Weird all those people getting Chatgpt to do a caricature of themselves and it comes up with a reasonable likeness and interests Google Gemini seems to be a bit more mindful of privacy at this point. Even when I give it my name it struggles to find my current job and draws a blank on my interests

A numberplate to excite the kids

Weirdest thing today is hard-core[1] Auckland NIMBY Lisa Prager and her partner making a travel video where they are in France enjoying urbanism and density that she has been fighting against for 20 years in Auckland [1] Sit-ins, screaming at public meetings, etc www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBXD...

We will be holding a 3 day KiwiMoot Tolkien conference in Wellington City in February 2027 The Main Conference will be over the Waitangi Day Weekend of Saturday 6th February to Monday 8th of February. It will be similar to the recent OzMoot/AusMoot conferences More details to come

So AI says "want a date gone bad story?" and gives me this..

Did aircraft landing and takeoff soundtrack songs on my recent trip. Would recommend although hard to time it right Takeoff: Chromatics - Tick Of The Clock www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWD7... Landing: Hans Zimmer - No Time For Caution www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3zv...

I'm using a technique pioneered by Game of Thrones. Instead of asking AI a simple question I'm instead saying "Have two cute experts discuss.." It makes a change anyway

"Please join the channel" "Looks like a CMU, I'll create a capadd ticket"

I'm seriously so used to crashes where I live that while I heard one this morning I didn't bother going outside and just did a quick look though window. Didn't go outside for proper look till I woke up. Car had taken out the wall of house next door and firepeople in my backyard

Weirdest thing today is hard-core[1] Auckland NIMBY Lisa Prager and her partner making a travel video where they are in France enjoying urbanism and density that she has been fighting against for 20 years in Auckland [1] Sit-ins, screaming at public meetings, etc www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBXD...

I wrote " it is if it is " in a message and it hurt my eyes

Thinking about Incidents at work

Getting AI to script conversations (although fairly strawman at times) about mass transit and Auckland's failed light rail project Phil Twyford and Michael Wood are not the heroes of this story

Came across a person who wants to increase NZ's age of consent from 16 to 18. Came across as someone with problems. Not as many problems as ones keen in the other direction, but problems nevertheless

Quote of the day: "Porn is more accessible than a glass of water"

A few months ago somebody calling something "slop" usually meant it was AI generated Now if just means lazy writing, boring, cheap looking or "I don't like this"

Someone in Wellington mentioned taking their kids to "Staglands" and my brain started picturing a Stag Party theme park for Children

I'm using a technique pioneered by Game of Thrones. Instead of asking AI a simple question I'm instead saying "Have two cute experts discuss.." It makes a change anyway

TIL: BBQ Reggae Apparently a common complaint about the sort of music many NZ bands make "functions only as a boring, unchallenging backdrop for having a BBQ in the backyard" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zea...

I randomly remembered this 15 year old SMBC Theater ( some funny ones in there ) Sketch from 2010. Thinking how it would look if the "time travelling geek" was from 2026. The Star was explanation would be more complicated anyway. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVlI...

Was talking with the guys about our old schools. We were talking about if anyone famous went to our schools and somebody said "Maybe that pedo cop" and it turns out that Jevon McSkimming *did* go to my school, was there at same time as me and his name rings a bell en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevon_M...

Thinking about Incidents at work

Can't believe I'm hotter in Auckland at 25 degrees than I was in Canberra at 35 Degrees. Humidity, lack or aircon and actually going outside I guess

Reminded of this video. I used to watch it a lot when I was stressed at work a few years ago. Weirdly marked as "Made for kids" so I can't add it to a playlist www.youtube.com/watch?v=atyv...

The #everythingopen Keynotes are now up on youtube. Including "The Weird One" www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScLu...

Phew My flight from Canberra to Sydney got delayed so Qantas put us on a AirNZ flight. Only just made it Nice meal on the flight though. I think it might have got bundled in the transfer Oh and free in-flight WiFi cause that's a thing I can use to post to social media

“Last year, 200 people packed a town hall in Mt Eden to protest apartment buildings being constructed near train stations – and therefore their house. Last year, 72,500 Kiwis left NZ. That’s nearly a whole Mt Eden town hall per day.” A @scootfoundation.bsky.social op-ed on the power of yes. #YIMBY

The talks this morning at Ozmoot A dive into the poetry form of Tom Bombadil A very funny talk about the ability of Kings to heal from a Gondorian Medical journal A review of Midsummer in Middle-Earth Musical performances from a Rock Opera about Tolkien's story of the Fall of Gondolin

Saw a drone display last night. Was pretty cool

Following 3 days of #everythingopen I'm about to start my second 3 day Canberra conference OzMoot

Poster on AI use at university Surprised it doesn't say anything about not using it for your assignments

I'm on day 2 of the #everythingopen conference in Canberra. Good talks so far and I'm meeting and talking to lots of people.

Found this guy on LinkedIn. He's arguing that New Zealand (and Christchurch specifically) is building too many homes and too many smaller homes Cause apparently there is no shortage of housing or smaller families 🤡 Feels like a familiar argument assuming your goal is to maintain high house prices

The difference between "dev" and "ops" is not about who writes code. It's 2026, dude: everyone writes code. The difference is a separation of concerns. Are you responsible for writing code to generate revenue, or building the systems for code to run on? charitydotwtf.substack.com/p/bring-back...

Arrived in Australia. Got a new Phone Sim cause Spark's roaming plans suck. Tested it worked by hitting Bluesky and straight away it detected I was in Aus and had to verify I was over 16

A new drive arrived and was installed on Saturday for broken laptop. I've reinstalled Linux and got the basic apps installed. Doesn't need a lot since I only really use it for travel

By now, asteroid 2026 Dreadstone has impacted the Indian Ocean, sparking a firestorm not seen on this planet since the K–Pg Extinction Event. Most people just want to be with their families. Here are three ways effective business leaders can leverage targeted KPIs to turn tragedy 😔 into triumph 💪

Anti-AI people post "Look! This Company uses AI in their ads" and others in conversation don't get why we all should be boycotting the company now The anti AI think they are saying: "Company X uses people in Nazi uniforms in their advertising" but if people who don't hate AI don't really care

Creator I follow is leaving X cause: "Due to the new Terms of Service over at X granting a permanent right to use all posted content to train their AI with no opt-out provisions" Which sounds like an excuse cause they are staying on other platforms like Reddit which use their content for training

Audiobooks – December 2025 After Eden: A short history of the world by John Charles Chasteen 3/5 Ground Combat by Ben Connable 3/5 Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future by Dan Wang 4/5 The Devil Reached towards the Sky by Garrett M. Graff 4/5 blog.darkmere.gen.nz/2026/01/audi...

Very frustrating when people say things like "New Zealand's film censorship works well, let apply that to the Internet" Same guy also suggested extending NZ's gambling regulations to apply to social media algorithms 🤦

Sad to see NZ government is backing down on the pc120 plan to increase housing density around train stations etc in Auckland Basically telling young people, workers and businesses to move to Australia Rich old Nimbys are the only vote that counts I guess

"After a man turns 30, he has to choose between specializing in the history of the Roman Empire or the World Wars" - Dan Wang

Shower Thought: Ops people have increasing needed good programming skills to get (and sometimes do) jobs But AI coding tools are giving everyone a reasonable level of coding skills (which is usually enough for most Ops) so somebody having these skills "native" isn't as important anymore

Prepping for my trip to Canberra, Australia next week I will be going to Everything Open which is a tech conference: 2026.everythingopen.au followed by Ozmoot which is about the works of J. R. R. Tolkien and related topics signumuniversity.org/event/ozmoot...

why don't new people fucking LISTEN when we tell them about the sun in aotearoa nz? we warn them then they act shocked that they have 2nd degree burns when they were "only outside for 2 hours" ok so like I said, burn time in Jan on a sunny day is 5 minutes. you think we bang on about it for fun??

Saw a discussion on Threads where somebody said a creator had admitted to her that they used AI to create some content Lots of people replied demanding the name of the creator to harass/cancel them. They explicitly said they wanted lots of people to harass them The anti-AI mob is real and nuts

There’s already a yawning cultural divide between those who use ChatGPT (et al) so frequently they don’t even register any more and those who wouldn’t let it within 100 miles of any written or creative effort they make.

Well I just copied a 6 line python script off stackoverflow and ran it. But it was buggy (I think assumed python2) so I got AI to find the bug Sometimes you need to use both the old ways and the new ways to fix a problem.

Just realised I'm old enough to remember when we used to use to have phone-books on every desk in the office Younger generation probably wouldn't know what they were and how to use one These days computer screens have better height adjustment or people use reams of printer paper