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Notes from Nazi Germany

By sven (Wed Sep 01, 2004 at 04:25:18 PM EST) (all tags)

Work has made the front page of the paper again today...

A leading defence contractor wants to employ only Australians and Americans on some projects and make staff wear badges highlighting their birthplace or nationality in a bid to win more orders from the United States.
But unions have labelled the plan by Australian Defence Industries as industrial apartheid and said it was reminiscent of Hitler's Germany.

Poll: Has your employer ever been likened to a dictatorship in the mainstream press?

Inside: Nazi Germany, house stuff

Nazi Germany

We all think it's very funny. Lots of people have print-outs of the article. The article is full of inaccuracies so I don't think there's anyone concerned by the issue they're discussing.

Speaking of Nazi Germany, we've had our access to ebay blocked due to 1.6G of traffic in one month. We pointed out that sometimes we buy work-related books off ebay, but with no success. There was some success on the proxy front however - several complaints have resulted in translate.google.com being unblocked. Hooray!

House stuff

We spent another weekend looking at houses, and came to the conclusion that the one we saw the previous weekend is pretty good. So we're putting an offer in this afternoon. I went to the Valuer General's Office yesterday afternoon to get some information on recent sales in the area. It's an excellent resource, $15.40 for information on 70 sales, and you can define the search criteria any way you like. I now know sales prices of all four bedroom houses in Bassendean in the past two years.

The asking price for the house we're after is $285k-$299k, which is a bit excessive compared to recent sales in the area. The sale prices of two 4x2s in the area of the same age on similar sized blocks were $254k and $266k. So we're going to start by offering low to mid $260s and we'll see what happens.

Very busy.

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Notes from Nazi Germany | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

Don't be scared to put in low offers by creo (6.00 / 2) #1 Wed Sep 01, 2004 at 06:16:22 PM EST

Our place they wanted 450 - we put in 390 and we settled on 414, which was 400+ their costs. The fact that we were a cute family unit and these guys were Christian empty nesters probably helped us against other bidders - one young guy I know who offerred more than we did got turned down. So, sometimes cute kiddies running around can be helpful on housing expeditions.

Re ADI. I'm sure the true story is quite different, and I also know that you wont be able to disclose what it is. However, this alludes to one of my bitches about the FTA. You had all these US ~~arselickers~~ apologists, who were saying that the FTA will give us access to US government software contracts - well, no. Simply because we wont get clearance. If people like Cam (who live and work in the US) cannot get clearances, how the hell are Australian software developers in Australia going to get clearances?

Of course the US software companies bidding for our deals, using offshored labour, well, no problemo. We will just bend over and say ' Dont even use the Vasso, we like it hard and rough'.

Enough whining - back to work.

Cheers
Creo.

"I shall do what I believe to be right and honourable" - Guderian

Houses and FTA by sven (6.00 / 1) #3 Thu Sep 02, 2004 at 11:58:35 AM EST

Well, our initial offer is in at 265, and they countered with 295. Next we'll offer 273 and see what happens. Looking at previous sale prices was a useful tool in determining where to start, and more importantly where to stop. Now we know for sure that we would be better off waiting for something else to come up than paying their inflated asking price.

the FTA will give us access to US government software contracts - well, no.

There is no way the US would give us any defence contracts ever. Clearances are irrelevant - the US defence lobby is too big to allow contracts to go outside the country. The problem with clearances is that every Australian project we work on has many US components (mostly hardware, ). There are now many Australians who are unable to work on Australian projects. People have already been pushed out of the company because of this issue.

--
harshbutfair // you know it makes sense
[ Parent ]

: Defense contracts by creo (3.00 / 0) #4 Sat Sep 04, 2004 at 02:29:10 AM EST

maybe not, you would be in a better position to know than I. I was thinking more along the lines of government work which now requires a clearance due to the homeland security thing.
Our goverment work will be fair game though - good bye independent Aussie software business - not that there is that much from what I remember.
Anyway, by the time I am home I expect to be out of the game. I'm going to become a dirty, stinky free software hippy. Although I might have to delay growing my hair, as I have talked to some people and it looks like I might be able to pull off my Nirvana, which was work in Aus from home, but get paid offshore in GBP. Time will tell if I can swing it.
Good luck with your house negotiations - it sounds like you have been canny with your groundwork - ours was just pure arse luck - and hitting it off with the vendors.
Cheers
Creo.

"I shall do what I believe to be right and honourable" - Guderian
[ Parent ]

Not as such by Rogerborg (3.00 / 0) #2 Wed Sep 01, 2004 at 10:04:19 PM EST

But only because we buy all of our press coverage.

-
Metus amatores matrum compescit, non clementia.

Notes from Nazi Germany | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback