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

  • Pondering.

    I woke up on Friday at 10:45am, left home for an 8km walk and arrived back home – absolutely drenched in sweat resulting in me having to have to have a shower. Normally after going for a walk I don’t feel yucky so I just start work, go for my after the work walk and then having a shower before going to bed. Work today was a bit ‘meh’ – at that point in the week where I just want to veg out and not have to deal with the world which probably explains why I like watching videos about log cabins and living off the land where I don’t have to deal with grown adults who can’t seem to take care of themselves.

    On Monday next week I’ll be picking up my new 65″ Samsung television (my sister is helping me pick it up since I don’t have a vehicle to pick it up in) but before I hook up my Apple TV device I’m going to setup the One UI based system along with upgrading it to the latest version. I want to see how it integrates into the Samsung ecosystem and how that ecosystem compares to the Apple ecosystem. I’m still making a decision regarding a smart watch but I’m cautious primarily because if I do buy one I want to make sure I get the most of out of it rather than it being a cool gizmo that in a few months end up in the beside table draw.

    On Saturday I’m going to get up, go for my daily walk and squeeze in one after work just to try and get as much exercise in before the rain that is scheduled for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and possibly Wednesday. I’m getting used to the cross trainer hiking shoes but so far they’ve been comfortable although the sole isn’t as flexible – the feeling is quite flag but that is probably probably the result of the lack of memory foam that the come with my old running shoes. On Monday I may end up just buying a new pair of shoes since I’ll be heading down to same area to pick up the television.

  • Working from home on Friday.

    After travelling into town to work for the two days in the office it makes the three days where I can work from home all the more enjoyable. I’ve got my alarm set for 10:45am where I’ll get up an go for my daily walk – I am wearing my cross country shoes because the New Balance ones that I currently have are really warn out and it has been over a year since I bought them but keeping in mind I’m averaging 10-15km per day so I’ve gotten a good amount of wear out of them. The Dunlop cross country shoes are pretty comfortable although they are slightly heavier. I was a bit hestitant about wearing them because I was concerned I’d get some nasty blisters having not worn them in a while but they were very comfortable when I wore them on my 8km walk on Thursday morning.

    The good thing about going for a walk each day is getting to see how things are changing around where I live. When it comes to the rail network they’re putting up new overhead wires along with weight systems to keep the correct tension on the overhead wires. There is new infrastructure being built – probably to improve the reliability of power as well as signalling system. The signalling system along with the power upgrades and the double tracking they did down from Trentham rail station all the way to the Upper Hutt railway station should hopefully mean in the future more frequent service from Upper Hutt to Wellington. There is work being done on new rolling stock on the connection up to Masteron but what they really should be doing is fully electrifying it even if that means havving rolling stock that support 1700 volts DC and 25KV then maybe some point in the future they upgrade the Wellington network to 25kV but I guess one can always dream.

    Another thing I noticed is that they’re finally tearing down the two lots of abandoned houses that have sat empty for quite some time. I’m unsure as to what took them so long – shortage of skilled staff? not enough funding? whatever the case maybe, hopefully with the progress being made we will see the land get prepared for more housing to be built given that it is in a prime location near shops, a train station as well as major bus interchange. It is rather disappointing at how quickly the National Party have folded in terms of pandering to the NIMBY types that appear to dominate Epsom all so David Seymour can win his seat. Sigh, it is a sad state of affairs in New Zealand when you see the early signs of progress only to find that that progress undermined all for the sake of pandering to a noisy minority more concerned about assets go up in value because they treat their house like a magical pinata rather than place to live, raise a family and provide stability in retirement.

  • A good day at work.

    Went into the office today and I was able to give the new monitor light a try – hooked it up to the USB port on my monitor (the monitor at work is a thunderbolt hub which has USB ports on it). I was worried that it wouldn’t balance on top but funny enough it worked just as expected so when the automatic light in the office turns itself off I can see see the screen and keyboard without any problems. When I got there in the morning I picked up a coffee and a savoury muffin – I’d much prefer being at home but the work has a hybrid work policy and deep down inside I know that it is good for my mental health to get out of the home so I socialise or otherwise I risk becoming a recluse.

    I went for am 8km walk this morning and although there was a drizzle what I couldn’t get over was how muggy it was – the humidity resulted in me sweating the whole time I was walking. I’ve had a check of the Metservice and it appears that there is going to be rain towards the end of this week but I’ll see how it all turns out but I’m hoping that it is just intermittent so then I can get some walking in. On Thursday I’m going to head out for another walk although I think this time I’ll make sure I’m gone by the time 10am rolls around so then it gives me some extra time before having to have a shower, dressed and off to work.

    One thing I have noticed coming home tonight on the train is how the train appears to be accelerating a lot faster and getting between the stations a lot quicker. The upgrades that have been occuring in Wellington is around the power supply and signalling system as well as upgrading the rail lines which will probably result in fewer speed restrictions and then all those restrictions removed once they’ve completed the planned upgrades. It is one of those things that if you fail to invest into infrastructure by making improvements each year then eventually it all catches up thus resulting in the upgrades that have been off for years being a lot more disruptive than if they were done on a regular basis.

    When I arrived home tonight I logged in to check if there were any updates for my router, access point etc. and it appears that the 5.0.16 release was made available – the update was quickly installed, the router came back up online and everything was working as expected. I haven’t noticed any regressions but then again the devices I have on my network are pretty generic which probably explains why don’t experience any sort of compatibility issues (many of the issues that people do face are normally caused by third party hardware not conforming to standards which can result in compatibility issues).

    One thing I forgot to mention was the two CDs that I had ordered online via Discogs arrived a few days ago, Grady Tate – Movin’ Day and Grady Tate – After The Long Drive Home, I ripped them both and added them to my collection. Gradually building up my library and I think I’m going to have to have a look at more storage as my collection grows. I’ve was able to find my measuring tape which has allowed to calculate where I can move furniture around and start planning.

  • Back to work on Wednesday.

    Another productive day today – I took some photos of the light bulbs I needed to replace then headed down the road on the train, picked up some new light bulbs, raspberries and blackberries, then I went over to the local computer store to pick up a desk light for my bedside table along with a light for work (clips onto the monitor – I’ve got that in my laptop back so it is ready to take to work). The bedside light is really nice – being able not only change how bright it is but also you can select it so that it has a warm glow similar to that of a traditional incandescent light bulb. Being able to lay in bed and read a book before going to sleep is something I’ll start tomorrow but at the moment I am enjoying just the experience of utilising my laptop.

    For dinner tonight I had a satay chicken stir fry along with some rice on the side – just a small bowl of rice that is just enough to soak up the soup like mixture of the stir fry. It was a nice dinner an plenty of vegetables as part of the mix – I’m making use of the frozen mixed vegetables along with the frozen edamame. I am tempted to get myself a decent set of cast iron cooking pots because I’ve used the one mum has (it is a Dutch oven) and it does a great job particularly when it comes to slow cooking a meal on the stove top or browning the meat, adding the ingredients and then finishing it off in the oven.

    When I was down at the local computer store I had a look at the Samsung televisions they had there with the 65 inch one looking like it is a reasonable price and the legs that hold up the screen can fit on my television cabinet which is around 125cm long. While I was there I had a look at the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra along with the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. I’m looking at it as part of the larger Samsung ecosystem of how everything integrates together – iCloud for the Macs, Samsung for the Samsung devices, Microsoft 365 for the Windows laptop and then Google being the overarching cloud that brings it all together. I’ve got the television put aside to pick up next week on Monday but at the moment I’m thinking about the rest – I want to have a good long think before making any sort of decision to jump into something.

    Oh, and on a good side, uBlock Origin Lite 2026.405.2010 has appeared in both the Apple app store and the Chrome extension store. There is mention regarding support for requestheader for the Declarative Net Request – on Chrome there is support for response headers however there are discussions over on the WECG meetings meetings of adding support for request header support as well. Hopefully over time as these features are added to the Declarative Net Request that the functionality gap between the old MV2 and the new MV3 will close to the point that the benefits of the new way will outweigh the downsides. What I also hope is that they boost the limits regarding filters or at the very least make it so that one can manually increase those limits in the advanced flags section of Chrome.

  • A productive day.

    It is good to have a day off from work but I also want to at least be productive in terms of getting stuff done. I woke up, had a shower then headed down the road where I was able to pick up some new batteries for my Airtag – I was getting a constant reminder so I thought it would be best to finally upgrade them. On a good side when I was at the supermarket there was a promotion where I got 10 x the points if I bought the Duracell ones which resulted in an extra 150 points vs the standard 15 points. I was going to get a new light bulb for the lounge room but I wasn’t sure which one was compatible so I’ll pick it up on Tuesday by bringing down the old lightbulb so that I get the correct one (it’s an LED bulb, I prefer them over the halogen ones which produce a lot of heat and heat up the room during the summer).

    While I was there I checked out ‘Bed, Bath and Beyond’ (it is still operating in New Zealand since the New Zealand business is separate from the US business) where I picked up loofah along with an exfoliating glove because the current shower puff is falling to pieces (it was a cheap supermarket one so I’m surprised it has lasted as long as it did).

    After arriving home I ordered some satay chicken and noodles for dinner from Noodle Canteen which was a nice dinner. After finishing that off I went for a 16km walk tonight – I really wanted to push myself and I came home exhausted but feeling really good knowing that I set a goal for myself and stuck to it. I decided to go back down the main road and it is funny how much has it changed (having not been down the road for quite a while) such as a few houses having been torn down, the empty land being levelled and it appears that 2 or maybe 3 dense houses being built on the same land (which is quite common where I live because many of the properties were the old state houses with the large sections).

    Regarding Tuesday, I’m looking at checking out a ‘powerline networking’ device so that I can move my security camera base station closer to where the cameras are located so then I can get a better signal. I’m also looking at getting a smart watch so that I can start keeping track of how things are progressing. I am hesitant because I’ve bought a smart watch in the past only to later sell it because I didn’t utilise it that much but then again that was back when I wasn’t exercising consistently so I really didn’t get my utility out of it.

    The big question is which brand do I go with – Samsung, Apple, maybe even Garmin because I’ve heard a lot of positive things being said about their watches. I’ve still got the bonus I got from work so I’m weighing up also upgrading my television that I’ve had for over 10 years – Noel Leeming has a few specials on so I’m tempted to have a nosy around.

    Oh, and before I head off to sleep, uBlock Origin Lite 2026.405.2010 was released today, it has arrived in the Microsoft Edge store however it is still waiting approval for the Chrome and Apple stores. Maybe I’ll be lucky and when I get up in the morning it’ll be available.

  • Start of the weekend.

    Finished work at 10pm once again, went for a walk then came home and had a sandwich for a quick meal. I’m making sure I enjoy the weather while I can because as we get closer to June the temperature will drop and the day will be less hospitable but I’ll keep getting out each morning to go for that walk because I know at the end of it I feel a whole better for it knowing I have stuck my my routine.

    At the moment I an working on a blog post regarding the decline of the right wing or at least the latest manifestation of the right. I’m working through it but I’m trying to avoid engaging in hopium – giving people the impression that the cancer of far right politics is in remission because just like a cancer in remission there is always a possibility of it coming back. There is also a possibility that many who have become despondent may drop out of politics but some may get coopted into even further right wing politics which is why it is important for the left to offer a bold positive vision rather than the more of the same managed decline and telling people that this is as good as it is going to get so don’t expect things to improve.

    The reason why I don’t have much faith in the left (or at least the left wing and the nominal left) is the tendency by far too many to have their work view being manufactured by the media. One only needs to look at the mainstream media in the US are failing to report on issues that media outlets outside of the United States report on. Let’s get one thing straight, the media is ultimately the mouth piece of the capitalist class which is why the will spend a whole week talking about the ‘deep and hidden meaning’ behind Trump posting Covfefe rather than covering how the Department of Education is being dismantled by Linda McMahon and the impact of its dismantling.

    On Monday I’ll go for a walk, come back home, have a shower, cash in the $50 voucher I got from work then head down to the supermarket to pick up a few items using that $50 voucher. I was going to hold onto it for a few more weeks but knowing my luck I’ll end up forgetting all about it so I may as well make use of it. What I might end up doing is walk down to the supermarket, grab what I want and then catch the bus back which will have the benefit of getting some extra exercise it while saving a couple of dollars.

  • Almost the end of the week.

    I woke up today a little bit earlier than 10:45am, I was laying in bed and decided I might as well get out of bed and go for my morning walk, arrived back home and relaxed a little before starting work. I decided tonight that I would relax after work because I went for a walk in the morning. I’m pretty happy that for the whole week I’ve stuck to my schedule of getting up every day and going for a walk – they say if you do something for a month that it starts to become easier so hopefully by the time May comes around it’ll become easier. The big struggle is having the discipline of going to sleep at a regular time to ensure I always get a decent 8-9 hours sleep so when I wake up the morning I am all refreshed.

    I checked for an update for Chrome and it appears there was a minor release made after the usual relaese on Wednesday – from 146.0.7680.178 to 146.0.7680.179 – I haven’t noticed any regressions from 146.0.7680.165 to 146.0.7680.178 and to 146.0.7680.179 so the bug fix must have been pretty minor because it also isn’t mentioned in the Chrome release blog page. Google have started with the early roll out of Chrome 147 but I don’t think we’ll see a mainstream availability until next week on Wednesday NZ Time (assuming they don’t release it earlier because of a serious security fix). I tried giving AdGuard another try with a testing profile on Chrome but I’m still experiencing issues with page freezing where as with uBlock Origin Lite the same issue doesn’t occur – I’d hazard to guess it has something to do with the User Script where as uBlock Origin Lite is a pure Declarative Net Request (DNR) based extension.

  • A quiet day today.

    Woke up this morning at 10:45am this morning and went for a walk, came back home, relaxed and watched some YouTube videos then started work. Going for a walk in the morning put me in a good mood for the rest of the day and there were hardly any cars on the road so it made the morning walk very peaceful. I finished work tonight at 10pm and then went for another walk thus making it a total of 16km walked today – arrived back home, had a shower then jumped into bed. I’ve got Saturday and Sunday to go but it should be fairly quiet given that it is the easter weekend so I assume most normal people would be spending time with their family.

    The more I’m using Chrome the more I am enjoying it to maybe on my day off I’ll have a look at Google Workspace. I’m also got Google applications installed on my iPhone and the experience is pretty good so far – if I do make the switch I want to make sure that there is a good experience on all my devices. Although all the applications work well it does kind of suck that the Chrome for iOS available in New Zealand is restricted to using Webkit rather than being able to use the native Chrome webengine that is available in some markets.

  • A good day today.

    I had a good day today, I got out of bed at around 9:45am, left home for my walk at around 11:15am, arrived back at around 11:30am, watched a few YouTube videos as I was cooling down then had a shower, got dressed then headed to work on the train. It does feel kind of funny getting up a lot earlier than I would normally – the feeling of having accomplished something by making the best of the day rather than getting up and heading into work while still not feeling fully awake. At work we had an Easter get together with work mates and the company provided some nibbles.

    While I was at the office I ordered a few things for delivery – the convenience of being able to get what I need delivered so that by the time I get home it has already been delivered. This is the reason why I always push back against those who compare the AI bubble to the dot com crash – the business models of ‘make a loss off every sale but make it up on volume’ was a ridiculous idea but what it did was allowing the laying of the foundation for more established retail players to enter the market because the demand was there but the challenge was creating a sustainable business model around it.

    I’ve got work on Friday but I’ll be working from home – a nice walk before work and then settle in for a day off either one of two things – craziness as people spend their time off using our services or it will be dead quiet. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens. After work I’ll go for another walk so in a day I’ll end up walking 16km so as long as I walk each day I’ll be walking close to 100km in a week.

  • A good day at work.

    I woke up this morning at around 9:30am although I laid in bed hoping that the 30 minutes before the alarm went off would last as long as possible but I had to face reality and get out of bed then get ready to start the day with a walk. Although I came back with enough time to spare I’ve decided to set my alarm to 9:45am so then it gives me 15 minutes to get up and out of bed so then I go for my walk at 10 so by the time I come back I have over an hour up my sleeve where I can cool down, watch some YouTube videos and then have a shower then head off to work.

    When 26.5 beta was released I couldn’t find Safari 26.5 beta but it has now been released with the notes available here (link). It isn’t a substantial list of improvements but I have noticed that some of the changes that were documented in recent Technology Previews have made their way into the mainstream release of Safari such as the bug fix for web extensions noted in the change log. I was expecting Chrome 147 to be released but as of the time of writing this blog post it wasn’t been released although there was an update which updated Chrome from 146.0.7680.165 to 146.0.7680.178 – so far I haven’t had any issues on either my Windos laptop or any of my Macs.

    I’ve been following politics and I can see why many people disconnect from politics when politicians are more interested in trying to score cheap political points that pandering to their base, who treat politics like supporting their local sports team, rather than having a productive discourse. The problem is made worse when you have the media reward politicians with attention every time they say or do something stupid – the latest example being a politician claiming that the Broadcasting Standard Authority (BSA) as being “bordering on fascist” in regards to whether their authority extends to online services.

    Don’t get me wrong, I think there is a productive discussion to be had around the legislation regarding the scope of the Broadcasting Standard Authority (BSA) and whether it is fit for purpose given how broadcasting has changed. The problem is that to start throwing around accusations of “bordering on fascist” tells me that you’re not actually interested in having a productive discussion other than saying the most outrageous thing you can dream up and then hope that the media give you a whole lot of free advertisement.

    New Zealand, like many other countries at this time, are going through a difficult period in regards to fuel supplies and let’s also be blunt about the fact that neither party have done a good job preparing the country for these sorts of events. The problem is that during the good times there is a lack of political motivation to make investments to insulate the country from economic shocks relating to geopolitical events and when those events do occur we then see politicians spending most of their time pointing at each other for not doing enough (in many cases the ones doing the finger pointing were the same ones that down played the need for contingency planning during the good times).