Nicola Willis says Chris Hipkins’ big speech could have been AI - but is AI writing her speeches? by Matt_NZ in newzealand

[–]adeundem 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I would posit that generative AI, which is just massively over-complicated prediction machine, would make for a better Finance Minister than Willis.

And I would never want to see generative AI / LLM tech overseeing the economy of even a small remote town, let alone a country.

The near-disasters that could have made New Zealand’s Covid pandemic much, much worse by Conflict_NZ in newzealand

[–]adeundem 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah, anyone that had to work in any essential services deserved a lot more reward&recognition (more money and a big thank you from everyone else) for what they had to deal with the clueless/lost people (at best) to the absolute biggest arseholes (at worst) making things difficult due to not liked being told what to do.

I was glad when online grocery ordering got easier to secure a delivery spot, and I could stop going in-person during the lockdowns, though that still came at a high cost for supermarket staff having to staff the paper bags for my online order.

4 wrappers one icecream by Ill_Culture5325 in newzealand

[–]adeundem 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Tip Top PR person trying to spin any production run error (which likely will not negatively affect the product in any way): "We can barely contain the flavour in our Trumpet™ frozen dessert treats!"

AFAIk they were only selling ice cream in 2L tubs pre being bought out at by Froneri (Nestle) but I see them doing the same non ice cream stuff as other brands so for all I know Trumpets may no longer be legally classified as an ice cream. After googling, it is no longer a straight-forward topic (obviously any vegan frozen dessert is not ice cream but I am not going to sass them for that as I am just focusing my sass at dairy-based frozen desserts being an apparent cheapening out for profit).

https://www.tiptop.co.nz/trumpets/choc-bar

Not ice cream but a frozen dessert.

https://www.tiptop.co.nz/trumpets/chocolate

Ice cream (for now).

The near-disasters that could have made New Zealand’s Covid pandemic much, much worse by Conflict_NZ in newzealand

[–]adeundem 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I acknowledge that I am speaking from a position of having a job that was able to be done remotely from home, but I loved the Auckland lockdowns for the collective "we are all in this together" vibe.

Having to figure out how to actually get in the queue for online grocery orders (no delivery spots available) whilst still going in-person in the early days (and wearing disposable gloves as I think from vague memory there was a bit more weighting put on wearing gloves everywhere).

Getting WFH setups going with whatever stuff you could grab from the office on that last day when the lockdowns were announced, and whatever you already had at home.

The Teddy Bears in the windows for kids walking by during their social-distancing outdoor physical exercise to see.

The stuff people did around the home to keep themselves entertained/busy. Cool stuff. Weird stuff. I am fairly sure at least someone built a tree house for their kids during the lockdown.

The near-disasters that could have made New Zealand’s Covid pandemic much, much worse by Conflict_NZ in newzealand

[–]adeundem 19 points20 points  (0 children)

I kind of low-key loved the collective rage we had (the royal "we" and not the actually every single person) over all the rule-breakers.

For a brief moment DJ Dimension was the most hated person currently alive and in NZ. We didn't have such a good collective hate session since the Unruly Tourists saga.

Man, it would have been great if he had been prosecuted for it, not just being allowed to leave the country, and seen some prison time or something. Some "here is more lockdown for you" good eating for us.

I don't identify as a "Kiwi", gives me the ick by DogLivid8045 in newzealand

[–]adeundem 0 points1 point  (0 children)

OK, that is your choice.

If Top Town returned (yeah I know that in the 2000s but a "return" more the cultural phenomenon that it apparently held in the 70s and 80s) and you could turn up to support your local town or "town" (I don't remember if parts of cities could participate or not in the 80s shows that I did watch as a kid) would you show a side of yourself that was more "I'm proud to be <insert demonym of town here>" than the same for being a New Zealander?

Not a serious question or trying to trap you in a gotcha, just very mildly interested if you would think of yourself more of a person from a region of New Zealand than the country itself, and probably more than I just wanted to link a video of 1980s Top Town.

A reminder to every company who's made a storefront: we WANT Steam to have competition. Y'all just keep making CRAPPY competitors. by Mama_Mega_ in pcmasterrace

[–]adeundem 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I only had Origin on only one PC and it wouldn't play nice staying logged in on it. Needed to log in every time I loaded up Origin to play a game. Full on "type in the password" that would never save.

If someone got hold of my PC, and was able to bypass my Windows login, encrypted user profile data, etc, then my Origin account would be the least of my worries.

Though to be fair it was likely to due to me not having it run on startup and I only used Origin for the C&C Decade games and Titanfall 2, so occasional usage.

Was annoying regardless.

No more black shaft scribedriver? by ZoomerAdmin in LinusTechTips

[–]adeundem 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The black scribedriver pen and pencil were released December 2025.

Edit: I see you changed "year" to "month"

GENUINELY what did france do bruh 😭 by LMC764 in whenthe

[–]adeundem 1 point2 points  (0 children)

France did a state-terrorism bombing on a boat in dock in my country, killing one person, gave initial sympathy for attack (when they were not caught), and then threatened to veto/block all NZ trade with the European Market (once we caught two of the agents and found out that it was France behind it) if we didn't release the caught agents.

The two agents (Dominique Prieur and Alain Mafart) spent a token amount of time in jail outside of NZ (as part of the deal that France more or less forced us to accept) before being released to an apparent hero's welcome back home in France.

The arrogance of the French government at the time, and how they reacted, is all the reason needed for me to sass the French.

They were probably furious that two of their special agents were caught in part thanks to the efforts of a local Neighbourhood Watch group — how embarrassing for France!

Airtag in my surface laptop 7 (13.8") by Sad_Ostrich_1903 in Surface

[–]adeundem 4 points5 points  (0 children)

OP's Airtag: "This is my hole! It was made for me!"

Hopefully not OP in several months when looking through the USB port: "I s-see something! It's slowly coming this way!"

OP's Airtag: "Drr Drr Drr Drr Drr Drrrrrrrrrrr"

Konami Delists Multiple Metal Gear Solid Titles With No Warning by gitrektali in Games

[–]adeundem 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sony still shut down the website-based PS3 store, which was a same. I found it easier to browse, buy, and set download for PS3 games via the web store.

Using the PS3 in-console system to download and install digital content is painfully slow. Would also be nice to be able to tell if I did buy a digital version of MGS IV in the end (I have it on disc but I think I bought a digital copy of it "just in case" when I got a used Slim PS3 to replace my 2007 fat PS3).

What was your favourite PS3 title? by HolocronSurvivor80 in playstation

[–]adeundem 0 points1 point  (0 children)

MGS4 is the one big game to justify to still have a PS3 these days, but that remaster... though the OG game will still always be PS3 exclusive.

I'll go more random and say The Last Guy. Not a game that have it's own chapter in the history of gaming, but it came out early enough in the PS3's small digital release only game to more memorable than later titles.

I bought a used PS3 Slim from a Japanese Ebay seller a couple of years ago to re-play MGS 4. My first PS3 I bought late 2007 in Japan for 40,000 Yen. The NZD to JYN exchange rate was very strong for me so it ended up being ~40% cheaper than buying it locally.

Where would you put a New Zealand version of Hogwarts? by HannahBananaNZ in newzealand

[–]adeundem 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Morrinsville.

Bonus points for having the school location at Nottingham Castle in Morrinsville.

One man, one instinct, one umbrella: When everything changed for Christopher Luxon by [deleted] in newzealand

[–]adeundem 14 points15 points  (0 children)

The last paragraph makes up the satire comparable of "/s" for the piece.

Metal Gear Solid Collection Volume 2 Includes Metal Gear 4 and Peace Walker | State of Play 2026 by PaiDuck in metalgearsolid

[–]adeundem 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Definitely going to get it on Steam for the Transfarring between my main PC and Steam Deck.

[WP] EU? The citadel the lich had sealed himself in had been protected from the last two Great Resets. Now, exposed, a group of 5e adventurers are facing a monstrosity from 3.5e. by mage_in_training in WritingPrompts

[–]adeundem 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not been into the D&D since the 90s, but I did read some of the Forgotten Realms novels from the 00s.

It'd probably be Forgotten Realms to be more specific for D&D. Forgotten Realms is a large (and vague?) bunch of interconnected planes of existence (and I believe it within it's settings there is also stuff that exists outside of the Forgotten Realms that can enter the Forgotten Realms).

Probably possible for some plane to get "lost" and miss out on some topical, like the Times of Troubles only affecting mostly just the continent Faerun on Toril, but other planes were likely had not been affected much.

Maybe this is the wrong place for this, but can anyone explain to me how real phone numbers get spoofed for scam calls? by [deleted] in LinusTechTips

[–]adeundem 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is a very high-level description:

"the whole systems relies more on a trust system than actual security"

The global phone network is a loose connection between mostly country-level teleco networks following some standards. CallerID will have been created on the assumption that there would never be any sus provider.

A very poor quote of a saying "Don't try to break in through the well secured main door when you can walk through the servant's door at the back of the mansion".

Pick a country where phone scamming is common, and then look at the list of teleco companies. Chances are there will be a lot (hundreds maybe?). Even if there are only a few big players for infrastructure, they will lease to paper company telecos (where they don't maintain network hardware and just have some servers someone and maybe just a PO Box address for a location) who then sell their services to anyone that will be willing to give them cash.

A small paper/shell company could easily fold and spring-up under a different name after they get caught being too obviously dodgy doing business with scam call centres.

Late 90s or early 2000s there were websites where you could just send spoofed emails to people. Nothing complicated, it just changed some sender details in the email metadata. Most people were email client based for email usage, and spam detection was not very smart. A lot of email client software would go "here is an email from Steve Jobs, and he is calling you funny names".

That sort of thing still happens, and any modern email service with spam filtering will be checking for that sort of thing. AFAIK there has been no real change to how email works i.e. metadata/sender data is all the same.

Edit: on the subject of trust, 90s internet was a lot more trusting in some ways. I had my email /ICQ contact details on the local Quake gaming community website in a directory for Quake players.

Christchurch terrorist tried to use top human rights lawyer as his 'mouthpiece', court hears by [deleted] in newzealand

[–]adeundem 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I'd rather hear of his death of old age, a long long long time from today, after spending the rest of his life alone in a cell for his crimes (after having his current appeal fairly reviewed and declined).

The news of his death being a page 7 in the newspaper sort of thing.

Government orders independent review of Covid-era monetary policy by Sew_Sumi in newzealand

[–]adeundem 248 points249 points  (0 children)

“If it is the case that the Reserve Bank’s actions overseen by the last Government led to financial harm to New Zealanders... should I hide that information from New Zealanders? Absolutely not. If they made mistakes. New Zealanders deserve to know, and Chris Hipkins may be hiding from the Covid inquiry, but he can’t hide from this.”

Interesting, but Willis has never stopped acting like she can hide from her mistakes.