I live in rural #aotearoa/#newzealand in an earth brick house that looks like a Romanesque abbey. I spend my time coding, making electronic stuff, a bit of writing, some woodwork and a lot of gardening. Weather permitting I kayak and hike. I try to use my old, white, male privilege for good. My header shows a mountain tarn on the Kepler track, with Te Anau in the distance (except the cloud got in the way). My profile is clipped from a shot taken on the Tongariro Crossing before I got tired.
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npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k Profile Code
nprofile1qqsvm5kjduxe6mslgad0tnpssfceglknwzcqxwemedzh9frd5eg90dcpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerfw36x7tnsw43qcxqv0u
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2026-10-30T23:11:25Z Event JSON
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Last Notes npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger A spring day with the pond looking nice. https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/117/487/781/938/721/525/original/73e55775a63c1215.jpg npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Spring garden around our front door https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/117/471/607/392/909/541/original/ebf5183a6c15e737.jpg npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Nice weather today so I made a start on my annual privet pass. This is where I trek through our tiny forest looking for privet (and chicken fern too, these days) and rooting it out. If I don't the forest will eventually be privet and chicken fern instead of the rather glorious mix of natives I have now. I'm about 1/3 of the way through but tomorrow is looking good for another session. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger I spent a chunk of the morning installing #netbsd11 on an old laptop. It did install but I couldn't get the wifi working. Seems the built in wifi chip is unsupported. Show stopper. I could go get a wifi USB dongle, a few of those are definitely supported. But my interest has rather dropped away at this point. I have four other machines I might install this on, two of those are definitely supported ( according to the docs), not sure about the others yet. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Numerical annoyance: "60 percent higher than the previous record". It takes me a little bit of thought to work out they mean a factor of 1.6 ie multiply the previous record by 1.6 and you get the new record. But this is an easy one. We have 394 percent higher... in something I was reading this morning. It turned out they had got confused and they meant 294 percent. I suppose this means 2.94 times? Or is it 294 times, okay probably not but what does 60 percent lower mean? Is it 0.6 or 0.4 times? I feel adding "percent" in there just makes an extra step in the arithmetic, and obfuscates. Who's with me? npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger I found this bumblebee asleep in a freesia flower this morning. I didn't know they did that. It's gone now, so I guess it woke up and got on with its day. https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/117/210/055/913/541/046/original/a39411f88b887221.jpg npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger This is our house with the 'new' roof, newly cleaned and painted anyway. https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/117/205/723/076/322/258/original/d679ce0d60f8a8d3.jpg npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger The roofers are with us today. Waterblasting our tiled roof in preparation for painting. We found that this process finds a few places where water comes through so there was a frantic shifting around of furniture. Then, of course, we found the exposed floor needs a mop so suddenly I have a lot of sweeping and mopping to do. It's tiled floor everywhere (laid long ago by Mrs) so water on the floor isn't a problem. Water on various other things is, though, so we moved more stuff than we had to just in case. #housemaintenance #tiles #roof npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Underwater photographer filmed rarely seen creature slithering along the ocean floor in Mauritius | Discover Wildlife https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/marine-animals/ribbon-eel-swimming-in-sea npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…gfcd @nprofile…l7vu the story insists I turn off ad blocker and I won't. But I saw a similar piece about the same thing. Yes, that was specifically about AI data centre builds. But the surrounding toot was more general and that was what I responded to. I really do not think politicians should be in constant fear of assassination, though this seems to be the case nowadays. I recall when senior ministers would walk to work in Wellington. Now we have trolls. I am embarassed we have trolls, but not for lamenting it out loud. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger NASA captures strange phenomenon circling the Chatham Islands - Earth.com https://www.earth.com/news/nasa-satellite-captures-turquoise-halo-around-the-chatham-islands/ npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…l7vu @nprofile…gfcd I hope this is just hyperbole, but if it isn't think about what kind of world that brings in. Would you run for office (with the best of intentions) if being in office was unsafe? We had Jacinda Adern where I live. Her lockdown decisions saved about 10k people here. But the trolls hounded her into resigning. I think that's tragic. They really hated that she wanted to help people. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Petition re the climate change bill https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/stop-the-climate-amendment-bill npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger I've been installing Vaultwarden on my local server and I documented the process https://madurasoftware.roger-parkinson.com/blog/vaultwarden npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…5uqu we got a rechhargeable battery pack that delivers 12v. Our modem is normally powered by a wall wart that delivers 12v so I can just plug in the power pack. It lasts at least a couple of hours. For UPS they usually do automatic cutover when the power goes out, and that adds to the expense. If you're okay doing that bit yourself a simple battery pack might do the job. Ours is 2400mAh. I wrote something about it here: https://madurasoftware.roger-parkinson.com/blog/portable-power-station npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…yzxf @nprofile…cun7 Jurassic Park, Sleeping Dogs, The Twelve (TV), Riley (TV) it goes on and on. He made a charming doco on Pacific people, I don't see it on IMDB probably because it's a doco. But in that he wasn't playing a part so to some extent we got to see the man himself. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…tkzw @nprofile…69x8 it was new when we saw Sleeping Dogs so it must have 1977. Terrifying because it was set in familiar places. Normally movies like this are set in distant countries. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…xpw3 we used to beat children for speaking Te Reo Māori at school. Not in my time there, but I met someone half a generation older than me it happened to. In my time they had just begun teaching it. We often think in a language and I sometimes wonder if it is easier to think certain things if you have a certain language. As a monolingual I don't have a way to test this myself, but I often think in terms of diagrams and pictures because the words I know aren't enough. I've heard that Hungarian is sometimes useful for mathematicians, in the sense that if you grow up with Hungarian you'll have an easier time with certain kinds of math's. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…xpw3 I moved to Codeberg a few months ago. TBF no one uses anything from my repos except me so this was pretty simple. Codeberg has a nice import function. I deleted my github account but found I needed to open another one so I could add issues to stuff I use, and they've made new accounts complicated. I also setup forgejo (which is what Codeberg uses) locally so I have a place for private repos that I don't need to bother Codeberg with. It runs on my Beaglebone server. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger My Matariki cake! It's basically a lemon blueberry cake (lemon and blueberries from our trees). The stars are made from icing coloured by the blueberries (not artificial colours). https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/893/421/981/243/318/original/d3d3b60d6bf2e3d9.jpg https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/893/422/140/436/136/original/c90c7837f0e4d769.jpg npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger World-first pest seaweed-eating machine launches in Bay of Islands https://www.1news.co.nz/2026/06/25/world-first-seaweed-eating-machine-launches-in-bay-of-islands/ npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…vxpa I've used it once as an easy way to find info on submissions, but I think it will write the submission if you asked it to and I did not use it for that. I prefer to write my own. My reason for that is if we go that route we are open to accusations of letting AI generate submissions (David Seymour made such an accusation earlier this year). I did read the site description, and they are doing a simpler (non AI) copy/paste based on your selections. But that's close enough to cause confusion, or at least to lend credibility to accusations. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…tkzw he said I looked smart because he admired the coat I was wearing, and the coat I was wearing was made by @nprofile…tkzw npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Remember back when you were proud to be a New Zealander? | The Spinoff https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/17-06-2026/remember-back-when-you-were-proud-to-be-a-new-zealander npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Iconic hot springs return to Māori after more than a century of grievance – Te Ao Māori News https://www.teaonews.co.nz/2026/06/16/iconic-hot-springs-return-to-maori-after-more-than-a-century-of-grievance/ npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…etge @nprofile…ugpy hmm. I first encountered cloud services and Kubernetes at 60, I liked this way of doing things so I skilled up and worked in that space for most of a decade. Kind of over that stuff now, but I'm getting into Rust which is fun, a new languge for my 70s. Not touching AI, though. I did enough of that in the 90s and 00s. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…xsvf wiring a socket is the work of an electrician. I was wiring a plug. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger This evening I had to wire a mains power plug. I've done this lots of times and when I think about it the first time I did it I was far too young to be allowed near such tasks. Still, I don't do it often and I'm careful, both of which mean I'm still alive. I wanted to check I had phase & neutral around the right way so I grabbed my phone and did a quick search for a diagram with the right labels. I'm in Aotearoa/New Zealand so we use the plug style the Australians use. The first diagram I found was a UK style plug, though it was labeled Australian. Hmm. The second one showed the correct style but it showed the plug and the socket, which would have been okay except the labels on the pins contradicted each other. I don't often search with my phone, and I realized I had not turned off the AI, which may have been the problem. Meanwhile Mrs had found a decent diagram on her tablet so I used that. Everything worked, no one died. But this kind of thing really could kill someone. #slopai npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger It costs a million dollars a day to keep low‑risk defendants on remand. More prisons aren’t the answer | RNZ News https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/597047/it-costs-a-million-dollars-a-day-to-keep-low-risk-defendants-on-remand-more-prisons-aren-t-the-answer npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Petition about the trans bill (actually the 'definition of man and woman bill' but we can see the agenda here) and note that the submissions to this bill are now open. I just wrote my most caustic one yet https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/e-tu-e-ki-they-don-t-speak-for-us-block-the-definition-of-woman-bill npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger After more than a century of debate, scientists have finally proven that a pianist's touch can change the very color of sound https://www.ecoportal.net/en/scientists-prove-pianist-touch-effect/22234/ npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger New Rotorua cafe will operate fully in te reo Māori | RNZ https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/food/new-rotorua-cafe-will-operate-fully-in-te-reo-maori npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger I'm sitting at a café table on the footpath in a small town. A lady parks on the street next to us and goes into the café, brings out a coffee to one of the tables. It isn't a big deal here, but this would be impossible in the middle of Auckland. Yes, she parked right outside the café she wanted. #smalltowndream npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Google forced Gemini and AI Mode into Chrome; here's how to remove it from the browser https://coywolf.com/news/productivity/google-forced-gemini-and-ai-mode-into-chrome-heres-how-to-remove-it-from-the-browser/ npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…vvev quite a lot of the problem was they had a token with that amount of privilege stored somewhere it should not have been. Only part though. They seem to think their AI agent is a living, thinking being eg they asked it why it did this. Huh? It's not alive, it's not thinking, it's not even the same session. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger The #garden is looking quite autumnal this afternoon. https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/480/201/583/926/221/original/5eec82f117ec276c.jpg npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…wj33 there had to be a very long German word, well done. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Does anyone know if any languages have a word that expresses the regret that you didn't wash the dishes last night and have to face them today? Asking for a friend... #dishes #language npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/free-public-transport-for-all-students-under-25-to-keep-every-young-person-in-education npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Annoying reporting from RNZ. "The situation was created by the political decision to ban oil and gas while moving towards net zero, she said. "The oil and gas ban certainly didn't give anyone confidence to go out looking for more gas - so ... a whole lot of businesses that are facing increased costs for gas which are pretty much threatening their survival." This is referrig to the ban on new oil & gas exploration by the last Labour government. The implication is that had the ban not been in place there would have been new oil & gas supplies available to us now. Untrue. If they had found any they would be years away from development, and there probably isn't anything economically useful to find (although that view might change if prices stay very high). Also, Labour brought in a scheme very like the one being asked for here to assist industries to move away from gas to electricity. It was making useful progress. The current government dropped it. But I think the RNZ story should have mentioned that since they were happy to talk about the exploration ban Business NZ seeks government loan support for firms moving away from gas | RNZ News https://www.rnz.co.nz/ npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…gtt6 🥳 🎉 npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger https://350.org.nz/our-power-our-future-blog/ npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Somehow this struck me as timely info. I can't quite think why... But I can think of a response to most of this waffle: "give me an example of what you're talking about". I'm fairly sure most of the time they can't because it's bs. If they can it will be more useful that what they were spouting in the abstract. Corporate Language Compliance - The Daily WTF https://thedailywtf.com/articles/corporate-language-compliance npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…xpw3 I have a use for this. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…yzxf that's what real leadership looks like. The video looks great, well done. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…5mvz pensioners get free rides, though. Actually on public transport. Which means this could easily be done. It's not like there would have to be lots more crown limos. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…gtt6 we've got enough fuel until May 11. After that we have hope, or something. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger How Finnish supermarkets are central to the country's defence https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly1mg3zy20o npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Families open up homes to homeless teens under The Safety Net programme | RNZ News https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/590012/families-open-up-homes-to-homeless-teens-under-the-safety-net-programme npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…t3ug around year 2000 we knew this well. At the place I worked then every project we started we insisted it would be browser agnostic. After about a week a more muted announcement proclaimed we were only going to support IE4 (or whatever version it was). This is one one reason I stuck to doing backend stuff. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Does anyone know the secret of connecting a laptop to Auckland Libraries' WIFI? My Android devices are fine but my Lubuntu laptop just won't. It connects, I get a DHCP address, but it doesn't register with Tomizone so all requests are blocked. I can't get it to go to the Tomizone portal so I can't do anything. Last time I tried it I sent a support request to Tomizone and got zero response. I just sent another one. It worked about a year ago if I fiddled with the DNS settings, but not any more. Maybe someone knows the current trick? #tomizone #linux #support #AucklandLibraries npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger A new record! There are 9 #frogs on the pond. Most we've seen before is 8. https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/190/418/347/439/346/original/590df3f49bf7931c.jpg npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger https://roger-parkinson.com/blog/cogs-and-eyes npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…gtt6 I had a brother in law (rip) who came from Scotland and wore shorts whenever he could because, he said, in our climate...he could. He died of unrelated causes. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger https://roger-parkinson.com/blog/adaptation npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Eliminating the Impossible https://xkcd.com/3210/ npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Hey, I'm on an AirNZ domestic flight using wifi. It's a "trial", they explained. Seems to work anyway. The aircraft is an ATR72, not one of the fancy jet aircraft. #AirNZ #wifi npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…gtt6 our butcher in Warkworth has a similar door handle. Most appropriate. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Wellington City Mission launches free dental service https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/585586/wellington-city-mission-launches-free-dental-service npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger https://covidaction.nz/en/iaqequipmentforschools npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger A package arrived yesterday. You can see how big it is in the first image. Cardboard box in a soft plastic bag. Next image is the contents. It's a narrow tube about 300mm and right down at one end are three tiny chips that, together, are less than my thumbnail. That's the payload, everything else is packaging. No wonder they charge so much for freight. https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/115/968/637/866/622/315/original/af9d8f936490f42c.jpg https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/115/968/637/561/538/847/original/cc349b7069807fcb.jpg npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Ever since watching The Martian I've been curious about just how you go about adding text overlays onto video. A little while ago I got an ESP32 CAM to try it out and I finally got around to actually doing it. It's fairly trivial once you know how. But the libraries seem to want to make me set up image recognition etc and I don't. I ended up copy/pasting bits from the ML libraries into my code to get it working. Anyway the result is here and it works as well as I wanted it to. I may turn it into a weather cam at some stage and lay temp and humidity over it instead of 'hello world' but this is enough for today. https://codeberg.org/madurasoftware/ESP32CameraWebServer/settings npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…wj33 I used to check the daily Dilbert but sometime in the 00s I noticed him mocking/doubting climate change, so that was me gone. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…vhwu @nprofile…vvev @nprofile…xm73 this came up during Labour's last term in government. Someone plotted the business confidence survey against economic performance. No relation at all, but there was a relation with Tories being in power or not. So business confidence is just a measure of how Tory the government is, not whether anything good or useful is happening, or even if businesses are doing well or not. Around the same time there was another survey, not quite sure of the details, but it surveyed the workers' confidence, which was more interesting. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…gtt6 that's awful, Paul 🫂 npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…5w5c Mrs makes a batch just before Good Friday. They're always gone by Sunday. She makes chocolate eggs too. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger It's New Year's Eve in my timezone atm, which makes me ponder the whole calendar thing. I know a little of the history of calendar calculations, why we need a leap year and, sometimes, a leap second, and so on. But the gist of it is that the people who put together our calendar were trying to hit the northern winter solstice at the end of the year. They were also trying to get Christmas to hit the solstice too. Both missed, which means our holiday period over this time is the result of several screw ups, for which we can be thankful. Imagine if New Year and Christmas fell on the same day. Where I live we get four public holidays and this would be cut down to two. There's something of a tradition where you spend Christmas with the family and New Year at the beach (it's summer here). All this would be compressed into a two day break. As it is, those of us who can work out a mix of annual leave days and public holidays to get a week our two of summer weather unencumbered by work. Some factories close down for annual maintenance (not sure that still happens here, but it used to). When we surface we've had a little time for reflection about what we hope for the next year, made some resolutions, taken stock. Which wouldn't have happened if the people who worked out our calendar had not screwed up. #NewYear npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger I went to a family gathering today. My niece & her family live overseas so I don't see her often. The others live closer. When we set up the meet I was careful to specify outdoors cos covid and they did exactly as I asked. So we got to enjoy some family time. It was lovely. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…etrn we did ours yesterday, went early to avoid the rush, but it was very busy anyway. Usually there's no checkout queue that time of day but we had three trolleys ahead of us. Probably worse today, especially now the day has progressed. Also it isn't beach weather so people will shop instead. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…3nu3 there are so many harakeke flowers around this year. We have several in our garden putting up more shoots than usual, plus a wetland just down the road thick with them. I'm sure this is more than usual. So I'm not sure the decorations will make any difference tbh. Still, they look nice. I hope someone remembers to tidy them away later. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…8c65 heh. But you spent a long time before that thinking about those characters. Your readers have only known them for 17 years. You (& I) have known them for much longer. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…ne85 mostly agree, but there may be some merit in digging up the fossils as a reminder that their ideas aren't at all new and have been discredited long ago. We can see the names, hear their voices and shudder. This is healthy. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Lost in transition: The businesses trapped by New Zealand’s energy crisis https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/581471/lost-in-transition-the-businesses-trapped-by-new-zealand-s-energy-crisis npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger My collection of ebooks is available as part of the Smashwords 2025 End of Year Sale! Find your next favorite book this month at http://smashwords.com/sale and follow @smashwords for more promos like this! #EOYSale25 #ebook #sale #books2read #indiebooks https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/115/686/759/372/993/779/original/709125cd9becdbdb.jpg npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger A bit of drama this evening. I'm working on adding a water level sensor to our espresso machine because I often forget to check it before I start. At this stage I'm just working out if the various bits will fit so I took the back of the machine off and had a look. Yes, plenty of room. I also gave the water tank a scrub while I was there, then put it back together and turned it on. Nothing. But... I hadn't done anything to it. Must be a loose wire? How could it come loose? What was supposed to be a quick look was turning into a major repair project. So we got the backup espresso out to make sure that works, with Mrs making remarks about buying a new backup machine tomorrow if it was down too. But it was fine, lights came on... and then I noticed. The old machine has a power button we never use. We always turn it on at the wall. And in my messing about I had clicked that button to the off position. One click and all the lights came on. Yay! So, the old/main machine works, then backup machine works. Everything is reassembled or put away. No more drama. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Satellite Imagery https://xkcd.com/3173/ npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Today was sheep shearing day at our house. We have 3 sheep who get to lead their best lives. There's lots of grass, often treats, but twice a year we have to pen them up and our shearer comes for a visit. Their reaction to all this varies from terror to outrage, depending on the sheep. Betty has Arapara heritage. To be caught and penned would disgrace her Arapara blood and is not to be borne. Fortunately, she can't resist treats and trots into the pen quite happily. Before we realised this (several years back) we tried catching her and found it impossible. Layla won't be enticed into the pen. But she is fairly laid back. If we had two Bettys, I'm fairly sure she would follow them both in. As it is we chase her around the paddock for quite a short time, and then she just lies down and looks like she expects to be killed. I haul her into the pen, though she's quite heavy. Milly is the most difficult. She takes a lot more chasing, but she gets tired eventually, and I can grab her and push her into the pen. While they're being shorn, the shearer has all kinds of tricky holds that immobilse the sheep. They almost look relaxed, and I can believe getting that wool off feels good (except Betty whose Arapara honour is outraged). But they like it even better when they're released from the pen. Milly was seen romping about afterward. #sheep npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…p7rx I had a colleague once who really wanted to up his barrista skills but he couldn't actually drink much coffee. IIRC a couple of cups before noon was his limit, nothing after. He got a definite spike when he drank it. I've never had that kind of effect, but I keep it down to 3 or 4 a day just in case. Sometimes, when traveling, I get zero and I don't notice any problems. So he insisted he made all my coffees on the office espresso, which was nice. We have a fabulous Elecktra machine at home (see link), a tower of brass & copper with an eagle on the top. And, because it had a problem a few years ago when Mrs was finishing off one of her books, we have a second, lower key, machine for backup. She feels the need for the extra energy at those times or maybe it's just the need of a treat, but mostly she can take it or leave it, like me. Neither of us ever drink tea. It gives her headaches and I just don't like the taste. Ian Flemming had Bond say "Tea is mud" in Thunderball, so I'm like Bond in this one respect. https://elektracoffee.com/product/mini-verticale/ npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/11/19/deer-threat-in-national-park-debated-as-herd-status-advances/ my submission Wapiti are an exotic species and, as such, have no place in national parks. If hunters want to hunt them they are free to buy land, fence it appropriately, and manage wapiti herds on it. There is no reason to have our precious national parks involved. This should be obvious to everyone. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…3nu3 @nprofile…4u7y it's the AI scrapers hammering them. The websites have to protect themselves or they do nothing but serve content to bots. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…fwwf @nprofile…c0hd it was Vista that made me switch to Linux. Never tempted to go back. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger We knew they wanted to do this. It's nuts, we need to tell them its nuts. https://act.350.org/s/2988215.7Y1LAZ npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…knl9 my current practice is to hand write my submissions, photograph and convert to pdf. I always explain why in the submission. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Yes, they are trying to make the Frast Track Bill worse. There's not much time to make a submission (Monday 17th 2pm). https://www.greenpeace.org/aotearoa/story/fast-track-amendment-bill-submission-guide/ I've attached mine https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/115/540/239/092/597/204/original/89448c3643818ea9.jpg npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…t0pv effectiveness doesn't matter if you just want to make people suffer. I guess they are effective in that respect, but the proponents don't like saying that's the only goal. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Walking on the silica rapids track today. I just love the beech trees in this area. TBC these are native Nothofagus rather than Fagus. They look similar to what the rest of the world calls beech but not very closely related, actually a different genus. https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/115/505/698/752/230/626/original/294dadd1abe71dfc.jpg npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…7ppx we don't drink tea and we do stock it for guests. Our guests always want coffee, though, so the tea is probably past it's use-by date. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…5nnv it's interesting in that we all know why this has happened, but there has been no trial and no conviction. Hard to distinguish this from a simple falling out between brothers eg if he used the wrong fork or passed the port the wrong way. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…p7rx I usually pass on the phone number and give a duckduckgo generated email that's unique to every request. Though tbf if I like them enough I'll just comply. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Expert Systems: The Dawn of AI I spent a bit of time building expert systems in my career. An important difference between them and neural networks is that the rules are explicit and can be audited. I was once in a meeting about a loan approval system, and someone expressed the view that we might have a rule that excluded Pacific Islanders from getting a loan 😲. I had to politely (they're my customer) point out that the PR implications of someone finding that rule in the code would be difficult for the bank to sustain. But with neural nets, you don't know and can not know what biases have been trained into it. It's a good summary of how expert systems work. https://hackaday.com/2025/10/29/expert-systems-the-dawn-of-ai/ npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Nelson's 'bloody awesome' forestry reset from pines to natives https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/10/28/nelsons-bloody-awesome-forestry-reset-from-pines-to-natives/ npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…5nnv @nprofile…5zm3 @nprofile…fwwf @nprofile…fe2s they have flags flying upside down behind them. What was that about? npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…p7rx we had ours yesterday too. Quite tired today, thought it was the weather but maybe it was the jab. I hope we're all better tomorrow. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger https://roger-parkinson.com/blog/animal-welfare-regulations-for-management-of-pigs-amendment-bill Submissions here: https://www3.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/make-a-submission/document/54SCPRIP_SCF_648FDD9D-9331-43B1-C811-08DE009746D1/animal-welfare-regulations-for-management-of-pigs-amendment npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Went for a long walk this evening. This is the view of our front door as we got homeNote the splash of crimson in the garden on the right of the path. That's a kakabeak flowering. This our third try with kakabeak, the others did not last long or bloomed as well.. https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/115/360/481/064/972/803/original/72ded642caaabb6d.jpg npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger @nprofile…4rjf @nprofile…sxdw definitely photograph them back. Ursula Le Guin had a (true) story about that. She was at protests and mysterious guys in suits were photographing everyone. So everyone began photographing the suits. The suits went away. Though they probably just got more covert. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger I was thinking about reports of beneficiaries being made to jump through hoops to keep receiving payments. They have to turn up for interviews, show that they have been diligent about applying for jobs etc. It makes some sense when there are jobs and no sense when there aren't. So my proposal is we agreed on an unemployment level which, if exceeded, we just stop making people apply for jobs etc. Clearly there aren't any so we ease up. I can't imagine the current government doing this, they like to oppress the poor too much. npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger https://act.350.org/s/2977879.dg94hG npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Jobseeker changes: 'Punished for economic crisis they didn't create' | RNZ News https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/575040/jobseeker-changes-punished-for-economic-crisis-they-didn-t-create npub1ehfdymcdn4hp73667hxrpqn3j3ldxu9sqvanhj69w2jxmfjs27mssjfh3k 🇳🇿 :tinoflag: 💉*11 Roger Far North town wins battle to stop effluent getting into water | RNZ News https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/575059/far-north-town-wins-battle-to-stop-effluent-getting-into-water