WD40, and slight overlay of aged cask whisky or bourbon.

Best removed before the aged aunt or grandmother visits as it may create an offence, causing the wearer to be written out of the will.

 

I would add at least one hole from a welder/ grinder / knife / chisel incident.

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2963]

I disagree with the premise that a Kardashian is similar to a cardigan. Mostly as a cardigan does have it’s uses.

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2963]

15 hours ago, aja540i said:

I would add at least one hole from a welder/ grinder / knife / chisel incident.

You used to be able to add roll your own cigarettes to that list, but that seems to be a thing of the past these days!

[GorGasm 563]

On 8/17/2022 at 2:40 PM, KwS said:

I still don't, and refuse to know, what a Kardashian is. 

Refuse all you like, but now you know what one looks like.

[jon dee 500]

Got a lot of chops in that neck !!!

[gjm 3258]

More NZ price gouging

Our Makita sander uses a rubber backing disc with 'hooks' that hold the sanding disc. After a lot of use, the hooks aren't holding the disc as well as they did and the paper discs have developed a habit of flying off in any direcction that takes their fanc.

Being a Makita, you can buy spares. Yay!

Part number 197468-0. In NZ, $42 - $50. In Oz, $20.

What possible reasonable reason can there be for something so simple costing twice as much here?

Edited August 20, 2022 by gjm

[Twistee 461]

8 minutes ago, gjm said:

More NZ price gouging

Our Makita sander uses a rubber backing disc with 'hooks' that hold the sanding disc. After a lot of use, the hooks aren't holding the disc as well as they did and the paper discs have developed a habit of flying off in any direcction that takes their fanc.

Being a Makita, you can buy spares. Yay!

Part number 197468-0. In NZ, $42 - $50. In Oz, $20.

What possible reasonable reason can there be for something so simple costing twice as much here?

Agree, and that's one reason I went the DeWalt route - Makita spares are hugely overpriced, it used to be a premium brand but these days unless you are buying the absolute top of the trade range they are one step removed from Ryobi. 

Anyway - grab a bunch of Aliexpress for way less: 4 pack for $20 if you can wait the 2 - 4 weeks it will take to get here.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001320420609.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.709c6ea6kuiRuc&algo_pvid=d833f52e-46cd-4dd9-9c9d-27200352845c&algo_exp_id=d833f52e-46cd-4dd9-9c9d-27200352845c-8&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id"%3A"10000015706070627"}&pdp_npi=2%40dis!NZD!16.63!13.47!12.31!!!!%402101e9d016609713568598420ee694!10000015706070627!sea&curPageLogUid=1emEvdFUWPbA

 

[gjm 3258]

53 minutes ago, Twistee said:

Anyway - grab a bunch of Aliexpress for way less: 4 pack for $20 if you can wait the 2 - 4 weeks it will take to get here.

Juggling the options between buying genuine in Oz, or (as you suggest) going the cheap 3rd party route.

I've no issue supporting local, or even just NZ, business, but at double the price (albeit only a $20 difference) they can go... get stuffed.

[Eagle 1677]

I find NZ inconsistent when i comes to pricing. Certain products are heavily marked up while others are similar price or appear even cheaper than overseas.  

[M3AN 4016]

I'm looking to buy a new amp/receiver, my 13yo 100% awesome Onkyo now goes into power protection mode 😢- I can land an 8k Denon replacement from Australia, that's with AU$260 shipping, for NZ$500 less than I can get one in NZ. There is absolutely no logic that can justify that, with or without GST shenanigans.

 

[Jacko 2158]

10 minutes ago, M3AN said:

I'm looking to buy a new amp/receiver, my 13yo 100% awesome Onkyo now goes into power protection mode 😢- I can land an 8k Denon replacement from Australia, that's with AU$260 shipping, for NZ$500 less than I can get one in NZ. There is absolutely no logic that can justify that, with or without GST shenanigans.

 

My Onkyo did the same thing, I bought another Onkyo as fanboi  

[M3AN 4016]

Ooft yes, the Onkyo fanboi force is strong, I love(d) mine... currently Denon are edging on specs though. Perhaps I should wait? I'm getting by, and am very impressed, with my new Sony 4K OLED that uses the screen itself as speakers... that's some pretty impressive tech, the bass is astonishing. But no 5.1 so my speakers are sitting idle.

[Twistee 461]

Just survived dinner with the inlaws, don't even know where to start that rant 😁

[M3AN 4016]

5 minutes ago, Twistee said:

Just survived dinner with the inlaws, don't even know where to start that rant 😁

Reward sex?

 

[Bandit 194]

8 hours ago, M3AN said:

Reward sex?

 

Eewww

[Palazzo 478]

Worthless c&$ts who walk around at 1 in the morning throwing concrete blocks through car windows.

[*Glenn* 855]

I’m so glad my driveway is 900 meters long with what’s going on in the suburbs these days

[Sammo 2550]

On 8/20/2022 at 7:58 PM, M3AN said:

Ooft yes, the Onkyo fanboi force is strong, I love(d) mine... currently Denon are edging on specs though. Perhaps I should wait? I'm getting by, and am very impressed, with my new Sony 4K OLED that uses the screen itself as speakers... that's some pretty impressive tech, the bass is astonishing. But no 5.1 so my speakers are sitting idle.

Very nice - is that the A90J?

Got an A80J earlier this year and absolutely love it - has an older but grunty Onkyo TX-RZ800 and Image speakers to keep it company.

[M3AN 4016]

30 minutes ago, Sammo said:

Very nice - is that the A90J?

Got an A80J earlier this year and absolutely love it - has an older but grunty Onkyo TX-RZ800 and Image speakers to keep it company.

Actually no, I have an A80J also, amazing TV. I couldn't justify the price difference to the 90 given that you get very little for the extra money, and nothing that was relevant to me.

Pro tip: if you have your TV hardwired to your home LAN (rather than WiFi) then grab yourself one of these (Amazon link), plug it in to the rear USB3 connection, swap your ethernet cable over, and upgrade your connection from 100Mb/s to 1Gb/s, inexplicably many modern smart TV's only come with 100 meg NIC's, including both the A80/90J's... smh. Disney+ over gigabit internet, via a gigabit adaptor, in glorious Dolby Vision + Atmos is astonishing and it can't hit its peak bitrate over a 100 meg connection.

 

[Driftit 2093]

3 hours ago, M3AN said:

Actually no, I have an A80J also, amazing TV. I couldn't justify the price difference to the 90 given that you get very little for the extra money, and nothing that was relevant to me.

Pro tip: if you have your TV hardwired to your home LAN (rather than WiFi) then grab yourself one of these (Amazon link), plug it in to the rear USB3 connection, swap your ethernet cable over, and upgrade your connection from 100Mb/s to 1Gb/s, inexplicably many modern smart TV's only come with 100 meg NIC's, including both the A80/90J's... smh. Disney+ over gigabit internet, via a gigabit adaptor, in glorious Dolby Vision + Atmos is astonishing and it can't hit its peak bitrate over a 100 meg connection.

 

I found this when trying to stream 4K movies via my plex server.  All of a sudden the host is ramping up to 100% trying to transcode the 45gb file down to something the TV can handle.
I did not know you can plug in an adapter like this though.  I have LG TV's from the US.  But I am looking at going back to Sony TV's.  I think I have one of those adapters in a box somewhere.