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'"

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  • A relaxing first day of the weekend.

    Had a wonderful dinner with mum and I updated her computers – she has a Chromebook and a Windows 11 PC (Beelink SER9 Pro AMD Ryzen™ AI 9 HX 370) with both of them working really reliably. It’ll be interesting to see how things improve with the Windows 11 K2 project because there are a few people I follow on YouTube who give an overview of changes when Microsoft release insider previews of the next release of Windows.

    It reminds me of an article I saw on Reddit entitled “Former Microsoft VP says Microsoft missed the AI wave like the internet and mobile, as Copilot scales back in Windows 11” (link). In response to the article I have to vent the following, how can you ‘miss the wave’ for a feature that most people don’t give a flying continental about. What is it with technology people from silicon valley who are addicted to the smell of each others farts to the point that they’re that out of touch regarding what normal people use technology for. The biggest winner out of all this has been Apple who decided that digging a big hole in the ground, filling it up with hundreds of billions of dollars, dousing it in petrol then setting a lighter to it was maybe a bad idea. The second winner in all this was Google who did the initial research into generative pre-trained transformers but decided to let someone else burn billions before seeing whether it was worth turning from something that is theoretical into something useful.

    All Microsoft ended up doing with their fixation over AI was to set billions alight, two major companies who are producing no profit and no change of it happening in the foreseeable future that are dependent on the circle financing. All this idiocy because Microsoft missed the first few waves and now they’re convinced that this was the wave they had to jump onboard or otherwise they would find themselves behind the 8th ball. The reality is that LLMs have a usefulness but it won’t get us to AGI and what use LLMs have will be where the human is still having the final say – it won’t make workers obsolete but it may make them more productive. The big question should be whether it makes sense spending billions building data centres where there is plenty of work being done to shrink the models down to the point that locally run models are good enough for what most people need them for without having to build a monstrous data centre to get fairly mediocre results given how much resources are being expended when processing requests.

    On a good side the new cushions arrived and I’ve moved the extra cushions on the spare bed in the office:

    On Tuesday I’ll be heading down the road to pick up some slippers because at the moment I am wearing socks around the house but the problem is that it wears out the socks where as I’d sooner have a pair of slippers that can keep my feet warm when working from home or just relaxing on the sofa watching television. While I’m down there I’ll have a look at some music, grab a coffee and then walk back home – getting in some exercise during the day.

  • Monday, start of the weekend.

    Woke up this morning at 9:30am after a good night sleep – I didn’t feel like going for a walk straight away but what I did aim for is to stick to getting up at a consistent time in the morning (I’m hoping that if do it consistently for a month that it’ll become a habit that I do automatically without having to think about it). I got out of bed, checked out some news on YouTube and then got ready to head down to my local bakery/cafe for brunch – eggs bene with salmon and have that accompanied with a side of wilted spinach and sauteed mushrooms on the side. While I was there I picked up a few sweet treats and then walked home – a small 3km walk but I’ll probably go for a longer walk tonight after having dinner at mum’s place.

    The new cushions have arrived and they look quite nice, I’ll take a photo later on but they’re looking good and the extra cushions I’ve put on the spare bed in the office. When I get back from mum’s after having dinner I’ll have a look at Target Furniture because I’ve seen some ideas in how I can take care of the extra clothes I’ve got.

  • End of another week, beginning of a new one.

    Woke up this morning and I feel really good knowing it is the end of the week, a couple of weeks away from my birthday with 4 days off and then after that I’ve got a week off so I can follow along with the WWDC conference. The big question with the WWDC conference is whether I stay up and then watch it or do I go to bed early then wake up early so I can watch it – I think this year I’m going to go to bed early because the problem is that if you stay up until 5am NZ Time then by the time you get half way through the broadcast you’re half asleep and end up missing so much of the details.

    I checked to see whether the latest version of uBlock Origin Lite had hit the Chrome Webstore but to my surprise there was another release made available on Github which is version 2026.516.1652. What has gotten me excited has been the migration of popup blocking out of experimental status into mainstream availability. I’m looking forward to giving it a try once it is available on the Webstore. I’m wondering whether they’ll skip the release of 2026.510.1607 and jump straight to 2026.516.1652 instead.

    On Monday I’ve got the 4 cushions being delivered along with the groceries I ordered online which will also be delivered in the morning. I’ve got the alarm set so I’ll wake up at 9:30am but probably head for a walk at around 10:30-11:00 then afterwards I’ll pop down to the local bakery for some egss bene and grab few sweet treats while I’m down there. I’ll probably also do some checking out of the Target Furniture – I’m 90% sure I know what I want but I’m going to have a sleep on it before making a final decision.

  • End of another week.

    Woke up this morning and went for my walk and having realised how quickly the temperature has dropped at night I am happy that I am going for a walk during the day because at the time of writing my blog it has dropped down to 7°C outside. I’m going to hold off from turning on the heater for as long as i can as I would sooner avoid getting hit with a high power bill when I’m not even in the goest part of winter which covers June, July and August where the lows can get down as low as 0.7°C based on the historical data that can be found on the Metservice website.

    On Monday the cushions I ordered will arrive which will bring the lounge room toegther although I am still looking at a few other things at Target Furniture – a more comfortable chair for my desk in the lounge room, a tall boy for the share room and I’m also looking at some throw rugs to put over the sofa to make the experience a little more cosy. I’m going to also head down to the local ahrdware store to check out a few more things that I’ve been putting off – keeping busy on my day off feels good knowing I’m finally getting to the list of things I’ve been putting off for a long time.

  • Feels good working from home.

    Woke up this morning, did the usual thing I’ve been talking about about for the last couple of days then arrived home, had a quick breakfast, had a shower then got myself ready for a day of work. Just after I started I ended up getting a knock at the door by the courier delivering the first lot of the cushions I ordered. I unpacked them all, put them on my sofa and then gave them a test try relaxing on my sofa – very comfortable however I underestimated how big the pillows are but none the less they look pretty good (I’ve gor another 4 cushions of a different style so I’ll mix and match them on the sofa then put the couple of the surplus cushions on the spare bed in the office).

    I was watching a video over on YouTube and there were some interesting points being made regarding how liberals and leftists need to step up to meet the moment instead of sitting around navel gazing and fixating over decorum policing or pearl clutching because some liberal or leftist has a hot take on their live stream.

    I think the risk isn’t that a corporate Democrat will win the nomination using progressive language and gesturing but rather I think after having dealt with Trump for the four years that the base of the Democratic Party decide to play it safe and go with a candidate they believe will win – to limit ones horizons and play it safe. The problem with playing it safe is that if, after the chaos of Trump, the best you can offer is mediocrity then you run the risk that people will simply not turn out to vote because you haven’t offered them anything to motivate them to the voting booth.

    I’ve made my shopping order for delivery on Monday and took advantage of the $30 voucher I had which allowed me to get what I needed. It’ll get delivered on Monday either after I leave for my exercise or before but either what I’ll have what I need for the coming week. I’ve had a look at targer furniture for a few items to complete the setup on the lounge – I’m looking for a new more comfortable seat I can use at my desk along with a tallboy for the spare room although I’m still working out the measurements since I’ll be moving the bookshelf in the office into the lounge room and then have the tallboy where the bookshelf.

  • Working from home for the next three days.

    I woke up this morning, went for my 8km walk, had a shower then headed off to work – I decided to treat myself to a mexican black bean wrap for breakfast along with a flat white before work. Work today was rather uneventful and i was looking forward to getting it all finished and heading home for the day. I jumped onto the 10:35pm train home and got home at around 11:00pm and I grabbed something light for dinner before jumping into bed. On the way home i had a look out the train window and see how the path between Petone and Ngauranga has progressed – it’ll be enjoyable on a nice day being able to ride into Wellington or if you’re adventurous you can walk in althouh it is a good 15-17km walk.

    I was hoping that the uBlock Origin Lite 2026.510.1607 would be made available but unfortunately as of writing this blog post it appears that Google haven’t approved it yet. It is kind of frustrating given that Google insisted that with MV3 everything has to be bundled with the extension and external sources couldn’t be relied on in the case of MV2 extensions where it was possible to update the filters from external sources meaning the filters couldn’t be updated outside of the release schedule. I understand that the change was done for security reasons but it would be nice if there was the ability to update filters outside of releases as an opt-in feature so those who know what they’re doing can have some degree of flexibility.

    In terms of the cushions I’ve ordered, it appears that one lot will arrive tomorrow however the second lot will arrive next week on Monday. I’m looking forward to having some cushions on my sofa becaue at the moment it isn’t all that cosy particularly when I want to relax and watch some television. There are a few other things I want organise but i’m gradually getting there as I’ve kind of put off adding some finishing touches to my place – I’m tempted to maybe get a few house plants, maybe even look at carpet for my bedroom to add a bit of colour, potentially an art print or two.

    Daily writing prompt
    What’s a simple pleasure in life that brings you joy?
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    Going for a long walk along the water front – I’m looking forward to the new path that’ll be opened on Saturday between Petone and Ngauranga. As much as I moan about the cold weather during winter the reality is that the winter in New Zealand is pretty temperate especially in Wellington where most of the time it never gets down to to the low single digits and in the whole time I’ve lived here we’ve only had snow once and even that ws pretty a light coverage although it did get below 0°C.

  • Start of a new week.

    Woke up this morning at 9:30am, headed out the door at 10am and went for my 8km walk – it felt good getting back into a routine again. I arrived back home and jumped onto my computer to see whether Google had release a Chrome update which they had – upgrading it from 148.0.7778.97 to 148.0.7778.168 (link) and as of the time of writing this blog Google haven’t released what security fixes they have made but given the jump from x.97 to x.168 it makes me wonder whether we’ll see a big lot of fixes like what we saw when the upgrade from 147 to 148 was released last week which included quite a number of critical fixes.

    Google has had their I/O Keynote today and there were some interesting announcements with a lot of focus on AI. The Googlebook being geared up as a replacement to Chrome OS (it’ll be interesting to see whether we’ll see mini PCs with Qualcomm SoCs running the new operating system) but details are scarce regarding things such as whether Chrome for Android will include extension support. I’m going to assume that it will include extension support given the number of enterprise customers I know of that make use of Chrome OS desktop mini PCs and have extensions as part of their work flow. As I’ve noted in a past post there was an announcement in changes coming to Chrome for Android such as ‘SharedWorker on Android’ and other functionality that MV3 extensions make use of. Given that it is also available in the WebView itself given that third party browsers that use the system WebView provide extension support then I guess it is just a matter of Google enabling it.

    When it comes to Android and the use of AI, thank god Google is actually showing how AI can be used for something useful other than aimlessly wasting electricity on a sycophantic chat bot. What has been showed off were things like how AI can improve AI auto-fill which is particularly useful when it comes to filing in forms where the website isn’t perfectly aligned with form details that are saved in the browser. I would also hazard to guess that the AI being used to improve auto-fill should also help when it comes to password management and filling in details when logging in through an app on your phone – all too often I see the password manager struggle to match up my login details to the app that I’m trying to login with thus requiring to open up the password manager to them manually copy and paste the details across. As I’ve said in the past, people don’t care about AI for AI sake but rather what it enables – if it means that their voice activated control works better than that is a win for the consumer.

    On a side note, I’ve been reading articles and watching YouTube videos of people complaining about the Pixel 11 and how G6 SoC won’t be some sort of earth shattering revolution. The simple fact of the matter is that for the average consumer they want a phone that is responsive, a reliable network connection, good battery life and a great screen – the average person doesn’t sit around running benchmarks all day and then spending time debating on Reddit over whose phone is faster. Once again you have people who have their head firmly planted up their backside as they ignore what the average person actually wants and/or needs. I can understand people have opinions but the way in which too many talk online about things make it sound as though they’re making objective statements of fact when reality it is just an opinion based on what their own needs are.

  • An early night in bed, ready for a new week.

    I’ve had a productive day to day in finally getting a list of jobs done that I’ve been procrastinating over for quite some time. The first thing did was head down to mall to pick some long sleeve shirts and a pair of trousers – all the trousers I have so far are either grey, blue or black but only one pair that is brown so I felt as though I needed to add some variety to the wardrobe. While I was down there I also picked up some dishwashing liquid that I forgot to pick up on Monday when I went shopping and I then went up to ‘The Warehouse’ to pick up coat/hat rack and some clothes hangers as well. I’ve installed the coat/hat rid on the back of the front door that I never use (I use the door at the front of the house that goes through the kitchen rather than on the side of the house).

    After getting that all sorted I think worked on cleaning out all the draws in my desk and bedside table along with the cupboard about the fridge which has become a bit of a mess – a dumping ground akin to the tupperware draw where you throw things in and hope for the best. Why did I do it? because I had a whole lot of energy that I needed to put to some good use so while I’ve got it I might as well get all the things I’ve been putting for ages While I was at home watching some YouTube on the television I visited the KMart online to see what cushions they have available and just my luck I found exactly what I wanted so I ordered them – 8 x 50cm Stripe Cushion (Sage) 4 x Diagonal Stripe Cushion (Sage). Hopefully they’ll be arriving by the end of the week which will finally in having a lounge room that is a bit more cosy that at the moment. Once they have arrived I’ll them them setup on the sofa and take a photo.

  • Some big updates released.

    Woke up this morning, grabbed a quick breakfast and then checked for updates on my various devices. Samsung released another updated for April – I was hoping it would be their May monthly release but that is apparently still in the works but then again we may not see it until closed to the late half of this month. The update was 756.98MB – it looks like it is a general bug fix and security fixes, it is probably the the same one mentioned previously how Samsung release two updates in a month with some countries receiving it before New Zealand but then again they do a progressive roll out to avoid going all in then finding something breaks somewhere in the world.

    Apple released the 26.5 update this morning and there were a tonne of security fixes with two of them being picked up with the help of Claude (link). On my two Macs the firmware has been updated from 18000.101.7 to 18000.120.36, on the iPhone the modem was updated from 1.55.04 to 1.60.02. I have noticed that on both devices it is a lot more responsive – the user interface is fast and fluide particularly when minimising and restoring, user interface elements appear rather than stutter or delay, even the unlock screen on my iPhone is responsive from the moment the screen displays is turned on where as in the past I would find that there is a delay between the screen turning on and the phone ready to allow me to type in my PIN.

    On macOS I have found that even third apps are working smoother – I prefer using Chrome because, for better or worse, it has pretty much become the defacto standard that developers test their website against. Interesting enough I notice under ‘Autofill and passwords’ they’ve modified the layout of it so that more details are given on the page rather than having to navigate into various options to find the right one. The one thing I cannot work out is why ASB Bank uses the incorrect credit card image for their Google Pay given that Westpac and BNZ appear to be able to use the correct one. The image on Google Pay comes up with an image of an ASB Rewards card when it is actually an ASB Lite card. It doesn’t effect the ability to make purchases but I guess it could cause a problem if a person has multiple credit cards – for example, a personal one which is their ASB Lite and a business one which is a ASB Rewards based card, and the person making the purchasing wanting to ensure that a business purchase goes on the business card and personal purchases go on the personal card.

  • A productive day off from work.

    Woke up this morning, had some breakfast then I walked down to the Petone mail centre to pick up my passport. I had organised a replacement because it expired at the beginning of this year so I was surprised when on Friday last week there was a ‘card to collect’ left by the courier because most of the time I expect a passport replacement to take a few weeks. I headed down to the mail centre with my drivers licence for identity verification and picked it up . On a good side the day was wonderful, lots of fresh air walking along the Petone waterfront with the total clocking in at 10km.

    While I was down at Peton I picked up some drink coasters and placemats – I have these glass drink coasters but they’re not very robust, slippery and one of them broke. The new ones I picked up from Briscoes are made from bamboo and come in some bright colours which standout which brings a bit of colour to where I have them (my office, computer in the lounge room and on the coffee table in the lounge room). While I was down there I picked up some lunch at the local bakery then jumped on a bus home . Once home I got in contact with mum to find out what time we were meeting up for dinner and then had a shower.

    For dinner we ordered a meal from ‘Noodle Canteen’ and this time I got some extra vegetables in my stir fry because, to quote what the kids are saying these days, I’m ‘vegemaxxing’ – with any luck the fact that an older millennial using such a term will instantly make it cringe and it’ll disappear from the modern lexicon. I also picked up some groceries – Woolworths has a special on at the moment which resulted me being able to pick up $30 worth of vouchers that I’ll use next time I do some grocery shopping.

    On Tuesday I’m going to head down to the mall to check out a few things and I’m also going to have a look at some clothes storage as well – I’ve kind of procrastinated about it so I think I am going to take the plunge. At the moment I don’t have enough space in my current tall boy so I’ve got to put the hoodies in the wardrobe but the problem with that is now that is being used up to the point i have to use the wardrobe in my office rather than having everything together (although the second tallboy will be in the second room it will free up space to move everything to a single wardrobe).