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

  • Getting life sorted out.

    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:

  • Maybe Samsung isn’t so bad after all.

    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).

  • Voting may not change the world but we can use it to minimise the harm.

    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.

  • Looking forward to Nothing OS 2.0.

    I was hoping that Nothing OS 2.0 would be Android 14 based but with the launch of the Nothing Phone 2.0 the Nothing OS 2.0 is based on Android 13 which will be coming to the Nothing Phone 1 – it’ll be interesting to see whether the kernel is upgraded to a newer version but based on how things are going in the world of Android I would say it’ll remain the same version with some minor updates to fix bugs and any security issues.

    Regarding polls and elections the one thing I always remind people that two months is a long time in politics – it is very easy for a campaign to come undone just as it is possible for voters to give some of the minor parties a second look at to see what they have to offer. The key with MMP is about voting strategically because if there is one thing that can be demonstrated is the fact that when Labour are left to their own devices they don’t make the substantive changes needed but if they have a partner like the Maori Party, TOP or Greens then it forces the hand of Labour to go beyond the milk toast neoliberalism.

    Winter is still very around with a sudden cold weather snap with the temperature at the moment sitting at 6 degrees Celsius so I’ve decided to order a pizza for dinner – it’s my treat on my two late nights that I work (1330 to 2200) on Friday and Saturday where as the rest of the week I have pretty plain meals. Maybe towards the end of the year I might get motivated enough to start cooking some more interesting meals but it is one of those things you one really isn’t up for after a long day at work. Might start having a look at some of the quick meals at the supermarket – eventually wean myself off pizza in favour of something that is more fulfilling.

  • UnifiOS updates released.

    Ubiquiti has released two updates, the first being a UnifiOS update for my UDM which updates it from 3.0.20 to 3.1.15 and firmware for the Unifi AP AC HD has been updated from 6.5.28 to 6.5.62. Both the UDM and the access point have been rock solid since the update but keeping in mind I keep a pretty basic network setup so I probably avoid many of the headaches others face due to the simple network design. The great part about the recent builds of UnifiOS has been unifying UnifiOS versions so that all devices are on the same version number so when 3.1.15 was released for UDM it was also released for all the other devices that rely on UnifiOS as well such as the Unifi Router, UDM Pro, UDM SE etc. so that there is a consistent experience across the product range.

    A bit of a background regarding using Ubiquiti, I started using Ubiquiti equipment years ago because for a long time I just put up with bad performance and reliability from consumer grade routers then to make matters worse I would come home from work and want things to just work only to find I ended up wasting 15-20 minutes trying to work out why I couldn’t stream YouTube without constant pauses.

    Safari Technology Preview 175 (link) and with that I’m sure once they get to run the next Interoperability tests (link) that we’ll get to see the gap close in terms of compatibility and open standards compliance. Safari 17 will appear in macOS 14 however it’ll be interesting to see how things will develop post release in terms of new functionality. Maybe the European Union’s Digital Markets Act has put a rocket until Apple to allocate more resources to Webkit because what the European Union’s Digital Markets Act would allow is the side loading of non-Webkit based browsers to use their own ‘engine’ instead of merely being a branded front end on top of the Webkit engine.

  • Apple releases updates.

    Apple has released a bevy of updates, on macOS the firmware was updated from 8422.121.1 to 8422.141.2 and the firmware/driver for wifi from updated from 20.96.28.1.8.7.146 to 20.96.31.0.8.7.148, I haven’t noticed any difference in terms of speed but equally I haven’t noticed any regressions. Safari has also been updated to 16.6 however I am still sticking with Chrome for the time being but I’ll reevaluate that when macOS 14 is released so I can see how Safari 17 has turned out but that very much depends on where Apple is when it comes to supporting the Webextensions API.

    When it comes to Webextensions API, there has been continued discussion regarding declarativeNetRequest (link) – making filter lists more efficient where wildcards can be used for blocking domains rather than declaring them individually and thus hitting filter limitations. That being said, based on the implementation in browsers it appears that Safari is lagging behind the competition (link) which makes me cynical about whether Apple truly believes in Webextensions API or whether they’re only doing the absolute bare minimum that they can get way with. There are great content blockers such as AdGuard (which I would recommend if you must use Safari) but ultimately the quality of the blocking is very much dictated by the quality of the Webextensions API implementation.

    Chrome 115 was released – there is a long slow march towards phasing out third party cookies and other nasties in favour of having an assortment of technologies that Google believe will keep the advertisers and website owners happy. Personally they should have just say down with Apple and adopt what Apple was proposing and have continued developing rather than what is being pushed is yet another set of APIs that’ll require developers to open into using. Oh, and from the “really, you thought that was a good idea” comes this gem (link).

    For me at the moment I am using Safari after giving Chrome and Firefox a try – Firefox has come a long way but there are still corner cases where there is website incompatibility not to mention lagging behind on web standards (link). The situation reminds me very much of Microsoft Edge (the one before the Chromium based Microsoft Edge) where, according to their telemetry data, people would give the browser a chance until they hit an incompatible website at which point they download Chrome and never look back. Yes, not all compatibility issues are due to the browser itself but for the average user they don’t care whether it’s the website or the browser they just want to visit the website they’re interested in and let either side sort out any problems that may exist behind the scenes.

    Just to wrap things up, I find my self watching not as much content as I used to – part of it due to the writers strike resulting in fewer shows available to watch but equally it has kind of gotten to the point that I’ve watched so many variations of a given theme that I know who did what and where within the first 5 minutes of the show. I guess in a wordy way I am saying that the shows have become repetitive and thus no longer hold my interest as they once did. These days I’m more into watching news, documentaries and video essays these days – a lot of great content on YouTube as long as you’re willing to train the algorithm so that it doesn’t suggest garbage.

  • Giving Firefox a try.

    With Google hell bent on crippling their browsers functionality with the gradual work being done around killing off MV2 in favour of MV3 which cripples content blockers by limiting the number of filters that can be enabled, removing functionality for the sake of “but what happens if they install an extension from a non-verified source!” etc etc. The other issue that I’ve been tolerating for the last few months is the lack of extensions on Chrome for Android (which Firefox supports) – it starts to get a bit grating after a while but the big thing I noticed is how it this now possible to use Firefox Sync as the source for autofill on Android which has made it a viable option at least for me. Gradually decoupling my dependency on a single organisation can cause anxiety because of the comfort of the familiar but there are benefits – Apple for the hardware, Firefox for the browser, Google Workspace for the cloud etc. creating a heterogenous environment where everything works together.

    There are a few websites, such as Skype and Teams for the web, which insists on treating Safari and Firefox like second class browsers but I do have limited use for Skype (I only use it to chat to one person) which makes it a non-issue but it is rather concerning that Microsoft is insisting on wedding their cloud to a specific browser engine rather than creating cloud based services that confirm to open standards. This is one aspect of Google I am thankful for – Firefox is fully supported with only a few limitations that don’t impact by day to day use of Google Workspace (link). I really do hope that with the work being done in the area of implementation compatibility (link) that long term choosing a browser won’t result in the follow up question of “will the websites I depend on work with it”. I can’t help but get the feeling that Chromium has become the Internet Explorer of the 21st century.

  • This is why you always need to read the source.

    Another day and another example of the right wing misrepresenting an article. This time the noise makers are claiming that MSNBC is claiming exercising is right wing (link) but then again that is assuming that such noise makers had any intention of being honest with their audience. Long story short it is raising the same sorts of issues that have been bought up in the past regarding influencers online who are using seemingly innocuous past times such as self help, meditation etc. then using that as a cover to launder conspiracy theories, misinformation etc.

    This whole phenomenon has been analysed by the podcast ‘Conspirituality’ which dives into how conspiracy theories, right wing politics etc. are laundered through something that on the surface seems pretty innocuous – “oh, this seems nice, a podcast about meditation and healthy eating” only to find that it ends up leading people down a rabbit hole. It doesn’t always lead to right wing politics, sometimes it goes in the direction of unhinged anti-capitalist politics but where ever it ends up it is never in a good place.

    Long story short, it was a gross misrepresentation of what was actually taking place but this isn’t the first nor will be the last time it’ll happen. The most recent one before the MSNBC article was the hysteria whipped by the right was the hysteria created over the term ‘bonus hole’ and the claims that women will have to refer to their genitals in the future as a ‘bonus hole’ but the problem is that no evidence has been provided to back up such a claim. Over on Yahoo there is an article that gives an overview of what has taken place (link) but long story short a LGBTQ+ non-profit was working with Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust to develop an outreach strategy to encourage trans men to get test for cervical cancer and part of that was developing inclusive language when dealing with trans men. In other words, it had nothing to do with forcing the adoption of gender neutral language on the general public and yet some how the story acquired legs of its own and now the right wing are obsessing over something that is a non issue for the vast majority of people.

    Then there is the whole saga regarding a TYT host getting worked up over the use of ‘birthing person’ who clearly ignored the evidence that, once again, is not a word use in the mainstream or as outlined by the National Institute of Health from the United States (link):

    Both pregnant women and pregnant people are acceptable phrases. It is unnecessary to avoid the word women by substituting phrases like birthing people, or people with uteruses. Neutral terms like pregnant patients, pregnant people, or other wording as applicable (e.g., pregnant teens), present an inclusive alternative. Use judgment and context to determine whether to use pregnant women or pregnant people / pregnant patients.

    Using more limited and specific language is sometimes important. For instance, if discussing a study that only involves cisgender women, gender-specific language (pregnant women) would be most accurate to reference that study’s findings. If the word women is preferable, but transgender and nonbinary people are also referenced, phrasing like women and other pregnant patients can provide an inclusive alternative.

    I’ve put in bold and underlined the text that can summarise this whole ‘storm in a tea cup’ down to – once again there is no demand for it’s wide spread use outside specific scenarios where it may make sense. So I kept searching further and found the usual propagator of half truths making claims that the evidence doesn’t back up. A good example of that is the recent furore regarding the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust using gender include language but as outlined in the article (link):

    However, while some reports have stated that Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust is entirely replacing any language related to womanhood, this is not the case.

    “We are taking a gender-additive approach to the language used to describe our services,” a statement from the hospital explains.

    It adds that “a gender-additive approach means using gender-neutral language alongside the language of womanhood, in order to ensure that everyone is represented and included”.

    Which is no different to the situation in New Zealand where we have the name of a government department in both Maori and English or in the case of the above scenario using the gender neutral word along side the language related to womanhood. Once again we have the misrepresentation of what is happening in an area of medicine by those who wish to politicise gender-affirming care into yet another thing that the right wish to throw around in their ‘culture war’. In the right wing world it appears that anyone who isn’t white, heterosexual and cis is seen as some sort of existential threat to civilisation that all the reactionaries feel the need obsess over – see ‘woke mind virus’ as the recent manifestation of right wing nonsense.

  • Time and a half is always good.

    Well, I’m working on Matariki but on the upside there is a bonus – I get time and a half plus a day in lieu since this is my normal day of work (I work a Wednesday to Sunday schedule). One thing I’ll need to remember is completing the time sheet at the end of my shift – I’m sure I won’t forget.

    The first crop of reviews for the Nothing Phone 2 are being uploaded to YouTube:

    For me, I’m no great urgency about getting the Nothing Phone 2 but it is great to hear that for a small player in the market to get to 800,000 without the exhaustive network of resellers, a massive marketing budget, deals with carriers etc. they’ve done remarkably well. For me, I purchased my Nothing Phone 1 from PB Tech in Wellington (Nothing Phone 1, 256GB storage, 12GB RAM) and have been a happy user ever since – Google Workspace being my cloud provider of choice.

    It’ll be interesting to see what the performance difference will be like with the flagship level SoC that it now includes with the Nothing Phone 2. Personally, I think the greatest benefit isn’t the hardware necessarily but the software, the fact that it is crapware free, isn’t chock full of shovelware that third parties pay OEMs to preload or what takes place in the US where mobile phone carriers ram a whole heap of third party nonsense on the phone by default.

    Now onto the Trump trial where his legal team are attempting to delay and stall for as long as they can:

    So the Trump legal team want a delay until after the elections – we all know what would happen if it was delayed, Trump loses the election, he complains it is due to the court case looming over the election campaign even though it was his legal team who asked for it and his support base aren’t actually interested in facts if it contradicts the larger narrative of Trump being the perpetual victim of the system and in turn see themselves as victims.

    The worse part about this whole MAGA movement is the fact that people aren’t interest in facts (as Chris Christie points out all the broken promises Trump has made) or policy but instead vote based on vibes, sticking it to the libs etc. etc. By the way, this situation isn’t unique to MAGA voters, I would hazard to guess that for a significant number of people they vote based on vibes or continuing the tradition of being a ‘Labour Family’ or a ‘National family’. If people were voting based on policy then it would be possible to talk about policy and why one policy is better than another but when the basis is has no grounding in reality it isn’t surprised that the quality of the discourse heads down the toilet.

  • The universe is balancing itself out.

    Instagram Threads launched on 5 July 2023 and within a week they now have 100 million with many, many high profile people moving over from Twitter to Threads. I think long term you’ll find that it’ll come in waves as features are added then eventually once ActivityPub integration occurs you may find that Instagram will put down their ban hammer on a few of the undesirable people who have come over to Threads and based on the number of replies that said individual isn’t welcome.

    There was another beta released by Apple for both their existing platform along with the next platform release they have planned. Personally, I would sooner they take their time but that being said I would like them to closing the functionality gap particularly when it comes to extensions. I’m a simple man, if Apple get Safari MV3 support to the point that I can run uBlock Origin Lite then I would be a pretty happy lad. The web browser has become the run time engine for the online world and when Apple drag their feet regarding implementing standards then it holds back the whole IT industry due to the dominance Safari has in the smartphone and tablet space due to the fact that the core of Safari is the only one allowed on iOS and iPadOS.

    Another day another poll with journalists spinning the results into something that it is not (link). In the case of National-ACT they sit at 48%, for Labour-Greens plus other parties they sit at around the same. Basically they’re neck and neck, the majority that Labour was never sustainable long term in an MMP environment but why let facts get in the way of a doom and gloom narrative to get those clicks and raging comments in the comment section. I think it’ll a close election – at least in the case of New Zealand at least our centre right party hasn’t lost its marbles unlike the United States where their so-called centre right party is completely disconnected from reality.

    Nothing has pushed out an update, Nothing OS 1.5.6 which weighed in around 55MB and after the installation it appears that it was an update to the kernel with the build being dated 6 July 2023 but the version remaining the same at 5.4.210. In the last couple of days the June Play Services was updated to the June 2023 version and so far the combination of the two updates (plus the regular updates made available through the Play Store) the experience over all has been pretty good.

    The development of Mimestream has resulted in some regular updates coming out (link). I’m looking forward to seeing contacts and calendaring integration so that Mimestream gets to the point that it is a completely integrated productivity app like Outlook on the desktop is like. In other news, at the moment where I work they use Google Workspace but we’re going to be moving over to Office 365 which will be an interesting experience given how much stuff we have integrated into Google – from the current CRM through to documents saved in our Google Drive. All I can say, I’m happy I decided not to make working in IT my full time job – sure, I’m keenly interested in technology but I wouldn’t want to make it a fully time job because it would take away from the enjoyment of having the interest in it.