Notices by Tim 🎮 (timixretroplays@digipres.club)

Currently doing my annual personal budget and rigorously checking for better gas, power, insurance etc etc.

There's nowhere to run on power prices, but AGL appear to be fucking me for double what I should be paying for gas, and NRMA similarly want twice to insure my car than others are offering.

I'm going to save at least a grand this year by doing this. It takes time, but you'd pay yourself a grand for a few hours' spreadsheeting, wouldn't you? #Australia

I'm paying Lifetime Health Cover for a decade on my private health insurance because I let my ex handle that when she got a job that would pay for whatever plan she picked, and she managed to pick one without hospital cover. Ain't that some shit.

Do you know exactly what PHI cover you have, personally? If not, today's a good day to log into your provider's portal and just check to make sure you're not making it more expensive for yourself down the road.

After some research, I might be switching to Moose Mobile NBN. That'll save me $180 in the first six months vs staying with Aussie Broadband (about whom I have zero complaints, and many excellent things to say about their service), and I can't find anything on Whirlpool that might scare me away except maybe needing to call them to disable CGNAT (which they will do for free, although a static IP costs extra).

Anyone looking to save some money on their NBN connection will want to check out this comparator someone built: https://netbargains.com.au/?min_download=250&max_download=500&min_upload=50&connection_type=FIXED_LINE&network_type=NBN

Prices for 500mbps seem stuck around $80-95/month, but some ISPs do short-to-medium-term promo prices - and contracts don't seem to be a thing anymore so theoretically you could discount-hop every 6-12 months to save cash.

Do your research per ISP though, cheap is rarely actually cheerful and there are caveats like worse support or reliability. #Australia

My process for picking car insurance is simple - going down a recent-ish list of ranking companies by customer satisfaction, then picking the first one that won't charge me an arm and a leg.

Everyone on these lists wants to charge me well over a grand for comprehensive insurance, except for Budget Direct who have quoted me $655: https://www.cars24.com.au/car-advice/the-ultimate-guide-to-finding-the-best-car-insurance-in-australia/

Every company has horror stories, I don't put much stock in those. I'm unlikely to need to claim so I don't care how polite the person was.

"Great! Thanks for filling in our form to get a quote for car insurance, someone is about to ring you right now to discuss!" - a millennial horror story

Edit: This was Youi. Someone called twice, then texted asking when's a good time; I said I can't take calls so please email me the quote. It didn't happen in the time it took to get 3 other quotes and settle on one, so they definitely aren't getting my business, and I guess not that of any deaf person either? (I am not deaf)

For the hell of it I've optimistically emailed Aussie Broadband (my current ISP) to see if they're willing to bend in the wind a little, with the link above to cheaper and discounted plans available. My NBN connection costs in the same ballpark as my domestic gas or yearly car servicing and it feels like it shouldn't.

They offer $5 off to bundle mobile and NBN together, and their cheapest mobile plan is basically what I'm paying now... but there are discounts to be had on that elsewhere too.

I'm switching from a couple-years-old plan with ActewAGL to Red Energy for both power and gas. Power usage cost is basically the same, but I'll save about $90 this year on supply charges and maybe another $100-150 on gas usage.

AGL had comparable numbers in a plan for "new customers only" and it's easier to switch than to renegotiate.

If you're in #Australia you should go plug last year's numbers into this website and see who can do better than your incumbent: https://www.energymadeeasy.gov.au/

Youi just texted and emailed me back, 90 minutes later, with a link to go look at my quote. No quote details in the email. Their business model really does seem to be to force people to pick up the phone out of social obligation, and then secure the sale because you're already talking to them about it. Absolutely incompatible with the way I want to go about things and I'm only going to click the link to find a way to stop them pestering me about it now.

I have now run all the numbers including the gas breakdowns (here in AU we get charged different amounts for the first 41MJ, then the next 442, then the next 1,489 and so on - electricity is a flat rate per kWh).

Based on my usage in 2025, moving power and gas from ActewAGL to Red Energy will save me about $700 in 2026.

Accepting the counter-offer and staying with AGL would save me a further $650ish.

Switching power and gas is easier than switching your phone plan. Go do it today, #Australia.

Unexpected move from the trade federation: AGL have emailed me a counter-offer with even cheaper gas and power supply costs, slightly cheaper power usage and comparable gas usage rates. Plus a $200 "loyalty" bonus which is particularly galling since it's just offering me some of my own over-charged money back.

I'm going full mercenary on this and seeing what Red can counter-counter-offer, then take that back to AGL and sign whichever is cheaper then.

First power bill since the change is in. There's only 21 days of the new rates in this one, but I still saved $11 on supply and $30 on usage.

Had I changed at the very start of this billing period, assuming identical usage, I'd have saved $181.17 already - just for power, and just for one quarter.

All I did was change my supplier to Red Energy - five minutes on a website - and then answer a call from AGL and agree to switch back.

You'd pay yourself $180 to do that, wouldn't you? #Australia

Red Energy never responded when I told them AGL had given me a better offer, so I finally answered one of the many desperate retention calls from AGL and officialy accepted.

Had to call Red Energy and cancel because they'd somehow backdated the gas to November, but there was no argument about the cooling off period.

They couldn't give me a reference number, so they told me to quote the agent's name with the time and date of the call if I needed it. A bit weird but if it works it works.

NRMA issued me a pro rata refund for my comprehensive insurance since I switched to Budget and cancelled before it was up, but they did it in the form of *mailing me a cheque*.

Bank Australia stopped having anything to do with cheques two years ago and have told me to use Bank@Post (I'm not sure the young woman there has ever seen a cheque before in her life).

Going to call and ask if they can do a bank transfer like an actual functional modern organisation but I'm not expecting much.

And remember: There is absolutely no reason for me to have continued paying the higher rates, and equally, no reason for them to charge me those rates.

I'm not getting more power or better power or better service - the exact same supplier is just charging me 28% less because I threatened to leave.

The concept of customer loyalty was invented by big companies to charge you more money. Gentlefolks, this is capitalism manifest. #Australia

A slow #3DPrinting experiment for me at the moment is making a clear, solid window through a 3D printed part.

This test piece is 40x40x5mm in size, has a 10mm hole bored through it, and then a square fill hole in through the top.

I'm using Glasscoat 2-part epoxy, which doesn't adhere to plastic, so I clamped the part between two shiny bits of acrylic and poured it in from the top.

A ton of bubbles came out of the print during curing - I will try sealing V2 with something before epoxying it.

Vacuum and pressure pots seem to be what everyone on YouTube uses to get bubble-free epoxy projects, but they start at AU$500ish.

However, there apparently exist little gadgets with tiny vacuum pumps you put your cup of mixed resin into and it buzzes away for ten minutes and gets most of the bubbles out before you pour, and basic ones cost about AU$100.

That's not terrible for a hobby tool, so I shall research and consider.

Okay, V2 of the epoxy window #3DPrinting got painted inside with superglue before filling. The other difference is that I only sanded one side to see if that would allow leaks or have adhesion issues, but it came apart just like the first.

There's an order of magnitude fewer bubbles in this one, suggesting the superglue seal worked. The bubbles left here will have been in the epoxy - a pressure or vacuum pot would definitely solve this, but look how clear a window it is despite the bubbles!

Retro PC games:

✅ Download quickly
✅ Can be played with a D-pad or a joystick and a couple of buttons
✅ Are incredibly well-documented now
✅ Had their DRM stripped out decades ago, or... see point above
✅ Will run on 0.03% of your PC's capabilities
✅ Are cheap to acquire in digital form
✅ Are interesting historical artefacts
✅ Are celebrated by inclusive and collaborative online communities

Save a classic gamepad from ewaste and start playing retro games today! 🎮

#retrogaming #retrocomputing

The back of the box has some specific claims. The "product inerface" [sic] is "USB 3.0Micro B/USB 3.1 Type C (Gen1)". Compatible with desktop and laptop computers and smart TVs. The bit about smartphones being supported if "cable purchased" is interesting - that probably means the cable this comes with is not actually USB 3, so I might have to try it with a different cable.

The 2230/2242/2260/2280 bit is to be expected, that's different lengths of M.2 SSDs, which this thing certainly resembles.