Open mike 17/09/2024

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 17th, 2024 - 57 comments
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57 comments on “Open mike 17/09/2024 ”

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  1. lprent 1
    17 September 2024 at 6:58 am

    Finally cracked my way through the issues fixing the search system. Problem was that I was too good at hacking the system to add comments to the search system back in 2010 .

    I did it without actually understanding the fundamentals of how the search, templates, and callbacks operated. It costed me at this end of time.

    Fast forward to 2024 and a plugin that was discontinued in 2007 didn't survive the transition from PHP 7.4 to PHP 8.3. There was a a feature that was deprecated in PHP 7.0 which was turned off between 8.2 and 8.3, and the original code and my updates depended far too heavily on it. Plus the language had moved on, and I wanted to rewrite in the current tip syntax of PHP.

    It has been a fast learning curve in PHP, and in a new programming editor – Jetbrains rather nice PhpStorm.

    Have some tidy up work to do. But I should be able to slide the new plugin into the main site this evening when most of you are asleep.

    Don't know about anyone else. But I have been missing the search especially when wanting to look up comments by a another commenter or even myself. I have resorted to doing SQL queries on the database.

    That leaves the plugin replacement for the Feeds on the right column. I have long finished the server code for that in c++ and protobuf.

    But I still have to finish the translator to make it look like a set of posts to wordpress code framework. Same structural issues as the search plugin so this should be a lot easier..

    Then I can rebuild the server with a clean install of ubuntu 24.04 because this boot system started with 16.04 back in 2016. It has been upgraded every two years since. But now had a lot of accumulated rubbish that could do with a spring clean.

    Then I will hand the server over to its new operator and organisation, and it should be stable for another decade. I will probably be handing some of the technical side. But hopefully after I push these wordpress plugins to wordpress.org, it should be easy to hand to most programmers.

    Then I can start concentrating on writing posts.

    BTW the site is now at

    29,705 published Posts (and 1503 draft posts – time to clean again).
    1,895,383 published Comments
    and
    14 published Pages

    • Barfly 1.1
      17 September 2024 at 7:43 am

      I envy your skills and work ethic both are without peer IMO yes

    • bwaghorn 1.2
      17 September 2024 at 7:58 am

      Sounds more challenging than reaching in trough a bearing ewe and extracting twin lambs, 😁

      • lprent 1.2.1
        17 September 2024 at 10:49 am

        Done that before. Both on my parents hobby farm of 88 acres in steep hill county above Puhio in the 70s and 80s and on the lambing beats at bloody enormous Kinloch station in Taupo in 77.

        But I was a lot younger then. I went to the army training for territorials and university after that having figured out that while farming was fun, it wasn't particularly profitable.

        I think that writing code is easier physically provided you keep the weight down. But definitely more stressful while you're fighting against your own inability to figure out a problem. Ewes birth assists are relatively mentally benign by comparison, but way more physical and messy.

        • bwaghorn 1.2.1.1
          17 September 2024 at 11:26 am

          wasn't particularly profitable

          Especially as the hired help!

          One must celebrate the wins when doing a lambing beat as ,there's plenty of rough moments.

    • Mountain Tui 1.3
      17 September 2024 at 9:30 am

      Bravo and ditto re: envying your skills. Thanks for the work lprent and look forward to your contributions. Happy to have fortuitously met you lot here.

    • Anne 1.4
      17 September 2024 at 10:09 am

      Glad to hear you are going to write more posts. Unlike some, I love your caustic approach – calling a spade a spade. Warms the cockles of me heart. 😉

      • lprent 1.4.2
        17 September 2024 at 10:55 am

        Actually usually more acerbic than that.

        I have a post I'm writing right now. But it will have to wait until I catch up on bit of sleep (started working about 0500 this morning). I need a clearer head for reviewing it. I may need to smooth it out with nastier burrs and find the correct words in our wonderfully expressive English language…

        There is nothing quite as stupid as watching political parties trying to make the real world fit around some stupid message that their dickhead PR people thought would win them an election. And that is what we are seeing. The truth is that Nicola Willis was completely at putting a shadow budget together, over-estimated the ability to cut costs in already stretched areas like health. That was known when she released her shadow budget back in 2023 and nothing has changed since.

        Or not. I at least need to find a couple of links.

        • Anne 1.4.2.1
          17 September 2024 at 11:34 am

          There's the hastily arranged press conference on Sunday afternoon by Luxon and Mitchell around the claimed drop in crime rates. It transpired the only part of the country which has seen a drop is Auckland's CBD and we all know that is unlikely to be sustained. The rest of Auckland rose 7% and the rest of the country also rose around the same margin – give or take a few percentages either way. A perfect example of trying to make the stats fit around a much vaunted promise to lower the crime rates in twelve months.

          I wonder if the media will point out the press conference was a fraudulent attempt to pull the wool over the voters' eyes and save Mitchell's political skin.

          • Mountain Tui 1.4.2.1.1
            17 September 2024 at 12:18 pm

            It was intentional misinformation since at the time of the press conference they KNEW crime was increasing across the entire country – including and particularly, violent crime.

            Not to mention their fudged statistics.

    • Bearded Git 1.5
      17 September 2024 at 1:31 pm

      I wonder lprent if you should make most of the Standard pay per view BUT (and this is important) make the subscription only $50 a year.

      I'm sure most people would pay this….the blurb would say less than a dollar a week…..and at least it would cover some of your opportunity costs in terms of time spent maintaining TS.

      I have long thought that if The Guardian, for instance, halved it's subscription rates it would gain more than double the subscribers….more money and more readership in other words.

      • lprent 1.5.1
        18 September 2024 at 11:43 am

        I have thought about various schemes for funding before.

        For instance, we did have advertising for a number of years in the early 2010s. The problem was that it chewed up excessive amounts of time chasing payments and I usually wound up paying the costs it was meant to cover anyway.

        It also made the site much slower because the advertising servers were pretty slow. That tended to stack connections up waiting especially when leaving comments – which meant that we needed far more capacity than was required for a non-advertising site.

        It was actually cheaper for me to expend time to make the hardware and site faster and cheaper to run. That is because my time is usually quite expensive but is generally predicable for when I am working. I have to make sure that TS doesn't cut into my working time when someone else is paying for that time. So I make the hardware and site as robust as possible.

        Dropping logins (as I did in 2009) and not having subscriptions means that there was virtually no overhead in managing that. At one point I was dealing multiple emails per day about lost user ids, changed emails, people who couldn’t generate repeatable passwords, and people complaining that their details were being leaked (they weren’t). Dropping the logins to just authors made that really irritating workload disappear.

        Not having advertising meant that I wasn't having to follow up missing payments or adverts that broke the site.

        I don't get too many arbitrary and unpredictable calls on my time during my extremely expensive working time.

        To not have advertising or logins meant that the operating costs had to be low.

        From 2007 to the present, we went from a single home server with minimal loads. Then moving to a Bluehost (a shared web hosting site) and getting booted because we started getting excessive loads. Back to the home server and then leasing a machine in the US with pretty high monthly cost. Then shifted to AWS after dumping advertising and having dynamic servers loading which gave us peak loading capacity.

        In 2015 I specced up a local home machine as a server and started using CDNs more heavily. With changes in hardware and CDN providers that is where it has stayed ever since. Running on my home network via fibre with offsite backups, massive protection systems, offsite warm server if I need it, and only occasional hardware update periods.

        The server cost less than $2000 and I used it as a raid storage device for our files. It also reduced the costs to minimal and I didn’t get provider related issues like late payment issues to them. Over all it saved me a lot of time.

        Good thing too as I'd started going offshore for work deployments in 2015. I've operated the server from extensive periods in Italy and Singapore on deployments. I've operated it while building some very time consuming projects where I barely get enough sleep.

        The peak monthly TS only costs were about $1k (dynamic servers on AWS and the 2014 election). Currently they are less than $50 per month over the whole year and still falling as I replace and drop paid plugins.

        Since 2015 the main expenses and time wasting from TS has been a silly private prosecution from. I helped bankrupt the prosecutor for unpaid court ordered costs of about $30k after they lost.

        But also time-wasting when authors have gotten into some pretty pointless fish slapping exercises between themselves. And the similar occasional periods when we get attempts by ideologues to control the comments.

        Biggest hassle is finding time to bring on new authors to write posts and keeping an eye on moderation.

        The problem with subscriptions is the time to manage them and the logins and lost passwords that they bring with them.

        • Bearded Git 1.5.1.1
          21 September 2024 at 11:44 am

          Only just read this lprent. I can understand the hassle with subscriptions and advertising. I guess you would take donations and suggest $50 a year? No admin with that.

          I have run an environmental society for 29 years where people are always suggesting to me funding sources and how to increase members, but that all takes time and administration….I prefer to spend my time making submissions and appealing things at the coalface.

          But when the new legislation comes in replacing the RMA there will be no opportunity for the public or community groups to be involved in development applications AT ALL, so I will dissolve the society. Scandalous.

          • lprent 1.5.1.1.1
            22 September 2024 at 1:33 pm

            I can understand the hassle with subscriptions and advertising. I guess you would take donations and suggest $50 a year? No admin with that.

            Effectively that is what we already have.

            But when the new legislation comes in replacing the RMA there will be no opportunity for the public or community groups to be involved in development applications AT ALL, so I will dissolve the society. Scandalous.

            Goes back to the retrospectively dragging companies and organisations into court under equity. Which is as far as I am aware still part of our legal base – in particular injunctive relief.

            Or using protest, sabotage, and intimidation to achieve some form of equity. Personally I’m in favour of tar and feathering and exile to Australia.

            Chris Bishop is insane if he thinks that this will make ‘growth’ simpler. It will merely make it far more ugly, divisive, and drawn out.

  2. Ngungukai 2
    17 September 2024 at 9:56 am

    What really is behind the Merkat Seymore's Treaty Principles Bill, FFS the TOW was signed in good faith by all parties in 1840, however one party did not adhere to the principles and the other party got the rough end of the pineapple. How can this jumped up little j*** from Epsom get so much traction with his Racist Treaty Principles Bill supported by Luxon and the perennial racist Winston Peter's.

    • Cricklewood 2.1
      17 September 2024 at 10:09 am

      How? MMP's major flaw at least in NZ is that a relativly small part of the constituency can have an outsized influence on politics and government.

      Previously that influence has been relativly benign ie Provincial Growth Fund, Waka jumping law and im sure there are others.

      This time Act finally had an opportunity to wield power and are using it. I expect they're also aware that they need to keep themselves in the news etc so they dont fade away once in govt. They only need to appeal to a small portion of the population so expect more of yhe same for the next couple of years.

      • gsays 2.1.1
        17 September 2024 at 11:00 am

        I think part of the frustration stems from a party with single digit support, last election, being so impactful.

        Contrast that with Labour's last turn at the helm, tinker here, review there, careful now, don't frighten the horses.

      • bwaghorn 2.1.2
        17 September 2024 at 11:28 am

        This time Act finally had an opportunity to wield power and are using it.

        It means luxon is either weak or complicate,

      • tWig 2.1.3
        17 September 2024 at 11:38 am

        Look at the UK for the evils of a first-past-the-post electorate. Luxon is not a friend of the National Party either, because he has reneged control to ACT and NZF. I bet there are many Nats who are grinding their teeth over his toothlessness.

        • Cricklewood 2.1.3.1
          17 September 2024 at 12:49 pm

          Theres no perfect system, honestly I dont think Nat voters will be that unhappy that Act are pulling the govt further right than they otherwise would have been. They might not like the social division Act is stirring but fiscally speaking I'd say theyre pretty happy.

          • tWig 2.1.3.1.1
            18 September 2024 at 2:25 pm

            I am not talking policies, I am talking about the value of the Nats' electoral brand. Those Nats voters that like ACT's brouhaha will just give ACT their party vote next election. The Nats I'm thinking of are those who run the Party, or are on the Party list, and see their sinecure disappearing in 2026.

  3. gsays 3
    17 September 2024 at 10:12 am

    If you haven't had your intelligence insulted, this interview should do the trick.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018955860/minister-defends-proposed-ge

    When asked about councils wishing to remain GE free, Collins bought up the subject of soy milk in supermarkets. Disingenuous much.

    Once again this government is serving business interests before the interests of the citizenry.

    Once the genetic modification genie is out of the bottle there is no going back.

    Great for Monsanto not so much for organic farmers.

  4. adam 4
    17 September 2024 at 11:48 am

    National always happy to get down on their knees and do what their donors want, over and above what is logical. Or indeed the right thing to do. Great video from BHN on road speeds limits.

  5. tWig 5
    17 September 2024 at 12:01 pm

    Putin is upping size of military forces to 1.5 mi, to have a force second only to China.

    • Mountain Tui 6.1
      17 September 2024 at 12:21 pm

      There was never any doubt. And I reckon Auckland will vote for him.

      This is a guy who has lied and is all about grandstanding, no vision, no collaboration.

      The above happened on his watch – let alone, the engineers and Council explained the rationale to him.

      "We get the politicians we deserve" so I have to accept that.

      • Cricklewood 6.1.1
        17 September 2024 at 1:01 pm

        Theres no doubt the costs were excessive, but its where you end up when you hire a big multinational like Ventia and every job outside of normal contract scope has layers of margin added (like compounding interest) as the job passes through the different layers of contractors involved.

        • Mountain Tui 6.1.1.1
          17 September 2024 at 1:22 pm

          Yes I hear you, but to me, the point is it happened under Wayne Brown's watch yet he saw still fit to rave and rant about it.

          Leadership is much more than showmanship.

          • Cricklewood 6.1.1.1.1
            18 September 2024 at 7:39 am

            It's almost impossible to prevent with the various contract clauses about extra work etc.

            The rush to bundle contracts into these huge one stop shop multinationals is an absolute disaster I was very unhappy the a Phil Goff lead council went down that path.

            Basically contracts should be kept small enough for locally owned business to at least tender and undertake. Yes there's more contract admin needed but at least the money stays onshore.

            Ventia has sub contracted aussie owned firms to undertake for example the grounds work so basically everything except the piss poor wages leaves the country probably with minimal or no tax paid and zero social responsibility ie they dont give a fuck.

      • Jimmy 6.1.2
        17 September 2024 at 3:56 pm

        I think Wayne Brown will be a one term mayor. The alternative was Efeso Collins and too many did not want him. Wellington have Tory and Efeso would have been similar. I think Tory will only be one term too. I don't think she will get much sympathy from todays article in NZH, struggling to get by on $190k salary and having apparently had a large lotto win a few years back. Does not fill you with confidence on her financial ability.

        Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau sells car to help pay the bills – NZ Herald

        I'm sure there are many other Wellingtonians struggling more.

        [I’m starting to get fed up with your troll-ish comments again, lately, Judge Jimmy – this is diversion trolling.

        Does not fill you with confidence on her financial ability.

        You may want to check the facts and correct your attempted smear of Tory Whanau; your blatant & ignorant bias is better suited for SM. This is your only warning – Incognito]

    • Muttonbird 6.2
      17 September 2024 at 7:53 pm

      The only things Wayne Brown has delivered for Auckland residents are those stupid scrap bins which no-one uses, and the cancellation of free off-peak and weekend parking.

      Thanks, idiot.

  7. Sanctuary 7
    17 September 2024 at 12:41 pm

    Despite the fact our myopic media never look up from their provincialism and navel gazing NZ exists in a wider context. Seymour has made no secret he'd like to replace National as the main vehicle of the political right and the strange, self-radicalising collapse of modern conservatism is helping him. Conservatism used to be about moral superiority, prudent finances and patriotism. Nowadays it stands for moral sadism, looting the state for cronies and nativist xenophobia. Nonetheless, National still professes to believe in the institutions of state.

    What people, and especially The MSM, fail to grasp is that Seymour is a new kind of radical politician, the narcissistic anti-constitutional conservative. He's looking around the world at the crisis of confidence in centrist institutions and he's looking at Trump and Orban and Fico and Farage and the rise of right wing strongmen and he fancies himself riding that wave all the way to the top, and to hell with democracy. For the narcissist anti-constitutional conservative the likes of Costello and McKee engaging in brazen – corrupt in many people's opinion – behaviour isn't a bug – it's a feature. Attacking the place of the treaty is exactly the sort of anti-constitutional action you'd expect from someone who sees institutions and the rule of law as barriers to their rise to power. The more he can destroy faith in institutions the more he thinks it advantages his right wing authoritarianism.

  8. PsyclingLeft.Always 8
    17 September 2024 at 1:33 pm

    For those who would like to meet/talk with Rail for NZ minded people, there are some Future is Rail meetings coming up.

    https://thefutureisrail.org/events

    Also our NZ Society (like the World) is becoming ever increasingly a throwaway one….

    For those who would like to try and change that….Repair Festival

    https://www.repairnetworkaotearoa.org.nz/repair-festival-2024

    I already repair/rebuild Bicycles…but there are lot more things that could and should be repairable.

    • Mountain Tui 8.1
      17 September 2024 at 1:37 pm

      Bravo PsyclingLeft.Always

      • PsyclingLeft.Always 8.1.1
        17 September 2024 at 1:54 pm

        Oh, hi Mountain Tui. Thanks for that. Re the Bicycles…I always try to walk bike the talk, literally as much as I can. Lost count..over 200 saved from scrap metal or ..worse, landfill. And such a satisfying feeling pedalling something that hadnt turned a wheel for years : )

        I been reading your latest Post…such an indictment on NACT1. I'm torn between anger..and sadness. So I went and worked on a Bike.

        And thought to put up those links.

        Re your Post, thankyou for saying what should be self evident..and already proven to fail. World wide.

        • Mountain Tui 8.1.1.1
          17 September 2024 at 7:06 pm

          I couldn't find an emoji to say what I wanted but it's respect and admiration. smiley

          Unfortunately I feel more and more my role is moot. Yes the reality/news is depressing, but it also feels past the point where I need to "prove" anything – therefore what is my role?

          I don't want to be a Mike Hoskings of the left so I'm left pondering as to the value of now stating and repeating the obvious.

          Also I feel more and more people are now clue-ing onto the new government and where before my information was helpful to see things, I believe now they've made it self-evident.

          Again hugest respect to you and what you do. So nice to chat anytime I see you here!

          • PsyclingLeft.Always 8.1.1.1.1
            17 September 2024 at 9:31 pm

            Thanks muchly for that M.T.

            I have been doing the Bikes for a long time. RSE workers got a lot (which they also took back to the Islands) , and I recently donated some more to a Hospice shop …

            I just thought, have Luxon, Seymour et al ever been into, or needed to, a Salvo or Hospice shop?

            IMO we on the Left must all utilise our (natural? learned?) skills/gifts for, what I would like to think of as.." the Greater Good."

            I see you M.T., and the other Standard authors as having a skill/gift I dont .

            So please keep on putting it out there. I have learned a lot. More..to learn. Also have to say, the morale booster from reading Like Minds..is much needed during these disturbing times.

            Power to you : )

  9. Tony Veitch 9
    17 September 2024 at 2:33 pm

    Just listening (and watching) QT in the house, and, I must say, both Luxon and Willis are sounding very Trumpian in their language – i.e. Nicola saying Labour would (and has) destroyed the economy!

    Luxon making a pathetic attempt to get the opposition on side by suggesting they join his government in his punching down!

    And Tama Potaka getting a right roasting from TPM and others! I sure don’t envy his ‘Uncle Tom’ position.

  10. gsays 10
    17 September 2024 at 3:46 pm

    I know this came up a week or so ago but there wasn't a definitive answer.

    Is it true the state is funding Tana's judicial review? You know, employee with an issue with their (her?) employer.

    I assume the Greens legal fees would be paid for out of the public coffers.

  11. SPC 11
    17 September 2024 at 4:17 pm

    A new gang has formed in response to the Crime Bill before parliament.

    Membership is open to all those banned from their current gang patch.

    https://thedailyblog.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-07-02-at-8-1.26.28%E2%80%AFAM.png

    Organiser Damien Grant

    Treasurer B Bradbury

    Sperm recipient Ani OBrien

    https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2024/09/17/surprise-surprise-gang-patch-ban-secretly-given-vast-search-powers-just-like-tdb-warned-you/

    Not the Civilian – maybe not suitable for linking.

  12. gsays 12
    17 September 2024 at 4:28 pm

    A little bit of good news, E Tu has organised a hui for noon October 23.

    From the email; "It’s about our rights as workers. It’s about our rights as tāngata whenua and tauiwi to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It’s about protecting a public health system that is vital for our community wellbeing. Let our voices be loud and clear against the Government’s destructive and divisive agenda."

    11 different regional locations up and down the motu.

    If yr interested, contact a colleague and you can plus one on their invite.

    I will be going to the Manawatu hui, any Standardistas want to tag along let me know I can add you to the list and I could help with transport.

  13. Mike the Lefty 13
    17 September 2024 at 6:46 pm

    I had a day off today, so I thought I would tune into parliament this afternoon and listen to question time.

    What do I hear?

    The same old National mantra bleating that everything that happened under Labour was bad, everything that happens under National is good and if it isn't good it is because of Labour.

    National cannot and will not ever take responsibility for their own actions. It is like the old defence "the devil made me do it" except swap devil for Labour.

  14. Jenny 14
    18 September 2024 at 4:37 am

    Like something out of a science fiction movie.
    Cyber War enters a new dangerous phase.

    Eight killed, 2,750 wounded in pager detonations across Lebanon, health minister says

    ….The Israeli military declined to comment on Reuters enquiries about the detonations.

    Hezbollah confirmed in a statement the deaths of at least three people, including two of its fighters. The third person killed was a girl, it said, adding that an investigation was being conducted into the causes of the blasts.

    One of the fighters killed was the son of a Hezbollah member of the Lebanese parliament, two security sources told Reuters.

    Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, suffered a minor injury when a pager exploded, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported…..

    https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2024/09/17/dozens-of-hezbollah-members-wounded-in-lebanon-when-pagers-exploded-sources

    Presumably these pagers were remotely hacked to cause the lithium batteries in these devices to explode.

    This attack, begs the question;

    Are other electronic communication devices vulnerable to this sort of remote attack?

    Can your smart phone be used to kill you?