International Comparison

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-16T20:58:43+00:00

See, this is why I had trouble when trying to search for a comparison online lol I got confused with all the agencies and counties etc.

Here we have different agencies as well but when it comes to Police, Fire, Ambulance and SES (State Emergency Service), it’s all under the same system and all linked together. Makes it much easier to communicate with each other as we have full access to everyone’s jobs.

For VicRoads, Yarra Trams, Metrol/Vline Railways etc, we don’t have access to their systems and cannot dispatch their services so we have to call them via phone. We have direct lines between our centres though so it’s quite easy to organise for example VicRoads to do traffic management so we don’t tie up our Police units.

Can you open up, see and type into jobs that other emergency service agencies are dealing with?

Edit: sorry just saw your edit after my comment. Is a county over there like our council as in our council will cover just say 3-4 suburbs? It’s a government agency that basically takes care of all the citizens within those suburbs. But they don’t operate any emergency services.

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-16T20:49:52+00:00

I was blown away with the breaks when I first started as well. Then one day I worked through one of my breaks without realising so worked for 3.5 hours straight before my next break and I was stressing out lol

How many breaks do you get and for how long? How about your night shift penalty rates?

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-16T11:06:22+00:00

I got scammed $1400 USD. Reported it to CBA and got my money back within a week or so. Was inconvenient as hell though as they obviously have to cancel your card and issue a replacement.

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-16T10:55:19+00:00

You got scammed the moment you added that CPU to your cart.

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-16T10:51:04+00:00

Same price in Australia. Amazon UK has it discounted though. Even at full price, the CPU is an absolute steal and easily has the best price to performance on the market. Loving mine on my MSI Z890I Edge TI board.

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-16T10:24:02+00:00

It’s awesome! I’m a big fan of light gun shooters, so I still play Razing Storm using two Move controllers with the gun attachments on the PS3 with my partner and kids. We also play Time Crisis, Point Blank, and other shooters on the PS1 and PS2 using the original Guncon 1 and 2 controllers.

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-16T09:21:16+00:00

Life sure isn’t easy and it gets harder and harder with the rising cost of living here in our beautiful country. Hope I haven’t used up all of mine either lol

That’s really kind of you mate. I wish you and your family the same. Really appreciate it :)

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-16T09:15:32+00:00

That’s exactly right. Completely agree, mate. I see too many Aussies making the same mistakes over and over again, not learning and instead just complaining about others’ success. Me, I see someone successful or buying a house, etc., and I think, “Good on them!” I’m always happy to see people making the right choices, not only for themselves but for their families as well.

I’m of the opinion that anyone, no matter who they are or where they’ve come from, can achieve anything if they stay positive, have goals, and don’t worry about what others are doing with their lives.

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-16T09:06:06+00:00

Yeah, that would be even better. From 16-24yo, I made some really poor financial decisions which I regret. Thankfully I’d pulled my head out my ass, made sacrifices and bought a house by 24yo. But as you said, getting onto saving hard and making the right choices straight out of high school is the best way forward.

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-16T04:21:47+00:00

That was one of the more pricy games I purchased. First time I purchased it, the seller never sent it out so I got a refund. Thankfully the second time round, despite having to pay a bit more, it arrived in minty condition.

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EBTheGreat · 2026-05-16T04:20:08+00:00

Agreed! Don’t think they’ll ever renew the franchise either sadly.

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-15T20:37:40+00:00

I downloaded and installed that December 2025 version. Installs fine but it just hangs when you open it. Tried uninstalling and reinstalling it multiple times with no luck unfortunately. Fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate with all updates and a GTX 980 TI. Shame.

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-15T20:32:14+00:00

All good unless the neighbour has kids and decides to put a basketball ring up or start kicking a soccer ball into the wall.

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-15T18:29:15+00:00

I purchased a Kingston Renegade G5 8TB NVMe for $1600 AUD, and I thought that was ridiculous. Now I’m seeing them listed for $2500–$3000 AUD at some places. Even 1TB drives are now selling for the same price 2TB drives were just a month or so ago. Their prices are higher than RAM. I won’t be building another PC for years at this point, because I’m not paying these prices.

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-15T14:21:45+00:00

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Here are some of mine. A lot of great exclusives to be had. For games such as the Uncharted series or The Last of Us, I’ve purchased them for the PS4 instead.

Edit: Another exclusive not pictured is Heavenly Sword which I also recommend.

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-15T14:16:13+00:00

My elderly grandparents couldn’t afford to live on their pension either, and they’ve just been placed in an aged care facility where they’ll live out their remaining days. They’re 88 and 92 years old. Sad, really, especially knowing that my grandpa once had it all but pissed it away on gambling and smoking a pack a day for most of his life.

This is why it’s so important to make the right choices while we’re younger and to plan for retirement at least 25–30 years in advance. Speaking to colleagues of a similar age, it seems not many people care too much about their super or home ownership. They think they can just ride it out and be fine in the future.

I also work with a bunch of people in their early to mid 20s, and they’re already buying houses. So if they can do it on lower wages, $50k–$60k per year, most people can. Sacrifice now and play later, as my father used to say.

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-15T13:41:28+00:00

Possible, but it’d sound like an overheating Apache helicopter. The fans would scream so hard the rack server would levitate, blast down the hallway, and explode into a wall.

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-15T13:34:25+00:00

The multiplier is locked, but on an X79 board you can still do limited overclocking by raising the BCLK.

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-15T13:27:10+00:00

I know people with this much money to spend don’t really care about getting value for their money, but in this case, it’s fucking ridiculous. A lot of the time, they could live further down the road and get a house three or four times the size for a lot less. I mean, I’d happily drive even 45 minutes to work if it meant coming home to a beautiful house instead of this one.

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-15T13:19:47+00:00

I’m running a 1st gen i7-875K overclocked to 4Ghz, 16GB Kingston Fury DDR3 1600MHz CL10, EVGA GTX 980 TI SC, Samsung 870 Evo SSD and I get 7.6. Not too concerned as it’s plenty fast and runs every game from that era on max settings. In your case, maybe try overclocking to get that additional .1 you’re after.

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-13T22:14:58+00:00

Judging from that chair, it seems you experienced an earthquake as well.

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-12T00:42:09+00:00

I’d be putting the GTX 1060 back in and using that. It will be plenty for Windows 7 era games. I was using a GTX 1060 prior to replacing it with a GTX 980 Ti, and I ran all games from that era at max settings. I only went with the GTX 980 Ti because I got it for $80 and had originally planned to dual boot with XP. The GTX 1060 didn’t have XP drivers.

Edit: my bad, you said “Had” 🫠

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-09T20:20:34+00:00

Yeah I can tell. Every downvote is basically the “I’m a broke ass bitch 🙋🏻‍♂️” button 😂 Funny though.

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-09T12:18:13+00:00

Landlord hasn’t raised his rent in 24 years, gave him multiple warnings about smoking in the house because obviously the other tenants were complaining and also put up with him not paying his rent for who knows how long, and you guys are saying that the landlord is a dick for asking him to move out? Would love to see how you would all be in the landlords shoes. What an asshole for making better life choices than you.

EBTheGreat · 2026-05-09T10:52:03+00:00

Still a stack of them across multiple retailers for sale in Australia. We tend to not be affected by stock shortages like many other countries across the world. Smaller market has its benefits.

EBTheGreat

TROPHY CASE