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

  • An okay day today.

    Started work today, had a one on one to discuss the new year, a catch up on how things have been and organising the days I’ll come into the office now that the powers that be have decided hybrid working is now the ‘in thing’ to do. I’ll pop in on Wednesday and Thursday although that will mean I’ll have to get up at the ungodly hour of 11:30am but I guess I’ll make it – oh the burden of it all lol. I went for a walk after work and it was spitting a bit so I thought I may as well get some exercise but I found that by the time I got half way through my second lap it started pouring down so by the time I came back I was completely drenched. On a good side I have found out that the running shoes I have are water proof which is nice not having deal with drying out wet shoes when I came home.

    I checked out Webkit and there hasn’t been a Safari Technology Preview 235 released so maybe it’ll happen at the end of next week or maybe next week. I don’t think we’ll see any major changes because Safari 26.3 beta that is currently in testing for older versions of macOS has some bareback changes with the focus mainly on bug and security fixes with most of the effort probably going into 26.4. It appears that Apple has taken a bit of a ‘tick-tock’ strategy with Safari on their mainstream platforms – x.0 a big update, x.1 a minor update, x.2 a big update, x.3 a minor update (based on what they’ve included with the change logs for those releases).

    I’ve been doing free weights for over a week and I’m already seeing results. Today I added an extra exercise and I may also start doing some squats as well to tone my legs and butt which builds upon the walking I do every night. Building up and maintaining that muscle will ensure that as I am losing weight my BMR doesn’t drop because muscles aren’t being maintained through resistance exercises. I’m add more exercises to the routine and spacing them out during the day so that they become a regular thing I do. The new few days it appears that raining will be the norm so I’ll do some free weights to make up for the lack of exercise outside as well as keeping an eye on calorie intake.

  • Back to the office next week.

    After enjoying being able to work from home 5 days a week the powers that be have decided that the organisation needs to move to a hybrid model of working in the office two days a week. I’ve decided to go in on Wednesday and Thursday but if there is rail maintenance on those days then I’ll push my days in the office onto one of the other days. Whenever I see such decisions the conspiracy theory minded inside me wonder whether it is the government putting pressure on businesses so that people come back into the CBD so then money can be spent at local retailers which may make sense but that is assuming people have spare money to spend.

    I mentioned in my past post regarding Apple utilising Gemini which will sit underneath the models that they’ll build on top. Given all the backlash that Microsoft and other vendors are experiencing regarding AI being rammed into nook and cranny, it appears that Apple is perfectly placed given how sparingly they have used in their platforms. Apple has also announced the ‘Apple Creator Studio’ that will include AI features as well and given how it’ll be released on 28/01/26 it makes me wonder whether the whole Google Gemini announcement had been getting worked on for a lot longer than a year given how quickly Apple has been able to get their frameworks working on top of Google Gemini for both cloud based AI as well as on device AI.

  • Heading off to sleep.

    Getting ready to head off to sleep. At the moment I am watching season 2 of Fallout and Season 1 of Pluribus but at the moment I am catching up on news because as frustrating as the world can be the only thing more frustrating is being completely oblivious to what is happening. Having a look through the Chrome platform status it appears that Chrome 144 will be released tomorrow so when I log into my work laptop I’ll see if it is available along with whether patch Tuesday is made available on my work laptop. The reason why I keep tracking is because I like to ensure that before I start work that all my software is up to date along with the clearing of cookies and cache on my browser to avoid any issues during the day (we have Amazon Connect integrated into Salesforce, the integration isn’t always smooth sailing).

    I’ve read a few articles recently about the slow update of iOS 26.x I do think that a lot of the analysis being used is more an example of confirmation bias rather than any evidence showing people are actively rejecting iOS 26.x. As I’ve said in the past, the 26.x series do have some rough edges due to the large UI update that too place which is why I’ve kept mum on iOS 18.7.x so unless one is considered an ‘early adopter’ (or a ‘seeker’ to use a Microsoft terminology) you’ll find that you won’t get offered the upgrade automatically. Having had a look online it appears that some people have received 26.2 as an automatic update but I’d hazard to guess that we may not see iOS 26.x being pushed out as an automatic update until maybe 26.3 or even 26.4. One thing to keep in mind is that the push to get people updating as quickly as possible isn’t as great as it was in the past because in the past there would be massive changes, Apple wanted developers to adopt the new technology but that could only be done with widespread adoption. This isn’t surprising given that the adoption rate of Android has slowed down because just like iOS in the past, there were big updates such as Android Runtime gaining JIT (Just In Time) support and then later AOT (Ahead Of Time) support but today the changes a lot more incremental.

    Oh, and today there was the big announcement which pretty much confirmed the world’s most well known secret regarding Apple using Google’s Gemini (link). In the article it talks about it being a multi-year deal and I’ve attempted to see whether there are any details regarding the exact length of the deal but nothing so far can be found. I have a feeling that what we’re going to see Apple most likely using Gemini until such time that their internal project is ready for prime time (if there is an internal project it is probably based around technology that go beyond that is currently being used at the moment). I don’t think there is much benefit to Apple reinventing the wheel given that the value is what sits on top such as the integration of the model into Apple’s platforms (cloud, operating system and bundled applications) and how useful it is to third party developers to take advantage of, in particular when it comes to on device processing.

    Daily writing prompt
    What makes a good leader?
    View all responses

    A good leader is someone who leads from behind, who provides leadership but is able to dig in and help the team rather than just barking orders then calling it leadership. If you want your team to do something a certain way then you need to lead by example and demonstrate that you don’t ask them to do something that you couldn’t do yourself then actually carry out the work. For me, I worked in hospo so you don’t have the luxury of being ‘hands off’ when managing a team which means you’re going to be running orders, making sure the cabinets holding the burger ingredients, getting fries cooking then on top of that dealing with the occasional customer complain. Oh, and most importantly, always have your your crew members back particularly when it comes with dealing with difficult customers who get abusive – stand by your crew and defend them.

  • Back to work on Wednesday.

    I had a nice sleep in this morning, woke up, had breakfast then pottered around the house doing the usual house keeping such as washing down the outside of the house. Around 3:00pm the courier dropped off the clothes I ordered online – everything fits perfectly. When I buy clothes from overseas what I do is wash them before I wear them just to make sure that any dyes are washed out along with anything else that maybe on them. I’ve emailed them back to confirm that I have received them and everything is fitting perfectly however it is a closing down sale and there are some items I wish to purchase but they’re made to order so I’m unsure whether they’re available to order or are they only selling off the inventory they have in stock then once that is done they’re clothing their doors.

    I went to mum’s place for dinner, I bought along some fresh bread I bought on Monday, cut them bread in half and put spread garlic butter over it, wrapped it up in aluminium foil and warmed it up in the last few minutes when the chicken was cooking on the BBQ. It was a tasty dinner along with the salad on the side. I mentioned to mum about the plan for 2 weeks off over the first coupe of weeks on June this year where I’ll spend a week following WWDC and then the next week I’ll go for a holiday up to Auckland to spend some time touring around, maybe even give the new city link train service a try which will be New Zealand’s first subway.

    When I woke up this morning I checked for updates and uBlock Origin Lite 2026.111.1925 was made available in the Mac App Store – it is kind of strange that the iOS App Store approve things at a quicker pace than the Mac App Store. Once installed everything is working as it should. Looking back in terms of my experience on Safari when compared to Chrome, it is funny how the problems I experienced were addressed by disabling ‘prevent cross-site tracking’ meaning the problems I had with websites either not working or if they worked they kind of worked suddenly disappeared. It makes me wonder whether this was the issue Chrome was facing regarding their goal of moving away from third party cookies with the realisation that even with the best of intentions if there isn’t the will by sites to actually support the new way of doing things then the whole project is doomed to failure.

  • A productive day to day.

    I woke up this morning after having a great night sleep, mum came over to help fix up the shed with the focus being around getting the door back up, getting the walls back into place because they had gotten all bent out of shape plus some weeding around the place. I was going to get a new shed but why spend money when an hour or so spent can bring it back to new again. I have moved the lime tree from over near the fence/shed to clear near the house since that is where it gets the most amount of sun which hopefully should result in greater growth.

    After getting everything sorted out at home I popped down to the supermarket to do some shopping – made use of a $15 Woolworths voucher I got through their every day rewards loyalty programme along with $125 from work who gave shopping vouchers over Christmas. While I was down there I stocked up on some essentials along with lots of greens because I really do need to eat some more vegetables on a regular basis.

    For dinner tonight I had nachos using the mince I had cooked and froze a while ago – I got it out last night to defrost so then by the time dinner came it was just a matter of heating it up in the microwave. After heating it up I paired it up with some corn chips, sour cream and avocado. I did add some extra chill flakes to the chilli to give it an extra kick. Btw, if you’re waiting something similar to the Old El Paso seasoning then simply grab the MasterFoods steak seasoning which has the same taste although I would also add some chilli flakes to it or otherwise you’ll find that it is tasty but it is lacking the heat.

    I’ve been keeping track of my delivery from DHL and it has arrived in Wellington but it appears that by the time it arrived in Wellington the vans for the day had already been packed and sent out. There is a high likelihood that my parcel will be delivered tomorrow and I’ve requested they leave it in a safe space so when I wake up it’ll hopefully be there or close to arriving. For dinner tomorrow I’m heading over to mum’s where I’ve provided a butterflied chicken that she’ll cook on the BBQ and pair the chicken with some salad.

    Oh, and on a side note, uBlock Origin Lite 2026.111.1925 has been released however it is only available on the iOS App Store at the moment however I’m sure it’ll be available on the Mac App Store in the next day or so. Ubiquiti has made available in the early release UniFi Access Point (all U7 and E7 models) to version 8.4.6 however the UniFi Gateways is still on version 5.0.10 but then again it has only been 4 days and they tend to ‘graduate’ early releases to release candidates when they feel comfortable knowing there are no show stoppers (I’ve checked the comment section and those who have upgraded from the 4.x and 5.x series have said everything has gone smoothly).

  • End of the week.

    Ah, the end of the week and I decided to have a nice relaxing night in while the wind is blowing like crazy outside but while I’m inside I’ll do some free weights to burn a few calories and maybe some squats and other exercises. I’m looking forward to tomorrow because I’ll do some grocery shopping because I’ve gradually worked through some of the spare things in my fridge that I’ve been putting off from eating. The one thing I did have to day was the ‘Woolworths Tuna & Quinoa Asian Style’ (link) and it is really tasty and I’m going to buy a few more this week. These healthy meals that I can heat up when I an working from home are a big time savour and it also means that I’m getting a healthy and nutritious meal with minimum trouble (I only have 30 minutes for my lunch so I don’t want to spend hat time preparing and cooking thus leaving no time to enjoy the meal).

    In terms of exercise, I think what I’m going to start doing is having a walk at least 5 days per week rather than every day – striking a balance between getting some exercise will still being able to enjoy life. I think the best days for that will be Sunday and Monday although I may go for a light walk on Monday during the day for example walking down to the supermarket which is around 4km from where I live so I still get some movement in for the day but at a leisurely pace. I thin the big focus I need is finding that moderate middle ground so that long term I have a sustainable routinely rather than going hell for leather, from one extreme to another but unable to keep it up for the long term.

    It has been a week of doing free weights and I’m already experiencing positive results such as my arms are getting tighter and more defined. I used to do weights years ago with dad but it has been many years since I last did them but it is good how quickly I’ve been able to get back into a routine. As I’ve mentioned in the past, rather than setting aside time to do a whole lot of sets in one go I tend to do them when I have spare time such as watching a video on the television or waiting for the washing to finish.

    Daily writing prompt
    What snack would you eat right now?
    View all responses

    Rather than ‘would you eat right now’ I’ll answer as in ‘what snack am I eating right now’ and what I am eating is a Bumper Brownie (link). I love the Cookie Time cookies and the Bumper Bars but the Bumper Brownies are the best. The reason I love them is because the normal chocolate ones aren’t overly sweet, there is. a slight hint of bitterness because it is a darker chocolate which gives it a nice deep rich almost Belgium chocolate like taste, the white chocolate one has a nice creamy texture. I matched those up with an Avalanche Irish Coffee which made for the perfect after work relaxation.

  • At the half way point.

    Yeah, at the half way point of my shift – another 4 hours to go after my lunch break. In between serving customers I was watching a few videos and reading some articles regarding American women rejecting MAGA and Republican men and then MAGA and Republican men whining and complaining. I don’t know who needs to hear this but your politics are an outgrowth of your morals, your values, the ethnical framework you use to navigate the world. I saw one video where this guy was whining about it as if the differences were superficial and it was silly not to date a Republican or a MAGA man – pardon? we’re not talking about differences over whether the top tax rate should be 39.6% of 43.5% or whether there should be a mortgage interest tax deduction for first home buyers etc. but one party dehumanising undocumented immigrants and apparently that process of dehumanisation, according to that individual, should be treated the same way as arguing over tax rates.

    What it tells me about that person is one of two things, the first being that he cannot understand why someone should care about something that doesn’t directly impact them which is why they don’t care if ‘the other’ is dehumanised because it doesn’t impact them directly – when your moral framework is based on “does it directly me” rather than on the basis of a shared humanity then it shouldn’t be surprising that people are able to sit by and allow horrific things happen without even the slightest flinch in horror. The second being the number of guys who are MAGA or Republican because of ‘the vibes’, the chest beating, the posturing, the sort of peacocking machismo on display by the podcast bros that convinced young men that politics is no deeper than perfective masculinity. Btw, the sort of performative masculinity that is on display is akin to a young boy dressing up in their father’s clothes and imitating ‘what it means to be a man’. I guess it is kind of cute when you’re young but when you become an adult and you’re still doing the equivalent of doing performative masculinity based on a shallow set of stereotypes then it be surprising that there is a whole generation of young men who were sucked into the MAGA and Republican bullshit vortex.

  • The third day completed, one more day to go.

    One more day to go and then I’m on my weekend. This week has had a lot better vibe to it that last week and I’m unsure as to why other than I’ve gotten into a good routine outside of work which maybe makes me feel a lot better when I am at work. I finished work tonight at 10pm, went for my 11.6km walk, came home, did some free weights and stretching to cool down, shower then jumped into bed. It has ben 5 days in a row worth of exercise and although the first few days I had to force myself to do it I am now looking forward to it. The one thing I have gotten into a routine to do is brushing my teeth earlier because for some unknown reason I don’t feel the need to eat something – maybe the act of brushing my teeth is telling my brain “no more food, you’re going to have to wait till tomorrow”.

    On Monday I’m looking forward to a day off – the weather is looking good although there is some overnight showers. I’m keeping track of my order, it has left Dubai however the big question is whether it goes straight to Auckland (New Zealand) or will it go via Sydney (Australia) then to Auckland (New Zealand). When it does arrive I’ll take a few photos and upload it on my blog. At the moment the wind is pretty strong outside but it is kind of strange that the wind has just picked up recently but hopefully it’ll calm down so I can go for a walk without getting blown around.

    Although I did feel like going to the local bakery for eggs bene when I made my blog post yesterday, I also feel like having some soup with fresh ciabatta bread with garlic butter on it. I guess I am craving not only something comforting like a warm soup but also the satisfaction of some crusty bread. The big question is what type of soup – tomato, pumpkin or maybe the Thai green curry then adding some shrimp or maybe even like a marinara mix mixed with a chowder (I miss the wonderful seafood chowder when I was in Ireland).

  • No, investors aren’t rational actors.

    One of the biggest myths perpetuated by the neoliberal orthodoxy is the idea that markets are rational because those participating in the market are motivated by rational self interest. If that orthodoxy was real rather than being an article of faith akin to some sort of religious conviction then there wouldn’t be crashes on a near routine basis of almost every 7-10 years. Well, here is an example regarding Apple’s share price in regards to AI (link), there was a survey not too long ago where they looked into the buying habits of iPhone purchasers and what they prioritise when purchasing a phone and want to know what was at the bottom of the list of features? at 7% ‘thinness’ of the phone and AI functionality were dead last or close to last on the list of priorities.

    If there is one thing the AI bubble proves it is the idea that a small group of people have far too much money and they’ve convinced themselves, after huffing on their own farts for decades, that they can do no wrong and everything they touch will become a winner. Well, I think that when the correct comes I think there are going to be many left wondering why they were so foolish but I do hope is that governments of the world put their foot down and say ‘play stupid games, win stupid prizes’. I think it is abundantly clear that LLMs are a dead end and this idea of “we just need to make them bigger and that will make them better” has been well and truly debunked by people who are a lot smarter than I am. Are there great things occurring in the field of AI? sure, and that will continue, what will crash and burn will be the fixation on LLMs and the realisation that there is a law of diminishing returns because as the models get bigger the improvements become less and less to the point that they’re just giant money and power sucking operations that aren’t going to get better.

  • The third day completed, feeling good.

    I’m on my third day and stuck to my plan for the day and I have to admit the lazy side of my is, “oh god, do I have to keep doing this” but I know that after I’ve done this for a month that it’ll become something that I do without even thinking about it. I finished work at 10pm then went for my usual 11.6km walk, arrived at home, while cooling down I did some stretching to improve my flexibility, had a shower and jumped into bed.

    Microsoft release an update for Microsoft Edge however I don’t see any reports regarding what will be included on Patch Tuesday for January 2026 or when it’ll be released. I haven’t been able to sell my Surface Laptop so I am holding onto it because it would be a waste if I sold it. I like to keep up to date with technology so I guess it is an easy way to keep my toe in the Windows ecosystem and keep track of Windows development even though I’m a totally embedded in the Apple ecosystem.

    I’ve been tracking the clothes I ordered from overseas and at the moment it is in Dubai (which makes sense since it is an international hub for freight and passengers). It is scheduled to arrive on 13 January but most of the time it ends up arriving on a day before the due by date. I’ve informed them to leave it in a safe place because I really don’t want to get up early when it can easily be left in a place that cannot be seen from the road. I am tempted to make another order, there are a few shirts that look nice although they are made to order but I’ll make that decision when the parcel arrives.

    I’m looking forward to the weekend on Monday, I might head down to the store and pick up some wooden coat hangers because they tend to last a long time then after that I’ll pop into the local bakery for some eggs bene with smoked salmon and a side of mushrooms. I am still having.a look at either a dresser or a wardrobe and I’ve found what I’d like but I’m going to save up then buy it but it’ll need to be delivered though because it is coming from the South Island since nothing is available locally that goes with the furniture I already have. I’m also looking at a fabric tub chair but I need to get the measurements of my desk so when I do go shopping I want to ensure that the seat isn’t too low.