Thought the cones in this scene may be a little excessive…
Uncategorized
Yeah, sorry, my Crystal ball is in for repairs.
Admittedly it hasn’t been in my nature to feel like this towards others, but If you want the public to either do or not to do something (as in areas you can and can not go to), it would help if there were signs. It’s simple people. Don’t expect people to freaking mind read.
On a tangent but still on the Signage rant bandwagon. Why are so many speed limit signs in Auckland these days twisted and turned around facing the wrong way? Even the new ones showing the recently lowered speed limits are like this.
Yeah, sorry, I fear I may be becoming only a husk of my normally meek self.
Raumaga Falls, Whangarei Photo
Picture of an urban waterfall, in Raumaga, Whangarei. Beware of the roaming / unrestrained Pitbull.
Installing Audacity without (Ubuntu) Snap packages and Error -9985
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 -yAdmittedly, 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.
Traditional Hangi Photo
Traditional Hangi at Christmas.
Desire to Travel is in a lull
Admittedly, my desire to travel anywhere is in a definite lull at the moment. I’m anticipating it will come back at some point, but I ain’t going to try and force it back. May be accommodation and general travel costs is impacting this a bit.
Might do some day or short overnight trips somewhere these Holidays depending on availability of accommodation / tent sites and depending on how I feel. Again, I’m not going to force it. Will spend my holidays how I see fit.
Average Picture of The Tron
An average picture of “The Tron” (Hamilton, New Zealand)
Edwards and Hardy Auckland Customer review
Update 26th January 2023: They eventually were able to get their guys to come around and do the job in the end. Updated the review accordingly. Price issues have since been resolved. They allegedly had staffing shortages contributing to some of admin issues detailed below.
—
Used this company before many years ago and called upon them again last year to conduct a moss spray treatment on my concrete tile roof.
After a about 3 no shows along with a price quote irregularity, 2 of their roofers eventually came along and did the moss spray on the roof. It appears Edwards and Hardy introduced a new job booking/scheduling system which has resulted in some frustrations to both customers (such as myself) and their own front line staff in the last year or so. This resulted in me having to repeatedly chase up via Email, texts and phone calls as to the status of the job and when they could expect to come around.
Regardng the price quote, Edwards and Hardy provided a written emailed quote of 470 to spray the roof while 2 other competitors I was able to contact both provided me a quote of 380 for roof spraying. I had accepted Edwards and Hardy’s already higher quote in good faith based on previous custom. To find an additional $100 Health and Safety charge tacked on after accepting their quote and upon receiving a confirmation without this being communicated to me beforehand was rather curious. (Since sorted out, though took a bit of chasing up).
Job was completed within an hour. Apart from one missed cracked tile (a check of the tiles was included as part of the roof moss spray), no real issues with their front line staff who diligently got to the job, were pleasant to deal with and answered any questions I had. The company in general terms however will need to sort their back end systems and work on their communication as according their own field staff, they’ve had multiple complaints of the same issues from other customers.
Migrated this website away from Stablehost
Have migrated this website peak.nz to the Main VPS (where nui.nz currently is).
The server pcluster09.stablehost.com has allegedly been suffering a DDoS attack that is now going on two weeks. In an apparent attempt to try and mitigate this, Stablehost deployed BitNinja which results in the frequent triggering off of false positives under WAF rules 941100, 941160 when ever I attempt to edit any given WordPress post.
Scanned the web space for potential Malware using both of the Antivirus tools they had available and nothing was found. In addition to that, as a test… laid down a fresh install of WordPress and attempted to edit the sole example post there, BitNinja again kicked me off the server. Support as friendly and as eager to assist as they were, were not able to ultimately resolve the issue.
Anyway, having migrated this successfully to the Main VPS, noticed this site now loads up so much faster and is so much more responsive both at the front end and at the back (composing posts)
Discovered in the billing section of my Stablehost account that I’m only paying 36 USD a year for the service (Billing history indicated I was originally paying over 100 USD per year). No wonder it is now crap. To be honest, I’m done with shared hosting. It always starts off great, then somehow it always ends up being a race to the bottom when providers slash prices to compete resulting in frankly shit quality hosting performance.
Home Gym Breakage
Unfortunately broke my Weider Home Gym over the weekend.
Have gone and put in a M20 bolt in the meantime. But looking at the whole construction, will need to replace it as it’s clearly under designed to handle the weight it was supposed to be able to handle
Australian Mastodon Server instances
Update 16 February 2023: mastodon.au have announced they are shutting down.
Update 21 November 2022: New Australian Mastodon Server instances theblower.au and mastodon.au are now live and accepting signs ups. Existing instance, aus.social has just re-opened to Sign ups again today.
Update 12 November 2022: Appears both aus.social and Chinwag have temporarily halted signs ups. There is a new Server being developed at theblower.au. Please read more about the new AU Mastodon server here.
In the meantime, If any one knows of any other Australian Mastodon instances that are still open (and have the capacity to take in new sign ups) please advise in the comments below and help your fellow Aussies out, thanks.
—
If you’re in Australia and looking for a Mastodon (Twitter alternative) server to join, please look at…
theblower.au – NEW! Open for sign ups.
aus.social – Reopened to Sign ups 21 Nov 2022.
bne.social – NEW! Open for sign ups.
melb.social – Melbourne Based – Requires invite from existing user.
chinwag.org – Closed to New Sign ups.
mastodon.au – Instance announced it is now shutting down: See announcement.
There’s probably other Australia based (or focused) Mastodon instances. If anyone knows of any that are available to take sign ups, please let me know in the comments below and I’ll add them here.
Currently helping out at mastodon.nz in an assistant mod capacity to help get on top of reviewing sign ups and noticed there were a lot of Australians applying to sign up mentioning they could not find their local regional Mastodon server.
From Musk to the Tusk (Twitter to Mastodon)
There’s been some movement from Twitter to the Mastodon Fediverse since Elon Musk’s take over of Twitter.
The current foremost instance for New Zealanders is mastodon.nz. (Due to the influx, new account creation is currently set to manual approval). Others include mastodon.nzoss.nz (Being the oldest of the NZ specific instances) and cloudisland.nz, a more heavily moderated instance.
My Current handle is “Nui” on mastodon.nz. I’ve never had a Twitter account and this is perhaps my first foray into any sort of Microblogging hence still trying to find my feet as it were.
Update 11 November 2022: Been brought on as an assistant moderator (at least in the interim) to help with reviewing and approving sign ups during this massive influx of interest.
The “Fake Mistake” overcharging. Could this possibly be a thing?
Could some unscrupulous businesses as a business strategy possibly be intentionally sneaking on extra charges onto selected customers hoping the customer not notice it? And if the customer does notice the discrepancy such as an unusual charge (or line item) and queries it, simply say sorry, correct the billing error and say it was a mistake?
Been a few cases recently when procuring products or services, errors have been spotted in either the quote or with a given invoice and have usually given the business the benefit of the doubt. I like to think (and still believe) the vast majority of these have been genuine and innocent mistakes, but the increasing frequently of such experiences in recent years has left me to question, is it a possibility that some businesses could be feigning mistakes? Particularly in these more challenging economic conditions?
My concern is that it can be extremely difficult if not downright impossible to determine between what are genuine billing mistakes that any business (despite the best of intentions) could still make and what could be feigned billing mistakes undertaken willfully as a business strategy by less than honest businesses.
Stream of Conciousness Week 17th October 2022
Stream of consciousness and other personal thoughts garnered throughout the week and which will be added to as the week rolls on. These thoughts are unrefined, unquantified, unverified, and raw. Any of these may be either be edited, deleted or otherwise spawn out into its own separate post particularly if new information comes to light…
- Keep seeing the term “Chauchage Squad” (or “Chauchagesquad”) around the place which is supposedly intended to rhyme with Sausage. Also, it seems to often come hand in hand with the term “YTFBz” which appears to mean “Yeah The F—— Boyz!” (meant in a positive way as solidarity supposedly). Seems to have originated from TikTok and researching keeps leading me back at one of the prominent street gangs in this country. Is it their way of recruiting? I don’t know. My research will undoubtably be off the mark/wrong so feel free for anyone more versed in this stuff than I to jump in and correct.
- Buying stuff such as appliances and electronics can really add to household clutter. Multiply that with the shrapnel each purchase often comes with. Such as Boxes, packaging, Instruction Manuals, Warranty cards, Warranty information, Global Support contact leaflet, Driver Discs (Probably not so much these days anymore) and accessories often to interface proprietary stuff to standard ports.
- Travel and hiking burnout is still persisting. Forcing a pull back of any thoughts of travel for now. Hoping a break from travel may help my interest in travel to return.
Older Stream of Consciousness thoughts can be found here.
Flood of Scam Texts purportedly from AU Phone numbers
Seem to be receiving an avalanche of scam texts recently purportedly from Australian Numbers.
Here is an example of a scam text. If you receive or have received anything similar to this, Do not click on the link. It’s a scam.
You are entitled to a refund.
Visit our website.
https://govtbee-hive.me/xxxxxxxxxx
Red flags…
- Not expected
- Not a government URL / Web Address
- Came from an Australian number +61474029366, +61448533019, +61459618035, +61428949602, +61448205262, +61474029366 (although I warn these could very well be spoofed or even using throw away prepay sim cards)
‘Strict Liability’ fines and offenses and a cautionary observation to the government
Government agencies and Government appointed authorities in my view need be very careful about increasing the amount of ‘Strict Liability’ offenses on offer, particularly in light of recent reporting in the media about other crimes (such as Ram Raids, Assaults) being left unresolved / unpunished with offenders of these crimes getting off with merely a few months of home detention or even just a warning.
’Strict Liability’ supposedly does away with the need prove a ‘Guilty Mind’ (intention).
As the “infringement fines” base increases and the net widens, we are now seeing more and more otherwise Law abiding people getting pinged over an ever increasing array of ‘Strict Liability’ offences.
While arguably in many cases, the punishment may be warranted, This brings to light a number of issues and considerations…
- Where ordinary people who otherwise have the best intentions and have no intent on causing harm are now no longer able to go about their lives without worrying about the the state coming down on them for what is often an innocent mistake.
- This also comes on the back that of many events recently where people who are perceived to be committing real crimes with greater social and public harm are getting away with a slap on a wrist or just a warning while the ordinary member of the public who drove a few metres too long in the bus lane are slapped with a hefty $150 NZD fine which anecdotally is extremely difficult to get out of. This is the same monetary penalty as someone running a red light which by all accounts is a much more serious act with more material consequences.
- Another issue this situation brings up is that instead of the state being seen as an ally out to assist the lives of the ordinary tax-paying citizens, the state are increasing instead seen as an adversary out to get at them at any means possible in turn causing public to distrust those in power
- It potentially normalizes offences and offending. We are now seeing more and more people regard certain fines as just another tax and revenue generation (or “revenue raisers” more commonly used in Australia / Across the Tasman). It is also ultimately has the real potential of reducing the public’s regard or “respect of authority”.
- More significantly, the fixed nature of this penalty means those on the lowest incomes are the most impacted by the imposition of such fixed value monetary penalties. For those on low incomes, a $150 may mean a weeks worth of groceries and the inability to feed one’s family. For a more financial well off it may be a little mere a minor slap on the wrist.
The imposition of Automatic fixed camera bus lanes enforcement at fines of $150 is I feel a slippery slope in the wrong direction, a step too far already. This also confirms my anxiety as it were over what I originally saw back in Melbourne, Victoria Australia with respect to Victoria being a fine state increasingly being applied to New Zealand as well.
Selwyn District have unleashed their parking wardens
Just a heads up: Selwyn District now have a “Parking Safety team” and from 19th September 2022, are currently authorized to go around issuing infringement notices to vehicle operators.
See Selwyn District’s parking announcement here.
For some time, Selwyn District were unique among New Zealand’s local councils in not having an active regime of issuing parking tickets (instead preferring an educational approach).
Opinion: BRANZ were culpable for much of the original leaky home crisis
Personal opinion as a layman / ordinary member of the Public.
It is in my view that much of the buck stops with BRANZ (Building Research Association of New Zealand) of the time for approving the products and construction methods associated with the leaky homes crisis in the first place. Particulary pertaining to the period starting around the mid-90’s and ending around ~2005.
I am surprised back then that not more scruntiny were directed towards BRANZ and their appraisal process of the time.
It’s also in my personal opinion that some commercial players in the industry later milked the situation for what it’s worth for their own financial gain adding insult to homeowner injury by employing fear and resulted in my view, needless regulatory capture so much so that Homeowners were no longer afforded the self determination nor the right to reclad a given place themselves, significantly increasing both the bureaucractic and financial burden of getting their own homes up to a better more durable and livable standard on their own accord.
Is it is further to my opinion that a lot of needless reclads have occured when more targeted solutions for certain situations could have sufficed.
Pertaining to some monolithic cladding methods… Given New Zealand’s climate, in particular rain full and use of under-treated timber, there was insufficient ability for moisture to escape at sufficient volume to avoid damage from moisture build up over time. This was in my view particularly the case due to insufficient specifications regarding protecting window flashings and protecting penetrations for services (such as pipes) allowing additional moisture to seep through into the building envelope with no means to escape but to effectively settle and accumulate at the bottom of the timber wall framing there by rotting out the bottom plate member.
While some cladding manufacturers had specified an air gap at the bottom edge (slight overhang of the wall frame over the foundation), it is in my opinion this alone was not sufficient to allow enough moisture to be removal. It was also the case that builders did not even bother to leave this gap as per mandated by the cladding manufacturer.
Now it would be easy to blame homeowners / home buyers (“Consumers”) in this situation but give the prevailing industry wisdom of the time, the public were assured by those that were entrusted with protecting the public that things were OK.
Highbrook Drive Roadworks?
Tried searching for what the roadworks are on the southern end of Highbrook Drive and why they appear to be taking so long. This comes up…
Project Name: TSL(SC)P-2409 173 Highbrook Drive, East Tāmaki
Worksite Name: Highbrook Drive, Otara – Construction of new intersection
Searching for either The Project Name or the Reference number brings up very little information about these works
With things down to a single lane (one side) and given that it’s a major link to one of Auckland’s major Employment and business zone, some more publicly accessible information about the project I feel from the government agencies involved with overseeing this project is in order.
Letter to Auckland Transport: Improving public advisory and guidance around bus lanes
Update 19th December 2023: I never got a response to this. Have now sent an enquiry to the Office of the Ombudsman to discuss taking this further.
Letter I sent off to Auckland Transport early this morning (I suffer from sleep maintenance insomnia). While I reiterate I’ve yet to personally receive a fine, I feel a strong moral objection with how Auckland Transport are going about this and have strong concerns how an agency that is supposed to be acting in the interest of the public are rolling out enforcement cameras to use against the very people they are supposed to be serving.
—
Good Morning,
Sorry to have to raise this issue again. I am continuing to hear and read about people getting fined on the bus lane section of Khyber Pass (East bound) between Kingdon and Broadway.
Given the obvious and ongoing confusion this is causing, It’s now at the stage where I request Auckland Transport to please provide me with at least a high level plan or overview as to how they propose to mitigate the ongoing confusion for the motoring public (by Close of Business Friday 5:00 pm NZDT, 7th October 2022, please)
I remind Auckland Transport again that since they insist that it’s not about revenue, AT in my mind have a clear obligation to the Auckland public and Auckland Residents / Ratepayers to minimize confusion and address the issue of signage and guidance surrounding bus and transit lanes. I will also further remind AT they are there to serve the public, not wage an ideological war (through setting up an ever increasing array of automated enforcement cameras to use) against the very people who AT are supposed to be serving and those who ultimately pay AT’s wages.
Given the individual financial impact each infringement incurs, Auckland Transport I firmly feel could be doing a lot more, Including but by no means limited to setting up a comprehensive and up-to-date bus and transit lane map online as a public service and running ads on the back of say buses advising motorists to please check for the latest SVL arrangements prior to heading out. (There may be an opportunity to promote public transport use such as “Avoid the stress and confusion. Let AT take you there”)
Please refer to prior case numbers CAS-521169-X3C4G3 and CAS-545044-D9D8D1 for previous correspondence on this matter.
If I could please receive an initial acknowledgement of the receipt of this request by Close of Business Friday 5:00 pm 16th September 2022, this would be appreciated, along with the an overview of what Auckland Transport are planning to do to aid motorists in these situations (be it advertising, public advisory campaign, more comprehensive guidance videos, better signage, or otherwise) by Friday 5:00 pm NZDT, 7th October 2022, please.
If I do not hear from Auckland Transport by 7th October 2022 pertaining to the above I will be proceeding to take this matter further as a civic concern.
Thank you.