I wish I could subscribe to a post to see new replies here…

Agree; at least by default.

I use duckduckgo as a default search engine, and then google when I want a second second opinion (admittedly usually high-quality). That’s one strategy, I guess there could be others.

By the way, you really faithfully downvoted all my neighbouring comments - even those where I share a picture of the Netherlands. That’s quite the dedication. I guess your car mobility is really important for you? Please keep in mind that I’m not advocating to take this away from you. Even in the city where I live right now, cars are the dominant transport. It’s just that those drivers are also happy when their kids return from school safely, by themselves. If that’s not “freedom” akin the one mentioned in your nickname, then what is?

When I go to visit one of my good mates

By all means, please do use the car when you go to your good mates! As I’m saying in the other comment below as well, I’m not asking you not to. I’m only saying it would be to your benefit if some part of the traffic would be served by trains or even bike lanes, too. Like, your trip would get faster because of that. Your trip on the car to your friends.

Australia is over 200x the size of the Netherlands.

This part is not really relevant for intra-city or inner-city travel. Yes it means that you should always have car infrastructure. But it does not mean that you should only have car infrastructure in cities. Think about it, isn’t it something you’d agree on? Wouldn’t it be better for you if there would be less car traffic in the inner city?

If I was to catch public transport it would take 2.5 hours. If I was to ride a bike

By all means, please do use the car! I’m not saying you not to. I’m only speaking about alternatives to cars being available. Not cars being banned or any stupid sh*t like that.

Same. Funnily, after I’ve researched the cost (=> supply/demand) graph, I’ve started using it on my home which is currently on a fixed day/night granularity. I still schedule heavy stuff for a bit after midday or a bit after midnight when possible (and usually it’s possible).

It’s amazing how they can write such an article with no mentions of AI datacenters - the dominant factor for increased electricity and fresh water usage. This data is pretty much on the surface. I’ve decided to even double-check my sources, and brief googling (or duckduckgo-ing) confirms that the Netherlands has already hosted numerous of them. How did the article not even mention this? Do nos.nl’s shareholders have fingers in the AI money bin too, or?..

• noticed a twitter/X link at the end
• AI slop and overworked developers (see the other threads in this post)

Yeah whatever, I’m not going to spend my time to see which bugs exactly they have all over.

I love the angle of comparing in numbers!

I wonder, how do they calculate the population density for Melbourne? Is it what’s in EU cities would be defined as the “Metropolitan area” or the “inner-city Urban area”? From this picture I wouldn’t actually exclude that they could mean a wider radius, = “the Metropolitan area”. This would be somewhat close to Paris then, because Paris is at 698.976 pop / km2. Though still less densely populated, admittedly.

Honestly, after living in the Netherlands for long enough, also in cities that have only a fraction of Melbourne’s density, I’m quite convinced that density is just an excuse pushed so hard by oil and car companies that we’ve grown to accept it without critical analysis. But it’s hard to overcome this thinking, because as minimumchips puts it above, all these calculations feel like hippie/nonsense/unrealistic if you’ve never actually seen how an alternative can feel like. I especially like that gif specifically - shows it well :)

By the way, if you want to try and see if videos of the alternatives could corrupt your soul - I highly recommend @NotJustBikes on youtube. For example, his most-popular video about “stroads” (street + road).

Thanks a lot! This worked ✅

I remember something like this as well, but I suspect it changed with the last release or two. Currently, there is no “omni” in about:config.

Ah, I see. I guess this is how GrapheneOS does a “thank you” post.

Was a bit hard for me to recognize it as such, given no actual “we thank ***” and ending with “they refuse to stop doing it” (actually that was about somebody else, not tweakers.net).

(That’s how their cancellation website looks. Broken year selector, and their auto-generated response to my original email said I need to fill my personal number which they’ve said is “0000”.)

Thanks for the response!

EU law says it can’t be more difficult to cancel a subscription than it was to begin one.

I’m also asking because I feel powerless (and wronged) but I don’t know my rights very well yet.

I think the point around them wanting a couple more months is a key point though. Why are they expecting that?

They have a statement in their agreement that cancellations have a 1-month notice period and are monthly, so that’s up to 2 months. After I’ve sent them the original email, I thought their follow-up money request is a glitch so I’ve declined that. I got worried later when they’ve started sending me emails implying debt collection services, and at that time I’ve sent them another super-formal email + did manage to go through their (still quite broken) website. The company’s view is that I haven’t gone to their website so my cancellation original email counts for nothing, and they simply ignore any of my mentions or screenshots of the broken website as well.

So their perspective, if I understand it correctly, is that I’ve only cancelled much later and I still need to pay for 2 extra months.

I think density is not as important as frequently perceived because the vast majority of trips happen intra-city (in any country in the world). So even in Austrlia, we’re speaking about how to get e.g. from Melbourne to Melbourne.

I’ve uploaded a picture to show what I mean:

Here’s how it looks when there are alternatives to cars. (The Netherlands. Shitty photo by me today in the morning.)

P.S. my kid has his own bike, so he safely cycles to school if I’m sick or just don’t feel like cycling with him. I usually cycle with him in the morning though: it’s nice and refreshing before the work starts. We can chat on the way, and we have a tradition to look for cats and say it’s good when we find any along the way. Lemme maybe take a photo along the way and post it, so taht it’s not just empty words.

As a European, I hate this type of speech:

The prime minister sought to assure Australians it was still business as normal but said workers should consider taking public transport to conserve fuel supplies for those who didn’t have the option.

Public transport is presented like the last and shittiest option. What about long-term plans of solving this dependency on Putin, Iran and such? It’s to buy more oil and stockpile it? My god, grow some balls already and commit to making public transport better to avoid such a collapse in the future! Let Aussies have alternatives, don’t keep them hostages of the situation.

P.S. admittedly I live in a luxury because I live in the Netherlands and pay ~300 EUR (500 AUD) for transport annually, which is 40% bike maintenance and 60% the rare use of public transport. But then again, is it completely impossible for other cities to have even part of their citizens served by these modes of transport?

I never open this. No personal thoughts attached? Then I won’t bother following this hype-driven post.

We need less information and more thinking in this age. Not the other way around.

Maybe my English skills are failing me, but what does it mean? They corrected their very old article, but not in a way that you’d like to?