Bill Bennett
Pinging social media
When I post a new story on my main website: [billbennett.co.nz ](billbennett.co.nz ), it pings Micro.blog which, in turn, works Fediverse magic to ping Mastodon and BlueSky.
What’s interesting is that Micro.blog picks up the ping immediately. Even when at its slowest we are talking about a few seconds.
On the other hand there are always delays going from Micro.blog to Mastodon and BlueSky. Usually a few minutes… but they can be much longer. The worst I’ve noticed is around 100 minutes.
I’d be interested if you have any insight into why this can be so variable.
When people say “things are turning to custard” they mean that’s a bad thing, but I love custard. I’d be quite happy - and probably full - if everything really did turn to custard,
Looking at the diary on my laptop, I can see I have written “save this date” on the Wednesday two weeks from now. Which is good… or it would be if only I could remember what it was that I’m saving the date for.
It’s coming up to 2 years since I left Twitter and I still can’t decide whether Mastodon or Bluesky is the better alternative. Bluesky has more activity, more of my colleagues and readers. Mastodon has a different vibe and subject focus. Neither is as good as Twitter was for story leads. Looks like I need to stick with both for now.
Have an “AI-powered” HP Omnibook for a short-term loan. The hardware looks and feels great.
This is the first time in a couple of years that I’ve attempted to get work done with Windows 11 after moving back to MacOS about 10 years ago and I’m feeling overwhelmed by Windows' built-in distractions.
Here’s a question for the sad folk who defend Morris Dancing.
Ask yourself why the English Rugby Team doesn’t do a Morris Dance before a Test Match.
A correction
There’s a small correction in this week’s newsletter.
I was looking at last year’s Commerce Commission Telecommunications Monitoring Report while writing about this year’s report and inadvertently used last year’s Starlink numbers in the original text of this week’s newsletter.
You may wonder why I was looking at last year’s report. Well… there may be a interesting story there, but it needs more fact checking a research before I go into print.
“She never told her love, But let concealment, like a worm i’ the bud, Feed on her damask cheek: she pined in thought, And with a green and yellow melancholy She sat like Patience on a monument, Smiling at grief.” — Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 4
I notice SkyTV has finally decided to inflict its banal advertising on its Premier League channel. The degradation of streaming video continues.
I made about 1.5 litres of over-baked rice pudding this afternoon. We’ve already eaten about a third of it.
Do you remember when “Sensitive New Age Guy” was a thing?
I bet they’re now all making anitvax YouTube videos, wearing MAGA caps and collecting weapons for the next assault on democracy.
I’m back on the New Zealand Tech Podcast:
This week we talk a lot about surveillance and a little bit about what happened when Huawei was pushed out of the local phone network equipment market.
There is more on the Huawei story at my site:
I suspect the reason tech billionaires don’t invest in developing time machines is because they worry will someone will use them to go back in time and make sure their parents never meet.
I’ve just realised it is halfway through winter and I still haven’t needed to wear my toasty winter jacket so far this year.
Nine-to-Noon
Was on RNZ Nine-to-Noon this morning talking about the tax that hurts New Zealand’s technology sector, the AI bubble burst and Google illegally abusing its monopoly.
I can find great Chinese style egg custard tarts all over Auckland, and many bakeries do the English style ones with crumbly pastry, but the Portuguese ones seem to have gone out of fashion. Any recent sightings?
Feeling sad. I’m clearing out old iPhone messages stored in iCloud, they go back over a decade. And I’ve noticed just how many of my friends, colleagues and work contacts are no longer with us. It feels somehow wrong deleting their messages even if they just say “meet you by the lifts at 11:00”.
There is a huge capacity and price leap between Apple’s 200GB iCloud storage plans and the 2TB plan.
The term “peak body”, commonly used in Australia, annoys me on many levels. It’s lazy, imprecise and often self-aggrandising, but that’s just for starters.
This is an unpopular view and may upset you, but hear me out:
When a well known musician dies, I really don’t want to hear their music at that point. To me, the rush to play their music is mawkish and disrespectful. I prefer to leave a short period of mourning first, then go for it.
The Repair Cafe
The Birkenhead Repair Cafe was held on Saturday. It was my first time as a volunteer, but I’m going to be a regular fixer.
I was confident about fixing things like toasters, kettles and sandwich makers, and we had some of these, also had a rice cooker, vacuum cleaner (which needed a hard-to-get spare part so it isn’t fixed yet) and two sewing machines, I could fix one but not the other, I think it needs specialist expertise. I’ll be doing some homework on fixing these before the next cafe.
Was hoping someone might bring a typewriter… I love fixing them.
We also had a woodworker, a jewellery repairer, a woollen-knitting fixer and a couple of sewing experts. There was a bike repairer set up outdoors.
It’s a great initiative. A lot of the repairs are trivial, things might have loose wires or need new plugs. But there were some challenges too… which keeps me on my toes.
The repair cafe is a brilliant idea, it’s important right now wth all the cost of living pressures, but it’s equally important not to send things to the land fill when there can be a simple fix. m
Apple isn’t perfect, but it still sets the bar for a big tech company and privacy. I’d like a higher bar, but that’s probably unrealistic.
Contacted customer support for a normally very responsive US-based online service when it was Saturday lunchtime in New Zealand and realise I probably won’t get a reply until Tuesday morning.
Will the bad news never cease?