Dawnstar Australis - Latest Comments

Re: LEGO And The Australia Tax

Mahzian — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 04:52:45 -0000

I just discovered this also while looking into some of the modular sets, $149 US does not equal $270 AU LEGO... this is the "Australia tax" at it's finest. If you wanted a few of the big sets you could actually save money by flying to the US and bringing them back in your luggage, this is madness!

Re: LEGO And The Australia Tax

John — Thu, 02 May 2013 21:40:08 -0000

I agree it is annoying. I also find it frustrating that Amazon refuses to ship lego to australia, presumably because they have some deal with lego. They'll happily ship it to a shipping proxy. I would buyy more lego if I didn't feel as though I was being ripped off. I am happy to pay GST + a fudge factor for fluctuating exchange rates, but a lot of kits are significantly beyond that.

Re: Adobe Creative Cloud: One Size Does Not Fit All

TenguTech — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 23:33:17 -0000

I very much agree with you on this. Companies just want to move people to
the subscription model, so they have continuing revenue scheme.

Oh, and I think your non-subscription pricing of Lightroom is even cheaper that
you worked out.

Price for 5 years = Initial purchase ($187) + 4 years upgrade (4* $109) = $619

The rort just gets bigger. :)

Re: LEGO And The Australia Tax

Jeff Wharton — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 18:52:05 -0000

This is something that you need to highlight with the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications in relation to their enquiry into price gouging (another public meeting is being held on 22/03). Also contact Choice to see whether they can put forward a submission to the committee.

Re: LEGO And The Australia Tax

Rob — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 11:28:18 -0000

I've had this debate with the Lego Group (TLG) twice in the past three years (via e-mail), most recently about a month ago. After an exchange of several e-mails, they suggested that I try the grey market import from the US.. not an altogether helpful suggestion.

Recent pricing (e.g. the Palace Cinema and the Horizon Express) shows that the prices are coming down closer to the US prices, but still an imbalance of about 20% or more. With no logical justification.

Honestly, with the opening of a Lego World in Malaysia recently, I was hoping a distribution centre would be opened in the Asia-Pacific region, which might lead to decreased shipping costs.. but appears not. I'm still struggling with the pricing of the modular Fire Brigade - AUD $299, USD: $149.99! WTF!!?!

Re: Best Photos Of 2012

Naik — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 07:56:33 -0000

great macro works.

Re: Best Photos Of 2012

Iza — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 21:05:14 -0000

Beautiful insect work. I cannot decide if I like the first or the last the most. The last has amazing colors and interesting diagonal line defining the composition. In the first one, I love the intimate portrait and the blue background matches it perfectly, defining the mood.

Re: The Real Victims Of The Click Frenzy Fail: The Australian Consumer

Quiet Observer — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 03:30:09 -0000

Unfortunately, Mediawatch is done for the year. Maybe they'll do an in-depth piece when they return next February? That is if Alan Jones doesn't incite another ethnic riot over the holidays....

Re: The Real Victims Of The Click Frenzy Fail: The Australian Consumer

sicksadworld — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 00:00:36 -0000

I have no other words to describe how how sad this looks for everyone involved including the consumer who though this would decent and that "bargins" could be had.

Re: Will Australia Go Into A “Click Frenzy”? I Doubt It

dgtlmoon — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 06:01:48 -0000

yeah but the 'fail' is also part of their marketing i think

Re: Will Australia Go Into A “Click Frenzy”? I Doubt It

Dawnstar Australis — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 02:58:12 -0000

The way they are working around this is acting like a broker. They aren't directly selling anything but acting as a conduit to the various retailer sites

Re: Will Australia Go Into A “Click Frenzy”? I Doubt It

Dawnstar Australis — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 02:55:11 -0000

Interesting - thanks for the comment. At the time of writing it was listed as not registered, will update to reflect corrected information.

Re: Will Australia Go Into A “Click Frenzy”? I Doubt It

Southernbelle001 — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 20:21:26 -0000

There is nothing on the site that states what payment types will be accepted and whether like ebay-you are covered for 30 days. In event of not receiving item - anything about refunds - no.
Suggest paypal be utlised for this, as Aus are not happy with paying online with credit cards yet.

Re: Will Australia Go Into A “Click Frenzy”? I Doubt It

Save 100% by not buying — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 20:05:02 -0000

Global Marketplace have been registered for GST since 27th July 2012.

http://abr.business.gov.au/...

My two cents worth is that they are spruiking up business so they can sell advertising space on their web page for the day.

Re: LEGO And The Australia Tax

Ciphernaut — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 23:16:33 -0000

I've mailed them about this issue about a year ago. There response was that the US market pricing had to be more competitive.

It would be appropriated for TLG to get with the times and make the Australian marked equally 'competitive'

Re: Will Australia Go Into A “Click Frenzy”? I Doubt It

Dawnstar Australis — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 00:26:16 -0000

I'm generally not in favour of passing any personal data over the wire unencrypted (although I bet the argument is because it's buried in binary PDF it's harder to pull out) but given the entire banking systems still relies on handwritten signatures as some sort of valid identification it's all a bit much of a muchness.

Personally I avoid direct debit systems, far too many times do you see them screw up and over/multi debit ala the recent events in Brisbane with the Translink Go cards. Much prefer push systems.

Re: Will Australia Go Into A “Click Frenzy”? I Doubt It

Guest — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 21:51:22 -0000

What do you think of comsec encouraging people to send direct debit forms via email? See http://www.comsec.com.au/Pu... and click on the fourth download link down labelled "direct debit"

Does the SMIME standard have auto-discovery so it's automatically encrypted?

Re: LEGO And The Australia Tax

jerub — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 07:59:50 -0000

Just checked. UK gives free shipping, the free zombie car for £149.99 / $240.10.

Re: LEGO And The Australia Tax

futtocks mcthorium — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 20:50:14 -0000

I bet some local LEGO channel partner was whining about Grey Marketing Oh Noes. Australian importers are spiteful knobs who resent not being able to print money for themselves by adding no value whatsoever. cf: electronics, books, etc

Re: LEGO And The Australia Tax

trib — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 20:45:23 -0000

Drop shipper. Like you say. And you'll pay, but not as much as the tax...

Re: Limiting Yum To Security Only Updates

matan999 — Thu, 24 May 2012 03:57:25 -0000

Can someone point out a good resource about YUM security in general.

Is there anything that assures packages are downloaded from accredited repositories, package integrity (signed packages etc).

Re: Minifigs In The Fog Part 2

Tania Chamberlain-Messervy — Sun, 20 May 2012 23:11:10 -0000

Love them!

Re: Crisis Of Faith: The Moment Of Truth

Dawnstar Australis — Tue, 01 May 2012 02:36:39 -0000

Hi Shane,

Thanks for replying - one of the things I've enjoyed most about Olympus is your willingness to discuss the issues at hand.

Agreed the situation here is very personal - In no way do I imply that the OM-D is useless to everyone (indeed as I said in the article the OM-D is a very nice and well priced machine).

The DPreview.com review I linked had some very good high res pics of the battery grip so I was able to get a pretty good idea of the ways it extended the grip on the camera. Obviously I'd have an even better idea if I tried it out for myself and the Teds store is supposed to call me once it's in stock so I can give it a go.

I really don't want to give up my Olympus gear but I can't logically keep investing in gear that I won't be able to use in the field comfortably.

At the end of the day it's just a pragmatic decision driven by my ergonomic requirements

Re: Crisis Of Faith: The Moment Of Truth

Shane — Tue, 01 May 2012 02:01:58 -0000

Hi Daniel,

I can appreciate your comments. Whether the ergonomics of a camera are suitable is always going to be up to the individual photographer.

One thing I will say is to wait and try the battery grip. It does actually make a huge difference to the ergonomics of the camera. The grip is actually comprised of two parts, the battery compartment that attaches to the bottom of the camera and a second component that provides a deeper grip (I've attached an image for you). It also allows the camera to be used comfortably when shooting in a portrait orientation and provides an additional shutter button on the grip.

The grip is named the HLD-6 and will retail for $299 locally.

Clearly this doesn't help you with you other ergonomic issues but given that this was stated as being your biggest issue, I thought it worth clarifying.

Regards,

Shane

Olympus Imaging Australia

Re: Minifigs In The Fog Part 2

caskings — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:52:32 -0000

I remember having one of those red astronauts as a kid!