I asked ChatGPT to invent a word for Nicola Willis' economic leadership that echoes the term ruthenasia for Ruth Richardson’s tenure.
It did not disappoint: Nicolapse and Nicolateral damage
take your pick.
New Zealand government agency websites tend to move content around at least once a year. Along the way a huge amount gets deleted.
I know this because I frequently link to sources from my news site (billbennett.co.nz) and every week I check the links. Most weeks one or two links break. This week more than 40 are broken because of yet another rejig of the Commerce Commission web site. Some are redirected, but can look broken if the redirects are slow or involve multiple steps.
Also this week a major US research company has changed the URLs of all its archive material.
There are ~6000 external links on my site, only 1% broke this week, but if the same number broke every week, the total would halve in a year.
Three years a Sky Sport subscription included the English Premier League AND UEFA Champions League games. The cost of Sky is now 60% higher than in 2022 and 2023 when it was $300, but no longer includes UEFA. To watch the same amount of football as 2023, I now have to pay $620. Over 100% more.
This blog post from 17 years ago looks at how, at the time, blogging appeared to be reshaping journalism. It’s still valid, but things didn’t entirely work out as anticipated:
One of my favourite pieces of advice I received when starting out as a young journalist (That was 45 years ago) was “Don’t use old clichés, invent new ones”.
It’s not a profound observation, but in the dozens of press releases I get each day, companies no longer do deals… everything is now called a partnership, even if a company just buys something from another company.
Generative AI isn’t helpful in my main work… I can far better news and feature than a chatbot, but it is making a huge difference when it comes to fixing errors on my website, currently working through fixing broken links at five or six times the speed of doing it manually.
“The longer a company’s code of ethics, the more likely it is run by sleazeballs.”
The No Asshole Rule author Bob Sutton hits the nail on the head again. The quote comes from his post: The Enron Code of Ethics: Something Every Boss Should Read.
Just realised that all the press releases from Norton for the past year, maybe longer, have been going through to my junk mail folder.
Perhaps there is something in this AI stuff after all.
Earlier this year the chip in my business debit card stopped working and I got a replacement card.
That’s not the story.
There real story is that I need to resubmit card details for all my digital subscriptions. And that gives me time to reconsider and cull. I’m saving a fortune.
If you were wondering why Intel is in so much trouble, this post from 2021 provides the background story: Phone processors improved to the point where they displaced Intel chips in everything else.
This week I’m back on the NZ Tech Podcast. It’s episode 749 and I’m talking to Paul Spain about the privacy implications of the government’s proposed road user charges and the vehicle data tracking that is likely to come with the new charge. There are also new rules on biometric data.
We also talk about Motorola’s new phone line-up and the company’s deal with One NZ. The topic is also covered in the latest edition of my DownLoad Weekly newsletter. Another subject covered in the newsletter and the podcast is Spark’s recent data centre deal and a wider look at what’s going on in the sector here in New Zealand. And there’s a lot of talk about what satellite broadband is doing to the wider telecoms sector.
Because my main site is on Ghost, you can now respond to posts like this billbennett.co.nz/gartners-… and your comments show up right across the Fediverse.
You can read my newsletter online at this site: billbennett.co.nz
Or you can subscribe for free and get the newsletter delivered to you inbox on a Friday morning.
And it is published on Scoop at this address: info.scoop.co.nz/Bill_Benn…
When I first arrived in New Zealand, Easter 1987, every cafe, even the basic one at Auckland airport had bowls of cream on the counter for everyday people to lavish over scones or put in their coffee. They were giving it away. What abundance.
I have a good condition, barely used 3G emergency back-up phone, which I can send to someone reading for the cost of postage (first response gets it). Warning, the NZ 3G networks will switch off soon, so it could soon be a paperweight, although it may be of use overseas.
At the start of the World Club Cup is the US there was talk about low attendance at games. At no point did anyone mention that US immigration is far more hostile these days and some of the countries sending teams are in the immigration service’s spotlight. d
It’s only a $20 fine, so I paid it, but I can prove that I paid for on street parking using the AT app at the time I was sent an infringement notice. Is it common to get notices when you’e already paid?
Recreating the extinct moa would be a fine hobby project for a wealthy sponsor once they’d fixed third world hunger, extreme poverty and global warming.
To date I haven’t fallen for any of the SmartHome grifters. Have you?
I notice the fake Mastodon and BlueSky accounts are ramping up fast. Presumably that’s because the bots and scammers no longer see Twitter as a happy hunting ground.