Finished work tonight and went for a walk – it felt good that the weather is finally getting warmer with the temperature at 12°C and during the day it was around 16°C. It is great that the weather isn’t too hot or too cold so I’ll enjoy the Spring weather until summer comes but then again it’s not too bad given that I go walking at 10am so it avoid the summer time heat that would still be quite prevalent at 8pm (back when I did an 11:30am to 8:00pm shift). I’m at the moment sticking to a consistent 11.6km every night rather than going to crazy and wearing myself out – I need to remind myself that life isn’t a sprint but a marathon.
Chrome 140 had an update made available today which updated it from 140.0.7339.186 to 140.0.7339.208 with there being a few serious security holes that needed fixing so if you’re on the old version I’d suggest you get yourself updated to the latest version. On a side note, I’ve decided to stick with Google Workspace because the integration the integration with Android is a lot better and on Windows once you uninstall OneDrive and Microsoft Office (that came with Surface) then install Chrome and Google Drive then things work pretty good. I really do wish that the preinstallation of OneDrive was an option rather than something forced upon end users.
I was reading about the Intel-nVidia announcement and it makes me wonder whether part of that has to do with potentially Intel maybe bidding to making the next generation of consoles or offering a viable alternative to the current AMD APUs that are very popular in handhelds. I also wonder whether we’ll see Microsoft maybe licence the XBox software system to third parties so that eventually Microsoft get out of the hardware business entirely to just focus on software and cloud services then leave it up to third parties to develop the hardware. Not much information is known but it appears that Intel is going to keep it’s own line for the low to medium end along with niche markets in the high end with the Intel-nVidia for gamers and those who make extensive use of the CUDA software stack.
It has been raining heavily for the last couple of days so I haven’t been able to get out of the house to go for my nightly walks but I have enjoyed being able to relax. It is good to having a balance of exercise but also enjoying days when you can relax.
Apple has released the first wave of updates for their newly released platform – plenty of people online are reporting how they’re a big update with plenty of bugs having been fixed, performance improvements, I can see a fair number of bugs and enhancements coming to Safari 26.1 although those improvements are limited. I’d say that in the first update they’re going to focus on some of the major already known bugs thus leaving the next update probably including more fixes that currently sit in the Safari Technology Preview to make their way back into the stable release.
Apart from heading out around 2pm this afternoon to pick up a few odd bits and pieces from the supermarket along with some buffalo spicy wings and salad for lunch/dinner. The salad was a Mexican mix with the star of the show being the dressing which has a spicy taste to it. In the previous weeks I would head down to the local supermarket but couldn’t find any in the salad fridge section but they’ve restocked so I grabbed an extra bag to have for my day at work.
I generally stick to the old saying of ‘never attribute to malice that can be explained as incompetence’ or the more commonly known and often quoted Ockham’s razor more commonly known as ‘the simplest answer is usually the correct one’ but I can’t help but wonder whether there is more going on behind the scenes in regards to the FCC pressuring ABC to suspend Jimmy Kimmel by leaning on local affiliates. Was this pressure about protecting Trump’s ego or is it about undermining the legitimacy of the FCC by setting up a pretence of being accused of regulatory overreach which then provides an opening for legislation to be written up to either curb the powers of the FCC to either be disbanded entirely. The reason I speculate is because it would fit very much in the ‘Project 2025’/MAGA idea of dismantling the ‘administrative state’ (to use Steve Bannon’s terminology).
If one were to explore that idea further, does that explain the reason why RFK is in charge of the FDA and CDC (and other departments overseen by the ‘Health and Human Services’ secretary), to undermine its credibility so then it is easier to disband when the public loses faith in it? is this how the dismantling of the ‘administrative state’ will proceed – claim that the government is incompetent and cannot do anything right, put someone grossly incompetent in there then see it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy? I mean, it makes sense given the number of Republicans who talked about defunding the FBI and then nominate two podcast bros who couldn’t find their backside with their own two hands.
Sigh, Just as a follow up to the previous post where I was talking about tactics regarding how to confront the Trump administration, I was watching Real Time Bill Maher last night and one of the guests on the show was Joe Manchin. On a side note, I have my disagreements with Joe Manchin but I have a lot more respect for him because unlike Kyrsten Sinema, Joe Manchin will tell you exactly why he isn’t supporting a particular piece of legislation and will propose changes whereas Kyrsten Sinema will leave everyone guessing. Anyway, getting back to Joe Manchin said something in regard to section 230 protection in the ‘Overtime’ (the after the show discussion which goes on for around 15-20 minutes) talking about it should be taken away from online planforms.
It appears he doesn’t understand what section 230 does because to get rid of the protection it will result in platforms being liable for what is being published on their platform with the consequence being that most platforms will simply either shut up shop, move overseas or have censorship regimes so severe that it’ll have a chilling effect on freedom of speech. Don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly no fan of the way in which internet platforms have used algorithms to hook people into doom scrolling not to mention amplifying misinformation, disinformation and rage bait but to remove section 230 protections demonstrates a misunderstanding of what it is there for. Now, if Joe and others do wish to reign in these internet platforms then one option is to implement a rule that if they use algorithmic curation on their platform then they lose section 230 protections but if they don’t use algorithms curation (in other words only show what people subscribe to in chronological order) and people have to opt in to follow someone’s time line (rather than currently on Facebook (as one example) where if you add someone as a friend you’re automatically signed up to their time line) then you maintain your section 230 protection.
The way in which algorithms curate timelines is that they insert content that is receiving a lot of engagement, but the problem is that the algorithm has no way to know whether it is good or bad engagement or whether it is fake engagement (see bot farms) other than people are engaging with it. They have your past behaviour and demographic information and then target what they believe is content you may find interesting. The problem with this is that bot farms make use of that to create fake engagement and therefore amplify disinformation and misinformation – content that otherwise would never have been the light of day through organic sharing between actual humans with accounts quickly get amplified an audience far larger than what would have happened through people sharing content with friends and family members. Something tells me that I don’t see something like that happening in my lifetime or ever.
Normally at this point I’m really looking forward to the final day of the week but apart from the usual work related stuff things have been pretty uneventful. Tonight I went for an 11.6km walk and that was completed in around 1 hour and 40 minutes which good that I am keeping up the pace. I was going to push for 17.4km but I decided not to because I would sooner consistently get that exercise every day than pushing it on one day resulting in me feeling sore the next day – so much so that I cannot work out. Consistency is my focus given that I tend to go from one extreme to another which isn’t good when it comes to developing good long term habits.
I’ve been following the whole Jimmy Kimmel and ABC situation – I am all for freedom of speech but equally I think that many who stand in opposition to Trump need to thing strategically in terms of what is your vision for a post-Trump future. When it comes to entertainment, repeatedly talking about Trump in every monologue runs the risk of catastrophising Trump to the point that you end up creating a climate of doom and that everything is so bad that there is no chance of changing direction. Then there is just plain exhaustion where one just wants to turn on the television and not have to deal with the world for a few hours – being able to enjoy some laughs without having to think about who is in the white house.
If people feel exhausted where they’re constantly bombarded with Trump then at some point they’re going to tune out – “I can’t deal with this” then switch off and disengage. For me it is about moderation in terms of news consumption because I know the more I doom scroll over the news the more depressed and angry I get so I limit myself to an hour or so checking out the news from my favourite sources and then I focus on something else for the day. It is about having a balance because being angry all the time isn’t healthy or beneficial in the long run because eventually it burns you out.
It appears things are getting better when it comes to Windows 11 on ARM (link) – it kind of helps when you tell developers that you don’t have to rewrite their whole application from scratch and forced to sell it through the Microsoft Store as with the case of Windows RT. When software support is a few tweaks and a recompile away it isn’t surprising that Adobe is expanding their product offering available for Windows 11 on ARM. I think Adobe realises that being stuck on a single platform isn’t a good place to be where as at least supporting Windows 11 on ARM give the opportunity for Windows on energy efficient laptops the ability to keep Apple in check as so far as their platform and not being dependent on them.
On a side note, funny the number of noise makers online complaining about how Windows 11 25H2 is a minor update. So let me get this straight, you complain when there are major updates with the risks associated with big changes and now you’re complaining that the updates aren’t big enough but preserve stability at the expense of functionality. Maybe I’m getting on with age but I would sooner have boring but predictable, Windows 11 and Samsung One UI vs whatever is happening over on Apple’s platforms at the moment. I wouldn’t be surprised if 26H2 ends up being the big release given how there is a big jump in build numbers every 2 years – it’ll probably include under the hood changes as well as pushing Windows App SDK forward along with replacing parts of the Windows 11 UI to bring dark mode and greater consistency and maybe seeing a long term plan where control panel becomes a component one can uninstall and remove from the system.
I finished work and went for a walk and tonight I decided to go for a 17.4km walk but funny enough I decided to time myself to see how much my fitness had improved and what I have found is that to do 5.8km it had gone from around 1 1/2 hours when I first started to 1 hour and 10 minutes down 1 hour and now it is 50 minutes. The benefit of getter fitter has been having a lot more energy – when I want to go out and do something I have the energy to do it without having to constant sit down to rest because my back hurts or my feet or legs hurt. There is the icing on the cake of losing weight and fitting into clothes but the bigger benefit is the quality of life improvement – being able to live a fuller life without all the aches and pains.
I was having a look on the Apple website because I’m still pondering about getting a desktop because I want to get one but I also want to make sure I am making the right decision. For me the Apple Mac Mini looks good but the question is whether I should wait for the M5 or whether the M4 is good enough because I don’t think there is going to be a major leap other than maybe the adoption of the new N1 chip for wifi and bluetooth which will be wifi 7 compatible. With that all being said, I do enjoy watching the money sit in my bank account and the security of knowing it is there and I have no debt at all. The other thing is what is going to happen with macOS 26.x – my big focus is on Safari and whether the bug that I am following will get fixed up along with the visual bugs that many have reported with the new release. I could imagine we’ll see two 26.x updates before Christmas.
The other part is looking at the iPhone 17 Pro Max – currently there is 3-4 week wait time so even if I jumped ship now it wouldn’t appear until October which is rumoured when the next product refresh is. I’m kind of sceptical because I went on the Apple website to price up some computer gear and apart from the iPhone 17 Pro Max I don’t see there being long led times which indicate that they have plenty of stock vs if they were running down inventory for a product refresh then generally you’ll start to see the led times get longer for some product models as they reduce inventory in preparation for the product refresh. I could be wrong and the current M4 are lowered in price to become the entry level model with the M5 being where the current M4 fit. I guess I’ll need to wait and see – no hurry as things are going very well so far with my laptop.
The problems with iCloud though still remains particularly with the limited number of aliases and should I make greater use of the ‘hide my email’ service or should I just use Exchange Online for my email but use ICloud for everything else? has the Mail app fixed up its issues when it comes to populating aliases for custom domains or do they need to be added manually? so many questions that really need to be answered because if the issues that pushed me away from the Apple ecosystem still exist then I’m better off staying where I am.
Chrome was updated from Version 140.0.7339.128 to Version 140.0.7339.186 where as Edge was updated from 140.0.3485.66 to 140.0.3485.81. I have to admit, I do like Microsoft Edge because Microsoft makes use of their own grammar and spell checking which is so much better than what Google provides with Chrome even if you enabled ‘Enhanced spell checker’ in Chrome settings. It makes me kind of wonder what a modern Windows Mobile 11 would be like with Edge being the default browser and whether the app situation would have been different knowing that many apps make use of WebView 2 along with web technologies – my own banking app being a good example of that.
i finished work tonight and then went for a walk but had a short walk because it started spitting – last night I got stuck in the rain so I wanted to avoid that same issue. Long story short on my way home I picked up a few things from the local convenience store and while waiting I decided to check for software updates and the One UI 8 was made available – around a 4.2GB download. I walked home and started the download:
I’ve got a pretty good internet connection at home so it downloaded pretty quickly. My phone rebooted and I checked for updates – both the Play Store and the Galaxy store had updates where I then installed those. Everything so far has been very smooth and reliable with the kernel updated to 6.6.77 (compiled on 3 September) along with the modem firmware updated and the security patch level updated to September 2025 (I’m still waiting on the Google Play system update for September 2025 to be made available).
One thing I have noticed is that the NFC is working a lot better with my Snapper card – before it was really temperamental but I tried it just then and it scanned my card a lot faster and on the first try. I’m unsure what Samsung has done with their NFC driver or the implementation that came with Android 16 but it is working a whole lot more reliable. I haven’t tested whether there has been a change in the wifi connectivity, bluetooth or cell phone connectivity. I’ll keep an eye on things and report back my findings if I notice any issues. Battery life will be one thing I’ll keep an eye on my I haven’t heard anything negative so I expect that things will be pretty normal.
The saga regarding SSDs continues as one of the major instigators behind the hysteria admits that they didn’t update their SSD firmware and the firmware on their motherboard was at least 9 months out of date yet he insists on blaming Microsoft. I don’t know about you but if you want any sort of credibility then maybe updating your software and firmware, testing then reporting back what happens is going to lend you more credibility than whipping up hysteria then admitting that you couldn’t be bothered doing the absolute bare minimum. If you cannot keep your software and firmware up to date then maybe being a tech YouTuber isn’t the job for you. Here I am a month after the August release and still no problems with my SSD – life is good and computer is stable.
On a side note, this morning I checked for updates with a system update that was released a ‘System Hardware Update’ (it appears it is being rolled out gradually) – a firmware update that required a reboot with everything working as expected when it came back up online. Everything is going well although I admit that I mucked around on Monday and Tuesday regarding deciding whether to go all in with Microsoft 365. The big question is whether I have a consumer account as my main one and then have an Microsoft Exchange online account for my domain name or whether I have a Microsoft 365 Business account as my main account with the consumer account being what I use for Microsoft Phone Link. If I have Microsoft 365 Business do I go with Standard or Premium – what is the difference etc. big decisions.
What was rather unusual is the lack of a Chrome update being released today – normally every Tuesday there is an update for Chrome but that wasn’t the case this week. Samsung is apparently rolling out One UI 8 however it hasn’t appeared in New Zealand – part of me is excited about the update but on the other hand I’d sooner Samsung take their time to ensure that there aren’t any embarrassing bugs that pop up. It appears that the kernel version has remained the same at 6.6.77 based of the screenshots of people showing off the final release. Over the last couple of days there has been quit a few updates via the Galaxy Store which make me wonder whether they’re prepping for the release by making sure all the bundled applications area compatible for One UI 8.
What I find funny is the speculation regarding AI businesses that aren’t make money yet their share price are going through the roof with some claiming there is a bubble. What you’re seeing in the AI world is something that has always existed – these organisations aren’t designed to make money but instead they’re ‘pick me’ businesses where the shareholders hope that at some point an established player will buy them up for a premium because of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) in much the same way that Nokia came out better off when they sold off their handset division then used that to buy out the Siemens half of the telecommunications joint venture which then allowed them to buy out Alcatel-Lucent.
The problem with this ‘pick me’ strategy is this: Google is already got their own AI working, Microsoft is rumoured to be working on their own models to replace OpenAI, Apple and FaceBook have their own models so where does OpenAI fit into all this? they have no products of their own that can utilise their technology so any business using their technology will eventually replace it with an inhouse model, the amount they charge even at the top end of their subscription they’re still losing money on and if they increase their price at what point do businesses wake up from the AI hype to realise that maybe having a real person is cheaper and doesn’t carry risk.
So there is an agreement with Oracle – massive number of datacentres planned to be built but who is going is going to fund it not to mention paying the bills? is the long shot being that Oracle eventually buys out OpenAI then OpenAI cannot pay the bills then utilise (assuming it goes ahead) Tiktok to train future models the integrate OpenAI into Oracle’s own cloud services? For me I don’t see any of these AI companies surviving unless they can actually turn what they have into something useful beyond being a cute novelty. There is also the other problem – the huge amount of energy required and all the evidence I’ve seen from people who study AI for a living point to the fact that things aren’t getting more efficient but actually requiring even more energy. Just when you thought bitcoin couldn’t be a bigger waste of energy out trots the new cult of AI promising the earth and delivering very limited bang for the amount of bucks that are burnt with each question it is asked.
I decided for the couple of days off that I would just enjoy the fine art of doing nothing – just relaxing at home watching a few tv series, pop down to to the supermarket to pick up some groceries for the week. Part of the groceries included getting a variety of meal options which will make eating less of a miserable experience but one where if I feel like something different than the usual I can go for that instead of eating then not feeling satisfied. I bought a variety of soups, tuna and some chargrilled capsicum, some granola bars that I can break up on the chia seeds and yoghurt. On Wednesday I’ll get back into walking but tonight I’m going to relax.
I was watching the latest episode of Foundation – if you haven’t started watching it yet then you’re definitely missing out on a great show. I’m also watching Invasion, another great Apple Original (I’m making use of a three month free trial I got when I bought an Apple TV 4K) – I’m currently watching the second episode of the third season and things are going well. I haven’t watched a movie in quite a while because I like how modern tv series feel like an extended movie over several episodes where ideas and characters are explored – a side narrative that feels irrelevant at the time but then in a later episode it links back into the main narrative thus making the reason for its existence make sense.
I had dinner with mum tonight after grocery shopping – picking up some ingredients for dinner; a potato and kumara mash with chives and sour cream, an onion and mushroom gravy with some oven cooked sausages. It has been a while since I last had it but it felt good having a home cooked meal and then we rounded it off with a slice of carrot cake and some black doris plum flavoured greek yoghurt on the side. It it always good to catch up with mum – something I regret was that I didn’t spend the time when I had it when dad was still alive. I guess it takes the loss of a loved one to appreciate what one has.
While mum was around I checked for updates on her iPhone where there was the option to download and install iOS 18.7 or iOS 26 so I decided to install iOS 18.7 mainly because I want to wait until 26.1 is released before making the upgrade. This is also the the reason I’m looking at seeing what happens with macOS 26.1 given how there are plenty of people talking about bugs relating to the UI and other components not fixed in the public release. There is also the rumoured product refresh in October 2025 which will be interesting to see whether the refresh includes a M5 update for not only the MacBook family but also the Mac mini – if there is a refresh that is the result then the possibility of going in that direction is open to me.
Just on a side note, over on the Webkit website there is an overview of the changes in Safari 26 (link), it’ll be interesting to see what changes, fixes and improvements are in store for Safari 26.1 that weren’t ready for the public release of Safari 26. If macOS 15.1 is anything to go by I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up seeing a macOS 26.1 release in around October and then 26.2 just before Christmas with macOS 26.1 being preloaded on any sort of hardware refresh that is rumoured to occur in October.
As for my decision, I’m still leaning towards the Dell computer – although it isn’t the bleeding edge the reality is that for what I need it for I really don’t need the bleeding edge. I’m looking at GMKtec and Beelink but I’m cautious about taking a change given that there is no local support if anything goes wrong and sending it back to China would be rather costly if it turns out that I end up getting a lemon where as with a Dell there is local support.
In the wake of recent events there appears to be a narrative doing the rounds by prominent liberal talking heads making out that they’re shocked as if this was the first and only case of politically motivated violence in the United States. This is the same sort of deliberate ignorance of history that far too many liberals tell themselves when it comes to how Trump came into being – everything was going perfectly well up until 2016 then big bad Trump came along and ruined a perfectly functioning system. When I see these narratives being weaved it really shows the disconnect that far too many liberals have when they ignore almost three centuries of political violence – from the treatment of Native Americans through to lynching, slaving, Jim Crow, the many, many, many civil rights leaders assassinated and much and much more.
Donald Trump didn’t appear in a vacuum but rather he is a product of the very system that far too many liberals are bending over backwards to defend. The rolling back against the welfare state by the Republican Party goes back to the establishment of the New Deal followed by the grand bargain between capital and labour – an honest days work for a fair days reward. The problem is that the capitalist reluctantly went along with it while propping up fringe ideas that eventually culminated in a set of policies that are colloquially known as Neoliberalism. As noted by Naomi Klein in the book “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism” it was a matter of the capitalist class waiting for a crisis to emerge to implement those ideas aka “There is no alternative” (TINA) to quote Margaret Thatcher.
In the 1970s there was the oil shock along with stagflation thus creating the scenario of stagnation with high inflation. The leaders of the time in multiple countries attempted to address it through keynesian policy that at best did nothing or at worse exacerbated the problem. Then in response to that we saw the Reagan Revolution, Thatcherism, Rogernomics and Keatingnomics – the response by the Democrats was, rather than a vision for a Social Democracy for the 21st century they positioned the party as a watered down version of the Republican Party. The best way to describe it is ‘The Ratchet Effect”:
The net result for the last 45-50 years has been a gradual push to the right, when Democrats get in you don’t see a reversal but rather things don’t get worse and when there are changes they’re basically watered down Republican-Lite solutions such as the ACA which is based on Romney Care which goes further back to centre right think tanks during the 1980s. Then add to that the mainstream media claiming that anything that isn’t the preservation of the status quo as being ‘far left’ – advocate single payer? far left! advocate unions? far left! this is the reason I keep pointing out that the media is the mouthpiece of the capitalist class – ensuring that the overton window is never pushed back to the centre by claiming that the centre is always where they say it is (see ‘Manufacturing Consent’).
Now picture this, you’re stuck in a bad situation, the party that use to be the party of the workers have abandoned you to pander to the patagonian jacket wearing microdosing tech dudes of Silicon Valley (made worse by the likes of Rahm Emanuel telling you to “just learn how to programme), your town is falling to pieces, manufacturing is disappearing, the candidates put up by that party is repeating the same talking points from the Clinton era. In that environment there emerges a person, a giant loud mouth talking about how the system is rigged, how both parties have failed, how the elites have gotten the US stuck in never ending wars and foreign entanglements at the expense of domestic concerns.
What did the average person know about this loud mouth from New York when they voted for him in 2016? They voted for the persona they saw on television, the saw a man who appeared to have made decisive decisions and was willing to use language that the average man in the street could relate to: “you’re fired!”, “get that built!”. After seeing both parties procrastinate for years and failing to get anything remotely useful passed here came someone who, based on the average layman’s understanding of who he was, would come in and shake things up.
Then add to that the mythology of the American dream where the worshipping of billionaires is a religion in its own right thanks to the cult of meritocracy and toxic optimism (Barbara Ehrenreich wrote a great book entitled ‘Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America’ and many interviews dealing with that cultural cringe that exists in US mainstream culture) – a cult of personality caused by a toxic mixture of desperation and the belief that proximity to someone they perceive to be successful will result in the benefits rubbing off on them if they get behind this person. This why you see Trump supporters see Trump as almost a messianic figure, a Moses who promises to lead them to the promised land of milk and honey. Trump of course understanding the spell he has over his supporters, play the same game that dictators do: “I am the living embodiment that is the will of the people, to attack me is to attack my supporters and thus making you the enemy of the people”. It has been something invoked many times whenever Trump receives push back or criticism (no matter how tepid it is) he invokes the “he is attacking me to get to you”.
Regarding where Charle Kirk fits into this – he was an opportunist with no real philosophical worldview underpinning his politics. He happily jumped into politics in the era of the Tea Party and was quite happy to throw away all the beliefs regarding small government, low debt and low taxes the moment that the grift was coming to an end and a new one emerged in the form of MAGA. Like so many online commentators, as others have pointed out, Charlie Kirk played a character when he went to these universities.
In other words, what you saw him say was a character and at the core of his being I don’t think he believed in anything – going from a position of ‘low taxes, low debt and small government’ to a candidate who spends like a drunken sailor, unilaterally imposing tariffs, making extensive use of executive orders (while unironically claiming Obama was an ‘imperial president’ because of the number of executive orders he signed) etc. tells me that his affiliation with the Republicans had less to do with a philosophical world view and like for many Gen Z basically voting based on vibes.
Did the Republicans even value Charlie Kirk? based on the performative replies on Twitter/X what it clearly demonstrates is that they saw him a means to an end as demonstrated by Trump who could have spent time talking about Charlie Kirk as a friend but instead he deflected the attention onto the ball room he is wanting to get built. Imagine someone thinking so little of your passing that they would sooner talk about a ball room than your passing, would sooner talk about their ball room than extending sympathies to your family.
What this tells me all I need to know about the Republican Party – it isn’t a party that is bound together via a shared philosophical world view (which explains why, when you ask them what their healthcare plan is you end up with 10 people give 15 different answers – a menagerie of half baked ideas and no coherent policy) but a party of grifters riding on the back of vibes with no meaningful solutions to deep seated problems that exist and haven’t been addressed when they have been given the levers of government. The only thing they’ve taken care of is the needs of their donors while using BS culture wars as a ‘flood the zone’ strategy to move the focus away from the fact that they’ve done nothing productive after being in power for almost a year.
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