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 good day back at work.

    I got up at 9:30am this morning and went for a small walk however I decided to work from home because the trains at the time I logged off at would be replaced with buses – I’d sooner work from home and benefit from having some extra time that I can jump into bed and have a good night sleep. On Thursday there there is the normal train time table so I’ll be popping into the office – the big focus in my personal life is getting back into a good meal routine and today I’ve kept track of my calories.

    I think it is one of those things that if you do it on a regular basis it becomes habit forming in much the same way I’m getting up at 9:30am and my body is slowly getting used to that new schedule. The other focus by me is not eating anything after 8pm because I find I have a much better sleep if I go to bed without having a full stomach. I guess it is undoing a life time of bad habits combined with my old job where I would be starting at 4pm and in some cases 10pm to do an overnight shift.

    Google released an update to Chrome which bumped the version from 148.0.7778.168 to 148.0.7778.179 (link). I had a look back at last week’s release because at the time the security fixes had been disclosed however it has been updated to include the details (link) and there are many security fixes with quite a few critical and high level security fixes – from what I understand Google is gradually replacing code piece by peace using Rust in much the same way Microsoft is doing which is to replace code where the likelyhood of a security vulnerability is the highest (in Windows 11 the GDI regions was rewritten in Rust as a proof of concept along with a few other components – no announcements made regarding other components of Windows being written in Rust).

    The government have announced a downsizing in the public service – reducing it down to 1% of the population size which translates to 8700 full time employees being let go. What is their plan, well, there is no plan other than empty talk about greater utilisation of AI and technology which rings rather hollow given that the first decision the new government did was slash IT investment being done in Health New Zealand. I’m sure that the public could be more efficient just like any large organisation but something tells me that the National led government have no long term plan and something tells me that it’ll end up like an episode of Yes Minister where employees will be laid off and then rehired as a contractors but the head count will be reduced thus giving the impression they had achieved something (even though the use of contractors tends to be more expensive).

    I might go into a longer post regarding this because there is potential to improve the governments use of technology but if past experiences are anything to go by I wouldn’t hold out much hope it doesn’t turn into a disaster such as the INCIS project or the Nova Pay debacle. When you have politicians who have no clue about information technology being dependent on consultants who are little more than sales people for what ever vender they’re getting a cut from with each sale then don’t be surprised that what is chosen tends to be what benefits the bottom line for the consultency firm rather than then person paying the bill at the end of the project.

  • Back to work on Wednesday.

    Woke up this morning and went for a walk down to the store to pick up some essentials. I’ve been wearing out my socks because I use them as silppers at home so I thought I better get myself some actual slippers which will avoid wearing through all my socks so quickly. While I was down there they had a special where I can get one pair of shoes and get the second pair at half price – so I bought the slippers and then a pair of Hush Puppies – a nice brown pair that will got with quite a few pices of clothing I have.

    While I was also down there I had a look at Farmers for some new cookware because what I have at the moment consists of a pot crossed with a frying pan that doesn’t do either job very well. The other pots I do have don’t conduct heat very well – long story short, they’re a mess. I wrote a note on my phone and walked back home and when I got home I jumped online to the Farmers website because it was easier for my to order it and get it delivered since my hands were already full given that I only remembered to take one bag when I went down the road. In the end I ended up buying Baccarat Le Connoisseur Round French Oven (25cm) and SouthWest Pre-Seasoned Cast Iron Frypan (30cm). The old cookware I’m going to donate to the local Salvation Army as I’m sure someone else will find a use for it since I don’t like the idea of throwing something out that someone else might find a use for it.

    I’ve had a look at the tallboy that I was going to get but the problem is that the depth of the tallboy (depending on the model) ranges from 40-45cm and given where it’ll be located in the office it would take up a fair amount of space (keeping in mind the room is pretty small). I need some extra clothes storage but I’m still trying to come up with some sot of plan – should I move the chest freezer from the office into the shed outside and if so how will I get electricity to it not to mention elevating it off the ground to keep it dry (it has a concrete base) or do I replace my current shed with something more robust.

    I also checked online that Ubiquiti had made available an update for my access point which updated the firmware version from 8.5.21 to 8.6.10. I haven’t noticed anything major other than it appears that the connection from my laptop to the access point is faster but then again that fluctates but I’m happy that as long as the speed is above 1gbps then I’m all good. I did check to see whether uBlock Origin Lite had been updated from 2026.507.2008 to 2026.516.1652 but unfortunately it hasn’t been approved for the Chrome Webstore. I am looking forward to seeing whether ‘Bring popup blocking out of experimental status’ makes an improvement or whether it’ll be a matter of time to see some of the benefits appearing as the filters get updated and bugs are fixed based on the fact that more end users will be making use of it and thus a larger user base testing it.

    Daily writing prompt
    What’s a simple pleasure in life that brings you joy?
    View all responses

    Waking up in the morning, sitting on the patio to enjoy the morning sun along with a cup of tea or coffee, reading some news on my phone and getting some fresh air before work begins. It is those simple things in life – a brisk walk before work followed by a relaxing shower then putting on some fresh pair of clothes and then off to work for the day.

  • 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?
    View all responses

    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.