Being at the end of my tether I have decided to throw in the towel and give up on MTP in favour of setting up an SMB server on my Mac and simply download to my Android phone over the network. The process of copying around 45GB of files has reduced from over 24 hours along with persisting disconnecting to now it’s transferring it at around 10MBs (so far it is around hal way through).
Oh, and in a fit of optimism I posted the following on the YouTube Music feedback:
1) When I choose the artist I would like a list of the albums then click on the albums to get a list of tracks rather than having a massive list of all the tracks from every album.
2) Either the ability to choose for YouTube Music not to re-encode my music when I upload it and/or the ability to upload a flac file larger than 300MB so that one avoids the reduction in quality due to a loss to loss conversion.
I’m not hopeful that anything will come of it but I might as well throw in my five cents worth but at least I can say I tried something because YouTube Music has a lot of potential but the people who are running it can’t seem to get their act together.
Unfortunately I didn’t get to watch the event live (it is really early on Wednesday and I wasn’t going to get up at 5 am to watch it) but I was able to give the presentation a quick browse through picking up the key points that were raised. For me, the biggest ‘feature’ (if you can call it that) is the move to USB-C and the increase transfer speeds for the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max because it supports the USB 3 protocol (vs the non-Pro which uses the USB 2 protocol – which IMHO isn’t too bad given that even at 480Mbps I don’t see it being an issue for the majority of those who purchase the non-Pro model).
Although I have a Nothing Phone 1, I much prefer the Apple ecosystem so I’ll be looking at moving to the iPhone 15 Pro Max in the next month or so – I may even buy it as an early ‘end of the year holiday’ present for myself where I’ll go for the 256GB model. I’ll avoid doing the whole 12/24/36 months interest free deals because they’re such a nuisance if one tries to make additional payments. Oh, and I’ll also get a nice leather wallet case from Snake Hive too – learned my mistake a few years ago via a cracked screen which cost a small fortune to fix. With that being said, given the tight financial conditions, I’m going to hold off from any dreams at the moment and focus on getting my financial house in order – dreams are good but being on a stable financial footing is even better.
Side note: I’ve gone back to the old Reddit design and now I can see why people prefer it over the new design – originally I thought people liked it because either a) they never like anything new or b) being contrarian – going against the prevailing orthodoxy. I always assumed the slow opening of tabs wanting to open posts in new tabs was the result of Safari being slow but the moment I moved to the old Reddit design everything was so much faster. From loading pages, to loading posts in new tabs (which I do when viewing photos so I can quickly flick through them) not to mention the fact that it uses a whole lot les memory and isn’t buggy (recent fiasco was changing my email address to my iCloud ‘hide my email’ and found the new design either wouldn’t work or if it did work the link sent was broken – when I did it through the old website everything worked).
Regarding the memory message that comes up when using Safari, at first I was blaming Apple but now I blame the website for failing to build an efficient website that doesn’t guzzle down memory like I guzzle down Pepsi Max. Problems that I attribute to the browser I have found have more to do with the website being buggy and using Chrome on Google websites is no guarantee that the experience won’t be buggy either – see my recent post about YouTube shorts skipping the next video if you click on ‘Don’t recommend this channel’. I hope that a combination of what the Webcompat project are doing combined with web developers brining their websites inline with Webcompat should address those issues – at least that is what I hope.
I’m always sceptical when I hear politicians talking about ‘cutting back end staff’ and ‘putting more money into front end staff’ because in sounds great in theory as so long as you don’t think about it too deeply for more than 5 minutes. I find it interesting how ‘back end staff’ is being used as some sort of derogatory descriptor while they ignore that someone has to do the paper work to keep things moving – if they get rid of large amounts of backend staff then are they replacing them with new processes along with a larger investment into technology? If that is their focus then I don’t see anything budgeted for such a large investment in technology nor do I see any mention of having to also get a report conducted regarding what risks need to be considered particularly in the area of privacy and security.
The latest announcement (well, it was latest at the time of me writing this blog post) was in regards to National’s plans for Kāinga Ora (link) where they talk about how things can be done better but never any specifics. In the past they gave details of any changes and argue the case of why those changes would make a difference but at this point it is pretty much “trust me bro” with no specifics. As for what I would do, I’ll quote what I posted on Reddit in regards to dealing with affordable housing:
“If the govt were serious they would re-establish the ministry of works, nationalise all those building businesses that are about to hit the wall, employ the builders, plumbers etc. (along with developing a long term apprenticeship scheme) to focus on building thousands of social housing so that HNZ becomes the primary provider of rental accomodation. Long term the goal should be for a house to cost no more than 25% of a single persons after tax income per week (if a couple and both are working) or 12.5% if only one person is working – imagine paying $125 per week for rent vs $500-$600 as many do today – that would have a much bigger impact for those who are struggling than the pittance saved by removing GST on grocery items (I’d love to see how they classify what is a grocery item – expect it to be as entertaining as the debate over whether Jaffa cakes are cakes or biscuits).”
We’ve seen in the past when National/ACT have tried to run the government on a soft drink budget and then the next government having to come in to clean up the mess and make massive investments to address the degraded services. I’m still disappointed that Labour appears to be lumbering along offering nothing in the way of a long term vision and how the policies the announce fit into that vision but rather their constant cycle of incremental tweaks with no coherent narrative to explain how they all tie in together.
Nothing has released the Nothing OS 2.0.2 (link) and rather than waiting what I decided to do was side load it via the following instructions (link). The whole process was very smooth and when it came back up I found that it was more responsive although I did change the icon pack from the monochrome to the colourful one in part due to the icon pack not providing a full suite of icons for the apps that I use. Everything transitioned across smoothly without any problems with the kernel being rebuilt but still at 5.4.210 so I wouldn’t be surprised if some minor bug fixes along with security fixes were made given that the Android Security Patch has been updated to August 2023 (Google Play patch is still at July but those updates tend to come in the first week of the following month so I wouldn’t be surprised if we get the August update in the first week of September 2023).
The big focus over the next few months is is the stabilisation of Android 14 with Samsung having pushed out a public beta of One UI 6 (their branded version of Android 14), there are rumours of the Pixel 8 which will be coming with Android 14 (which will probably use the latest LTS release of Linux kernel 6.1). There is still a lot of work being done at Nothing as many of those engineers who worked on the One Plus have joined Nothing (link) but I would say that when Android 14 does come to the Nothing Phone 1 that they’ll keep the same kernel version for the sake of stability.
The Pixel 8 will be interesting to see what they have on offer but given that the Pixel range now support VoLTE and 5G in New Zealand it has become a viable phone for those who are happy to buy a phone from a non-teleco retailer. My goto place where I buy my phone from is either Mighty Ape or PB Tech unless there price is too high and it works out cheaper to buy it direct from the US then get it sent via NZ Post’s remailing service called YouShop. Rumour has it that Google will extend support for the Pixel to match what Samsung is offering which will go a long way to reducing the amount of e-waste.
If you’ve been following the election so far there are the usual suspects whipping the population into hysteria about how the whole system is going to collapse in on itself due to Labour’s free spending ways (link) (link) – put ‘nz increase public debt’ into Google News and see the avalanche of doom and gloom stories while ignoring that a) We’re seeing the consequences of the world ignoring climate change resulting in severe weather resulting in massive payouts on homes that have been destroyed or damaged by recent weather events b) The cost of building infrastructure caused by inflation which comes back to the lack of skilled workers and specialists not just locally but globally. Long story short, unless we deal with those issues we’re going to keep finding that it’ll be difficult to address the challenges in the future.
The other big announcement has been National’s tax policy (link) where on the surface it would greatly benefit me – the adjustment to the IETC along with the brackets being adjusted inline with inflation which works out to be roughly around $27 per week. Sounds great? yeah, that’s until you start reading the ‘fine print’ regarding how they will cover the shortfall in revenue. I can’t exhaustively go through all of what they’ve proposed but here are a few of them:
a) The tax on overseas operators isn’t as high as what they claim – as part of the Entain/TAB agreement TAB will have a monopoly in New Zealand in much the same way that Australians cannot bet with overseas bookies. If we take the money being spent right now on overseas bookies then all that is left is a very small number of people who bet with online casinos, poker, black jack etc. which is going to be nowhere near what National forecast.
b) The 15% tax on foreign buyers of homes over $2 million sound great until you realise that you’ll find developers will schew their property development to the high end segment of the market which will have the highest profit margins. The idea that it won’t have an impact on housing that the domestic market is demanding is a bit laughable – no matter how good the ring fencing is there will always be some sort of unintended consequences that come as a result no matter how well the policy is designed.
c) Cutting public transport subsidies and investment which will impact many New Zealand families who are already struggling not to mention the reduction in investment impacting the reliability and future investments that’ll make public transport more efficient in the future. I suggest people look back to the 1970s when the National Party reversed the investments the Labour government were making into mass transit – it took until 20 February 2011 for the rail line up to Waikanae to be electrified and that doesn’t even touch on the rejection of Mayor Robbie’s mass transit plan for Auckland (link) and now Auckland today are dealing with the consequences of rejecting the plan. There are costs – not just the upfront but the downstream costs, you may save $x upfront by not building something but end up paying more down the road because it hasn’t been built aka ‘penny wise but pound foolish’.
Here is a good video regarding the whole National tax policy from ‘Big Hairy News’ (show your support by buying some merch from their store, they make some of the best local content (link)):
Well, I gave Firefox another whirl and although there are improvements in terms of speed not to mention it is the browser recommended by uBlock Origin developer, I found that it wasn’t always smooth sailing. An example of that would be using Firefox with the web version of Skype where it works smoothly with Chrome, Edge and Safari but when it comes to Firefox it has a warning message that one will experience reduced functionality. Another issue is that of YouTube Shorts which will skip the next video if you click on the three dots then clock on ‘Don’t recommend this channel’ then on occasion when it doesn’t skip the next video it starts playing the audio for the next video.
On a good side, MV3 is still being developed and if the continued discussion about adding more functionality to the declarative APIs are any indication I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up seeing Google kick the can down the road regarding the phasing out of support for MV2. I understand that the world has to move forward and there certainly are benefits to MV3 but at the same time I think that Google should stop mentioning dates of phasing out MV2 and simply treat MV3 as work in progress because if the meeting minutes from the Webextensions API is anything to go by there is still a tonne of work to be done particularly in the area of addressing the shortcomings of MV3 when compared to MV2 APIs that many developers rely on.
Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, when asked regarding the desktop version of Threads (that can be accessed through a website) will be launched he noted on his Threads feed (link):
It’s an important piece of the puzzle given that power users and corporate users rely on doing their social networking management from their laptop or desktop – there is a Threads app being developed for macOS via the use of the Catalyst framework but the last time it was mentioned the consensus from engineers in Instagram is that the app was pretty buggy. It’ll be interesting to see how Threads revolves with ActivityPub being the big feature that I think many are waiting on – the ability to following high profile people while not having to be on Threads. I think the long term we’re going to see Threads eclipse X/Twitter and as for X/Twitter being turned into a ‘super app’ – given the limited resources I am sceptical that it can be done and if it is done I simply don’t see an appetite for such a service given the numerous attempts in the past by companies with a lot more money and manpower yet when push came to shove they couldn’t deliver a ‘super app’.
I ordered a pizza online a few minutes ago and normally I’ll grab a few sides but these days I can’t help but look at the sides and sigh with boredom that there is nothing interesting on offer, the same things on offer. The other place I buy my pizza from used to have interesting pizza options such as venison or lamb pizza but it has been ages since the last time something new or innovative has come out. All ‘n all the whole take away scene is getting pretty boring – are companies deciding to play it safe because of the economic uncertainty and thus don’t want to be left with a whole heap of stock they can’t sell?
I’m wondering whether the above example embodies the malaise that has made it’s presence known in New Zealand where everything seems rather ‘meh’ the moment – is it the winter blues of crappy weather and lack of sun or more an example of the mediocre bare minimum that is being pushed by the powers that be with the election giving voters the choice between reactionary populism, mediocre bare minimum or the reheating of old ideas that weren’t very good to begin with but are being marketed as ‘the solution’ to the challenges of today.
I’ve tried to get involved but I can’t help but get the feeling that it is a closed club – you can be a member but you’re never really a member that is taken seriously. People wondering why young people don’t get involved but there is very much a good reason why not – the gatekeepers that patronise and exile those who have ideas that go against the prevailing orthodoxy. In the case of Labour the continued worshipping at the altar of neoliberalism while simultaneously claiming that capitalism has failed with the limit vision beyond just tinkering around the edge to make the system suck slightly less rather than making the investment into rail, public housing etc. that New Zealand sorely needs.
Here we are in 2023 and there is still no long term plan to fully electrify and standardise the rail network, we’re still treating Housing New Zealand like a quasi welfare agency when it should be used as battering ram to decomodify housing by turning it into the primary provider of rental accommodation, to disincentivise property speculation and the development of an entrenched rentier class, along with many other much needed changes. It’s frustrating because it isn’t a though these ideas a radical or even new – we used to have these policies many decades ago which allowed New Zealand to build a thriving society which had its faults but at least was aware that ‘let the market do their thing’ isn’t the solution to solving problems when they arose.
I finally got myself motivated enough to head to the local tech store to buy a USB-C earphones – NZ$45 for some Samsung AKG EO-IC100 and so far they have been pretty good when combined with Poweramp Music Player and Equaliser I am getting some good audio quality, good bass, no distortion etc. although I am tempted to get a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter so I can use my Sennheiser headphones because on long journeys I find them a lot more comfortable but if I am on my scooter or a short commute to work on the train the earphones do the job quite nicely.
My scooter still has a flat tyre but I’m not in a hurry due to the foul weather which I have been avoiding because it is kind of dangerous on the road not to mention getting cold and wet before work isn’t good. There are plans to move from where I work now into the Wellington CBD but there are many things still up the air but if it does go ahead I’ll take the train in and thus avoid the danger on the road especially at peak time.
Oh, and the merchandise from the merdise store at work (I received a $100 gift voucher) – a jumper, socks, t-shirt and a beanie, all which will be nice to keep me warm when going into work. It is amazing I’ve been at the same place for 5 years and looking forward to many more years to come. Hopefully once I get things sorted out I’m going to invest into some shirts for work along with some new shoes – I’ll probably end up getting hush puppies because they’re the most comfortable.
Apple released an update for macOS 13.5.1 which fixes an issue in the Settings app regarding location settings – I never experienced the issue but then can I have some pretty much needs when using computers. I’m looking forward to Nothing OS 2 – the promise is that it’ll launch in August so hopefully we’ll see the update be made available the end of the moth. One thing to keep in mind with Nothing OS 2 is that it is based on Android 13 where as the Android 14 based Nothing OS is still currently in development. There is a video on YouTube that covered an alleged leaked version but assuming it is genuine I wouldn’t get my hopes up of radical changes, we’re at the point in the product cycle where smartphones are mature.
One thing to also keep in mind is that with the decoupling of Android from the kernel underneath allows OEM’s to maintain a stable kernel that can be carried over multiple versions of Android. Being able to stick with a particular kernel version avoids the chaos in the past of having to port drivers over to the new kernel version then test them along with the work being done with the Android framework that sits on top. For the Nothing Phone 1 the kernel still receives updates but it is sitting on linux version 5.4.210 where every bug and security fix is tested to ensure that ABI/API compatibility is maintained which is important for the drivers so that they can keep working without having to be recompiled or require major patching to get them to work again. The below video goes into greater detail:
Just had a look at videos of Samsung’s launch of their One UI 6 beta programme and it appears that things are getting better in terms of the overall UI experience – yeah, I’m one of these strange people who focus on usability rather than fixating for almost an hour over the camera setup.
After having a look at the above video along with many others there appears to be a greater focus on fit and finish but I’m not hopeful next year when the S24 that there will be less crapware on the phone – one can always hope.
The other launch I am waiting on is Pixel 8 and whether we’ll see it available through retail in New Zealand or at the very least being able to order it online without too much drama. The Nothing Phone 2 is available through Mighty Ape and a few other outlets – it’s funny how the Nothing Phone can be easily bought when compared to the Pixel phone which is a nightmare particularly when one considers the NZD$2000 limit on YouShop (I guess worse comes to worse I can go to Australia for a holiday and pick one up over there).
I thought it would be best to write a follow up to a toot/post I made over on Mastodon to expand upon the point I was making – the benefit of microblogging is that it is easy to get ideas out into the ether of the internet but many times they’re terse and lacking the nuances of a proper blog post. Just to prefix this, I’m under no illusion that voting within the current system will bring about major systemic change but instead I view voting as a way of reducing harm by advocating for change within the system.
The purpose of pushing for policies that reduce harm such as a higher minimum wage, protection of unions and union organising, single payer healthcare, industrial relations framework that ensure there is mandated sick leave, annual leave etc. provides space for the working class to build institutions and movements that can and will be used to challenge the power structure in the long term.
I have to admit the above post (in the screenshot) may come off as a little abrasive but ‘the vote’ is the only impactful tool that exists and sitting on the side lines believing your lack of participation is going to ‘stick it to the man’ and punish the party that isn’t perfect but you have the most in common with will only result in that party gradually shifting to the right because the left aren’t turning out to vote aka party migrate to where the voters are. Voting isn’t about voting for the perfect but voting for who you have the most in common with then joining up, getting friends and family to join then making your voice heard when there are party meetings.
For me, are the Labour Party in New Zealand everything I hoped and dreamed for? no it isn’t but is it who I have the most in common with? yes it is so in the end I joined up and became a member because for all the faults the Labour have it is the one that has the most going for it in regards to the two majority political parties. I could sit on the sidelines playing the holier than thou routine believing that because I don’t participate I’m somehow above all the plebs, floating high off the ground supported my own sense of self righteousness but what would it achieve? well, the powers that be will be happy that I’ve given up on the system or as as this Paul Weyrich, architect of the Republican electoral strategy, put it:
The only thing you are doing, when you don’t turn out, is to give people like Paul Weyrich exactly what they want – whether you don’t turn up because you don’t feel ‘inspired’ or because the party isn’t 100%, you’re giving people like him power, is that what you really want to do? look to the US where people didn’t ‘feel inspired’ or the candidate wasn’t perfect, you’re now feeling the consequences in the form of a generational swing to the conservatives on the supreme court for starters where settled law has been thrown out in favour of those who wish to use the supreme court to fight ‘culture wars’. Just look at the most recent case regarding affirmative action – if you think that these lawsuits stop at universities then you’re sorely mistaken (link). Most recent example were 1.5 million people who didn’t turn out to vote in the 2022 election in Florida which resulted in Ron DeSantis winning a second term. Elections have consequences and by not turning out to vote you aren’t ‘sending a message’ because the only person being hurt is yourself.
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