I've spent half my working life as a broadcaster and half as a software developer. Along the way I've been a professional musician, and an assistant to apiarists and undertakers (although not at the same time). I live in Whanganui, where I write and record music, write web and desktop software utilities for my own amusement, and enjoy biking, reading and travelling.
Public Key
npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq Profile Code
nprofile1qqsxd4efc6xlpc3l536ul3w5xx6x0nfu393sfs2syxegvugpdgxc54qpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsw77yjd
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2026-05-19T15:03:26Z Event JSON
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Last Notes npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…kpw3 @nprofile…49eq I have the same problems with Moshidon on Android that I have with the Advanced Web Client on Linux, but I'd expect that as both are connecting to the same server, and that's where the 503s originate. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…thu3 ... and why? npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} Yes, yes, they can project a movie onto a wall. Big deal. The real benefit is how they can project information onto the road in front of the car! No, not the snow warnings first shown in the video, but the vehicle width and following distance indications. https://insideevs.com/news/794295/chinese-ev-headlight-movie-projectors/ 'The actual XPixel tech that Huawei is using to underpin the new full-color projection feature has been around for about three years now. Vehicles like the Huawei Stelato S9 already use it, and what's particularly cool is how the tech is neatly tied into the car's driver assistance features—meaning that it can help to assist with lane changing by showing a guided path, or even direct pedestrians when to cross in front of the car. It's can also project interactive games for kids (like hopscotch).' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} Swedish tests show touchscreens can take four times longer than physical controls to complete common tasks. https://etsc.eu/physical-buttons-outperform-touchscreens-in-new-cars/ 'According to the magazine’s conclusions, the easiest car to understand and operate, by a large margin, was the 2005 Volvo V70. The four tasks were handled within ten seconds during which the car drove 306 meters at 110 km/h. At the other end of the scale, was the Chinese electric car, the MG Marvel R. The driver needed 44.6 seconds before all the tasks were completed, during which the car had travelled 1,372 meters – more than four times the distance compared to the old Volvo.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} Will tracking private jets accurately predict an imminent nuclear apocalypse? https://ews.kylemcdonald.net/ 'In the event of an imminent nuclear apocalypse, we suspect that many people who have access to private jets will immediately take to the skies and escape city centers. This site tracks this indicator in realtime. The current emergency level is reported on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being an indicator of a likely imminent apocalypse.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…wj33 @nprofile…nqtz The server outage is confirmed as a Copy Fail attack. The team has rebuilt the servers to protect against similar incursions in the future, and started progressively restoring accounts from offsite backups. These are a week old, but thankfully I have nothing more current apart from cached data in some utilities, which isn't a concern. I've filed everything in my inboxes in Local Storage, because I don't know what state mapped folders will be in once IMAP is up again. For me, inbox is the only one that matters. I have jury service on Monday, I have an auction on TradeMe, and I'm expecting an email with the date for my follow-up colonoscopy. This outage is a bit of a nuisance. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…wj33 @nprofile…nqtz I have a backup email account and I've messaged the webmaster for my shared hosting server. There's nowt more I can do; just wait and periodically check access. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} Greece wants to remove anonymity from social media. Is this a better strategy than kicking teens off internet platforms? https://www.euractiv.com/news/greece-to-ban-anonymity-on-social-media/ '“In ancient Greece, everyone could express their opinion openly and by name – they would raise their hand and share their view. This should inspire us as we shape a new digital democracy,” the minister told Euractiv on the sidelines of the Delphi Economic Forum.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} Our Eaton UPS batteries appear to be failing after just two years and ten months in service. Eaton says they should last between two and five years, and I was hoping for more. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} I keep thinking it's Saturday. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…wj33 @nprofile…g4xt @nprofile…txmc Usually if it succeeds I get a "thank you for your submission" email. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} The Framework 13 Pro is a Linux-first laptop with twenty hours battery life. https://frame.work/nz/en/laptop13pro 'hen you're ready for more performance, you can upgrade individual components instead of replacing your entire laptop. Install a new Mainboard for generational processor upgrades, add memory to handle heavier workloads, or expand your storage to increase capacity or enable dual booting. The Framework Marketplace makes it easy to find the compatible parts you need.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…pqrs I've also enjoyed both those authors. I find some similarities in the work of the following: - Andrea Camilleri - Arnaldur Indriðason - Tony Hillerman npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} We did eventually get to see the game after multiple delays; it started three hours late. Worth the wait, though. And we timed it perfectly to sit and eat toasted sandwiches for lunch as the match began. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} Evidently the Black Ferns vs Canada game has been delayed by a weather event. They're playing somewhere in the continental United States. I had to contact Sky Sport to find that out, because there's nothing on-screen about the delay; the match is still listed in the schedule as underway, but plays the Hong Kong Sevens when I click through. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…mzal Ooohhh ... interesting ... npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} How consolidating ownership reduces quality; a case study. https://www.worseonpurpose.com/p/your-backpack-got-worse-on-purpose 'This is the pattern. Acquisition. Cost optimization. Quality decline. Warranty narrowing. Brand equity extraction. And eventually, divestiture. It happened to your backpack. The same playbook is running right now on your power tools, your boots, your sunglasses, and about a dozen other product categories where a company you trusted quietly got absorbed by a corporation you've never heard of.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} I am 100% in favour of this rule. https://xkcd.com/3232/ https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/401/100/431/950/937/original/86c23292a119c5c2.png npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} If you missed it, my younger son Liam was on Morning Report on Friday talking about his Dunedin cycle courier business. https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2019030376/cycle-courier-business-owner-says-business-is-busier-than-ever npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} A lightweight in-browser game for some #CycloneVaianu relief. https://playstarfling.com/ npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} Swapping coffee for paraxanthine. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/vefsxkGWkEMmDcZ7v/the-effects-of-caffeine-consumption-do-not-decay-with-a-5 npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} I have a family member visiting tonight who has a dietary restriction that's new to me: wheat flour. Not gluten; it's the actual flour. I had thought we might make burgers together for dinner, but I can't think of a bun alternative that has no wheat flour. Any ideas? npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…je7u Steve Braunias? npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} Sounding a new bell at the bicycle-pedestrian interface. https://www.skoda-storyboard.com/en/skoda-world/skoda-duobell-a-bicycle-bell-that-outsmarts-even-smart-headphones/ 'Measurements conducted during testing also demonstrated that pedestrians wearing active noise-cancelling headphones had up to 22 metres of additional reaction distance when DuoBell was activated, representing a crucial safety margin. In real-world trials conducted on the streets of London in February, in cooperation with Deliveroo couriers, the bell proved so effective that couriers expressed a desire to keep it. ' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} A chuckle for Chursday. http://www.terrybisson.com/theyre-made-out-of-meat-2/ '“So … what does the thinking?” “You’re not understanding, are you? You’re refusing to deal with what I’m telling you. The brain does the thinking. The meat.” “Thinking meat! You’re asking me to believe in thinking meat!”' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} The Iran conflict leaves the US without a sufficient missile deterrent. https://www.shatterbelt.co/articles/jassm-stockpile-crisis '... replacing the 1,875 missiles consumed or committed in the Iran war takes 4.7 years. If Lockheed dedicates the entire Troy, Alabama line exclusively to JASSM-ER and produces zero LRASM anti-ship missiles, the maximum rate is 860 per year. That drops the timeline to 2.2 years, but it means the Navy gets zero of the anti-ship missiles it would need for a Taiwan contingency.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} If you've not watched the 2006 film Idiocracy, it's prescient viewing. How prescient? https://idiocracy.wtf/ This site tracks how far along the Idiocracy scale we've advanced. Or retarded. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…twmu It weren't no Nanny State and I didn't hate it then neither. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…wj33 @nprofile…cqqu @nprofile…t3ug This has been my experience for a couple of days too, both on desktile and mobtop. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} My daughter has four children, so I'm sure a helping hand will be appreciated, even if it's only for six hours. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} I have a sick daughter in Wellington. I drove from Whanganui to Palmerston North this morning to catch the 6:15am train, but something mechanical failed and we were put on buses. I arrived in Wellington only half an hour late (thankfully mine was a direct bus) and am now on the HVL service to Naenae. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} The good news is that, after testing this morning, pretty much anything works on the non-smart Veon TV in Uncle David's room. It's happy with HD, FHD and UHD jpg and jpeg files. It has no issue playing 720p, 1080p and 4K video in .mp4 format. We've brought home all the pictures, posters and pinups* lurking in David's room and I've scanned those which are small enough for us to scan, and will begin photographing the larger ones on Wednesday. * Mostly pinups of V8 engines, although there are a couple of very svelte Duesenbergs. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} 'The Majlis (Iranian Parliament) is finalising a law declaring Iranian "sovereignty, control and oversight" of the Strait, something it had never asserted before. The bill introduces a system of transit fees for commercial vessels passing the Hormuz Strait, effectively imposing a tax of up to $2 million per vessel that wishes to pass. A large oil tanker has a cargo worth about $200 million so the fee is not excessive. Multiply that by over 100 ship movements per day under peacetime conditions and Iran could be in receipt of tens of billions of dollars per year. Given the rogue states who launched this war will never submit to international law or reparations it seems an elegant solution. Under the system, ships must now provide their International Maritime Organization (IMO) number, cargo manifest, crew names, ownership details and destination before Iran will issue a safe passage clearance. The law bans vessels from the U.S., Israel, and their allies, while granting safe transit to China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Iraq, Bangladesh and other friendly nations.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…wj33 Sadly this is all true. If atrocities are committed at Mr Trump's behest, will the current government of Aotearoa New Zealand make any substantive move to distance itself from the USA? Here my sadness doubles, because indications to date are not encouraging. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} 'Trump and his cohort are depraved. That term describes someone who is morally corrupt, wicked, or perverted, reveals a severe lack of moral principles, and promotes ideas that represent a profound deviation from what is considered right. What we have to face is the likelihood that depraved actions will have been committed by US troops by Tuesday morning, contrary to international law, and exposing many, if not most, people within the Trump administration and the senior personnel within US armed forces to potential prosecution for war crimes. Amongst those things that they may do is use nuclear weapons against a civilian population. We now need to embrace the possibility that the unimaginable may happen.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} OpenScreen is a free, open-source alternative to Screen Studio. https://github.com/siddharthvaddem/openscreen Record your whole screen or specific windows. Add Automatic zooms or manual zooms (customizable depth levels). Record microphone audio and system audio capture. Customize the duration and position of zooms however you please. Crop video recordings to hide parts. Choose between wallpapers, solid colors, gradients or a custom background. Motion blur for smoother pan and zoom effects. Add annotations (text, arrows, images). Trim sections of the clip. Customize speed at different segments. Export in different aspect ratios and resolutions. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} Fascinating! https://www.intelligentliving.co/scientists-finally-figured-out-how-eels-reproduce/ '... during the last phase of their complex life cycle, they do develop reproductive organs. This final stage is known as the silver stage, and during this stage, the eels’ stomach dissolves before their sexual organs develop. This means the eels die soon after reproducing, which has made the mystery of eel reproduction even more challenging to work out.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…eesl You've done well. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…sdld @nprofile…3e6m Yes and no. Given that artificial intelligence coding agents have access to an enormous code base, I doubt their output would be worse than the spaghetti code I encountered from the Indian team. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…3e6m This is true. I've been called in twice because Aotearoa New Zealand agencies have bid for a web development contract, failed to deliver anything usable, and under hard questioning admitted the project had been farmed out to India. Sadly in both cases the client declined to sue the agency, which I strongly recommended. If nothing else this sends a strong signal to others that such behaviour is going to get them into a power of trouble. One of the site two off us were able to remediate across three years, gradually refactoring the duplicated spaghetti PHP into something that was maintainable. The other, sadly, was unrecoverable because the Indian dev shop had encrypted the whole thing and declined to provide a permanent unlock key unless the final payment was received. Neither the client nor the agency was willing to pay. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…gtt6 ... and the size is an issue. David's eyesight is better than many in their mid-eighties, but it's not all that sharp. That is a nice thought, though. Thanks. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} You never see it coming. https://www.thefarside.com/2026/04/04/1 https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/349/954/411/626/638/original/2a33c1b90f0c35ea.png npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} https://wondermark.com/c/1583/ https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/349/945/036/668/392/original/8b453183a29bc004.png npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…wj33 Thanks. I'll report back after my initial trial. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} I've just discovered this list, which I believe is for his generation of Veon TV. It seems I might be best to rename all the images to .jpeg instead of .jpg, and only HD will work for .mp4. https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/349/222/635/370/750/original/641f6b2c55262adf.png npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} Our ageing uncle, happily ensconced in a nice nearby retirement home, has a large library of photographs, pictures and posters he cannot display in his room. He has a non-smart Veon TV, and I'm thinking I might be able to give him ready access to this content as a slideshow. He's not technically literate. I've already stuck a large print A2 page with instructions on his wardrobe door reminding him how to watch TV and play video or music from an external DVD player. I've just created some folders of test pictures in HD, FHD and UHD resolutions, plus test videos at the same resolutions, and will visit him in the next couple of days to see what works best and what will be easiest for him to drive. If anyone has experience of this sort of project, please chip in with any observations that may be of value. I've stuck to exactly HD, FHD and UHD because a forum post indicated that some cheap TVs tolerate these better, and JPG only for the same reason. I'm hoping .mp4 works, but I guess I should transcode into other video formats too (for testing). npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…je7u @nprofile…dr33 Aye. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…dr33 Not any more. Of the Chromium-based browsers I recommend Vivaldi or Chromium itself. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…dr33 The nicest locally are at New World, if you can find traditional hot cross buns among the chocolate, brioche, caramel and fruitless options they insist on baking. they're also a little cheaper than Woolworths. But I've never seen them marked down as old stock (perhaps because they are good enough to sell out). npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…dr33 Since we only eat them toasted, an extra day doesn't pose a problem. I slice them and freeze them as soon as I get them home. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…dr33 Nearly NZD7.00 at the local Woolworths. But go at the right time and you can get yesterday's for NZD3.00. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…6jnt I agree. The same is true for software architecture on any but the simplest system. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} Cory Doctorow with more on the Trump administration's efforts to stymie Europe's plans for tech independence. https://pluralistic.net/2026/04/04/digital-subjugation/#greenlands-next '[Trump]'s making good on his threats. He's already sanctioned a group of officials who helped draft the DSA. And he's ordered his tech companies to turn over the private emails and messages of other European officials, so he can identify the ones most dangerous to US tech plunder and sanction them, too. The quislings and appeasers in the Commission who've been spooked by Trump's belligerence (or tempted by offers of cushy jobs in Big Tech after they leave public service) are selling out the EU's future. Caving to Trump won't make him more favorably disposed to Europe or Europeans. Trump treats every capitulation as a sign of weakness that signals that he can safely ignore his end of the bargain and demand twice as much. For Trump, the "art of the deal" can be summed up in one word: reneging.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} Life within the most isolated settlement in the world. https://apps.npr.org/life-on-tristan-da-cunha/ 'Yet despite the changing pace of life, Tristan da Cunha’s size and enduring isolation mean one thing won’t change: Life on Tristan da Cunha may look quiet from the outside — idyllic even — but on the inside, it moves fast. Everyone does everything. All at once. And somehow, they manage.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} Why transmitted knowledge never beats experience. https://deadneurons.substack.com/p/why-the-most-valuable-things-you 'Smart people, in other words, can point you in the right direction. They cannot carry you there. The carrying is something your own nervous system must do, one feedback-rich repetition at a time.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…kxuf Very low traffic volumes around Whanganui today though. Maybe everyone's visiting your neighbourhood. Or maybe the brakes are on discretionary car use. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…rzay @nprofile…v9wr I can only be agreeing at you. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} 'Once objective intelligence is too cheap to meter, we’re going to run into all of the other bottlenecks that are still expensive and heavily metered. If I’m right that reality is not governed by the rules of Catan, then we’re not going to be able to convert objective intelligence into whatever we need to pry those bottlenecks open. The story of human struggle is not about to end with a literal deus ex machina. For better or worse, we’ll need to keep thinking.' An insightful read. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} foxing (formerly xfs-mirror) aspires to be a production-grade, eBPF-powered replication engine for Linux filesystems (XFS, Btrfs, F2FS, Ext4). It captures filesystem events in the kernel and replays them asynchronously on a target directory, providing near real-time mirroring with robust consistency guarantees. https://codeberg.org/aenertia/foxing 'fxcp auto-selects the optimal strategy: NFS compound RPC for small files on NFS, reflink (instant CoW) for same-device, sendfile for small files, io_uring for large cross-device transfers. foxingd adds BPF event capture for 15-21ms single-file replication latency.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} The USA is pressuring Europe to give up its path to digital sovereignty. https://www.politico.eu/article/fatal-decision-eu-slammed-for-caving-to-us-pressure-on-digital-rules/ '“The European Commission must immediately clarify whether this is actually happening. If confirmed, this is nothing short of complete capitulation to the Trump administration’s coercive tactics,” said Greens MEP Sergey Lagodinsky in a conversation with POLITICO, calling for EU-U.S. trade talks to be paused and the bloc’s anti-coercion instrument to be triggered.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…76ue Oh no. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} I always enjoy these photographs, @nprofile…gtt6 ... were I in this one, I'd be the woman in the middle who turned her head at just the wrong moment. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} The story of Pontefract Cakes, and the oldest sweet shop in the United Kingdom. https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20190710-the-strange-story-of-britains-oldest-sweet 'Over the years, a sweet empire boomed in the surrounding towns, and by the 19th Century, around 20 sweet companies had appeared. At the height of production, there were 10 enormous factories in Yorkshire, and inside each, teams of around 45 female workers processed a daily ration of 25,000 ‘cakes’ (as they were called at the time), individually stamping the candy medallions with a design to look like Pontefract Castle.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} LinkedIn is illegally scraping your computer and sharing the resulting data with third parties. https://browsergate.eu/ 'LinkedIn scans for over 200 products that directly compete with its own sales tools, including Apollo, Lusha, and ZoomInfo. Because LinkedIn knows each user’s employer, it can map which companies use which competitor products. It is extracting the customer lists of thousands of software companies from their users’ browsers without anyone’s knowledge. Then it uses what it finds. LinkedIn has already sent enforcement threats to users of third-party tools, using data obtained through this covert scanning to identify its targets ... This is illegal and potentially a criminal offense in every jurisdiction we have examined.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} This phishing email seems highly plausible if you can't see and don't check the originating domain and the link on the action button. There's also the illogic of banks "protecting" you when money is coming =in= to your account, rather than going out. But I suppose bringing greed into play can only help the scammers' cause. Apart from that, I guess you just have to be lucky/unlucky if the bank they're using this time happens to be yours. https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/336/578/398/683/041/original/3b9d58fb3570d6c9.png npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…7760 Damn. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…t3ug @nprofile…c2c8 @nprofile…sdjc I agree. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} I went supermarketing before breakfast this morning, knowing how busy it would be later in the day. New World Whanganui clearly had not expected an early influx of customers. The place was popping, but full of inconveniences. It had very little bread, but it did have the bread delivery person blocking that aisle with pallets of bread trays she was trying to load around the customers who were squeezing through and trying to snaffle the loaves they wanted by lifting trays from the pallets. The deli had little to offer, but staff were kept busy anyway responding to customer inquiries about the missing products. Several aisles were effectively blocked by workers trying to restock shelves. It was a scene of mild chaos but, thankfully, mostly good-natured. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…7760 That was a great finish. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…k9ql Congrats. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…5q7n It's more likely to be the decommissioning of the 3G network which happened in the last 48 hours. If your phone is capable of 4G VoLTE it may need some reconfiguration. An online search for "nz 4G VoLTE oppo [model] settings" should throw up what you need to do. If that fails, I'd ask a question in the https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=42&topicid=319858&page_no=31 forum. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…0ymw This is a common ploy in weeks that include public holidays. It happens frequently in Whanganui too, both with the recycling pickup and rubbish collection. The decision to change the run appears to be made by the crews on the trucks. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} Italy joins Spain in refusing to allow the US to use bases for bombers. https://www.politico.eu/article/italy-blocks-us-use-of-sicily-air-base/ 'An Italian government official confirmed the report that the American planes flying to the Middle East were denied landing rights, stressing that the bases were not closed to the U.S., but saying that authorizations are decided on individual merits.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} A primer on managing long-term ... in space, on Mars, or in a nuclear winter. https://mceglowski.substack.com/p/a-primer-on-long-duration-life-support 'Astronauts have hated space food ever since the first meat cubes came back uneaten from Project Gemini. Even on the ISS, where fresh foods are often available, getting crews to eat adequately is a struggle. Whether it’s because the stomach senses satiety differently in zero gravity, or because the space station smells like a toilet, crews have historically consumed only 80% of their rations. On a multiyear mission, such a calorie level would lead to malnutrition and embarrassing deficiency diseases like space scurvy. So we need to come up with ready-to-eat meals that are nutritious, storable for five years without refrigeration, and appetizing enough that a crew can eat them for a thousand days without wanting to murder each other. These kinds of meals don’t exist.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} What can go wrong using artificial intelligence to break up with someone? https://graph.org/Six-thoughtful-sensitive-break-up-texts-that-definitely-arent-AI-generated-03-31 '‘There are many good reasons to end our relationship, including your frequent infidelity while disguised as a white bull, a swan and a shower of gold. You’re right – these are seductions used by the Greek god Zeus, and bear no resemblance to any situation in your actual relationship. Well done for catching that.’' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} Nice work, @nprofile…vgj9 npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…kpw3 As opposed to the Waist of Time which, as every temporal thaumaturge knows, expands unfashionably if you consume seconds too often. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…vgj9 I once wrote a song called "She'll Be Right, Mate", but it was such a despairing little thing I didn't persevere with it. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…vgj9 Mmm ... This will be the first year since 1998 that I need to manage my own tax return. No biggie, I'm sure. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…srmn hen I find a phone I like I hang onto it as long as I can. I'm delighted that my current phone has passed unscathed through the shutdown of 3G, because I love it. I've had it for 2½ years and I'd like to keep it for at least another 2½. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…auh0 Good on you, Spain. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} A piece of whimsy for Tuesday morning. https://boat.horse/clock/ 'This clock displays the current time alphabetically. It is inspired by this post on Mastodon. In Three-Hand mode, the hours, minutes, and seconds are each independently sorted by their English spelling, with a hand for each. In Combined mode, every possible time (43,200 of them) is spelled out, sorted alphabetically, and a single needle points to the current one.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} Using Artificial Intelligence to write software means developers never become competent enough to manage Artificial Intelligence. https://negroniventurestudios.com/2026/03/19/the-ladder-is-missing-rungs/ 'The question isn’t whether to adopt AI. That’s a closed question. We’re going to adopt AI, and if you think you won’t, you or your company won’t have a job or a company a year from now. Instead it’s how to build engineers, ones who can supervise what they never learned to do in the first place. If we don’t solve that problem, nobody will have a company in 10 years time. Because the ladder isn’t just missing rungs. It’s missing the mechanism that created the people who built the ladder in the first place.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} Shaun Yeo in today's Otago Daily Times. https://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/cartoonist%25E2%2580%2599s-view-%25E2%2580%2594-yeo-598 https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/316/026/510/089/813/original/529c6a703993f7f2.png npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…pp76 This report contains some very good ideas. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…c2c8 This is very good analysis. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…c2c8 I'm about to buy a musical instrument from France, and discovered the same. Eeek! Plus we're off to Italy for a month later in the year, which will hurt more than previously. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} Materialistic US leaders expect continuing bombing to weaken Iran. Religious Iranian leaders know the opposite is true. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2026/3/28/how-the-us-and-israel-are-making-the-islamic-republic 'If we want to understand how the Islamic Republic survives, we must see that its resilience is not only military or institutional but also symbolic. It lies in its ability to transform injury into moral authority ... The Islamic Republic is strong when it can strike back, and equally strong when it can persuade enough people that enduring attack is itself a form of victory.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} This is an appealing utility, but lacks direct support for full size USB-B connectorrs, which for a musician is still a very common option. https://blog.literarily-starved.com/2026/02/technology-the-nearly-perfect-usb-cable-tester-does-exist/ 'When I look at what my PC tells me when I connect it with an SSD through that cable: it shows what the eMarker says, despite missing the required SuperSpeed lanes. The cable lies to your PC and the PC believes it. As it turned out, that is not an exception. I found three cables that showed a similar behavior. Every single one of them was a USB C to USB C cable. At this point, the cable was no longer a passive piece of copper, but a rather unreliable narrator.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} Miasma will send poisoned training data from the poison fountain alongside multiple self-referential links. It's an endless buffet of slop for the slop machines. https://github.com/austin-weeks/miasma '... we'll start Miasma and specify /bots as the link prefix. This instructs Miasma to start links with /bots/, which ensures scrapers are properly routed through our Nginx proxy back to Miasma. We'll also limit the number of max in-flight connections to 50. At 50 connections, we can expect 50-60 MB peak memory usage. Note that any requests exceeding this limit will immediately receive a 429 response rather than being added to a queue.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…uazw As you do ... npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…g4xt @nprofile…xvcz Ooooh ... npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…5w5c I considered those. Currently I have a pair of rebranded (Ultro) no-name Chinese earbuds, which are surprisingly good apart from a weak bottom end. Now that there's an Android app available, though, I'm thinking that a next pair might be from Apple. But that could be a long time coming, and things will have changed by then. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…je7u You could probably implement that for yourself, even using a ScriptMonkey/ViolentMonkey script and localstorage to cache account ratings. It would take a bit of time to determine where to set the bar, but it would be easy enough to write. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…w9yw That sounds about right. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} Having a variable refresh rate from 1Hz to 120Hz can dramatically improve a laptop's battery life. https://www.pcworld.com/article/3096432/lgs-new-1hz-display-is-the-secret-behind-a-new-laptops-battery-life.html 'As a component maker, LG will ship the panel to various customers: laptop makers, manufacturers of external displays, and so on. It’s the refresh rate that’s of interest, though: from 1Hz all the way to 120Hz. That will help save enormous amounts of power: up to 48 percent on a single charge, LG claims.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} Reverse engineering an official White House Android app provides an example of just how much this US administration has gone rogue. https://blog.thereallo.dev/blog/decompiling-the-white-house-app 'An official United States government app is injecting CSS and JavaScript into third-party websites to strip away their cookie consent dialogs, GDPR banners, login gates, and paywalls ... Your location, your notification interactions, your in-app message clicks, your phone number if you provide it, your tags, your state changes. All going to OneSignal's servers.' npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} @nprofile…yzxf I'm with you. npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} “Matthews … we’re getting another one of those strange ‘aw blah es span yol’ sounds.” https://www.thefarside.com/2026/03/27/3 https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/304/603/119/983/228/original/5d879d36db58cddc.png npub1vmtjn35d7r3rlfr4elzagvd5vlxneztrqnq4qgdjsecsz6sd3f2q7sl5gq leighelse{} European intelligence agencies have for decades provided Mossad with the information needed to assassinate key targets. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n06/andrew-cockburn/beware-the-mattress 'Israel’s assassination programme would increasingly be treated as a model to be followed. Asked in 2005 if he had a problem with a state becoming an executioner, Avi Dichter, the retiring head of Israel’s internal security service, replied: ‘No. I’m telling you, foreign delegations come here on a weekly basis to learn from us, not just the Americans ... the state of Israel has turned targeted prevention’ – a favoured Israeli euphemism for assassination – ‘into an art form.’'