Matisyahu's Blog

  • Work, software updates and walking to the shops.

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    I had work today which wasn’t so bad – the morning was quiet but in the evening it started to get a bit busy but it’ll be interesting to see whether it is busy tomorrow with the Matariki public holiday result in a quiet day because families are going away to take advantage of the three day weekend. Maybe we need to go back to the old days of stores closed on the weekends – make Matariki weekend into a time where all the stores are closed and people actually have to do something other than spend money they don’t have on something they’ll lose interest in 5 minutes after buying it.

    1Blocker released an update (Version 6.1.4 (1014)) and so far things are working very well – I have offered my feedback to uBlock Origin Lite – I’m unsure how beneficial the feedback is but I guess you can insert “I’m doing my part” meme here. I’ll keep using 1Blocker since it uses the native content blocking API however if the bugs in Apple’s implementation of DNR get fixed then I’m open to giving uBlock Origin Lite a try (at the moment Safari Technology Preview 221 and Safari 19 (included with the developer betas of macOS, iOS etc) have some of the DNR implementation bugs fixed). It’ll be interesting to see whether AdGuard follows the uBlock Origin Lite lead and make their MV3 extension available on macOS rather than having a special build for Safari – hopefully if that is the case then it may translate to updates being released in a more prompt fashion.

    I went for a walk down to the store which is around 8km in total to pick up some stuff I forgot to – I really needed some dental floss along with some other teeth caring things. I brush my teeth every night but I really need to spend some extra time doing some detailed cleaning primarily because after I had my scooter accident I couldn’t use my hands so I wasn’t able to brush my teeth for close to a month as a result. It isn’t bad or anything but there does need some detail cleaning so I’ll fill up my time when I get bored by staring into the mirror and making sure each tooth is in tip top shape. Although I go for a walk every night I also try to fit exercise into my daily routine so that it becomes part of my life rather than something that I have to set aside time for.

    I had a look at some of the videos on YouTube of people using iOS 26 in reduced transparency mode and you know, I have to admit, I was wrong. I though iOS 26 would be a horror show but as others have pointed out that this is the first developer preview so a lot can change based on feedback Apple receives and word case case scenario there is always reduced transparency available (which I use on macOS and iOS). I’ve seen some commentators bring up Windows Vista while others have bought up Mac OS X when it was lunched with the ‘lickable’ interface but I have to admit I was never a fan of the whole transparency look – I quite liked the Windows XP beta (pre-Luna) and macOS X 1.0 Server. I’m hoping that they’ll gradually tone it down – developers will provide feedback and hopefully Apple will realise that some of the UI elements may look great for presentations but would be horrible for day to day use.

    On a side note, I noted that with my life style change I cannot longer eat chips or any deep fried fast food – I find them too greasy to the point of being unpleasant. I went out for my birthday and ordered fish ‘n chips but I couldn’t get over how greasy they were and then I ordered them again believing maybe it was just prepared badly. Another thing I noticed is that bags of chips (crisps) are also very greasy tasting – so bad that I ended up throwing out the remaining of the bag because it was that unpleasant. I guess if there is a silver lining it is the fact that it is easy to resist unhealthy food when the food doesn’t taste very nice to begin with. I guess when you’re eating health 95% of the time and you eat something unhealthy your body goes “good lord! what the hell was that?!”.

    I’m probably going to look at writing up a blog post about the Iran/Israel situation along with a bit of commentary about other contemporary matters but it is still very much a ‘work in progress’ – I go for a walk each night, come home, right down in OmniOutliner some of the ideas that popped in my head then sit down and try to bring together random ideas into a coherent blog post.

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  • A late start but not too busy.

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    One of the perks of working at home is not having to fight the traffic and the crowds getting in and out of work – along with being able to have a quiet environment without interruptions. The downside? having to have the heater on where as if I were the office I would get the heat for free but then again the cost of going in and out vs the amount of electricity I use to heating kind of balances out in the end.

    I’ve ordered a switch today (5 x 2.5Gbps per port) I’ll attach up my cloud key and security camera hub since they don’t really need the full bandwidth. What I’m looking at doing is setting up an NAS because it doesn’t make much sense me paying for cloud storage when I never use it when I am out – in fact I would find it more useful having a NAS at home, rip all my DVDs to it and play them on my television, laptop, desktop or my mobile phone. I’m looking at an Asustore which is why I need to freeze up a 2.5Gbps port on my gateway so then I can get maximum throughput when copying files to and from my various devices. I am tempted though to run an ethernet cable under the house to my office since that is the main computer I store all my music, videos etc. on so if I am going to upload it to my NAS device I’d like it fast and reliable.

    Went for a 10km walk tonight so that makes it three nights in a row – I want to get in the exercise just in case the weather gets a bit nasty and I’m unable to get out of the house. It feels good after going for a walk – fresh air, seeing what is happening around the neighbourhood. On Thursday I may write up a longer post about politics but I want to be in the right frame of mind when I do it rather than being tired and heading off to bed.

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  • Back to work tomorrow, learnt something today.

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    Well, the wheels are in motion to sort out the ‘impulse buy’ yesterday but in the process of tidying up iCloud I came across ‘Codes’ in ‘Passwords’ then it struck me that I didn’t need to sue third party authentication apps because Apple already has it built in. I feel like such a fool purchasing the authenticator app because I wanted to synchronise and integrate into iCloud but now I realised that Apple already provides that which makes life so much smoother. That has all been setup, the subscription I had has been cancelled.

    While I was on a roll I finally got my OneSmart multi-currency card sorted out – I couldn’t work out what the email address was and the other details but that has now been setup, logged in and I was able to top it up. I’m tempted to set it up as a bill payee where I transfer $50 per fortnight to it where the money is ‘out of sight, out of mind’ which will allow me to save up for presents for Christmas or maybe if there is an eventuality that needs covering then gradually I’d like it to become a habit where I increase it to maybe $100 per fortnight – getting into a good habit of savings and because I won’t see the balance on a regular basis I won’t be tempted to spend it vs if it were just another bank account I would see it regularly then get tempted to spend it.

    uBlock Origin Lite is making progress but it appears that are bugs in the mainstream build of Safari that are waiting to be fixed (the Safari Technology Preview already has many of these issues resolved) not to mention limitations such as 150,000 filters with most extension developers getting around that limitation by breaking there extension into smaller extensions with each mini-extension dealing with a filter category (it appears, or at least my understand, that DNR is based upon the the native content blocking API that they developed a few years ago). It’ll be interesting to see whether the uBlock Origin Lite developers do like what other developers do or whether Apple steps up and address the filter limit because at least in my experience so far using the latest build of Safari Technology Preview and uBlock Origin Lite, it has been pretty reliable so let’s hope that there are continued improvements.

    Just before I leave, here is a great interview. Politics is the art of the compromise, the art of persuasion – sitting on your own because you’re too pure to mingle with those who don’t 100% line up with your world view might give you a sense of moral superiority but will ultimately achieve nothing in the long run. Far too many engage in purity politics of virtue signalling and performativeness – taking positions that are so on the extreme but completely unworkable, unimplementable and no chance of building widespread support but for a small moment such individuals get to boast about how uncompromising they are (but resulting in nothing being achieved resulting in a situation that is worse than if they just went with the compromise and gain at least some ground).

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  • Getting back into the groove of things.

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    I finally got myself back into a good routine tonight by going for a 10km walk after having a bit of an anxiety riddled day – impulsive decision followed by hardly any sleep and then attempting to try and undo the damage of an impulsive decision. After that rollercoaster I find that a good long walk really helps me clear my mind so that I can look at the problem rationally and how to get myself out of the mess I got myself into – the solution is to pay off what is owed then close the account followed by wearing the consequences of making a really dumb impulsive decision. When will I go back to the iPhone? when the new one comes out in around September – I think I can put up with Android for 3-4 months, let’s just chalk it up to me doing my penance for the sin of being an idiot lol.

    What I’ve done is I was able to get my Skinny mobile number migrated to a new SIM card then I’ve since did a factory reset of the Samsung S25 Ultra and beecause all the carriers use the same XNZ software build I am able to move from One NZ to Skinny without any problems (funny enough I was stuck on an old version of Android software when I was on One NZ but the moment I switched to Skinny a flood of updates came through that didn’t arrive when I had the One NZ SIM card installed).

    I decided to also stick with Skinny Broadband – it would be nice to have IPv6 but it isn’t a necessity and I’m not going to go through a whole lot of drama just for something isn’t going to make a sizeable difference to my every day life. I’m sure Spark (the owner of Skinny) will get around to making it available at some point in the future but they tend to be pretty conservative (strange enough their corporate side do support IPv6) then again they are making big upgrades as part of the switch off of 3G so maybe that is part of the work being done – do a job once do it right the first time.

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  • I have de-Samsung’ed my phone.

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    I went down to One NZ to buy a Samsung S25 Ultra with 512GB storage – after getting it setup the first thing I did was de-Samsung’ed the phone but uninstalling all the Samsung software they pre-install then installing all the Google software such as the Phone, Clock, Calendering, Contacts, GBoard etc. resulting in a debloated Samsung expereicen. I’m sure that some people may find these features useful but for me, unless you go all the way and provide an end to end cloud experience that can be used not only on the phone but desktops, laptops etc. then it is a glorified waste of time. Samsung would have an amazing device on their hands if they did their OneUI customisation and only installed Google apps.

    uBlock Origin Lite just keeps getting better and better – although I would love Google to get their act together to speed up the approval of extensions (or allow users to opt into updating filters outside of normal releases) but even with the delay things are pretty good. With that being said, as I’ve noted in the past, I thought the changes to the extension framework in the form of the declarative net request would result in a substandard experience but so far the experience has been pretty good. At first AdGuard had a slight lead over uBlock Origin Lite in that it did a better job blocking popups (clicking on a video to play it but another window opens up rather than playing the video) however uBlock Origin Lite has surpassed AdGuard particularly when it comes to website compatibility as well as not causing the browser to hang which I have found occurs on occasion with AdGuard.

    I’ve gotten in contact with my current internet service provider to see when the 30 day notice kicks in so then I can plan to move my internet over to One NZ – one provider for everything which makes life a whole lot easier with the added bonus that they support IPv6.

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  • Sunday is going to be a busy day.

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    Thought I may as well make a blog post before I head off to sleep – tonight has been really cold and when i mean cold I mean getting down to 0°C so I’ve been having my heater going all night. Sure, the electricity bill is going to be horrible but the alternative is getting cold then sick resulting in higher costs getting myself better again – the old story of an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. It is funny, during the summer I complain about the constant heat and then when winter comes it is dealing with the cold weather but to be honest I’d sooner deal with cold weather than hot weather because it is easier to keep warm with an extra layer of clothing along with the heater going vs. when it is hot and trying to cool down where even a fan with windows open doesn’t really do much.

    After much toing and froing I’ve decided that I’ll be moving to One NZ (formally known as Vodafone NZ) for my ISP as well as my mobile. I’ll probably head in tomorrow because it is a good excuse to get myself out of the house for the day – I start to feel like a recluse after a while even though I’m not a great socialiser I do like to get out of the house when I can. I was tempted to go with 2 Degrees but the coverage where I live isn’t as good as Spark or One NZ not to mention that 2 Degrees uses CGNAT which can cause problems when working from home so for the sake of my sanity I decided to go with the safer option with the added benefit that One NZ has IPv6 as well. Oh, and I still have my old SIM card from One NZ which means I can get things setup pretty quickly.

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  • It appears I’m an expert in procrastination.

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    I’m heading off to bed now but at the moment I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Google – the last time I went into the Google ecosystem I found that the home experience wasn’t all that good but I’ve also realised that the ‘having everything in the one spot’ sure sounds great until you realise that the native experience of controlling ones home applications is better than trying to control them from a single app (assuming that they all implement HomeKit/Matter). Where as HomeKit/Matter provide a common framework so that everything can be controlled the end result is a ‘lowest common denominator’ experience as multiple companies are trying to work together and standardise resulting in some devices falling outside of that – security cameras features aren’t standardised. Maybe I should just get comfortable with the fact that dealing with multiple appliances isn’t going to be as clean and straight forward as I want it and that it is something I’m going to have to accept.

    With that being said, much rather prefer the productivity of Google Workspace when compared to iCloud and Office 365. WIth iCloud it is rather limited – I understand it more of a consumer facing platform where complexity is avoided but at the same time it would be nice if Apple offered something like an iCloud Small Business which would allow more aliases for custom domains because the iCloud ‘hide my email’ with random words isn’t exactly up to scratch when you need to provide an email to someone. I’ve used Office 365 but found that the management of it wasn’t as easy when compared to Workspace – the impression I got was that Microsoft dumped all their software onto a server, called it ‘the cloud’ then went home for the day. Features that’ll work on the new Outlook app but not the Outlook.com web app (when you’re added to a mailbox which is visible in the Outlook app but not on the Outlook.com web app). Being told that aliases are supported only to find that they won’t turn up in Outlook.

    I’m still procrastinating about moving internet service providers but because I make a decision I did put some questions to a local tech focused forum to hear feedback regarding what their experience – the decision being done with careful consideration given that I work from home and want to make sure that I get the best possible experience since my employer uses AWS, Microsoft, Cloudflare along with many of the work resources residing in Australia. Hopefully after a few days I’ll get some clarification and then make a definitive decision once enough information is collated.

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  • Other than the cold weather, I feel good.

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    Had a good day at work with it being uneventful and a steady flow of customers – I decided since I was working late tonight that I would have Friday and Saturday rest from going for a walk and just enjoy being inside my warm home (thank goodness the place is a compact unit which makes heating it fairy cheap). Tonight I’m having for dinner some Chicken Kiev along with a side of steamed vegetables – as I write this blog post the chicke is in the oven cooking (the steamed vegetables only take around 5 minutes in the microwave).

    Last night I was fiddling around and installed the Safari Technology Preview 221 along with the newest beta build of uBlock Origin Lite via the TestFlight and what I found is that it is am admirable amount of work being done by the developers of uBlock Origin Lite but I can’t help but get the feeling that they’re going to be fighting an uphill battle when it comes to Apple. I say that because (as I outlined last night) there are still many reported issues in the bug database that have been left unaddressed that measure in months or years without anyone being assigned to it, updating it on terms of progress etc. All I can say, I admire that you’re fighting the good fight to bring uBlock Origin Lite to Safari but based on how Apple treats third party developers I’m not hopeful that things will improve in a timely manner.

    For those wondering regarding how I setup my macOS installation in regards to the UI, I have it in light mode however I enable ‘Reduced Transparency’ (which can be found under Accessibility -> Display) – I was never a fan of the transparency primarily due to it being distracting and at times difficult to read where as I find a flat solid interface elements less distracting. I’ve had a look at videos on YouTube regarding macOS Tahoe with reduced transparency and I think I’ll be able to handle it but on iOS I’m not particularly hopeful given that even with reduced transparency on iOS it still looks very glassy (link) which doesn’t give me much hope when compared to OneUI 7 (link) which is more the sort of interface I prefer. There is also Microsoft working on Windows 11 25H2 so let’s hope that they keep making progress on Windows 11 without thinking they have to do something like what Apple has done just to give the appearance that they’re ‘modern’, ‘cool’, ‘hip’ and ‘in with it’.

  • Back to work on Friday.

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    I’m back to work on Friday and Saturday (they couldn’t find someone to cover for me on those days) however I’ll have a three day weekend (Sunday, Monday and Tuesday). Tonight I went for a walk because there was a break in the rain so I wanted to take advantage of a dry spell to get some exercise in along with getting out of the house to enjoy some fresh air. Tonight wasn’t too cold as I was able to go on the walk wearing a zip up hoodie and some tracksuit pants however on the last 1km of the walk it started drizzling then increased to raining resulting in getting a little wet but I’m happy I got out of the house because I feel a lot better afterwards.

    I’ve been watching more YouTube videos about the UI change Apple introduced and I don’t feel as though I’m the only person who has a problem with it. Yes, I didn’t like it with the glassy effet being introduced when Microsoft introduced Aero as part of Windows Vista nor did I like it with macOS when Apple introduced it (although I opted out of it by enabling reduced transparency in Accessibility in the Settings app). I’ve never been a fan of it because I much preferred the flat minimalism that was launched with WP7 (I had a WP7 from LG, WP8 and WM10 devices from Nokia) where the content was the focus, where communicating information was the focus of the interface rather than the interface being distracting or difficult to get information from because developers chose apperance over usability.

    Although there have been improvements noted in Safari (I’m testing ublock Origin lite with the Safari Technology Preview 221) the problem is that I can’t help but get the feeling that Apple is doing the bare minimum – just looking at the number of open bug reports within the Webkit bug database where the issue has been reported relating to content blocking and the next to non-existent activity from Apple engineers acknowledging the issue and indicating to those that report the issue that they’re looking into it and that it will get addressed. This is the reason why I keep using Chrome because of all it’s faults you can’t help but feel as though the platform is being pushed forward in a timely manner so even if Safari developers do fix more of the problem it always appears to be an after thought when compared to the next big shiny distraction such as AI or an impractical user interface whose usability has gone down hill.

    I also didn’t see iCloud being developed further – it’s almost as though it is a tick box where they reluctantly providing it because “it’s what is expected” rather than Apple being passionate about the iCloud platform by developing it further. For example the introduction of custom domains was great but here we are many years later and still limited to 3 aliases – no, using ‘hide my email address’ isn’t always a valid option given that providing someone a randomly generated email address that doesn’t look very professional isn’t exactly setting a good impression.

    I’ve done some number crunching and if I sign up for 2 Degrees for my internet for 12 months I end up paying the same amount I do today so I am tempted to make the switch but I’m looking at doing as a larger migration. Although I have sworn off Samsung Galaxy mobile phones I did go into the store and tried it out and the work that Samsung has done with One UI has really made big improvements over the last time I used it not to mention the fact that with carriers in New Zealand switching off their 3G network if I go with the Pixel which isn’t officially supported in New Zealand there is no assurance that it’ll keep working without a problem where as buying a phone from the carrier you’re at least got the assurance that the carrier have tested in with their network and any compaibility issues have been addressed.

    Daily writing prompt
    How do you want to retire?
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    I’ll keep working for as long a I can but when I do retire I’ll want to keep myself physically, mentally and socially active – maybe join up to my local lawn bowls club, check out the clubs/groups I can join, maybe spend more time getting involved with politics by going along to more meetings etc. I’ll stay in the same place where I am today because the neighbourhood is good along with access to public transport being within a short walk so even if I get older and find I have mobility issues I’ll still be able to travel. I want to have enough savings so that I can travel and experience as much of the world as I can because I don’t want to be in a situation where I get to an age but have a list of regrets because I left it too late to do the things I wanted to do.

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  • Too soon to make a judgement but I’ll give my five cents worth.

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    After staying up for the Keynote then heading off to sleep so I could wake up in the afternoon to watch the Platforms State of the Union I am gradually working through the sessions from WWDC 2025. So far I am greatly underwhelmed but I am hoping that as I watch the session videos along with people reporting back on improvements not covered by the initial reviews of the developer preview that my impression moves from being underwhelmed to something more positive. I’m not expecting something revolutionary but rather I was hoping that they would get the basics correct – fixing up bugs with iCloud integration, deal with how Webkit/Safari trails behind Chrome when it comes to web standards implementation (according to Interop 2025 Chrome is sitting at 88 and Safar is sitting at 50 – the year is already half completed) and compatibility not to mention the implementation of MV3 regarding the standardised APIs lag behind with the net result being content blockers lag behind what one can find in regards to extensions for Chrome.

    I also look at the user interface change – sorry but I am not a fan of the ‘liquid glass’ just as I wasn’t a fan of the aero look that came with Windows Vista. I also did a quick second look not only at Android 16 but also Samsung’s spin on it aka OneUI 8.0 resulting in me leaning more towards the changes Google was pushing in Android 16 and OneUI 8.0 than what Apple announced with its ‘liquid glass’. The legibility of text and icons is difficult not to mention that the over the top glossy nature of the UI elements is rather off putting for me since I much rather prefer flatter simplified user interface where the design isn’t distracting me from the content itself but it appears that UI design ideas come in cycles just like Gen Z guys are sporting the broccoli haircut that was all the rage in the 1980s. I can’t help but get the feeling that the whole ‘liquid glass’ is a solution in search of a problem relating to the failure of Apple Intelligence so they want something that gives people the impression of a sizeable change through changing it visually. The cycle part of me also views it as an UI redesign to give tech YouTubers to talk endlessly about as they ignore how last year the same tech YouTubers hyped up AI to the heavens and beyond while never questioning the practicality of it all.

    With the UI changes in store for macOS it appears that Apple have done the impossible – I have a new found respect for Windows 11, something I didn’t think I would say but it appears that the UI design of Windows has become the ‘least worst option’ whereas macOS at least for me was always the saving grace even if I disagreed with the direction of Apple with their other platforms.

    I’m going to watch some more videos and read some more articles – maybe my cynicism will be mellowed out by reports of the issues I’ve raised being addressed but I’m not hopeful.

Hello,

I’m Matisyahu

An open diary of my life as I navigate the world – the terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles.

“When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called ‘the People’s Stick’” – Mikhail Bakunin

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