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Sounds like he did a good job. Did he reverse engineer the existing frames to check their capacity or just draw up the plans?

I got some plans drawn up for a shed, using a modified shed frame I already had. I contacted the gent via email, we corresponded via email as regards what I wanted. But I had to sketch out dimensions of what I had, and what I wanted done. Then I had to scan my sketches and email them to him. He then visited me in person to make our acquaintance, and have a general "shed engineering" discussion. He then went home and drew up the plans, and emailed them to me. But then he delivered plans on paper with his signature and company stamp on them - which is what councils require to be supplied to them, when making application for a building permit!

Same here. Haven’t seen my tax accountant for about 25 years since he moved out of the city. Everything is done by email. I just send him all the details once a year and he has it done the next day.

It is about twenty years since I had a physical meeting with my accountant, I have forgotten what he looks like. He does tax for three companies and the family trust as well SWMBO and me. I used to scan all the documents for him, but now they all come in electronic form and I just download and forward them. We use physical mail for the stuff that needs signing.

I agree... you can't avoid Chinese made.. I would still prefer the marketplace profit go to a non-Chinese outfit, though. Where I can buy non-Chinese, I do.. And yes, I check first.

As usual, these discussions prompt me to do some research. Whilst there are plenty of online scams, there are also scams involving physical mail theft. One particular scheme involves stealing a bill from a letter box and reprinting it with different bank details. Physical bills can be used in ID fraud. If you are receiving physical bills, you ought to shred them before disposal Advice from Victorian Police Delivery and Mail Security says: Minimise the amount of mail delivered to your home by: Not having bank or utility documents sent by post. Instead, have them sent by email.

I came for the discussion but stayed for the "untitting"

I would wager that 90% of items on Amazon come from China anyway. I am not criticising, but being principled is not often straightforward.

Your best typo yet... "untittingly" 😆

I guess there are different levels of security. As far as correspondence from the government goes, mine doesn't come to my physical mail box or my email box; it is sent to my MYGov account, which has pretty stringent security (dual authentication, etc.). This is where I receive anything to do with tax, social security, Medicare, etc. To me, this seems safer than a letter. hanging out of my mailbox. As far as official letters go our drug-dealing neighbours (that we gave evidence against and eventually had thrown out) got numerous eviction letters delivered, they simply threw them away and claimed that the letters never arrived. When there was a registered letter, they would simply not answer the door. The deliverer would then leave a card telling them to pick up the letter from the post office. Of course, they claimed they did not get it. I would suspect that the right kind of expert could tell if an email had been sent and when and where it was opened. These house is still empty, however, the mailbox is overflowing with all sorts of official mail I don't think necessarily "lazy" We have to travel interstate regularly to do things for my mother, who is in care. Sometimes we need to go on short notice. It is comforting to know that I do not need to think about what bills may be falling due. I can continue to administer my financial empire (such as it is) from interstate or even overseas. On top of that I also have power of attorney over my mother, who, as I say, lives interstate. It's no good her getting letters because she can no longer act on them. She does get government communications to her MyGov (which we have access to, but even the most benign letter would send her into a panic. We now sign into her email and check before she does, and we can remove the things that are unimportant and may panic her. Doing this at her mail box (at the home) could be done, and in fact, sometimes they do forward her mail to us. A good example is that although she is in a home, she still needs ambulance cover. Early last year, she had to be transferred to hospital. Later, she received a large bill. She rang us in a panic, wondering why they charged her when she has insurance. My wife and I decided that we could not remember paying it. It turns out that the renewal was sent to her old address. I am thinking we neglected to change the address. This might make us sound dumb, but taking over someone else's administration is stressful and complicated, especially when that person can't tell you what needs to be done. Email follows you even when you do change your physical address. Now most of her admin can be done online or by direct debit. It would be a nightmare to rely on letters in this case. As far as I know, as long as I use common sense (which seems to have worked so far) any fraud is pretty much not my problem. Just to reiterate, I am not lobbying to have Australia Post. I don't hide behind my mailbox and throw stones at the posties as they go past. People are not being forced to use digital (as far as I can see), but rather the Post Office is under pressure BECAUSE most of us don't post regular letters. The situation in Denmark is not leaving people or the government with no letter service, but the social obligation is being handed to a private company which will have to work out a way to provide the service. I dont see why this must be done by Australia post any more than the government owning an airline. The government still subsidises airlines on unpopular routes I don't see why a similar arrangement could not apply to the mail. If using email is too dangerous (which I don't generally believe) then isn't the answer to further improve online security? As I said I do everything that I can online. However, my credit card just modernised their online app (thank god, new one is great) but my preference for no paper was somehow reversed (changed back now) I received a paper monthly statement, much to my dismay. Firstly, it seems to be printed on exremely high quality paper and it went straight into the recycling. Most importantly, I check my accounts and credit card every Friday. I buy everything on my credit card and then zero it out on Friday. I need to know the balance on Friday afternoon. I don't want to wait a month plus postage time so that i can balance my accounts and check for fraud. Fraud is more easily detected early rather than late I don't have a problem with a certain amount of cross-subsidy, however, if at some time in the future the posty rides down my road, which may have 100 or so houses on it and only delivers one letter, I'm sure you would agree that that is a luxury we can't really afford

I have been an Amazon customer since 1999 or thereabouts. I recall my first purchase. It was for the UK version of MYOB - an Australian accounting software package, which today, seems the easiest and best to use. Aussies do lead the world in practical software design - or did. It was super cheap, but after not receiving it for a week, I logged onto Amazon and used their site to raise a query. They refunded me that same day. A week later, the software arrived (it must have been posted from Aus). I raised a query to say I received it and was happy to pay. The response was their terms have performance agreements, and for this product line, the performance was not met, so even though I eventaully got it, it was on the house. I am sure this costed MYOB whatever revenue they made from it, but it also would have costed amazon the payment transaction fees, etc, unless their terms required MYOB to pay it back. Regardless, this received an A+ for caring for the consumer from me. And I have used them for most of my shopping since. Not because of the concenience, but because I know if something goes wrong, they are usually going to fix it, which I cannot say the same for other bricks and mortar retailers and other e-tailers. That was their value add. They did go through a period where their customer service fell, but I guess revenue started to decline, because it has picked up since. Like Octave, I am mindful of not wanting to continute to billionaires fortunes, and these days, because of the decline of the high street, the potential for virtual monopolies to develop, and Amazon's recent bad press on worker treatmnent. I direct my cash to other businesses as well. I try and buy from the local high street, but in Taunton, it seems daily that options reduce due to closures, unless I want a tattoo, vape, or a Turkish Haircut; none of which interest me. I now use UK e-tailers, but to be honest, they just don't do it as well. My aviation medical examiner sent me a link to Argos (UK bulk retailer now focusing more on online sales). The monitor he suggested was not in stock at my two closest stores, and I would have had to travel about 50kms to get to the nearest one in stock. Instead of saying collect next day at the nearest store or have it delivered (if obviosuly wasn't in a central warehouse). I thought not sending ot between stores was a little lacking as other e-tailers I use (Screwfix for building supplies, for example) will have an item out of stock delivered to the nearest store next day - even when out of stock in the central warehouse. So, Amazon got the revenue in this case. And I am expecting it today - new years day. I avoid Temu, Alliexpress and Co.. and anything Chinese where I can. I have for a long time spent my money on, as much as possible, a principalled basis and I try not to support regimes that artifically go for economic domination while at the same time opress human rights. I have seen first hand how these econimies work (think UAE) and it is shocking. f it means I pay more and have less, so be it.No one's perfect, and as I said, I am uncomfortable with Amazon's bad press lately on worker treatment. But they have made moves to address it at least, and I know someone senior in Amazon in the US who gives me some comfort it is slow progress but real. I can't say the same about China and other places. We purchased a motorcycle for my son last week (comes end of next week). We rather took a second hand, near new Japanese bike over a new gleamy Chinese bike that was probably 2/3 of the price of the bike we bought. I'll die poorer, but content that I minimised directing resources lagainst my principles. [edit] Oh, China ius using its clout to force tarrifs on Aussie beef as I type. Another reason to minimise my spend enriching a far more pernicous regime than Chump's..

A lot of government business is done digitially (online) these days in the UK as well. Most of it does not require a letter to be delivered, but the government still posts letters - reminders if you will. Some stuff is sent out via email, too. For example the UK has a separate TV tax to pay for the BBC (called a TV licence). As I recall I opted out of paper reminders and I get thw two I have to pay for by email. I am comfortable getting them by email as I have pretty good anti-scamming defences in place. I am not sure elderly, younger, or less diligent adopt the same approach. At the moment, other government services - even reminders by snail mail don't have an opt out of receiving paper based correspondence. His Maj's Revenue and Collections (HMRC), the DVLA (government road authority), and a hist of others will send correspondence via snail mail, and you have a chouce to satisfy the givernment business online or offline. So, yes, they are done digitally. But, they offer the service "manually" as well.. which with today's technology is largely automated from teh receipt of the form, anyway - well except for handwriting like mine. The problem I have with being forced to receive email is it is a scammers paradise. Sophisticated phishing scams presented as authentic emails (and SMS) from HMRC and other government departments have untittingly cost billions in stolen money, because people click the link in the email (or SMS) that takes them to very well imitated sites where they enter their credentials and before you know it, their accounts have been siphoned or their identity sold on. Because, for these scammers, they have already automatically logged onto the real system with your details before you realise it was a fake site. Yes, letters have their downsides - I have said that in my first post. Sadly, for Australia - not getting delivered ort being deliverered very late seems a common theme. Although the Royal Mail was privatised, it still is held to high standards and is seen as a very reliable service. So, as I said, it is horses for courses. But, one of the things post is good for is reducing the occurence of this style of scamming. It is expensive to send lettets - especially since privatisation - but because the success rates of phishing is very low, the net result is likely to be a cost to the scammer - not a profit - so they don't bother. Contrast email - especially since very few people are on encrypted and secure email - once I have the digital assets to accurately impersonate the site - which is not expensive - gooing phishing is cheap - how much does it cost to send a few billion emails? Probably the cost of one postage stamp here. Yes, snail mail is expensive at point of use.. but at what cost later? I am not sure about Australia, but here the law or at least the code of conduct is that banks will reimburse money scammed from customer accounts (after proving it was a scam - and some banks are worse than others). If it is the same in Australia, don't complain about the account fees you get.. everything has to be paid for at some stage. I am not against the dropping of snail mail, but email is a horribly insecure method of communication. Using simple packet sniffers, the vast majority of emails can (and probably are) easily read by anyone. No doubt, Kali Linux has some tool that makes it even easier than masterin TCP/IP to get at your email. I think snail mail should be an option for official government business unless the user opts out after being explained the risks, as they accept (or choose to ignore) the risks. People are naturally lazy, and email is quicker and easier. For 99% of correspondence, that is probably not an issue, but for formal correspondence, it can be,. Banks here and in Europe send emails, but never provide a link, nor provide attachments. The email will tell you to use your app or log into online banking. Same with utilities and other businesses. And they are forever sending emails to remind us never to click on their links. Yet, people receive an email looking authentic saying their accoutn will be closed unless they confirm a transaction - and click here to confirm... and they click. I agree with everything that is efficient and beneficial of using email over snail mail.. but I am not convinced the security has been properly addressed and we are paying for that downstream.

Not really. We lived on 44 acres `17 KM from a town called Braidwood. Those mailboxes are at a village called Mongarlowe 4km from our place. As you can see from the small number of mailboxes, the population of Mongarlowe village is quite low. During the early gold rush days, the population was around 30000, I think, and there were pubs and shops etc. Now, no miners, just hippies, artists, musicians and retired CSIRO scientists. Our property was exactly 100km from the centre of Canberra

I believe a vast amount of Chinese businesses and sales are supported with Govt largesse, it's all about dominating the manufacturing industry. Just look at their car production, the word is the Chinese Govt spent $350B in automotive manufacturer subsidies to ensure that Chinese cars become dominant around the globe. In most cases, the Chinese purchases are a no-brainer. I wanted a new radiator for my little Cat traxcavator, the genuine Cat radiator was around $7000. It took me ages to find a local radiator repairer who would recondition my radiator - they wanted $5,500 to do the job, and it would take weeks. I got a new radiator off a Chinese supplier, it was $2000 landed at my door. It's a properly made radiator - copper fins, brass tubes, and a stainless steel heat exchanger for transmission oil cooling, located in the bottom tank. It's not an exact copy of the original, the Chinese modified and improved the design.

That's a classic photo of Australian rural mailboxes, Octave. You must have been living "out beyond the Black Stump"? 😄

Since Australia is a large country, postage has always been tailored to our spread-out population in terms of economics. I just did a search for a picture of my old letter box from the property where I lived from 1990 to 2011. My ex letter box is on the far left. It is made from a barrel we found on our property when we bought it in 1990. It is made of plastic. This picture was apparently taken in 2019, and I am amazed that this plastic barrel has not had to be replaced. This mailbox was 4km from our property. We used to get our mail delivered 3 days a week by an old guy called Sid, who tendered for the contract and I suspect was really being ripped off. Living out there, we accepted that a daily mail delivery was not viable. If we are going to continue letter deliveries, it is going to have to be perhaps on a weekly basis, or the prices are going to have to rise. Half a billion dollars is a lot of money for something that can generally be done a cheaper way.

I am not sure which sites you mean; however, I have bought ludicrously small purchases from China. I do find it intriguing how it can be profitable for them. I bought a volt meter for $8.72 with free postage. Hell, I spend more than that on a cup of coffee at my favourite cafe.

N We had to put my mother in care a couple of years ago. She lives in SA, and we live in Vic. We make a supreme effort to visit for a week four times a year. Although I would not call her computer literate (she is about to turn 93), she is able (with a lot of help from us 😒) to video call us and her friend of 70 years in the UK. The other "inmates" at her home do not use tech and are of the opinion that they are too old, which I find very sad. As people age, it may get harder to "keep up", but it's the way to ensure happiness in old age.

Millions of $$'s of Pyrotechnics doesn't do a lot for ME. . Nev

The problem with some of these sites is that you have to spend a minimum amount. Say you see something you want for $25. You may have to find something you don't want or need to bring your purchase up to the minimum (say $40).

Happy new year all! Only in Tassie - sitting at Kingston beach following a ride. There's 10 lifeguards with RHIB, paddle board, ATV and all the equipment - and about 6 people braving the water! (I know it's bloody cold, we went snorkeling this morning and even with full wetsuit boots and gloves we were freezing). So your chances of rescue are pretty good!

I did recently purchased a couple of items from Temu. I have always had,I have had a negative vibe towards Temu; however, they had what I needed at a great price, so I gave it a try, being that the risk was low. It turned out well. I bought a 12-volt meter and some Anderson plugs. The items arrived quickly and are definitely genuine, and at a third of the local cost. Note this is not a recommendation; you need to do your own homework. I do recognise my hypocrisy, - "down with Bezos and other evil billionaires and rights for workers, etc., but it is so cheap and efficient."

??? He posted it on Facebook. He's always coming up with this oddball sort of stuff. He posted this one this morning - "I must admit that Joan and I had a battle of words last night. You know you are getting old when New Year’s Eve sees you playing Scrabble."