I love to fix broken things. My daughter gave me her stick vacuum. Turns out the problem is the battery, found a replacement battery, but it costs more to buy the replacement and pay for shipping than the price of a new vacuum. This is why landfills are full.
How bad is it when a New Zealand company INSISTS on a mobile phone number before you can order online, but will only accept numbers in the international format but without the + part of +64. Having to guess the required format is a customer usability nightmare.
Here’s an unpopular option that won’t win me many friends.
Nine times out of ten if you are driving around New Zealand and you see a sign that says “museum”… just carry on driving, if you need a break, find a cafe. They are usually good, the museums are not.
And we have a live cross to our relaxation correspondent…
For years I have resisted Apple’s offer of a three month free subscription to Arcade… I just can’t be bothered.
The thing about New Zealand is that you are only ever one Lotto jackpot away from being financially set-up for life.
A confession: I was too much of a coward to watch the Black Caps test match. What little I saw made me want to hide behind the sofa like I did when I was six years old and the Daleks were on TV.
I’d like an AI service that could eliminate all incoming Black Friday spam emails, texts and webpage interstitials.
Demotivation
In 1970 I graduated from primary school to what was then called a ‘secondary modern’. Unlike the rest of the UK, Surrey had yet to switch to comprehensive schools. I had a weird form of dyslexia and couldn’t pass the exam to get into a grammar school.
On day one, a senior teacher gave us what can only be described as a demotivational speech:
“You’re all too stupid to get into a real school, so you are here for five years. If you work hard, you’ll get a factory job. If you do some work, you’ll sweep the streets. The rest of you will go to prison”.
I’m not kidding. This was my first day at the big school. I was 11 years old.
Has the angstrom gone out of fashion as a unit? I saw the word today in an old physics book and realised I had otherwise seen it in years, maybe even decades.
Do people still have elevenses?
Had a dentist check up appointment this morning. For the first time since I came back to New Zealand from Australia in 2004 there was zero dental work. Not a sausage. No charge either.
Perhaps I should buy a Lotto ticket.
Today I finally deactivated my Twitter account.
I haven’t used it for two years, but kept it open just in case there was a return to sanity.
Also, there have been important personal messages sent there since I stopped using Twitter. But there haven’t been any for 6 months now
Writing for a newspaper, magazine or newsy online site is like a self-saucing pudding. The byline acts as a form of marketing that gets me more writing work. Hardly anyone knows about it when I ghost write something, so I don’t tend to get a lot of repeat ghostwriting business.
About once a week a flyer, or an impersonal letter, from a local estate agent turns up in my letter box. And I think: “how stupid are you to expect me to trust a million dollar plus house transaction to someone incapable of reading a NO JUNK MAIL sign.”
Eliminated hay fever last year by chopping down the privit bushes near the house. Noticed eyes were streaming so checked and found there are two other varieties of privit still in this garden. Not sure what the previous owner was thinking when these were planted.
I doubt it is a popular opinion, but I feel New Zealand media is spending far too much time on an election in a foreign country.
Sitting here in New Zealand, my strategy for coping with the US election is to stick fingers in both ears and say “LA LA LA” very loudly.
They don't make newspapers like they used to
I’m so pleased this had nothing to do with me. This was published in _The Australian _ 15 years ago and spotted by Mumbrella.
So let’s do some role playing. You’re a sub on The Australian.
Your boss has just given a speech about the health of newspapers.
You’ve got to put a headline on the speech.
Do you a) Check the spelling of the word “newspapers” in the headline or b) Not check the spelling of the word “newspapers” in the headline? Remember, your career may depend on the choice you make.
Do people outside the US still care about Chromebooks? Back in the day I’d get huge amounts of local traffic when I wrote about them, then, almost suddenly, crickets.
Am I alone in thinking Bing Webmaster Tools is utterly worthless or are there stealthy fans out there?
Earlier this year I looked at whether New Zealanders pay too much for broadband.
Farewell Computer Music magazine
Although I mainly worked for newspapers, I spent a few years working in magazines too so it’s always sad to see one go. This was the last what might be loosely described as personal technology magazine I can think of. It’s certainly the last title I read. While there may be a few limping on unseen elsewhere in the world it feels like the end for the entire genre.
From ten years ago on my site:
At the time Chorus struggled to pay for the fibre build.
Reading a series of movie reviews where variations on the phrase “it doesn’t completely suck” keep appearing is not filling me with confidence.