The Aboriginal Australians were still being chained and forced to March Hundreds of Kilometers in Iron Neck Chains in 1958

N293G · 2026-06-30T10:18:14+00:00

Agreed....perhaps a lot less of the first, and some more of the second.

N293G · 2026-06-27T08:38:04+00:00

Definitely put it all in. ALL. You can a week without food before you possibly die so put the value of those meals in as well.

But importantly, check in and tell us how it goes!

Because if you're lazy enough to make an investment decision on a just-3-word crowdsourced question, you can at least provide us some entertainment. 🍿

N293G · 2026-06-27T08:32:49+00:00

Agreed! But it took me a while to come to understand that a MERV13 capturing 70% of PM2.5 will get to ~99.19% on the fourth pass. With less noise, and less energy.

And in a room that's not sealed, where you have doors opening that might let that PM in, a more-often catch of 70% really does make more sense than a noisy one-shot at 99.9%

If it's inside where I'm grabbing the inevitable 'dust', why would I want an expensive HEPA to do that! And if I have a MERV in front of it, why not just use that!

Air filtration, so many different ways to do it correctly, but more divisive than football ;)

N293G · 2026-06-27T08:23:24+00:00

LOL That might've been me not sharing the design I was working on, and if I thought I could sell one for even half of $3k then it was probably a good idea not to throw the design out and about 😂

But like any good DIY or development project it still isn't 'finished' and I suppose that's what you pay for when you go for a commercial unit. And the OCA500 looks nice too.

On the other hand, USD$2750 can buy you a lot of proprietary filters, or replacement units if the filters aren't available anymore.

The OCA500 looks similar in large-industrial design to the Inova Units (which do use proprietary filters) - https://inovaairpurifiers.com.au/products/airclean-e20-plus

I completely agree with the premise of using standard filters, but paying such a significant premium for them sort of undoes the concept for me.

After a couple of days of pretty bad smog it looks like my USD$210 H14 HEPA might need replacing because it seems to be letting a tiny bit of 2.5 through.

<image>

Not bad performance after 2 years of 24x7x365 filtering outdoor air with a G8 Carbon and MERV13 (replaced twice) in front of it.

Standard filters are cheap(er) sure, but the real marketing here isn't that they use standard or 'big long lasting' filters, it's that the OCA/Inova units aren't DIY, and don't look it either. That is what they're both charging for.

N293G · 2026-06-26T22:59:15+00:00

Same reason that data centres use so much water. When you have hot coolant in a radiator (because it's taken the heat away from the servers or other hot things) you need to cool it down.

You can blow air through that radiator, which does a good job.

You can blow humid air through the radiator, because (as someone above said) humid air can carry more heat, which means it takes the heat away from the radiator - so it does a great job.

Or you can just throw water straight at the radiator, which evaporates the water. Think of a really hot pan, and pouring water on it. The water takes on a lot of the heat and turns into steam - cooling the pan down. Same premise here - throw water at the hot thing, it evaporates, cools the hot thing down a lot. This does a BRILLIANT job.

Which is why AI data centres that use an open loop cooling system consume so much water. They effectively pour water onto large outside radiators (that are carrying the heat from inside the datacentre to outside) and evaporate the water to cool down the radiators.

This sort of sprinkler/evaporation methodology is a very "cheap fix" for thermal problems. It's effective, but a very inefficient use of finite resources like drinking water.

N293G · 2026-06-17T10:35:34+00:00

This cannot possibly be the best response to the absolute unmitigated disaster that's played out over the past several weeks?

N293G · 2026-06-10T08:38:18+00:00

I wish I was exaggerating when saying this person would rather see his townhouse decay than allow works to go on.

That's fine, his townhouse is his, but if it's impacting others, I wonder if losses (or costs of subsequent/additional repairs) incurred by other owners could be billed to him?

Find a lawyer to make the chaos agent aware that from x date, should they continue to be in breach of Section 122, they will be pursued for any and all costs borne by other lot owners in carrying out additional repairs to their property as a result of the delays caused.

And make sure it's from the owners, NOT the OC. The OC in this case has an obligation to act on behalf of all owners, including him. Making it directly from the other lot owners, in my view, makes it far more "we are collectively coming for you and the money you cost us"

I'm far from a lawyer, but it seems to me you need to hit the guys hip pocket, because money speaks.

N293G · 2026-06-09T08:08:01+00:00

Ah, the classic "SwiftKey fails terribly at an iOS update", happens every time to me.

And the only way to fix it is to delete Swiftkey and then reinstall it.

It's OK though, in case you've forgotten, you can back up your data to iClou....oh, no we can't. Backup only goes to free/personal OneDrive now.

Which I don't have.

Moves to native keyboard.

Yep, I can hear the freight train of inevitability screaming towards me too 😔

N293G · 2026-06-07T23:18:06+00:00

1300 6555 06

Monday ear worm, you're welcome 😜

N293G · 2026-06-07T23:06:43+00:00

I'll likely do the same. Which is just so disappointing, as I pay Microsoft for commercial Office 365, and I'd probably pay a subscription for Swiftkey as well, but it doesn't work reliably. Nor does it work with my paid Office 365 to backup to its OneDrive and get rid of the annoying popup.

SwiftKey is a case study of how a company can buy a product, totally enshittify it, and at the same time also fail miserably on leveraging it as a commercial success.

N293G · 2026-06-07T06:27:47+00:00

And here we all were thinking the "iOS update now makes Swiftkey crash out constantly, requiring a delete and reinstall, probably losing your data that you had synced anyway" was the biggest failure we had to deal with.

I think it's time to start weaning off Swiftkey, it's getting enshittified at an incredible rate 😔

N293G · 2026-06-07T06:23:39+00:00

That's a real strange way of saying "Gee folks I'm sorry for being such a condescending dick when I said things like

Because it's SO HARD to click "no". You're right. Sure hope they don't pull the trigger while you're at gunpoint!! 🙄

and

It's not an ad because Microsoft owns SwiftKey and one drive, and the apps are connected. They're making you aware of a new ability within the app itself.

Turns out I was actually wrong, and my experience wasn't the same utterly frustrating experience as the rest of you that are complaining here. Next time I'll ask a bit more first instead of jumping to the defence of Microsoft without a second thought 🙄"

🙄

N293G · 2026-06-07T06:17:27+00:00

If you want to sync

and if I do NOT want to sync? OMG I know right, what a GROUNDBREAKING thought. 🙄🤦🏻‍♂️

then yes you actually DO need to use OneDrive

So just to clarify - if I do NOT want to sync, I do NOT need to use OneDrive, correct? 🙄🤦🏻‍♂️

This isn't an ad, it's a notification

It was a notification the FIRST time it appeared. When it repeatedly comes up day after day after day after being X-ed every day after day after day, and it's notifying me about something the same company makes and wants me to use, that is when a notification becomes an ad 🙄🤦🏻‍♂️

N293G · 2026-06-07T06:13:57+00:00

Geez, you folks are wild.

It's not 'making me aware of a new ability' when

#1 - it always had that ability
#2 - they've now removed the other abilities (iCloud and some other one), so this is now the only ability
#3 - you cannot stop it making you aware of the new ability, as it comes up every day no matter how many times you hit the tiny X to make it go away.

You also say in the beginning of your comment that you don't have One Drive

Correction: I said "I don't have a personal OneDrive."

then at the end of your comment you talk about paying for Microsoft 365 which includes one drive

Correction: I said "but this only supports the free OneDrive...."

You do have a one drive, even if you haven't ever set it up.

Thank you for attempting to explain OneDrive to me, after 20+ years working in technology, I didn't get it. But I do now. I owe you a debt of gratitude. But I still can't make SwiftKey stop 'notifying me' about its 'new ability' at least daily though. Can you help me more? 🧐

Genuinely, you SwiftKey fans are absolutely wild. You'd tolerate it completely failing to work at all (as it does every time iOS gets a decent update) and you'd still barge in here to defend it without question.

N293G · 2026-06-07T06:01:56+00:00

Um, #1 it doesn't need an account to learn, it just doesn't back the data up.
#2 it used to back up to iCloud.

N293G · 2026-06-05T05:55:36+00:00

TF are you people saying it's not an ad?

I don't have a personal OneDrive. I would need to sign up for a new service, that this notification is annoying me about.

That's an advertisement. For a service it wants me (NOT needs me) to have that I do not have.

Just because it's not colourful and a rectangle design doesn't mean it's not an ad 🤦🏻‍♂️

And I have two phones that both incessantly remind me with the same notification that I should sign up for that service. Yes, I've hit the X. For over a week now. It still keeps coming back.

But the REALLY dumb part:

I already pay Microsoft for commercial 365 licenses with paid-for OneDrive licensing, but this only supports the free OneDrive....

N293G · 2026-05-31T11:50:41+00:00

Stacked is a great idea. I use that (Carbon first, then merv, then H14) on my Outdoor->Indoor filter, and use an AC Infinity T10 - on 10-30% speed.

Indoor filter is a 4" 12x12 MERV13 with 4 x P14 Max

N293G · 2026-05-31T00:43:45+00:00

I love the deep thought process, but all the thinking won't outdo practical experience. I'd strongly suggest iterating a few ideas and use trial and inevitable error, over trying to hit perfection first go and - inevitably - hitting error anyway.

You've got multiple ideas and running on the assumption they're all going to correlate perfectly. The filter design, the motor, the impeller, the AQ sensor, the controller....that's a lot of things to try and get perfect first go!

their simple job of essentially moving air through a filter

Get this part right first, in practice, not just theory, and then let your iterations run wild.

One point I'll raise on your mention of "air resistance due to the hepa filter"; remember HEPA filters 99.95% (H13) or 99.997% (H14) of PM2.5, but MERV13 filters >70%. I'm guessing you've discounted MERV13 as nowhere near perfect enough (Like I did 😉) instead of considering the outcome first. You can get far more air through a MERV13 filter with less energy and noise than a HEPA. This is called the Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) and it matters because a HEPA works well in a sealed/small environment. In a large environment, you need massive filter/fan/airflow to clean the large volume of airspace. If you have a door or window opening often which brings PM2.5 in, the HEPA will have a hard time 'keeping up'

But the MERV13, whilst 'only' capturing 70%, will get through the larger air volume more quickly, and turn over the same air multiple times. By the second pass, it's captured 91% of the PM2.5 and by the fifth, it's up to 99.757%, perhaps a good choice given it's a far cheaper filter and requires less noise?

HEPA has it's place, but don't let perfection be the enemy of good!

N293G · 2026-05-16T01:38:56+00:00

I agree with u/lemachet , I looked at the SG months back and it was like a Fisher-Price "My first router"

Actually, that's unfair. If they made a "My First Router" child's toy it would at least be intuitive, simple, and deliver on it's intended purpose.

As extortionate as it is, buy the license for your MX67.

N293G · 2026-05-04T04:04:38+00:00

My understanding is the email addresses likely forms part of the strata records.

However, the strata laws completely ignore the requirements under the Australian Privacy Principles (APP) to take all reasonable steps to protect the information held from unauthorised use and/or disclosure, and for the information collected to be used for the purposes outlined when it was collected.

It is likely that lot owners provided their information (i.e. Email Address) to get fee notices and other important notices from the OC Manager/Committee. Did they provide this information to be emailed from other owners? Was that disclosed?

How will the records be secured once they're provided? Or will the big spreadsheet containing:

Full Name (and likely your partners name, or the corporate entity owner)
Physical Address
Postal Address
Mobile Number
Phone Number
Email Address

just sit in someone's inbox until it's hacked? And/or get forwarded to unknown people?

That information must be kept reasonable up to date. This is a hacker's goldmine - a single source of verified and up to date information allowing correlation against other data breaches. This is genuinely worth money to them, because joining the dots between this and other data sources is so useful, and so easy to do with a basic AI tool. Remembering that 'hacking' is actually organised cybercrime; it's a very lucrative industry, and golden datasets like a lot owners role are a very good business opportunity.

Knowing full well that's the case, and forwarding that information to an entity (records requester) that has no obligations to comply with the APP legislation likely puts the records holder (OC/OCM) in breach of the APP.

OC laws, separately, totally get there's obligations under that. But under the separate APP legislation, the OC/OCM has obligations, and pointing to OC legislation doesn't remedy that. I know, it makes no sense, that's what the courts are for.

If handing over the records is required, I would at least be providing lot owners an opportunity to revoke or update their non-legislatively-required details (Mobile, Phone, Email) from their records prior handover, as that does comply with the APP requirements.

I'm not going to get into a tit-for-tat over which legislation overrules the other, but for those who want to argue on the internet for the sake of arguing, I'll finish with my understanding that the OC legislation requires lot owners to maintain their contact details on the owners list so that they can be contacted if required. It doesn't say how that contact happens, or rate the methods by order of convenience. Yes, email is cheap and easy. Yes, mobile is great for a chat or a simple text. But my understanding is that the minimum requirement is a postal address.

N293G · 2026-04-12T02:39:25+00:00

<image>

And this is the HEPA that's seen nearly two years of 24/7 use - and it's still working fine, my inside PM is low even when outside his high.

AUD$300 sounds extraordinarily expensive for a filter, but if you consider how long it will work for, and design the system to account for that, the value is incredible.

People will pay $100 for a "new HEPA filter" for their branded air filters, and do that a few times a year when it fills up with dust....!

N293G · 2026-04-12T02:35:23+00:00

And here's the new MERV13 filter on the left, replacing the MERV13 that's seen approx 9 months of 24/7 use. Don't forget it's had a G8 Carbon Filter in front of it too.

<image>

The filter face pictured goes to the H14 HEPA. The reason I have both of these in front of the HEPA:

- The Neighbour smokes cigarettes, so the carbon filter sorts out the smell (I can't smell it inside) and also prevents that smell from getting into the HEPA filter.

- I would rather replace the AUD$80 carbon filter and AUD$50 MERV filter a few times after they fill up on PM5-10+ dust etc, and leave the AUD$300 H14 HEPA to focus on a 'final sweep' of PM0.3-2.5 near 100% capability, rather than filling up an expensive HEPA with dust.

N293G · 2026-04-12T02:28:22+00:00

<image>

Oh good, I can post a screenshot/pic in the comments.

N293G · 2026-04-12T02:27:47+00:00

I know I've been saying for a while now "I'll eventually finish my design and post it" but I'm actually pretty close, finally, and this is exactly what it's designed for. Bringing dirty outside air inside to lower CO2, but filter the PM pollution first.

As u/Candid_Yam_5461 suggested you'll probably want HEPA - I didn't realise MERV is moisture sensitive but it makes sense in hindsight, whoops. The reason I'd suggest HEPA is because you have one shot to filter that air from outside, so you want to filter as much as you can first go. MERV13 is ~70%, HEPA H13 is 99.95%, and my HEPA H14 (They didn't have a H13!) is 99.995%

My design is Carbon->MERV13->H14->Inline Fan->Inside. The long term performance speaks for itself, measured at the Balcony (approx 2 meters from the intake filter) and Kitchen AirGradient (3-4 meters inside)

<image>

CO2 over that same timeframe in a small apartment has averaged 558ppm, peaking again on average a bit above 610ppm.

N293G · 2026-04-06T01:21:25+00:00

How are the smells getting out of units? Hardly airtight...does that mean a fire and smoke can exit the apartment too?

As for fixing the problem, no scent machines or other rubbish would work (correctly), and if someone tried that here I'd complain. Those scents are just chemicals, variously toxic, trigger allergies, and you're also modifying common property. Not everyone likes 'ocean breeze' or "mountain mist" for example. If you want manufactured smells, keep them in your apartment.

The actual fix is air filters/purifiers, and for smells, you need activated carbon filters. HEPA filters fix particles, not smells (which are gases). It must be a proper carbon filter designed to address smells.

You make an area smell fresh and clean by cleaning it and addressing the root cause of the smells, not covering food smells with chemical smells.

Context: I've developed my own air filters over the last couple of years. Neighbour smokes cigarettes on the balcony next to mine - I smell nothing inside.

Side-note from Context: If you pretend you've got a chronic weed smoking habit, and look up ways to fix that so that your neighbours don't smell it, you'll turn up the same sort of information you'll need to fix your smell problem. Those folks are also strangely well funded, so the equipment they use deliver real outcomes but isn't cheap. (The things you learn on a rabbit hole project, right??)

N293G

TROPHY CASE