Neigh!
13 Dec 2004I’m a SPECIAL horse!
– Steve, after a spate of random animal noises, during which he produced a sound which I just can’t quite manage…
I’ve delivered simple, clear and easy-to-use services for 20 years, for startups, scaleups and government. I write about the nerdy bits here.
— @joahua
I’m a SPECIAL horse!
– Steve, after a spate of random animal noises, during which he produced a sound which I just can’t quite manage…
Grrrrrrrrr! The tax office here in Australia is realllly annoying me right about now. Apparently, foreign Proof of Identity is more reliable than an Australian equivalent — my Australian passport only counts as secondary ID (“Category B”, in ridiculous ATO parlance), whilst an identical overseas document is apparently primary! Hiss.
What’s even worse is that they require a permanent (as in fixed, as in NOT my current situation) place of residence for their records — the Postal address can be anything, but the home address must be an actual address, not a P.O. Box or anything like that. Which makes things difficult for nomads like me. Oh, right up until I called them, and asked what the deal was; apparently, there just needs to be some fixed address in that field… who cares if it isn’t mine?! The person I spoke to (who spoke English fluently, but with a rather illegible accent) advised I use the address of a parent or girlfriend or grandparent or employer or something — it kind of makes you wonder what the hell the point is in the first place. Surely, a fixed address, as opposed to a mailing address, is designed to allow them to come and beat down your door and arrest you for tax evasion if neccessary! Sigh.
*Josh is angry*
Okay, rant over.
…as of some time this afternoon (late). Ah, dealing with email is always fun.
I had a wonderful time, just for the record, and photos may be coming some time in the not-too-distant future (scanning facilities permitting — that’s the one piece of technology I’ve been doing without here).
This post has been written in advance, and my blogging software will automatically release it some time on Wednesday, at which stage I’ll probably be in a car headed North.
I’m disappearing for a few days with friends, so… don’t expect replies to email, or anything like that! Having said that, the contact form and everything else (comment posting included!) still works, and I’ll be reachable on my mobile, so don’t let my absence stop you from communicating with me in whatever way.
It’s Monday evening as I write this, but a school event at Town Hall will consume tomorrow from around 11 in the morning until sometime close to midnight, and I’m predicting a lack of motivation to turn on the laptop when I get home to make a post! So, farewell, for a few days!
I got an email from a (to remain anonymous) wholesaler today advertising volume (and not-so-volume) pricing of 17″ LCD screens, and was slightly shocked at how cheap they had become. I’ve been watching the prices fall in recent times along with everyone else, of course, but hadn’t bothered to check what the volume pricing was doing, and recently had fallen behind even on off-the-shelf (“retail”) pricing.
Enough ranting about not much: The single-unit price is now $295 ex. GST (Australian dollars, of course), with volume discounts kicking in at 20+ offering savings of $5 per unit. Is this reflecting increased LCD production? I’d imagine so… given that this is very rapidly approaching the price of similarly sized CRT models.
At this stage, I’m predicting the price difference between the two technologies will become negligible sometime mid-2005, production capacity permitting. Exciting stuff!