Well, that was a long week, a six day week with one day off – hopefully when my pay comes through next week that the extra dollars will make the fortnight feel a whole lot better. It’s taken a while for me to get over my flu – almost three weeks and I’ve still got a bit of coughing but nothing like the ‘I’m going to cough up a lung’ that had the sound of someone coughing who smoked 3 packets of cigarettes per day. I’m going to work from hope this coming week primarily because I only have $3 on my snapper so I’ll give my boss a heads up that I’ll be all good to come in the following week.
As much as working from allows me to sit in my pjs all day there is the mental health aspect of getting out of the house and socialising – sometimes I catch myself turning into a hermit so I have to remind myself to get out of the house of my days off to get some exercise, maybe head to the shops and chill out. Now that the weather is good I might head down on my day off to the local dutch bakery to get some savoury muffins and a mochachino. It’s the saving grace of where I live, I’m within walking distance of a bakery which makes me thankful that at least where I live we don’t have the sort of car centric suburban development which would make something I take for granted a real pain the backside.
Well, it’s the start of a new year and things are looking good so far – the focus this year isn’t about trying to make big changes but instead making incremental improvements because it is easy to get overwhelmed then eventually throw ones hands up in the air because it feels like one is fighting a losing battle. I have created a list but ordered them from most important to least important then gradually working my way through that. For example, at the most important is getting my scooter back on the road which means getting two new tyres, oil change plus any other serving required along with updating my registration (at the moment it is on hold, I wasn’t going to renew it if I wasn’t able to use it). Once that is sorted out I’ll then move onto my next goals – sorting out my wardrobe and finding out where I stand on a variety of different clothing I have then draw up a plan from there.
It’s been a couple of months since I made the switch to Firefox (for both my Macs as well as my smartphone) and the experience has been great – the experience with uBlock Origin is top notch as well which is why I think that 2024 will be the year that Firefox gains market share. I don’t see if grabbing a massive market share but I could imagine over the next few years that power users and those technically inclined will make that move especially as it becomes clear that Google won’t be kicking the can further down the road, that the dates for deprecating and removing MV2 support as set in stone. The limitations of MV3 have been well documented by uBlock Origin developers (link) and there have been some movement with adding some of the missing functionality (link) but it is pretty problematic that those who are driving the MV3 development, who ultimately have the final say, have very little or no experience in writing content blocking extensions based on the sort of dismissive attitude to adding missing functionality to declarative net request or suggesting things such as limits that are so low that it is clear they’ve never used a content blocker in their life.
It’s difficult for Google to be taken seriously as it holds the line that MV3 is being pushed for privacy and security reasons when you deliberately cripple and functionality and fight tooth and nail to push back against those proposing improvements in the declarative net request api to close the functionality gap between MV2 and MV3. Maybe, just maybe, the onus should fall on the end user to do their homework before installing an extension from an unknown developer because sure, you could make browsers 100% safe by crippling the extension api so it features are limited or just remove it entirely then keep people completely safe but at what cost? it’s like the argument for the app store, sure, it keeps people safer but at what cost and at what point does the user take on the responsibility of being responsible for the decisions they make regarding how they use their device?
I was watching the following video from PBS:
What frustrated me is that they never define what is a liberal, what is a conservative, what is Republican, what is a Democrat then when it is bought up at the round table the definitions were purely on the basis of social issues with economics never touched on, no health, education, social welfare etc. There was an opportunity to have a fruitful discussion by getting down into the weeds but it was never touched on other than at the most superficial level. As long as there are superficial discussions such as what took place then it shouldn’t be surprising that these sorts of divisions keep widening while charlatans take advantage of these divisions to grift and graft their way off the back of uniformed voters whose voting patter is that of a pavlovian response to stimulus rather than an action that is consciously undertake after careful review of the evidence provided. Maybe sometime in the future I’ll write a more exhaustive post regarding the problems I see in the US political system and possible solutions.
Firefox 121 was released recently with a massive laundry list of features that developers have been clamouring for and the Firefox developers have been working on as part of the web compat project such as the :has pusedo class along with many others (link). What I think is also extraordinary is the giant leap in functionality at has been recently merged into the Firefox nightly (link) for example the Web Codecs (video) went from 54.7% to 89.3% so at the moment overall both Firefox and Safari are neck and neck on 97.1% and 97.6% respectively. Long story short it appears that 20 February 2024 will be when a lot of the work merged into the nightly will hopefully appear in the mainstream release. I’ve updated the Firefox installed on my smartphone and everything is working wonderfully on there too. I really wish that there was some way to buy official Firefox merch as a way of showing support for the project.
It is interesting that as one gets older the sorts of things that I would obsess over/focus my attention on are no longer something I care about. I used to be a real tech enthusiast particularly when it came to having the latest smart phone, laptop, desktop, equipment, the novelty of having the newest technology but now I’ve kind of gotten to the point of being ‘over it’ now that other priorities have come to the forefront. With these new priorities I am forced to rethink what my spending priorities are in the new especially if one considers that I’ll be travelling through Europe in June for a month in 2024. There are also things that I need to do around the house such as replacing my bed frame and potentially my mattress as well and then there is the fact that I need to replace my work shirts because at the moment they look pretty worse for wear, new shoes, underwear, socks etc. so as a result one has to triage.
Around a week ago Nothing released Nothing OS 2.5 Beta 1 for Nothing Phone 1 (public beta, Nothing OS 2.5 based on Android 14) (link) and based on the fact that Nothing 2.5 Beta for Nothing Phone 2 was released on 11 October 2023 which was then released on 15 December (along side the beta for the Nothing Phone 1). I don’t think it’ll take as more than 2 months to get it working on the Nothing Phone 1 so I wouldn’t be surprised if we ended up seeing it being released towards the end of January 2024 or sometime in February 2024 but then again that assumes no platform specific bugs appear.
Back to work on Boxing Day along with some extra hours over new years which help with the savings – looking forward to a new year filled with many positive changes taking place.
Admittedly I am late to the party but Apple released updates for all their platforms but the more interesting aspect to this is the progress that Safari is making in terms of fixing bugs and improved compliance with the work being done with the Interop 2023 team (link) (link). The interesting part is how a few bug fixes in combination with work being done by AdGuard Safari Extension developers is producing a more consistent content blocking experience where as in previous version of Safari I would routinely find that ads would be slipping through. It’ll be interesting to see what next version of Safari will be like given the stuff that has been added over the last year and can be tried out in the Safari Technology preview. For example, in a year Safari 16.2 passed 67.3% of tests over on wpt.fyi to now around 91-92% for Safari 17.2 (on Safari Technology Preview 184 it is sitting at 97%).
End of the year get to together is fast approaching and the good part of all this is I’ve been able to pick up some overtime from work which will give me some extra money along with picking up a lieu day. Things are finally getting back on track and part of this is saving up for spending money when I go over to Europe, the UK and Ireland – the travel and accomodation is all taken care of so now it is a matter of putting some money on my travel card. I am tempted to start buying up Euros and British Pounds when the price is good so then if there are any currency swings that aren’t in my favour I would have at least got some put aside when the price was good.
Next year I’m going to organise a servicing for my scooter along with updating my registration because at the moment I didn’t think it was worth paying for a rego if I’m not going to use the bike so I put it on hold. When you put your rego on hold if you renew it in 3 months then you have to pay for those months on hold where as if you renew after 3 months then it is from the day you renew. The big thing next year will be the company moving in to Wellington so I’ll be choosing to take in the train because there are too many crazies on the road at the moment so I’d sooner keep myself and avoiding running into such folk. With that being said, it can be annoying when I’m trying to do grocery shopping by catching the bus particularly on Sunday so that will be one thing I’m happy that I won’t have to deal with once I get my scooter up and running.
One of the things I hadn’t realised until a few nights ago was how much more expensive on peak fares were. The price had always never occurred to me because I work 1130 to 2000 and 1330 to 2200 so when I go to work and return it is always in the off peak hours so I’m only paying $1.51 one way where as if I go into Wellington on peak it costs $5.52 but off peak it is $2.76 using snapper.
The powers that be have decided to scrap the $3 billion ferry and infrastructure plan put forward by Kiwirail and although $3 billion sounds like a lot of money one has to take into consideration that a ship can be in service for 20 years (I’m sure these ones will be a lot longer given that they’re modern designs) so if you break it down then it works out to be $150 million per year. Lets take a more pessimistic costing and round it up to $200 million per year to include interest then the amount is still going to be cheaper than the tax cut the government is going to give to property speculators who are buying up existing housing and turning potential home owners into renters for life. I can’t help but get the feeling that this will be yet another ‘penny wise but pound foolish’ move by our new government and unfortunately the voters will find out in the future when Labour comes in once again to clean up the short sighted mess created by the three headed hydra (National, ACT and NZ First).
Once again Harry has put out a tour de force on an issue of plagiarism along with a second video pointing how a prominent YouTuber (according to the videos author) just made stuff up (or a less polite way he was rectum plucking rumination from their nether regions and presenting them as fact) because the narrative was more important than what the facts actually say.
I’ve been on the internet long enough to see how these sorts of situations turn out and each time they start there are many opportunities for the parties involved to deal with the situation they have found themselves in by backing out with at least a minuscule amount of reputation still in tact. The problem is that I find is that those who do get themselves into this situation convince themselves that they’re the smartest one in the room, that they can outsmart everyone, that they have a silver tongue and can talk themselves out of any trouble (see recent reports of how Sam Bankman-Fried cannot stop talking (link) as an example of this “I can talk my way out of anything”). Part of this delusion is fuelled by the individual surrounding themselves with people who are ‘yes men’ and defend them whenever there is any criticism being made. One of the golden rules of the internet that I’ve always lived by is “someone out there is always going to be smarter than you” – that doesn’t mean you need to be perfect but you should at least live your life in good faith and when you screw up you should admit it, make amends, demonstrate contrition then move on.
Regarding plagiarism, for me it is like winning a computer game by cheating. Sure, you might get to the end and win but the win doesn’t feel satisfying because part of the process of winning is overcoming obstacles and that feeling of success that comes from knowing you have overcome it all through grit, determination and hard work. The whole process is the feeling of triumph of eventually accomplishing what you set out to achieve and achieving it where as if you cheat, you have won but it feels hollow, you feel like a fraud, an imposter who doesn’t deserve it (that is assuming that the individual has a moral compass and is capable of feeling guilt).
It is interesting how watching certain content creators give me bad vibes in much the same way that a car covered in dents driving down the road gives you the vibe that you should steer clear of it – you’re unsure how that car got so many dents but it is best no to find out. Many of the claims being made by those who make videos are opinion being passed off as fact or simply passing off falsehoods as facts because it serves the interest of the narrative they’re trying to build rather than it being the result of it being factually accurate.
It’s been over a month since making the move to Firefox due to the Chrome development team becoming increasingly hostile to end users and their ability to run content blocking extensions by creating a crippled extension framework in the name of ‘security and privacy’. The one thing you quickly learn as you get older is to be sceptical of those who claim that they’re doing something in the name of ‘security and privacy’ in much the same way when politicians start to take away your privacy and individual rights either in the name of national security or some moral crusade that believe they’re fighting on behalf of. With that being said, it is important not to become paranoid and end up down the rabbit’s hole only to end up with the real loonies such as the anti-vaxxers, COVID deniers etc. but a healthly level of scepticism is always warranted when those in power make decisions then try to justify it in a paternalistic way.
Next year at the end of May 2024 I am looking at travelling to France then through Great Britain on a guided tour and part of that has been making sure I have enough hours for the trip which means I’ve cancelled the extended time over Christmas which is ok since Monday and Tuesday are my days off which are also Christmas day and Boxing day which is good enough – I might ask my boss whether I can work from home over Christmas and New Years. I’ve also decided to not take the day off before I fly out along with giving me an extra day after I come back which saves 32 hours. Long story short, I’m now only 8 hours short which can easily be fixed up by working a few holidays to make some extra money and a lieu day.
When it comes to finances, things are going very well, things are back on track and although it is going to be a tough year ahead I believe that ‘short term pain for long term gain’ will pay off in the long run if it means that I can focus on putting a good amount of money aside in my Kiwisaver for retirement – although I have a feeling I’ll try to work as long as I can to keep myself occupied. The other part is getting into good health, losing some weight which will help when travelling and then finally if everything remains on track then the end of next year there will be the Pixel 9 and I’ll upgrade my phone to that assuming something remarkable didn’t happen such as iCloud allowing more than 3 email addresses per domain or by some miracle Apple fixes up the extension framework shortcomings that makes running uBlock Origin on Safari impossible because of the missing functionality that uBlock Origin needs so that it can run.
We’ve all probably heard about Elon Musk and the message he sent to advertisers. Personally I think that Ari Melber is being far to generous as to the motivations behind what Elon said when he was interviewed at the New York Times DealBook Summit. I’m a great believer in Occam’s razor – “the simplest answer is usually the correct one” and in the case of what has taken place we see an overgrown child showing defiance to what perceives are the advertisers punishing him like a parent punishes and unruly child when they get out of line. What is his response to this? he believes they’ll eventually capitulate in the belief that not being on the platform hurts them more than it hurts himself which is the equivalent of a child threatening to hold their breath if they don’t get their own way. It truly is amazing how people put him on a pedestal when he has the maturity of a mushroom and an emotional intelligence of an orange.
If he cannot see the link between a toxic platform and why brands don’t want to be associated with him and his platform’s toxicity then it appears that simply either doesn’t have a clue or he sees himself as a victim (like many conservatives do although he strenuously claims he’s a centrist (which we all know is code for conservative (link))) when the situation moves from the ‘fucking around’ to the ‘finding out’ phase but rather than accept responsibility he claim’s he is a victim of an orchestrated campaign against little ole him. The problem is that in any normal universe he would have fallen face first into a wall but unfortunately he has enablers who keep funding this lunacy but that is quite alright with me because I’m over on Mastodon where such idiocy doesn’t take place.
Below are two videos talking about the fiscal direction of New Zealand and changes – watch both of them then compare what they have said, now that they’re in government, when compared to what was said on the campaign trail because I think what you’re going to find is that the sort of rhetoric about cutting large number of public servants and spending has quickly found what happens when rhetoric slams head first with reality – it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise that reality ends up winning in the end no matter how much you’d like that not to be the case.
There was big talk about reducing the core public service head count by fifteen thousand but now we’re seeing a realisation that a slash ‘n burn approach will have a damaging impact on the government to be able to govern – yes, even if you’re a ‘classical liberal’ party you need public servants to implement your policy, they don’t just magically happen at the wave of a magic wand then ta-da it happens. What you’ll probably see is a hiring freeze, move people around to different positions within the public service where there is the need for more staff, offering voluntary redundancy and allow a head count reduction through a combination of natural attrition and maybe investments into more technology to encourage the use of more self service options.
The incoming finance minister is also going to have to look at the books and it appears that the sort of talk similar to that of David Seymour is going to confront reality when the reports start rolling in regarding each of the ministries in terms of budgets and head counts. If you want to improve productivity then you’ll need to make investments which means front loading costs for long term savings, are the government willing to do that? if so, that will potentially mean a larger budget deficit in the short term, are they happy to explain to the public that the deficit maybe large over the next few years but savings may not appear until 2-3 years later?
As for the ‘repeal amendments to the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990 and regulations before March 2024’ (link), It would be so much easier if Luxon just took the libertarian position in regards to smoking laws by saying “Should we ban alcohol too? Yes smoking kills, but that’s the choice of the individual.” As someone who is economically centre left but socially libertarian, it really rubs me the wrong way when I see politicians going on moral crusades (along side politicians who pass laws that make themselves feel good but do little in the way of addressing a problem or it ends up exacerbating the problem) in the belief that they have some sort of mandate to ‘protect the little people from making decisions I disagree with’. Smokers already pay taxes on tobacco that more than offset the cost of smoking and even if one were to imagine a scenario where everyone who smokes stops smoking tomorrow then there is the additional cost of living longer in the form of pensions and the loss of revenue from the loss of tobacco exercise tax. Yes, some people make choices that you and I may consider bad choices but part of living in a free society is respecting that an individual has a right to make choices that we disagree with. On a side note, the government does subsidise products that help people to give up smoking (link).
For those who haven’t been keeping up with the latest ‘trend’ on the right I’m unfortunately going to take away the small joy that you have because you didn’t know about this phenomenon. The phenomenon I am referring to is the whole ‘trad wife’ (aka ‘traditional wife’) movement and like all movements that start online it leaves me with confusion more than anything else. There is a great video that goes into detail called ‘Fundie Fridays’ where this topic was touched on.
This blog entry isn’t addressing necessarily what was covered in the video but rather using it as a jumping off point to address a weird psychology that exists on the far right of getting angry not at the people who oppose them but instead they really dislike the people who are indifferent to their lifestyle choice – neither supportive or condemning but rather simply not caring (which is where I fit in – I simply don’t care, it’s their life, they can do whatever they want).
So what do they resort to? playing the victim by creating scenarios in their head of some imagined opponent so then they feel as though their life has meaning because they’re not only fighting for something but they’re also fighting an opponent(s) – the ever present feminist who is around every corner, condemning their lifestyle choice, criticisms from randos on the internet being conflated as if they were prevailing mainstream culture even though the very lifestyle that they’ve chosen isn’t a rebellion against the status quo but instead the re-enforcement of it. It reminds me of Paul Joseph Watson quip about ‘conservativism being the new punk’ when in reality the very views he holds onto are re-enforcing the status quo.
Side note: If your sense of security about the lifestyle you have embraced is derived based on feeling as though you’re rebelling against the status quo then essentially you’ve allowed the status quo to define you by virtue of your identity based on reacting in opposition rather than a wholly original identity created on its own terms where you do not feel the need to look for third party re-enforcement.
Once again we have conservatives in the US complain when they don’t get the outcome they wanted (link) while being being obscenely hypocritical in the process. Does anyone remember almost two decades ago when conservatives were touting the merits of democracy regarding same sex marriage and how it should be left up to the voter in the form of the state by state referendums that took place? yeah, I remember that, funny how conservatives love to ride the tide of populism when they believe they’ll get the result they want but then decry it when they don’t get what they want – enter Rick Santorum and his never ending avalanch of half baked recons and those who engage in apologietics everytime he opens his mouth.
His grizzle and whinge comes from a position that conservatives have gerrymandered states within an inch of their life to the point now that the question isn’t a toss up between Democrats or Republicans but now it is between a horrible candidate vs a deplorable candidate in a heavily gerrymandered Republican district (aka the actual election occurs at the primaries because who ever ends up winning that is a shoo-in to represent that area). The one saving grace in all this is the fact that there are a few states that have the ability to bypass this organised undermining of democracy in favour of binding referendums where the people are able to make their input known regarding a standalone policy. What has happened so far has been conservatives assuming that ‘the state is red so therefore it is going to go the way we want it to’ ignores the fact that politics isn’t a binary aka “if I vote for this party it doesn’t mean I agree with all the party policies’.
Now, this has been particularly interesting when it came to traditionally ‘red states’ who have voted for reproductive rights in the recent referendums. With the these referendums what it shows is that the number of politically social conservatives are a minority with a fair amount of crossover between those who are libertarian leaning but vote Republican along with those who vote Democratic. This is where I think alliances can be built as we’ve seen in New Zealand where ACT and the Green Party have worked on legislation around drug reform and more which both parties have common cause. In the case of the US there is also the ability to move the envelop and bypass gerrymandering in favour of getting people behind population legislation and what I hope is that the recent abortion wins are an indication of future changes such as dealing with gerrymandering resulting in competitive districts that force the encumbered to do more than just stand up right, maintain a pulse then throw some red meat to their base.
Side note: Here is an article of conservatives boasting when the referendum goes their way (link) (link), I didn’t hear them complaining about how ‘this isn’t a way to run a country’ when they were on the winning side. It’s almost like it’s a variation of the Trumpian “if we win then the election was legitimate, if we lose then the election was rigged”.
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