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

  • You cannot beat the reliability of a cable.

    There appears to be one constant in life and that is the lousy reliability of synchronising over wifi – it never worked when I had a Mac and it appears with the Phone Link that has continued. On a good side, hooking up the phone via a USB-C cable to my laptop and then dragging/dropping the files to my music directory on my phone worked flawlessly. The one thing you may need to do is disable it showing up in File Explorer has I have noticed some weird behaviour but everything else it is working perfectly. Call me a bit old school but I’ve never had a cable steer me wrong – plug in, copy the files over.

    Don’t me wrong, I can see the benefits of using wifi but I found that it ended up dying around half way through the synchronisation over wifi for no apparent reason but I did a drag and drop and it was copied pretty quickly. Oh, and another thing, when you plug in your phone you need to ensure that it is unlocked so that it appears in File Explorer because on Samsung phones there is a feature called ‘Block USB connections while locked” which is a built in security precaution so that if you lock your phone, someone steals it then they’re unable to access the data on the phone without having to first unlock it.

    Windows 11 25H2 has been made available on the release preview channel (link) and because it is based on the same code base as Windows 11 24H2 the net result should be a smoother upgrade with a lot of the features already baked in and it is a matter of Microsoft ‘clicking the switch’ and enabling what is already baked in. One of the features is the Administrator Protection which appears to be opt in but I wouldn’t be surprised if at some date they make it a mandatory requirement at some stage in the future since it all falls inline with Microsoft’s focus dealing with security and reliability.

    When it comes to the reliability part of the equation there is work to create a framework for security software companies that currently reliable on kernel modules which can cause problems as we saw with the recent CrowdStrike. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same framework will be used by the likes of Easy Anti-Cheat and other such software since both employ the same sort of monitoring but for different purposes. Hopefully what it should mean is that only but the bare essentials are run in kernel space which should make the whole system a lot more reliable. I guess I’m lucky in that I don’t have any software that relies on such functionality so I avoid many of the issues that people talk about online.

  • Sometimes default settings aren’t well thought out.

    Today was uneventful at work although the last couple of hours were pretty busy dealing with customer enquiries and one particular customer who thought if they argued their case that I could some how do the impossible. With that being said, I finished the day off and went for a small walk – kept a record of my calorie intake so that I hit a deficit and the walk is an icing on the cake. Something weird I noticed when I started my walk was a small fire in a tree out the front of a persons house, I tried knocking on their door but I got no response so I ran back home, filled up a bucket with water and put it out and when I came back from my walk I rang up the non-emergency line to report the incident. I’m unsure whether it was an overreaction but I thought it would be best to give the police a heads up because I thought it was kind of weird.

    So far I’m enjoying my Surface laptop but the one thing I noticed was the silly default power management default settings out of the box. In the Settings app under power management the defaults are set to, while plugged in, the screen turns off after 5 minutes and the the computer suspends after 5 minutes. This is rather silly particularly if you’re synchronising your music to your phone with the end result being every time you go off to let the computer complete the synchronisation the computer is put to sleep because for some reason the computer doesn’t pick up that transferring fills is activity. Long story short I’ve set it so that the screen turns off after 30 minutes but the computer never turns off – if I want to turn it off I’ll close my lid and let it go to sleep.

    I’m looking at getting a Dell Tower Plus with the following specs:

    And paired up with a Dell UltraSharp 32 4K Thunderbolt Hub Monitor – U3225QE which is good drop in replacement for the Apple Studio monitor that came with the Mac Studio (which I’ve since sold as well). With grunty specs like that I’ll get back into some gaming, video and audio work as well. I’m still making a decision to either get that or a Beelink GTR9 Pro AMD Ryzen™ AI Max+ 395 which looks better value and I’ll match it up with a monitor, keyboard and mouse bought from my local retailer. I’ve fired off an email and hopefully I’ll find out what 35 days means – 35 days from the announcement or 35 days from the time I place the order. Worst case scenario if I am mucked around I’ll go with Dell – they may not be exciting but they’re reliable.

  • Slowly recovering, back to work tomorrow.

    It has been a rollercoaster for the last couple of days, sickness, my Microsoft account locking me out because the Microsoft Authenticator stopped working then having to contact Microsoft to try to get it all sorted – combine that with feeling like crap and having time off from work, yeah, it takes a toll. Long story short, I’m happy that I’ve finally been able to get it all sorted in the end and the big mistake I made was giving Microsoft a second chance after learning the hard way a couple of years ago when I made use of the Office 365 Business plan they had. Long story short, I finally got in contact with someone at Microsoft, cancelled the Microsoft 365 Exchange Online Plan 2, set the DNS settings up to point to Google Workspace and I’ve got back with the tried and true service that has never steered me wrong. I also cleaned up the 2FA for all my other accounts just to avoid this sort of issue in future but so far I’m pretty happy with the outcome of moving from a Mac to a Microsoft Surface Laptop (with an ARM processor).

    Here are some unpacking photos of the laptop – quite a chunky box it came in and when you pick up the laptop it definitely feels substantial.

    I’ve set it up and it is linked against my Outlook.com account but like Apple iCloud it is only used for buying applications – nothing is stored and I have uninstalled OneDrive and instead installed Google Drive (which is now ARM64 native). Although I gave Microsoft Edge a try I decided that for the sake of my sanity that I’ll stick with Chrome due to the better integration with Android and the password manager doesn’t appear to have the same quirks that I found with Microsoft Edge wanting to duplicate entries for both the website and the app in the password manager.

    An Outlook.com account is also required for the Phone Link (I’m assuming that the cloud sits are an intermediary between the computer and phone rather than manually setting up the phone to work with a specific computer vs just having all the devices logged in and Microsoft acting as a traffic cop) for someone like me one of the biggest strengths from Apple was the ecosystem of hour easily everything works together and Microsoft has successfully delivered that.

    Another benefit is the ability to wirelessly copy music from your computer to the phone – gone of the days of dealing with MTP and it’s slow copy speed. Once setup it appears in File Explorer and you can drag and drop the files to the phone which makes use of the Wi-Fi network that both devices are on. I’m fairly impressed regarding how far Microsoft have come when it comes to Windows 11 given my past experience with Windows 10, 8.x, 7 and Vista always appearing to lack the sort of features that macOS had which bought their ecosystem together.

    I’m going to setup my mum’s old NUC as a server and see how well it performs – it has 128GB storage and 8GB RAM but any sort of storage I’ll be using I’ll probably just hook it up via the USB port given that I’m more likely to stream music and videos rather than throwing around massive files. The monitor that came with it is completely wrecked – it is over 15 years old and worn out so what I’m going to do is drop it down to the local ewaste depot along with some other old electronic stuff so that it can be disposed off responsibly. I generally don’t like to throw out something if I can reuse it for something else or I can sell it so that someone else can find a use for it and I get a few dollars for my troubles.

  • Another day off.

    Yesterday I was sick so I had the day off and today I’ll have the day off because I’m not fully recovered – you get a good run and then suddenly the wind is knocked out of your sails. Today I spent the time resting and pottering around the home getting things sorted out. I cleaned off all the contents of my MacBook Air and Mac Studio because both of them are being sold (the Apple TV 4K has been sold and shipped) – the MacBook Air I’ll send today when I get up. When you’ve moved so far from the Apple ecosystem, first with the move to Android then Chrome, then iCloud to a new provider there is very little remaining justification left to keeping with having a Mac particularly when one considers how good the Microsoft Surface Laptop is with the ARM processor.

    As for the desktop, I’m looking at either getting a Dell or a Beelink – I’m in no rush since I use my laptop 90% of the time although I do like to have a desktop for when I’m doing some heavy lifting such as video and audio editing etc. I’m leaning towards getting a Dell because it allows future growth, it comes with an nVidia 5070 GPU, the CPU is good enough for what I need and there is WiFi 7 support whereas the Beelink I want isn’t shipping for another 35 days and that is no guarantee that’ll it ship in that time frame. I’m also looking at a 32inch monitor to go with the computer. I’m tempted to get a new desk because the one I have is a bit worse for wear – I’m tempted to get one that is slightly longer since the tower case will be sitting on the desk and thus I’ll need more space.

    Oh, I’ve had an issue with my Exchange account (I signed up for the Exchange Online Plan 2 for my email/custom domain but I use my ‘consumer’ account for my Windows account) – long story short the authenticator application failed which makes me think long and hard whether Microsoft is viable alternative but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there – worst case scenario I can always go back to using Google Workspace and I’ll reset my laptop and set it up with a local account but I’d prefer not to do that given that apart from that hiccup I was actually pretty happy with Exchange to the point that I wonder whether I should make it my primary account with a Business 365 account and use the Outlook.com account purely to use Phone Link with my phone.

  • A big change after many years.

    For those who don’t know, I’ve been in the Apple ecosystem going right back to the days of the eMac 1Ghz that was released in 2003 and ever since I made that switch, I’ve been solidly in the Apple ecosystem however recent events and changing priorities has made be reevaluate my decision to go all in. What I have found is that over the years is Apple has slowly moved its focus away from the Mac platform and with that shift in focus has been the slow decline – particularly when it comes to Safari and how it lags behind Chrome (the website wpt.fyi does a good job keeping track of web browsers and their compliance with web standards). I basically held out for as long as possible, but the transition didn’t start all at once but rather the gateway out of the ecosystem was the decision to upgrade to a Samsung S25 Ultra which bought on a bit of anxiety because it was a departure of what I was used to.

    I setup a Google Workspace account because that is what i was used to and I’ve been using it ever since I bought the Samsung S25 Ultra however after much contemplation I decided to make use of the money I inherited to replace my laptop – I decided to get the Surface Laptop 7 with the Qualcomm Elite ARM processor, 16GB RAM and 1TB storage. With that I decided to move my email over to an Exchange Online Plan 2 for my custom domain and for everything else I’m using the Microsoft 365 Home plan for my storage, Microsoft Edge synchronisation and integration between my phone and my computer. In the past I found Microsoft 365 considerably more complex than Workspace and the last time I tried using it I couldn’t get aliases working properly but I got it all setup without too much fuss and my free gmail.com email address is purely for buying stuff at the Play Store along with YouTube but the centre of my ecosystem is now Microsoft.

    Part of that has also meant embracing Microsoft Edge and what I’ve noticed is that it ‘feels’ more light weight – extensions are approved faster, better integration with Microsoft services and most importantly I haven’t experienced any compatibility issues. I’ll write a bit more about the experience when i get up in the morning.

  • Windows 11 is actually pretty good.

    I’ve come back after getting my mum’s new computer setup (we bought a USB hub, mouse, keyboard etc from the local computer store) and what shocked me was how good Windows 11 actually is – not just surprised but substantially better than Windows 10 especially given that it is running on modern hardware, AMD Ryzen™ AI 9 HX 370, which makes use of the Zen 5 architecture. At the moment I am looking at the Beelink GTR9 Pro AMD Ryzen™ AI Max+ 395 for my desktop and the Surface Laptop 7 for my desktop given that I do my heavy lifting on my desktop and my laptop is primarily for productivity and navigating the internet using Chrome. Long story short, the pulling factor that first bought me to use Macs in the first place are disappearing at the decision by Apple to focus on everything but getting the basics done well tells me that the Mac platform is no longer a priority for Apple. On a side note, I tried using Samsung Pass but it doesn’t work on a generic PC – Samsung need to update their store description to reflect the fact that it only works on Samsung devices.

    On more positive news, I have received the result back for the HbA1c and liver test – I started off last year at 89 then three months later with diet and exercise it dropped down to 42 and now it is sitting at 37 with the liver function being normal. My doctor has scheduled another test in 3 months so I’ll be focusing on getting that number down to the low 30s which will make me happy. I’m lucky that I had my accident and the issue could be caught early and treated than left until it was too late with the health complications that come with it.

  • End of the week.

    Finished work at 10pm tonight and went for a 17.4km walk – shorter than last night but that is all I felt like. Legs and feet a bit sore but it feels good having accomplished something with the reward once home being a nice hot shower to relax the muscles. On Monday I’ve decided to treat myself to eggs bene down at the local dutch cafe before I then head down to the supermarket to pick up some odd bits and pieces for the week – it’ll be a small shop since I’m only topping up a few items such as milk, yoghurt if it is on special and anything else that make for an interesting dinner.

    UniFi Gateways 4.3.1 has been released to the early access channel – it’ll be interesting to see whether that is pushed to the release candidate then stable or whether it’ll continue being developed and released inline with the next update of UniFi which is currently sitting at 4.4.0 in the early release channel. I’m tempted to buy a UniFi Ultimate Router and then use the gateway and cloudkey on mum’s setup and maybe pick up an access point while I’m at it – install it inside the roof which will provide good coverage where it is needed.

    The computer I ordered for mum has arrived in Auckland (according to DHL) so it wouldn’t surprise me if it ends up being delivered on either Monday or Tuesday. Once received we’ll head down to the local computer shop – I’ll get mum to choose the screen best suited for her eyes along with a keyboard and mouse plus a few other bits and pieces. I’m still looking at getting a better modem and access point for mum because the one she has at the moment is pretty lousy especially when it come to coverage where she uses her laptop downstairs at the dinner table.

  • A really cold and uncomfortable night.

    I’ve just come back from a long walk night, slightly over 20km, but it was really cold tonight .The temperature according to the Metservice is 4 degrees celsius but it feels closer to 2 degrees celsius – I should have worn a long sleeve t-shirt under my jumper but I thought it would be sufficient to keep me warm, I guess I’ll chalk that up as a learning experience. Hopefully spring will be coming soon so the weather will get nicer and the days will be longer so that the walk after work is more enjoyable. When I got home I cranked up the heater, jumped in the shower and finally got warmed up then I followed that up with some pumpkin soup.

    End of the week tomorrow and start of a weekend – I’ll follow up with my doctor regarding the test results but I’ll assume if the results weren’t good they would have rung me straight away (normally 3 days after the test) but the fact that they haven’t is a good indication that either things have improved or they haven’t regressed so I’ll keep the blog updated with the outcome.

    I’ve been following the computer that I ordered for mum and it appears to have left Hong Kong after travelling from mainland China. It is scheduled to arrive on 27 August but as I’ve noted that when dealing with DHL they tend to deliver before the due date – a good example of that would be the Snakehive case I bought and it was scheduled to arrive on Tuesday but ended up arriving on Monday. If past experience is anything to go by I wouldn’t be surprised if it touches down in New Zealand either Sunday or Monday then is delivered on Tuesday. If it turns out to be a really good computer I may even buy myself one to replace my M1 Studio.

    Samsung released the Samsung One UI 8 Beta 5 for testing with most commentators pointing out that this could be the last beta release before maybe a release candidate then the stable version being released in September. The kernel has been updated from 6.6.30 to 6.6.77 – the 6.6.x branch being the longterm servicing branch – you’ll find OEMs tend to stick with longterm servicing branch as it provides stability that can be carried over multiple versions without having to port then retest their drivers if they moved to a newer version but with that being said there is nothing stopping Samsung at a later date updating the kernel to a newer longterm servicing branch.

  • Some random thoughts.

    I went for a short walk after work today because light rain started and I wanted to avoid getting stuck in a downpour like what happened a few months ago when I thought that some drizzle wouldn’t turn into heavy rain. I came back and had a small snack – a tuna, rice and beans meal that I bought from the supermarket on Tuesday which is quite tasty and has a good amount of protein and fibre which is quite satisfying. I’ll probably buy a few more of them next pay day because they’re quite satisfying and throwing some hot sauce and a squeeze of lemon really lifts the meal quite substantially.

    I was watching a recent video by Parkrose Permaculture:

    Just to build upon what was covered in the video – it reminds me very much of those who are trying to discredit climate change activists and policy. There are three ways that it is done, the first is the most obvious which is to sow doubt and push climate change denialism – to a certain extent that kind of wins over those who understand climate change is real but they want permission to continue the status quo by having some sort of plausible way of pushing back. The second method is employing doomerism by perpetuating the ideal that all is lost, we’re totally screwed and any attempt to address it will be doomed to failure with a lot of pain but very little accomplished. The third way taps into the ‘well meaning, but entirely useless’ that are about preserving the status quo by commodifying being environmentally conscious by making it out to be something you can achieve through purchasing (the fallacy of dealing with climate change within the capitalist system would be a TED Talk in its own right – no, it cannot be done in any reasonable extent because ultimately the capitalist system is predicated on infinite growth on a finite planet all for the sake of worshipping at the altar of ‘line go up’).

    The other point I am reminded of was a talk about was how the fight is never ending – this idea of fighting for something and once you achieve it then you can go back to what you were doing before ignores the forces within society that are always trying to push back against progress. Once you have fought for something and achieved what you set out to do it isn’t just a matter of moving on but a concerted effort to defend the gains made because there are always going to be those who wish to undo them – a good example is the constant pushback from the business community who want to roll back workers rights in the workplace under the guise of ‘workforce flexibility’. Another example is the recent challenge to the same sex ruling in the United States that could be undone by the supreme court – most people probably thought that society had moved along, that it was a settled issue but it ignores a significant portion of the population that are reactionary in their nature who bide their time and wait for the opportunity to reverse progress made. Keep in mind that the overturning of Roe vs Wade by the supreme court was a 50+ year concerted effort by the religious right to overturn the ruling (the religious right agenda is a lot more than just overturning Roe vs Wade) – they continued fighting and they struck the moment when large portions of the electorate convinced themselves that it was a settled issue and that the issue of abortion being overturned in the 2016 election was simply fear mongering rather than reality – unfortunately for those who took what they thought was settled ruling for granted quickly found out that the religious right had patiently played the long game and eventually got what they wanted.

  • Things are settling down.

    Today was uneventful at work and then afterwards I went for a 17.4km walk which was done in under 3 hours – I like to keep track of time so that I maintain a decent pace so then I get the most out of the exercise. I was lucky in that when I came back it just started spitting and now around an hour later it is now raining. The big focus for the next 16 weeks is to focus on getting as close to my goal of below 100kg before the end of the year – I may not get there but I’m hoping to get as close to it as possible.

    The order that I placed has shipped via DHL coming direct from China to New Zealand – it says it’ll arrive on 27 August but I have a feeling that DHL will probably deliver it earlier based on my experience so it may arrive on Monday or Tuesday next week and if so mum and I will pop down to PB Tech to pick up a monitor, keyboard and mouse – I’m tempted to get a monitor that uses USB-C so then i can use the monitor as a hub which should reduce the amount of clutter on the desk. Another thing I’m hoping to grab is some shelves so that I can put the printer on the bottom shelf and on the top shelf the scanner so it tidies it all up. If it all ends up working out well I may consider getting myself one because it is great value for the amount of power that can be contained in such a small package.

    I’m gradually getting used to using the Samsung phone and finding that the lack of integration isn’t a major issue given that everything is sitting the cloud and Samsung Files allows me to download whole directories, such as my music collection, from my Google Drive to my phone which avoids the need to fluff around with finding a MTP synchronisation app. I’m still tossing up whether I should get a Samsung television that is being offered through Mercury Energy which will fit into the Samsung SmartThings ecosystem. At the moment even though I’ve now got a blended/heterogenous ecosystem the problem with Windows is that it still has many rough edges that need addressing but I’m in no hurry.

    Today macOS 15.6.1 was released to address a security vulnerability that is being exploited (link) which probably explains why 15.7 hasn’t been released – it probably won’t be released until the iPhone announcement along with the iOS 26 release date. Mimestream 1.8 was released but I’m still holding off for at least the non-IMAP push to be implemented but at this stage the web app Google provides is a pretty awesome experience to the point that web apps these days pretty much feel as though they’re native given all the all the technologies that have been developed that make using apps as responsive as using a native app such as changing directoris, creating labels, being able to drag and drop files into specific labels or a directory.

    The Pixel 10 has been released along with the Pixel Watch 4 and other products – it’ll be interesting to see what happens once they’re released and I’ll see whether it is worth it when compared to the Samsung S25 Ultra that I have at the moment. When it comes to how well Zen 5 compares to the M4:

    At some point the battery life gets to a certain number of hours that for the vast majority of people, primarily people such as myself who browse the internet, use productivity apps etc, the massive number of hours of battery life becomes rather meaningless. I’m unsure what is happening in the land of Intel given all the drama that is unfolding but AMD appears to have their ‘eye on the prize’. Over on Tom’s Hardware there is an article regarding Zen 6 details and much more at their 2025 Financial Analyst Day on Tuesday, November 11, 2025, in New York City (link). It’ll be interesting to see the release dates given that the rumours I’ve read online put it end of 2026 or beginning of 2027 which will include a die shrink along with architectural improvements which will make for interesting reading once those details are made publicly available.

    The one thing that is interesting is the nVidia SoC aimed at the desktop market and beyond which has been delayed – Microsoft appears to be dragging their feet in regards to Windows so are we going to see further delays or maybe a special release of Windows 11 next year that adds support or maybe big under the hood changes for 26H2? I guess we’ll need to see what happens with Qualcomm’s developer conference and whether we’ll see a Surface laptop refresh as well – as I’ve noted, there are plenty of sales at the moment with the current ARM based Surface Laptop which makes me wonder whether Microsoft is clearing inventory before they announce a Surface laptop refresh.