Posts by phil_stevens@mastodon.nz
(DIR) Post #AyHGRHHSUkuYbxxMKO by phil_stevens@mastodon.nz
2025-09-16T22:20:05Z
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@internetarchive @maria *taps sign* If you don't have a physical or non-DRM digital copy backed up in at least two locations, you don't own it.
(DIR) Post #AymamiuZBHZd8CM8VE by phil_stevens@mastodon.nz
2025-10-02T00:54:50Z
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I've had a gutsfull of the oft-repeated #NZPol catchphrase making the rounds currently about how "dairy is keeping the economy afloat."Effluent. That's all it is. The bulk of those record payouts are going into paying down debt. Y'all know what that does, right?Decreases the amount of money in circulation.Every dollar repaid on principal to a bank leaves the money supply forever. It's the extinguishment of currency that was created when the bank funded the loan. And every dollar paid in interest goes into the bank's profit margin (and nearly all of it leaves the country in short order).Politicians and commentators who don't understand how money works tell plausible-sounding lies, and all the while we are deprived of vital liquidity that would keep business afloat and people in work.And even if the farming sector were spending up large and providing a retail boost, it's more than negated by the poisoning of our freshwater and the costs that brings.
(DIR) Post #Ayme5kqAX5IuTk47W4 by phil_stevens@mastodon.nz
2025-10-02T01:44:03Z
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@lightweight The basic principles of money are understood by so few that it's downright frightening. Even bankers don't understand...I had a row with someone who has worked in commercial banking for many years when he tried to gild the lily of what he called "the miracle of fractional reserve" and I said "you mean state-sanctioned fraud."
(DIR) Post #Az2jO9bcno3KneDLg8 by phil_stevens@mastodon.nz
2025-10-09T19:58:15Z
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@foone Sigh. Who else is making hardware that is designed to be extended and repaired? I hate it when there's a sole incumbent in a space and they turn out to be a bad of dicks.
(DIR) Post #Az9J22aKzGiDx87ufA by phil_stevens@mastodon.nz
2025-10-13T00:04:16Z
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@KiwiEV IBM had this figured out a half century ago. The whole self-driving hopium is an insurance and litigation hot mess just waiting for a few high-profile prangs. Unless our govt is willing to hold car companies 100% liable for any mistakes their cars make, the public will wear this and I am not on board.[NB: I speak from experience, having hired a Model Y a couple of years ago. In spite of not having anything close to FSD, that freaking car tried to maim/kill me and my passengers -- not once but twice -- by grabbing the wheel and performing sudden evasive action for completely unremarkable features of the road and other vehicles.]
(DIR) Post #Az9JZ0HYZQCMMn3mAS by phil_stevens@mastodon.nz
2025-10-13T00:12:27Z
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@lightweight @KiwiEV FSD is just a play by a ketamine-addled shitwit to boost his company's flailing share prices. He spent so many years promising it that he had to ship even though it's riddled with bugs.I seriously think there needs to be massive public pushback. I do not consent to sharing the roads with flawed agents that can't be tried and convicted (and removed from behind the wheel) if they cause harm.
(DIR) Post #Az9Xsk0cBMS32uRQEC by phil_stevens@mastodon.nz
2025-10-13T02:45:55Z
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"Empire never worked alone. It carried soldiers, yes, but its sharpest weapon was the missionary."How Pasifika have been betrayed by bellicose "Christianity."https://e-tangata.co.nz/comment-and-analysis/faith-survival-and-misplaced-allegiance/
(DIR) Post #AzFHdTvRGVZmVBTvFI by phil_stevens@mastodon.nz
2025-10-15T21:19:05Z
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@lightweight They were never about trade to begin with. They were always about control, surveillance, and entrenching corporate privilege.
(DIR) Post #AzNxJx2Z3cuiLdrc5A by phil_stevens@mastodon.nz
2025-10-20T00:25:53Z
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Speaking at a conference this week. Should I succumb to the implicit herd pressure and create a Linkedin account to maximise my schmoozing surface area?
(DIR) Post #AzNxPd7i1OBIJWygyG by phil_stevens@mastodon.nz
2025-10-20T00:30:08Z
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@essjax ...and as of this hot moment I am blissfully free of every single one of them.
(DIR) Post #AzO0cwc7ARoeODExRg by phil_stevens@mastodon.nz
2025-10-20T02:20:55Z
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@lightweight Yeah, that has been my gut instinct...have put up a single-page site to cover this particular venture with laser focus.https://beel.co.nz/
(DIR) Post #AzaO7hveReKyfHXGSG by phil_stevens@mastodon.nz
2025-10-26T01:40:20Z
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@foone The fact that they were still making releases in this century is revelatory.
(DIR) Post #AzeFsNeJdVuBYQbKqW by phil_stevens@mastodon.nz
2025-10-27T22:25:18Z
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@aurynn @thomasbeagle The cloud is just somebody else's servers. We could quite literally build our own sovereign cloud infrastructure (or leverage the likes of Catalyst and contract for redundancy) with stringent requirements for privacy protection that billionaires laugh at as they happily mine our data.I'm not at all happy that so many of the services that I depend on central govt agencies to deliver are so deeply dependent on fascist-owned, far-flung networks that have proven themselves way too fragile because of their incestuous dependency on something like DNS at US-EAST.
(DIR) Post #B0sso05w0MieK7zQIq by phil_stevens@mastodon.nz
2025-12-03T21:22:46Z
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RE: https://mastodon.nz/@ClareBear/115657622084474157They were never serious about climate and they prove their intentions at every turn.The costs to farmers, communities, and businesses will be enormous. Meanwhile, some of the most effective things we could do as a nation to turn our emissions around would create jobs and clean up the environment.Let's never make this mistake again, eh? No more right-wing climate destroyers in public office.
(DIR) Post #B0st5LGkX37GuyJjuK by phil_stevens@mastodon.nz
2025-12-03T21:35:17Z
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@Tatjna It's beyond my capacity to understand how the people who are literally on the front lines of climate breakdown can be so aggressively supportive of the policies that are destroying their livelihoods. All they see are short-term gains, and they are throwing future generations of farmers under the tractor to ge them.
(DIR) Post #B0t1skqP24uu3o4Bg8 by phil_stevens@mastodon.nz
2025-12-03T21:47:00Z
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I am struggling between opposing concepts of how to promote retribution against members of the current govt for the harms they are causing on purpose. An old Yiddish curse is "may their names be forgotten" and it does seem fitting that people who ignore evidence and basic morality in order to be intentionally cruel should be consigned to erasure.But I also want future generations to know who did this, and to be able to desecrate their graves or whatever else to disparage and dishonour the memory of those who went out of their way to leave them a ruined world.Better to actively forget, or hold an eternal grudge?
(DIR) Post #B1HhlL876BBY9NXHIO by phil_stevens@mastodon.nz
2025-12-15T19:40:19Z
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@puzzle Next they need to add battery railcar service from PN to all the centres within ~1 hour...Whanganui, Taihaipe, Dannevirke/Pahiatua.
(DIR) Post #B1JiZlcxFDvL7rvWnw by phil_stevens@mastodon.nz
2025-12-16T19:48:19Z
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Sigh. Another "told you so."I said as much in my submission on the speed limit reversals. Never mind the very real costs of more deaths, injuries, and insurance claims. It simply takes longer to reach your destination when someone else prangs.https://theconversation.com/higher-speeds-lower-productivity-what-the-data-shows-crash-delays-really-cost-auckland-271734
(DIR) Post #B1JiZrMVvGL0ucHU0m by phil_stevens@mastodon.nz
2025-12-16T20:22:37Z
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Then there are the moving bottlenecks that arise when there are lots of speed gradients. This is another thing you see on busy motorways, when someone going faster than the average traffic flow gets behind a slower vehicle, taps the brakes, and suddenly dozens of cars behind also have to slow down abruptly.Reduce the top speed and the average drops. Nek minnit: most of these disappear.
(DIR) Post #B1OBYq6GntJ80mO94a by phil_stevens@mastodon.nz
2025-12-19T00:05:45Z
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@lightweight This will be a gentle reminder to me to set up a local Wikipedia mirror.