Another uneventful day at work that has come and gone – I’m happy that it is all over with and I finished it off with a cheese and onion sandwich along with an egg salad sandwich. I jumped into bed, completed NYT Connections and Wordle then watched a few YouTube videos about various political topics. It is funny how the conventional wisdom is the idea that as you get older you become more conservative but I find myself moving further to the left as I have gotten older. I might write a blog post regarding the background to that gradual shift to the left – I’ll put that in the ‘to be completed at a later date’ and that’ll most likely be at a time like 3am where like a cat I’ll get a sudden surface of energy.
My favourite place is Cuba Street in Wellington – lots of interesting stores including a great record store with niche music cds that are difficult to find, good quality out of print cds etc. along with trendy restaurants, clothing stores etc. that have a cosmopolitan vibe to the city. The best way to describe it would be this – if New Zealand had legal weed then Cuba Street would be the place you’d pop into the local cafe for a coffee and a few edibles.
The combination of drunk people stumbling home from the local pub and people letting of fireworks I decided to have a quiet night in and then go for a walk Sunday night when things are a little bit quieter. On a good side I finally found that annoying soft drink can that was being blowing around on the road last night that was driving me mad – found that along with another tin and put them into my recycling bin. It is amazing how much noise an empty soft drink can can make.
Second day and I’ve been sticking to my meal plan – I had a bottle of soaked chia seeds topped with unsweetened yoghurt (one at breakfast then one at morning tea), some rice and salmon meal that I can heat up in the microwave and then for a snack I had a coffee and an iced coffee (500ml of low fat milk with extra protein along with 80ml of coffee concentrate (no sugar added)). The combination of fibre and protein allows me to keep fuller for longer along with keeping the amount of added sugar to a minimum which avoids blood sugar spikes and feeling hungry shortly after eating something.
Intel has updated their ISA documentation (link) and it is kind of strange that Nova Lake includes support for AVX and APX but for some strange reason Flexible Return and Event Delivery (FRED) is in Panther Lake (and two Xeon models) but not in Nova Lake which seems kind of strange given that I would have expected Nova Lake to build upon the Panther Lake architecture and thus inherit the feature. Unless of course I’m reading it wrong and the architecture listed on the left hand side is the first architecture that will receive it and all subsequent architectures automatically get it since it is already baked in (I assume that is the case given that the title of the table is ‘Recent Instruction Set Extensions / Features Introduction in Intel® 64 and IA-32’ which indicates when it was first introduced). It’ll be interesting to see what the performance will be like when the first crop of Panther Lake laptops are released but the Nova Lake at least for me will be the more interesting because we’ll get to see whether the work done on AVX and APX translates to a sizeable improvement in performance.
Something I do miss is how in the past Microsoft used to have blog posts going into the technical details regarding their kernel, the changes they made and how that impacted the end user. For example, with Windows 7 there was a change in terms of the GDI system which made it more fine grained and scalable which enabled it to be more responsive along with the partial hardware acceleration they implemented as well (as part of WDDM 1.1) which improved the GUI responsiveness when compared to Windows Vista. There was also a change a change in the kernel dispatch that improved its scalability to 256 cores (keeping in mind that that time the idea of 256 cores in a single image was huge). I wish there were more articles regarding the changes being made under the hood – although it may not be popular with the general public it does allow tech enthusiasts such as myself have a greater appreciation regarding what Microsoft is doing below the surface – optimisations, adding support for architectural changes etc.
Second day getting back on track – went for a walk tonight, set a goal of completing it in under 2 hours and I arrived back home in 1 hour and 50 minutes. I like to set a goal for myself so then I keep up a good pace and when I get home I feel as though I’ve accomplished something rather than simply going through the motion of exercising. My legs are a little bit sore but I’m surprised that I haven’t lost gone backwards in terms of fitness and stamina but then again I guess it is something that declines gradually rather than just dropping off the edge of a cliff. I think what I’ll do in future is rather than having a couple of days off in a row what I’ll do instead is still go for a walk on my day off but maybe a shorter one so then I still get out of the house and exercise while still be able to have a day where I can unwind and relax.
Checking for updates and it there has been a sudden surge of updates for both Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome – unsure as to the reason why – regressions? an unpatched vulnerability currently being exploited? Whatever the case maybe it is good to see updates as being pushed out. As I remember saying years ago on a Usenet, software is written by humans and humans are fallible so bugs are bound to happen but the big question is how well do these organisations handle dealing with a bug when they find it and do they have procedures in place to ensure that once found that a patch is tested to ensure it fixes the bug, ensures that the fix doesn’t result in any regressions and then making it available to the public in a timely manner.
The silly season has already started so I may as well start planning – get the presents before I’m having to deal with the rush. I’m looking at putting together a hamper for mum and a hamper for my sister and her partner then some presents for my two nieces who live in New Zealand. As for the day, I’ll probably bring desert, some apple cider and a few other goodies – it’s the one day of the year when calorie counting is thrown out the window in favour of enjoying family and lots of yummy food.
I finally got motivated to get back into going for a walk – first day back after a week of not exercising and I was expecting the worst but actually I came back, completed the 11.6km in under 2 hours and I don’t feel sore or stiff which is a good sign. I was expecting that maybe things may have changed around the area – houses finally getting built on the few empty plots of land that have been empty for quite some time but it appears not to be the case. It’s always good to keep an eye on what is happening in the neighbourhood – hopefully once we get through this year that 2026 will be a better year but something tells me that until Trump and the Republicans are gone then the global economy is going to be experience more instability as so long as a single person can suddenly wake up and randomly throw around tariffs like they’re confetti.
I find it funny how tech dude bro influencers online are surprised, after hyping AI to the ceiling and beyond, that the average person just wants an operating system that is stable, reliable and gets out of the way when they want to use their computer (link). I always found it funny how these tech dude bro influencers convinced themselves and the echo chamber they occupy that Apple ‘being behind’ in AI is a major issue, meanwhile in the real world all the surveys showed that end users buying phones care about AI as much as they do about thinness which is around 7%. Long story short, maybe some of these influencers should actually hang out with normal people rather than convincing themselves that their human centipede of regurgitated slop is representative of what the priorities are when it comes to where most people sit.
Personally, I see many features in Windows that I don’t use it – it’s like many things that come bundled with WIndows, I’m sure there is someone somewhere saying that a feature I don’t need is their must have feature so in the grand scheme of things it is not a big deal. On a side note, something tells me that if Microsoft weren’t ramming AI into everything I don’t see them suddenly spending more resources fixing up the inconsistent nature of their user interface. To say that Microsoft would use the resources to fix people’s pet peeves reminds me of an episode of ‘Yes Prime Minister’ regarding a question posed to school children that if nuclear weapons were gotten rid of then how much money would be saved? as Sir Humphrey Appleby points out – there would be no money saved, it would be spend on conventional weapons instead.
Personally, having lived through the years of Windows 10, I would sooner the the current process of taking a more conservative approach to development rather than the breakneck speed where Windows 10 it was 6 monthly big updates with people guessing what has been broken this time around. Yeah, it was not enjoyable so in the case of my experience with Windows 11 so far I haven’t experienced any major issues and the Windows 11 on ARM has been pretty robust – it’ll be interesting to see whether 26H1 makes its way to the current ARM Surface laptops given that I could imagine there being under the hood improvements that could also benefit the current Qualcomm X Elite product line up but then again they may play it say and would sooner use the extra time to ensure what is shipped is rock solid for their existing customers.
Yes, it is possible to have a big tent party that is so big that ultimately it stands for nothing and then collapses under it’s own weight and yes, having a degree of ideological boundaries being set is required because if there is no philosophy that binds the party together then you end up with a disorganised mess with nothing unifying the party when the party is given the opportunity to govern. This is the reason why I’ve said in the past that the whole MAGA movement is a movement based on vibes not something that has come about because of a coherent policy platform guided by some underlying philosophy but a political opportunist who mobilised people based on a grab bag of collective grievances by scapegoating minorities but offering no real solutions. Long story short, rather than those who voted Republican voting based on policies they voted based on the opportunity to punch down and feel as though they have some sense of power by virtue of being on the ‘winning side’.
Ben Shapiro (as seen in the video below) is now just finding out the hard way what happens when you put winning ahead of actually standing for something – this is what happens when you convince yourself that bringing in the cranks, the crazies, the racists, the conspiracy theorists then act surprised when the lunatics are now wanting to take over the party. I’m sorry Ben but you thought you could control the lunatics, that you could use these voters who vote based on vibes to get into power and that they will just fall inline and stick to the party line but now you’re finding out that vibes based voters don’t actually believe anything – if they can easily convinced to vote for political opportunists then they’re just as easily convinced into going further right.
I’ve had my own fair share of criticisms when it comes to the whole ‘cancel culture’ where what someone said 15 years ago on a twitter account is resurrected by some cyber Karen so then they can talk about how they were offended (they’re not actually offended but it is an easy vehicle for someone to make themselves the centre of attention) and use that claim of being ‘offended’ to try to acquire some sort of power. This power that such individuals crave is only possible if we as a society give it to them – when businesses capitulate to the mob then they’ve given power to the mob that they didn’t have any in the first place (other than their capacity to make noise – then again an empty can with a single rock can make a lot of noise when thrown down some concrete stairs) where as if every person and organisation stood up to the noisy mob they would quickly realise that their commotions and temper-tantrums won’t result in them getting the power they want.
Anyway, getting back on topic again, at some point you have to to be willing to not only engage in self criticism but also willing to clearly state where the line is drawn between what is within the boundaries of the party and what resides outside it. Saying that there is a line that shall not be crossed isn’t ‘cancelling’ or ‘purity testing’ but simply setting the boundaries of where the limits of the party reside, what your party believes in and what position that are outside of the philosophy that underpins the party. Yes, you can have diversity within the conservative moment for example when it comes to same sex marriage (yes, there is a conservative argument in favour of it) or limited government, free trade or even if affirmative action is beneficial or counter productive but when you have someone praising certain dictators then it should be a pretty easy decision to clearly state that said person is outside what is considered acceptable to be a member of the party.
Although I am using Ben Shapiro as a launching point I don’t blame him personally for what has happened to the Republican Party because the origins go back over 60 years to the ‘southern strategy’ that bought disillusioned Dixiecrats over to the Republican Party post-Civil Rights Act. Then there was the co-opting of the religious right who had similar grievances post-Civil Rights Act and then you had the anti-USSR hawks, the Wall Street, Libertarians and a few random assortments thrown in for good luck. In other words you have a coalition of different groups with conflicting interests who battle each other for supremacy in the party. That isn’t to say things are rosey in the Democratic Party but at least they’re willing to say “this is beyond the pale” and don’t invite them on to use their platform to amplify what they have to say or the various factions in the Democratic Party broadly agree that making life better for the middle class should be a goal but there are different ways of getting there with the compromise being something the different factions can live with.
This fracturing of the party and the end result of Nick Fluentes being mainstreamed by Republican leaning or identifying hosts is the inevitable evolution of the decision that was made 60 years ago – creating a broad base but ultimately nothing that binds the party other other than ‘we hate the Democrats’ and the problem is with the ‘we hate the Democrats’ being used to hold the party together is that once you get into power nothing is achieved because everyone is infighting because no one can agree on anything other than giving tax cuts to the rich while making empty gestures about being greatly concerned regarding the public debt and deficit (aka the Susan Collins of politics – voice’s that she is very concerned but not concerned enough to do something about it).
Well, I was able to finish an hour early which was nice but I was hoping to be able to go for a walk tonight, getting back into a good routine, but alas it is raining outside. On a good side though I stuck to my diet plan for today so it isn’t as though I need to walk but rather I like the idea of going for a walk. I am always reminded of the saying “you can’t outrun a bad diet” so if I stick to a plan then it makes life easier and thus I’m not dependent on exercise to balance up the calories in and calories out if I’m already hitting the numbers I need to without the exercise.
I woke up this morning and there is a decent number of updates made available, the Tuesday update for November and it appears they have fixed the Task Manager bug that was remoted last week along with fixing a few bugs and security issues as well as some optimisations where I’ve noticed that it is slightly snappier. Chrome and Edge both received updates as well – no regressions for either one of them (I always clear the cookies and cache after doing an update) along with uBlock Origin Lite 2025.1110.1551 now available in the Chrome and Edge extension store for download. I haven’t noticed anything strange or unusual after installing the monthly update but then again my life is fairly simple and I avoid making changes to my system unless I know what I am doing so I kind of avoid many of the headaches mentioned online.
I’ve been having a look around at more information regarding 26H1 about it supporting newer silicon with the focus being around the new Qualcomm X2 SoC but I also think that part of the support will be for the Panther Lake SoC from Intel. At the moment we don’t have any details regarding what the architecture includes other than the sort of high level mentions in the recent presentations so we’ll need to wait until we get closer to the official release of it in products before we start seeing it in the Intel ARK database that’ll outline the extensions it includes, any sort of changes such as whether, if any at all, did they adopt the four agreed upon technologies mentioned in the x86 advisory group public statement made recently. The reason why I say this is because of FRED is included then it would require them to make changes on what happens below HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer abstracts away the underlying architectural differences so even if something like FRED changes how things work under the hood at the lowest levels then everything built upon HAL is oblivious to that change and just keeps working a long as it always does.
There is a new supermarket that has opened up in Upper Hutt called ‘Plenty Foods’ that I’ll have a look at next week on my day off to see how they compare to the big players. I really do hope that Costco and Aldi come to New Zealand – more specifically to Wellington because I’d be more than happy to do a months worth of shopping even if it means going over to Porirua if the prices are good and there is a reasonable selection. Aldi would be a great competitor because I’m not really someone who buys something because of the brand but whether it is good – if the supermarket brand is equal or better than the name brand but cheaper then I’ll go with that when I can.
Today was a pretty quiet day – I went to bed last night at around 2am and then woke up at around 1pm on Tuesday – a solid whole night of sleep and felt pretty good when I woke up. I then headed to mum’s for dinner and picked up a few items from the supermarket and with that I’m covered for this week as well as next week. The one itemI was able to find was the ‘Up and Go’ with extra protein and coffee flavoured which I couldn’t get for a while but it is now back in stock – for some strange reason they don’t sell it in a 12 pack so I need to buy it in a 6 pack.
uBlock Origin Lite 2025.1110.1551 has been released – and it has appeared in the Apple App Store before the Chrome and Edge Stores which is kind of funny because I would have thought Chrome or Edge would have gotten it first. It hasn’t made its way to Edge and Chrome but I would have thought given how it is an a) open source project and b) a massively high profile project, that these stores would be approving updates in a timely manner because after all it was Google who pushed MV3 and required filters to be included with the extension and couldn’t be updated remotely. If Google cannot keep up with the demand placed on them because their changes have resulted in a greater number of extensions being submitted then maybe they need to revisit their decision to that forbids extensions from being remotely updated eg content blockers downloading the latest filters.
Spark has put up the cost of the email and it is getting to the point that I think mum should just go all in on her outlook.co.nz email address. I kind of wonder whether the Spark as pumping up the price to eventually get to the point that so few people use the service that they eventually get rid of it in the long run – one less thing they have to take care of in terms of providing technical support. When it comes to where ISPs are in New Zealand – the new ISPs don’t even offer it and those that used to offer it are gradually winding down the service then at some point there will be a ‘we no longer provide email any longer’. Given how many free and paid for email services exist there really isn’t an excuse for using an ISP provided email service any more other than having a legacy email that you setup way before the free email services arrived and you’ve kept it going because telling all of your contacts your new email address would be a giant pain in the backside.
Regarding how politics are going in New Zealand – I think that the economy isn’t going to be kind to anyone who has lost their job or anyone employed who is looking for a decent wage increase to make up for the last few years of high inflation. There are rumours that unemployment has peaked and that we’ll see it come down next year but I am sceptical given that the international situation hasn’t changed – Trump throwing around tariffs, rumours that the supreme court will strike down the tariffs but with those rumours also comes speculation that the Trump administration will have another go at imposing tariffs but using a different law. The problem is that this uncertainty and how long it takes to weave through the court system the damage is already done – the big question is whether the members of the CPTPP grow a spine, remove the suspended parts of the treaty that the US demanded (and will be ‘activated’ if they sign up to the CPTPP at a later date), ask China and India to join then link the CPTPP zone with the European Union along with central and south American countries then once that is done to call it a day – ignore the United States and let them isolate themselves into oblivion. There was an election, Americans chose isolationism and disengaging from the world – now the American people will have to live with the consequences of their political choice.
Well, it appears that eight Democrats collapsed like a cheap lawn chair and agreed to reopen government with the last-minute agreement – and the base is livid. What was the shutdown for if you’re not going to force the Republican part to either a) force the Republicans to make a compromise by reversing the cuts to healthcare and make the increased subsidies permanent along with overturning the president’s recission powers or b) force the Republicans to get rid of the filibuster, pass the budget with simple majority and accept the fall out of the unpopular cuts they’ve made. The reality is that the Republicans do not want to get rid of the filibuster because then they would be the only ones voting for it resulting in them getting all the blame whereas what has unfolded today will result in the fall out of the cuts are now going to hurt both Democrats and Republicans. Mark my words, Republicans are going to make use argument that the bill was bipartisan when it comes to any question regarding the cuts – spread the blame so thinly that they can then play the game of false equivalency.
This is what happens when you have a party leadership that is spineless, gutless and lacking in testicular fortitude – don’t be surprised if there is a backlash in the midterms if the public don’t see something positive come from the compromise that has taken place. I have to wonder whether the Democrats are either feckless or whether they’re just controlled opposition because even when they have a majority there is always an excuse for not getting rid of the filibuster, always an excuse as to why the US cannot have nice things like a single payer healthcare system so instead they pass a watered down Republican lite proposal that is so compromised it may as well not have been passed in the first place.
Daily writing prompt
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
If money was no object and I had a job lined up – outside of New Zealand, I’d either want to live in a) Melbourne b) New York c) London. Inside of New Zealand either Wellington or Christchurch – I’ve lived in both cities but I have a bit of a soft spot for Christchurch although I do like Wellington because it has a similar cosmopolitan vibe that Melbourne has with its cafe and arts scene not to mention both cities are great when the weather amazing. Christchurch has a great public transportation network, there is a laid back vibe, a different pace of life when compared to a bigger city like Auckland.
Finished work early tonight at 7:30pm then I walked down to the supermarket and back again – there is a bus service but I would have had to wait as long as it took to walk down to the supermarket so I thought I may as well get back into a good routine by walking down there. I was able to pick up some butter and a few odd bits and pieces for dinner then walked home to prepare dinner. It felt good getting back into the start of a routine after having the last couple of weeks disrupted with a change in the work schedule. On a good side the temperature is rising and even on Sunday night I wore a lightweight zip up hoodie but I probably could have gotten away with just wearing a t-shirt since the temperature was comfortable.
At the moment I am reading through ‘Chomsky on Anarchism’ which is a collection of essays – it is one of those books where you read a bit, think about it and then come back to read some more.
Final day of the week on Sunday with the added benefit that due to doing 2 1/2 hours worth of work on Friday I get to go home early on Sunday so I’ll be knocking off at 7:30pm. I’m probably going to head down to the supermarket afterwork because I need to purchase some butter and a few odd bits and pieces. Today was nice with not to many customer enquiries and in between I had a few cups of tea – I can see why mum and dad like having a cup of tea because of how refreshing it is not to mention it keeps me full in between meals so then I’m not tempted to snack thus making sticking to a good meal routine a whole lot easier.
It appears that Windows 11 26H2 will be based on the 28000 series that was announced on the Windows Insider Blog (link). It looks like 26H1 will have the underlying platform updated so it is ready to support new hardware however the new features won’t be visible until 26H2 which kind of makes sense given how there appears to be a lot of work in terms of refinement of the user interface such as dealing with the inconsistent nature of dark mode. It’ll be interesting to see whether the 28000 also includes support for the Panther Lake and Nova Lake architecture such as APX, FRED, tagged memory support along with a lot more. I wouldn’t be surprised if it did given that Microsoft and Intel work closely together so it would make sense that as they developed these technologies that Microsoft were implementing them as they went then provided feedback to Intel which helped moved the technology forward.
I find it funny that once again the political class and the noise makers in the media are trying to come up with some sort of complex analysis of what took place. What took place is that the anti-woke anti-DEI anti-CRT shtick has run its natural course – people are are tired, people just want things to go back to normal, where politicians talk about real issue such as the cost of living and not make believe scenarios that excite the lizard brain but have little to do with reality. The reason why the Democrats made gains against was because they focused on the ‘meat and potato’ issues – not abstract ideas but the real pocket book issues that people face or as Bill Clinton said, “it’s the economy, stupid!”. Every one of the candidates, whether they were moderate of democratic socialist talked about the bread and butter issues with the Republicans looking crazy as they dragged up conspiracy theories and culture war issues while the audience were looking at each other going “what on earth is going on here?!”
You can already see some politicians already making the move to a post-Trump future in much the same way that the compassionate conservatives became the tea party who then became MAGA and now those same politicians see a post-Trump future. When that post Trump future arrives it’ll be interesting to see whether the public remembers what they were like when they got into politics during the MAGA wave or whether, like how quickly Americans forgot in 2010 after the two wars and economic collapse two years earlier, will they vote for them again after they’ve rebranded themselves with the emergence of a new ‘movement’ that emergences from the ashes of MAGA.
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