Author: Default User

Opinion: It’s time to Disband Auckland Transport

Default User, ,

9th June 2024: This was originally posted before I got the chance to actually talk further in depth with some of their consultants face to face regarding my concerns in the months that followed and would be fair to say my view expressed in this post perhaps isn’t as strong. That said, there is still improvements that AT could be making and much faster than they have. Plan to update this post in due course.

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Admittedly, I’m at my wits ends. Auckland Transport as an organization I feel have persistently failed to deliver for the people of Auckland and has shown little willingness to reform their ways. This organization I strongly feel no longer has the social license to operate. It’s time to disband the organization, integrate it’s functions back into the council and get leaders in who are willing to do their jobs and deliver for the public.

They’ve thrown excuse after lame excuse for their failures, taken a hands off approach and attempted to cast blame on other entities for delivery of frankly a crap end-product (service) to the public. I think it’s time the organization (that is, should this organization wish to have any hope of continuing to exist) took a long look at itself and actually own up + acknowledge the transport issues facing Aucklanders and take the lead to champion delivery of reliable, timely, efficient and cost effective transport networks rather than shrug their shoulders to say “not our problem / fault”.

Services are still being cancelled en masse. Yet they want us to change from our cars and seem to be very keen to roll out enforcement cameras to use against the public – the very people who pays their wages – in order to coax us to change. How on Earth (or Mars) is that modal shift going to happen when passengers turn up to their stop only to find repeatedly their train, ferry or bus service has been randomly cancelled with the list of these cancelled services running all the way to the moon and back?

I invite anyone who defends what Auckland Transport has achieved to actually convince me what we currently have is even usable, practical, dependable and caters to the day to day transportation needs of most Auckland commuters.

At this point, I will admit to harboring a lot of animosity (I loath to use the word “hate”) towards Auckland Transport, more specifically towards their ongoing performance (or lack of) to date. I’m still figuring out how to channel (Positively harness) this anger as an ordinary individual rate-paying Auckland resident. It may be that I have to seriously look at forming my own Lobby / Advocacy group to hold Auckland Transport to account for their actions?

I’m aware that Greater Auckland is perhaps the biggest existing advocacy group already in this space but will be the first to admit while I strongly agree with their vision to reduce dependency on cars, and opening up travel choice, I don’t necessarily agree with the way they appear to be approaching this (which seems to be more to retrofit — at great uncertain cost and great disruption to those neighbourhoods potentially for years — new infrastructure in those existing neighborhoods).

In my view, we are probably best to encourage the majority of new housing be 6-10 story apartment blocks right beside existing high capacity public transit corridors and with day to day amenities and services within walking distance — See my separate article where I detail my thoughts further. Auckland Council and Auckland Transport should be working in lock-step with respect to urban planning and transport planning – to be frank, I’m not convince they are. If they are, then why are we continuing to sprawl well away from major transport infrastructure (Rail lines, Bus ways, Motorways)? Look at the area east of the Tamaki River.

As a complete aside, I wouldn’t be surprised Auckland Transport have purposely modeled their Logo on a Tortoise (With the ‘A’ forming the shell and the ‘T’ forming the neck and head). May be the organization should just be called “Auckland Tortoise”?

It’s important to note this post is not aimed at the many hardworking grassroots frontline employees both within AT itself and those of their contractors (e.g Bus Drivers, Train Drivers, Train conductors, Ferry personnel, public counter staff, etc).

Opinion: It’s time to Disband Auckland Transport

Matrix synapse Invalid Repository signatures

Default User

Received this perplexing rookie error while trying to undertake maintenance on one of my virtual servers.

An error occurred during the signature verification. The repository is not updated and the previous index files will be used. GPG error: https://packages.matrix.org/debian bullseye InRelease: The following signatures were invalid: EXPKEYSIG F473DD4473365DE1 matrix.org packages packages@matrix.org

Apparently apart from running the usual such as…

/usr/share/keyrings$ sudo wget -O /usr/share/keyrings/matrix-org-archive-keyring.gpg https://packages.matrix.org/debian/matrix-org-archive-keyring.gpg

…I needed to also hop into /etc/apt/sources.list and comment out the line…

deb https://matrix.org/packages/debian/ focal main

e.g From…

# deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security multiverse
deb https://matrix.org/packages/debian/ focal main
# deb-src https://matrix.org/packages/debian/ focal main

…To…

# deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security multiverse
# deb https://matrix.org/packages/debian/ focal main
# deb-src https://matrix.org/packages/debian/ focal main

After that, was able to upgrade my Matrix Synapse homeserver without error

Matrix synapse Invalid Repository signatures

Grid Lock Screenshot

Default User

Home time traffic on a Friday. Just as well I was working from home today. If I had to deal with this again on a regular basis. Would absolutely lose my freaking mind.

Auckland transport suggest that the Bus Driver Shortage afflicting the region will likely draw to a close in September. That long?

Unfortunately, it seems a few employers are still keen to force people back in the office at all costs while openly admitting that productivity while people were working from home was not actually a problem but simply to say it was “Sad” to walk into a sparse office – I struggle to see how this is a well throughout reason for lumping employees with such a heavy personal cost just to fill “bums on seats” in terms of personal time, commuting cost + stress along with mental health, and more importantly morale.

Grid Lock Screenshot

War of words where no one is a winner

Default User

The issue I have with the events that have transpired over the weekend is that the result was really a loss for both sides of the transgender discussion. Not only that, the impact has apparently spilled over to inflict at least some mild transient damage to New Zealand’s reputation.

Instead of reasoned debate, we ended up in totally unnecessary and counter-productive violence of both the physical and verbal kind. The issue here is instead of making the other side more likely to see and come to understand your point of view, the attacks like this just make the other party dig in, radicalize and double down entrenching a war that frankly does no one any use.

War of words where no one is a winner

Moved from Google Keep to Joplin for note keeping

Default User

Have moved from Google Keep to Joplin.

Screenshot from Joplin’s Linux client.

Only draw back I can see is there is no Web based UI to the thing. Have to use the native platform specific Joplin apps.

Installed Joplin client on Ubuntu 22.04 using this command line.

wget -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/laurent22/joplin/dev/Joplin_install_and_update.sh | bash

However, found that Joplin (after double clicking it’s short cut icon) refused to launch. So had to run these commands to lay down something called libfuse2

sudo add-apt-repository universe
sudo apt install libfuse2

…and then tried again, it launched after quite a few seconds.

Set up the path to my Joplin directory on my NextCloud installation.

https://[YOUR_SNAP_NEXTCLOUD_SERVER]/remote.php/webdav/Joplin

As for actually migrating your Google Keep Notes to Joplin, it’s a bit of a long winded process. Check here for some potential methods.

Moved from Google Keep to Joplin for note keeping

Canterbury CCC Two tone Harlequin stubbies rugby shorts – Quality not what it was

Default User

I’m guessing this is a form of shrinkflation. I have noticed the quality of the old Kiwi staple, the Canterbury (CCC) Two tone (two colour) Harlequin rugby stubbies are nolonger what they were with them being made of comparatively thinner cotton material. I seem to either rip or wear right through at least 2-3 pairs of them every year. They’re no longer durable nor hardy anymore. Ordered a few more during the boxing day specials, but feel the cotton they’re using now is definitely a lot less durable versus the thicker more ruggered cotton drill material they used to be made of.

I’m thinking it may be time to graudally let that brand go. The quality probably figures as the Harlequin shorts have been at the same RRP $40 NZD mark for years, even with the recent bout of inflation that has taken hold.

Canterbury two colour harlequin shorts – Worn and ripped

Speaking of which as a side note / different track, same appears to go for a lot of bush, farming, rural, outdoor and hunting apparel these days. Remembered I previously had issues with gear from more respected and renowned outdoor brands falling to bits (both stitching and the material itself) for a period – That said, hopefully some of those brands have since improved the quality of their clothing with the noticeable price jumps recently but will see once I test my more recent “Fieldays” purchases out.

Canterbury CCC Two tone Harlequin stubbies rugby shorts – Quality not what it was

Auckland Speed Limit Reductions – All stick but no carrot

Default User, ,

TL;DR: Speeds limits are being reduced across the board. Driving is increasingly stressful as others will object to you following the speed limit. There are implications if you do receive an infringement. Driving is technically a privillege but alternative transport options for getting around Auckland remain disappointingly poor and impractical for many situations.

Noticed that Speed limits on some streets around the CBD have been further reduced. Now Wellington Street in Freemans Bay is down to a mere 30 km/h.

Entrance to Wellington St, Freemans Bay, Auckland (CBD City side)

I can say that no cars whatsoever were doing 30 or even 40 km/h. In fact I had to pull over to allow a car to pass because they were right on my bumper while doing an already rule breaking 40km/h down Wellington Street. Walking back up Wellington street, I had observed basically every car were clearly ignoring the 30 km/h speed limit.

I’ve come to terms it’s only a matter of time that I’m going to end up with my first ever traffic infringement at this rate (basically not a matter of if, but when). Why? Because the agencies (including NZTA and Auckland Transport) by way of their “Vision zero” programme are dropping speed limits across the board and not just around the CBD. They’re also pledging to deploy more enforcement cameras everywhere and dropping enforcement tolerances and it only takes a momentarily lapse in judgement (e.g accelerating a touch too much in order to move safely into traffic or change lanes while looking over my shoulder to check a blind spot) right at an inopportune time and I will be done for.

The issue as well with infringements is that even if it’s only $30 low level speeding fine without demerits from a speed camera, apparently this still goes on your record somewhere for 5 years and apparently in many cases, you are supposed to declare this to insurance and needs to be declared in other areas as well (applying for a fire arms license, etc) so pays to avoid getting them where practical.

While I’ve continue for decades to express a strong desire to see alternative, more environmentally friendly and safer travel options opened up particularly in car dependent areas such as East Tamaki Industrial, the anti-car and climate activists have been exerting an increasing influence on Government policy and various government to make driving purposely more difficult and attempting to strong arm the motoring public out of their cars before we even have available working and viable alternative transport options that are able to realisitically cater to people’s day to day and household transportation needs in this city.

With the likes of Auckland Transport playing hard ball over Bus lane infringements and being inflexible even to those who have an otherwise squeaky clean driving record, the state will lose the goodwill of the public. Day to day life is already stressful for families as it is and the state to start ramping up the enforcement, widening the net, and pinging people over an increasing array of infractions while being out to disrupt people’s livelihoods is only going to accelerate the erosion of public goodwill and respect particularly if we continue to find excuses not to run the trains.

While I see we are building seperated cycle ways slowly (which admittedly, I’m generally infavour of should they go where people need to go and can be implemented in a cost effective fashion), however until we begin to see viable transport options able to meet Aucklanders’ day to day transportation needs emerge, I will as an individual ratepayer be vigorously and assertively pushing back at attempts by the more ardent climate activists who unrealistically demand we stop driving our cars immediately.

Auckland Speed Limit Reductions – All stick but no carrot

Installing Audacity without (Ubuntu) Snap packages and Error -9985

Default User

TL;DR Answer was found here. https://askubuntu.com/questions/1426476/ubuntu-22-04-audacity-does-not-show-up-in-pulseaudio-recording-tab

sudo apt install audacity -y

Admittedly, the process of trying to lay down and run Audacity initially gave me a bit of grief.

Wanted to install Audacity on my freshly laid down copy of Ubuntu 22.04 and all the references I could find of Audacity was to either install using “Snap” or “Flatpak”. Was apprehensive about Snap versions of any software and recall having grief with Audacity Snap before on my older machine giving me vague errors (e.g error -9985) about being unable to save or being unable to listen to a particular recording device. “Going Transport” –> “Rescan Audio Devices” did absolutely squat.

Even went back into Ubuntu Store and enabled all permissions on Audacity with again, nil effect. Appears nothing has changed (at the time of writing this post) two years on. As a Ubuntu user, I don’t have an overall very good impression of Snap at all having had issues with other Snap packages including with Flameshot (a screenshot tool) being unable to save to the Picture directory.

 

Installing Audacity without (Ubuntu) Snap packages and Error -9985

Warning regarding “3M Command” type hanging hooks

Default User

Please be aware the use of M3 Command or similar picture hooks can still cause damage to walls when one attempts to take them off. Had a case where a tenant (who has otherwise been excellent) while vacating a property tried to remove one of the hooks and ended up taking some paint with it. The property manager got their nominated handy man in to address it but saw in the property owner’s transaction statement I received later in the month that the cost of repair came to almost $300 (from looking at a copy of the Tradie’s invoice). Whether the charge is reasonable or not, I wouldn’t know as I’m not a tradie.

I now learn that other property owners on various private forums have suggested to their tenants to avoid the use of 3M Command type hooks as they can ultimately cause more damage than regular Picture Hanging hooks if they aren’t removed “correctly” which by itself seems rather subjective.

If you do a search for reviews regarding 3M Command hooks, it appears there’s a few repeating anecdotes suggesting that they may not be all they are cracked up to be so if you do choose to still use them for hanging stuff around the house (be it for your own home or a rental), do so with due care and awareness that the risk of damage is still present.

Warning regarding “3M Command” type hanging hooks

Smile Dental Ormiston Auckland – Patient Review

Default User,

After Hill Park Dental East Tamaki and Panmure both closed unbeknownst to me, ran around looking for a new dentist to regularly visit. Have decided to settle on using Smile Dental Ormiston for ongoing teeth cleaning and periodontal monitoring and already been to this practice a number of times now.

Pricing I feel is quite reasonable. 200 to 250 for teeth cleaning. Gum pockets appear to be slowly reducing.

May Yee Sim is the dentist I usually see, having originally seen her at the Smile Dental – Sylvia Park Branch. Also saw Karis Ho for sore gum condition. Appreciate both their positive and friendly attitude.

One advantage with Smile Dental over other Dental practices is that they are open on the weekends without surcharge. This is immensely handy as it means I don’t have to arrange time out of my busy work week to go see the dentist.

Was originally a little bit concern regarding Smile Dental being a chain, but experiences appear to have been fine so far with nothing reasonable to fault about any of my experiences themselves to date.

The only thing that can really be pointed out is their Group wide website has a few spelling mistakes and may need a bit of proof reading. Statements such as “Your dental specialist may prescribe you see a periodontitis” did give me a little bit of a quiet chuckle.

 

Smile Dental Ormiston Auckland – Patient Review

Yes, admittedly, I’m still running around in that 2006 Toyota Wagon.

Default User

Admittedly, I did remark I would get rid of my car about 5 years ago. But have yet to do so.

To be honest, I just can’t be bugged with replacing it. While the paintwork is now well and truly fading and I get ribbed for it being the worst car at my workplace, the thing still reliably runs.

Have driven better cars in recent years mainly as rentals, and while I will admit they’re nice to drive, I don’t get enough elation to run out and get a newer car.

Yes, admittedly, I’m still running around in that 2006 Toyota Wagon.