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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Yep, they really cocked it up and the big reforms attempted in Water, Health and Education were poorly explained and or delivered and now dead or dying.
tinker here, review there, careful now, don't frighten the horses
the big reforms attempted in Water, Health and Education
Tinker/review, versus "big reforms" – all depends on your point of view. Imho, Labour's pandemic response was big – too big for some. But I appreciated it.
You can't see any inconsistency between "tinker here, review there, careful now" and "big reforms attempted in Water, Health and Education"?
Re “the Covid excuse“, maybe our response will be better next time.
Oceania standouts: New Zealand and Australia
If there is a common theme emerging, it’s this—countries that responded earlier and aggressively tended to have better responses. If there’s a second theme, it’s that the Oceania countries of New Zealand and Australia have knocked it out of the park in terms of initial response… and from opposite sides of the political spectrum, no less.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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]
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.
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.
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.
I couldn't find an emoji to say what I wanted but it's respect and admiration.
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!
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 Leftmust 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.
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.
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.
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.
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…..
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What seems to be the common theme in the US, NZ, Argentina and places like Italy under their respective rightwing governments is what I think of as “the politics of cruelty.” Hate-mongering, callous indifference in social policy-making, corporate toadying, political bullying, intimidation and punching down on the most vulnerable with ...
If you are confused, check with the sunCarry a compass to help you alongYour feet are going to be on the groundYour head is there to move you aroundSo, stand in the place where you liveSongwriters: Bill Berry / Michael Mills / Michael Stipe / Peter Buck.Hot in the CityYesterday, ...
Shane Jones announced today he would be contracting out his thinking to a smarter younger person.Reclining on his chaise longue with a mouth full of oysters and Kina he told reporters:Clearly I have become a has-been, a palimpsest, an epigone, a bloviating fossil. I find myself saying such things as: ...
Warning: This post contains references to sexual assaultOn Saturday, I spent far too long editing a video on Tim Jago, the ACT Party President and criminal, who has given up his fight for name suppression after 2 years. He voluntarily gave up just in time for what will be a ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is global warming ...
Our low-investment, low-wage, migration-led and housing-market-driven political economy has delivered poorer productivity growth than the rest of the OECD, and our performance since Covid has been particularly poor. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty this ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.As far as major government announcements go, a Three Ministers Event is Big. It can signify a major policy development or something has gone Very Well, or an absolute Clusterf**k. When Three Ministers assemble ...
One of those blasts from the past. Peter Dunne – originally neoliberal Labour, then leader of various parties that sought to work with both big parties (generally National) – has taken to calling ...
Completed reads for January: I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson The Black Spider, by Jeremias Gotthelf The Spider and the Fly (poem), by Mary Howitt A Noiseless Patient Spider (poem), by Walt Whitman August Heat, by W.F. Harvey Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White The Shrinking Man, by Richard Matheson ...
Do its Property Right Provisions Make Sense?Last week I pointed out that it is uninformed to argue that the New Zealand’s apparently poor economic performance can be traced only to poor regulations. Even were there evidence they had some impact, there are other factors. Of course, we should seek to ...
Richard Wagstaff It was incredibly jarring to hear the hubris from the Prime Minister during his recent state of the nation address. I had just spent close to a week working though the stories and thoughts shared with us by nearly 2000 working people as part of our annual Mood ...
Odd fact about the Broadcasting Standards Authority: for the last few years, they’ve only been upholding about 5% of complaints. Why? I think there’s a range of reasons. Generally responsible broadcasters. Dumb complaints. Complaints brought under the wrong standard. Greater adherence to broadcasters’ rights to freedom of expression in the ...
And I said, "Mama, mama, mama, why am I so alone"'Cause I can't go outside, I'm scared I might not make it homeWell I'm alive, I'm alive, but I'm sinking inIf there's anyone at home at your place, darlingWhy don't you invite me in?Don't try to feed me'Cause I've been ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ star is on the rise, having just added the Energy, Local Government and Revenue portfolios to his responsibilities - but there is nothing ambitious about the Government’s new climate targets. Photo: SuppliedLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
It may have been a short week but there’s been no shortage of things that caught our attention. Here is some of the most interesting. This week in Greater Auckland On Tuesday Matt took a look at public transport ridership in 2024 On Thursday Connor asked some questions ...
The East Is Red: Journalists and commentators are referring to the sudden and disruptive arrival of DeepSeek as a second “Sputnik moment”. (Sputnik being the name given by the godless communists of the Soviet Union to the world’s first artificial satellite which, to the consternation and dismay of the Americans, ...
Hi,Back on inauguration day we launched a ridiculous RFK Jr. “brain worms” tee on the Webworm store, and I told you I’d be throwing my profits over to Mutual Aid LA and Rainbow Youth New Zealand. Just to show I am not full of shit, here are the receipts. I ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump over Gaza and Ukraine.Health expert and author David Galler ...
In an uncompromising paper Treasury has basically told the Government that its plan for a third medical school at Waikato University is a waste of money. Furthermore, the country cannot afford it. That advice was released this week by the Treasury under the Official Information Act. And it comes as ...
Back in November, He Pou a Rangi provided the government with formal advice on the domestic contribution to our next Paris target. Not what the target should be, but what we could realistically achieve, by domestic action alone, without resorting to offshore mitigation. Their answer was startling: depending on exactly ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guest David Patman and ...
I don't like to spend all my time complaining about our government, so let me complain about the media first.Senior journalistic Herald person Thomas Coughlan reported that Treasury replied yeah nah, wrong bro to Luxon's claim that our benighted little country has been in recession for three years.His excitement rose ...
Back in 2022, when the government was consulting internally about proactive release of cabinet papers, the SIS opposed it. The basis of their opposition was the "mosaic effect" - people being able to piece together individual pieces of innocuous public information in a way which supposedly harms "national security" (effectively: ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to stand firm and work with allies to progress climate action as Donald Trump signals his intent to pull out of the Paris Climate Accords once again. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Judicial Conduct Commissioner has recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be established to inquire into and report on the alleged conduct of acting District Court Judge Ema Aitken in an incident last November, Attorney-General Judith Collins said today. “I referred the matter of Judge Aitken’s alleged conduct during an incident ...
Students who need extra help with maths are set to benefit from a targeted acceleration programme that will give them more confidence in the classroom, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Last year, significant numbers of students did not meet the foundational literacy and numeracy level required to gain NCEA. To ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te Iwi – without a vision, the people will perish. The Government has achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years early, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The number of households ...
The opening of Palmerston North’s biggest social housing development will have a significant impact for whānau in need of safe, warm, dry housing, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The minister visited the development today at North Street where a total of 50 two, three, and four-bedroom homes plus a ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced the new membership of the Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control (PACDAC), who will serve for a three-year term. “The Committee brings together wide-ranging expertise relevant to disarmament. We have made six new appointments to the Committee and reappointed two existing members ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora, good morning, talofa, malo e lelei, bula vinaka, da jia hao, namaste, sat sri akal, assalamu alaikum. It’s so great to be here and I’m ready and pumped for 2025. Can I start by acknowledging: Simon Bridges – CEO of the Auckland ...
The Government has unveiled a bold new initiative to position New Zealand as a premier destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) that will create higher paying jobs and grow the economy. “Invest New Zealand will streamline the investment process and provide tailored support to foreign investors, to increase capital investment ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins today announced the largest reset of the New Zealand science system in more than 30 years with reforms which will boost the economy and benefit the sector. “The reforms will maximise the value of the $1.2 billion in government funding that goes into ...
Turbocharging New Zealand’s economic growth is the key to brighter days ahead for all Kiwis, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. In the Prime Minister’s State of the Nation Speech in Auckland today, Christopher Luxon laid out the path to the prosperity that will affect all aspects of New Zealanders’ lives. ...
The latest set of accounts show the Government has successfully checked the runaway growth of public spending, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “In the previous government’s final five months in office, public spending was almost 10 per cent higher than for the same period the previous year. “That is completely ...
The Government’s welfare reforms are delivering results with the number of people moving off benefits into work increasing year-on-year for six straight months. “There are positive signs that our welfare reset and the return consequences for job seekers who don't fulfil their obligations to prepare for or find a job ...
Jon Kroll and Aimee McCammon have been appointed to the New Zealand Film Commission Board, Arts Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “I am delighted to appoint these two new board members who will bring a wealth of industry, governance, and commercial experience to the Film Commission. “Jon Kroll has been an ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has hailed a drop in the domestic component of inflation, saying it increases the prospect of mortgage rate reductions and a lower cost of living for Kiwi households. Stats NZ reported today that inflation was 2.2 per cent in the year to December, the second consecutive ...
Two new appointed members and one reappointed member of the Employment Relations Authority have been announced by Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden today. “I’m pleased to announce the new appointed members Helen van Druten and Matthew Piper to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) and welcome them to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Coates, Program Director, Housing and Economic Security, Grattan Institute Marlinde/Shutterstock Most Australians can look forward to a comfortable retirement. More than three in four retirees own their own home, most report feeling comfortable financially, and few suffer financial stress. But ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The weekend byelection in the outer suburban seat of Werribee saw the widely-anticipated slap-in-the-face to Victorian Labor, which is absolutely on the nose. The question is: to what degree were electors venting against federal Labor ...
Mediawatch -Trump's alarmed the world with trade tariffs, turning off aid and proposing to take over Gaza. But New Zealand's had diplomatic drama in the news too - with the media in the middle of it. ...
By Rachel Helyer Donaldson, RNZ News journalist New Zealand should be robust in its response to the “unacceptable” situation in Gaza but it must also back its allies against threats by the US President, says an international relations academic. Otago University professor of international relations Robert Patman said the rest ...
A Christchurch man who lost 55 relatives in three Israeli airstrikes on Gaza says his remaining family will never leave, despite a US proposal to remove them. ...
Asia Pacific Report A national Palestine advocacy group has hit back at critics of its “genocide hotline” campaign against soldiers involved in Israel’s war against Gaza, saying New Zealand should be actively following international law. The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) dismissed a “predictable lineup of apologists for Israel” for ...
ACT Party leader David Seymour said he wrote to police about the treatment of Philip Polkinghorne because it's an electorate MP's job to pass on the concerns of their constituents. ...
MEDIAWATCH:By Colin Peacock, RNZ Mediawatch presenter By the time US President Donald Trump announced tariffs on China and Canada last Monday which could kickstart a trade war, New Zealand’s diplomats in Washington, DC, had already been deployed on another diplomatic drama. Republican Senator Ted Cruz had said on social ...
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown says New Zealand is asking for too much oversight over its deal with China, which is expected to be penned in Beijing next week. Brown told RNZ Pacific the Cook Islands-New Zealand relationship was reciprocal. “They certainly did ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Byelections occurred on Saturday in the Victorian state seats of Prahran and Werribee. The Liberals gained Prahran from the Greens by a ...
A long time ago, Brian Turner wrote a poem in which, among the mountains, as he slept on a river flat … My speechless ancestors played like mice among my dreamsand he woke to the river running over my bed of stone. I have come to know that where a ...
Pacific Media Watch President Donald Trump has frozen billions of dollars around the world in aid projects, including more than $268 million allocated by Congress to support independent media and the free flow of information. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has denounced this decision, which has plunged NGOs, media outlets, and ...
Otago University professor of international relations Robert Patman says New Zealand should provide a robust response to Donald Trump's Gaza plan, and also "should stop tip-toeing" around Trump. ...
The new minister of transport has opened the door for public consultation on at least some of the speed limit changes the government said would be automatic. ...
Officially, they’re called ‘memecoins,’ but Kōura Wealth founder Rupert Carlyon says the crypto world has another name for them: ‘shitcoins’.In digital finance, that phrase is used for tokens that have no true value – in essence, a money-grab.A few days before his inauguration, US President Donald Trump launched his own ...
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. Guy Williams has made a whole show off the joke that he is a “volunteer” journalist. So getting publicly owned by David Seymour while trying to act as a journalist is a good and timely reminder not to underestimate the nuance and ...
Many of Sāmoa’s beloved dishes are the result of cultural collaboration, writes Madeleine Chapman. All photos by Jin FelletIf you ever find yourself at a barbecue in a Sāmoan home, there’s 99% chance that sapasui (chop suey) will be on the table. For the past century, sapasui has ...
The funnyman takes us through his life in television, including Jono and Ben mayhem, live Telethon flubs, and funnelling all those experiences into his new comedy Vince. There’s an inciting incident in Three’s new comedy Vince where morning television presenter Vince Walters (Jono Pryor) is visiting sick kids in hospital ...
People often claim they just want Waitangi Day to be a celebration. At Waitangi, away from the headlined political acrimony and the marae ātea, celebrating is what most people are doing. The Spinoff Essay showcases the best essayists in Aotearoa, on topics big and small. Made possible by the generous ...
Is there anything more fashionable than a Māori get together? One of the best things about Northland is that nobody cares what they look like — probably because they’re all naturally more stylish than the rest of us, famously. Māori from the Far North, especially. In 27 degree heat, wearing ...
MONDAY“Name,” barked a representative of the lower orders.I regarded him with a look of stern disapproval, and told him from up high, “May I remind you that I have name suppression. I shall also thank you to ask with more respect as befits a former president of the Act Party, ...
Books of Mana: 180 Māori-Authored Books of Significance, edited by Jacinta Ruru, Angela Wanhalla and Jeanette Wikaira has just been released by Otago University Press. In this essay, Books are Taonga, Jeanette Wikaira explores her personal relationship to books and their value.For me, books are taonga. The knowledge ...
I’ve been in love with him since last July, but it’s only now in this tepid hotel room that I find myself wondering why. The first thing he does when we arrive is smoke a cone in the bathroom – he emerges, hacking up a lung, fists thrust into his ...
Get to know Tara, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Tara’s human for their support! Dog name: Tara Age: Two Breed: Mostly Border Collie and a little bit Catahoula Leopard dog If dog ...
Health NZ's CEO has resigned, but frontline healthworkers are sceptical that installing new leadership will make any difference to a system grappling with problems. ...
Health NZ's CEO has resigned, but frontline healthworkers are sceptical that installing new leadership will make any difference to a system grappling with problems. ...
Gail Duncan, Chairperson of the St Peter’s on Willis Social Justice Group, one of the organisations invited to submit on the Bill, says the Government’s actions are unprecedented. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amani Kasherwa, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, The University of Queensland In late January, a rebel group that has long caused mayhem in the sprawling African nation of Democratic Republic of Congo took control of Goma, a major city of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yee-Fui Ng, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Monash University An ad falsely depicting independent candidate Alex Dyson as a Greens member.ABC News/Supplied The highly pertinent case of a little-known independent candidate in the Victorian seat of Wannon has exposed a gaping ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lauren Ball, Professor of Community Health and Wellbeing, The University of Queensland Nik/Unsplash You might have heard that eating too many eggs will cause high cholesterol levels, leading to poor health. Researchers have examined the science behind this myth again, and ...
Everything you missed from the third day of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard four hours of oral submission. Read our recaps of day one of the hearings here, and day two here. Parliament was quiet on Friday for the third day of hearings on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Jeffries, Senior Lecturer in Microbiology, Western Sydney University Tijana Simic/Shutterstock The news last week that three people in Sydney were hospitalised with botulism after receiving botox injections has raised questions about the regulation of the cosmetic injectables industry. The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jens Blotevogel, Principal Research Scientist and Team Leader for Remediation Technologies, CSIRO Mino Surkala, Shutterstock Lithium-ion batteries are part of everyday life. They power small rechargeable devices such as mobile phones and laptops. They enable electric vehicles. And larger versions store ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Edith Jennifer Hill, Associate Lecturer, Learning & Teaching Innovation, Flinders University Netflix Netflix’s new limited series, Apple Cider Vinegar, tells the story of the elaborate cancer con orchestrated by Australian blogger Annabelle (Belle) Gibson. The first episode opens with Gibson’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dee Ninis, Earthquake Scientist, Monash University Greece’s government has just declared a state of emergency on the island of Santorini, as earthquakes shake the island multiple times a day and sometimes only minutes apart. The “earthquake swarm” is also affecting other ...
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
I envy your skills and work ethic both are without peer IMO
Sounds more challenging than reaching in trough a bearing ewe and extracting twin lambs, 😁
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.
Especially as the hired help!
One must celebrate the wins when doing a lambing beat as ,there's plenty of rough moments.
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.
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. 😉
Ditto.
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…
Or not. I at least need to find a couple of links.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Effectively that is what we already have.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Yep, they really cocked it up and the big reforms attempted in Water, Health and Education were poorly explained and or delivered and now dead or dying.
Tinker/review, versus "big reforms" – all depends on your point of view. Imho, Labour's pandemic response was big – too big for some. But I appreciated it.
https://www.health.govt.nz/strategies-initiatives/programmes-and-initiatives/emergency-management/pandemics
https://www.treasury.govt.nz/information-and-services/nz-economy/covid-19-economic-response
C'mon mate. It's time to drop the Covid excuse.
The time before that it was Winston's fault.
It clearly falls on deaf ears unless you are only interested in preaching to the choir.
Re “the Covid excuse“, maybe our response will be better next time.
It means luxon is either weak or complicate,
….complicit
Thanks was so far off it even the atuo correct gene couldn't solve the riddle!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Putin is upping size of military forces to 1.5 mi, to have a force second only to China.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/disgraceful-auckland-mayor-wayne-brown-slams-council-staff-over-263000-milford-beach-stair-cost/CWLG6QE3GNCAJBBIGRBO3GKD2U/
He's running.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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]
Mod note
What is SM?
Social Media
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.
And despite being consulted on the parking, he later denied knowing about it.
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.
Lies and corruption "not a bug, but a feature". Agree with you 100%.
For those who would like to meet/talk with Rail for NZ minded people, there are some Future is Rail meetings coming up.
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
I already repair/rebuild Bicycles…but there are lot more things that could and should be repairable.
Bravo PsyclingLeft.Always
Oh, hi Mountain Tui. Thanks for that. Re the Bicycles…I always try to
walkbike 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.
I couldn't find an emoji to say what I wanted but it's respect and admiration.
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!
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 : )
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.
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.
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.
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.
https://etu.nz/fight-back-together-maranga-ake/
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.
Like something out of a science fiction movie.
Cyber War enters a new dangerous phase.
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?