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

  • Laptop keyboard, Australian election and hypocritical self righteous indignation.

    Another week has come and gone – getting closer to the couple of weeks off I’ll have in June but so far the weeks are speeding up with time feeling as though it is flying at lightening speed. I’m still deciding whether I should wait until June to take my laptop in to get the keyboard replaced or whether I should take it in now to get it out of the way – I’ll make that decision I guess when I get there, when I wake up and feel in the mood to ride my scooter into Wellington.

    There was a South Australian election recently with Labor sweeping to victory but it’ll be interesting to see whether that’ll translate to success for Labor in the federal elections. As much as I want to be hopeful for the Australian Labor party I can’t help but feel that the Australian public will be once again be duped into voting Liberal thanks to the carefully tuned BS manufacturing that the Australian media has – if it isn’t the outright distortion of Labor’s track record then it is game of false balance aka “both sides are as bad as each other” nonsense.

    Regarding the election here, there is still 18 months which can be an eternity in politics and many things can occur between now and then especially when one considers the fact that there is a pandemic still raging. That being said, Labour cannot rely on it’s COVID success, they need to take control of the narrative by putting forward a bold long term vision for New Zealand that focuses on key areas and how, when all combined, they work together to reading the end goal. A long term vision for New Zealand isn’t just about ‘winning elections’ but about setting a level of certainty to the business community can plan around, in particular around training a new generation of skilled tradespeople so that they can engage in what I call nation building.

    Chris Wallace, a leading anchor on Fox News decided to leave Fox News back in December 2021 but apparently it was the election and Tucker Carlson’s monologues on a variety of subject matter that broke the camels back:

    Really, after 18 years and the train wreck of propaganda that he finally drew the line then? I’m sure many people remember the egregious stuff said by various other presenters in the past but he has only just decided to leave? Maybe I’m too principled for my own good but I tend to want to work for an organisation where I can lay in bed at the end of each day knowing that what I did at work wasn’t damaging society.

  • Windows 11, vaccine boosters and manifest V3.

    Sigh, I really need to get my act together because almost every week I’ve said to myself, “this week will be the day I take my laptop in to get the keyboard replaced” but each week the weekend goes so fast and then I find I’m back in the office working again. At this rate it’ll be next year before I eventually get there…well ok, maybe not that far away but I really do need to get my act together.

    I was so optimistic about Safari 15.4 until things started to break – I went to YouTube, searched for a video and found that none of the thumbnails were loading. I have the Adguard extension installed however I have YouTube on my ‘Trusted Websites’ so it shouldn’t have interfered with the loading of the website but I decided to uninstall it anyway. After uninstall Adguard I thought I would take it safe by also clearing all cookies and cache to ensure that I start with a clean slate. Went to YouTube, logged in and then tried to search – same thing happened again. I have also found that it keeps falling back to low quality playback even though I’ve got plenty of bandwidth (gigabit connection) and the issue doesn’t occur with Chrome. What that tells me is that the issue isn’t related to the operating system itself but instead something in Safari itself which is causing the problem.

    There has been a lot happening in the world of Windows 11 (link). There is a lot of changes that are occurring ‘above the hood’ with the ‘under the hood’ pretty much at a state that the heavy lifting changes were more or less complete by the time Windows 11 was released. That probably explains why Windows 10 was such a rollercoaster in terms of reliability when compared to Windows 11 where all the changes so far has been about keeping the same ‘backend code’ but replacing the ‘classic’ UI frameworks with a single unified one, WinUI, which now forms the foundation of Windows going forward – after years of stopping and starting with various ideas it appears that MIcrosoft, with the leadership they have in place, know where they want to get to and how they’re going to get there. I think the big lesson that has been learned is not to re-invent the wheel, take what you already have and build upon it because otherwise you’ll find yourself in a world of hurt and many unhappy end users unhappy that you’ve re-written an app from the ground up but is missing features that the old version had.

    Work has been chaotic all this week with people having to stay at home due to being immunocompromised along with those who have COVID but are well enough to work from home. It’ll be interesting to see what the upcoming opening of the border will result in considerable increase in infections or whether it stays on the same course. It’ll also be interesting to see whether the government will go for a 4th booster shot although strange enough they’ve got 10.72 million units of Novavax on order (link) – are they going to shift over to Novavax with a booster shot being the start of a Novavax regiment? I guess time will tell but I’m hopeful that the work being done to bring about the second generation vaccines (link) will result in decreased transmission and higher numbers of antibodies resulting in a longer period of protection. If in the long term we can get to the point that COVID vaccination becomes a once a year or once every two years regiment then that’ll go a long way to getting things back to normal – we’ll still need to be smart about protecting ourselves and others but it should result in a flattening of the curve.

    When it comes to Manifest V3 the discussion regarding the WebRequest API (link) so it’ll be interesting to see whether eventually see the major parties realise the foolishness of ramming something through that will detrimentally impact millions of end users. Hopefully they can get this all sorted out by January 2023 (the date when Manifest V2 stop being distributed by the Google extensions store).

  • Positive COVID test and Apple releases updates.

    Well, after planning to drop off my laptop I tested positive for COVID so I ended up having to isolate myself for a week – it wasn’t too bad given that I’ve experienced a whole lot worse in my life. I’m hoping that I’ll eventually have the time to head into Wellington to get the keyboard repaired – the spacebar is already rather iffy along with many other parts of the keyboard. If I get another 2-3 years out of this then I’ll be a happy lad.

    Apple released macOS 12.3, iOS 15.4 and tvOS 15.4 (along with others), the system firmware remained the same but the loader version has been updated from 540.80.2~11 to 540.100.7~14. In terms of Safari it has been bumped up from Version 15.3 (17612.4.9.1.8) to Version 15.4 (17613.1.17.1.6) which includes 70 new enhancements (link) not to mention various updates to drivers such as the AMD driver being updated to fix up a security issue along with many others security fixes being shipped (link). There were all plenty of fixes for iOS and tvOS (link).

    Over all, after updating all my devices, I’ve found that they’re working slightly faster, Safari had it’s fair share of fixes which has resulted in it being a lot more snappy particularly when it comes to websites that that have a reasonable level of complexity. Hopefully the improvements coming through is beginning of a much required improvement in translating the improvements appearing in the Technology Preview and for those improvements to make a timely appearance in the mainstream build of Safari.

  • Cancelled trip into Wellington, Apple Improves browser interoperability.

    Well, I’ve enjoyed my second day off from work – just chilling out at home. Last week I was going to head into Wellington to get my keyboard repaired but due to all the craziness along with police advising not to come into the CBD due to the protest. This week I’m going to head in on Wednesday – might go for a bit of a trip around the Hutt Valley before going into Wellington. I can get the keyboard fixed up for free because it falls under the free repair – basically I want to keep using it for as long as I can before I need to replace it. The big focus for me is the M seies of Apple Silicion is the arrival of an ARMv9 version arriving and then I’ll upgrade.

    Today I’ve been chilling out upgrading software on my computers, making sure I’m running the latest version of Chrome while also catching up with the latest news about Apple working together with other vendors to improve interoperability as to avoid developers having to create exceptions for different browsers because of implementation quirks (link). The big problem I’ve had with Webkit/Safari isn’t the time it takes to implement features but how long it takes for those features to migrate from the Safari Technology Previw to the mainstream release of Safari on macOS.

  • Protests in Wellington, Ubiquiti releases update

    Well, I was going to head into Wellington today (Wednesday) to get the keyboard on my MacBook Pro replaced (as part of the whole programme Apple has running) but given the craziness I saw online in Wellington I decided to wait it out until things get back to normal – a person riding in on a scooter is an easy target for the crazies out the front of parliament.

    On a good side, Ubiquiti have pushed out an update for my UniFi AP AC HD which updates it to 6.0.14 which also includes new wifi driver, new wifi firmware etc. so it’ll be interesting to see how things perform. There is also another UDM update in the works at the moment which is sitting at 1.11.4 but that could keep gong up version numbers as they develop it – maybe in the future they’ll eventually merge UnifiOS so there is a single OS that covers their UDM range of products.

  • War in Ukraine, COVID arrives at the workplace.

    With the conflict currently going on in Ukraine I’m going to refrain from putting my 5 cents worth in regarding it however I do think it is worth while for people to have a brush up on their history – further back than Putin or the Soviet past – way back to Peter the Great. Long story short, how we got here involves many twists and turns.

    One of my work colleagues had a close contact so she headed off home to get tested with the rest of us at the office keeping in an eye on whether we’re experiencing any symptoms. I’ve been triple vaxxed along with all my work mates so we’re ok but we’ll need to play it safe and hopefully we’ll get through this wave with the least number of deaths possible.

    I thought I could have avoided it however the keyboard on my MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017) is starting to show the tell tale signs it needs replacing. Thank goodness though my device is still covered by the replacement programme that Apple has running but I’ll need to duck into Wellington to get it sorted out – hopefully I’ll be able to avoid the protestors who have been causing over two weeks of disruption to normal Wellington life.

  • Manifest V3 and the future of content blockers.

    its all the discussion regarding Manifest V3 I find it refreshing to see that there are developers bringing to the forefront one of the biggest complains regarding the move to Manifest V3 which is one of the big sticking points for content blockers (link). Alexi made a great point in the most recent minutes where he noted the following:

    [alexei] Browser vendors seem to have the mistaken belief that they can enumerate all use cases and include that in the design of DNR. Privacy and security extensions need to continue to be able to respond quickly to evolving tracker techniques, which a declarative API inherently does not support. Additionally, when browser vendors talk about improving performance with DNR, these concerns go against real world experience where webRequest-based extensions already make browsing faster and more performant. Browser vendor performance improvement claims seem like solving for the wrong problem.

    This taps into what the developer of uBlock Origin pointed out, that the strength of their software comes from the ability to have very low level access and without that low level access the power that uBlock Origin has is diminished and so will the end result of blocking content. I really do hope that the browser developers listen rather than being pig headed and simply pushing ahead even when it is clear that it is going to negatively impact millions of end users.

  • Experiments in browsers and cloud providers.

    I mentioned on my last post that I had moved over to Google Workspace as a trial (the post yesterday was after almost 2 weeks) and although in some areas it is an improvement I am still drawn back to iCloud because even for all its faults the leading benefit is its integration with macOS, iOS and tvOS. It’ll be interesting to see how things improve particularly in the area of Webkit given the recent announcements regarding features that’ll make their way into the mainstream release such as ‘The File System Access API with Origin Private File System’ (link) not to mention the many features that’ll eventually be back ported to Safari (link).

    The other big surprise is Ad Guard has been updated (link) with the latest beta builds now taking advantage of the increase in the number of filter rules it can deal with (upgraded from 50K to 150K) along with other improvements. It is good to see that they’re updating but it would be even better if more developers got involved with the Manifest V3 development process because at the moment there is only Ghostery and Noscript representing what one could consider ‘content blocking’ developers. If you are a developer and are unhappy with the direction then the best suggestion I can give is to get involved – turn up to the meeting and contribute as to ensure that your concerns are listened to rather than, “I’ve given up on Chrome so I’ll jut focus on Firefox from now on”. Here is a moment that’ll help shape the direction for all browsers – sign up and get involved.

  • Google Workspace, Custom domains, Android 13 developer preview.

    Well, I’ve decided to move from iCloud to Google Workspace for my custom domain for a number of reasons. The first is the 3 email address limitation is far too low, I understand the potential reasoning behind it but it has become an impediment since I like to have cohorts of email addresses used for specific purposes – one for shopping, one for bills etc. The other benefit is that GOogle Drive is a whole lot more reliable when it comes to uploading large files. I went with Google Workspace Business Standard which is NZ$18 per month which is only $1 more than going for the 2TB option for iCloud storage with the added bonus of being able to create up to 30 email aliases vs the limit of 3 on iCloud+.

    Another thing I noticed is that Gmail, even when using Mimestream, is a lot more reliable – when I click to select which alias I am going to send from I find that with iCloud it either works or it does then in which case I have to log out of iCloud then log back in (via System Settings) and hopefully will start working. When it comes to Google, everything works properly the first time everytime. Yes, even using the GMail app on iOS works more reliably.

    Google has released Android 13 Developer Preview, so far there hasn’t been any big changes but from what has been going around the rumour mill it appears that this release is about tidying up loose ends, improving privacy and security etc. It’ll be interesting to see how quickly the various OEM’s adopt it but I have a feeling that we’ll probably see Samsung being one of the first out of the gate which will be nice – 4 years of upgrades and 5 years of security updates. That improvement in long term support might see them win some more contracts with enterprise customers which has been quite a fertile ground for Apple to make a lot of its sales to due to its long period of support.

  • Galaxy unpacked and the ongoing Exynos/Snapdragon drama.

    It is interesting to see the wheels in motion when it comes to dealing with the big technology companies particularly in the area of app stores. I’m going out on a limb to speculate that Google will probably avoid the worst of it since they already allow people to ‘opt in’ to be able to side load but I don’t think they’ll go unscatched – they’ll probably demand that developers can go through third party payment solutions, maybe cap the percentage that the app store take as a cut. Regarding Apple, they could easily allow side loading and keep it relatively secure using notarisation like they use on macOS – put it behind some sort of setting where you have to enter your pin; agree to a warning then get an activation code sent to the phone that is entered which confirms you wish to go ahead.

    Samsung is having their Unpacked today (at the time of typing this I have the video playing in the background):

    It appears that some of the rumours are paying off – they’ve consolidated the Note and Ultra line into a single product which will mean the Ultra will include an S-Pen. It makes sense given that Ultra was essentially a Note but without an S-Pen. Then is the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra – they’ve really leaned into the tablet, particularly when it comes to DeX mode (which teamed up with the Samsung equivalent of a ‘Smart Cover’) which turns it into a full on convertible laptop – based on the video demonstration it will definitely give Apple a run for their money particularly when you consider the expandability, memory and not to mention the long term software support (which was lacking in the past).

    They’ve announced that the Google Assistant will be coming to the Galaxy Watch 4 which makes me wonder whether we’re going to see Samsung gradually move away from Bixby in favour of moving to Google Assistant over the long term.

    Samsung has also made an interesting shot across the bow to Apple when it comes to talking about balancing security with openness, focusing on privacy not just being able what is and isn’t shared but also when something is shared that it is kept secure. Keeping in mind that this is based off the Unpacked presentation but it is interesting that it was raised – as a point of differentiation where I think that Samsung is hoping that it might win over some Apple users but I think the greater focus is winning over users from other Android OEMs. At the moment the impression I get from Samsung is that they’re trying to win the ‘bang for your buck’ – privacy, security and long term software support. If they cannot compete on price when compared to the Oppo and Xiaomi then it appears they’ll argue the case that paying a little bit extra is worth the price in the long run.

    Something else I noticed is the lack of specifications when it comes to the SoC – no details given other than it being very fast and using the latest 4nm technology but nothing mentioned about which markets will receive the Exynos 2200 or the Qualcomm 8 Gen 1 (there have been rumours that Samsung will be going with Qualcomm 8 Gen 1 globally but I guess it’ll be a situation of ‘wait and see’ given how regularly rumours can be wrong). They are offering a $500 online eVoucher and 5% Samsung Rewards, I’ll hold off from making any judgements until they come out with the specifications of the SoC. The other thing that’ll be interesting is the software given that Samsung sometimes introduces changes when they introduce new hardware – it’ll be interesting to see whether there will be fewer apps of their own that use their own cloud offerings vs. utilising Microsoft’s or Google’s cloud services.

    Edit: Spark has updated their website and according to the website the phone range use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 895 for their entire range in New Zealand – it includes a new modem, all manufactured on their latest fabrication (4nm).