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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 3rd, 2023

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  • Honestly, this is pretty impressive IMO. Particularly since visa-free travel is not reciprocal. The below is just plain wrong; Australia is even less open than it appears:

    Ranked 83rd out of 99, Australia is one of the least open nations. Citizens of just 34 countries can visit Australia without prior visa authorisation

    Barring some niche cases (e.g. royal family, military/crew, transiting, Torres Strait Islanders), only one country’s citizens can travel to Australia without prior visa authorisation; New Zealand (and even they can be refused clearance at the border). Every other foreign country needs to apply for and be granted a visa before they are permitted to board the plane. Australia has somehow managed to convince 33 countries that their ETAs and eVisitor visas are not really visas. They just happen to be permission that a person needs to obtain before they are allowed to enter a country… If only we had a word for that.

    I’m honestly surprised how well the Australian passport performs considering Australia effectively has a universal visa requirement. That being said, it’s also one of the most expensive passports in the world.




  • Affidavit@aussie.zonetoPrivacy@lemmy.mlWhy I Lost Faith in Kagi
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    4 months ago

    I agree with you. I wasn’t referring to the actual contents so much as OP’s attitude about the e-mails from the CEO. I think Kagi could benefit from hiring, or at least consulting, with specialists in the field to better define their position. It’s clear that OP has legitimate concerns.




  • After reading your comment, my calling the OP an ‘entitled douche’ was not the best response. I remember the fragility of being a teenager, and even being a young adult… While unlikely, if the blog’s author does come across these comments, I would rather they take a moment to consider things from Vlad’s/Kagi’s perspective rather than just take my comment as a personal attack.


  • Affidavit@aussie.zonetoPrivacy@lemmy.mlWhy I Lost Faith in Kagi
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    4 months ago

    TBH, OP sounds like a bit of an entitled douche, edit: not the most appropriate descriptor, but I do think OP should try and look at the situation from another perspective.

    In their blog post they complained about lack of transparency and noted numerous issues with Kagi that caused them to lose faith in the company. The CEO personally responds to explain themselves (i.e. make things more transparent) and OP sticks their fingers in their ears and acts liked they’re a victim because the CEO attempts service recovery.

    I’ve made public complaints about companies before. I wish I received such tailored and personalised responses.


  • there’s this really cool alternative to streaming, called you buy their shit directly.

    Wow, mind blown! I had no idea money could be used to buy things directly! /s

    Seriously though, buying music from artists you already know is easy for artists that actually provide this as an option, but it doesn’t help when trying to find new artists and songs to listen to. Spotify is brilliant for discovering new content and can’t be replaced by ‘buying shit directly’.



  • Spotify.

    An open source music streaming service where I can financially support artists but where I’m not forced to put up with annoying advertisements (even when paying membership fees!), and which allows me to use whatever app I want to play the music I listen to. It is annoying AF that I need to switch between apps to listen to music because Spotify’s shitty native app is inferior in every possible way with the single exception of offering more content.


  • My sister got a job with a primarily LLM-written cover letter. When trying to sway someone to your side, how you say something can matter more than what you say.

    For people who aren’t good at articulating themselves, noting down key dot points about their skills and job history alongside a job description, then asking a LLM to write out a cover letter can be very helpful, even if only to get a rough draft.

    As an aside, out of curiosity, I asked ChatGPT 3.5 to rewrite my comment above and got the following, not sure which is better TBH.

    My sister landed a job using a cover letter mostly written by a language model. When persuading someone, the tone and style of your message can outweigh its content.

    For individuals who find it challenging to articulate themselves, outlining key skills and job experiences alongside a job description, and then seeking assistance from a language model to compose a cover letter, can prove highly beneficial, even if only as a starting point.


  • I think it’s likely that the type of content children are exposed to matters more than the medium. Children who are exposed early to digital technology will have an advantage in adapting to our increasingly digital society over those who are prevented from accessing digital media until they are much older.

    GCompris is an educational program; it’s not equivalent to watching Spongebob (no offence to Spongebob).



  • You argue my statement to be untrue then provide your unrealistic utopian vision of cramming high density urban living as if it has any reflection in our current reality. Developers are not building your utopia, they are doing everything they can to maximise their profit. I’ve lived in enough expensive high density shitty apartments with no air conditioning and no maintenance to take everything an ‘anti-NIMBY’ has to say with a shaker of salt.

    Increasing density is not necessary to resolve the housing crisis. Halting and properly managing population increase is the solution. Governments not sabotaging public transport is the solution. Social housing as opposed to housing-for-profit is the solution.




  • There are UN refugee camps in Lebanon and other surrounding countries where refugees from the Syrian civil war have been waiting for months and even years to be resettled in a third country like Australia; it is not fair to these people to knowingly grant tourist visas to people who are clearly not tourists, who will then almost definitely apply for onshore protection.

    Cancelling the visas after granting them though is a dick move. They should never have been granted in the first place.

    “At the very least, those affected must be granted temporary visas immediately so they can stay safely in Australia while any issues are resolved,” he said.

    There is absolutely no way that the majority of these visa holders will ever permanently depart Australia, and anyone who claims otherwise is being naive.