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  So it I had it more or less confirmed that both National & Labour forced NZ into the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA, or stupidly renamed 'CPTPPA') because both parties have influential MPs affiliated with the Atlas Network (the same awful folks who founded the ACT party, the TPU, FSU, NZ Initiative, & Curia Polls), whose agents/lawyers in the US wrote the agreement. In doing so, NZ gave up most of our sovereignty to US Corporations.

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  So very sad to hear of Glen Hansard's demise. https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/music/oscar-winning-irish-musician-glen-hansard-dies-in-motorcycle-crash

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  Ok, as someone who's never used/paid for either, I'm interested to know what folks, either on a biz/org capacity, or personal/family level are paying Microsoft or Google for MSO 365 or Google Workspace these days, and what you get for it. Please clarify the currency you're using. Feel free to DM if you prefer results not to be public. My discretion is assured.

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  For those here in Ōtautahi Christchurch, my band, 3kg, is playing tonight at A Rolling Stone (Colombo St) from 8:30. We're a 7 piece rock, funk, swing band with lots of singing and a bit of brass. No cover (though the pub might ask for a koha at the door). All welcome! Might be some swing dancers in attendance, too, if you like that sort of thing!

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  Here's an unexpected bit of news... https://linuxiac.com/windows-drops-under-60-in-global-desktop-os-share-for-the-first-time-in-years/ (Windows has fallen below 60% desktop market share, with Linux on the rise)!

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  A few nights ago, around 4:30, I heard an owl calling several time out the open window, probably from within 100m. I know we've had (introduced ex Germany) Little Owls in the valley, but after listening to some calls on iNaturalist, I'm fairly certain it was the other option, our native Aotearoa Ruru (Morepork)... very cool to have them in the 'hood!

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  These folks are cringe-worthyingly amateur. Totally inept. They're definitely not good 'stewards' of this economy. They're more of a wrecking ball. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/environment_climate/593016/government-s-plans-for-lng-terminal-didn-t-model-international-price-spike

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  @Jocep@mastodon.social & I (along with a few others) are running #InstallFest #2 for folks in/near Ōtautahi/Christchurch who're feeling uncomfortable in their digital existences and want to free themselves from a dependence on US Big Tech &/or become more self-sufficient. We'll be meeting on Sun 17 May from 13:00 at Halswell Library - more info: https://events.installfest.nz/events/da09b0a4-2e8f-4542-90b1-3bdd58534f7d

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  There are a bunch of folks trying to create 'low emission cows/bulls'... but they're missing the point, at least in Aotearoa: lowering greenhouse gas emissions won't fix the problem of the dairy industry ruining our land and water with nitrogen pollution. We need to halve the herd. There are neither shortcuts nor technological solutions. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/country/594290/outcome-of-research-into-low-emitting-bulls-disappointing

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  Gulp. Pretty much everyone needs to see this. Whether your German or not. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-gYFcVx-8Y We all need to understand the implications, and make it impossible for politicians to farm our unfocused anger/frustration and turn it into support for right wing identity politics.

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  Listening to Anthony Healy (?) head of APRA holding forth on RNZ. I'm reminded of how badly broken the concept of Copyright is. Their whole model is driven by corporate 'rights holders' who want to extract maximum $ from the market, and not the interests of individual creators who desperately need the income. The model rewards those who're already successful. New & small creators get nuthin', especially if they haven't sold out to the big e...

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  @JulianOliver @ggpsv reading with great interest!

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  For folks in Ōtautahi Christchurch, I'll be running a Linux InstallFest on 12 April at Halswell Library from 13:00. If you want to take back control of your technology, come along and have a play!

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  Yes, very good to see this being raised: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/environment/593740/environmental-cost-of-cruise-ships-not-worth-the-economic-benefit-expert-says I've long felt that visiting cruise ships benefit almost no one in Aotearoa whatsoever, and detract from quality of life for many of us.

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  @davemosk @Niall @phil_stevens it seems clear, given Mamdani's almost inconceivable victory (given the power aligned against him), as well as Hungary's recent power shift, and also the success Polanski & the Greens in the UK, that the time for a substantial authentic change is right about now. We just need the right messenger with the right narrative. I don't even think it's that sensitive to the messenger.

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  @bflipp in my experience of getting people away from shitty proprietary platforms and onto community-run ones, you're never going to have an 'easier' experience getting them onboard - the Discords of the world have too much $ to invest in smoothing the on ramp (they have no off ramp, though, of course). But the trick is to make the community space (your Matrix) the one in which the most interesting and dynamic folks in the community are active. The rest will follow soon enough. @stry...

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  @bflipp Yes, the 'easy onboarding' for mobile users is offered by integrating MAS, but for the moment, the Synapse-Admin capabilities are more important from my perspective. Hoping the community will work out a way to have the best of both worlds. That might already be the case, I have to review recent releases of both projects. @strypey

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  Ok. What if we - the voters of Aotearoa - aligned ourselves to elect a Government that is committed to achieving the best possible outcome for all NZers. As table ante, any parties wanting to be in such a Gov't would need to first publicly acknowledge that 'Trickle Down Economics' is a nonsensical farce, and that 'neoliberalism' has failed the vast majority of people upon whom it's been imposed.

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  Quite a few folks - a couple credible developers - are trying to convince me that 'AI' code generation is great. They fail to realise that my issue isn't whether it's good at writing working ('pretty'?) code. It could be both (it isn't) but that misses my concern: to me conferring power to those without the understanding to the implications of different uses of that power creates a system inevitably prone to disaster - whether smallish now...

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  To other Mastodon Admins - I just got a couple posts telling me that my instance is the source of dodgy content from a couple identical looking but differently named accounts on mastodon.cloud. I believe it's a phishing scam targeting Mastodon admins... be careful out there.

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  This is gut-wrenching. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/592410/devastating-scenes-as-wildlife-lay-dead-on-dry-lakebed-in-manawatu Our water allocation and farming practices are not sustainable, and it's a horrible tragedy for all of the life that's destroyed as a result of our hubris and vile indifference.

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  Thanks to the hard work of @rimu and the rest of the PieFed community, and the infrastructure sponsored by https://prodigi.nz, there's now a community PieFed for Aotearoa - https://piefed.iridescent.nz

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  Huh, rather decisive: https://voteyesornoai.com/ #YesOrNoToAI