The world moves higher again, with now 2,954,720 active cases. 346,512 dead. Not much has changed in Australia from a high level view.
Currently we down to 86 active cases in Victoria, down from 123 last week.
If you haven’t heard the news, from June 1, you can have
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20 people at home.
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Outdoor gathering of 20 people outdoors is ok
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Overnight stays at private resistance and hotels is ok
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Restaurant and cafe limit to 20 people
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Camping grounds re-open, however you can’t use the shared facility such as kitchen and bathroom, so make sure you bring a shovel if you need to take a dump.
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You can get your nails done. Massage is ok.
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Zoo and museums are open again. You will need to pre-order tickets, because they plan to cap attendance to ensure the 20 people per space is met.
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House auctions are on again for 20 people, it’s a chance to unload the excess property if you haven’t already.
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Social distance still applies. No hugging, no kissing
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No returning to the office said Mr Andrews
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Gyms might be back on 22nd June.
Just a reminder to think of the people who are doing it tough out there.
So, I was at QV in the city over the weekend and I noticed a funny thing, the QV lifts request that only 2 people in a lift at any one time. 1 person stands at the back corner on the footprints marked, and one person stands at the front corner diagonal. It’s the only way to ensure social distancing in that type of enclosed space. And I was thinking if this happens when we come into the office it’s going to be a NIGHTMARE, to get everyone into the building.
Also, I’ve just had a great idea, when we go back to the office, every morning before we enter the building there should be someone testing you. You lean your head back and a Q-tip gets shoved deep into your nose, and then wiggled around! Google and Twitter are right, workers should stay at home.
City is still very dead, shops if they open at all, only open when it’s 11am. Myer is not open at all. 80% of all people wear a face mask, and I’ve noted it’s not just Asians, it’s probably closer to 98% of Asians have masks. Machi Machi had a long line. One of the mind games on swanston st is having a closing down sale. Anyways the issue with going into the city, especially with kids on a wet day is once you get your takeaway lunch, there’s nowhere to sit and eat, since you can’t eat in because it’s not allowed, and you can’t eat out cause it’s cold and wet, so there was some families eating in their car in the underground car park. Moral of the story, don’t go into the city unless you have to. Nothing is happening there.
On another note, if you have the chance, get out into the countryside, the fresh air, nature, it’s a refreshing change. The people I have found are welcoming, especially in Marysville. Probably the only playground that’s open can be found in Healesville.
It’s also a nice change for the kids. I will never have any issues taking my kids out of school for a few weeks to travel, they will never remember those weeks if they were in school but my daughter has always remembered the times we had daddy daughter trip to Sydney and she rode a unicorn in the pool
Mt Everest is visible from Kathmandu for the first time in living memory. With people in lock down no cars are being driven. What happens when lock down ends around the world, and people avoid public transport and drive more often…
Facebook is also shifting it’s workforce towards more permanent work from home. From what I gather, they think they need new tools to work more efficiently, which from my guess they will develop in house, as they did with React Native. It’s on my list as a tool I’m planning on teaching myself this year, can’t be too hard after all, I mainly taught myself Python last year. I’m going through Quantum Physics at MIT. If you’re interested in comp sci, MIT the first subject of comp sci for free on open courseware, it one of their most popular offerings. Or Corsera is has many open courses, I’ve done Cryptography 1 from Stanford before.
Has anyone tried working from their bed as if you were still in high school??
The cafe at Izu Shaboten Zoo in Shizuoka Japan is using stuffed Capybara to enforce social distancing. Can i get this in the office as well, I feel it goes well with my ergonomic dinosaur
Markets and Economics
For years I’ve always thought that what happened in 2008 was just kicking the can down the road, and how a debt bubble ends, the answer has always been mass unemployment and a black swan event, but the question remained as how that would be triggered. Well we all know how it’s triggered now, the trigger was the black swan event of the government shutting down the economy. So my questions are how does this play out. No one has the answer, but there seems to be various insights from different people that can be picked up. I thought this was a good explanation of the coming global solvency crisis.
I was sent this link over the weekend on WTF happened in 1971 after the end of the bretton wood agreement. I found it interesting to understand where we are economically in the world.
I thoroughly enjoyed the debate Between Raoul Pal and Hugh Hendry, founder and former CIO of Eclectica Asset Management. It’s like working at a hedge fund again listening to them throw ideas around.
Good news!, the cash ban bill is now dead in the water in Australia. The people have mobilised, after harassing their local MP over and over with a ‘Listen $@% face, if this thing passes it’s as much your fault as those Liberal party clowns and I will make sure you go down at the next election’. (that’s called the assertive technical tone). Anyway, that leaves you with a means to exit your savings from the banking system if you’re not savvy enough to buy bitcoin, gold or silver. You can then put it under your mattress if interest rates go negative or if you sense bail-in will happen because you have all your money in 1 bank and that bank is failing. Obviously try to avoid that key counterparty risk in the first place, in no place has the government put money aside to guarantee your deposits up to $250k. (if you find that on their balance sheet where they have budgeted for, then please let me know). It was just to instill confidence in the market, just like the COVID contact tracing, doesn’t work, it’s just to instill confidence in the people so we all get spending again. Don’t forget that during the peak of the great depression in 1933, the ownership of gold was criminalised.
May 22 is celebrated as the 8th anniversary of pizza day, when Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 BTC for 2 large pizza. Making it worth over 90mil in today’s price. BTC current trades around 9000
Aussie markets haven’t recovered yet. The chart for ASX 200 and S&P 500 look pretty similar.
A couple of stocks have done well since COVID, surpassing their all time high.
Amazon – I’m guilty here of random purchases on amazon in the last few months. Lots of encyclopedias that my daughter loves, especially the dinosaur one. Solar power station that I’ve already used a tonne.
Netflix – Of course with everyone in lockdown, what do people do?.
Facebook – If you ever advertised on facebook ,they have this amazing power editor that allows you to zoom down to a target audience.
Sweet light Crude – is trading around 33 USD. Petrol seems to be below 1.10. It’s cheaper on the freeway, or out in the western suburbs is what I find.
Other Stuff
Pretty standard knowledge in my circle, but here’s my guide to diagnosing slow internet at home. I’m assuming everyone is on NBN.
Step 1: Check your speed. Speed is divided into two numbers a download speed, and an upload speed. 100Mbps down/ 40 Mbps up is currently the highest I’ve seen in Australia for the average consumer.
You can check your speed here on one of these two sites. Ideally not on the work laptop, as the work laptop goes through the work VPN which might not give you an accurate speed of your internet.
https://www.ozspeedtest.com/
https://www.speedtest.net/
Speed test is an app on your phone. You can also see how fast your 4G internet on your phone is compared to your home connection. I use it all the time when I connect to wifi when traveling just so I know how fast the internet is. Fastest internet I’ve used was connected to an orange box in the middle of Paris at a friend’s place getting 347Mbps down, and 90.5 up.
Step 2: Check what technology you have at your home by using the NBN site. Fiber being the optimal material and more direct it runs to your home the better, coaxial being the next best, then copper being the worst.
FTTP (fiber to the premises)- this is the best, you have fiber directly to your home.
FTTB (fiber to the building)- this is for multi resident building and also good, the fiber optic is coming to your building, if you have issues here you need a cabler to come have a look at the connection from the NBN box to your apartment.
HFC (hybrid fiber coaxial) – Also good, basically it’s telstra cable, and you should be getting the max 100/40 speed.
FTTC (fiber to the curb) – hit and miss depending on how it’s connected from the curb to your home.
FTTN (fiber to the node) – you have lost the NBN lotto draw and blame the government. Worst tech ever. You are connected to the node with your place with copper. I think I heard of people getting NBN to upgrade this from FTTN to FTTP, but it will cost you personally, and probably expensive.
Step 3. Do you need to consider a higher speed plan cause you went with the slowest and cheapest possible. If you’re on FTTN then faster won’t help you here, cause the tech is crap. But HFC and above can come close to the 100/40.
Step 4: Have you chosen your ISP badly? You can always churn to a new ISP
Check here for the best ISP
https://www.whistleout.com.au/Broadband/Guides/nbn-providers-overview
https://www.whistleout.com.au/Broadband/Guides/fastest-nbn-providers-and-plans-accc
Step 5: Might be obvious, but are you too far from your wireless access point. If so then move closer, or if you’re advance enough do some re-wiring, or add a wireless extender.
Step 6: Who else is on the internet at the same time? What other devices are downloading stuff? Does the fridge really need an internet connection? If not, then unplug him!!
Step 7: Do you have a good router, is that the issue?
Step 8: Talk to your ISP, if you have a good ISP then they will work out what the issue is.
Anyway I’m writing this because I’m still on ADSL, since NBN was only recently deployed, and I’m looking to switch over. ADSL is quite slow, I’m getting 12/1.5 but it’s enough for zoom, just gets annoying uploading a large file to dropbox and trying to work at the same time. We have provisioned HFC, so I’ve been busy choosing my own router, since i don’t need a modem with HFC. I usually get my own equipment as opposed to getting the equipment from the ISP since i have more advanced needs (I need to be able to physically plug in at least 6 devices, and ensure wireless is available for 9 devices. Also I need a massive amount of upload speed) And I’m choosing between these two ISP currently on the 100/40 plans.
https://www.aussiebroadband.com.au/nbn-plans/ – Good customer support, good speed (if anyone is looking to churn)
https://superloop.com/consumer/home-broadband/nbn.html – great speed they have custom infrastructure behind, not as highly rated customer support, more for tech savvy people.
In case you’ve lost track of the calendar this year, here’s where we are currently at.
Enjoy your week of not feeling like this
