The end of the cellphone?

22.05.2020/11.10

Motorola This is a take that will probably never come true, but hear me out: this is the end of the cellphone era. We’ve had a pandemic where people were forced to be at home. Whilst there, they’ve discovered that they can be productive on their home desktop machines, doing Zoom and Skype meetings, […]

Rather locked down than living within a controlled experiment

01.04.2020/10.20

As a dual national, I hope there’s some exaggeration or selective quoting in the Bristol Post about its report of former police officer Mike Rowland, who’s stuck in Auckland with his wife Yvonne. Apparently, New Zealand is in ‘pandemonium’ and he feels like he’s in ‘Alcatraz’. As we are most certainly not in pandemonium, […]

Coronavirus: the weakening of globalization, and the lessons to learn

12.03.2020/10.19

A generation ago, I don’t think many would have thought that globalization could be brought to its knees by a virus. They may have identified crazy politicians using nationalism as a tool, but probably considered that would not happen in developed economies and democracies sophisticated enough to withstand such assaults. This course correction might […]

In my experience, the only browser that works with Jetstar’s website is Safari for Mac

23.07.2019/13.16

I’ve found some forum entries about this, but they date back to the beginning of the decade. I alerted Jetstar to this in March, and the problem has worsened since then. Basically, I can’t book online, and I don’t know why. Consequently, I booked one flight with Air New Zealand and only managed, after […]

Work as if it’s 2001

06.04.2019/08.05

Asus One beauty to having new tech, even if it stretched my budget, is how my use of the desktop and laptop computers is more efficient. I don’t just mean the speed and stability (since the previous computers were both Windows 7 machines that had been upgraded to 10) but the way I use the […]

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How to get a perfect 10 in reliability on Windows 10

02.02.2019/09.45

I’ve had a great week with my new laptop, though it exhibits some of the same traits I’ve frequently seen with Windows 10: settings’ windows vanishing when attempting to load. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere on this blog, demo PCs I’ve seen at the store have terrible reliability history scores, and mine is no exception. It […]

Eighty-three today with Alzheimer’s: a caregiver’s viewpoint

15.08.2018/10.45

Above: Dementia Wellington’s support has been invaluable. Today my father turned 83. It’s a tough life that began during the Sino–Japanese War, with his father being away in the army, and his mother and grandmother were left to raise the family on their land in Taishan, China. In 1949, the Communists seized the […]

Why the love? Google tracks you when location services are off; Facebook allegedly listens in on conversations

23.11.2017/22.33

Above: We boarded the Norwegian Jewel yesterday—then my other half got a cruise-themed video on YouTube. Hat tip to Punkscience for this one. My other half and I noted that her YouTube gave her a cruise-themed video from 2013 after we boarded the Norwegian Jewel yesterday for a visit. Punkscience found this article in […]

How to pay a parking ticket

03.04.2016/00.00

There’s one compelling reason to continue using cheques: the chance to write letters like this. In case the above image no longer shows, my original Tumblr post is here. You may also like New Plymouth responds Be careful who sees you having sex—and sanitize your ofﬁce furniture afterwards I wanted to grow up and be […]

When the media advocate racism to hide the real culprits behind bad driving

07.03.2015/01.25

This op–ed in the Fairfax Press smacks of typical yellow peril journalism that has come to typify what passes for some media coverage of late. Yes, some Chinese drivers are awful in their home country and they will bring those bad habits here. But I’d be interested to get some hard stats. For instance, […]