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

  • And it is raining again.

    Yeah, it is raining again – I was hoping that I could have some walking in but every time I get myself prepared it starts raining so in the end I decided I’m going to jump into bed, watch some television shows and update my blog while I’m at it. During the day there was an alert sent out by the civil defence to send out an alert (link) – something I wouldn’t forget about too easily after the racket it made.

    Apple has released updates for all its platforms with quite a few security fixes not to mention changes in macOS 15.6 (link) but the big bug fix I have been waiting for which has arrived in Safari 18.6 is this (link):

    Fixed 'allowAllRequests' for declarativeNetRequest. (151015324).

    The issue that existed with Safari prior to 18.6 was an issue where websites which made use of Cloudflare (where it verifies whether you’re human) kept hanging on that page with the tick box not coming up. I’ve downloaded and installed the latest Testflight version of uBlock Origin Lite and it is now working with Safari 18.6. If you are using Safari and want a good content blocker then sign up for the Testflight test builds because in my experience it has been pretty stable but then again I only enable all the main filters (I don’t enable any of the additional language based filters). Still more issues that need resolving but I’m hoping that it’ll be something we’ll see in a 26.x updates given that the bug report notes that they’re still working on fixing web extension support not fixed in the release that is being prepared for a stable public release.

    On a side note uBlock Origin Lite 2025.728.1406 has been released ot the Chrome extensions store – I just noticed then that my browser had updated the extension. Everything going well so far, AdGuard hasn’t been updated but going by the github notes there appears to be a lot of activity regarding bug fixes so I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up seeing another beta build being made available.

    An update for Chrome 138 which released today which updated it from Version 138.0.7204.169 to 138.0.7204.184 – the update is available on my Windows work computer and on my personal Mac computers but the update hasn’t made its way to Android yet (138.0.7204.179 will be version number for Android). There were 4 security fixes (they don’t make the details of those security vulnerabilities until there has been enough time for people to update their browser to the latest secure version) but I assume because they haven’t pushed it out to Android as quickly then it maybe due to the fact that Android’s built in security already does a pretty good job mitigating it until the update is made available.

  • Rainy night, back to work Wednesday.

    It was drizzling a bit but I felt the need to get out of the houe to at least go for a small walk – while I was out I put on a load of washing so that by the time I got back it ws all washed. A few more loads later I caught up on my clothes washing along with changing the sheets, pillow cases and duvet cover then after that I got all of last weeks clothes folded and the put away along with meal preparing for the work week. The chia seeds are in the fridge then paired up with some Greek yoghurt provides a low calorie but satisfying meal that will get me through to dinner.

    I was hoping that Apple would release the x.6 update to their platforms but it didn’t happen (it was an outside chance of it happening given that they don’t normally release updates on Monday US time) so hopefully on Wednesday along side a Chrome update that there will be an update for their current platforms. I’ve been following the beta releases of the next platforms and there appears to be a lot of progress but what I do hope is that they take their time – if it doesn’t appear until November then I’m all good because I’d sooner a release where the bugs that exist are really niche corner cases than having a release made to meet an arbitrary deadline only for it to be filled with bugs that should have been fixed up before it was released.

    Daily writing prompt
    Describe one habit that brings you joy.
    View all responses

    Getting prepared for work the night before – being able to start the week with a clean slate with everything up to date and not having to worry about doing anything after work or before work. Part of that prep includes getting all the washing up to date, tidy the kitchen, put the recycling and rubbish out on the kerb to be picked up in the morning, organise a meal prep so that when I need to have morning tea, afternoon tea or dinner that everything is ready to go (I have a limited amount of time for my break so I’d sooner spend the time relaxing and not having to think about getting things done). I guess the joy I get is knowing that my life is a little less stressed because there is a routine rather than chaos.

  • Productive grocery shopping.

    I went off to the supermarket tonight to pick up the necessities – life is so much easier when you write a list rather than flying blind then hoping when you get home that you’ll have what you need for the coming week. I also bought a few extra things while I was there – glass containers to meal prep chia seeds soaking in water so that the next day I can add some greek yogurt on top so then I always have a meal ready to go when I want it thus reducing another barrier or ‘excuse’ I may try to create for myself. I’ve also bought myself a larger coffee mug because the one I have now isn’t all that big one I got from the store is around 1 1/2 times larger than what currently have – will be good on those cold days when I want to have a larger drink to keep my warm which avoids having to leave my desk when I’m trying to get work completed.

    The Greek yoghurt at the supermarket was a good price so I grabbed two 1kg containers that I can portion out when I have my chia seed breakfast in the morning along with the milk with extra protein that have with some coffee concentrate added to it (I grabbed a couple of bottles so I always have some in the cupboard). I’ve finally worked through the first mince today, the second mince I’m going to cook up the whole lot however what I’m going to do is set aside half of it for the next day since I’m not interested in having the whole lot since it would be a huge feed.

    Tonight I decided to have a rest – I’ve thought it would be best that one day a week, normally on Monday, I’ll have a day of relaxing. It’s good to have a routine but it is also necessary to ensure that life doesn’t turn into a miserable existence. Tomorrow I’ll go for a walk but I think that a diet with a bit of variety while keeping in my calorie count will make things a lot better – the big focus I’ve had in the last couple of weeks is not just on calories, carbs and protein but also getting the good fats like omega 3, vitmiins and other minerals that improve ones quality of life.

    uBlock Origin Lite 2025.725.1450 has now been made available on the Chrome extension store with installations being updated. So far I’ve found a slight performance improvement and it is doing a top notch job at blocking content I don’t want to see. As I’ve noted in the past, I was sceptical that MV3 would result in reliable content blocking but I’ve been happily proven wrong. It’ll be interesting to see whether updates for the current Apple platforms will be released on Tuesday NZ Time (Monday US Time) – generally it is done on Tuesday US Time (Wednesday NZ Time) but sometimes there is an early release in much the same way that Google will occasionally push out an update early particularly if there are some important security updates that need to be pushed out asap because there are currently exploits in the wild being reported back to them.

    On a side note, for dinner I had nachos – the key to cooking good mince is low and slow; 500g of mince then two cans of tomato, onion and capscium, add the mushrooms the slowly cooking it so it reduces the amount of water to the point that you get this wonderful combination of mince, mushroom, tomato, onion and capscium. During that process I add some chilli flakes along with steak seasoning (which tastes pretty much like the seasoning that comes as part of the Old El Paso taco kits) along with some salt and petter to season. All of that was topped off with some Tatua sour cream on top along with some corn chips – it was a great meal.

  • Writing up my grocery list.

    I’m finally going to be organised and actually have a grocery list rather than popping down to the local supermarket and hoping that I remember all the things I need to purchase. I’ve also finally started making use of the bag of chia seeds that I purchased – one of those things I purchased as an impulse buy but never really got around to using it because I couldn’t think of where I could use it. Today I finally made use of the chia seeds by putting them into a small bowl (15ml spoon) then I put in 120ml of water then let it soaked for a few hours as it turned into a jelly like consistency – I’ll be buying some Greek yoghurt where I’ll stir it in. Long story short, I’m expanding my repertoire of food I can choose from by investigating things that are healthy but never tried before – the variety making things not as boring knowing that I don’t have an excuse when it comes to options when I am hungry and want something to eat.

    I’ve been following what is happening and I really do feel for those who have been laid off from their job at Intel – the layoffs aren’t just a few here and there, not replacing people when they leave but rather huge reduction in their head count from 108,900 down to 75,000. It appears that after years of share buybacks rather than investing into maintaining its manufacturing and product lead it has come back to bite them in the backside (just as we’ve seen with Boeing and before that the financialisation of GE which has resulted in it being broken up). There appears to be a lot of scaling back of new fabs, focusing on working towards a unified architecture rather than three different core types which is adding complexity and cost, rationalising non-core parts of the business and whether it is worth spending money in areas where Intel has no chance of either matching or beating the market leader plus more.

    I really do hope that Intel turn the ship around because the consumer benefits when there is robust competition not only between Intel and AMD but also when there is robust competition between the fabs run by TSMC, Samsung and Intel resulting in more efficient chips, greater performance etc. I mentioned in a previous post that Intel is working on creating a unified core however it’ll be interesting to see whether we see it being bought forward given that it wasn’t scheduled (based on the rumours) until around 2028-29. What will also be interesting is to see whether Intel spin off their fab to create a joint venture with either Samsung or TSMC and in return the new joint venture will have a secure customer for a set period of time in much the same way that AMD had an arrangement with Globalfoundries when they spun off their fab business.

    One thing I’ve noticed is that the Microsoft Surface Laptop line have been on special more frequently so that could possibly be an indication that Microsoft are wanting to work thtough the stock they have before they do their refresh of their Surface Laptop line up when the new ARM SoCs from Qualcomm are announced. What will also be interesting would be to see what happens with the nVidia based SoC regarding Microsoft adding support to it in Windows 11 25H2 and when it comes to APX support whether Microsoft has some prerelease hardware that they’re testing on so that the release of Windows 11 25H2 has APX support.

    I’ve been following the latest beta releases of Apple’s next platforms – I have to admit, the excitement that I would have in the past has pretty much evaporated where as the obsession with AI by most of silicon valley has resulted in the oxygen being sucked out of the room resulting in other priorities that need addressing being neglected (see my never ending moaning about Safari). Safari Technology Preview 224 has been released (link) with a modest list of bug fixes and improvements but appears that there is still a long way to go to getting bugs in the declarative net request implementation sorted out. I really want to be optimistic about the next release of Safari I also have to be realistic having been let down on a near constant basis.

    Chrome 139 will be stable in a couple of days then a week after that it’ll be made available for mainstream availability (link). Hopefully by either Monday or Tuesday the uBlock Origin Lite release will be available – I’m not completely up with the play but it appears recent changes should result in an improved content blocking experience based on how they’ve ‘Merge all :style() filters with procedural filters’ plus a few other bug fixes. I’m also keeping an eye on AdGuard as well – competition is always good so it’ll be interesting to see whether the AdGuard team is working on AdGuard for the next version of Safari – making use of declarative net request rather than the native content blocking API.

  • The day went quickly.

    Work today went fairly quickly and for the last couple of hours I had some time off answering the phones to get some office work done. If I had the choice of not having to answer a phone all day and instead focus on paperwork then I’d be a very happy chap – the same reason why, when I worked at the bank, if there was the opportunity to work in a non-customer facing role I would jump at that opportunity but too bad those sorts of jobs are highly sort after and the only time a position is available is if someone leaves and the list of those applying is huge.

    I went for a walk tonight, the weather wasn’t too bad and it was fairly quiet but the fresh air felt good after being stuck inside all day – the one opportunity to get out of the house and move about. Sometimes I don’t feel motiviated but then I remind myself how good I feel after coming back from going for a 8-12km walk so I end up getting out of the house. I’m wearing my ulra baggy hoodie which allows me to cover my hands in the sleeves since I don’t have any winter gloves at the moment – that is something I need to buy myself.

    uBlock Origin Lite Version 2025.725.1450 has been made available with Microsoft Edge once again having it available in their extension store before Chrome – I assume the development team submit them both at around the same time which makes me wonder why/how Microsoft can approve extensions so much quicker than Google. Personally, I would be open to use Microsoft services if it weren’t for the arbitrary way in which certain features don’t work with business editions of Office 365 (Samsung Gallery synchronisation with OneDrive, Microsoft Phone Link only working with consumer accounts etc). It’s the one thing that keeps me in the Google ecosystem which is the fact that all accounts are the same, what works with a consumer account works with a Workspace account.

    I’ve found a new television series called ‘Sandman’ – I’ve started watching a few minutes of the first episode of the first season so it’ll be interesting to see what it’ll be like. There are a few others that I’m looking at watching – it’s funny how in the past it used to be movies that would be the main draw but these days I much prefer watching television series with ideas that are spread over several episodes or seasons where ideas can be fully developed rather than trying to squeeze everything into a single release.

  • Back to work on Saturday.

    I’m feeling a lot better after having a couple of days off – I went for a walk tonight to get some fresh air and have come home, had a shower and now in bed with the heater going with the temperature outside being 3 degrees celsius (but according to the Metservice it feels closer to 0 degrees celsius). Hopefully the winter weather isn’t going to last too long but knowing my luck when Spring then Summer comes along I’ll be complaining about the hot weather while having the fan running in my bedroom overnight.

    I checked out Ubiquiti release forums and they’ve released an early access of UniFi Gateways 4.3.0 (the gateways from Ubiquiti that don’t include UniFi Network Application built in but require either the Cloud Key or use of the subscription based cloud service) along with an early access build of firmware for the UniFi Access Point (all U7 and E7 models) but it appears that MLO hasn’t stabilised but then again I don’t see it as a major issue due to the fact that I have my 2.4GHz setup with its own network name and then the 5Ghz and 6Ghz are sharing the same network name thus leaving it up to the magic of technology to decide which frequency the device will connect using. When will it be released? I guess it depends on the feedback that the Ubiquiti engineers get from the early access participants and if it turns out to be stable enough to graduate to a release candidate it’ll be seen in the main part of the release forum and normally a week after that it is released as being stable with it being made available in a gradual roll out.

  • Feeling lousy, decided to take a day off.

    I woke up this morning, sore throat, headache and generally feeling lousy so I decided it would be best to take the day off and spend time recuperating. It’s probably a combination of the bad weather and having a couple of nights of broken sleep resulting in a weakened immune system because my body hasn’t rested enough. I’ll be relaxing at home, in the evening I’ll get some light exercise and I’ll focus on eating a good amount of vegetables and healthy food to get my body in good shape – I’ll need to see how it all turns out before making a decision to go back to work on Friday because I don’t want to promise then find out that I cannot turn up on the day resulting in problems for the team having planned on me turning up on the day.

    The some details of the Google Pixel 10 have already been leaked but rather than trying to deny it, as other companies would, Google instead have embraced it by acknowledging some of the details (link) – the full details however will be found out on 20 August 2025 (funny enough, a month later there is the usual iPhone launch event where there will also be an announcement for the release date of macOS 26 with iOS 26 normally being released a week after the iPhone event).

    It’ll be interesting to see whether the number of countries supported will be expanded – I understand that Google don’t want to step on the toes of their close partner (Samsung) but one could argue that if the people who buy the Pixel phone vs buying Samsung were a venn diagram that there would be very little overlap given that many who are go for a Samsung phone are very much invested into the broader Samsung ecosystem vs. the Pixel who are invested in the Google ecosystem (for me, I use Samsung ecosystem for the management of devices such as the Arlo security cameras (which is broken on the Google Home app when used in conjunction with a Google Workspace account), bluetooth headphones etc with Google Workspace being used for email, cloud computing etc). The longer I use the Samsung the more I see why people choose the Samsung ecosystem – it may not have the completeness of iCloud or Google Workspace but it does a good job complimenting those services without too much overlap.

    There is a new beta of uBlock Origin Lite which includes a few changes (link), will be interesting to see if those changes translate to improved performance by simplifying the way in which filters are applied. The beta also includes a beta for Safari but keep in mind that you’ll need to be running either the Safari Technology Preview or the beta release of macOS due to bugs still present in the current Safari included with macOS 15.5.

  • Another chilly evening.

    Well, it was payday today – paid all the bills and then cried over what was left over but I am reminded it could be a whole lot worse. I’m having a browse through Woolworths and still deciding whether I should order a few things or just have unexciting meals for the next few days until I’m totally finished all that I have in the freezer and cupboards to then do a fresh order from Woolworths and get it delivered rather than trying to juggle multiple bags.

    The update to Chrome was released which updated it from 138.0.7204.158 to 138.0.7204.169 – I ended up receiving the update for. my phone pretty quickly to along with the July Google Play Services was also updated as well. They were released pretty quickly which is a good indicator that there must have been some serious fixes they needed to get out to end users asap (link) (link) – so far everything is going well and Chrome 139 will be marked as stable and then released to the general public the following week.

    Funny how yesterday I was talking about the beta 4 release and it was released today – reports have been they’re still making changings to the liquid glass, trying to fine tune the right balance between the vision they announced while also ensuring that legibility is maintained. There are also reports that debugging code has been either removed or minimalised in preparation of the public beta that’ll be released to the general public.and Safari Technology Preview 224 should be getting released in the next few days so it’ll be interesting to see what improvements have been made and whether those are going to make their way into the Safari that comes with macOS and iOS 26 or whether they’ll be tagged for the first or maybe second 26.x software updates.

    I’m still folowing the Windows 11 development and it appears that the Administrator Protection maybe coming to Windows 11 25H2 but the big question is whether it’ll be enabled by default or whether it’ll be something that you’ll need to opt into. They may make it opt in because like UAC it will depend on developers updating their software so that it can operate at the lowest possible privilege rather than assuming that the user has administrator privileges. It appears that Microsoft’s focus on resilience maybe more than just a promise (anyone remember ‘secure computer’ from almost 20 years ago?) but as I’ve said on technology forum I visit, the litmus test will be when they’re confronted between either fixing a problem properly but breaking compatibility or making a half-assed fix for the sake of compatibility, it comes down to which side they’ll land on. I’d like to be optimistic and say they’ll break compatibility if it means fixing a problem and securing the operating system but past experience tells me that Microsoft values backwards compatibility even if it comes at the expense of security, stability and reliability.

    On the topic of MIcrosoft, it would be nice if Microsoft didn’t create an artificial distinction between their business and consumer cloud offerings such as the inability to link the Samsung Gallery to a business OneDrive account for reasons unknown. I say this because I’d be very much open to the idea of using Office 365 for business if it worked like a consumer account. This is the same silliness when it comes to not being able to use a work account with an XBox but what happens if the business has a place where people relax and the business wishes to buy movies or games so employees can enjoy it on a break (while being able to manage it from a single administration area rather than having to create and maintain a seperate consumer account)? I’ve never understood why some software companies trying to draw an artificial line of demarcation between ‘work’ and consumer’.

  • The start of a new work week.

    Back to work on Wednesday but tonight I went for a walk – the weather was marginally warmer and I really felt the need to get some exercise after having not done it for a couple of days. On Monday I picked up some milk and a few bottles of Pepsi Max but I kept it a small shop because I’m gradually working through the stock I already have – I’ve got some tinned tuna, meals I can heat up in the microwave and in the freezer I’ve got 2 x 500g mince that’ll I’ll cook up on my day off and add the tinned seasoned tomatoes to add some flavour (the steak seasoning that masterfoods has pretty much got the same taste as the Old El Paso seasoning packets have). I might end up grabbing some sour cream and corn chips but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.

    Apple has released a release candidates for the current release of macOS, iOS etc. which indicates that as long as there aren’t any showstopper bugs then we may either see it released towards the end of this year or possible next week on Tuesday NZ time at the earliest. Whether it is released sooner isn’t just based on whether a shopstopper bug appears but also the urgency of the update – Google sometimes push our Chrome updates a day early if there are some serious security bugs that cannot wait to be fixed because there are active exploits out there. The latest version of the Safari Technology Preview 223 is working well with uBlock Origin Lite which is available in TestFlight but I haven’t seen whether the declarative net request bugs present in Safari 18.5 have been fixed in in 18.6 since what appears in the Safari Technology Preview may take a few months before they appear in the stable version of Safari.

    It’ll be interesting to see what happens with the Beta 4 build of the upcoming platforms – although I am tempted to give the public beta a try I think I’ll hold off until the stable version is released sometime either in October or November. For me the interesting part will be the feedback regarding the whole liquid glass and whether further changes will be made – will they offer the ability to have a sliding scale of how ‘glassy’ the effect is or whether they go with a choice between the eventual standard that Apple decides or reduced transparency altogether (at the moment I have reduced transparency on both my computers).

  • A chilly day today and even chillier night.

    I slept in today and when I woke up…it was chilly and it is really chilly at the moment with the temperature sitting at 3°C so I’ve decided that I’ll stay at home, keep myself warm rather than risking the cold weather but end up getting sick as a result. I really was hoping that the weather would get better but it appears to another month to go before things start to warm up. During today I popped down to the local supermarket to pick up some chicken and coleslaw for dinner along with a couple of bottles of milk and some Pepsi Max. It’s funny, since I started walking most places or taking the bus I am forced to consider what I am buying since I’m going to have to carry it home – “yeah, I want it but do I really need it” is the question that runs through my mind when I scan what I have in the trolly and I’m left wondering whether I’ve forgotten anything.

    uBlock Origin Lite 2025.718.1921 is now available in the Chrome extensions store – I cannot work out why it takes a little but longer for Google, maybe they can take the initiative and have an app/extensions review team in New Zealand and Australia so then app/extensions can be reviewed and approved in a timely manner. I’ve also realised that I didn’t have a feature enabled in my Workspace Administration area in regards to Search and Assistant so I’ve enabled that which should allow Google Home integration to work a bit better – or at least work a bit better once the Pixel 10 Pro XL makes its way to New Zealand. I’m tempted to also get the Pixel watch while I’m at it since it’ll allow me to keep track of exercise statistics so then I can work to meet my goals.

    With each day I’m learning more about Google Workspace – understanding how things are setup by default and how that can cause problems when setting up something like a Pixel Watch. At the moment I’m using an Apple TV but I am tempted to replace the television then give mum my old one. I’ve been having a look more videos regarding the One UI on Samsung televisions and the more I see the more I like with the added benefit that it all integrates into SmartThings (which does a better job than Google Home which is still very much rough around the edges).

    Oh, and a spot of good news it appears that the UK is stepping away from demanding Apple to install a backdoor into iCloud which also impact other providers as well (link). As I’ve said in the past, always be weary of politicians who either invoke claims of an emergency or claims of protecting a particular group as a justification of acquiring more power because once that power granted it is very rarely rescinded at a later date but instead becomes normalised. Just as I am concerned about the concentration of capital in the hands of a few who then use that economic power to influence politics in service of protecting their class interests I am also concerned when I see politicians seek more power in the name of ‘the greater good’ whose arguments contain holes large enough that you can fly a A380 through.