Matisyahu's Blog

"When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called 'the People's Stick'"

recent posts

  • Another chilly night.

    It’s a chilly night in the Hutt Valley – at the moment as I write this blog post the temperature is all the way down at 2°C and it may drop even lower but I’m lucky that I did the airing my house out during the day so when I came back after shopping I closed all the windows and put the heater back on to warm up the house. I have a feeling that the weather will probably be pretty cold for the next month or two and then as we get into October and November we’ll be moving into Spring and then when Christmas comes we’ll be enjoying summer – knowing my luck I’ll be complaining on my blog about how hot and uncomfortable it is.

    I mentioned how I had an extra duvet from Ikea that I didn’t need so I gave it to mum who has a king single at her place. She loved the flowers on it – it’ll look nice on the bed in the spare room as occasionally my niece stays over at mum’s place when my sister and her partner have got work or need to travel. The current order I made around a week ago will arrive on 1 August – I’ll wash the duvets before using them – I think it’ll really lift my room. I’m still having a look at some carpets for my bedroom along with the spare room and the hallway so that some colour can brighten the place up a bit.

    I’ve been having a look at some pants recently because I have some in my closet but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fit them because my thighs are too thick and the trousers are really made for someone like me. I think what I’ll end up doing is donating them along with the old duvet and sheets to the Salvation Army – I may not find them useful but I’m sure someone who is going through a tough time will find it useful. One thing I am happy about is the return of bagging trousers because I was unlucky enough to have lived through the whole skinny jeans trend and god knows it was a horrible so for someone like me whose body shape isn’t compatible with the whole idea of skinny jeans.

    Daily writing prompt
    What app eats up most of your screen time — and do you even feel bad about it?
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    The two main applications that come in around even is my web browser and the second being Reddit however if it is application sue over all then it is the music app since when I have my phone I’m mainly listening to music on it (via my headphones). I don’t feel bad about it because even though they’re the main two apps I still read through Reddit on my phone I prefer replying or making posts when I’m on my laptop or desktop because I find the touch screen keyboard prone to mistakes (I’m hoping that maybe iOS 27 will fix that up) I’m not a bg user. Most of the time when I’m bring my phone with me I am using it primarily as a music player.

    Fediverse reactions

  • A good day off.

    I woke up this morning after having a sleep in until 11am and I finally got myself motivated to do my washing and hang it out on the line. Most of the time when I do my washing I tend to leave it to the last minute then suddenly realise “oh, I better do my washing” resulting in a maze of clothes horses in my lounge room and the dehumidifier running to remove any dampness as the clothes dry inside. At the moment I’m airing out the room with all my windows open although I have the bedroom closed because it is pretty cold outside however once that is all aired out I’ll put my new sheets on the bed however hopefully next week the duvets from Ikea for my bed will arrive along with the new duvet inner.

    I had a quiet time at home today although tomorrow I’ll head out for a walk down the road but tonight I headed out after having dinner with mum to pick up some groceries. I have plenty of food in the pantry and the fridge however what I needed was some for the freezer because I always like to have some additional food in the freezer so if I get a bit peckish I can grab something out for dinner. When I was down at Woolworths I noticed that Waitoa had released some chicken nibbles – normally I would have to do a additional visit by stopping off at the local Pak ‘n Save to pick up the buffalo wings from Turks but it is good that I can now get everything at the same store.

  • End of the week.

    End of the week and the start of a new one. I have to admit, I am looking forward to going on a holiday in 4 months time and then over Christmas I’ll take off the week but I’ll return before New Years as I’d prefer keeping some annual leave up my sleeve in case I need to use it later. Next year will mark my 9 years working at the same company and I’ll be looking forward to my 10th anniversary. Hopefully next year things will get better economically but unfortunately as so long as the mad king is running the United States it won’t matter who is running New Zealand because the outcome is very much dictated by forces outside of the government’s control.

    Once again the ‘anti-woke’ whining on Twitter/X is shown up for the idiocy that it is – the right wing reactionary knuckle dragging grifters whining about Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has being smacked with a clue by four when the global box office sales came in at USD$257.8 million. Who would have thunk it, their incessant whining about ‘wokeness’ is confronted with the reality that normal people don’t care about their chronically online whinging and instead normal people just to the movies to enjoy a couple of hours worth of escapism from everyday life.

    The American technology world is once again getting all worked up over the latest LLM coming out of China and I personally find the whole situation rather entertaining to watch as the drama unfolds. One thing to keep in mind, as I’ve said in the past, China is decommodifying LLMs because ultimate the value isn’t the model itself but what is build upon it – AI models only have value because of what is built on top. I was watching a video from ‘Eli the Computer Guy’ and the best comparison he gave regarding the AI bubble would be if people got excited over the SMTP protocol. People don’t go out to buy the SMTP protocol, they buy mail server software that makes use of that protocol because the mail server software provides a solution to a real world problem.

    Unfortunately what we’re going through now was entirely predictable – almost 30 years of historically low interest rates has created a situation where wreckless investment is made because there is very little cost associated with taking on more and more debt. When there isn’t cost associated with debt then you end up creating an environment that incentivises decisions that otherwise wouldn’t have been made had there been a cost associated with taking on debt. This is the situation we’re in when it comes to New Zealand – the decision to loosen monetary policy 30 years ago by changing the inflation band from 0-2% to 0-3% was based on this idea that a loser monetary policy will allow lower interest rates so business could borrow and then expand their operations thus creating a virtuous cycle.

    The problem is that loosening the monetary policy is that money takes the path of least resistance which is to property and other forms of asset speculation. What it allowed is a the ability for some to borrow large amount of money and thus creating artificial demand to drive up the cost of housing then combine that with onerous zoning and regulation the net consequence is what we see today with houses costing 15-20 times the median wage. Cheap debt and restrictive supply has gotten us in the mess we see today but unfortunately I don’t see any politician willing to undo some of the bad policies of the past because to do that would require them to admit, either implicitly or explicitly, that they screwed up.

    Daily writing prompt
    What’s a movie or book that inspired you to travel?
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    There was a BBC television series called ‘Pole to Pole with Michael Palin’ which opened up my eyes to the world – at the time I was 11 years old and I had visited Australia, United States and Canada but I was too young to remember many of the specifics of the travel. I’m hoping that in the next few years I might do a bit more travel but at the moment the world is a bit chaotic so I’m deciding to stay closer to home – travel around New Zealand because there are plenty of parts of the country I’ve never visited and it would be nice if for no other reason than to say “yes, I’ve been there”.

    Fediverse reactions

  • One more day to go.

    One more day to go and I’m finished for the week. Today was pretty busy but because we’ve been able to keep up with the work over the past few days. Finished tonight at 10pm and I walked down to the service station to pick up a couple of sandwiches for a snack. There is going to be a McDonalds opening within walking distance but to be honest I’d sooner have a decent sandwich because I know after eating it I won’t feel horrible afterwards – I just find that greasy and oily foods don’t sit right with me so I’d sooner have a sandwich instead.

    Chrome 151 looks like it’ll be released in the next couple of weeks and it includes quite a few platform improvements (link). There has been much talk about software companies like Google and Microsoft replacing parts of their code base with code written in Rust and with Chrome 151 Google is intrpducing ‘XML parsing in Rust for non XSLT scenarios’ and based on the notes it appears that the long term product is to eventually have parser written in Rust to handle XSLT some time in the future. I’m assuming that what Google is doing is similar to what Microsoft has done which is to analyse their code base and deciding the components that will gain the most from being moved to Rust and in the case of Microsoft they started off by rewriting GDI regions using Rust but I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up seeing further work being done in the future.

    Daily writing prompt
    What’s a promise you made to yourself that you’ve actually kept?
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    That when I get older I wouldn’t become conservative, close minded and only focused on things that that directly impact me. All too often I see people that as they get older they’re either concerned only with what impacts them or become bitter and twisted because they’re unable to accept the fact that the world is changing and that maybe they should try to understand the world rather than getting angry about it.

    Fediverse reactions

  • The house is starting to come together.

    The duvet cover that I washed was dry by night time tonight so I put it all together with the duvet and made the bed in the spare room:

    The duvet adds some colour to the room which goes well with the pillows and cushions that I’ve put behind the pillows. I’m currently having a look at getting an art print off All Posters however they no longer deliver to New Zealand so I’ll need to see whether the dimensions of the tube the poster comes in will be ok for YouShop to repost it to New Zealand. The print I am looking at is a Henri Rousseau “Surprised!” given that I can get it in a size similar to the Rene Magritte print that I have in my lounge room on the way.

    Google has pushed out another update for Chrome which upped the version from 150.0.7871.125 to 150.0.7871.129 – I haven’t noticed any difference but over the last two releases there have been 22 security bugs that have been fixed. I’ve also given the beta version of AdGuard a try but it still lags behind uBlock Origin Lite when it comes to properly blocking ads, annoyances and deceptive popups. On Safari however uBlock Origin lite still lags behind the experience that is provided on Chrome and I think that has partly to do with the fact that Chrome provides functionality that isn’t universally adopted by all browsers.

    Tonight I watched Silo Season 3, Episode 3, A Dark Web – it was a good episode although it did finish the episode on a cliffhanger. I do like how there are flashes abck to the past and I think that as the season developers that we’ll see a greater insight into the rules, protocols and the reasoning behind the design of the silos. Although it would be nice if the whole season was dumped in one go so then it would be possible to binge watch, I like the idea of the episodes being released each week so there is the excitement of waiting for the next release.

    Daily writing prompt
    What is the best purchase you have ever made?
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    The recent purchase of the two Baccarat Le Connoisseur Round French Ovens (a big one and a small one) which replaces my mess of pots and pans. The great thing with the cast iron Baccarat Le Connoisseur Round French Ovens is how consistent it conducts the heat where as the pots I had before would have hot spots, things could easily stick to the pot even on the lowest temperatures. For me when I cook bolognese I prefer to cook it low and slow – cook the onions and mushrooms in garlic and chilli butter, par-cook the meat and then add the bolognese sauce (wash the jar out with water), canned cherry tomatoes and some extra tomato paste. When you look at it you’ll wonder whether you’ve put too much liquid but this is an example of ‘trust the process’ because when you cook it low and slow the water will slowly evaporate, the meat will take on the taste of the ingredients so then by the time it is ready the bolognese will be thick and rich.

    Fediverse reactions

  • Productive day, cold evening.

    It was a busy day today but productive – it is good when you have had a busy day but at the end of it you can look back and see it was productive rather mindless monotony. I had dinner tonight – homemade tacos with plenty of salad and I’ve been watching the final episode of Fallout of season 2. While watching I checked to see what the weather is like and at the moment where I am the temperature outside is 4°C however when I went out there around 1/2 hour ago it felt a lot colder than that which is probably due to the fact that where I live is in a valley.

    The productive day isn’t just limited to work but also includes finally cleaning out the shed of all the old rubbish – a fibreboard bookshelf I broke down and threw out with the recent rubbish pick up, the rusty mental trolly mum picked up tonight and she’ll throw it on her trailer so I can be taken to the dump. Then there was the rubbish in the white white container with wheels and I threw that out then put all the tins of pant in white container with wheels which has finally got the shed organised. I’ve got one more thing to do which is to sort out the shed door so then I can close it up. I think maybe long term I’ll need to buy a better quality one because then I can use it for additional storage but if I do it’ll at the point i have enough money where I can get one with a proper floor and is weatherproof.

    The order from Ikea arrived today and I’ve washed the queen sized duvet cover and once that has dried I’ll put the duvet inside it and then setup my spare bed. The second duvet cover is a king single and I’ll wash that but I may end up giving that to mum since she has a king single at her home where my niece stays when my sister or her partner is having to travel and mum baby sits. The second delivery is due at the beginning of August and when I receive it I’ll give those duvet covers a wash as well then fold them up and put them away. I guess it is a bit of a habit of mine that I wash things before using them – shirts, jumpers, sheets, duvet covers etc. they all get washed.

    Daily writing prompt
    If you could erase one trend from history, what would it be?
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    The one trend I could erase from history would be online influencers. When I got onto the internet there wasn’t the influencer culture like we see today. Were there people who uploaded videos to YouTube so they could share a hobby, a point of view or a tutorial on how to do something? sure but there wasn’t that influencer culture that leads to the development a parasocial relationship between the influencer and their audience. Influencer culture has created a culture online of incinerity and inauthenticity as content creators turne dinto influencers who are more interested in riding the algorithm rather than creating content because it is a genuine interest of theirs.

    Fediverse reactions

  • A good first day back at home.

    I decided that combining two lifestyle changes into a single week would be a bit difficult so my focus this week is getting my diet back on track and go for a walk after work. The first day of the week and my goal is to get through the week and then focus on the next week – taking the process one week at a time, one day at a time so then I don’t feel overwhelmed with the change. After I get that nailed down after a month then I’ll make a change to when i get up but not before I feel comfortable with my meal routine.

    It’s that time again and Google has released an update to Chrome which bumped the version number from 150.0.7871.115 to 150.0.7871.125 (link) and uBlock Origin Lite 2026.714.1952 was released shortly after 2026.713.1408 appeared on the Chrome store. Everything is going well and I haven’t noticed any regressions. I did check tonight whether Technology Preview 248 had been released but I don’t see anything on the website but that being said the release normally comes every two weeks but on occasion it can come out a few days later – I assume because of a last minute show stopper bug they found that needed fixing.

    I’m still having a look at getting a woollen cardigan because the last time I was able to find one it was around 20 years ago when I was living in Australia and I picked it up from Esprit – zip at the front although I am not fussy because I’d be perfectly fine with a button up front. I’ve checked out Swanndri however the one that I want is either not in the size I want or it is completely out of stock. I’ll continue having a look but I’m under not pressure because I’ve got a good selection of zip up hoodies I can wear in the meantime.

    Daily writing prompt
    Do you think we’re shaped more by our experiences or by who we are?
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    I think we’re shaped by a combination of birth nature as well as nurture – our nature gives us the raw materials but how those raw materials are utilised is very much up to how we are raised. With that being said there are things that are outside of our control for example if someone is born with foetal alcohol syndrome then that will have an impact a person’s life even if they’re raised in the most ideal environment.

    Fediverse reactions

  • Back to work on Wednesday.

    I had a great day to day – just lazing around the house, doing the usual chores, put the wheelie bins out for pick up on Wednesday and enjoyed a vegetarian Mexican chilli with some buttered toast. The weather was looking good tonight so I decided that if I am going to get back into the routine of going for a walk each day then this would be the time to do it. The walk was 11km and I cam back feeling really good but my legs were a little sore but not as bad as I would have expected having not done any exercise for almost 2-3 weeks. After I cooled down I jumped into the shower and relaxed as I took some mental notes such as changing my alarm to 9:30am so then I can get back into the routine of walking each day. I’ve decided what I’ll do is go for an 11km walk each day and even on wet days I’l still get up at 9:30am so then I keep in that routine – I find that if you break a routine it is difficult to get back into one vs just keeping the same routine every day so then your body gets used to it.

    uBlock Origin Lite 2026.713.1408 has been released – the update has now been made available on MIcrosoft Edge store and Apple store but it is waiting for approval for the Chrome store. I’m looking forward to the release of Chrome 152 and the inclusion of ‘IndexedDB: SQLite backend’ which should improve the speed and reliability of web app that use it such as Gmail and other Google apps. Apple has released the public beta of version 27 of their platforms but I’m going to hold out until the official release which will probably be around the end of September or early October but keeping in mind that it depends on how well macOS 27 progresses (iOS 27 is on a tighter schedule because it has to be finalised and ready for the launch of the next iPhone and if there is an Apple TV 4K refresh and HomePod then it’ll also mean those platforms will have to be ready.

    Daily writing prompt
    What’s a piece of technology you’re convinced will exist in 20 years?
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    This isn’t a wild prediction but I think we’ll see better and cheaper batteries which will allow cars with ranges of over 1000km, trucks with a range equal to that, a more extensive use of batteries when it comes to the train network which will avoid the need for costly electrification projects and we’ll see more renewables with a lot more battery capacity which will avoid the need for peaker plants completely.

    The other piece of technology would be the rise in generation 4 nuclear reactors. Fusion energy is still a long way away given the challenges that it faces. I believe that generation 4 nuclear reactors will start to be phased in as the need to address climate change will overcome any sort of lingering anti-nuclear remnants in society once people realise that generation 4 nuclear reactors are poles apart from previous generations.

    Fediverse reactions

  • A good start to the weekend.

    I had a good sleep in today and when I woke up I found the weather was once again pretty foul weather with it being grey and overcast. I checked my Ikea order out of curiosity and it appears that I had screwed up my order but thankfully I was able to get get the incorrect stuff cancelled and that is on the way and I’ve placed a new order with the correct selection. Truth be known, if I ended up getting it then the worse case scenario is tha tI would have donated my old stuff, ordered the correct stuff I wanted and the world would have moved on without too much drama.

    uBlock Origin Lite 2026.711.25 is now available in the Chrome extensions store and I got it quickly installed. There has been an improvement in terms of popup blocking however it hasn’t been an exhaustive testing but so far I haven’t noticed any regressions. I sometimes wonder with how neglected extension support on Safari is that maybe Apple should just throw in the towel and embrace Chrome to avoid lagging behind not just web standards but also extension support.

    I guess this is one of the reasons why when I go to Australia in November that I may end up looking at getting an Pixel 11 XL Pro and a Google Watch – preferably from JB Hi-Fi so then I can still get warranty support when I come back to New Zealand. One thing to keep in mind, by the time I go over there I’ll get to see how version 27 of Apple’s platforms turn out and what a refreshed HomePod and Apple TV 4K also turn out like. It is rather unfortunately that the iCloud Business requires you to be an offically a registered business rather than just a matter of setting up an account like you can with Google Workspace.

    I’m gradually working through the last two episodes of season 2 and I’m looking forward to the next episode of Silo being made available. There are a few other shows such as Foundation, The Last of Us, Severance, Paradise and a few others that will be making a return although it is kind of sad that there have been some that won’t make a return – Beacon 23, Constellation along with Colony. The last one, Colony, being exceptionally annoying because just at the last season we (the audience) were just starting to find out what the larger ‘grand plan’ the aliens had for humanity.

  • The end of another week.

    Woke up this morning and had my usual breakfast – almost finished my second container of yoghurt but now that I know what a good combination of the chia seed pudding with the yoghurt is for breakfast. I did order some groceries online tonight because I really wanted a roast lamb dinner with roast vegetables but I hadn’t organised myself on my day off at the beginning of the week when I was doing my shopping. Tomorrow I’ll head down to the supermarket during the day and buy some extra yoghurt plus a few other bits and pieces that I forgot about ordering which should mean I am all good for the week.

    My original post on BlueSky regarding ‘financial innovation’ came as a result of watching the following video:

    I’m always reminded of when I see something needlessly more complicated than what required to get the job done that more often than not it points to something dodgy that is going on. There was a recent property developer had their business collapse in New Zealand where the owners owned multiple businesses and money being shuffled between these different business entities. For me. when I see something like that it looks to me as something that is very messy, very untidy and it tells me just from that alone that something not quite kosher is taking place. A person running honest business doesn’t need to set up multiple registered businesses – the corporate structure would simple and straightforward, accountability for who owns what, who is responsible for what would be transparent and wouldn’t require an army of lawyers and accounts to untangle the mess when it all goes belly up.

    This where I come to the whole AI bubble which has all the tell tale signs of something not quite kosher with businesses once again creating holding companies, moving money between entities, recording revenue from those transfers when in reality it is little more than circle financing. This whole situation reminds me of the Three Stooges comedy routine of circulating the same note to each other. When all this goes to hell in a handbasket we’ll have another enquiry into the mess, none of the people involved will be held accountable (see the global financial crisis as an example of no one being held accountable) the the usual suspects in politics and the media will claim that ‘no one could have seen this coming’ even though there were many people who were sounding the alarm but were being ignored.

    I’m a great believer in the KISS principle, Keep It Simple Stupid, don’t make things more complex than they need to be. Whenever I see something that is needlessly more complex then it tells me one of two things – those involved have more money than what they know what to do with so they create an over engineered solution. The other explanation is that they’re making it overly complex as a form of obfuscation in an attempt to hide the fact that what they’re doing isn’t above board but they want to hide it under a layer of jargon and complexity so most people give up and not ask questions.

    Daily writing prompt
    Are you a lifelong learner?
    View all responses

    As someone who is interested in understanding how the world works I am always keen to acquire more knowledge across many different disciplines because there isn’t one discipline that explains it all. When I look at the world from a materialist perspective I am asking myself how material reality shapes one’s world view – that includes one’s class, culture, economic circumstances, whether one is raised in a monoculture or community with many cultures that are integrated together rather than being siloed off from each other etc.

    As frustrating as things can get I always keep reminding myself that people don’t just act in random ways, that there is a material explanation for why people behave in a certain way. The benefit of spending time, across multiple disciplines, is being able to understand how people tick which alleviates some of the frustration when understand why a person behaves in seemingly irrational ways. The other benefit is that immunises oneself from the sort of conspiracy theories and scapegoating that politicians and influencers love to use as a distraction from the fact that they don’t have any real answers to the problems the voters are facing in their lives.

    Fediverse reactions