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.
NZ Tech Podcast — Data privacy, telecom competition
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…
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.
Apart from the obvious, the other awful thing about climate change is that weather forecasting is less accurate. We just had a sustained heavy downpour, but the forecasts said it would be a dry night.
I’m writing up my review of the, perfectly decent, HP EliteBook Ultra G1 laptop and came up with the following sentence, which sums up the state we are in.
Computer makers act as if it is impossible to sell upmarket laptops if they don’t include built-in AI features. I’m not sure that’s true, but I feel like a lonely voice in the wilderness for saying so.
Have you any idea how easy it is to lose an Apple Pencil?
I’m a volunteer for the Kaipatiki repair cafe on the North Shore. Today, we, collectively, fixed 75 items that might otherwise head to the landfill. Half the time the necessary fixes are trivial. It’s worth checking to see if there’s one near you.
Enhancement
If you see the word “enhance” or “enhancement” you know you’re either reading a press release or something that derives from a press release. Normal people just don’t speak that way.
It’s PR code for “we fixed something” or “we changed something” or, more hopefully, “our thing is now a tiny bit better than it was”.
Yet some “enhancements” are actually downgrades dressed up with that fancy word to make things sound more palatable.
I pulled my story about the goings on at InternetNZ from the main newsletter this morning and sent it out as a extra bulletin… It’s a longer read than the usual newsletter format, but an important one with plenty of context.
I presume I’m not the only person to have had this scam email:
Hi there!
I am a professional hacker and have successfully managed to hack your operating system. Currently I have gained fu! ll access to your account.
Our ten year old robot vacuum has given up the ghost. I replaced the battery a year ago and it is still failing, so we need a new one.
We want to get a bottom end model. We don’t need fancy features. Any recommendations?
Took great pleasure seeing the Laser Kiwi flag so prominently on show before the All Whites game.
Not sure what New Caledonians would have made of it, but it could be a huge international hit and talking point if we rock it when we get to the World Cup.
Today I purchased a new pair of Dr Martens.
That would be 52 years after I got my first pair.
What is the point of a red Kiwifruit? It tastes fine, but not as full on as the gold ones.
A family member needs help with Excel and I’m immediately reminded why I have spent the last 25 years actively avoiding the software.
I have fully ActivityPubified my main work Ghost site Bill Bennett. It all seems to be working, but nothing appears to be happening. Perhaps it is all going on in the background. Or could it be that my readers, maybe even my audience in general, don’t do ActivityPub?
Five years ago New Zealand’s telecommunications sector was breaking all kinds of records as the nation went into lockdown.
At last I found a question worth asking ChatGPT where I was not disappointed by the answer:
“What where the names of the Kung Fu ‘stances’ that were shouted out in the fight scenes in the 1990s Hong Kong film ‘Iron Monkey’?”
Linkrot has been a problem for years now, but this weekend is one of the worst yet, more than 40 outbound links from my site died in the last 24 hours and a similar number look like they are about to snuff it at any moment.
Barely a cloud in the sky all day, and now there’s a lunar eclipse going there’s nothing to see but clouds.
Between now and Easter I anticipate Hot Cross Buns will be my main source of carbohydrates. They may even be my main source of nutrition.
I had never heard the term ‘take a raincheck’ before coming to New Zealand in the 1980s. Wrongly assumed it had something to do with the weather.
It’s been a long time since I saw a stranger reading a newspaper story that I wrote. Five years at least. But it happened twice today.