@billbennett@mastodon.nz
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billbennett

@billbennett@mastodon.nz

I like to think that my 45 years of reporting on technology and business has left me sceptical rather than cynical but the behaviour of some tech companies is such that sometimes readers might be better served by the latter approach.

  • Jay Rosen, Chair of Journalism at New York University

See my New Zealand telecommunications and tech news website at https://billbennett.co.nz

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

billbennett, to random
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I guess with the Fifa women’s World Cup in town, everyone is a football fan now, eh?

billbennett, to random
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I'd like to propose we change the English name of Auckland to “I can’t believe its not raining”.

billbennett, to random
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Cryptic printer dialogue.

billbennett, to random
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Mrs B has a “rate our performance” email from ACC. Strangely it doesn’t include appropriate truthful options like “terrible”, “appalling” and “infuriating “.

billbennett, to random
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Wanting to learn how to better use a piece of software, looking it up online and finding the answer is ONLY in a YouTube video that forces you to sit through TWO banal and not even remotely relevant videos and then a lot of self congratulation before learning the trivial answer is a form of Hell that has only emerged in the last decade or so.

billbennett,
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@bananabob Agree. I hate it when that’s the ONLY documentation.

billbennett,
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@bananabob I find it much, much harder to retain information delivered by YouTube, especially with the constant disruptive and banal adverting that now even breaks into the middle of a “how to” video. What’s more, the ads make scrubbing back and forward a nightmare.

billbennett, to random
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Android isn’t awful, but it is unloved and unnurtured… it needs both.

https://billbennett.co.nz/the-state-of-android/

billbennett, to random
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It's an old post, on my old, barely-maintained website, that’s only sitting around for archive purposes now, yet it could be worth a read.

https://billbennettnz.wordpress.com/2008/10/14/what-they-dont-teach-you-at-renaissance-prince-college/

billbennett, to random
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Download Weekly: Mobile-to-satellite closer as Lynk, 2degrees trial two-way voice calls https://billbennett.co.nz/mobile-to-satellite-closer-as-lynk-2degrees-trial-two-way-voice-calls/

billbennett,
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@robert_p_king I have to admit that annoys me too…

billbennett,
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@robert_p_king It makes no sense to me. When I first saw people do it I wondered if they were privy to some secret information that passed me by… but no, they’re just being silly.

glynmoody, to random
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Ryanair pushes customers to go through invasive facial recognition process - https://noyb.eu/en/booking-ryanair-flight-trough-online-travel-agent-might-hold-nasty-surprise "noyb filed a complaint against Ryanair."

billbennett,
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@glynmoody Ratbag airline being a ratbag about privacy. Who could have guessed?

billbennett, to random
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It’s time for regulators to stop talking and start taking direct action against the retail giants.

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/three-grocery-suppliers-cautioned-for-price-fixing-forcing-online-stores-closure

billbennett, to random
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Had a hospital appointment today and a nurse told me about an earlier patient who told her the current weather is all part of a plot by…. well it’s not quite clear who is behind it, but the term ‘global elites’ was mentioned.

Apparently there are people with technology to control the weather.

I learn something new every day ;)

billbennett, to random
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Ten years ago and in an entirely different context to most discussions on the subject, Google gave us an object lesson in why you should be wary of “free” software and services.

https://billbennett.co.nz/free-high-price/

billbennett,
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@paulhellyer @christopherd The move set me on the path to unravelling connections to Google. Gmail and Chrome were the first to go. I still use G Docs when clients want and have some old data backed up on G drive, but there’s nothing I couldn’t replace in 45 seconds.

billbennett,
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@lightweight @paulhellyer @christopherd I need to keep the Drive account open because there are clients committed to working in Google Docs… but apart from client projects, it’s literally my digital unkempt attic where I store things that I might just want one day but realistically don’t expect to use again. That said, I should explore NextCloud if only to be familiar with it.

billbennett,
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@lightweight @paulhellyer @christopherd I’m older, but (in general) I don’t struggle with new technologies so long as coding isn’t required. That’s my cut-off point.

billbennett, to random
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I’m starting to think Musk is deliberately running Twitter into the ground

billbennett, to random
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Use be verbs sparingly: https://billbennett.micro.blog/2023/07/21/use-be-verbs.html

billbennett,
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@bananabob I realise it isn’t a huge contribution to the sum of human knowledge, but I’d like to leave something behind ;)

billbennett, to random
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I can guarantee that getting a parking fine for overstaying from the local shopping centre car park makes us massively less likely to shop there in future because we can’t risk that happening again.

billbennett, to random
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@isaacfreeman @SlaneCartoons The problem is that the arguments in favour of such taxes are more complicated and require listeners to think while the arguments against are simple and work on an emotional knee-jerk level. That’s impossible to fight in an election. People have been trained to reject additional taxes, even if they are unlikely to pay them.

billbennett,
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@strypey @isaacfreeman @SlaneCartoons OK. So explain this. Labour drops wealth tax plans promises no CGT and recovers in the polls almost back to parity with the right. I don’t like it any more than you do, but National’s focus on tax policy was working. Hear me out….

1/2

billbennett,
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@strypey @isaacfreeman @SlaneCartoons Rational arguments about taxes and economics can work when discussions are reasoned and balanced, but right-wingers often use rhetoric designed to appeal to the lower, dinosaur part of brains which respond in an unthinking way to simplistic slogans and messages. It’s much easier to see how this works if you look at, say, the Trump v Clinton election.

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