More of a “Cool Story Bro” type of post… As per an earlier decree, I have begun reducing my time spent on the internet in general during the evenings and weekends (during my own time) and confining any use to Administrative functions (such as banking, paying bills, some internet shopping) and the keeping in contact with family and friends (where possible, using inter-operable, federated and self hosted solutions). Continue reading “Internet use reduction”
Te Arai Point and Mangawhai Inland Walks
Another spur of the moment (Snap decision) walk on Saturday 14th July 2018, this time around Te Arai and Mangawhai. Click Picture below to access gallery…
Coromandal + Onemana Explore
Explore around the Eastern Side of Coromandal. Bays explored include Pokohino Bay, Pakahakaha Bay and finally Opoutere Bay.
To Access the gallery and brief trip notes on NUI.NZ, click the picture below…
Waipu Caves in Northland
Day trip up north to visit Waipu Caves in the Whangarei District, click picture below to view album…
Fibre Broadband ONT Installed
Fibre is finally installed after being convinced by a passing Chorus Man in a Van to get connected. So which provider to go with, I wouldn’t know. Still on my ADSL1 copper connection.
After a few false (scheduling) starts, the Chorus Technician managed to eventually come along, lay down the Fibre and install the Optical Network Termination (ONT) box. The job he did looks pretty professional overall.
Probably alone in feeling this way, but would be keen to learn more utilizing Fibre’s potential towards improving people’s lives overall, through initiatives such enabling more to work from home and improving of connectedness between friends and family, etc (and perhaps less about it simply being another means of “Feeding the masses a steady diet of Bread and Circuses” in terms of piping passive Entertainment and Professional Sports into People’s homes).
Quick visit to Kaipara Coast Sculpture Gardens
Quick Drop in visit to Kaipara Coast Sculpture Gardens en route back to Auckland. Click Photo below to access the gallery…
They recommend about 1 and half hours to walk around. Could easily spend 3 hours there if you include Don’s loop at a leisurely pace. Hills are moderate (Easy for a seasoned hiker, may be challenging for though for the less fit)
Gradually backing out of Harmoney
I have been an investor for a while with Harmoney. They seem alright to date, however will admit that I have started to feel unease at the amount of “Charged off” loans appearing on my books. Interest rates seem to be trending downwards for across all risk grades with a feeling that the platform fees are gradually edging up, slowly putting the squeeze on any NET Returns. I have also noticed that the Platform RoR is also gradually declining.
As such, I’ve now decided to stop reinvesting the proceeds and started backing out by way of their Auto-Withdraw facility as I feel the risk reward has gradually become less favorable.
Waipu Coastal Walk and Goldschmidt
Walk with the Auckland Hiking Group Meetup to Waipu, click photo below to access gallery…
Weather was pretty Rainy through much of it, with fine breaks.
Fieldays 2018 Adult Entry price increase
Update 14/06/2018: Will no longer be attending this year’s Fieldays, everyone who had expressed interest to attend Fieldays with me have all since pulled out. Not worth me driving down there alone from Auckland.
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Noticed that the Incorporated Society behind the National Fieldays has increased the Adult ticket price for this Year for those booking online via Stream Ticketing from $20.00 per Adult (+$5.00 booking per transaction) to $30.00 per Adult (+$0.90 booking fee per ticket). This represents roughly a 50% price increase over the preceding year if taking the scenario of booking online for a group of 4-5 together. Continue reading “Fieldays 2018 Adult Entry price increase”
Eden Gardens, Auckland
Short little walks around Clevedon and later on, a stroll around Eden Gardens. Click Picture below to access the gallery…
Waikato in the Autumn
Random spur of the moment Road trip down to Hamilton and surrounds. Click picture to access Gallery…
While the Olympus TG-3 has served me well, the camera equipped with my Samsung S7 Active phone seems to have the TG-3 beaten hands down in the image quality department. The only thing the TG-3 has over my Phone is optical zoom. The Dynamic Range on the S7 Active is so far the best I’ve seen from any camera I’ve owned.
If Microsoft Made Cars…
A common thing I have to deal with at work after a customer rings up and gets this message in the software…
Ground Hog Day on Auckland Transport Crisis
Short of a population contraction. Auckland transport crisis I feel is NOT going to be measurably alleviated in the next two decades for the average resident.
Auckland as a city is already on the back foot due to decades of laissez faire planning and the damage has unfortunately been done decades ago… it’s going to be difficult to reverse the effects of this through conventional means.
We have key zones scattered all over the place with reckless abandon, with absolutely no forethought for the longer term. We are continuing to build swathes of urban sprawl without any adequate transport infrastructure to go with it, continuing to repeat the same mistakes in the short term with long term consequences.
Bring up a map of Auckland and compare it with say Perth, Melbourne or Adelaide and in contrast to the semi grid type layout of the aforementioned, Auckland’s roading layout frankly more closely resembles a city in a developing nation (Bali, Indonesia; Port Vila, Vanuatu). Roads placed seemingly at random with no planning what so ever. Any buses that we introduce are made to zig zag all over the place in a vain attempt to capture the key zones. No regard for putting in proper rail corridors to new greenfield development sites.
This 28 Billion that the Labour government is planning to pour in, should they suggest conventional public transport measures again, I fear will tragically could end up being a gratuitous waste. I strongly feel Auckland requires a more tailored approach in order to have any hope of mitigating the transportation frustrations facing residents in this city.
Packraft Exploration of Karangahake River
22nd April 2018 – Pack Raft Explore of the river from Karangahake Gorge towards Paeroa township. Click Picture below to access the gallery.
Facebook’s Tentacles – Custom Audience Privacy Issue
Update 17/07/2018: I’d expect I will get a few people rolling their eyes in silence at me, particularly from the AdTech crowd, but I feel strongly enough about the issue that I have decided to start contacting each company appearing in the screenshot to ask them to remove my personal details from any “Custom Audience” Ad campaigns.
I am happy for companies I deal with to add me to their direct mailing list to advise me of any running specials periodically through E-mail, but I am not comfortable with that information subsequently being given to 3rd parties such as Facebook (being a particularly “privacy hostile” entity at that), The less personal information that goes to Facebook the better, I feel they have already become too powerful to our longer term collective detriment, by way of them feasting on our information, particularly given their ongoing business conduct.
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Original post: After having logged into my Facebook account for the first time in a fortnight, Today I learn that businesses have been uploading their customer contact database to Facebook. A trawl over the internet reveals that this has apparently been in place since 2013.
A question is whether or not organizations giving their contact list to Facebook constitutes, “Sharing your personal details with a 3rd party”?
Facebook states, “These advertisers are running ads using a contact list they or their partner uploaded that includes info about you. This info was collected by the advertiser or their partner, typically after you shared your email address with them.”
Reading further, it appears more than just your email they can choose to upload. The information that could be included for matching includes things like your Phone number, Birthday, Gender, etc.
If companies are uploading their customer contact lists to Facebook as per Facebook’s Custom Audiences program, in my view, that pretty much lays at least the base, if they have actually chosen to do so, for Facebook to develop the alleged shadow profiles of Non-Facebook users and personally with me at least, this is NOT okay.
They say they drop all the info if there is no match, but after their ongoing antics, who can trust what Facebook Inc. actually says?
Vanuatu Tanna and Espiritu Santo
Trip to Vanuatu over Easter from 29th March 2017 to 7th April 2018 – Including Espiritu Santo (click pictures to view gallery)…
…and the island of Tanna to see the Active Volcano of Tanna
Sadly didn’t get my Helicopter trip to visit Ambrym this time around due to weather.
Apart from any up and coming work trips, I’m going dial back a little from traveling for a while, so the volume of trip photos will likely drop accordingly (Not that it really matters as such)
Internet 2.0, Proprietary, centralized, and locked-in
Update 27/06/18 – Facebook reaches 200 USD per share, Too bad we collectively keep rewarding bad behaviour, Thanks for the cap gains though.
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Ironically, have discovered a lot of my time spent surfing the internet in the evenings is for researching about the Internet itself.
For all intents and purposes, It looks like older days of a largely decentralized Internet with inter-operable communication protocols (E-mail, XMPP, RSS) are pretty much going away, replaced by proprietary walled gardens operated by sole businesses for the primary purpose to maximize profits and designed to be sticky (addictive) and lock as many people in as possible so that it’s hard to escape.
Willful ignorance or otherwise, we collectively voted for this. People a decade ago remarked that I was “Oh So pessimistic” to suggest that Facebook would become as ubiquitous and as powerful as they are today. (By the way, Keep the glass, I don’t need it). Just a second while I write another put option on NASDAQ:FB (with the intention to add to my current holdings)
People keep getting outraged at Facebook’s behaviour, yet continues to reward and encourage it by continuing to use their services. While many have pledged to reduce their usage of Facebook (and other services), such actions seem to be nothing more than short lived and amounts to little more than “virtue signalling”, Furthermore, many of those people who say they are leaving Facebook are going on to suggest WhatsApp and Instagram (both owned by Facebook) as to where they will be moving to. Hold on, let me increase my short put position.
Frankly, a decade ago, I did state that I would prefer to lose my access to the Internet completely rather than submit to Facebook should Facebook happen to take over the Internet to become the Internet. While in truth, it’s still a long way from that, the situation is that the Internet has now become so commercialized with much of it’s power now consolidated into the hands of a few corporate entities.
Anyway, I’ve decided to gradually reduce my use of the Internet in general and should the consolidation of power continue, will probably end up using the Internet rather comparatively sparingly — Keeping any use personally during my own time to Administrative stuff and the keeping in touch with closer Family and friends (using self hosted services where possible) while completely cutting to the bone any superfluous usage such as casual surfing of forums and especially surfing the Internet to research… well, about the Internet.
Pasifika and Corrections
A little walk around Pasifika Festival today, Small album of pictures posted to NUI.NZ.
With a surprise (to me) appearance of Jacinda Ardern along with Phil Goff (Mayor of Auckland).
Came earlier in the morning to avoid the crowds and the Afternoon Rain. Pacific Nations represented included, Hawaii, Fiji, Kiribati, Tonga, Samoa, Cook Islands, Tuvalu, Tokelau, Tahiti, Niue and of course Aotearoa. Full details on the ATEED website.
T’was handed info pack while walking past some stalls at Pasifika. A possible Career change from being a Computer nerd to a Corrections Officer? Not unheard of I suppose… It at least made me intrigued to look at what Corrections do.
In a lot of the “Just The Job” videos on Youtube… Lots of focus on rehabilitation, thought there was an acknowledgement that many offenders will “play the game”, get released only to return to prison again at a later date.
Currently Looking at the pay scale, If I ever was to take a front line position with Corrections, it would undoubtedly result in fairly sizeable drop in my pay.
Motivations for setting up my own personal homepage
As mentioned in my Facebook Notice, I had elected to build my own personal homepage for staying in touch with Friends and Family as opposed to relying on Facebook. In short, I prefer staying with decentralized inter-operable web protocols and standards (particularly those that allow me to self-host) where practical as it offers me more freedom and control over my own personal web presence.
While It is acknowledged utilizing proprietary platforms that are singularly owned and operated by sole for profit business entities have their near term benefits (many such platforms are Free of charge), they aren’t “neutral” mediums and are typically run with the natural focus of maximizing profits, ahead of the best of interest of their users or the wider world at large. (Engineering their products to be as sticky as possible, to keep people on their platforms for longer in order to serve advertising, locking them in so that it’s difficult to leave and consequentially, with an increased tendency to cause addiction in quite a few people).
Proprietary platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat are structured in contrast to say inter-operable protocols like regular E-mail where you have a choice of providers. A user on their choice of provider can E-mail another user on a different provider. No one provider controls the protocol.
It is worth highlighting that the more we use, rely, and pressure others to use these proprietary platforms (by way of the network effect), the more powerful these entities will naturally become. In the case of Facebook, it’s already large and still ever increasing influence and power in our lives (be it through through Facebook Original, Instagram, WhatsApp), I see as potentially detrimental thing to us in the longer term in the sense of…
“Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely”
Personally, I desperately struggle to see how so much power concentrated in the hands of any given single entity, especially a “for-profit” one, could ever be considered as a good thing for us in the longer run. While Facebook certainly isn’t alone in trying to get their mittens on everything we do online, there is a concern within me that should we allow the general trend to continue, (along side the gradual erosion of Civic Responsibility) we could see an erosion in our own individual self determination as we collectively cede ever increasingly control and power over our lives to such (non-democratic) business entities whom are ultimately answerable only to their owners and stockholders.
If you wish to visit the possibility of using alternatives mediums to stay in contact with friends and family, please see “Keeping in contact with loved ones” where I’ve listed out what I’ve done and the recommended stepping stones to reduce reliance on centralized, proprietary and commercially run services.
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Disclosure
As of February 2017 (About a year ago as of writing this), I am now a direct shareholder in NASDAQ:FB. The reality is I don’t think we Netizens are going to realize the longer term implications of where we are headed anytime soon. I do recall people seven years ago rebuked me as being “so pessimistic” for even suggesting that Facebook would become as powerful and ubiquitous as they are now. People are saying Facebook is dying and while that may now be true in North America for their original main name sake platform, many of those same people go on to suggest Instagram and WhatsApp (both Owned by Facebook), along with Snapchat (whom personally I consider as equally as obnoxious) as examples as to where everyone is now flocking to.
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Fergus Young
www.nui.nz
Matrix RIOT two Month Review.
Have had an Instance of the Matrix “Synapse” Chat Server for two months now (instructions). The system operates alright, but in short, the User Interface for both the Android App and the Web Based user interface I found hasn’t been particularly fast… In fact, it feels a bit lethargic in a way akin to walking through a swamp.
Having said that, there is a new series of the server in development called “Dendrite” that promises to be faster with more optimal resource usage, but do not know when the developers are going to get around to formally releasing it to the public.
Will keep the current server up for now, but won’t be actively pushing or promoting it beyond family and a handful of friends. If people expressly mention that they are looking for an alternative, will mention it there and then along with my instance of Matrix/RIOT, but generally not before then.