Consumer packaging
Early spring clean. Photo of product packaging that I dug out from the closet.

Issue is, some of this packaging is so elaborate and fancy inside the box, that you don’t want to throw it away. It does make me wish there was a practical way to send such packaging back to the manufacturer to reuse.
Photo: Ag Heritage Museum 2021
Photo: Karioitahi beach
Photo: Hidden Lake of Waiuku Forest
Matrix synapse Invalid Repository signatures
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
Grid Lock Screenshot
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.
Photo: Luggage of the great migration
War of words where no one is a winner
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.
Photo: A walk through Waiuku Forest.
Photo: Auckland, City of Cones
Moved from Google Keep to Joplin for note keeping
Have moved from Google Keep to Joplin.

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.
Photo of Sentinel Rock Walk Kaimai Ranges
An Individual Photo of the view at the top of Sentinel Rock in the Kaimai Mamaku Conservation Park.

The walk takes around 3 and half hours return. The Department of Conservation information page regarding Sentinel Rock Lookout walk can be found here.
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 -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.
Traditional Hangi Photo
Average Picture of The Tron
Fieldays 2022
Average Pic of Fieldays 2022…

A relatively quiet affair. Continue reading “Fieldays 2022”
Yes, admittedly, I’m still running around in that 2006 Toyota Wagon.
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.
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











