For a while I was concerned at the drop in page read numbers when I switched from WordPress’s internal analytics to Ghost and Matomo. Especially so after I stopped engaging on Twitter.
Then I realised:
a) Matomo doesn’t include stats from people with cookies turned off or who otherwise request privacy and
b) Ghost automatically generates AMP pages for people viewing my site on a small screen.
Given that before the switch more than half my traffic was from mobiles, that means what looks like a 60 per cent drop in traffic is probably close to business as usual.
Not that it matters… I don’t sell ads or other information, I’m more interested to know what does or does not get read.
My all time favourite piece of technology is the Bialetti stove top espresso pot. No question.
After that it is all a blur although for a long time the iPod was up there near the top.
Soon I will be extending my 65th years in a row streak of not going to Boxing Day sales.
As a freelance journalist (and occasional business writer) I have clients who insist on Microsoft Word or Google Docs. Both are awful in different ways.
Most of the time I write everything in a Markdown editor then save or copy and paste into a Word or Google Docs file. It is about ten times more efficient.
Markdown is, essentially, a plain text editor with a few extra commands. I’d argue that discovering Markdown was behind my second biggest every productivity leap. The first leap was when I became so frustrated with Windows 8 that I bought a MacBook, possibly the smartest investment a writer could ever make.
It is only a matter of time before Elon Musk comes to a sticky end when James Bond enters his secret lair, kills his evil henchmen and saves the planet from certain destruction.
Just realised that the scheduled phone call I came in from doing gardening work to handle is, in fact, a video call and I’m about as untidy looking as a garden could be.
Boffins confirm what most of us already knew, that video conferencing is draining.
Do people who are concerned about the woke mind virus use masks if they go somewhere potentially infectous like a library?
I’m not a coding kind of person, but I can’t stress enough how my computing experience improved after learning how to use rsync on my Mac. You can buy pretty apps to do that same thing, but rsync seems better, faster and more robust.
One of my proudest achievements is never, ever having worn a bow tie.
I’ve been using Bluesky for three whole days now and no-one has given me a Mastodon-style scolding for not doing (or doing) something that is far from obvious but seems to offend.
Is it me being fussy or do other people think that news media, including specialist tech news media, doesn’t do a great job reporting AI? Specifically, there’s often not enough explaining and background information for someone coming new to a story to get a handle on it.
Hmm.
Just realised if I type BS into my browser address bar, I get Bluesky.
Poorly defined, open-ended non paying gigs* from difficult clients.
Poorly defined, open-ended non paying gigs.
Poorly defined non-paying gigs.
Non-paying gigs.
Paying gigs.
Paying gigs from regular clients.
Clearly defined paying gigs from regular clients.
Clearly defined, paying gigs from regular clients who pay quickly.
Clearly defined paying gigs from regular clients who pay quickest.
Clearly defined, high paying gigs from regular clients who pay quickest.
In this context the job was meant to be paid and the client decides not to pay or for some other reason the money never shows up.
If you are interested in my take on the Optus outage that brought much of Australia to a grinding halt, you can catch the replay of my RNZ Nights interview here:
My work goes crazy about this time of year as everyone in New Zealand races to get things finished before we head into Christmas and the (Southern Hemisphere) summer break.
Then, usually about the end of November it slams to a sudden stop and hardly anything happens until February.
I’m on a gigabit fibre connection. I can download a HD movie in the time it takes to pour a glass of syrah, but it looks like it will take more than 2 hours to download a 2GB Ubuntu disc image.
Friday’s newsletter went out a little later than usual, which meant it got lfewer immediate reads than most weeks…. I see a lot of regular readers picked it up and opened it this morning.
Over the last decade I’ve written more than 300 features for the NZ Herald’s business reports. Perhaps the most noticeable change in that time is how the idea of business sustainability has gone from being a theory to being mainstream. There are few large New Zealand companies that don’t have a strong sustainability story.
Sure, you’ll find greenwashing, and it’s not always perfect. There is still a long way to go, but the progress is real.
Today’s newsletter includes a short editorial suggesting that a new Provincial Growth Fund would fix many gaps in New Zealand’s rural broadband and mobile coverage.
Jumped out of my skin at 8am when my loud ring tone blasted sound through the house. It was an incoming call from Australia. The caller rang three times. It would have been 6am in eastern Australia so I assumed the call must be urgent. Turned out to be a pocket dial from someone I’ve never met. They were spectacularly grumpy about being woken up when I returned the call.