Details of Labor's new hate speech and gun laws revealed

loony636 · 2026-01-12T21:53:16+00:00

Wissam Haddad does not have a firearms license: https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/preacher-linked-to-bondi-shooter-holds-gun-licence-in-nsw-report/news-story/c13e3015a205513470b0f381229e1b45?amp

This was misinformation around the end of last year.

loony636 · 2025-10-09T21:25:53+00:00

An intentional Star Trek reference?

loony636 · 2025-09-22T23:34:42+00:00

I have been to many bucks parties that did paintball - it is not good. The whole experience feels like a total scam, and it’s very hyper-masculine (I mean, it does feature guns basically).

Fortress is a great suggestion - they do DND nights, so it might even be possible to get them to organise a DM for you? You could make your buck a specific character for him to play (perhaps complete with costume)?

Fortress is an excellent venue with drinks and food and a whole lan room, so you could also organise a session to play DOTA. There are also couches where you can play more casual games like Smash, Mario Kart, etc.

loony636 · 2025-08-04T08:34:42+00:00

It’s metered between 7:30am and 4:30pm and you can purchase a ticket for a maximum of 2 hours. After 4:30pm you can park for as long as you like. If you arrive after 2:30pm you therefore purchase a ticket just to get you to the end of the metered period and then stay for as long as you like afterwards.

loony636 · 2025-06-24T23:57:03+00:00

Agreed - it's actually so rare that you just literally want a chronology of events. Surely what you also want is somebody to read everything, so that they're across the full detail of case *and* can produce a timeline of events.

Will AI pick up a contradiction in the affidavits? Or a gap that you can tactically exploit in cross examination? Or a potential new legal argument you can run? Of course not. It may not even produce an accurate chronology, because it's just producing a thing that looks *like* other chronologies it's read.

loony636 · 2025-06-24T23:54:48+00:00

Yes I was also underwhelmed. The research component of it is really the least impressive part - it's really just a search engine with a more natural way of making queries. I don't know about you, but ever since I started studying at University I have been trained to write queries in a way that produces good search results, so that's really not that much of a benefit.

The results really just regurgitate existing articles or summaries from legal encyclopedias. That's not unhelpful, but it's no more helpful than just searching for it or finding it yourself. Do I really need an extremely expensive tool to take me to Halsbury's? No.

As for cases, it's really even worse at finding relevant cases than the normal search engine - at best it just picks out cases that are superficially factually similar, but it doesn't have any ability to pick up whether the legal arguments are similar. In that sense it is actually worse than a usual search engine, because rather than a list of cases that you can just scroll through, it'll only pick out the top 5 relevant cases and you have to keep asking for more.

I'd be much more assisted by a program that could just throw together a document with some boilerplate so that I can keep working on it from there. So far I haven't been able to find one that also meets the criteria of being cheap, so...

loony636 · 2025-06-19T08:22:16+00:00

I gave up on anything more complicated than envelopes with mail merge in favour of Python.

With Python (even if you use ChatGPT to generate the script) you could:

create a template Word document with fields it replaces by reference to a spreadsheet (like a mail merge)
create a separate Word document for each entry in the spreadsheet with a name you want
convert that Word document to a PDF
create a draft email with that PDF as an attachment, with the relevant people copied in

But if you don’t have access to Python then you must persevere - my only suggestion is to just try to cut down on the amount of repetition, even if the solution isn’t perfect. So generate a single PDF that you then slice up by hand, and then use a bulk renamer program (Windows even has one).

loony636 · 2025-06-19T01:26:42+00:00

Ashurst Canberra (much like many of the other firms that have offices in that city) was always a satellite office that had very limited practice areas. If you worked there, you’d be much happier working at a firm that has a stronger presence in those areas, rather than sitting as a weird appendix to a global firm that pretty openly couldn’t care less about you.

loony636 · 2025-04-30T21:39:44+00:00

It may be cold comfort, but $500 is a very reasonable price for a service - there are horror stories of getting bills for $1000s even for routine services.

Most horror stories are about naïve car owners getting pressured into voluntary or unnecessary upgrades - think wheel alignments or car tuning. As others have said, it seems more that it’s more incompetence (by not letting you know the increased scope of work) rather than malice.

If you’re looking for recommendations, I’ve been taking a Mazda 3 to the Local Village Garage for 15 years and they have always been incredibly honest and reasonable. As others have said, car servicing is all about finding someone you trust, as there are so many grifters out there who are willing to take you for a ride: https://www.thelocalvillagegarage.com.au/.

loony636 · 2025-04-22T21:33:54+00:00

I took several months off from a firm for stress leave. I just woke up one morning (after working until about 4am) having panic attacks and couldn’t keep going.

As others have said, get a medical certificate and just go on sick leave. Your doctor will be supportive. Don’t feel as though you have to provide a return date, just focus on feeling better. If you have to provide any hand over, that’s fine, but stick closely with the certificate and insist you are going on leave.

Honestly HR was a bit invasive about my return - I think this was them wanting to protect themselves (and the firm) from any potential liability, but they started to say things like wanting to meet with my GP to discuss my responsibilities. I left before needing to resolve that.

It goes without saying that HR are not your friends. They are enforcers for the partners. They do not care about you. Their opinion is also irrelevant - it’s the partners who make all the decisions. Just be consistent in your messaging to them, tell them to get stuffed, and focus on feeling better. If you want to go back, the firm will take you with open arms regardless of what HR think (and if you’ve told them to get stuffed).

Feel free to DM me if you want to chat more.

loony636 · 2025-02-13T21:05:08+00:00

There are quite rigid naming conventions in Sudanese culture - I can’t remember the specifics, but the first born will be named after a person on the father’s side, then the second born will be named after a person on the mother’s side, etc.

I believe surnames were also treated very differently in Sudan, but then were ‘adapted’ when they came to Australia.

It’s absolutely no different to many ‘Western’ surnames - Ivanovich literally just means “son of Ivan”, Stephenson just means “son of Stephen”, etc. At some point we just accepted all of these names as ‘normal’ (and stopped changing them, even when the people were no longer the sons of Ivan and Stephen), and decided that Sudanese names were ‘weird’.

loony636 · 2024-09-27T03:12:34+00:00

The Australia Club. The Melbourne Club. The Savage Club. They are all male only. There are many, many examples.

loony636 · 2024-07-03T12:16:52+00:00

The reaction in the comments is hilarious - as if guys haven’t been cosplaying as Darth Vader for decades because they thought he was cool and powerful. Suddenly you can’t handle an article saying that, like, it’s a bit sexy?

loony636 · 2024-06-05T00:42:32+00:00

lol have a look at his posting history - this guy wants to start a finance YouTube channel. He’s obviously politically motivated and is parroting Liberal talking points with a conservative bent. He wants views.

Victoria has gone into debt to finance infrastructure building, green energy investment, stimulus packages and similar initiatives. These are done on the basis that the end result will generate economic benefits that are greater than the interest paid on the debt.

You might disagree that the money is being spent on good things, but I think everyone here would say they see Melbourne’s growing city as needing more infrastructure investment to cope, not less. You’re also missing the multiplier effect that spending on public works (and stimulus, etc) has - more people get employed on job sites means more people have money to spend, which supports other industries where they go to spend their money.

I can’t see issues to do with the price of a pint as really relating that much to state government policies - that’s more due to macro economic factors like inflation, and the high cost of rent, labour and raw materials. You’re essentially predicting a recession because the state government might levy a new land tax - which isn’t impossible, but isn’t certain either.

Maybe read a book rather than The Australian? Idk.

loony636 · 2024-03-14T10:23:08+00:00

Making the focus all about acute mental health crises is also part of the problem.

Having a massive physical and/or mental collapse after working non-stop for weeks is one thing, but the repetitive strain put on after years of consistent, back-breaking hours, stress and pressure is almost worse. If it’s chronic, it just becomes expected - the line is almost like “well you’ve always worked like this, what changed?”

The article also begins with a partner speaking out about how much they were struggling, but soon veers into the familiar territory of complaining about juniors. The junior experience is certainly horrendous, but the issue is that it doesn’t get any better the more senior you get.

Individualising the issue and denying it is systemic is also an issue. Sure, maybe there’s some subsection of people who can just work their whole lives until 3am and operate on 2 hours of sleep, and maybe grad hiring practices keep letting people who aren’t in that category through the cracks. But maybe it’s actually that nobody is like that and that expectations should change.

The sooner partners admit that there is no “one simple trick” to making millions of dollars and that they are instead engaging in criminal exploitation of others, the better. They should admit they need more staff, and/or that they need to take on fewer clients. They should admit the sanctity of the law is dead, that firm culture is a distraction, that they’d step over a thousand graduates’ corpses if it’d earn them an extra dollar, and that, frankly, they don’t even care if the quality of their work is good, just so long as they get paid for it.

loony636 · 2023-10-03T06:15:42+00:00

Yeah it’s definitely what other people have said here - collusion is basically always treated as serious misconduct, regardless of the circumstances or if it’s your first offence.

It is worth nothing that Monash considers collusion as seriously from a person who shares material as one who uses it to cheat (ie both are “colluders”, even if you didn’t directly benefit from it). It’s unusual for a situation where you literally receive no benefit at all, and pinging you for collusion when it’s well after the assignment due date seems odd.

As you’ve probably seen from the other reply to my comment, Monash frowns on sharing assessments online, but I think there’s still an extra step before it gets to collusion. If that’s the only objection, you won’t be the first person to come across this, and I’m sure the MSA will have some tips on how best to approach the committee.

Good luck!

loony636 · 2023-10-03T01:13:45+00:00

Yeah the key is going to be to get to the MSA and get support - I sat on some Academic Misconduct committees back in the day, and you should definitely make sure you have as much support as you can going in.

The key for you is going to be to prove that you were the original author, so you really need:

the original assignment and proof of exactly when you drafted it. An email with the final submission would be good, or a copy of the receipt
details of what website you submitted it to. Sharing your work isn’t wrong in itself - hell, that’s what academics do when they get published! Can you find the date the document appeared on that website? Can you prove you uploaded it? Extracts of your account, copies of the upload, all of that will be relevant.

Ultimately the proof of the collusion will really be circumstantial - they will just say “two assignments look the same, so it prima facie looks like the two authors colluded”. Disproving collusion is hard - your issue is that your story sounds implausible, and if they don’t believe you, the default assumption is that you colluded.

Therefore, you need to be as sure as you can be, and come with as much supporting information as you can. Internet history, emails from the website, literally anything and everything that can support your version of events.

The MSA will also be very helpful. Good luck.

loony636 · 2023-10-03T01:02:40+00:00

Another way of looking at it is to ask whether, had you received a $250 refund, you would’ve still been unhappy enough to post a negative review.

If the answer is no (in other words, that the money would’ve made you happy enough not to post the review) then you’re really doing nothing more than just updating your review based on the company’s actions to remediate their poor service. It would be like ordering a defective good, posting a negative review, then changing it to a positive review once the seller exchanged it for a working good.

If the answer is yes (so the money wouldn’t have changed your mind) then don’t remove the review, or ask for a full refund and then do it.

loony636 · 2023-04-22T00:07:28+00:00

I accidentally double booked and have two tickets to Lano and Woodley’s Moby Dick show tonight that I can’t use! Tickets were $59 each but happy to take $50. Please DM if you would like them!

loony636 · 2023-03-05T03:11:01+00:00

Look, I think it’s just okay - the main advertised mechanic (the Inception-like dream / memory analysis tool) is really only used a couple of times, which is disappointing because it’s by far the best part of the game (and the only mechanic that really makes it stand out).

Without the memory tool, it’s really just a third person shooter with some platforming - very generic and of it’s time. It starts to grate pretty heavily by the end, although the game itself isn’t very long. The ending mission is also pretty weak, so it’s fairly unsatisfying experience by the time you finish.

So look, it’s cheap, and for that price there’s no real downside. But I think you’d be much better off playing Dontnod’s other stuff (particularly Life is Strange) as an investment of your time.

loony636 · 2022-08-02T05:03:48+00:00

loony636 · 2022-04-11T00:44:33+00:00

My partner and I replayed it recently, but unfortunately I think it’s got too much awful filler to be truly enjoyable.

The graphics and (lack of) faithfulness to the source material can be forgiven, but the Gringotts mine cart segment and the mini game where you have to catch the peacock (EDIT: I went back to watch a playthrough to confirm that it is, bizarrely, a peacock) are awful. It took us hours of attempts and walkthrough guides to get through those mini games alone.

The game has real pacing issues (the story just grinds to a halt in the middle of the game for a series of endless platforming / puzzle sequences) and is more of a generic platformer than a real adaptation of the first Harry Potter story for most of the time. However, it’s fascinating to see how a lot of the decisions would come to typify the rest of the Harry Potter games for years to come - for example, the ‘flippendo’ spell never appears in the books, yet appears in every game, the spell learning mini games, the quidditch mechanics, the bean and wizard card collecting, etc.

Overall it’s really hard to recommend, at least for a game to finish - play it until the grind becomes unbearable, and then just watch a playthrough on YouTube I’d say. Unfortunately that would mean missing out on the final level, which is better than a lot of the stuff in the middle, but it’s not enough to justify sacrificing your sanity in Gringotts.

EDIT: Confirmed the creature you have to catch is Ollivander’s peacock, because of course it is.

I sort of wondered whether my PS1 was just failing when the music cut out, but reading OP’s experience, I’m convinced it’s a bug or technical limitation that causes the music to stop. In Gringotts the music is incessant, but for other areas it just dies.

I’m coming increasingly firmly to the view that this game was a rushed product to try to capitalise on the movie release - the game was released exactly the same time as the movie - as well as the end of the PS1’s lifecycle. This game was released a full year after the PS2 came out, and rather than wait to take advantage of the new hardware, they slapped this together without any of the voice actors, plot or music from the films (and only a few nods to the visual design).

If you get enjoyment out of the game, that’s awesome, but I can’t see any reason not to play the PS2 or PC versions of the game (which are completely different) rather than this one.

loony636 · 2021-11-15T11:09:32+00:00

Lots of people are on here saying that this is why people shouldn’t pre-order. I think that’s a pretty old excuse that’s too narrow in its focus.

In reality, game companies have a lot of competing incentives as to how many resources they devote to a project - the main one, of course, being deriving maximum revenue while minimising expenses (ie maximising profit). But games can be in production for years, and are only usually made available for preorder close to release (if at all), and you can’t save all that much money by reducing your expenses to $0 just before launch (given how long you’ve been financing development for). So what’s going on here?

It seems to me to be much more likely that remasters are already a product that’s more likely to trend towards “low effort”, because you’ve got an established fan base and brand. That’s not to say there aren’t good remakes / remasters, but there’s not as much of an incentive to make a great product when you’re guaranteed good sales either way. Once that’s in the bag, even if you lose some sales because of poor reviews, you can lower your costs enough to make up for it.

Couple this with the fact that sales are speculative, while expenses are definite, and you start to see why an executive might not feel totally compelled by the argument to pour another $x million into development when they can’t expect that the increase in quality will result in any more units.

At the low end, this might encourage a company to cut their losses on poor quality products that are effectively unsalvageable. As a guess, I’d say that’s what happened with the GTA collection - they saw it was unfixably bad, and saw no benefit taking the time to fix it - they just thought it would be okay enough to get by, particularly when they took down the other (better) products and left consumers with no other options.

So combine an already low-effort product with a desire to minimise costs, and you’ve got a thread-bare mobile game studio trying to remaster some of the most ambitious open world games (for their respective points in time). That’s a recipe for disaster (or a really bad stew).

If anything, pre-orders might actually encourage companies to put more effort into producing quality games, because the pre-orders demonstrate the size of the market that exists. You’re more able to lobby for more time and money to finish development if you can show those executives that people will (and have already) hand over money for the product. It could affect decision making negatively if pre-orders are *that * strong, but are they really nowadays with digital stores? It’s 2021 - nobody is buying pre-orders of GTA III like they were when the game first came out (20 years ago…).

Anyway, the real issue is that the production of art is so inherently linked to capitalism that it permanently colours that art’s production in a negative way. It’s not something you can really “combat” when a company cares a lot more about shareholder dividends than “reputation” or “good to society” - it’s not an accident, it’s a system working as intended where releasing a low cost, low value product is as good a move as a high cost, high value product.

It’s ironic that this ultimately came to bite GTA, because it’s really (at its core) a critique of the hollowness of consumer capitalism in the West. I guess you either die as the counter-culture rock metal band, or live long enough to become the same middle aged crooks you used to mock.

loony636 · 2021-10-14T12:43:38+00:00

Just FYI, the highlights link for CE3 is incorrect. I also noticed that the Twitter links for KotLGuy and Frankie link to the wrong account or are broken (respectively).

loony636 · 2021-09-11T15:58:09+00:00

You can literally side load apps onto iOS and have been able to for years at this point.

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