@leighelse@mastodon.nz
@leighelse@mastodon.nz avatar

leighelse

@leighelse@mastodon.nz

I've spent half my working life as a broadcaster and half as a software developer. Along the way I've been a professional musician, and an assistant to apiarists and undertakers (although not at the same time).

I live in Whanganui, where I write and record music, help out part-time at the software company I used to own, and enjoy biking, reading and travelling.

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

Rjdlandscapes, to NewZealand

These are NOT savings.

Savings are when you get something for less.

This is just getting less.

leighelse,
@leighelse@mastodon.nz avatar

@Rjdlandscapes ... and calling it tax "relief" makes it sound as if tax rates in Aotearoa New Zealand are unreasonable. They're not.

Rjdlandscapes, to NewZealand

Uh what happened to this Luxon?

leighelse,
@leighelse@mastodon.nz avatar

@Rjdlandscapes My devil's advocate perspective: the man's prepared to learn.

Rjdlandscapes, to nz

National are now blaming immigrants for their chronic under funding of infrastructure and services in a classic RW move.

They dont 'take yer jerbs' they bring and create wealth.

What we need is taxation of wealthy and investment in .

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/504428/prime-minister-christopher-luxon-high-net-migration-not-sustainable-for-new-zealand

leighelse,
@leighelse@mastodon.nz avatar

@Rjdlandscapes Wow. We really have elected a troika of jingoistic right-wing nutcases. And talk about hidden agendas ... were any of these policies articulated during the election campaign? Bait and switch strikes again.

ojala, to random
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    leighelse,
    @leighelse@mastodon.nz avatar

    @ojala That's where I've got to as well. I spent a couple of months in Europe with only an iPad and, while it's perfect for consumption, it's at best a frustration for anything more. Because I sold my primary laptop as part of my business, I don't have a back up laptop for the first time in two decades, so I'm thinking of selling the iPad and buying a GPD Pocket 3. https://www.nomadtechnology.com.au/products/pocket-3

    robert_p_king, (edited ) to dotnet

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    leighelse,
    @leighelse@mastodon.nz avatar

    @robert_p_king Excellent approach.

    leighelse, to random
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    My younger daughter Aelyth and I have a debut album out as the duo sideSister.

    We've sent the first single off to almost all New Zealand radio stations, and have got good traction from student broadcasters and independent radio. If you don't hear it elsewhere, there's a video for "Lovelock" here: https://bandcamp.com/VideoEmbed?track=3595615183&bgcol=ffffff&linkcol=0687f5

    jd, to random

    So bit the bullet and got both covid and flu vaccines today. Took a chance and just showed up at a community clinic (Ottawa) without an appointment. In and out in 30 minutes.

    leighelse,
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    @jd Good call.

    leighelse, to random
    @leighelse@mastodon.nz avatar

    Who knew? Carey Grant took acid more than 100 times. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/acids-first-convert-cary-grant-on-edward-j-delaneys-the-acrobat/

    thisismyglasgow, (edited ) to glasgow
    @thisismyglasgow@mastodon.scot avatar

    The TS Queen Mary moored next to the Glasgow Tower.

    This is a Clyde steamer which was built at the William Denny Shipyard in Dumbarton. Despite being launched first, in 1936, it had to change its name to the Queen Mary II in order to avoid confusion with Cunard's newly launched trans-Atlantic liner, the RMS Queen Mary.

    Cont./

    leighelse,
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    @thisismyglasgow This is a great story.

    sue, to random
    @sue@glasgow.social avatar

    Today's creepy unsolicited sales outreach method: the email is titled "Cappuccino?" and features a photo of the guy holding two cups of coffee with your names photoshopped onto them 🥴

    leighelse,
    @leighelse@mastodon.nz avatar

    @sue Creepy is right.

    sue, to random
    @sue@glasgow.social avatar

    One of the advantages to keeping things until they stop working is that by the time you get a replacement the things have advanced so much you're like Marty McFly being shown a hoverboard

    leighelse,
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    @sue I have been a bit like that with phones. But maybe not so much: there's not been much change since the original iPhone.

    sue, to random
    @sue@glasgow.social avatar

    We need a moratorium on putting bloody touchscreens on everything, touchscreen interaction is dreadful for all but a handful of applications 🤬 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/disability-67239870

    leighelse,
    @leighelse@mastodon.nz avatar

    @sue The problem is that it's much cheaper to build payment devices that use a single touch screen rather than a button pad. Does that make it right? No, but in the absence of regulatory constraints it makes it inevitable.

    ojala, to random
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    leighelse,
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    @ojala An important perspective. Thanks for posting this.

    sue, to random
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    Tip for folk visiting Glasgow: if you're parking your car on a street and a wee boy offers to "watch yer motor" this is not in fact an optional service 👍🏻

    leighelse,
    @leighelse@mastodon.nz avatar

    @sue Heh.

    TheEuropeanNetwork, to Russia

    Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a law revoking Russia's ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, a move strongly criticised by the United States.

    The 1996 treaty outlaws all nuclear explosions, including live tests of nuclear weapons, though it never came into force because some key countries — including the United States and China — never ratified it.

    https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20231102-putin-revokes-russia-s-ratification-of-global-nuclear-test-ban-treaty

    leighelse,
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    @TheEuropeanNetwork Some exceptionalist hypocrisy from the USA here.

    thunderbird, to opensource
    @thunderbird@mastodon.online avatar

    We want you to have a great experience on Thunderbird, and that means fonts that are the perfect size and density for you. Find out how to go from "too small" or "too big" to just right in our latest blog post - and dig in to the technical details behind any trickier issues in the linked KB article.

    https://blog.thunderbird.net/2023/11/font-scaling-and-density-issue-on-thunderbird-115-upgrade/

    leighelse,
    @leighelse@mastodon.nz avatar

    @thunderbird My laptop updated Thunderbird yesterday. It's a major update and I've been looking forward to it. But now

    • the rich text editor is broken in multiple ways
    • buttons I relied on have disappeared
    • I can no longer move items in the calendar*
    • Actually, they do eventually move, but it seems to take several hours.
    TheEuropeanNetwork, (edited ) to Bulgaria

    The EU bans Meta's use of personal data for behavioural advertising.

    The European Data Protection Board said Wednesday it had adopted a binding decision that will ban Facebook and Instagram owner Meta from using the personal data of users for targeted advertisements.

    Earlier this year Norway imposed a ban on sending Facebook and Instagram users targeted advertisements based on their personal data.

    https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20231101-eu-bans-meta-s-use-of-personal-data-for-behavioural-advertising

    leighelse,
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    @TheEuropeanNetwork Big news. Big big news.

    leighelse, to random
    @leighelse@mastodon.nz avatar

    The US has asked that Al Jazeera reduce its coverage of the conflict in Gaza. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/oct/27/us-asks-qatar-to-turn-down-the-volume-of-al-jazeera-news-coverage

    Personal opinion: Al Jazeera provides balanced journalism free of Western presuppositions.

    hbuchel, to random
    @hbuchel@hachyderm.io avatar

    I try to not be too grumpy about new tech or framework decisions (or old tech that's being rebranded as new!) because sometimes IT IS just because I don't have the bandwidth to keep up on everything but I'm just so tired of React. I don't want to use server actions. I don't want to use RSC. I want to do anything else. Please, very few are going to use these well. I don't feel like we advanced at all from the days of spaghetti code that people tried to convince us we were saved from with React.

    leighelse,
    @leighelse@mastodon.nz avatar

    @sue @hbuchel I've taught an "HTML in less than an hour" course to non-dev workmates, and followed it up for those interested with similar introductions to CSS and javascript. All of these are hands-on using Notepad in the student's computer. Some grasp the basic ideas and are then motivated to learn more. I remember an admin person coming in one Monday morning and excitedly asking "Have you ever used Ajax?"

    iangriffin, to random
    @iangriffin@mastodon.nz avatar

    Crikey. 20 minutes into TV1 main news and no mention of Gaza/Israel situation. Is the rugby really that important? #NZnewsbalanceiswrong

    leighelse,
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    @iangriffin Television news priorities are tightly coupled to the availability of actuality, the higher on the "Oh my God no!" scale the better. Israel's effective blackout on the invasion of Gaza ensures television and cable news will relegate it down the list.

    leighelse, to random
    @leighelse@mastodon.nz avatar

    Any email containing "newclimate.org" is being quarantined by Microsoft's email servers without notification or explanation. This happens whether the domain name is in the From, To, Bcc, Subject or Body fields, or anywhere in an attachment. This is shutting down communication in the climate change community. https://newclimate.org/news/microsoft-error-or-external-attack-causing-disruption-to-email-communication-across-the

    I'm sure it will turn out to be an unfortunate misunderstanding.

    leighelse, to random
    @leighelse@mastodon.nz avatar

    Cory Doctorow on "Corporate Bullshit"; the six lies corporations have told since time immemorial. https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/27/six-sells/

    robert_p_king, to random

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    leighelse,
    @leighelse@mastodon.nz avatar

    @robert_p_king The mood on the right seems more about criminalising poverty than investing in constructive solutions.

    essjax, to random
    @essjax@essjax.com avatar

    Lol imagine taking your money out of a real bank and giving it to Musk to look after.
    I've made some daft mistakes in my life but I won't be making that one.

    leighelse,
    @leighelse@mastodon.nz avatar

    @essjax Is this a thing? Is Elon proposing to open a bank?

    leighelse,
    @leighelse@mastodon.nz avatar

    @jonoabroad @essjax Like, completely dead, or just totally out of it for a few hours?

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