Software Engineer. Dad. He/him.
Mostly I just like chatting with nice people but specific interests are:
New Zealand, Politics, Tech, Games, Pets, Art, Environment #nztwits #gamedev
@StillIRise1963 I find Al Jazera pretty good. Certainly get a lot of information through them that TVNZ won't mention - or if they do, it's late, one sided and lacking
@J12t I know that a lot of minorities felt uncomfortable here and moved on. If people don't find this safe space to talk, they're not going to organise here
@J12t no misunderstanding. I'm perfectly aware of what Mastodon is.
Actually it was responses like this That were instrumental in a lot of the NZ Māori community moving on
#tvnz reporting Shane Jones cancelling the roll out of cameras on fishing boats while not bothering to mention the significant amounts of cash he took from the fishing industry.
Useless. #nzpol
"[NZ] Governments of both the left and right invested heavily in public infrastructure such as water, roading and power networks from the 1940s to early 1970s, paid for with sharply higher income taxes, land taxes and estate duties. Government investment as a share of GDP ranged from 10-15% over that period and income tax rates were over 50% for many."
@argumento Unless its voting for the best third party option in FPP where voting the most progressive ends up giving you the most regressive (eg: Voting Nader thereby electing Bush)
@argumento Nader splitting the left wing vote and getting Bush elected is reality. This paradoxical feature of FPP is a widely studied and much commented on flaw in that voting system.
Noting that this is the actual world as evidenced by actual events is not "conformism".
If your theory is at odds with the world, then it's not the world at fault
#WritersCoffeeClub 11.16 — What ancillary writing apps / sites do you find the most useful?
I've written about 20 novels and several novellas using Scrivener. When I need a word processor with formatting I turn to LibreOffice. But that's increasingly rare these days and I mostly compose text in Markdown using neovim.
Pet hate: Microsoft Word, which I pay a license fee for because I get to check the tracked changes on a copy-edited novel ONCE A YEAR and can't risk tripping over a bug in LO.
"i was genuinely confused by the fact that this video is 2 years old. the fact that it fits exactly to what happened 5 days ago says everything about this conflict."
Comment on Trevor Noah's 'Let’s Talk About the Israel-Palestine Conflict' segment on The Daily Show;
@strypey Yes, absolutely. A complicating factor with that narrative is that Hamas ARE terrorists and DO want the destruction of Israel. But the existence of Hamas is Israel's fault. You can't occupy and oppress people then clutch your pearls when they rise up against you.
Bottom line, Israel can't bomb its way to peace. Israel will have peace when Palestinians have peace.
@strypey what I meant by that is that Hamas represents the desire for Palestinian freedom. It has worn more acceptable faces in the past but it has become ugly (Hamas) thanks to Israel making no serious attempts towards Palestinian state hood and ongoing atrocious treatment of the Palestinian people. They didn't start out radicalised - Israel did that.
@strypey no link: it was an interview on their English news channel.
He was making the point that you can kill the people in Hamas but the you'll just get another similar group in its place because they represent the Palestinian desire for freedom. He wasn't making a claim about Hamas as an organisational structure, he was talking about the desires that give rise to freedom fighters.
Many companies are complicit in Israel’s genocidal war against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. All peaceful popular efforts, including boycott and divestment, to hold these entities accountable for their support of Israel’s crimes against Palestinians are justified. #BDS
@pezmico@palestine speaking of which - Soda Stream is an Israeli company. Oh Bubbles! Is an NZ company with a better product than Soda Stream.
Don't support apartheid and Genocide!
Web Summit CEO was forced to resign over this tweet:
“shocked at the rhetoric & actions of so many Western leaders & governments, with the exception...of Ireland’s government, who for once are doing the right thing."
“War crimes are war crimes even when committed by allies, & should be called out for what they are,”
The fascism of the tech industry knows no bounds. Anything other than aiding & abetting a world sanctioned genocide is not acceptable apparently.
I'm being mansplained to on Facebook and it's the funniest thing ever. a guy is telling me how watches can't work without electricity, it's not possible even if they're wind up, that power needs to be stored in a battery. I'm trying to explain to him about springs, but he doesn't understand I'm dying 😂.
Does Hipkins actually believe this tripe? The Greens and TPM ran progressive campaigns, while Labour did everything they could to suck up to the centre-right (eg ruling out wealth tax). Even as it decimated their support. Something we thought maybe - just maybe - they'd finally started to throw off.
@strypey@futuresprog just like hillary vs trump. The right has a consistent vote, the left l oses when it depresses its own constituency. This is the malaise for the left worldwide. So radically centrist that they inspire no-one.