Matisyahu's Blog

I finished my work tonight at 8pm and I’ve been enjoying the first couple hours of my much-needed break – looking forward to WWDC but in the meantime I am giving Microsoft Edge a try and I might even give Office 365 Business Standard a try to see how it compares to Apple iCloud and Google Workspace. The last time I used Office 365 was many years ago but from what I have read it has improved greatly along with better support for email aliases. The funny thing I have noticed with Edge is how it ‘feels’ more responsive and faster than Chrome not to mention how the spelling and grammar checking. The one thing I can observe is that I haven’t had any website compatibility issues with any of the websites I visit frequently. I wouldn’t be surprised if, after a medocre WWDC, that I end up looking at moving to Windows and Office 365 (or maybe Google Workspace).

Now, it may sound like I am heaping praise on Microsoft, but would I move to Office 365 instead of using Google Workspace? no and the reason is the integration just isn’t there and that is something Microsoft must face up to when they don’t control the underlying platform resulting in the apps always feeling as though they’re as integrated as what the native experience provides. Sure, you can use a third-party browser, but it doesn’t integrate into Google Pay, some applications ignore settings regarding the default browser that you’ve chosen and instead just load Chrome. On iOS it is particularly bad because for a while (not too sure whether this has changed recently) apps couldn’t upload in the background such as setting up OneDrive to upload your photo collection to the cloud only to find that when it goes into the background it stops uploading with the argument by Apple is that it saves on power (how do they explain why their own Photo app get around that issue – it doesn’t consume power when uploading?).

Today was a productive day, I visited my sister to hand back the laptop that I set up for her along with setting up the UniFi Dream Machine and UniFi AP AC HD resulting in a much better internet experience where (I ran a speed test and was able to hit 300mbps download and 100mbps upload). The UniFi Dream Machine is put in the lounge room/kitchen where as the UniFi AP AC HD is installed in the hall way (the ethernet cable going up through the ceiling then connecting up to the access point (the fact that it is powered via PoE makes the installation a whole lot easier). The laptop has left me with a very positive experience when it comes to Windows 11 – as most of you know I’m a pretty hard core macOS user but I always like to keep my options open. It will be interesting to see what Windows 11 25H2 brings but I’ve heard rumours that administrator protection will arrive – that will really push up the level of security in Windows 11 and protect it from some of the nasty stuff that bad guys try to do.

I’ve had a look through my wardrobe and there are some of the old shirts I used to fit that have aged really badly so even when I get my weight down to my target range I don’t think I’ll ever actually wear them. The white shirts have have got discolouration so they’ll be the first I get rid of but there are three shirts from Oxford I bought when I was in Australia which has a double cuff that are nice but I’m unsure what I’ll pair up with them – possibly a woollen vest or maybe getting the equivalent of a ‘frock coat’ with trousers that match them. On a good side the black shirts I bought held up well – I am a horrible eater so I tend to avoid clothing where, if I spill something, it shows a nasty stain on it hence my preference for dark colours.

I’ve had a look at switching to 2 Degrees for my internet – at the moment Skinny doesn’t offer IPv6 and one thing I noticed is that the speed and latency is better on her connection when compared to mine. I am also looking at 2 Degrees because everything is integrated together into a single bill, the gap between the price Skinny charges vs what others charge have closed not to mention the good speeds when using Cloudflare, Microsoft, Amazon and Google services along with the inter connection at points of presence meaning that if I am connecting to a service in Wellington the requst doesn’t go all the way to Auckland then back down to Wellington again but instead through the exchange in Wellington I directly connect to the server with the result being lower latency and better speed when downloading. As mentioned in a previous post, I’ll be holding back any decisions until we see what happens with the upcoming WWDC 2025 and whether it is a barrel of disappointments or the issues I’ve raised in the past actually get addressed – if it is a giant disappointment then at least I have an alternative plan for the next few years.

I went out tonight with mum, sister, partner and two nieces for dinner to celebrate reaching the ripe old age of 44 years old. It is amazing how the years go so quickly and yet at the age of 44 I don’t feel old, I don’t feel like I’m slowing down or aging when compared to when I was in my 30s or 20s although I do prefer to hang out at home rather than going out like I did when I was young – maybe it has to do with the lack of novelty associated with going out now that I’ve seen and experienced it all not to mention that it is winter and I’d sooner be at home where it is cosy and warm.

My sister has decided to go to teachers training college so I helped her pick out a laptop (an ASUS Zenbook 14inch) and then set it up – installed all the latest updates so that everything is up to date along with firmware etc. When at dinner mum said it would be better for my sister to get my old router and access point since the modem they have is one provided by their ISP but the coverage is horrible. I finally got the UDM sorted out by putting it in recovery mode then upgrading it to the latest firmware – when I set it up I’ll register it to my UniFi account so then I can manage it from home.

One more week to go before the big WWDC Keynote and State of the Platform Union on Tuesday NZ Time (Monday in the US) – a lot of rumours are swirling around such as unifying the version number of all their platforms around a year for example it would make macOS 26 become the next release. For me the whole thing with AI is kind of secondary when compared to wanting to get the fundamentals nailed down or as Chris Luxon (NZ Prime Minister) loves to say “making sure the basics are done well” – not use boasting about Ai when Webkit is failing to keep up with web standards and implementing the MV3 extension framework in a timely manner or failing to fix up bugs around iCloud and macOS integration (as mentioned on a previous post about custom domain aliases not appearing in the Mail app on macOS).

The outcome of WWDC will pretty much shape my plans for the next couple of years – the experience of setting up my sister’s computer opened my eyes to the fact that Windows 11 is actually pretty good when it is paired with hardware from an OEM vendor that doesn’t chock it full of crapware. The laptop my sister got is an ASUS and the only crapware that was installed was McAfee which was easily uninstalled while everything else was exactly what was needed to make the laptop productive. If I ever did make the move then ASUS would definitely be a contender to replace my Mac or possibly Microsoft Surface. As for the desk, I’d probably build my own and have a 100% AMD based one – AMD CPU and GPU which woud give me the flexibility of installing Windows 11 on it and if at a later date I decide I’ll know that all the hardware will be supported out of the box with Linux.