More than two dozen people in WA own more than 100 licensed firearms, each of which would have been individually approved by police, figures tabled in state parliament have revealed.
Key points:
Figures tabled in state parliament show that some West Australians are licensed to have more than 100 firearms.
Shadow Police Minister Peter Collier says the numbers probably relate to collectors and enthusiasts.
Police Minister Paul Papalia says these numbers are part of the reasons WA gun laws are being rewritten entirely.
The numbers, which provide an insight into gun ownership in WA, were disclosed on Wednesday in response to questions from the Shadow Minister for Police, Peter Collier.
The figures show there are 178 people in WA with more than 25 firearms, including 34 people who have more than 50 of them, and 26 who have more than 100.
“I was, I’ve got to say, a little confronted by the figures,” Mr Collier told ABC Radio Perth host Nadia Mitsopoulos on Friday.
“But having said that, we need to have perspective on this issue.
“And that is that almost all of these multiple gun owners, I would assume, would be collectors or gun enthusiasts, or there’d be a valid reason.”
Shooting club president says numbers lack context
The numbers do not specify the classifications of the firearms, meaning they could include rifles, shotguns, handguns or paintball guns.
The numbers also do not include gun dealers.
Shadow Police Minister Peter Collier requested the data from the state government.(ABC News: Cason Ho)
Paul Fitzgerald, WA president of the Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia, said the numbers were high but lacking in context.
“We can talk about an individual that may run a paintball business, for example, in Western Australia,” he said.
“And there’s a number of those, and they may well have 300 or 200 paintball markers on their individual license in order to run that business.”
He said people that shoot competitively may also have 10 or 20 different firearms to compete in different divisions.
Firearms need individual approval
Under WA law, each of the 178 people in WA who have more than 25 firearms would need to obtain a license from police for each weapon.
In order to get approval for each firearm, an applicant must show police varying degrees of “genuine” explanations for requiring them, depending on the capacity of the firearm.
Applicants who want to license a low-powered gun need to have a “genuine reason”, while those who want approval for a high-powered gun must show both a genuine “reason” and “need.”
The release of the numbers followed an announcement in March that the WA government was undertaking what it called “the biggest overhaul of firearm laws in Western Australian history.”
According to the government, there has been a 60 per cent jump in the number of licensed guns in WA over the past 13 years, to 349,000 guns in 2022.
However, the number of gun owners over the same period has gone down, suggesting a smaller number of people own a larger number of firearms.
WA Police Minister Paul Papalia told reporters the numbers were part of the reason for firearm law reforms.(ABC News: James Carmody)
WA Police referred questions to Police Minister Paul Papalia, who was asked about the figures at a press conference on Friday.
“I’m surprised that there are, under the current law, opportunities for people to accumulate very large numbers of firearms,” he said.
“That’s part of why we’re re-writing the entire Act.”
The state government previously stated the reasons behind the proposed new gun laws were related to community safety.
No further details about the nature of the changes have been released. Mr Papalia said consultation on the new laws was under way but they were not expected to be introduced to Parliament until the end of 2023.
Disney has overtaken Netflix in the global race for streaming customers. But there’s a catch. Actually, there are many catches.
The headline numbers are that Disney as an entertainment megalith now has 221.1 million subscriptions to Netflix’s 220.6 million accounts.
While that looks like Disney has surpassed Netflix in the streaming wars, that 221.1 million number is a combined figure of Disney+ customers as well as US services Hulu and ESPN. Netflix only has the one brand so it’s not a like-for-like comparison.
Of that total figure, Disney+, which launched in late-2019, has amassed 152.1 million subscribers worldwide. It increased its membership by 14.4 million subscribers, more than the 10 million that was forecast.
That’s catch number one in the Disney versus Netflix narrative.
The more revealing asterisk comes when you drill down into the numbers around average revenue per user (ARPU), as industry publication Variety you have donated
ARPU is an important measure for finance types because it reflects how much each customer is worth to a business. The higher the ARPU, the more money each customer is spending with the business.
According to Variety, Disney’s ARPU in the US and Canada was $US6.27 per customer per month compared to Netflix’s $US15.95 for the same region. Disney’s subscription price in the US and Canada is significantly lower than Netflix’s.
The difference in ARPU is even more glaring in India and Southeast Asia where Disney is only making $US1.20 per month to Netflix’s $US8.83 in APAC.
While it may seem like ARPU is something that investors and money people care about, ultimately it will affect audiences.
In a bid to increase that ARPU, there’s currently a lot of movement around pricing.
Disney has announced US prices for Disney+ will increase by 38 per cent in December, from $US7.99 to $US10.99 per month, at the same time as the introduction of an ad-supported membership tier which will be priced at $US7 .99.
Disney+ will roll out the ad-supported option globally in 2023.
In Australia, Disney+ is priced at $11.99 a month. It launched at $8.99 a month but increased the cost in February 2021 when it added the Star sub-brand to its platform.
Locally, Star houses Disney’s more adult-oriented programming and includes many of the exclusive movies and shows that are made for Hulu in the US. This has included series such as dopesick, WeCrashed and the upcoming critical sensation Bear.
Netflix will also introduce an ad-supported membership tier from 2023.
Netflix had previously eschewed introducing advertising on its platform with co-chief executive and co-founder Reed Hastings rejecting the idea.
The company did an about-face in April when it revealed it had for the first time in a decade gone backwards in its subscription numbers.
An ad-supported tier is one of two main tactics Netflix is deploying to arrest its declining membership. A cheaper subscription option could be attractive to existing and potential customers feeling the pinch of global economic and inflationary pressures.
And advertising revenue from brands may increase Netflix and Disney’s ARPU.
Netflix’s other plank in boosting its subscriber numbers is to crackdown on password, a common practice which is a violation of its terms and conditions but is done by 100 million of its customers.
Netflix is trialling two forms of a crackdown in smaller territories in Latin America, both of which means charging customers an extra fee for sharing their login details beyond their residence.
The American streaming market is going through a tumultuous period due to increased competition and economic conditions.
Earlier this month, Warner Bros Discovery announced it will combine its two streaming services, HBO Max and Discovery+ following its merger. The Warner Bros Discovery move could signal the long-awaited consolidation many in the industry have flagged for some time.
In Australia, there are more than a dozen paid streaming platforms, ranging from broad appeal brands such as Binge*, Netflix, Stan and Amazon Prime Video to niche products such as Shudder, Hayu and Shelter.
According to Roy Morgan data published in February, 74.5 per cent of Australians accessed a subscription video-on-demand platform across an average of four weeks in the three months to December 2021, an increase of 2.5 per cent.
The most popular service remains Netflix, followed by Foxtel Group*, which owns Foxtel, Binge, Kayo and Flash.
Roy Morgan estimated Australians use on average 2.7 subscription video-on-demand services, up from 1.8 a year earlier.
*Foxtel Group is majority owned by News Corp, publisher of this website
Apple’s release of iOS 16 this fall won’t only introduce new features, but also bring back an old one. You’ll once again be able to check out your iPhone’s battery percentage in the status bar — from anywhere on your device.
After the release of the iPhone X, which introduced the notch — the black bar at the top of your device that houses a speaker and camera — there wasn’t enough screen real estate left to keep the battery percentage up there, so Apple nixed the feature from iOS.
Read more: The Fastest Way to Charge Your iPhone if You’re Low on Time
You can view the battery percentage in the Control Center.
Screenshot by Lisa Eadicicco/CNET
Sure, you can swipe down from the top right of your iPhone to view the exact percentage in the Control Center, but it just isn’t the same. You can’t glance at the battery percentage from within any apps or the home screen. And it’s nearly impossible to gauge the exact percentage from just the battery icon, which is not good if your iPhone is close to dying.
Thankfully, the latest developer beta (5th) and public beta (3rd) releases of iOS 16 reintroduces the battery percentage number back in the status bar, inside of the existing battery icon. Here’s what you need to know about the new feature.
And if you want to get your hands on iOS 16 right now, here’s how to download the third public beta, which features the new battery percentage feature. the fifth developer beta also has the feature, but we don’t quite recommend downloading itunless you’re an Apple developer.
How to get the battery percentage back in the status bar on iOS 16
To view your battery percentage in the status bar on iOS 16, all you need to do is be on the latest iOS 16 public beta (3rd) or developer beta (5th).
Once you update, you should see the percentage in the battery icon in the top-right corner of your screen — from anywhere on your iPhone. That way you can keep a close eye on when your iPhone is topped off or close to running out of battery, and when you should starting charging it.
Although the setting is turned on by default, you can go to Settings > Battery and toggle on the Battery Percentage option to make sure it works. When your device is charging, the battery icon will turn completely green, showing you the percentage, while being in Low Power Mode will turn the battery icon completely yellow, but again with the percentage inside.
If you toggle the Battery Percentage feature off, you’ll remove the numbers from the status bar and revert back to the old battery icon design.
Nelson Aguilar/CNET
Unfortunately, the battery percentage option is not available on all iPhone models — for now, it’s not on the iPhone XR, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 13 Mini.
It was only a few weeks ago that Craig Bellamy made a stunning admission, telling reporters he was “not confident” Melbourne could turn a worrying form slump around.
The Storm had slumped to a fourth-straight loss for the first time in seven years and even Bellamy was unsure if this champion team had it in them to rise to the top again.
It was on the playing group to prove Bellamy wrong and while wins over the Warriors and Titans were certainly needed, Thursday night was their chance to make a statement.
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Sure, the Panthers were severely understrength but so were the Storm and yet a defensive masterclass paved the way for a 16-0 shutout victory over the defending premiers.
Now in a strong position to wrap up a spot in the top four, Melbourne is right back in the title picture and Bellamy has a secret weapon up his sleeve that keeps everyone guessing.
Even Cameron Smith was fooled on Thursday morning, questioning why playmaker Cameron Munster had been moved back to the halves after a starring game at fullback the week prior.
“I was a little bit surprised, I thought he may have kept him there,” Smith admitted on SEN 1170 Radio.
Storm sizzle poor Panthers | 02:01
Bellamy did keep Munster there, although it was not necessarily always going to be the plan as the Storm coach revealed in his post-game press conference on Thursday night.
“It worked pretty well last week as well,” Bellamy said.
“We weren’t quite sure earlier in the week on which way we were going to go. We trained both of them there. I think we will probably look at it on our opposition and what we think the best way to use Munster and the best way to use Nick and their strengths [is].
“I’m not quite sure we’ll actually stick with Munster at fullback all the time but we need to have a bit of a chat about that with the leaders, obviously our halves and see what the coaches think.”
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That in itself spells trouble for the rest of the competition.
It is already hard enough to defend Munster but not knowing where exactly he will be playing in the lead-up to a game makes that tougher, you only have to ask Ivan Cleary.
The Panthers coach was asked after Thursday’s defeat “what sort of threat” Munster posed at fullback, to which Cleary could only laugh.
“A lot,” he said.
“I don’t know whether fullback is much different. I suppose he doesn’t have all the defensive work to do. He’s just playing really well, definitely dangerous and he still seemed to come up with big plays when they needed it tonight. He’s definitely a threat.”
There was a similar response from Panthers great Greg Alexander, who was asked pre-game by Jess Yates which Melbourne player he was most worried about.
“Well, Cameron Munster, Cameron Munster and Cameron Munster,” Alexander replied.
That and “who ended up playing fullback”.
Unfortunately for Alexander and the Panthers, that also ended up being Munster and he backed up last week’s three-try effort against the Titans with another impressive display.
Munster ran for 142 meters at the back to go with five tackle busts two linebreak assists and also kicked for 537, filling the void left by halfback Jahrome Hughes.
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Cameron Munster starred at fullback. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
“It’s been handy this year,” Bellamy said of having the option of playing Munster at fullback.
“The last few months or so with Paps being out and Nick missing a week. He’s certainly a different character Munster but he’s a great guy to have around the club and obviously one hell of a player.
“We’re fairly lucky to have him. The other big thing about him is he’s such a competitor. He just competes in everything at training and in games. That’s what makes him what he is.”
Bellamy admitted there may have been a point earlier in Munster’s career where he may have wanted a greater say in what position he played.
But this is a more mature Munster, one who is “just happy to play a role that’s best for the team”.
‘Ludicrous’ – Brandy hits back | 01:49
“Earlier in his career he’d probably have a say or opinion on it,” Bellamy said.
“But I think now, and I haven’t actually spoke to him too closely about it, he just usually says wherever you think I fit best in the team, I’m going to do that.
“Wherever the team needs him, he’s quite happy to do that. I think he really enjoys playing fullback because it gives him a little bit more freedom but he’s just happy to play a role that’s best for the team. It just shows how much he’s matured.”
On Monday, Guy’s media team, led by director of communications Lee Anderson, wanted the opposition leader to appear on 3AW’s Drive show with Tom Elliott. They thought it was the best way to execute their strategy: respond to Elliott’s questions without giving too much away and move on to other topics. Instead, Guy became stuck. He flailed and struggled, unable to answer the basic questions of him when he found out about the plan, and whether he thought it was a bad idea.
The interview became a flashpoint for a fight between new chief of staff Nick McGowan and Anderson. McGowan effectively wanted to play a greater role in the media strategy; Anderson viewed that as a blow to his seniority, according to Liberal sources who asked to remain anonymous for employment reasons.
By Wednesday, news broke that Anderson had quit after a disagreement. Then on Thursday, it was revealed that Guy’s office manager, Simone Cencie, was also leaving. There are conflicting accounts over whether she quit or was forced to resign.
On Friday, the Victorian electoral commissioner requested documents. The commission has the power under the Electoral Act to compel documents to be handed over and require people to attend interviews with inspectors as part of an investigation into a potential breach of donations law. Failure to comply is punishable by up to $37,000 in fines.
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A spokeswoman for the commission said: “We are not in a position to allege any wrongdoing, but we would welcome anyone who wishes to come forward and provide us with information that they have regarding the matters raised to do so.”
Guy, meanwhile, continued to dig in: “I won’t take lectures from a government that hindered the police [investigating the so-called red shirts rort]who hindered the corruption commission, who took the Ombudsman to legal proceedings [to prevent her from investigating].”
Last week, he told journalists he had met Munz just “a couple of times.
“I think a lot of people [have met Munz]but I certainly haven’t had this conversation [soliciting funds for Catlin’s private business] with him.”
Some Liberals have described the past fortnight as a “shambles” and the Coalition’s electoral prospects as unsalvageable. It’s not that they expect to lose an election over the donor scandal, but they are struggling to get cut-through while being bogged down in questions over an internal crisis just three months out from the election they were hoping to fight on integrity grounds.
Opposition MPs say very few people are raising the issue with them, and the scandal, they say, pales in comparison to those survived by the Andrews government, which rorted almost $400,000 in taxpayer funds at the 2014 election, was embroiled in a branch stacking investigation that found Labor ministers misused public funds for party-political purposes and is the subject of an anti-corruption probe into a 2016 firefighters deal.
Credit:Matt Golding
Monash University politics lecturer Dr Zareh Ghazarian said the latest crisis may not be the issue that stops Victorians voting for the Liberal Party on November 26, but it starves it of oxygen and being able to lay out its agenda.
“This is not the sort of distraction an opposition and opposition leader needs going into an election campaign,” Ghazarian said. “Every time they’re greeted by the media, the top thing they must talk about is their internal business.”
Associate Professor Paul Strangio, also from Monash, said that while he agreed the donor scandal would not be the number one issue for the public, the integrity questions faced by both major parties was a gift to teal independents expected to contest the state election after their success at the federal poll.
“They’re going to now be able to use integrity as a stick to beat over the head of both major parties,” Strangio said.
Mitch Catlin, pictured in the Lexus marquee on Derby Day, 2018.Credit:jesse marlow
Politicians and party members tend to be jittery this close to the election and some Liberals are discussing whether a leadership challenge 100 days out from polling day is a riskier strategy than placing their faith in the struggling Guy.
A leadership challenge so close to the election is complicated by a realignment of subgroups within the parliamentary party. When Guy overthrew Michael O’Brien in September, he did so with the backing of Brad Battin (who mounted an unsuccessful coup early last year) and his supporters Richard Riordan, Ryan Smith and Nick Wakeling.
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Since then, Guy has lost key backers, including Tim Smith. Battin, Ryan Smith and Riordan are likely to emerge as contenders for the leadership, making it difficult to cobble together a coalition to spill the top job before the election.
O’Brien is telling colleagues he has no interest in coming back as leader now, but it is believed he could put his hand up after the election. If John Pesutto wins the seat of Hawthorn, he would contest any leadership ballot, as would Louise Staley, according to Liberal MPs. Others have also suggested Matthew Bach could be a potential contender.
“There’s been a bit of a paradigm that’s gone on since 2010 and the leadership guard has been given more than a fair go to run the show,” one Liberal said about a changing of the guard after the election. “If the people of Victoria don’t want us again, things need to change.”
Most Liberal MPs are Adamant Guy will take them to the election, and say they have a duty of responsibility to Victorians to fight Labor – not themselves. Not one spoken to by The Age has suggested they had been called by colleagues canvassing support.
But few of the party faithful are now convinced the Liberals can now offer the state a serious alternative in November. They are questioning why the opposition has not cauterized the donor issue by rolling out major policies.
“It’s because there is no strategy; there is no in-case-of-emergency-break-glass policy options,” said one Liberal source speaking on the condition of anonymity.
New state Liberal chief of staff Nick McGowan (left), seen here with Opposition Leader Matthew Guy in 2018.Credit:AAP
“Shadow cabinet is expecting to ride a wave of discontent and anger over the government, but that’s not how it works. Matthew is so convinced in his charm and political skills of him, there’s been no real policy work, and the last fortnight has just exposed that.
“And for two weeks now, they’re talking about themselves and talking to each other, and so focused on their own seats and their own leadership ambitions, that they’re again not focused on policy.”
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The appointment of McGowan as chief of staff has prompted further internal concerns. Staff who worked with him in the Baillieu government describe him as diligent with a good understanding of the Liberal Party, but some are concerned Guy’s former best man will be a “yes man”.
The danger is, they say, that “necessary but difficult conversations don’t take place and people walk away with assumptions on agreements when there may have been none”.
“Instead of surrounding himself with people who develop him and make him better, he surrounds himself with people who say yes and tell him what he wants to hear. That combination, with his desire for people to love him, is problematic, and that’s what’s happened over the last few weeks.”
With Annika Smethurst and Rachel Eddie
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The Acer Aspire name has always been a bit of smart branding, since the series is positioned as a better-than-average pick among budget laptops—a notebook you can afford, but with the features and performance you aspire to. It hasn’t always hit the mark, but the company has managed to produce solid economy choices year after year. The latest Aspire 5 (starts at $369.99; $599.99 as tested) offers a 12th Generation Intel processor and reasonable RAM and storage. It delivers pretty good performance and battery life, though as you’d expect, some features are kept basic for the sake of affordability.
The Design: Just the Fundamentals
For 2022, the 15.6-inch Aspire 5 line starts at $369.99 with an 11th Gen Core i3 laptop processor and Windows 11 Home in S mode. Our $599.99 model A515-57-56UV features a Core i5-1235U chip (two Performance cores, eight Efficient cores, 12 threads) with Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics, 16GB of memory, and a 512GB solid-state drive, as well as a full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) non-touch display. It’s built to offer just-good-enough levels of quality in all but a few choice areas, and that’s reflected in the design, from the materials used to the connections and components inside.
Measuring 0.7 by 14.3 by 9.4 inches and weighing 3.9 pounds, the Acer is far from featherweight, but it’s not too bulky to throw in a laptop bag or backpack. The Asus VivoBook 15 is a little trimmer at 0.78 by 14.1 by 9.1 inches and 3.75 pounds. The Aspire’s construction combines metal and plastic, with a uniform finish that makes it hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. The lid is covered in aluminum, but the rest of the chassis is fairly sturdy plastic. The laptop is large enough for a full-size keyboard with numeric keypad, though the latter has half-width keys.
The keyboard is backlit for visibility in dim rooms, and the tiled keys are reasonably comfortable to type on. The narrower keys of the keypad aren’t as comfortable, but any number pad is better than none if you’re doing a lot of data entry in spreadsheets. The touchpad is extra-wide, giving you a spacious surface for gesture controls as well as basic clicking and scrolling.
The Aspire 5 doesn’t skimp on connectivity, with plenty of ports that’ll free you from having to bring along a hub or adapter. On the laptop’s left side are three USB 3.2 ports (one Type-C and two Type-A), along with an HDMI video output and a compact Ethernet jack.
On the right, you’ll find a third USB-A port and a 3.5mm audio jack, plus a Kensington lock slot for physically securing the machine. Wi-Fi 6 handles your networking needs (assuming you don’t use the Ethernet port), and Bluetooth is available for wirelessly connecting headsets, keyboards, and mice.
No Feast for the Eyes and Ears
The built-in webcam is a bit pedestrian, meaning it’s your typical generic cam with 720p resolution and no face recognition support for Windows Hello logins. Nor is there a fingerprint reader, so you’ll be typing passwords the old-fashioned way.
The 1080p IPS screen is a little underwhelming in an era when higher-resolution and even 4K displays are offered on many laptops, but they’re not common at this price point, and full HD at least beats some ultra-cheap notebooks’ 1,366 by 768. The 15.6-inch size is adequate for everyday tasks like schoolwork, web browsing, and streaming videos and movies, but in this segment you shouldn’t expect dazzling brightness or better-than-bland colors. Touch screens are scarce in this price range, too.
The Aspire 5 is outfitted with a pair of downward-facing speakers. The clarity of the sound isn’t bad, but the speakers are surprisingly quiet. Watching YouTube videos online, I had to crank the volume to the maximum to get adequate audio.
Testing the 2022 Aspire 5: Performance in Line With Price
For this review, we compared the Aspire 5 to other budget-friendly systems, ranging from the affordable Asus VivoBook 15 to the AMD-powered Lenovo IdeaPad 3 14 and Intel-based Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i 14, two of the best models in this price range that we’ve seen in the last year. We also included the Dell Inspiron 15 3000 and the Gateway 15.6-inch Ultra Slim, two rock-bottom budget machines with less-capable hardware and limited specs.
Our primary productivity test is UL’s PCMark 10, which simulates routine workloads with such everyday staples as word processing, spreadsheet analysis, web browsing, and videoconferencing. We also use PCMark 10’s Full System Drive test to assess the access time and throughput of the system’s boot drive. Geekbench 5 also simulates popular apps like PDF rendering and speech recognition, with a little more emphasis on processing power.
Two other CPU tests that stress all available cores and threads are Maxon’s Cinebench, which uses that company’s Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, and the open-source HandBrake, which we time as it encodes a 12-minute clip of 4K video ( the Blender Foundation short film Tears of Steel) to 1080p resolution. Our final productivity test is workstation vendor Puget Systems’ PugetBench for Photoshop, which uses the Creative Cloud 22 version of Adobe’s popular image editor to measure a PC’s suitability for multimedia and digital content creation.
The Aspire 5’s up-to-date Intel Core i5 CPU is well suited to everyday applications, whether in the classroom, home, or office. Our test unit handily beat the bottom-feeding Inspiron and even topped the capable IdeaPad Flex 5i 14 in most tests.
We test PCs’ graphics capabilities with two game-like animations a piece from two benchmark suites. UL’s 3DMark provides the DirectX 12 tests Night Raid (less challenging, suited for laptops with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding, suited for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs). GFXBench is a cross-platform GPU performance test that uses both low-level routines like texturing and high-level image rendering. Its 1440p Aztec Ruins and 1080p Car Chase subtests are rendered off-screen to accommodate different display resolutions.
Because the Aspire 5 relies on integrated graphics instead of an AMD or Nvidia dedicated GPU, it’s naturally limited in graphics performance. It’s fine for office productivity, streaming media, and even light photo editing, but if you’re looking to play the latest games, you’ll have to look elsewhere. That said, its graphics are quicker than those of most economy models, often leading the pack in our tests.
Finally, we test laptops’ battery life by looping a locally stored 720p video at 50% screen brightness and 100% audio volume, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off, until the system quits. We also use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and software to measure the screen’s coverage of popular color gamuts or palettes and its brightness in nits (candelas per square meter).
With an unplugged runtime of 11 and a half hours, the Acer shows pretty good stamina for the price. Its screen, however, didn’t wow us—it’s a typical economy panel with limited color reproduction and barely adequate brightness, falling just short of the 300 nits we consider a baseline, let alone the 400 nits we prefer. To be honest, however, you won’t find much better in this class.
Verdict: A Budget Compromise, But Not a Bad One
Made to tread the line between budget and midrange laptops, the Acer Aspire 5 has a tightrope to walk, balancing an affordable price and capable features. The latest version handles that balance fairly well, though there are some rough spots that are hard to ignore, like the lackluster display and missing biometric and touch-screen features. But on the whole, it delivers what the Aspire line has always promised, a better-than-bare-bones laptop for consumers on tight budgets.
Whether you’re looking for performance that edges out other economy laptops or a port selection that lets you leave the hubs and dongles at home, the 2022 Aspire 5 hits those marks. It’s a strong option for a solid laptop that won’t cost you a fortune.
Jason Horne-Francis’ failure to complete his “proper ice bath and recovery” is what led to his shock axing from the side to face Adelaide, 7NEWS has revealed.
Horne-Francis was left out of the Kangaroos’ line up for what would have been his first homecoming to play in front of family and friends since being snapped up with North’s first number one draft pick.
7NEWS journalist Mitch Cleary said the prized draft pick was omitted for “disobeying his coach” last weekend.
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“The star teenager was called out by interim coach Leigh Adams and senior players on Sunday for failing to complete his proper ice baths and recovery in front of their very eyes,” Cleary reported.
“I have spent this morning with a dozen teammates training in Melbourne (instead of traveling with the squad).”
He’ll now play in the VFL after failing to live up to the club’s “Monday to Friday” expectations.
With Horne-Francis putting off contract extension talks earlier this year, there’s fears the 18-year-old could be preparing to depart the ‘Roos at the end of 2023 – when his initial two-year draft deal expires.
But North Melbourne great Brent Harvey says the club will not be “held to ransom” by Horne-Francis’ uncertain future.
“I think there’s always a risk (when dropping him),” Harvey said on RSN on Friday.
“He’s going to have the spotlight on him because he’s the number one draft pick… (but) he hasn’t gone out and robbed a bank, he hasn’t done anything bad; teammates love him, staff love him, the coaches love him – he hasn’t done anything bad. This is just part of the development of a young boy to get his preparation right and everybody else. Not just Jason.
“The risk is there (that he departs)… we know the risk, everybody knows the right. Not just Jason. It could be draft pick number five, not number one and they’re from Adelaide or Perth – the going home factor is always going to be there. Same as a Perth club that drafts a Melbourne boy – it’s always going to be there.
“But you can’t get held to ransom for these little things. You’ve got to make sure your culture is number one and that’s what our coach is doing right now and I absolutely love it.”
McRae reiterates hope to re-sign De Goey | 00:36
The decision to ax Horne-Francis shocked the AFL community, with Fox Footy’s Nick Riewoldt labeling the move “strange”, while David King questioned the call given the teen would have motivation to perform in front of his support network.
Brownlow Medalist Gerard Healy even told 3AW’s sports day that Horne-Francis’ non-selection for the Crows game was “a bookend to a pretty disappointing season”.
But Harvey opened up on the decision to ax Horne-Francis, who was also left in the VFL for a week after returning from suspension earlier this season.
“There’s some stuff that we call Monday to Friday, it’s preparation stuff – you need to tick the boxes,” he said.
“This is not just about Jason … (Caretaker coach) Leigh Adams has got very good standards, I’ve got to be a little bit careful … but we’ve got players not playing in our team and I’ll name one right now : Kayne Turner.
“He would run through brick walls for every single one of his teammates and every single one of his supporters – he does everything right.
“If he’s not playing, he’s playing in the reserves at the minute, you’d want to be doing everything right to make sure you’re holding up your end of the bargain. We call that Monday to Friday and if you haven’t got your Monday to Friday in order, that’s just not good enough right now.
Koch keeps Hinkley for 2023! | 02:49
“Was it good enough in Round 3, Round 4, Round 5? Maybe.
“But with Leigh Adams in charge, the standards have gone to another level and players have to play their part. Monday to Friday is just as important as performing on game day for us.
“There’s not just one incident where we’ve just said (to Horne-Francis): ‘Nah, you’re not playing because of this’. It’s not that at all, everything comes into calculations, the form side of it, what he’s doing after stoppage. There’s so much that comes into it.”
Harvey, who played 432 games for the Roos and was a premiership winner in 1999, said the club needed to instill the best culture possible in Horne-Francis and the Kangaroos squad moving forward.
“The end of the day, we’ll always come back to what’s best for the football club and what’s best for the culture,” Harvey said.
Cripps free to play, ban overturned! | 00:35
“He’s 18 years old, there are going to be little mistakes along the way.
“Any draftee that comes is not perfect, they are never perfect… he’s come over from interstate, straight into an elite environment.
“Our job is to teach them. Then they’ve got to learn themselves.
“I think he’s done fantastic in his first year away from mum and dad.
“(But) if you compromise on your culture, things go pear shaped real quickly.”
SpaceX has launched more than 3,000 of its internet satellites to low Earth orbit. illustration: GDAPHOTO (AP)
A researcher from Belgium created a $25 hacking tool that could glitch Starlink’s internet terminals, and he is reportedly going to make this tool available for others to copy. Lennert Wouters, a security researcher at KU Leuven, demonstrated how he was able to hack into Elon Musk’s satellite dishes at the Black Hat Security Conference being held this week in Las Vegas, Wired reported.
During his presentation at the conference on Wednesday, Wouters went through the hardware vulnerabilities that allowed him to access the Starlink satellite terminal and create his own custom code. “The widespread availability of Starlink User Terminals (UT) exposes them to hardware hackers and opens the door for an attacker to freely explore the network,” Wouters wrote in the description of Wednesday’s briefing.
SpaceX has launched a total of 3,009 satellites to low Earth orbit, building out a megaconstellation designed to beam down connectivity to even the most distant parts of the world. Starlink customers get a 19-inch wide Dishy McFlatface (a clever name bestowed upon the company’s satellite dish) to install on their homes, or even carry with them on the road.
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In order to hack the Starlink dish, Wouters created a modchip, or a custom circuit board that can be attached to the satellite dish, according to Wired. The modchip was put together using off-the-shelf parts that cost about $25 in total, and Wouters has reportedly made the details of the modchip available for download on Github. The small device can be used to access McFlatface’s software, launching an attack that causes a glitch and opens up previously locked parts of the Starlink system. “Our attack results in an unfixable compromise of the Starlink [user terminal] and allows us to execute arbitrary code,” Wouters wrote. “The ability to obtain root access on the Starlink [user terminal] is a prerequisite to freely explore the Starlink network.”
Wouters has previously warned SpaceX of flaws in their system. SpaceX did respond by updating the system, but Wouters argues that the only sure way to avoid this attack is to create a new version of the main chip, Wired reported.
In the process of building out its Starlink constellation, SpaceX has made some enemies along the way that make it vulnerable to potential attacks. The use of Starlink satellites to provide connectivity in Ukraine has angered the Russian government, which allegedly launched a cyberattack against American satellite company Viasat in February. A military researcher from China has also expressed a desire to destroy Starlink satellites, publishing a paper in May on “soft and hard kill methods” to counteract any threat posed by the internet constellation.
And though it may seem like it, but Wouters doesn’t actually want to bring down Starlink, instead he hopes his research can serve as a warning to better fortify the satellite dishes.
Young defender Rhett Bazzo will return to senior action and play in his first RAC Derby against Fremantle at Optus Stadium on Saturday.
While credited with a game when deployed as the medical substitute last week he did not manage to take the field but will start in the back pocket in this finals-shaping contest.
The inclusion of Bazzo is one of four changes the Eagles match committee has made with experienced defenders Jackson Nelson and Josh Rotham and forward Hugh Dixon returning to the line-up.
The Eagles were forced to make three changes following the retirement of champion forward Josh Kennedy, the suspension of star midfielder Tim Kelly and the absence of Willie Rioli, who is on personal leave.
Kennedy retired after 271 games, content with an eight-goal haul against Adelaide, while Kelly received a one-week ban for a dangerous tackle on Crows midfielder Sam Berry.
The selectors also left out developing tall Bailey Williams as they continue to experiment with the big man mix.
The presence of Rotham and Dixon offers the coaches box a couple of options as they look to support champion big man Nic Naitanui.
The match committee was again unable to select midfield ace Elliot Yeo (calf) or half-forward Jack Petruccelle (hamstring) because of injury.
While the Eagles cannot improve from their ladder position of 17th they could make life difficult for the finals-bound Dockers who are sizing up a top-four finish.
Australia’s education ministers have decided to create a national plan to address the growing professor shortage of plaguing schools.
Teachers from across the country joined state and territory education ministers to talk about the “struggles and glories” the sector is facing.
“It’s gotten a lot, lot harder, lots of admin, the workload has quadrupled since the 90s,” teacher Livia Bolanca said.
Minister for Education Jason Clare speaks during the Teacher Workforce roundtable, at Parliament House in Canberra on Friday 12 August 2022. fedpol Photo: Alex Ellinghausen (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Teachers told ministers they feel overworked and underpaid.
“Remuneration has not matched the workload as it has intensified,” Bolanca said.
Federal education minister Jason Clare said the best outcome of today’s meeting was to create a national action plan by December.
“We want a national action plan prepared by the secretaries of our department, drawing on the expertise of the teachers, the unions, the Catholic schools and the independent schools,” Clare said.
“And to put that action plan together for us to tick off when we meet again in December.
“That’s it, in a nutshell, out of what we got today.
“Today was about listening to teachers, harvesting those good ideas, and now working on a plan we can implement to make a real difference.”
Minister for Education Jason Clare during a press conference after a Teacher Workforce roundtable, at Parliament House in Canberra on Friday 12 August 2022. fedpol Photo: Alex Ellinghausen (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Education department modeling predicts there will be 4000 fewer teaching graduates than needed by 2025.
Only half of teaching students on average are completing their degree.
Clare said some ideas ministers are considering include early practical experience, paid internships, better preparation for teaching reading and mathematics to students, and mentoring.
Most of these ideas apply to university students.
Clare said there is a limited budget to change teacher salaries. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
“We know the finishing pay is not high enough to attract some people or keep some people,” former education department secretary Lisa Paul said.
Clare acknowledged teachers should be paid more however there is a “limited budget” to do it.
