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

  • The day is looking good.

    The day has been pretty good so far – the weather is nice with the temperature not too hot or cold which will make going for a walk after work a whole lot more enjoyable. I’ve been working my way through he speech that Marco Rubio gave at the Munich Security Conference and once I’ve watched it while taking some notes I’m going to write up a blog post regarding it. I made a post on BlueSky not too long ago making a few observations and at least from my perspective it is a reheated version of neoconservatism through the lens of the Trump administration rather than a wholly original foreign policy – it had the the sort of vibe one associates with Samuel P. Huntington book ‘Clash of Civilizations’ when listening to it.

  • End of the night power walk.

    I finished work tonight at 10pm but before I caught the train home I made a quick dash to the local New World which is around 2km from the office – in a space of around 40 minutes I was able to walk from my office, carrying my laptop bag, get into the supermarket, do my shopping then back to the train station. I only had around an hour to do it so I really had to make sure I was motoring. On a good side, I made it back to the train station and caught the last train home for the night. I wanted to get a walk in so I guess that was the easiest way to get it done with minimum fuss and bother. Would I do it again? probably not because it wasn’t particularly enjoyable when you’re carrying a whole heap of stuff while trying to rush to the supermarket.

    For dinner tonight I had a smoked fish salad and a chicken satay salad with dessert being blue berries and some fruit salad. The chicken satay salad was particularly tasty with the satay sauce having a hint of chilli in it which gave it an added bit of kick and the chicken was actually real chicken rather than the horrible tasteless chicken that are used by so many businesses these days – there is a pizza company that I am thinking of which markets has ‘seasoned chicken’ where it isn’t seasoned and it is questionable as to whether it can be classified as chicken.

    The black Impulse hoodie arrived today before I left so I put it in the wash along with my other washing. When I get new clothes I wash them first before wearing them – it is a habit I’ve gotten into years ago because I don’t know where it’s been, whether it has been sitting a warehouse for a while before it was sent out. The two remaining items I’ve ordered are coming from the United States that is coming via DHL which may take up to a couple of weeks to arrive but then again my experience has been that DHL under promise and over deliver so sometimes you get told a set amount of time but they end up delivering it sooner.

  • First day back in the office went well.

    Finished work tonight at 10pm however rather than taking the train I ended up having to take the bus replacement which wasn’t so bad after all. As for some exercise today, I got off at the train station that is 3 stops from where I live so then I could squeeze in a 2.9km walk. Sure, 2.9km isn’t a big walk but today I tracked my calories so I was already under my calorie intake for the day and some exercise at the end of the shift is always good after sitting in an office all day. Tomorrow after work I’ll go for a longer walk but apart from the recent rain and chaos I’ve stuck to the ‘going for a walk at least once a day’ goal that I set for myself.

    I’ve been watching a few videos from people who have been brave enough to install the beta release of 26.4 and there are many fixes that have been noticed but not documented. For example when it comes to iOS 26.4 they have fixed up the pin entry dialogue that had the dots pushed over to the left but now they’re back to where they were originally which is in the middle of the screen. I’m sure there are going to be more features that people will note but it appears that 26.4 will be a pretty robust update. I also had a read through Safari 26.4 beta and there are many fixes and features so it’ll be interesting to see what score the web platform test gives it when it is run against Interopt 2025.

    There has been a few announcements recently, there is an Apple event on 4 March and Google has announced their I/O event for 19-20 May. It’ll be interesting to see what is announced at these two events – will there be a refresh of the Apple TV? MacBook refresh? I guess we’ll need to wait and see. For me the interesting thing will be regarding Android 17 and whether we’ll be seeing the two part release where Android 17 has under the hood changes and then the user visible changes come later on in the year with a refresh like how they’ve done this year. WWDC is still scheduled for June so I’ll be holding out to see when it’ll be scheduled but if it is like previous years it is normally the first week in June.

  • Software update before I go to bed.

    Just out of curiosity I had a check online and it appears that Apple has released the beta testing for the 26.4 platform update. When it comes to Safari 26.4 there is a change log available which gives an insight into what will be coming when 26.4 final is released (link). Generally speaking once the list of fixes etc. are made known in the Safari 26.4 beta then the focus is about making sure there aren’t any regressions rather than the possibility of new changes occurring. My guess is that with each release they triage the features are bugs that need to be addressed so that by the time the beta release is made available that the list is more or less finalised.

    Regarding macOS 26.4 beta, tvOS 26.4 beta and iOS 26.4 beta, the change logs can be found here for macOS (link), here for iOS (link) and tvOS (link). Looking forward to seeing the improvements because at least in the macOS update there are notes of interface bugs being fixed – keeping in mind that in a lot of cases not all the bug fixes are listed so expect people to document improvements online when the developer and public beta are installed on more devices.

  • Getting back to work.

    Getting back to work on Wednesday after having a harrowing couple of days of wind, rain, more wind and more rain. I’ve had a look on the Metlink website to see whether the trains have been delayed or cancelled due to damage to the track and/or overhead power lines. It appears that everything is working normally except some schedule maintenance that’ll occur at night meaning the late train service on the Hutt Valley line will be replaced with buses. I dislike taking the bus replacement but I have to come into the office at least twice a week so I may well get the 2 days out of the way on Wednesday and Thursday rather than trying to push it off until another day.

    There is a lot of work being done when it comes to the railways and it is interesting to see how the different parties, both the opposition and those who make up the current government, are differentiating themselves after the “National Infrastructure Plan” was released today (link). It’ll be interesting to see what Labour Party infrastructure policy is particularly when you consider that NZ First, Greens and Labour agree on the need for more investment into rail where as the current National led government have been very much focused on building more roads rather than making the existing roads work a lot better (which funny enough the report said that the government should be focusing on – the majority of the money being spent on making existing infrastructure work better and the remaining funds being spent on new infrastructure).

    One of the moves that the National led government have done which I agree with is the reforming of the Resource Management Act (link) – there is no use have the world’s greatest plans only to find that those plans are continuously undermined by NIMBYs using their noise making in an attempt to block or slow down anything and everything (the alternative version of NIMBY is known as BANANA which stands for ‘Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything’). I’m hoping that with the regulatory reform changes and improved delivery that we’ll finally get the infrastructure built at a reasonable price in a reasonable amount of time as to avoid the current situation where we spend a lot but get very little in return (see the cancelled ‘light rail’ project in Auckland whose price just kept going up).

    Daily writing prompt
    What bores you?
    View all responses

    What bores me are people who engage in politics not so that they can take an interest in developing policy then advocating for such policies but instead those who use politics as a vehicle to virtue signal – to morally posture about how they’re better than anyone not in their political party rather than doing something productive. It is something I see in US politics where liberals will claim to be progressive but then do the complete opposite – having a Black Lives Matter sign on their front yard and yet they’ll fight tooth and nail to oppose zoning law changes to allow affordable dense housing or change the way in which schools are funded as to ensure all children have access to the same quality of education. The New York Times not to long ago talked about this hypocrisy found in this video (link) and it is something that liberals in the US need to think long and hard about (I say liberals because left wing people already know about the problems and how to solve them).

    One of the other major things that annoy me is when I hear US commentators talk about how so-and-so politician is a ‘policy wonk’ and my first reaction to that is “shouldn’t every politician be a policy wonk? if they’re not interested in policy then why are they even a politician in the first place?”. This is the reason why nothing gets done, because congress are filled with hangers on and oxygen thieves who aren’t there to do something productive but instead to use congress as a soap box to further their career and then after they retire then they get a show on Fox News or some other god forsaken right wing media outlet.

    Coming back to the original question, why does it bore me? because it is completely and utterly unproductive and if I am going to be unproductive I might as well stay at home watching television because then at least I’m being authentic in my indifference rather than going through the motions to give the illusion of caring.

    On a side issue, the other reason I can’t stand performative politics is the damage that it does to the democratic process. When ordinary people see that those involved in politics are involved for their own self interest then the legitimacy of the system is called into question. This is how a charlatan like Donald Trump is voted in because of politicians are not taking their job seriously so in the end large numbers of people throw their hands up in the air and take a chance with someone who markets themselves as an ‘outsider’ and promises to ‘shake things up’ and ‘drain the swamp’ (even though they’re very much part of and benefit from the establishment).

  • A relaxing day at home.

    After getting through Sunday night and all of Monday, I thought there was a meeting but then I realised the meeting wasn’t until 2 March but I guess it wasn’t all bad because I double checked before heading to the venue. For lunch I had some pumpkin soup along with some fresh garlic bread and for a small dessert I had some boysenberries. The weather has improved and looking out for the 7 day forecast on the Metservice website it appears things are getting back to normal but given how things can change at a moments notice I wouldn’t get too comfortable.

    Around where I live we didn’t have a massive amount of flooding other than around 4 inches of flooding in the drive way but apart from that the road I live on and the road my road connects to wasn’t flooded. Regarding other areas, there are a few streets close to where I live where the outcome has been pretty bad due to a stream overflowing and the water getting up to the height of the door handle on a sedan car. I haven’t gone exploring out there because I think the last think those doing recovery work want is someone rubbernecking and causing more problems. Hopefully things will get back normal by around Wednesday when I head back into the office for a couple of days.

    The electricity went off just after midnight so I checked out Wellington Electricity to see what the repair schedule is – at the time I saw the repair time being 17 February at 6:00 but I had incorrectly read it as 6pm when it was 6am. The whole of the Hutt Valley had gone offline so I wasn’t expecting it to be fixed that soon especially one considers how bad the weather was and if the outage was caused by trees falling etc it doesn’t make much sense to do any repairs until after the the weather had improved.

    I was watching a video debunking the idea that young people are going back to the church:

    It reminds me of the book ‘The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics’ that we’re going through a process of not only secularisation but also desecularisation. What do I mean by that? as a society we’re secularising in terms of becoming less religious or at least affiliated with religious institutions while those who are remaining religious are being more intense in their religiosity. The other part of the equation is the rate of retention over the medium and long term – it is one thing to get converts, the honeymoon period of doing something new but the question is whether it can be sustained over the long term or does it end up being like the list of other things they got a sudden interest in and years later have moved on from.

    Regarding the secularisation process, the liberal main line denominations have been hit particularly well over the years and the usual refrain I see on YouTube from the more conservative wing of their denomination is the claim that it is liberalism that has caused it. Like a lot of things in life I would say that there is an element of truth but you’re just as likely to lose members if your church simply becomes a force of reactionary religiosity. The problem with liberalism isn’t liberalism per se but if you aren’t willing to have clearly defined borders of where the limits are then the problem is that with no clearly defined borders then what do you actually believe in? I’m certainly not a fan of the slippery slop argument but your denomination gets to the point that you’re saying that you’re still part of the domination even when your beliefs clearly contradict the core elements of the religion then what do you actually stand for?

    If at the end of the day you make the tent so broad that almost anyone and anything fits underneath it then eventually the whole thing will collapse in on itself and you’ll no longer be able to clearly define what makes your particular domination unique from other dominations or the non-religious. When I am talking about the the ability to define oneself I am referring to the core fundamental theological beliefs – sure, around the edges you may have differences regarding whether something is a sin or how to understand the organisation of a church by learning the lessons the past, but that the centre there has to something there or otherwise you run the risk that there is nothing at the core of your denomination’s beliefs, that the core is hollowed out then at which point you may as well call yourself a social club that meets up every Sunday to sing some songs and randomly recite random passages out of new favourite book that parishioners choose every week.

  • Things are getting back to normal.

    Last night was absolutely chaotic with the wind, the rain and as things got more chaotic I heard one of my chairs had been blown off the patio so I went out, bought them inside along with the table. The garden shed door has broken open with all the wind with the latch bring broken in the process so what I did instead of trying to fix it during a storm I simply put a pot plant in front of the door so that it would stop opening and closing. At the moment there is still some frequent showers and warning of heavy showers still so we may see more showers later on this evening but given how crazy the weather has been I guess it is a matter of anything could happen.

    There are reports that Cuba is closed to collapse due to the blockade and now there is talk about regime change in Iran which makes me wonder where North Korea is in the grand scheme of things. One thing to keep in mind is that there have been discussions regarding the neoconservative grand plan that go all the way back to the George W Bush years. Is this the last hurrah of neoconservatives who see this as their last opportunity to carry out their grand vision before the next generation comes through to replace them who are less interested in the sort of grand geopolitical engineering that the neoconservatives are interested in conducting?

    Oh, and while I’m rounding out this blog post, could people on line please stop saying “we were wrong…” – who is this ‘we’ that you’re referring to? Stop trying to either disassociate yourself from past things you have said or try to spread the blame around as thinly and widely as possible to avoid taking responsibility. If you’ve made a dumb prediction then own it because I’m more than happy to own the dopey predictions I make than turn out to be wrong.

  • Starting the weekend.

    The wind and rain are going crazy outside so I decided to do a few things – the first was to put the chairs and table away because the wind had already blown one of my chairs over so I worried what en even bigger gust of wind may cause. The second was to order a couple of sandwiches and a slice of carrot cake from the local store for delivery – I’d normally walk down but the weather is just foul so I decided to swallow the cost of delivery. The third thing I did was making an order from Woolworths for delivery tomorrow – I would have preferred to get those sandwiches and what I need for tomorrow to be delivered today but unfortunately the local Woolworths were run off their feet today so their same day delivery was closed off early.

    I’ve been following the continued development of AdGuard for both Safari and Chrome to see how well they’ve been advancing when compared to uBlock Origin Lite. AdGuard 2.1.0 for Mac has ben pretty much as expected since it is still very much dependent on the native content blocking API. In my experience the blocking isn’t as smooth as uBlock Origin Lite is on Safari along with the fact that when using AdGuard with Safari there are strange pauses and hangs particularly when it comes to dealing with pages that make extensive use of JavaScript. With that being said, AdGuard 5.3,x series (link) on Chrome has been pretty rock solid.

    Rumour has it that the first beta of the 26.4 series will be out on the week starting 23 February US time – I’d say it’ll probably be either a Tuesday or a Wednesday which is when they make it available. Around that same time hopefully we’ll see a Safari 26.4 beta released so then we can see what changes have made their way from the Technology Preview into the mainstream release of Safari thais included with the 26.4 platform release.

    The order I made from the Verge/Impulse store are on their way, one of the hoodies is coming from Australia while the Irish green hoodie and John Coltrane t-shirt are coming from the United States. Oh, and while writing this blog post the power has gone out through the Wellington and the Hutt Valley so I’m sitting here making use of the battery power on my laptop an my mobile phone connection.

  • Yes you did vote for it.

    Nothing quite annoys me more than the refrain from far to many Americans of “I didn’t vote for that” given that it is exactly what they voted for – signs saying ‘mass deportations now’ didn’t give you a hint on what the Trump platform was all about? when I hear this nonsense of “this is not what I voted for” what it actually sounds like is “I want to be given a free pass because the policies I voted for makes me look like a bad person and I don’t want people to see me as a bad person”. So no, they should be given a free pass – people who voted for this Trump regime and trying to back out of their decision should not be given a free pass, they need to take responsibility for the vote that they made.

    When I talk about ‘taking responsibility’ I am talking about them taking on the work of deconstructing their underlying world view that led them to vote for it in the first place. If they’re not willing to do that work then it is highly likely that in the future if another Trump like figure comes along you’re going to be swept up in the vibes only to get voters remorse. Need I remind people these are the same people who voted for Nixon then years later claim they never voted for him, voted for Reagan then years later claimed they never voted for him, the voted for George W Bush then years later claim they never voted for him.

    Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, when you make your political decisions based on vibes and how you feel rather than hearing the claims made by politicians then investigating those claims using empirical data, logic and reason, then don’t be surprised that a Donald Trump or a George W Bush becomes president. Btw, this isn’t unique to the United States – just look at Brexit from the United Kingdom or in the most recent elections where culture war nonsense blinded the average New Zealander to the fact that 3 Waters was the only viable long term solution for dealing with the infrastructure deficit.

  • Almost there.

    Had a good day at work, finished off some work and then went for my nightly walk and during the day I did some free weights on my break. As for my meal schedule, once again I stuck to it with a continual reminder to myself about the goal I’m trying to reach by the middle of this year. What I’m really focused on is making sure I stick to the meal schedule for a month – normally the first month of any change is difficult but once you get over that first month it does become easier.

    On technology front, Ubiquiti released UniFi Gateways 5.1.1 to the early access channel and thee are a a lot of changes listed and many fixes as well with positive feedback in the forum from people who have more complex setups that I do noting that their issues have been resolved. At the moment I haven’t had any issues with 5.0.12 but then again I only have the gateway, cloud key, switch and an access point with nothing special like using a VPN or VLAN tagging.

    Safari Technology Preview 237 has been released (link) with quite a few fixes and features being added along with the announcement of the Interop 2026 (link). It is good that the various vendors are focusing on ensuring that regardless of what browser you use that things just work as they should. For far too long one was forced to use a particular browser because a particular website only tested with one browser and ignored the others. I think one of the benefits of where we are today is the fact that we don’t see the sort of proprietary extensions that some vendors would use to lock in users. The current status regarding how the various browsers perform when compared to the Interopt 2026 goals can be found here (link).