I went back to Safari however I still find that even the best content blocker (Ad Guard 1.9.13) still allows ads to come through where as uBlock Origin with Chrome is 100% perfect on every instance I’ve used it not to mention the fact that if you need to temporarily allow ads (for example, you click on a link on a news website and it has a web address as a go between then it is possible to enable temporarily just for that site instead of having to pause the whole content blocking) it is a lot easier. I’m going to keep using Chrome but it’ll be interesting to see whether the macOS 11.3 update includes improvements to Safari or whether we’ll see Apple drag its feet when it comes to supporting standards and generally lacking the will to address the numerous short comings that users have outlined on the numerous threads over on the Apple subreddit.
There is currently an ongoing discussion in New Zealand (like in most other countries) regarding New Zealand walking the tightrope between maintaining a relationship with China while also maintaining a close relationship with traditional allies (link). For over 35 years the United States has been giving New Zealand the cold shoulder (since declaring itself ‘nuclear free’ back in the 1980s) and only now has the United States suddenly started to become ‘concerned’ about New Zealand’s relationship with China. With all due respects to those feigning concern. a relationship takes time, effort and money – most importantly when there is a project such as the TPP you don’t rock up, make a series of demands which screw over patients by jacking up prices on pharmaceuticals only to then go back to their country to then talk about how the TPP was a ‘bad deal’ and how they were ‘bullied into it by foreigners’ then pulling out at the last moment after make demands and all the parties accommodating those demands.
It also doesn’t help when a large portion of the US population is largely ignorance of the impact that voting for a moron (Donald Trump, George W Bush, Ronald Reagan being the three most recent examples) as the United States president has on the rest of the world – when the average American gets a bee up their backside and votes in a moron then it is we (the rest of the world) who have to deal with the fall out of it. While they get to live in their nameless town in the middle of Idaho the rest of humanity have to deal with the fall out of climate change not being addressed, trade wars that lead to real wars, where trade and foreign affairs are intertwined resulting in the lack of the US being in TPP has resulted in China’s ability to throw their weight around being left unchecked because the US has exited from the world stage.
Anyway, back to more enjoyable, on Wednesday New Zealand time will be when Apple will have their spring product release. For me, I have no expectations beyond the usual refresh because the rumours have been all over the place and in some cases not making any sense what so ever such as the recent Geekbench benchmark that was uploaded – need one be reminded that benchmarks can be faked. Personally I think there will be a product refresh for the MacBook Pro, maybe an updated iMac, refreshed iOS devices and that being about it. For me, with the release of ARMv9 by ARM, I’ll wait fo Apple to release their ARMv9 products before upgrading my setup. The interesting part will be the SVE2 extensions (successor to Neon) that come standard with ARMv9 and when Chrome is optimised to take advantage of it when running on Apple Silicon.
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