London Heathrow, Terminal 3. The most miserable airport in Europe.

I applied for a 417 Working Holiday Visa on the 5th of July, and as far as I can tell that application remains untouched to this very day. 100% decision ready, proper passport scans and everything; all a visa officer would have to do is click on "grant".

I kinda understand that my application couldn't be automatically granted because I've been to Australia on a different visa in the past and they have to compare details and such, fair enough but that shouldn't take over a month in my opinion.

So I filled out a convoluted form asking what the hell is going on about 2 weeks ago. No reply, not even an automated one.

So I called the Department of Home Affairs directly and the operator was actually pretty helpful; asked me about my passport number and said he attached some sort of flag to my application to maybe get things moving. Great, finally something.

It's now a week after that and my visa still hasn't been granted. So I called again just to verify that the flag has been set and this time the operator couldn't tell me anything, he seemed more like he wanted rid of me as fast as possible.

I heard that the processing of 417 visas has been slowed down recently (long after I applied mind you) and that applications from 24 countries (not including Germany) have been paused, I suspect they altered the scripts afterwards.

I've also heard of other applicants from Germany who applied at the end of July and have their grant already, so what gives?

Am I just impatient? I made it clear every time that I was planning to move in September but that didn't make a difference, maybe predictably. I'm kinda starting to go crazy.

Edit August 26th: Still waiting. I lodged another complaint, this time with the Ombudsman after getting a boilerplate response from the GFU. This is getting ridiculous.

A bit of background first; I'm moving to Australia this September and have already started sending out job applications.

I sent out my first 4 applications last week (kinda low, but it's tricky to find suitable roles) and got my first rejection letter yesterday. No big deal, but I know that it'll bother me for the next while.

Why did they reject me? Did my application even get past AI screening? Questions that aren't even worth thinking about normally but I'm not really normal I guess.

macOS recently introduced the ability to limit your battery to only charge up to 80%, a feature that I personally appreciate as I'm mostly using my MacBook plugged into a dock and it's arguably a great way to limit the ageing of the unit.

There's just one huge problem. Well, two actually. Firstly it doesn't allow me to set a minimum charge ("start charging when battery is at X%"), so when it falls to 79% it just tops it back up to 80, not a big deal but slightly annoying. The much bigger issue is that the charge limit apparently isn't being saved to the battery firmware itself so when the MacBook is turned off and plugged into my dock it just keeps on charging to 100%...

Similar issue with my Pixel 9 Pro, it normally sticks to the charge limit quite well, but multiple times a month I'd say it just randomly charges to 100% regardless. Apparently that's to calibrate the battery or something? As far as I know you have to do a complete cycle to calibrate a battery which 80% to 100% isn't, also I don't think a Li-ion battery needs to be calibrated this often, does it?

To contrast, KDE Plasma retains the limit at all times, lets you set a minimum amount and actually tells the battery to always stop charging at that amount.

Am I just not getting something about this?

Some of you might remember the T540p I got for free from work a couple of years back - after its mainboard died I rebuilt my older personal T540p with the the remaining good components and a donor W541 I bought on eBay.

I'm quite pleased with the result. Its revised specs are: i7 4930MX, Quadro K2100M, 32GB DDR3L RAM, AUO B156HAN01.2, an HP Blu-Ray drive and an Intel AX210 WIFI card.

And a few stickers obviously.

I plan on moving from Germany to Australia in September.

So far I've been doing ok with the planning but I was wondering if there were any specific groups or forums for people like me/expats in Australia with tips and connections that could be useful to me. I already looked at a bunch of forums and it seems that at least the German language ones are largely inactive.

Looks more like a cove imo

Near West Head, Sydney. Sorry for the crappy photo, I had to zoom in quite a bit.

Super cool location, felt pretty unreal actually being there... shame you can't go inside any more

Edit: Seems like they made a new website for it! I hope they can turn it around somehow

Before you say something, I am aware now that cashew nuts aren't that good for them (too fatty) and that you probably shouldn't feed them at all.

I went to the Lagoon that morning specifically to feed a cocky and I did... as well as about a dozen ducks. I'm sorry, I won't do it again.

Sat there for 20+ minutes just taking it all in

Saw some people posting random pictures lately, figured I might as well join in. This was near Wollundry Lagoon in Wagga

First of all, sorry if this really isn't the right spot for this but I figured that maybe some Aussies in here recognise it.

I've had this stuffed frilled-neck lizard since roughly 2006 when a family member brought it back from Australia for me, I know for sure that my brother had a stuffed dinosaur with a similar design on it. According to the tag it was hand made in Australia by "Kurrajong Aboriginal Products". A quick search brought me to a company with the same name that sells child education books and hand made dolls, so the connection is kinda there but I can't be sure; they don't sell stuffed animals (anymore). I'd really like to know if anyone has seen these or even has one.

Here's some pictures I took of it.

When I was in Australia myself a while ago I searched for similar things but couldn't find anything. Even the museum shops I went to only seemed to sell generic Chinese-made stuff, which really is a shame but anyway...

I just came back from a 6 week trip to Australia; spending time with my relatives (some of whom I've never met before or haven't seen in 20 years) and I had a really really really great time. Everyone was so welcoming and just appreciative; I was really overwhelmed by how amazing the whole experience was.

On my flight back I was crying the whole time; I never felt like that before and just couldn't handle my emotions (much to the dismay of the people sitting next to me). Most of all I just didn't wanna return to my dysfunctional family in Germany. It's been my goal to move to Australia for some time now but after this experience I'm determined to move as soon as possible. It's gonna take a lot of figuring stuff out and it won't be easy but I'll make it work.

Just wanted to get that out there I guess.

Edit: if someone happens to have a few tips and pointers for me regarding my plans they would be greatly appreciated

Does anyone know how to order or configure the P14s G5 AMD with a OLED display on the German Lenovo site?

The OLED display seems to be NA exclusive apart from a few overpriced offers from third party sites...