They appear to be playing heavily on the politics of envy. Look at some of their education policies, for example, or the way they treat small businesses and the people who run them. They don't seem to want to pull up the less fortunate if they can be busy pulling down the more fortunate. It's not a good look if you actually want a successful economy, but it plays well to their base.

I agree with you that they seem to be all over the place in policy generally, and after trying to give them a fair chance in the early months, I now have a fairly low opinion of them (with the odd exception in Cabinet who does actually appear to be at least recognising the real problems and trying to do something about them, which I can respect even while thinking little of their party politicians and government as a whole).

You're right about the investment culture as well, but presumably if we're talking about entrepreneurs who have already been successful and are looking to move elsewhere, that's of limited relevance unless they're planning to start at least one more business after they arrive, so in this particular debate, I doubt that is such a major issue.

While we're hardly Russia, our democratic and stabilisation credentials are looking more shaky than ever as well. Our electoral system produces results very far from proportional. One of our two traditional main political parties is now essentially irrelevant. The other, which currently holds power, is breaking all the wrong records and is widely expected to suffer severe losses at the next election already, barely a year into their term. Waiting in the wings (and currently leading by a very wide margin in the polls) is the nascent far right populist party that has become the default protest vote. It looks scarily like that party might actually be pulling so far ahead (whether thanks to their own merits or, like the present incumbents before the last election, because the government of the day is so unpopular) that even with the usual reversion towards traditional voting patterns when a real election happens, they might still win. And the prospects of what happens next in that timeline are truly terrifying, particularly for anyone who isn't a white British citizen from birth.

On top of that the CSIRO's 2024 generation report showed that solar + fuckton of batteries is cheaper than the cost of black coal. In 2024 even with the added cost of batteries renewables is now cheaper and the most economically sane approach.

The anti-renewables people are running out of edge cases to hide in.

No, the anti-nuclear people aren't spurious in Australia, they are universal and backed by anti-nuke legislation in every state and territory. A nuclear project doesn't even get off the ground there (it legally can't), much less well down the planning pipeline.

Actually it absolutely has gone down. The problem with your energy bill is that is has a fuckton of completely irrelevant non-energy source riders on top of it. Virtually everywhere renewables have actually driven down the wholesale energy price. The retail price goes up due to changes in taxes connection fees, throwing grid maintenance costs and other shit on top. Bonus points if your grid operator has a large stake in traditional generation, then they just slap fees on your retail to make up the loss of profits they yielded to cheaper renewables.

The exception is markets which operate on peak marginal cost like Europe because until we get more batteries than we have gas fired capacity peak marginal cost is always set by small scale gas. And even in those markets it's the renewable sector which derives the most profit from the wholesale energy cost.

That's a very 2010s comment. In the meantime the Australian government's own modelling from the CSIRO 2024 generation report shows that right now already renewables + firming (firming is the batteries that help them provide peak power in the times needed, - the thing you say makes it so expensive) is equal to the average and low estimate price, but less than the high estimate cost of black coal power production.

Sarcasm is not obvious on Slashdot anymore. There's far too many idiots who genuinely believe the things you said. In the future finish your post with /s or a smiley face, something to provide us the non-verbal cue that you're not one of those.

This isn't new by the way. People have legitimately been claiming company X being oh so innovative for decades now, despite said company stealing the idea from someone else who invented it first.

Finally someone used the correct language. Too many people here say "don't buy devices which connect to the cloud". The key word "required" is often left out.

I have a lot of cloud connected devices. 100% of them work with full functionality if the cloud is "down". Heck I have speakers with a cloud app and Spotify connect. If my internet dies and my phone is in the bottom of the river I can open up http://speakermodel-serialnumb... and have full capabilities of the app. Though Spotify connect obviously needs internet to work.

As a Brit, I was surprised to see the UK as a destination of choice.

The current Labour government here often seems to be criticised for being ideological and not pragmatic. In particular, they seem to prefer policies that tax "the rich" and businesses in one way or another, yet not large, relatively wealthy groups like pensioners or the homeowners who have lucked out and now live in a million-plus property that most younger people will never be able to afford.

There's also quite a lot of red tape for businesses here, maybe not compared to some of our neighbours in Europe, but certainly compared to places like the US and probably parts of Asia too.

Obviously some of this is politics and maybe the policies are not so surprising coming from a party that in theory represents the working class. However, it is surprising that entrepreneurs would be attracted to a culture like this at a time when we expect to have this government for another four years still.

Same. I am still subscribed to Prime, for the delivery perks, the free Twitch sub, and the content I guess. But I'll get that content on the High Seas from now on.

You're free to disagree and continue to use language incorrectly. Corn based biodiesel is not greenwashing. You are spending real money on the process. It's fucking useless over it's lifecycle, but not greenwashing.

Define successful. There are plenty of successful fertiliser manufacturers of volcanic rock dust. What they don't do is commercial scale supply because while it is used as a fertiliser it is both less effective and more expensive than traditional ammonia. Why rebrand into a market they start of in a loosing position in?

Reservoirs, not sinks. You're absolutely right burning releases it though, and that land clearing is having a significant impact, but that still doesn't make it a carbon sink.

Did you hear about it a year ago? News is news when you hear about it.

Those who forget the Itanium are doomed to repeat it.

False. Gatekeeping one thing doesn't give you an obligation to gatekeep another. The users aren't gatekept any more than government requirements. What is gatekept is the experience and apps and content displayed to users. You're still free to say whatever the fuck you want or do whatever you want with your Apple / Google device.