Computer Hardware Adventures - Resurrecting Desktop Workstation #1

For the past year, I've been forced to use my "secondary" (+ newer) workstation, as I woke up one morning to my former primary workstation (from 2018) having a severe bout of hardware-related instability. 

Granted, this secondary workstation has actually been a vastly better machine in most regards, as it has actually been more of the setup that I'd originally been going for in 2018 (see details below).  And also, this switch has helped postpone having to address a several "storage crunch" I'd been experiencing on the primary machine  (i.e. I'd gotten to the point where my Photos/Media drive had actually *run out of space*, and I had to quickly offload as much "non-critical" stuff as I could to a mix of "other drives on the machine, for "more important" stuff, and only a secondary drive for all the "not very important" stuff)

Anyway, for "reasons", I've come to finally get around to trying to resurrect this machine now at last!  (I'd actually mean to do it by this time last year... but then procrastination over finding "the right" replacement PSU and/or trying to fit that in against work/holiday schedules has meant that this has only happened now...)

This rambling post will be about the journey of trying to get this working again, and also the upcoming challenges of figuring out how this step now fits into my grand scheme for rejigging how I run all my computing setup (i.e. both the "Linux migration" project, but also the "two workstations / two locations, one big stash of data that needs backing up and syncing") 

Lessons from Aviation - Saturday Morning Thought on AI / Automation Use

Maybe I've been looking in the wrong places, but it seems that there is not much discussion out there on how we should be looking towards the aviation industry for insights into how our relationship with automation should proceed.

After all, pilots have been dealing with "autopilot" systems for decades now!

Salient lessons I think:

* There is a general skepticism of "what the machine says" that is drilled into them from early on - Yes, many do depend on navigation systems much of the time, as they are generally reliable. But, where possible, they are reminded to look out the window / use multiple sources and confirm whether that matches what the machines say. 

On that note, a very important part of their job is to constantly monitor and track the system information, cross-checking that against their expectations. Trust but verify.

* Between that and the need for redundancy in case of failure (e.g. backup radios, backup map + light sources, backup instruments), you'll also soon find that many pilots are actually wary about night flying, where the risks are greatly heightened, as darkness makes it harder to spot deadly situations. In other words, you should be careful about putting yourself in risky situations to begin with! Manage the risky situations by avoiding in the first place

* The need for regular "stick and rudder time" - i.e. there is widespread understanding that they do need to manually exercise / practice their skills *without using the automation*, so that they remain capable of stepping in when the automation goes berserk / breaks, which *will* happen, often at the worst possible times.

* It is also heartening that while this automation has existed for decades, there has been sufficient strong advocacy for maintaining two-pilot operations to maintain human-in-the-loop operations.

20 Years and Counting as a Professional Software Engineer

Ooh... earlier today, I was suddenly reminded that this year marks 20 years since I've been developing software in a professional / semi-professional capacity (i.e. working with a medium-sized team, on an established codebase with millions of lines of code, wrangling bug trackers + wikis, and supporting software for which there are real users of the stuff we're building who depend on that to get their work done)

I started in around May 2006 (*), after managing to get Blender's code compiling on my machine at last, which enabled me to start tackling a few of my pet peeves...

It also happened that one of the first feature film productions using Blender was kicking off around that time too in Argentina (i.e. "Plumiferos" at "Manos Digitales" (sp?) IIRC), and had posted a long list of feature requests that happened to overlap with quite a few of the things on my list! In short, that's how I ended up entering the industry - burning through that feature request list, and becoming one of the major contributors to Blender for over a decade!

(*) I had actually been programming since early 2000, but had only worked on my own private "from scratch" projects up till then

Linux Migration - Current Queries Edition (March #1)

This is the latest in my ongoing series on investigating my setup for migrating to Linux. I've got 2 other posts that were supposed to go up at the start of February, but I've been procrastinating on polishing them up for posting...

In any case, today's update covers where things are at in general, and the outstanding barriers to resolve before pulling the trigger.

Opinion / Rant - Christchurch Protest Zones Ban Denied

TBH, as crude as it sounds, I *DO* support the motion to place restrictions on groups of people protesting at the Bridge of Remembrance (and a few other sensitive spots like the official quake memorial), and think that it is a terrible shame that this proposal got voted down (by such a slim margin, and from the usual suspects too)

 

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/588649/controversial-proposal-to-ban-protests-in-parts-of-christchurch-fails-to-get-off-the-ground

 

Lion Dance Bricks Builds Completed

Yay!  I finally finished my "Lion Dance Minibricks" build this afternoon (after spending the last 3 weekend afternoons working on it)!  🥳

Got this one in Vancouver last year (having originally wanted another one that I ended up having to internet order instead).

Of all these Chinese designs I've built recently, this one is perhaps the most solid + structurally sound of all of them. The only problem was trying to figure out how the layers lined up, as a few layers had lots of bricks packed into tight arrangements that it became hard to figure out which was which! 

(The problem was such that today I had to redo part of the girl's face, as I'd added the middle between-eyes chunk one row too far back!  Fortunately, the whole lion-dance head came off relatively cleanly, and apart from one or two stragglers that needed to be manually placed first, I managed to get the whole head to snap straight back on after I'd made the tweaks... not once, but twice!  Phew! Things would've been bad had I had to undo all that to get back down!) 

March Maladies Early Onset

It seems the triple malaises of early March have struck early this year

1) Cold + rainy weather

2) Kids, their parents, and "youth" in general coming down with whatever happens when loads of students suddenly reconverge in places of learning, bringing all their holiday germs into contact

3) Gridlock everywhere as the first 2 combine to result in a lot more traffic (as everyone adjusts to "the grind" again... don't worry, a lot burns off again once uni students get tired of attending class after 2-3 weeks... many to then drop out and never be seen again in tertiary study)

Stay safe out there!

Kakapo Cam 2026

It's been fascinating checking in on the Kakapo nest cam from time to time these past few days.  

 

AFAIK, this is the first time I've seem them livestreaming a kakapo's nest during breeding season, marking the first time I (and probably many people) have gotten a really decent look at a kakapo over an extended period!  And so far, that's probably as close to seeing one we're likely to get... 

Things that have surprised me:
* 1)  Getting to see their behaviour a bit more - particularly how, in the nest, they spend a lot of time just sleeping, and also just getting to hear their sounds more.

* 2) It's rather bemusing that that kakapo seems rather oblivious to the changing number of eggs in its nest!  Originally there were 3, then 2, and the 1 when the actual chick was about to hatch!

* 3) Also surprising was that, for a critter that's rather "blind" and living in the dark, it's sense of smell was apparently not keen enough to be even mildly perturbed that "humans" had been fossicking around the nest again, and/or even touching all the eggs! WTF?!

* 4) But what takes the cake, is watching the rangers open up the hatch (while kakapo is there!), proceed to grab one of the eggs (while kakapo watches them, protesting loudly like someone gurgling the last dregs from a straw), and yet somehow manage to swap out the egg (and/or maybe remove some more)... BUT, the kakapo then proceeds to act as if nothing had happened!!!   WTF?!   Between 2 + 3, that's crazy!

Feb 22 - Christchurch Quakes Anniversary - 15 Years On

It's hard to believe that today marks 15 years since the Feb 22 Christchurch Quake in 2011, as 12:51pm!

Nothing quite put that number into focus as hearing that kids born that day are now teens in high school!  

In hindsight, there is truth in the words:  "This too shall pass..." 

 

For all those going through a hard time now: Kia Kaha. This too shall pass.

For all that we lost that horrible overcast day 15 years ago:  We will remember them. Always. 💔 

  

Pixar 40 Years - Into the Archives Official Clip

Wow, it's hard to believe that Pixar is 40 years old this year!

I just stumbled across the following look into their archives!  A very neat look into a bunch of interesting stuff!

On "Ethnicity"

It's recently come to my attention that this whole "ethnicity" thing may not quite be what everyone seems to have been trying to get at.

At least according to our (NZ) own government:

"Ethnicity is a measure of cultural affiliation. It is not a measure of race, ancestry, nationality, or citizenship. Ethnicity is self perceived." 
-- https://www.stats.govt.nz/topics/ethnicity/

🤯

In which case, I really should have ignored what all those silly forms have been saying over the years with their misleading categories, and just said:
"New Zealander"

And if really pressed further (if a long form box shows up):
"New Zealander first and foremost. A New Zealand born Hong Konger perhaps. But most definitely, not really 'Chinese', in the conventional sense of that loaded term..."

Guess what the forms usually really want to try to get me to say though... 🙄 

February Music Recommendations - Interesting New Additions from An Impromptu Hour of Classical Music Radio

Just added two new additions to my rotation/library of classical-music for re-listening this morning, after first hearing them earlier this week on Wednesday on RNZ Concert when tuning in for a while to cope with the annoying roadwork noise that's been foisted on us for the next few weeks (!)

1) Kaija Saariaho - On Fire  (From Notes on Light)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9ugRbOUdao

Admittedly not something to everyone's taste, but was quite appropriate "grungy rage against the intrusion" type music 

(And also reminded me of watching movies on a plane with a cheap headset for some reason - Maybe given that I had to do that very thing, as that's the sort of headset I have hooked up for use with my work laptop to get acceptable mic-input for all the Teams calls that we inevitably need to make)

2) Doreen Carwithen - Suffolk Suite
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXKJuZ2kaS8 

This "most English" of pieces (i.e. with similar echoes of the general style employed by Vaughn Williams / William Walton [1][2] / Benjamin Britten) caught me by surprise, especially with that lush sweeping opening movement, and became an instant "must add to good music list".

To then hear that it had apparently been written for "a school orchestra" is even more surprising!  (Then again, comparing the standard of orchestras I was involved in "back in my day", and the equivalent ones you hear now... eh... *ahem*)

Moar Crazy Project Ideas: Mastodon Archives / Live-Feed, and Personal "Boss Mode" Dashboard

As if my current projects slate wasn't full enough, I did admittedly spend some time this weekend thinking how nice it would be to have a few other little utilities to solve a bunch of problems I don't currently have nice solutions for.

    1) A Mastodon Archives/Live-Feed viewer - Mainly for searching for past posts (and/or managing ones you no longer want to keep up) - e.g. to extract a bunch to a blog post for easier access in future (e.g. similar to how this post came about).

    2) A personal "boss mode" ish dashboard screen that can be launched with a single keypress, and can be used to put up a placeholder / dashboardy type screen that allows monitoring a whole bunch of feeds = info that you'd like to keep an eye on, while you step away from your machine OR are interrupted (and/or don't want others to look at what you were doing)... Sort of like the lock screen, but more fully featured, and maybe also a bit like the  

 

Now, both of these "ideas" aren't really something I plan to go "all in" on. But, having had the thought, they are tempting enough to at least toy around with to see if I can clobber together some prototypes (or at least draft designs) - as a bit of an "itch scratching" exercise in creativity.  Whether I ultimately built these properly for my own use (or even for others) is moot... it's likely I won't get that far, as these are not really priorities!  But still, it's fun to tinker with!

Christchurch Wastewater Treatment Stench Rant (+ A Layman's Alternative Interim "Workaround" Scheme)

If you've been following the news from Christchurch in the past week (or my socials for that matter), you'd be aware that this week, we've been *plagued* by waves of a putrid poopy stench (that irritates the eyes and airways, and yes... aggravates asthma in folks like myself). The last time many of us were faced with this stench was for the first half of 2022, after the water treatment plant caught fire in late 2021!

That was 5 years ago now! Yet this, we suddenly have the same bloody problem again!

For additional context:  No we are *NOT* in the "Eastern Suburbs" near where this plant and all the open-air "oxidation ponds" that the poopy water is pumped into are located, next to the Estuary / Eastern coastline lining the Pacific Ocean. Anything past the centrally located "Hagley Park" really cannot be considered an "Eastern Suburb" here, with places like Wigram, Halswell, or out around Burnside/Harewood where the airport is located certainly falling *well outside* the range where you'd expect to smell stuff like this!

Despite all this, and the problem first *really* rearing its ugly head city-wide (after having been a problem for months already in the areas surrounding the plant), the latest council update today says they are still "monitoring" the situation and hoping it miraculously improves - somehow... by itself... when hopefully some algae miraculously grows to fix it!  WTF?!!   🤬 

"Monitoring" (i.e. standing there with you hands to kept to yourself, scribbling away on a clipboard, while peering into the abyss / monitoring screens, staring at the charts) is about as much use as "thoughts and prayers" after yet another mass terrorist / gun violence incident... jeez 🙄

Linux Migration + Picasa

Good news!  Tonight, I finally got around to testing running Picasa under Wine, and can confirm it works rather well for the main things it needs to do!

Which is a very good thing to tick off, as that means that as I can run that on Linux now, that's one fewer blocker to migrating over there anytime now🥳

The only annoying thing is that it will launch the "Wine Folder Explorer" window when exporting...

Thoughts on Venue Design and Crowd Control

Is it "just a NZ thing" that crowds will just all mosh-up in the area nearest the entrance they enter from, causing a massive "standing-room-only" tightly crowded mess in one area of the venue that snarls up entering traffic (causing queues + delays), while the far side ends up being relatively open or even conspicuously *deserted*?

This post looks into two such cases - the one that inspired this post, and another instance from a few years ago that I saw myself... 

January 2026 - Position on AI

Given the fast moving nature of these things, and how heavily it's still being pushed by all the Big Tech interests, I guess it's time for another update on my current position on AI stuff

 

General Position

Get your stupid effing "Large Lying Model" / "Grand Theft Autocorrect" / "Pervasive Spying Narks" away from me!!!

For the record (even if it's useless actually saying this):  

In general, I DO NOT consent to any of "my data" or any of my work / creative outputs being used for AI training / processing, except for very specific case-by-case purposes.

While I'm asking nicely: Please cease and desist any operations where this may have happened, and delete all relevant records or thus-trained models  🙂 

 

For Coding / Software Development 

For work stuff, my current position on this stuff is:
* 1) If I'm stuck on trying to resolve a sticky "compiler says no" problem (BUT only after having given it a decent stab), then I will now consider getting AI to suggest a fix / solution, since it's there and may be able to help.

I will however scrutinise whether it passes the sniff test for bad code... (and have on a few occasions just thrown that approach out and changed tack, after seeing how bad it can get!)

* 2) For big tricky changesets, I will also ask it to do a pass over the code and check for any obvious issues (since we have found it can catch or at least flag a whole bunch of stuff that tired eyes might miss)

* 3) I've had mixed results getting it to do any bulk code generation (mainly unit tests), and TBH don't trust it to do actual feature implementation (which is usually the fun bit that us humans should get to do anyway!)... so: So far there's really not much need / use for it on that front from my end!

 

Oh... and this only applies to work problems, where work has said we should experiment with these tools + fenced off some "approved" tools that appear suitably tame.

 

(*) EDIT (22 Jan): 

I have also had some luck with getting it to generate a whole bunch of boilerplate for translating between one enum definition, and a protobuf protocol one (that I got it to generate from the first), and then writing all the conversion logic (that would've been tedious to do by hand). The best solution of course is to not need that boilerplate (i.e. the language / compiler should really be able to deduce it itself), but since our environment isn't set up for that sort of "experimental" stuff, having this tooling available when cases like this call for it is certainly nice...

 

For personal stuff:
Nah, I like the challenge / can deal with whatever it is over a longer timespan when I can be bothered...  😜

 

Exceptions (for personal stuff):

* Wrangling intractible CSS / Javascript problems - As those are nasty, and I suck at that

* Wrangling compile errors stemming from trying to build publicly available third-party OSS repos 

MediaSlurper - Phone Data Archiving Tools

Mwahahaha... had very productive hacking session yesterday on my MediaSlurper tools  (mainly on the phone backup side)

Main Changes:
* Hacked together fancy new thing custom-op mode to make it possible to go through and selectively archive screenshots, while moving the old ones out into their own folders. 

This makes it easier to archive a whole bunch of the less important ones, then just delete them from the phone 1-2 years later to free up space

(Unfortunately, web-browser ones cannot be distinguished from the filenames alone, and will need OCR processing integration to solve later - I have a tool I can integrate, but I'd like to switch that away from Windows OCR since I'm moving away from the platform soon-ish, and need these tools to keep working)

* Hacked together another custom-op mode that only does the moving-between-directories on phone too

* Then plugged a whole bunch of cases where timeouts could bring down the ship, by wrapping all the native calls with a wrapped-API that makes it retry several times before giving up

* Then bolted on mechanism to get these custom modes to run before a nominated main mode (i.e. so the "main / fixed" one won't double-capture these files)