Matt Gordon

Just to clarify, this is an issue for kids learning to read because (basically) they're trying to use English phonics rules on another language? And if they're not as familiar with the second language it's even more difficult to bridge the gap between what they see and hear?

English is a complete mongrel of a language! Bits from all over the place and spellings that were standardised centuries ago.
I admire anyone who manages to learn it

Your 5yo is already navigating a language built on french, old English, Latin and whatever else came along.
They're faster learners than we give them credit for

Luckily, english is consistent with it's spelling and pronunciation

Transport Minister announces all vehicles will pay electronic road user charges All drivers will pay for NZ’s roading network through electronic road user charges rather than petrol tax, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says

The government even acknowledges this is because they can't get as much tax out of EVs and increasingly efficient petrol cars

www.interest.co.nz/public-polic...

NZ already had a road user charge yhat was weighted towards heavy vehicles.

This update moves tax from fuel to distance travelled and benefits vehicles with worse fuel economy.

Who says the right can't meme?

Absolutely agree. My go-to when clients come to me with a new shiny thing is to ask 'what problem are you trying to solve?'

In this case the change to RUC is the wrong answer, or they were asking a shitty question

Just don't force push, you need to pull first

This isn't just failing to read the room, it's not even opening the door and taking a look inside.

Do the job you're paid to do, not flogging AI chatbots.

Te Araroa is definitely on the list, even if only part of it. How did you find it?

As for getting a break, I've got a big change coming up next year so I might be putting one foot in front of the other until then. Maybe not ideal timing.
It gives me time to look into something different though.

Really struggling with work.

On the face of it, it's the natural culmination of years of work and experience, the money is good and the company is expected to grow.
But I've just lost all interest in it.
I'm just tired of it and not sure where to go from here

Anyone else been there?

I call BS on that.
UK universities have pages for equivalent overseas qualifications and NZ/NCEA is on there

www.ed.ac.uk/studying/int...

At least under MMP vote splitting doesn't have as much of an effect.
People just need to get out and vote

Just going to say that using four bird names, all starting with K for bus lines would be a challenge for tourists.
Getting on Kororā instead of Kerurū would be an easy mistake
The trains, much easier to remember

Hilco Valuation Services | JJ Lighting Bid Live at Hilco Valuation Services's JJ Lighting auction

For the #photography peeps out there, there is some serious kit up for auction here after JJ Lighting went into liquidation

Way out of my league but these auctions can throw up some absolute bargains

www.bidspotter.co.uk/en-gb/auctio...

I've even had it on an AirNZ flight
I hadn't even thought it would be illegal anywhere. The more you know, eh?

Oh my, the Civic! It's been so long since I've been there that I'd forgotten about the stars

I agree 💯
But I think, for all our bravado, NZ doesn't have the guts to do it.
It would require a reckoning that too many people aren't ready for. Not yet.

I do hope that in my lifetime I get to see Australia become a republic, because I think NZ would follow
And that would force it, as a country, to have a serious think about what it wants to be in the world.
Just a post-colonial agricultural outpost, or something more?

The (even more) stupid thing is that no-one *has* changed the name of the country.
It's like when he had a sulk about English not being listed as an official language.

A midden?

The InternetNZ AGM is an interesting study in how small numbers of motivated people can make a difference in small but consequential ways (for good or bad)
In a country of 5m, a few thousand influence NZs place on the internet, equality of access and how the world sees NZ
It all adds up

Sometimes what grumpy old engineers bring to the table isn't shiny new tricks and toys, it's the pragmatism to say 'yeah, I've been through this before. The simplest fix is just to have a procedure and follow it'

My equivalent of 'this meeting could have been an email' is 'this software could have been a procedure'

I spent a good half an hour trying to talk someone out of writing software to prevent a problem that can be fixed by an end user saving a calibration file before starting a test (as instructed)

Yeah, that's what we did. Mr (now) 16 had access to a phone but it had parental controls on it. As he's got older those controls have been opened up

I get that there's some awful shit on the internet, but maybe the solution is to block the awful stuff instead of banning kids from the good stuff?
Or am I being cynical in saying that probably sounded like too much work?

These super-brains most likely didn't know what a VPN was until this morning.
You can't expect them to have actually done any research?

I was trying to explain this to kiddos.
The internet used to be...free. You weren't bombarded with ads, cookies, apps and push notifications at every turn.
There wasn't always someone trying to monetise you